The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales. (New and Augmented Ed.). Book

General Books publication date: 2009
Original publication date: 1903
Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text.
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Excerpt: THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS EVERYBODY knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was visited by an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the East, had held that memorable interview with the illustrious (though heretical) Christian philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to formulate his doctrine of Fate, borrowed from the Indian theory of Karma, and therefore, until lately, grievously misunderstood by his commentators. It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned by sea as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably entertained by the sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical faculty of that University. Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to his visitors most worthy of remark. " The extreme evil of the Emperor's Karma," said they. Euphronius requested further explanation. " Karma," explained their interpreter, " is that congeries of circumstances which lias necessitated the birth of each individual, and of whose good or evil he is the incarnation. Every act must needs be attended by consequences, and as these are usiially of too far-reaching a character to be exhausted in the life of the doer of the action, they cannot but engender another person by whom they are to be borne. This truth is popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration, according to which individuals, as the character of their deeds may determine, are re-born as pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But this is a loose and unscientific way of speaking, for in fact it is not the individual that is re-born, but the character...