vable as taking place a century ago, it is manifestly the doing
of men keenly interested in the conditions under which they live. It is
a contradiction of the theory of an inherent Indian pessimism.
Self-respect and a sense of the dignity and duties of manhood are surely
increasing, and making our earth a place of hope and making life worth
living, instead of a burden to be borne. "The Hindus," says Sir Alfred
Lyall, "have been rescued by the English out of a chronic state of
anarchy, insecurity, lawlessness, and precarious exposure to the caprice
of despots."[107]

[Sidenote: Asceticism is declining.]

Best proof probably that pessimism is declining is the fact that
asceticism is declining. The times are no longer those in which the life
of a brahman is supposed to culminate in the Sannyasi or ascetic "who
has laid down everything," who, in the words of the Bhagabat Gita, "does
not hate and does not love anything."[108] The pro-Hindu writer often
quoted also acknowledges the new pleasure in life and the religious
corollary of it when she says that the recent rise in the standard of
comfort in India is opposed to the idea of asceticism. Desire, indeed,
is not gone, and the cords of the heart are not breaking. Says the old
brahman, in the guise of whom Sir Alfred Lyall speaks: "I own that you
[Britons] are doing a great deal to soften and enliven material
existence in this melancholy, sunburnt country of ours, and certainly
you are so far successful that you are bringing the ascetic idea into
discouragement and, with the younger folk, into contempt."[109] Welcome
to the new joy of living, all honour to the old ascetics, and may a
still nobler self-sacrifice take their place!

[Sidenote: Pessimism, asceticism, transmigration are allied ideas.]

For Western minds it is difficult to realise the close connection
between the doctrine of transmigration and the mood of India, rightly or
wrongly termed pessimism. _Our_ instinctive feeling is that life is
sweet; while there is life there is hope, _we_ say; "_healthy_ optimism"
is the expression of Professor James in his _Varieties of Religious
Experience_; it is "_more life_ and fuller that we want." In keeping
with this Western and human instinct, the Christian idea of the
Hereafter is a fuller life than the life Here, a perfect eternal life.
To the pessimist, on the contrary [and Hindu philosophy is pessimistic,
whatever be the new mood of India], the question is, "Why was I