the Christian era
continued to invent for it novelties in metaphysics and mythology.

The preservation of a very ancient form of Buddhism in Ceylon[32] is
truly remarkable, for if in many countries Buddhism has shown itself
fluid and protean, it here manifests a stability which can hardly be
paralleled except in Judaism. The Sinhalese, unlike the Hindus, had no
native propensity to speculation. They were content to classify,
summarize and expound the teaching of the Pitakas without restating it
in the light of their own imagination. Whereas the most stable form of
Christianity is the Church of Rome, which began by making considerable
additions to the doctrine of the New Testament, the most stable form of
Buddhism is neither a transformation of the old nor a protest against
innovation but simply the continuation of a very ancient sect in strange
lands[33]. This ancient Buddhism, like Islam which is also simple and
stable, is somewhat open to the charge of engaging in disputes about
trivial details[34], but alike in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, it has not
only shown remarkable persistence but has become a truly national
religion, the glory and comfort of those who profess it.

11. _Rebirth and the Nature of the Soul_

The most characteristic doctrine of Indian religion--rarely absent in
India and imported by Buddhism into all the countries which it
influenced--is that called metempsychosis, the transmigration of the soul
or reincarnation. The last of these terms best expresses Indian,
especially Buddhist, ideas but still the usual Sanskrit equivalent,
_Samsara_, means migration. The body breaks up at death but something
passes on and migrates to another equally transitory tenement. Neither
Brahmans nor Buddhists seem to contemplate the possibility that the
human soul may be a temporary manifestation of the Eternal Spirit which
comes to an end at death--a leaf on a tree or a momentary ripple on the
water. It is always regarded as passing through many births, a wave
traversing the ocean.

Hindu speculation has never passed through the materialistic phase, and
the doctrine that the soul is annihilated at death is extremely rare in
India. Even rarer perhaps is the doctrine that it usually enters on a
permanent existence, happy or otherwise. The idea underlying the
transmigration theory is that every state which we call existence must
come to an end. If the soul can be isolated from all the accidents and
accessories attachin