the orthodox completed systems to the tentative
beginnings of the Ved[=a]nta (in the Upanishads), he finds as the
basis of this earlier speculation only an _a priori_ meta-physical
assumption.[35]

Apart from philosophical influence there is at present more or less
interest in Europe and America in Indic superstition and spiritualism,
and half-educated people will doubtless be influenced for some time to
come by Mah[=a]tmaism and Yogism, just as they are moved by native
seance-spirits and mesmerism. Blavatskyism (which represents no phase
of Buddhism) will always find disciples among the ignorant classes,
especially in an agnostic or atheistic environment, so that one should
attribute the mental attitude of such minds to their lack of culture
rather than to India; for if Mah[=a]tmaism had not been discovered,
they would still profess it under another name. Buddhism, too, apart
from Hartmann, may be said to have some influence on popular thought,
yet it is a very unreal Buddhism, which amounts only to the adoption
of an altruistic creed. But we know of none among the many that
profess themselves 'Buddhists' who has really adopted Buddhistic
principles, and but few who even understand those principles. A bar to
the adoption of Buddhism lies in the implicit necessity
of renunciation for all who would become perfected, and in the
explicit doctrine of _karma_ in its native form. The true Buddhist is
not satisfied to be a third-class Buddhist, that is, simply a man that
seeks to avoid lust, anger, and ignorance. He will become a
second-class Buddhist and renounce the world, give up all family ties
and earthly affections, and enter the Order. But he will not do this,
thinking that he is thereby to become perfect. For, to be a
first-class Buddhist, he must get wisdom. He must believe in the
impermanence of everything, and in the awful continuation of his own
_karma_ as a resultant group, which, as such, will continue to exist
if, to the purity and peace of the lower classes of Buddhists, he fail
to add in his own case the wisdom that understands the truth of this
_karma_ doctrine.[36] Now no modern mind will believe this hypothesis
of _karma_ and no modern will even enter the Order. Nevertheless,
while one may not become a true Buddhist in the native sense, it is
possible to be a Buddhist in a higher sense, and in its new form this
is a religion that will doubtless attract many Occidentals, though it
is almost too chaste to wi