ar mansions, the sun among
the stars, Meru among the high-peaked mountains, it is clear that we
are merely piling sensuous image upon sensuous image without any
further understanding of what the nature of the absolute being in its
own self is. {16} The moon, the sun, Meru, are physical sense-objects.
And this is totally sensuous thinking, whereas the aim of philosophy
is to rise to pure thought. In such passages we are still on the level
of symbolism, and philosophy only begins when symbolism has been
surpassed. No doubt it is possible to take the line that man's thought
is not capable of grasping the infinite as it is in itself, and can
only fall back upon symbols. But that is another question, and at any
rate, whether it is or is not possible to rise from sensuous to pure
thought, philosophy is essentially the attempt to do so.

Lastly, Indian thought is usually excluded from the history of
philosophy because, whatever its character, it lies outside the main
stream of human development. It has been cut off by geographical and
other barriers. Consequently, whatever its value in itself, it has
exerted little influence upon philosophy in general.

The claim is sometimes put forward by Orientals themselves that Greek
philosophy came from India, and if this were true, it would greatly
affect the statement made in the last paragraph. But it is not true.
It used to be believed that Greek philosophy came from "the East," but
this meant Egypt. And even this theory is now abandoned. Greek
culture, especially mathematics and astronomy, owed much to Egypt. But
Greece did not owe its philosophy to that source. The view that it did
was propagated by Alexandrian priests and others, whose sole motive
was, that to represent the triumphs of Greek philosophy as borrowed
from Egypt, flattered their national vanity. It was a great thing,
wherever they found anything good, to say, "this must have come from
us." A precisely similar motive lies behind the {17} Oriental claim
that Greek philosophy came from India. There is not a scrap of
evidence for it, and it rests entirely upon the supposed resemblance
between the two. But this resemblance is in fact mythical. The whole
character of Greek philosophy is European and unoriental to the
back-bone. The doctrine of re-incarnation is usually appealed to. This
characteristically Indian doctrine was held by the Pythagoreans, from
whom it passed to Empedocles and Plato. The Pythagoreans got it from