THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

Fate and Free-WillA QUESTION which has hitherto dividedhuman thought and received no final solution, is the freedomof the human being in his relation to the Power intelligentor unintelligent that rules the world. We strive for freedom inour human relations, to freedom we move as our goal, and everyfresh step in our human progress is a further approximationto our ideal. But are we free in ourselves? We seem to be free,to do that which we choose and not that which is chosen for us;but it is possible that the freedom may be illusory and our apparentfreedom may be a real and iron bondage. We may bebound by predestination, the will of a Supreme Intelligent Power,of blind inexorable Nature, or the necessity of our own previousdevelopment.The first is the answer of the devout and submissive mindin its dependence on God, but, unless we adopt a Calvinisticfatalism, the admission of the guiding and overriding will ofGod does not exclude the permission of freedom to the individual.The second is the answer of the scientist; Heredity determinesour Nature, the laws of Nature limit our action, causeand effect compel the course of our development, and, if it beurged that we may determine effects by creating causes, theanswer is that our own actions are determined by previous causesover which we have no control and our action itself is a necessaryresponse to a stimulus from outside. The third is the answerof the Buddhist and post-Buddhistic Hinduism. “It is ourfate, it is written on our forehead, when our Karma is exhaustedthen alone our calamities will pass from us”; — this is thespirit of tÀmasika inaction justifying itself by a misreading ofthe theory of Karma.If we go back to the true Hindu teaching independent ofBuddhistic influence, we shall find that it gives us a reconciliationof the dispute by a view of man's psychology in which both Fateand Free-Will are recognised. The difference between Buddhism