Note 85 — Chapter II

With important differences and limitations the modern doctrine of heredity may be regarded as the scientific analogue of the Hindu doctrine of Karma. One, however, is based on indisputable facts, the other on pure fancy. But whatever their merits or shortcomings, whatever the bases of truth or reasonableness on which they rest, neither the one doctrine nor the other can, unfortunately, afford a rational mind any consolation for the ills and apparent injustice of the present life; and, assuredly, neither the one nor the other can supply any stimulus towards the performance of good actions. A small class of persons in Europe seem to have become profoundly enamoured of the subtle ideas which underlie the doctrine of Karma; but he must be strangely constituted whose sense of justice can be satisfied, or who can derive any comfort in his present struggle against the evils of life, from the thought that he is suffering the consequences of deeds done by his soul in previous and unremembered existences, or can be induced to make for righteousness by the reflection that, after his physical death, the happiness of some other being, possibly a cat, into which his soul transmigrates, will be influenced by his deeds in the present life. But, at the same time, it may be admitted that the doctrine of Karma may certainly, in the case of some races, conduce towards a helpless and hopeless resignation, counterfeiting contentment.