The second cure was _the removal of ignorance_. Indeed Ignorance was, according to Gautama, the first factor in the misery of life, and stands first in his chain of causation (p. 102). Not, however, the Vedāntist’s ignorance—not ignorance of the fact that man and the universe are identical with God, but ignorance of the four truths of Buddhism (p. 43):—ignorance that all life is misery, and that the misery of life is caused by indulging lusts, and will cease by suppressing them. It would be easy to show how all Indian philosophy was a mere scheme for getting rid of the bugbear of metempsychosis, and how common was the doctrine that everything is for the worst in the worst of all possible worlds. This was taught by the Brāhmans five centuries B.C., and continued to be a thoroughly Hindū idea long after the disappearance of Buddhism. Witness the following from the Maitrāyaṇi Upanishad:— In this weak body, ever liable To wrath, ambition, avarice, illusion, To fear, grief, envy, hatred, separation From those we hold most dear, association With those we hate; continually exposed To hunger, thirst, disease, decrepitude, Emaciation, growth, decline and death, What relish can there be for true enjoyment? Also the following, from Manu (VI. 77):— This body, like a house composed of the (five) elements, with bones for its rafters, tendons for its connecting links, flesh and blood for its mortar, skin for its covering; this house filled with impurities, infested by sorrow and old age, the seat of disease, full of pain and passion, and not lasting—a man ought certainly to abandon. Also Bhartṛi-hari (Vairāgya-ṡataka III. 32. 50):— Enjoyments are alloyed by fear of sickness, High rank may have a fall, abundant wealth Is subject to exactions, dignity Encounters risk of insult, strength is ever In danger of enfeeblement by foes, A handsome form is jeoparded by women, Scripture is open to assaults of critics, Merit incurs the spite of wicked men, The body lives in constant dread of death— One course alone is proof against alarm, Renounce the world, and safety may be won. One hundred years[47] is the appointed span Of human life, one half of this goes by In sleep and night; one half the other half In childhood and old age; the rest is passed In sickness, separation, pain, and service— How can a human being find delight In such a life, vain as a watery bubble? No doubt this kind of pessimism has always found advocates in all ages, and among all nations in Europe as well as in Asia. It was a favourite idea with the Stoics, and it has found favour with Schopenhauer, Von Hartmann, and other modern philosophers; and Shakespeare makes Hamlet give expression to it.