"Being," in a Buddhistic sense, in the words of Professor Oldenberg's translator, is the procession regulated by the law of causality--of continuous being at every moment, self-consuming and anew-begetting. What is termed a "souled" being is one individual in the line of this procession, one flame in a sea of flame. So quaintly beautiful is the following dialogue between King Milinda (the Greek King Menander) and the Saint Nagasena that, notwithstanding its frequent quotation, I venture to reproduce it:-- "The Saint Nagasena says: 'It is not the same being, and yet they are separate beings, which relieve one another in the series of existences.' "'Give an illustration,' says King Milinda. 'If a man were to light a light, O great king, would it not burn through the night?'--'Yes, sire; it would burn through the night.' 'How, then, O great king, is the flame in the first watch of the night identical with the flame in the midnight watch?'--'No, sire.' 'And the flame in the midnight watch--is it identical with the flame in the last watch of the night?'--'No, sire.' 'But how then, O great king, was the light in the first watch of the night another, in the midnight watch another, and in the last watch of the night another?'--'No, sire; it has burned all night long, feeding on the same fuel.' 'So, also, O great king, the chain of elements of being (Dhamma) completes itself; the one comes, the other goes. Without beginning, without end, the circle completes itself; therefore it is neither the same being nor another being which presents itself last to the consciousness.'"[AD] [AD] From _Buddhism_, by Professor Oldenberg. Omar Khayyam says:-- "We are no other than a moving show Of magic shadow-shapes that come and go." The body disappears, even in Christian eschatology, as an earthly body for ever; but its scattered chemicals are re-utilized, according to some, to clothe the soul in heavenly places, or for purposes of torture and indescribable anguish. Others have sought consolation in the thought of the reappearance of the body's elements in various beautiful forms--in the ruby goblet, in the flowers, in the foam of the sea:-- "And this reviving herb, whose tender green Hedges the river-lip on which we lean-- Ah, lean upon it lightly; for who knows From what once lovely lip it springs unseen!" Of those believing in the separateness of the soul there may be many who fondly crave that the "gentle dews" of eternal sleep may fall at last upon its suppliant eyes. "He giveth His beloved sleep." A writer in the _Monist_ of January, 1898, makes the following remarks in a reference to "self": "In the psychological theories of Christianity and Buddhism there is more agreement than at first sight appears, for it is difficult to say what we must understand by self. 'Personality' is used by Christian thinkers in a very loose sense. In the doctrine of the Trinity it is not incompatible to speak of three personalities in One."