[FN#186] This is the law of Karma.

Besides this, my brothers, my sisters, my neighbours—­nay, all my follow-men and fellow-women are no other than the reincarnation of their parents and forefathers, who are also mine.  The same blood invigorated the king as well as the beggar; the same nerve energized the white as well as the black men; the same consciousness vitalized the wise as well as the unwise.  Impossible it is to conceive myself independent of my fellow-men and fellow-women, for they are mine and I am theirs—­that is, I live and move in them, and they live and move in me.

It is bare nonsense to say that I go to school, not to be educated as a member of society, but simply to gratify my individual desire for knowledge; or that I make a fortune, not to lead the life of a well-to-do in society, but to satisfy my individual money-loving instinct; or that I seek after truth, neither to do good to my contemporaries nor to the future generations, but only for my individual curiosity or that I live neither to live with my family nor with my friends nor with anyone else, but to live my individual life.  It is as gross absurdity to say that I am an individual absolutely independent of society as to say I am a husband with no wife, or I am a son to no parents.  Whatever I do directly or indirectly I contribute to the common fortune of man; whatever anyone else does directly or indirectly determines my fate.  Therefore we must realize that our Selves necessarily include other members of the community, while other members’ Selves necessarily comprehend us.

5.  Nature is the Mother of All Things.

Furthermore, man has come into existence out of Nature.  He is her child.  She provided him food, raiment, and shelter.  She nourishes him, strengthens him, and vitalizes him.  At the same time she disciplines, punishes, and instructs him.  His body is of her own formation, his knowledge is of her own laws, and his activities are the responses to her own addresses to him.  Modern civilization is said by some to be the conquest of man over Nature; but, in fact, it is his faithful obedience to her.  “Bacon truly said,” says Eucken,[FN#187] “that to rule nature man must first serve her.  He forgot to add that, as her ruler, he is still destined to go on serving her.”  She can never be attacked by any being unless he acts in strict conformity to her laws.  To accomplish anything against her law is as impossible as to catch fishes in a forest, or to make bread of rock.  How many species of animals have perished owing to their inability to follow her steps!  How immense fortunes have been lost in vain from man’s ignorance of her order!  How many human beings disappeared on earth from their disobedience to her unbending will!  She is, nevertheless, true to those who obey her rules.  Has not science proved that she is truthful?  Has not art found that she is beautiful?

[FN#187] Eucken’s ‘Philosophy of Life,’ by W. R. Royce Gibbon, p. 51.