264 The Religion of the Veda
start out with the assurance that the world is full of suffering, and that is their particular business to account for it and to remove it.
We must not forget that the perpetual decay and death and replacement which is the gist of human life when looked at purely from the outside is not redeemed in India by any theory, or instinctive faith in general advancement. There is in all Hindu thought no expression of hope for the race, no theory of betterment all along the line. Each in» dividual must attend to his own uplifting that is to free him from a world whose worthlessness is con“- demned in unmeasured terms. Admitting that this is to no small extent mere theory; that the average Hindu worries along, sustained by life, hope, sun..- shine, and what not, whence the theory ?
The question has frequently been put point blank: How did Hindu pessimism originate? I believe that the answer, or at least a partial answer, may be made with some degree of certainty, to wit : India herself, through her climate, her nature, and her economic conditions, furnishes reasonable ground for pessimn ism. As regards economic conditions political coo-- nomists say that the value of human life in any country may be estimated by the average wage of its earners. A low caste servant may today be en- gaged for a wage of five cents a day out of which he
