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wild niass of guesses at truth was floating in the air, and there was no controlling authority whatever, not even, as far as we know, any binding public opinion
to produce anything like order in it. Hence we have . as little right to maintain that Buddha borrowed from
Kapila as that Kapila borrowed from Buddha. No one would say that the Hindus borrowed the idea of building ships from the Phænicians or that of building the stupas from the Egyptians. In India we move in a world different from that which we are * accustomed to in Greece, Rome, or Modern Europe, an: we need not rush at once to the conclusion that because similar opinions prevail in Buddhism and in the Samkhya philosophy of Kapila, therefore, the former must have borrowed from the latter, or, as some hold, the latter from the former." . ." It cannot be urged too strongly that there existed in India, a large common fund of philosophical thought, which like language, belonged to no one in particular, but was like the air breathed by every 'living and thinking man. Thus_only can it be explained that-we find a number of ideas in all, nearly all, the systems of Indian philosophy which all philosophers seem to take simply for granted, and, which belong to no one in particular." . .. Besides this conviction that suffering can be removed by an insight into its nature and origin there are some other ideas which must be traced back, to that rich treasury of thought which was opened to every thinking man in India. These common ideas
