58 The Religion of the Veda

of the Upanishads is literary and historical, \Ve are captivated by the quality of the endeavor more than by the quality of the thing; accoxnplishcd.

From the literary side the Upanizshznls captivate not because they are finished pro(lucls«—tl1ey are anything but that—but bctcau.-.'c they h'll0\V great power and originality as .1 lciml of rllapsmlic philo- sophic prose poems. From the point of view of tlu: history of human tlmuglit, what entitles them to enduring respect is that they show us the human mind engaged in the most plucky and earnest search after truth——and let me add that this search is carried on in the sweetest of spirit, without fear of oficnding established interests, and entirely free from the zealotism that goes with a new intellectual em.

But the Upanishads do not contain consummation. On the contrary, it is the clear, familiar, earnest human fight, doomed rather to disappointment, which very early Hindus here carry on, to find the secret of the world and the secret of self-conscious man in the hiddenrnost folds of their own hcart—that is what always holds attention, and that is the endearing quality of these texts. Therefore it is true that, wherever the spirit of the Uparxishads has been carried there has sprung up genuine human sympathy, if not final intellectual consent. How this is so I shall hope