For, when all Christian additions are removed, we find a picture of pagan life in Europe that we can't find elsewhere . " The church adopted [ in Ireland ] towards Pagan sagas the same position that it adopted toward Pagan law [ . . . ] I see no reasons for doubting that really genuine pictures of a pre-Christian culture are preserved to us in the individual sagas . " The saga originated in Pagan and was propagated in Christian times, and that too without its seeking fresh nutriment, as a rule, from Christian elements.
22.
Vaccha replies that the question " does not fit the case . . . For the fire that depended on fuel . . . when that fuel has all gone, and it can get no other, being thus without nutriment, it is said to be extinct . " The Buddha then explains : " In exactly the same way . . ., all form by which one could predicate the existence of the saint, all that form has been abandoned, uprooted, pulled out of the ground like a palmyra-tree, and become non-existent and not liable to spring up again in the future.
