38 Mr. H. T. Colebrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



deity, or that superior not supreme being whom mythology places in the 

 midst of the mundane egg. 



Such is the essential and characteristic difference of Capila's and Patan- 

 jALi's, the atheistical and deistical, Sdnc'hyas. 



In less momentous matters they differ, not upon points of doctrine, but in 

 the degree, in which the exterior exercises, or abstruse reasoning and study, 

 are weighed upon, as requisite preparations of absorbed contemplation. 

 Patanjali's Yoga-sdstra is occupied with devotional exercise and mental 

 abstraction, subduing body and mind. C'apila is more engaged with in- 

 vestigation of principles and reasoning upon them. One is more mystic 

 and fanatical. The other makes a nearer approach to philosophical disquisi- 

 tion, however mistaken in its conclusions. 



The manner, in which a knowledge of those principles or categories that 

 are recognised by the Sdnc''hijas, may be acquired, is set forth in the Carted .• 

 " Sensible objects become known by perception. It is by inference or rea- 

 soning, that acquaintance with things transcending the senses is attained. 

 And a truth, which is neither to be directly perceived nor to be inferred by 

 reasoning, is deduced from revelation. For various causes, things may be 

 imperceptible or unperceived ; distance, nearness, minuteness ; confusion, 

 concealment ; predominance of other matters ; defect of organs or inatten- 

 tion. It is owing to the subtlety of nature, not to the non-existence of this 

 original principle, that it is not apprehended by the senses, but inferred 

 from its effects. Intellect and the rest of the derivative principles are 

 effects ; whence it is concluded as their cause ; in some respects analo- 

 gous, but in others dissimilar.*" 



" Effect subsists antecedently to the operation of cause :" a maxim not 

 unlike that ancient one that " nothing comes of nothing," for it is the 

 material, not the efficient, cause, which is here spoken of. 



The reasons alleged by the Sdnc'hyas t are, that " what exists not, can by 

 no operation of a cause be brought into existence :" that is, effects are 

 educts, rather than products. Oil is in the seed of sesamum, before it is 

 expressed ; rice is in the husk before it is peeled ; milk is in the udder before 

 it is drawn. " Materials, too, are selected, which are apt for the purpose :" 

 milk, not water, is taken to make curds. " Every thing is not by every 

 means possible :" cloth, not earthen ware, may be made with yarn. " What 



* Cdr. 6, 8. t Cdr. 9. 



