Mr. Colebrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 1\ 



' Unfairness and uncompassionateness are not to be imputed to him, be- 

 cause some (the gods) are happy, others (beasts and inferior beings) are 

 miserable, and others again (men) partake of happiness and unhappiness. 

 Every one has his lot, in the renovated world, according to his merits, his 

 previous virtue or vice in a foi-mer stage of an universe, which is sempiternal 

 and had no beginning in time. So the rain-cloud distributes rain impartially ; 

 yet the sprout varies according to the seed.'* 



« Every attribute of a first cause (omniscience, omnipotence, &c.) exists 

 in BnAHME, who is devoid of qualities.'! 



The second chapter of the second lecture is controversial. The doctrine 

 of the Sdnc'hyas is confuted in the first section ; that of the Vaisfeshicas in 

 two more ; of the Bauddlias in as many ; of the Jainas in one; of the Pdx'u- 

 patas and Pd/ichardtras, likewise, in one each. These controversial disquisi- 

 tions are here omitted ; as a brief abstract would hardly be intelligible, and 

 a full explanation would lead to too great length. They have been partly 

 noticed in a separate treatise on the Philosophy of Indian Sects (vol. 1. p. 549). 

 It is remarkable, that the Nydya of Gotajia is entirely unnoticed in the text 

 and commentaries of the VeddntO'Sutras. 



In the third chapter of the second lecture, the task of reconciling 

 seeming contradictions of passages in the vedas is resumed. 



' The origin of air and the etherial element (dcdsfci), unnoticed in the text 

 of the veda (Cli'hdndogyd), where the creation of the three other elements 

 is described, has been affirmed in another (Taittiriyacd).t The omission of 

 the one is supplied by the notice in the other ; there is no contradiction, 

 as the deficient passage is not restrictive, nor professes a complete enumera- 

 tion. Ether and air are by Brahme created. But he himself has no origin, 

 no procreator nor maker, for he is eternal, without beginning as without end.§ 

 So fire, and water, and earth, proceed mediately from him, being evolved 

 successively, the one from the other, as fire from air, and this from ether.[| 

 The element of earth is meant in divers passages where food (that is, escu- 

 lent vegetable) is said to proceed from water: for rain fertilizes the earth. 

 It is by his will, not by their own act, that they are so evolved ; and con- 

 versely, they merge one into the other, in the reversed order, and are re- 



• Br. Sutr. 2. 1. § 12. (S. 34-3G.) f Ibid. § 13. (S. 37.; 



X Ibid. 2. 3. § 1 and 2. (S. 1-7 and 8.) § Ibid. § 3. (.S. 9.) 



II Ibid. § 4-6. (.S. 10-12.) 



