PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT INDIA. 227 
truth from falsehood, and what may be proper or unfit in our 
desires and affections.” The Nyaya philosophers made the 
operation of reason in regard to action to consist in observing 
a just medium between extremes; between cowardice on the 
one hand and presumptuous rashness on the other; between 
avarice and profusion; while as with the one school, so 
according to the other, extreme temperance in the gratifica- 
tion of desires and appetites is inculcated. 
The Vedantas consider the occupations of life as retaining 
the soul “in the prison of passion and affection.” In the 
common acts of life, say they, it is incumbent on man to 
attend to religious duties and rites. Renunciation of the 
world does not require that a person should cease from the 
acts and duties of life, but only that he should preserve his 
mind ina state of perfect indifference and tranquillity. Purity 
in speech and thought was inculcated. 
Some of the Hindoo philosophers consider the vital soul as 
separate and distinct from the great universal soul. They 
thus account for the memory and intelligence possessed in 
different degrees by the animal world, while others account 
for the same differences by their system of metempsychosis 
or transmigration of souls. According to others,* man pos- 
sesses two souls, namely, the divine and the vital. The 
former is a pure spirit; the latter is more immediately united 
with our corporeal substance, and possesses desires and 
affections. 
What we understand by Nature was personified in ancient 
Hindoo mythology, and introduced into their poetry under 
the names of Maya and Prakriti,t these names being nearly 
synonymous. Action in Maya was said to be introduced by 
the effect of the “supreme pervading essence.” Then again, 
all things were said to be produced by the union of Prakriti 
and Purusha, the first male. The eternal and universal 
pervading spirit, by which is implied the Supreme Being, 
was considered as presenting four modifications or modes of 
existence of ether; 1, as it appears clear and limpid in the 
vault of heaven; 2, as it is confined in any given space; 3, 
as the sky is reflected in water; and 4, as it is obscured by 
clouds. Creation, say they, “is not considered as the instant 
* Namely, the sect of the Jainas. 
+ Prakriti also bears the name Arya. In the Vedas Arya expresses 
“believers in the gods,” in contradistinction to their enemies, called Dasas 
or Dasyus. Query, does this circumstance explain the application of 
that term to the ancient Hindoo immigrants into India? See Craufurd, 
vol. i, 225. 
R 
