160 Bhdsha Pariche'da, or Division of Language. [Fkb. 



form as in thought, foreign to them, they thought the philosophical 

 productions of many centuries and of an ingenious people, a web of 

 either abstruse or puerile notions. On a closer examination we shall 

 come to a juster opinion of them, and although we find a limit as well in 

 the range as the depth of their enquiries, we shall come to place them 

 among the nations which advanced the intellectual progress of mankind. 



That Hindu philosophy will, however, have any influence upon the 

 development of European philosophy and mediately of European civiliza- 

 tion, must be denied. Why should this be the case ? Although we must 

 admit, that the philosophical results of the Hindus are as worthy of at- 

 tention as those of the Greeks, still it is at the first glance evident, that 

 the works of the Hindus are unfit to be transferred to another soil, while 

 those of the Greeks will have always the same influence upon every 

 rising generation in every clime and age. This difference, however, 

 lies not so much in the development of the system as in the form. You 

 are compelled to think by reading the works of the Greeks, they intro- 

 duce you into the process of their thoughts, and by this, force you to 

 accompany them with your own thoughts, until you arrive as it were by 

 your own mind at the principles of their systems, from which point it is 

 easy either to look back upon the way you have made or to advance 

 further. The Hindus, on the other hand, are dogmatical ; it is im- 

 possible for any one to understand their writings who has not previous- 

 ly, to a considerable degree, been practised in philosophical enquiries. 

 Thus the want of interest felt in the study of their writings, is the 

 punishment of mystery and exclusion. The same doctrines which might 

 have been instrumental in enlightening thousands, are now forgotten, 

 or in the possession of a few who are hardly able to comprehend them. 



Among the general metaphysical notions, the notion of substance is 

 the most important one, as upon it all other notions are either founded 

 or are closely connected with it, and whatever may be the solution of 

 all other metaphysical problems, they must be influenced by the notion 

 of substance. 



Substances are, according to the Nyaya, the substrata of qualities and 

 actions, a definition, which is the right one, as the basis of further inves- 

 tigation — it is the right one, because founded on experience. Substance, 

 we add, is in so far the substratum of qualities and actions, as the 

 existence of qualities and actions depends upon the existence of sub- 



