1851.] Review of"A Lecture on the Sdnkhya Philosophy." 407 



plan to give an although preliminary, yet precise view of those sys- 

 tems, which was more than any thing else required for the present ; for 

 almost all those commentaries are voluminous and abstruse works, and 

 in those parts, which expound a view of the system in all the intrica- 

 cies of argumentation, or in its relation to other systems, difficult to 

 be understood, while, on the other hand, those parts which explain the 

 mere sense of the Sutras, are generally clear and easy. 



Dr. Ballantyne has executed his task with great care, tact and with 

 the philosophical attainments necessary for the success of such an 

 undertaking. Mere philological competency was here not sufficient, 

 where it must have been the principal point to understand the exact 

 bearing of philosophical principles, methods and discussions. But 

 even the mere philological difficulties are not few or insignificant ; 

 first, the MSS. are generally very indifferent, because they have been, 

 in most cases, transcribed by persons little or not at all acquainted with 

 the subject ; secondly, the language of the commentaries themselves is 

 often obscure ; thirdly, there is a number of technical terms, belong- 

 ing to each system, whose exact meaning cannot be learnt from the 

 dictionaries, or an acquaintance with other parts of Sanscrit literature, 

 but only from a close study of the system itself, and special care must 

 be taken not to confound the meaning which a technical term has in 

 one system, with the meaning of the same in another. There is ano- 

 ther difficulty, which ought to be at least touched upon, viz. the weight 

 of illustrious names, whose authority has not only become great, which 

 is quite right, but almost absolute, than which there is nothing more 

 pernicious in science. 



The translation of the work before us is excellent. It is, like all 

 the translations of the author from the Sanscrit, more literal than we 

 have ever found any English translation. The sentences, it is true, 

 are sometimes very much twisted to keep as closely as possible to the 

 expressions of the original ; but they remain always intelligible, and 

 convey the sense of the original with an exactness as could not have 

 been otherwise obtained. And this is in philosophical works, such as 

 the present is, which reject all beauty of language, a great advant- 

 age ; for here the precision, with which the notions are defined, is of 

 the highest importance. 



The general remarks on the Sankhya (p. 52 to 65) in which Dr. 



