278 MR J. MUIR'S account OF THE 



known as Buddha), the founder of Buddhism, who is generally supposed to have 

 flourished in the sixth century b.c. ; and that the latter derived from Kapila 

 some of the essential principles of his own system. Though, however, it may be 

 quite true, that 'Sakya derived his chief tenets from Kapila or some earlier 

 speculator, this is not confirmed as regards Kapila by the aphorisms of the 

 Sankhya philosophy, in the state in which the collection at present exists, as this 

 collection contains some passages in refutation of certain principles which appear 

 to be those of different Buddhist schools. As, however, these aphorisms may be 

 nothing more than a later summary of the original Sankhya doctrines, the pas- 

 sages in question are not sufiBcient to prove that the author of that system lived 

 subsequently to 'Sakya. 



The next system, the Yoga of Patanjali, though agreeing in other respects 

 with the Sankhya of Kapila, differs from it in affirming the existence of one 

 supreme Spirit, the governor of the universe. 



The Nyaya and Vaiseshika schools are dualistic. They maintain, like the 

 Sankhya, the eternal pre-existence of matter, but in a different form, that of 

 atoms, which, after being combined and developed, constitute the existing mate- 

 rial world. These systems also assert the eternal pre-existence of a multitude of 

 souls, distinct from each other and from the supreme Spirit, whose being the later 

 writers, at least, of these schools distinctly recognise. The Nyaya embodies a 

 a fully developed logical system, including a form of syllogism in five members. 



The Vedanta, while recognising, in common with the other systems, the dogma 

 of transmigration, has a widely different theory in regard to matter and spirit. 

 Its essential principle is advaita, non-duality, viz., that there is only one sub- 

 stance, or principle of being. This is Brahma, the universal Spirit. The souls 

 by which living beings are animated, though apparently individual and distinct, 

 both from each other and from the Supreme Spirit, are in reality one with the 

 latter. They are not even emanations or portions of it ; they are identical with 

 it, and are only withheld from a consciousness of this identity by the illusion of 

 ignorance, arising from the mundane condition in which they have become in- 

 volved by the will of the Supreme Spirit, or by the eternal revolution of cause 

 and effect. But it is not merely the identity of all spirit that the Vedanta main- 

 tains ; it also asserts, according to the older form of the doctrine, as explained by 

 Mr Colebrooke, that the phenomenal world is evolved out of tlie substance of 

 Brahma. According to the more modern theory, however, the external world 

 has no real, but merely an apparent or illusory, existence. It is not necessary 

 that I should here attempt to expound all the refined details of this subtle and 

 elaborate system.* The above rough outline must suffice. 



* Fi'om tlie account I have given of this philosophy in the article in the " North British Review," 

 above referred to, I extract the following passage : — " The doctrine accordingly takes a somewhat 

 different form in its gradual development. Assuming the same essential principle of non-duality — 



