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CHAPTER VI.

THE

PHILOSOPHICAL AND

THEOLOGICAL

OPINIONS OF THE HINDUS, CONTINUED.

IN the eleventh, and, unfortunately, last discourse of Sir William Jones, to the Asiatic Society, delivered the 20th of February, 1794, he says:-"The little treatise in four chapters, ascribed to Vyasa, is the only philosophical Sastra, the original text of which I have had leisure to peruse with a Brahmin of the Vedanti school: it is extremely obscure, and though composed in sentences elegantly modulated, has more resemblance to a table of contents, or an accurate summary, than to a regular systematical tract; but all its obscurity has been cleared by the labour of the very judicious and most learned Sancara, whose commentary on the Vedanta, which I read

also with great attention, not only elucidates every word of the text, but exhibits a perspicuous account of all other Indian schools, from that of Capila, to those of the more modern heretics. It is not possible, indeed, to speak with too much praise of so excellent a work; and I am confident in asserting, that, until an accurate translation of it shall appear in some European language, the general history of philosophy must remain incomplete; for I perfectly agree with those, who are of opinion, that one correct version of any celebrated Hindu book, would be of greater value than all the dissertations or essays that could be composed on the same subject. You will not, however, expect, that in such a discourse as I am now delivering, I should expatiate on the diversity of Indian philosophical schools, on the several founders of them, on the doctrines which they respectively taught, or on their many disciples, who dissented from their instructors in some particular points. On the present occasion, it will be sufficient to

say, that the oldest head of a sect, whose entire work is preserved, was, according to some authors, Capila; not the divine personage, a reputed grandson of Brahma, to whom Krishna compares himself in the Geeta; but a sage of his name, who invented the Saníhya, or numeral philosophy, which Krishna himself appears to impugn in his conversation with Arjuna; and which, as far as I can recollect it from a few original texts, resembled in part, the metaphysics of Pythagoras, and in part the theology of Zeno: his doctrines were enforced and illustrated, with some additions, by the venerable Patanjali, who has also left us a fine comment on the grammatical rules of Panini, which are more obscure, without a gloss, than the darkest oracle: and here by the way let me add, that I refer to metaphysics, the curious and important science of universal grammar, on which many subtle disquisitions may be found interspersed in the particular grammars of the ancient Hindūs.

"The next founder, I believe, of a phi

losophical school, was Gotama, if, indeed, he was not the most ancient of all; for his wife Ahalya was, according to Indian legends, restored to a human shape by the great Rama; and a sage of his name, whom we have no reason to suppose a different personage, is frequently mentioned in the Veda itself; to his rational doctrines, those of Canada were in general conformable; and the philosophy of them both is usually called Nyaya, or logical, a title aptly bestowed; for it seems to be a system of metaphysics and logick, better accommodated than any other anciently known in India, to the natural reason and common sense of mankind; admitting the actual existence of material substance in the popular acceptation of the word matter, and comprising not only a body of sublime dialectics, but an artificial method of reasoning, with distinct names for the three parts of a proposition, and even for those of a regular syllogism. Here I cannot refrain from introducing a singular tradition, which prevailed, according to the well

informed author of the Dabistan, in the Panjab and several Persian provinces, that, among other Indian curiosities, which Callisthenes transmitted to his uncle,* was a

*We presume that Sir William Jones, by his uncle, means Aristotle. Callisthenes was born about 365 years before the Christian æra, at Olynthus, in Thrace, a town originally founded by a Grecian colony from Eubæa. His mother, Hero, it appears, was a near relation of Aristotle, but whether a sister, or not, is uncertain. Aristotle sent for him to Athens, where he was educated under his immediate inspection. He carried him, with him, to the court of Macedon, when he went thither as preceptor to Alexander, and left him there. Callisthenes accompanied Alexander in his expedition into the east. Though endowed with talents, he seems to have been proud, intolerant, contradictory, and insolent, even sometimes towards his sovereign. He was accused of having entered into the conspiracy of Hermolaus against Alexander. The guilt of Hermolaus and some other conspirators being proved, they were stoned to death, at the city of Cariata, in Bactria. Callisthenes was afterwards tried and condemned. Some authors have alleged that he was innocent; others have insisted that he was guilty, and especially Arrian, who wrote from the authority of Aristobulus and Ptolemy Lagus, who were present at the time. But it is said that, instead of being put to death by the executioner, he was

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