Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/233

Rh :"Comparison is to know a thing by similarity, for instance, to imagine that a bison is like a cow.


 * "Authority is to believe that heaven and hell exist because they are mentioned in the writings of the wise.


 * "Implication is to understand that a shepherd’s village stands on the banks of the Gangai, whorL we are told that it is on the Gangai.


 * "Propriety is when a man mounted on an elephant asks for a thing (to know that he asks for a goad) and to give a goad and nothing else.


 * "Rumour is what people generally say: for instance to believe that an evil spirit had taken its residence on a certain tree.


 * "Impossibility is the denying of an object where it cannot possibly be.


 * "Reversion is to infer that. the wicked Ravana was defeated, when we hear that Rama was victorious.


 * "Association is to know that iron changes into magnet by a peculiar alteration in its properties.

“Of fallacious mediums there are eight kinds: Prejudice, Misconception, Doubt, Decision without examination, Failure of perception, False Belief, Belief in what is felt arid Imagination. PreJudice is to decide the nature of everything (by first impressions). Misconception is to suppose one thing to be another: for example, mistaking the shining shell of an oyster to be silver. Doubt is to be uncertain of the nature of an object; for instance, to remain undecided whether a certain figure (seen in the dusk) is a man or the stump of a tree. Decision without examination is to mistake the stump fixed on the polo ground for a man. Failure of perception is not to know (the danger in) the approach of a ferocious tiger, although seeing it coming. False belief is to believe in the horn of a hare, which is imagine on hearsay. Believe in what is felt is for example to fancy that sitting near a fire, will cure fever. Imagination is (for instance) to believe on the assertion of others that a man and woman are your parents.

“The different systems of philosophy are Lokâyatam, Bauddbam, Sànkhyam, Naiyâyikam, Vaiseshikam and Mimânsakam: and the authors of these systems are Brihaspati, Jina,