perception and inductive reasoning, Kapila professed
emphatically his belief in revelation, i. e. in the Veda, and allowed
to it a place among the recognised instruments of knowledge. Buddha
refused to allow to the Vedas any independent authority whatever, and
this constituted the fundamental difference between the two
philosophers.

Whether Kapila's philosophy was really in accordance with the spirit
of the Veda, is quite a different question. No philosophy, at least
nothing like a definite system, is to be found in the sacred hymns of
the Brahmans; and though the Vedanta philosophy does less violence to
the passages which it quotes from the Veda, the authors of the Veda
would have been as much surprised at the consequences deduced from
their words by the Vedantin, as by the strange meaning attributed to
them by Kapila. The Vedanta philosopher, like Kapila, would deny the
existence of a Creator in the usual sense of the word. He explained
the universe as an emanation from Brahman, which is all in all. Kapila
admitted two principles, an absolute Spirit and Nature, and he looked
upon the universe as produced by a reflection of Nature thrown on the
mirror of the absolute Spirit. Both systems seem to regard creation,
or the created world, as a misfortune, as an unfortunate accident. But
they maintain that its effects can be neutralised, and that
emancipation from the bonds of earthly existence is possible by means
of philosophy. The Vedanta philosopher imagines he is free when he has
arrived at the knowledge that nothing exists but Brahman; that all
phenomena are merely the result of ignorance; that after the
destruction of that ignorance, and of its effects, all is merged again
in Brahman, the true source of being, thought, and happiness. Kapila
taught that the spirit became free from all mundane fetters as soon as
it perceived that all phenomena were only passing reflections produced
by nature upon the spirit, and as soon as it was able to shut its eyes
to those illusory visions. Both systems therefore, and the same
applies to all the other philosophical systems of the Brahmans,
admitted an absolute or self-existing Being as the cause of all that
exists or seems to exist. And here lies the specific difference
between Kapila and Buddha. Buddha, like Kapila, maintained that this
world had no absolute reality, that it was a snare and an illusion.
The words, 'All is perishable, all is miserable, all is void,' must
frequent