________________
108
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
inter se, and, therefore, must be composed of some kind of material. And, since nothing alone can be created from nothing, this material which enters into the composition of bodies, ideas, sensations, or anything else that we may be pleased to call them, must be eternal. Hence, absolute persistence, i.e., reality, is also the characteristic of matter of which bodies are made, though not of the forms which it assumes from time to time, in consequence of the operation of the forces of nature.
Thus, true Idealism, while describing the universe as an illusion, does not go the length of saying that it is altogether non-existent ; hence what it describes as an illusion is the same thing as is called the material world by the Realist. The immediate data of perception being sensation, it is immaterial whether we call the perceptible world a bundle of different kinds of sensations or of material bodies and things. It is true that sensations are only sense-affections, but it is also true that they mostly arise from the action of an external stimulus on the organs of sense. The existence of a world of some sort, apart from the perceiving consciousness, is, thus, beyond dispute, and even were we to go so far as to say that only sensations constitute the perceptible world, it must be conceded that different sensations differ inter se in respect of the elements which enter into their composition. This is but another way of saying that they are composed of some kind of material, which, for the sake of lucidity and uniformity of thought, may be called matter. Hence, when certain Idealists imagine that their philosophy implies the elimination of the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org