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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
its path is obstructed by some material body; but Ether cannot be obstructed by matter, being a finer and subtler element than it.
The argument that because atoms of matter can be conceived to be absolutely silent therefore sound must be the property of Ether, is unscientific, since Ether can also be conceived that way, and since no argument which ignores matters of observation and daily experience can be regarded as good. The fact is that having laid down four ultimate elements to correspond to four of the five senses, Kanada found his imagination exercised to find a correspondence for the sense of hearing, and, in his perplexity, immediately hit upon Ether as the source of sound.
The Vaisheshikas have no idea of Ether as a medium of motion without which things cannot move about in space ; but their fifth category is a fanciful stuff conceived to be essential as the source of sound, as already noticed, and as an element necessary to impart magnitude to the ultimate units of matter or atoms. Their conceptions of Time and Space are also involved and unintelligible.
They regard time as only the principle of change, which, as such, cannot be held to be a reality or substance ; and space is said to be the "Reality, Power or Force, holding things in their relative positions even while they are being driven on ” (The Hindu Realism, p. 29). We shall have more to say about the nature of Time and Space later on ; meanwhile it is clear that no true element of reality or ultimate substance is to be found in the description given.
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