it was the undoubted source of Buddhism. This doctrine which we have been
describing was the basis of Buddhism.[69]

M. Cousin has called it the sensualism of India,[70] but certainly without
propriety. It is as purely ideal a doctrine as that of the Vedas. Its two
eternal principles are both ideal. The plastic force which is one of them,
Kapila distinctly declares cannot be perceived by the senses.[71] Soul,
the other eternal and uncreated principle, who "is witness, solitary,
bystander, spectator, and passive,"[72] is not only spiritual itself, but
is clothed with a spiritual body, within the material body. In fact, the
Karika declares the material universe to be the result of the contact of
the Soul with Nature, and consists in chains with which Nature binds
herself, for the purpose (unconscious) of delivering the Soul. When by a
process of knowledge the Soul looks through these, and perceives the
ultimate principle beyond, the material universe ceases, and both Soul and
Nature are emancipated.[73]

One of the definitions of the Karika will call to mind the fourfold
division of the universe by the great thinker of the ninth century,
Erigena. In his work, [Greek: peri phuseos merismou] he asserts that there
is, (1.) A Nature which creates and is not created. (2.) A Nature which is
created and creates. (3.) A Nature which is created and does not create.
(4.) A Nature which neither creates nor is created. So Kapila (Karika, 3)
says, "Nature, the root of all things, is productive but not a production.
Seven principles are productions and productive. Sixteen are productions
but not productive. Soul is neither a production nor productive."

Mr. Muir (Sanskrit Texts, Part III. p. 96) quotes the following passages
in proof of the antiquity of Kapila, and the respect paid to his doctrine
in very early times:--

_Svet. Upanishad._ "The God who superintends every mode of production
and all forms, who formerly nourished with various knowledge his son
Kapila the rishi, and beheld him at his birth."

"_Bhagavat Purana_ (I. 3, 10) makes Kapila an incarnation of Vischnu.
In his fifth incarnation, in the form of Kapila, he declared to Asuri
the Sankhya which defines the collection of principles.

"_Bhagavat Purana_ (IX. 8, 12) relates that Kapila, being attacked by
the sons of King Sangara, destroyed them with fire which issued from
his body. But the author of the Purana denies that this was done in