The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.60

c10.60

*Synchronousness of Cause and Effect.*—This is resolved into a case of simultaneous co-effects of the same ultimate cause, *e.g.* the ascent of one scale and the descent of the other in the balance, which are not related as cause and effect, but are simultaneous effects of gravity. In other cases the synchronousness is only apparent, the interval between the antecedent and the consequent being too small (सूक्ष्मकाल) to be apprehended (यौगपद्याभिमान), *e.g.* in the case of the needle piercing a hundred soft lotus-petals laid one upon another, where the steps are really successive; or the illumination of the whole room by the light of a lamp, where the succession is unperceived owing to the inconceivable velocity of light (*cf.* Kumárilá, Śloka-Vártika—हेतुहेतुमतो सिद्धिं यौगपद्यनिदर्शनम्,—यत् प्रदीपप्रभायुक्तं, सूक्ष्मकालोऽस्ति तत्र नः । दुर्लखसु यथा वेधः पद्मपत्रशते तथा । Śunyaváda, Śloka 156–157.—I quote Mimánsá authorities, but the view is common to the Mimánsá and the Nyáya-Vaiseshika).