If you raise the objection that "'reciprocal non-existence' is really the same as 'absolute non-existence,'" we reply that this is indeed to lose one's way in the king's highroad; for "reciprocal non-existence" is that negation whose opposite is held to be identity, as "a jar is not cloth;" but "absolute non-existence" is that negation whose opposite is connection, as "there is no colour in the air."[204] Nor need you here raise the objection that "_abháva_ can never be a means of producing any good to man," for we maintain that it is his _summum bonum_, in the form of final beatitude, which is only another term for the absolute abolition of all pain [and therefore comes under the category of _abháva_]. E. B. C. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 154: The Vaiśeshikas are called Aulúkyáḥ in Hemachandra's _Abhidhána-chintámaṇi_; in the Váyu-puráṇa (quoted in Aufrecht's _Catal_. p. 53 b, l. 23), Akshapáda, Kaṇáda, Ulúka, and Vatsa are called the sons of Śiva.] [Footnote 155: He is here called by his synonym Kaṇabhaksha.] [Footnote 156: It is singular that this is inaccurate. The ninth book treats of that perception which arises from supersensible contact, &c., and inference. The tenth treats of the mutual difference of the qualities of the soul, and the three causes.] [Footnote 157: For this extract from the old _bháshya_ of Vátsyáyana, see Colebrooke's _Essays_ (new edition), vol. i. p. 285.] [Footnote 158: Cf. _Bháshá-parichchheda_, śloka 14.] [Footnote 159: "Particularity" (_viśesha_) resides by "intimate relation" in the eternal atoms, &c.] [Footnote 160: This clause is added, as otherwise the definition would apply to "duality" and "conjunction."] [Footnote 161: This is added, as otherwise the definition would apply to "existence" (_sattá_), which is the _summum genus_, to which substance, quality, and action are immediately subordinate.] [Footnote 162: Existence (_sattá_) is the genus of _dravya_, _guṇa_, and _kriyâ_. _Dravya_ alone can be the intimate cause of anything; and all actions are the mediate (or non-intimate) cause of conjunction and disjunction. _Some_ qualities (as _saṃyoga_, _rúpa_, &c.) may be mediate causes, but this is accidental and does not belong to the essence of _guṇa_, as many gunas can never be mediate causes.] [Footnote 163: As all karmas are transitory, _karmatva_ is only found in the _anitya_. I correct in p. 105, line 20, _nityá-samavetatva_; this is the reading of the MS. in the Calcutta Sanskrit College Library.] [Footnote 164: _I.e._, it can never be destroyed. Indestructibility, however, is found in time, space, &c.; to exclude these, therefore, the former clause of the definition is added.]