An objector may here ask, "Are you not continually repeating that merit (_dharma_) comes from the practice of duty (_dharma_), but how is duty to be defined or proved?" Listen attentively to my answer. A reply to this question has been given in the older[247] Mímáṃsá by the holy sage Jaimini. Now the Mímáṃsá consists of twelve books.[248] In the first book is discussed the authoritativeness of those collections of words which are severally meant by the terms injunction (_vidhi_), "explanatory passage" (_arthaváda_), hymn (_mantra_), tradition (_smṛiti_), and "name." In the second, certain subsidiary discussions [as _e.g._, on _apúrva_] relating to the difference of various rites, refutation of (erroneously alleged) proofs, and difference of performance [as in "constant" and "voluntary" offerings]. In the third, _Śruti_, "sign" or "sense of the passage" (_liṅga_), "context" (_vákya_), &c., and their respective weight when in apparent opposition to one another, the ceremonies called _pratipatti-karmáṇi_, things mentioned incidentally (_anárabhyádhíta_), things accessory to several main objects, as _prayájas_, &c., and the duties of the sacrificer. In the fourth, the influence on other rites of the principal and subordinate rites, the fruit caused by the _juhú_ being made of the _butea frondosa_, &c., and the dice-playing, &c., which form subordinate parts of the _rájasúya_ sacrifice. In the fifth, the relative order of different passages of _Śruti_, &c., the order of different parts of a sacrifice [as the seventeen animals at the _vájapeya_], the multiplication and non-multiplication of rites, and the respective force of the words of _Śruti_, order of mention, &c., in determining the order of performance. In the sixth, the persons qualified to offer sacrifices, their obligations, the substitutes for enjoined materials, supplies for lost or injured offerings, expiatory rites, the _sattra_ offerings, things proper to be given, and the different sacrificial fires. In the seventh, transference of the ceremonies of one sacrifice to another by direct command in the Vaidic text, and then as inferred by "name" or "sign." In the eighth, transference by virtue of the clearly expressed or obscurely expressed "sign," or by the predominant "sign," and cases where no transference takes place. In the ninth, the beginning of the discussion on the adaptation of hymns when quoted in a new connection (_úha_), the adaptation of _sámans_ and _mantras_, and collateral questions connected therewith. In the tenth, the discussion of occasions where the non-performance of the primary rite involves the "preclusion" and non-performance of the dependent rites, and of occasions where rites are precluded because other rites produce their special result, discussions connected with the _graha_ offerings, certain _sámans_, and various other things, and a discussion on the different kinds of negation. In the eleventh, the incidental mention and subsequently the