(_b._) "But [the Naiyáyikas will ask] does not this recognition of _g_ and other letters [as the same which we heard before] refer to the species which exists the same in each, and not to the several individual letters, since, in fact, we perceive that they are different as uttered by different persons, otherwise we could not make such distinctions as we do when we say 'Somaśarman is reading'?" This objection, however, has as little brilliancy as its predecessors, for as there is no proof of any distinction between the individual _g_'s, there is no proof that we ought to assume any such thing as a species _g_; and we maintain that, just as to the man who does not understand [the Naiyáyika doctrine of] the species _g_, the one species [in the Naiyáyika view] will by the influence of distinction of place, magnitude, form, and individual sounds, appear as if it were variously modified as itself distinct in place, as small, as great, as long, as short; so to the man who does not understand our [Mímáṃsaka doctrine of] one individual _g_, the one _g_ (in our view) will by the diversity of "manifesters,"[271] appear to him associated with their respective peculiarities; and as contrary characters are in this way ascribed [to the letter _g_], there is a fallacious appearance of distinction [between different _g_'s]. But does this ascription of contrary characters, which is thus regarded as creating a difference [between the _g_'s], result (1.) from the nature of the thing, or (2.) from our imagination? There is no proof of the former alternative; for, if it were true, as an inherent difference would have to be admitted between different _g_'s, we should have to say, "Chaitra has uttered ten _g's_," and not "Chaitra has uttered the same _g_ ten times." On the latter supposition, there is no proof of any inherent distinction between _g_'s, for inherent oneness is not destroyed by a difference of external disguises. Thus we must not conceive, from the apparent distinction caused by such external disguises as jars, &c., that there is any inherent distinction, as of parts, in the one indivisible ether. The current use of the rejected phrase [_i.e._, "different" as applied to the _g_'s] is really caused by the _noise_, which in each case is different. This has been said by the great teacher-- "The object which the Naiyáyikas seek by supposing a species is, in fact, gained from the letter itself; and the object which they aim at by supposing an individuality in letters, is attained from audible noises;[272] so that the assumption of species is useless." And again-- "Since in regard to sounds such an irresistible instinct of recognition is always awake within us, it precludes by its superior evidence all the inferences to prove sound's non-eternity."