in thought-stuff, whereas the capacity of translucence, or what may be otherwise designated as the intelligence-stuff, is at its highest in thought-stuff.  But if the gross matter had none of the characteristics of translucence that thought possesses, it could not have made itself an object of thought; for thought transforms itself into the shape, colour, and other characteristics of the thing which has been made its object.  Thought could not have copied the matter, if the matter did not possess some of the essential substances of which the copy was made up.  But this plastic entity (sattva) which is so predominant in thought is at its lowest limit of subordination in matter.  Similarly mass is not noticed in thought, but some such notions as are associated with mass may be discernible in

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thought; thus the images of thought are limited, separate, have movement, and have more or less clear cut forms.  The images do not extend in space, but they can represent space.  The translucent and plastic element of thought (sattva) in association with movement (rajas) would have resulted in a simultaneous revelation of all objects; it is on account of mass or tendency of obstruction (tamas) that knowledge proceeds from image to image and discloses things in a successive manner.  The buddhi (thought-stuff) holds within it all knowledge immersed as it were in utter darkness, and actual knowledge comes before our view as though by the removal of the darkness or veil, by the reflection of the light of the puru@sa.  This characteristic of knowledge, that all its stores are hidden as if lost at any moment, and only one picture or idea comes at a time to the arena of revelation, demonstrates that in knowledge there is a factor of obstruction which manifests itself in its full actuality in gross matter as mass.  Thus both thought and gross matter are made up of three elements, a plasticity of intelligence-stuff (sattva), energy-stuff (rajas), and mass-stuff (tamas), or the factor of obstruction.  Of these the last two are predominant in gross matter and the first two in thought.

Feelings, the Ultimate Substances [Footnote ref 1].

Another question that arises in this connection is the position of feeling in such an analysis of thought and matter.  Samkhya holds that the three characteristic constituents that we have analyzed just now are feeling substances.  Feeling is the most interesting side of our consciousness.  It is in our feelings that we think of our thoughts as being parts of ourselves.  If we should analyze any percept into the crude and undeveloped sensations of which it is composed at the first moment of its appearance, it comes more as a shock than as an image, and we find that it is felt more as a feeling mass than as an image.  Even in our ordinary life the elements which precede an act of knowledge are probably mere feelings.  As we go lower down the scale of evolution the automatic actions and relations of matter are concomitant with crude manifestations of feeling which never rise to the level of knowledge.  The lower the scale of evolution the less is the keenness of feeling, till at last there comes a stage where matter-complexes do not give rise to feeling