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• Errata—vol. VIII.
• Chrestomathia: Being a Collection of Papers, Explanatory of the Design of an Institution, Proposed to Be Set On Foot Under the Name of the Chrestomathic Day School, Or Chrestomathic School, For the Extension of the New System of Instruction to the High
• Introduction By the Editor.
• First Preface to the First Edition.
• Second Preface to the First Edition.
• Chrestomathic (a) Instruction Tables. Table I.
• Chrestomathic Instruction Tables. Table II.
• Appendix. No. I.
• Appendix.—no. II.
• Appendix.—no. III.
• Appendix.—no. IV.: Essay On Nomenclature and Classification. *
• Appendix.—no. V.: Sources of Motion.
• Appendix.—no. VI.
• Appendix.—no. VII.
• Appendix.—no. VIII.
• Appendix No. IX.
• A Fragment On Ontology; Now First Published, From the Manuscripts of Jeremy Bentham.
• Note By the Editor.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Classification of Entities.
• Chapter II.: Fictitious Entities Classified.
• Essay On Logic: Now First Published, From the Manuscripts of Jeremy Bentham.
• Note By the Editor.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Logic—what ?
• Chapter II.: Logic, Its Characteristics.
• Chapter III.: Præcognita: Or, Preliminary and General Indications Concerning Logic, According to the Aristotelians.
• Chapter IV.: Of Aristotle’s Predicaments and Postpredicaments.
• Chapter V. *: Mode of Discussion.
• Chapter VI.: Relation of Logic to the Business of Human Life In General, and Therein to Arts and Sciences, I. E. to Disciplines.
• Chapter VII.: Clearness In Discourse, How to Produce It? and Hence of Exposition.
• Chapter VIII.: Of Division.
• Chapter IX.: Of Methodization, Otherwise Termed Arrangement. † ‡
• Chapter X.: Of the Art of Invention.
• Appendix.—a.: Phenomena of the Human Mind.
• Appendix B. Division of Art and Science. †
• Essay On Language; Now First Published, From the Manuscripts of Jeremy Bentham.
• Note By the Editor.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Modes Or Forms of Which Discourse Or Language Has Been Found Susceptible, Viz. Audible, Visible, and Their Respective Substitutes.
• Chapter II.: Uses of Language.
• Chapter III.: Operations Which, In the Character of an Art, Are Performable In Relation to Discourse, Or Language In General.
• Chapter IV.: Properties Desirable In a Language.
• Chapter V.: Of Improvement Considered As Applicable to Language, Or the Means By Which, In So Far As the Particular Language Employed By an Individual Admits of the Possession of Them, the Properties Desirable In Language May, On Each Occasion, Be Secured
• Chapter VI.: Analytical View of the Matter of Thought and Internal Action; Correspondent View of the Matter of Language.
• Fragments On Universal Grammar; Now First Published, From the Manuscripts of Jeremy Bentham.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Definitions.
• Chapter II.: Uses of Universal Grammar.
• Chapter III.: Of the Parts of Speech.
• Chapter IV.: Of the Noun-substantive.
• Chapter V.: Of the Adjective.
• Chapter VI.: Of Pronouns. *
• Chapter VII.: Of Verbs.
• Chapter VIII.: Of Government and Concord.
• Chapter IX.: Of Prepositions, Adverbs, and Conjunctions.
• Chapter X.: Of Interjections.
• Tracts On Poor Laws and Pauper Management.
• Note By the Editor On the Tracts On Poor Laws.
• Situation and Relief of the Poor.
• Observations On the Pauper Population Table Hereunto Annexed.
• Outline of the Non-adult Value Table.
• Outline of a Work Entitled Pauper Management Improved.
• Book I.: Political Arrangements.
• Book II.: Plan of Management.
• Book III.: Collateral Benefits.
• Book IV.: Pauper Comforts.
• Observations On the Poor Bill. Introduced By the Rt. Hon. William Pitt (feb, 1797). : Chapter I. Introduction
• Chapter II.: 1. Under-ability, Or Supplemental-wages Clause.
• Chapter III.: 2. Family-relief, Or Extra-children Clause.
• Chapter IV.: 3. Cow-money Clause.
• Chapter V.: 4. Relief-extension, Or Opulence-relief Clause.
• Chapter VI.: 5. Apprenticeship Clause.
• Three Tracts Relative to Spanish and Portuguese Affairs; With a Continual Eye to English Ones.
• Advertisement For Tract the First and Second; of This Second * Publication, Namely, On the Then Proposed Spanish House of Lords. ( Anno 1820.)
• Tract, No. I.: Letter to the Spanish Nation On a Then ( Anno 1820) Proposed House of Lords.
• Advertisement to Tract the Second.
• Tract, No. II.: Observations On Judge Advocate Hermosa’s Panegyric On Judicial Delays; On the Occasion of the Impunity As Yet Given By Him to the Loyal Authors of the Cadiz Massacre, a Counterpart to the Manchester Massacre; Explaining, Moreover, the Effe
• Advertisement to Tract the Third.
• Tract, No. III.: Letter to the Portuguese Nation, On Antiquated Constitutions; On the Spanish Constitution Considered As a Whole, and On Certain Defects Observable In It; In Particular, the Immutability-enacting, Or Infallibility-assuming, the Non-re-elig
• Letters to Count Toreno, On the Proposed Penal Code, Delivered In By the Legislation Committee of the Spanish Cortes, April 25th, 1821.
• Advertisement.
• Letter I.
• Letter II.: On the Course Taken By the Legislative Committee, to Prevent, Otherwise Than By Punishment Eo Nomine, the Free Examination of Their Proposed Penal Code.
• Letter III.
• Letter IV.
• Letter V.
• Letter VI.
• Letter VII.
• Supplemental Advertisement.
• Securities Against Misrule, Adapted to a Mahommedan State, and Prepared With Particular Reference to Tripoli In Barbary.
• Note By the Editor.
• Chapter I.: Preliminary Explanations.
• Chapter II.: Public Opinion the Sole Remedy—parallel Between the Public-opinion Tribunal and the Official Judicatories.
• Chapter III.: Notification and Publication In Reference to Securities.
• Chap. IV.: The Securities In Detail.
• Part I.: Securities In Favour of the Nation Considered In the Aggregate.
• Part II.: Securities In Favour of Individuals.
• Chapter V.: Hopes of Success For Any Project Having Such Securities For Its End.

CHAPTER II.

FICTITIOUS ENTITIES CLASSIFIED.

Section I.

Names of Physical Fictitious Entities.

To this class belong all those entities which will be found included in Aristotle’s list—included in his Ten Predicaments, the first excepted.

In the order in which he has placed and considered them, they stand as follows:—1. Substance. 2. Quantity. 3. Quality. 4. Relation. 5. Places. 6. Time. 7. Situation. 8. Possession. 9. Action. 10. Passion or Suffering.*

From this list of Aristotle’s—the list of names of physical entities will, as here presented, be found to be in a considerable degree different; viz. in the first place, in respect of the particulars of which it is composed: in the next place, in respect of the order in which they are brought to view. Of these differences the grounds will successively be brought to view as they arise.

1. Quantity.—Quantity cannot exist without some substance of which it is the quantity. Of substance, no species, no individual can exist, without existing in some certain quantity.

2. Quality.—Quality cannot exist without some substance of which it is the quality. Of substance, no species can exist without being of some quality; of a multitude of qualities, of which the number is, in every instance, indeterminate, capable of receiving increase, and that to an indefinite degree, according to the purposes for which, and the occasions on which, the several substances of which they are qualities, may come to be considered.

3. Place.—Of place, the notion cannot be entertained without the notion of some substance considered as placed, or capable of existing, or, as we say, being placed in it.

Place may be considered as absolute or relative. Supposing but one substance in existence, that substance would be in some place,—that place would be absolute place—relative place there could be none. Suppose two substances,—then, in addition to its own absolute place, each substance would have a relative place,—a place constituted by the position occupied by it in relation to the other.

Of no individual substance is any notion commonly entertained without some notion of a place—a relative place as being occupied by it.

The place considered as occupied by an individual substance is different, according to the purpose for which, and the occasion on which, the substance is taken into consideration.

Expressive of the notion of place, in their original, physical, archetypal signification, are the several words termed prepositions of place and adverbs of place: These are—

In; on, or upon; under; at; above; below; round; around; out—out of; from above; from under; from.

4. Time.—Time is, as it were, on an ulterior and double account, a fictitious entity,—its denominations so many names of fictitious entities.

Compared with substance, and, in particular, with body, place is, as hath been seen, a fictitious entity. Without some body placed in it, or considered as being capable of being placed in it, place would have no existence, or what, with reference to use, would amount to the same thing, there would be no purpose for which,—no occasion on which, it could be considered as having existence.

But if, putting substance out of consideration, place be a fiction, time is, so to speak, a still more fictitious fiction, having nothing more substantial to lean upon than the fiction of place.

To be capable of being spoken of, time itself must be, cannot but be, spoken of as a modification of space. Witness the prepositions in and at: in such a portion of time—at such a portion of time; in an hour—at 12 o’clock; in such a year, month, day, at such an hour, at so many minutes after such an hour,—at so many seconds after such a minute in such an hour.

Witness, again, the common expressions—a short time, a long time, a space of time.

By a line it is that every portion of time, every particular time, is conceived, represented, and spoken of;—by a line, i. e. a body, of which the length alone, without breadth or depth, is considered.

5. Motion. 6. Rest. 7. Action. 8. Passion.

At every step the subject of consideration becomes more and more complicated.

Rest is the absence or negation of motion. Every body is either in motion or at rest. Here place, i. e. relative space, is still the archetype. Motion is a thing, an imaginary, an involuntarily imagined substance, in which the body is conceived as being placed. Rest a like body, at which the real body is considered as being placed.

In the idea of motion that of time is, moreover, involved, and again, that of place, as being that in which the idea of time is, by the like necessity, involved.

In motion a body cannot have been but it must have been in two different places, at or in two different, which is as much as to say, in two successive portions of time.

For the space of time in question, i. e. for a portion of time composed of those same portions which were operative in the case of motion, the body has been at rest, in so far as in all that space or length of time it has not changed its place with reference to any others.

Taken in the aggregate, in so far as can be concluded, either from observation or from analogy in the way of inference, no body whatsoever is, or ever has been, or ever will be, absolutely in a state of rest, i. e. without being in motion with reference to some other body or bodies.

The earth which we inhabit is not at rest. The sun himself about which she moves is not at rest. The stars called fixed, being but so many suns, are themselves no more at rest than is he.

Considered as a whole, the parts of our earth are, as far as appears, with reference to one another, the greater part of them always at rest,—others, especially those near the surface, many of them occasionally in motion: and so in regard to the several separate bodies, consisting of such portions of the matter of which the earth is composed, as are detached and separate from one another, each of them having between itself and every other, with the exception of the base on which it stands, and upon which, by the principle of attraction under the several forms under which it operates, it is kept at that place, certain portions of intervening space.

Of such of them as are in a state of solidity, rest, relative rest, rest with relation to each other, in so far as they are in that state, is the naturally constant state. In motion they are not put but by some supervening accident operating from without. Of such of them as are in a state of fluidity, liquidity and gaseosity included, motion, relative motion is, in every instance, a natural state, exemplified to a greater or lesser extent, depending partly on the particular qualities of the several fluids, partly upon the accidents ab extra to which, individually taken, they happen to have been exposed.

In addition to the idea of motion, in the ideas of action and passion, the idea of causation or causality is involved. The body F is in motion;—of such motion, what is the cause? Answer: The action of another body, the body S, which, by the influence or correspondent power which it possesses becomes productive of that effect.

In themselves the two fictitious entities, Action and Passion, are not only correspondent, but inseparable. No action without passion—no passion without action;—no action on the one part without passion on the other.

In the case of action, and thereupon on the part of one of two bodies, motion, perceptible motion,—on the part of the other body, is relative motion, in every instance a never failing consequence? To judge from analogy, the probability seems to be in the affirmative.*

In so far as on the part of one of the two alone, any motion is perceptible, on the part of the other, no motion being perceptible, the one of which the motion is perceptible, is most commonly spoken of as the agent, the other as the patient: a state of motion is the state in which the former is said to be in, a state of passion the state in which the other is said to be in.

9. Relation.—Under this head, such is its amplitude, several of the others seem totally or partially to be included—viz. 1. Quantity, all quantities bear some relation or other to each other. 2. Quality.†

Section II.

Absolute fictitious Entities of the first order. 1. Matter. 2. Form. 3. Quantity. 4. Space.

No substance can exist but it must be itself matter; be of a certain determinate form; be or exist in a certain determinate quantity; and, were there but one substance in existence, all these three attributes would belong to it.

Matter, at first sight, may naturally enough be considered as exactly synonymous to the word substance. It may undoubtedly be with propriety employed instead of substance on many of the occasions on which the word substance may, with equal propriety, be employed.

But there are occasions on which, while substance may, matter cannot, with propriety be employed.

By the word substance, substances incorporeal, as well as corporeal, are wont to be designated; the word matter is wont to be employed to designate corporeal to the exclusion of incorporeal substances.

On the other hand, neither are occasions wanting in which, while the word matter may, the word substance cannot, with propriety be employed.

Matter is wont to be employed in contradistinction to form; and that, on occasions in which the word substance cannot, with propriety, be employed. Thus, in considering substance, any individual substance, consideration may be had of its matter, without any consideration had of its form; and so vice versa of its form without its matter.

Thus it is, that, taken in that sense which is peculiar to it, the idea attached to the word matter cannot, by means of that word, be brought to view without bringing to view along with it, the idea of another entity called form; and this is the reason why, along with form, it has been considered as composing a group of entities distinct from the sort of entity, for the designation of which the word substance has been employed.

The word substance is the name of a class of real entities of, the only class which has in it any corporeal entities.

The word matter is but the name of a class of fictitious entities, springing out of the sort of real entity distinguished by the word substance.

And so it is in regard to the word form.

The ideas respectively designated by these corresponding words are fractional results, produced from the decomposition of the word substance.

Every real physical entity, every corporeal substance, every sort of body has its matter and form; and this its matter, and this its form are entities totally different from each other.

These names of entities possess, both of them, the characteristic properties of fictitious entities. It is by means of propositions designative of place, and, by that means, of a fictitious material image, that their images are connected with the name of the real entity substance.

In that substance exists such and such matter; behold the matter of that substance; behold all this matter from that substance. Here substance is a receptacle; matter a fictitious entity, spoken of in one of these occasions as if it were a real entity contained within that receptacle; in the others as one that had proceeded from it.

Behold the form in which that substance presents itself; behold the form, the figure, the shape, the configuration of that substance.

Figure, configuration, shape, in these several words may be seen so many synonyms, or almost synonyms, to the word form.

Quantity has been distinguished into continuous and discrete.

Discrete quantity (it is commonly said) is number; it should rather be said is composed of numbers: viz. of numbers more than one, of separate entities.

It is only by means of discrete quantity, i. e. number, that continuous quantity can be measured by the mind; that any precise idea of any particular quantity can be formed.

To form an idea of any continuous quantity, i. e. of a body as existing in a certain quantity, one of two courses must be taken or conceived to be taken in relation to it. It must be divided, or conceived to be divided, into parts, i. e. into a determinate number of parts, or together with other similar bodies made up into a new, and artificial, and compounded whole.

To divide a body, or conceive a body to be divided into parts, it suffices not to divide it, or conceive it divided, into its constituent bodies, into any such smaller bodies as are contained in it. Either the entire body itself, or its parts respectively, must, by the mind, be conceived to be divided into its several dimensions.

Be the body what it may, not being boundless, it cannot but have some bound or bounds; if one, it is a surface; these bounds, if there be more than one, are surfaces: these surfaces again, not being boundless, have their bounds,—these bounds are lines.

The only bodies that have each of them but one uniform surface are spheres.*

Bodies are real entities. Surfaces and lines are but fictitious entities. A surface without depth, a line without thickness, was never seen by any man; no; nor can any conception be seriously formed of its existence.

Space is the negation or absence of body.

Of any determinate individual portion of space, as clear an idea is capable of being formed as of any body, or of any portion of any body; and besides, being equally determinate as that of body, the idea of space is much more simple.

To space it is difficult either to ascribe or to deny existence, without a contradiction in terms; to consider it as nothing, or as distinct from nothing.

Of body,—that is of all bodies whatsoever,—the annihilation may be conceived without difficulty. Why? Because, in whatsoever place,—that is, within whatsoever portion of space, within whatsoever receptacle, composed of mere space, any body is, at any given time conceived to be, it may thenceforward be conceived to be removed from that place, and so successively from any and every other portion of space.

Of space,—that is, of all portions of space whatever, indeed of so much as any one portion of space, the annihilation cannot easily be conceived. Why? Because, in mere space there is nothing to remove; nothing that can be conceived capable of being removed. In so far as matter is annihilated, there is less matter than there was before. But, suppose space to be annihilated; is there less space than there was before?

Hence, taken in the aggregate, no bounds, no limits can be assigned to space; so neither can any form or any quantity. It cannot be removed; it cannot be moved; for there is nothing of it or in it to remove; there is no place to which it can be removed.

So much for space taken in the aggregate; but take this or that individual portion of space, the properties of it are very different. Conceive it, as in innumerable instances it really is, enclosed in bodies, immediately it is, and unavoidably, you conceive it to be endowed with many of the properties of bodies. Of limits it is susceptible, as body is; in point of fact it has limits; and, having these limits, it thereby has not only form but quantity. It not only has limits as truly as body has limits, but it has the same limits.

Having limits, it thereby has form, quantity, and even motion: along with the terraqueous globe,—i. e. with the whole matter of it,—all the portions of space enclosed in that matter describe round the sun, and with the sun, their continually repeated and ever varied round.

Substance being a real physical entity,—perceptions real psychical entities,—matter, form, quantity, and so on, so many fictitious entities, both descriptions being in part applicable to space, neither of them applicable entirely,—space may be regarded and spoken of as a semi-real entity.

Section III.

Absolute fictitious Entities of the second Order. 1. Quality. 2. Modification.

Matter, Form, Quantity,—all these are susceptible of Quality. Matter, every portion of it, is capable of having its qualities, independently of those of its form and those of its quantity.

A body is said to be of such a quality; such or such a quality is said to be in it, resident, inherent, in it. The matter, the form, the quantity of this body,—in any one of these fictitious entities may this secondary fictitious entity be said to be resident, to be inherent.

Between quantity and quality, a sort of reciprocation, a sort of reciprocal intercommunion may be observed to have place. As we have the quality of a quantity—two qualities, for instance, vastness, minuteness, &c.,—so has a quality its quantities.

The quantity of a quality is termed a degree.

The term modification is nearly synonymous to the term quality.

Of modification it seems scarcely proper to speak, as constituting or being a fictitious entity different and distinct from quality: the difference between them is rather of a grammatical than of a logical nature. Yet, of the cases in which the word quality may be employed, there are some in which the word modification can scarcely, without impropriety, be employed. We may speak of a modification of this or that body, or of the matter, form, or quantity, as well as of a quality of that same body; but we can scarcely, without impropriety, speak of a modification as being a thing resident or inherent in that same body.

By the word quality it is, that are expressed all particulars whereby the condition of the body, or other object in question, is rendered similar or dissimilar—in the first place, to that of itself at different times, in the next place, to that of other bodies or objects, whether at a different, or at the same time.

Goodness and badness, of all qualities experienced or imaginable, these are the very first that would present themselves to notice, these are the very first that would obtain names. Interest, i. e. desire of pleasure and of exemption from pain, being, in some shape or other, the source of every thought, as well as the cause of every action (and, in particular, amongst others of every action by which names are employed in the designation of persons and of things,—names plainly and immediately expressive of the two opposite modes of relation, in which those objects would be continually bearing relation to each man’s interest, as above explained) would be among the very earliest to which the faculty of discourse would give existence.

Synonyms, or quasi synonyms to quality,—in this character may be mentioned:—1. Nature; 2. Sort; 3. Kind; 4. Mode; 5. Complexion; 6. Description; 7. Character; 8. Shape; viz. in a sense somewhat less extensive than that in which it is, as above, synonymous with Form.

Section IV.

Fictitious Entities connected with Relation, enumerated.

No two entities of any kind can present themselves simultaneously to the mind; no, nor can so much as the same object present itself at different times, without presenting the idea of Relation. For relation is a fictitious entity, which is produced, and has place, as often as the mind, having perception of any one object, obtains, at the same, or at any immediately succeeding instant, perception of any other object, or even of that same object, if the perception be accompanied with the perception of its being the same; Dirersity is, in the one case, the name of the relation, Identity in the other case. But, as identity is but the negation of diversity, thence if, on no occasion, diversity had ever been, neither, on any occasion, would any such idea as that of identity have come into existence.

Whatsoever two entities, real or fictitious, come to receive names, and thus to receive their nominal existence, Relation would be the third; for, between the two, they being, by the supposition, different, and both of them actual objects of perception, the relation of difference or diversity would also become an object of perception, and in the character of a fictitious entity, a production of the acts of abstraction and denomination, acquire its nominal existence.

Next, after matter and form, the fictitious-entity relation, or the class of fictitious entities called Relations, might, therefore, have been brought to view. But not only between matter and form, but also between the one and the other respectively, and the fictitious entities designated by the words quantity, space, and quality, so close seemed the connexion as not to be, without sensible inconvenience, broken by the interposition of any other.

Once introduced upon the carpet, the fictitious entity called relation swells into an extent such as to swallow up all the others. Every other fictitious entity is seen to be but a mode of this.

The most extensive, and, in its conception, simple of all relations, i. e. of all modes or modifications of the fictitious entity, denominated relation, is that of place, with its submodifications.

Next to that in the order of simplicity comes the modification of time, with its submodifications.

Next to them come successively the relations designated by the several words, motion, rest, action, passion. Subalternation, viz. logical subalternation, opposition, and connexion, or the relation between cause and effect.

Existence, with its several modifications, or correspondent fictitious entities; non-existence, futurity, actuality, potentiality, necessity, possibility, and impossibility will, with most convenience, close the rear. Though still more extensive than even relation, they could not be brought to view before it, being applicable to all other relations,—to relations of all sorts, and in a word, to entities, whether fictitious or real, of all sorts,—no complete, or so much as correct view of their nature and character could be given, till these less extensive ones had been brought to view.

Section V.

Simple fictitious Entities connected with Relation.

Place.—Of the species of relation designated by the word place, the most perfect conception may be easily formed by taking into the account the species of relation designated by the word time.

Necessary altogether is the relation which the species of fictitious entity called place has, on the one hand, to the fictitious entity called body, on the other hand, to the fictitious entity called space.

Space may be distinguished into absolute and relative. To absolute space there are no concervable bounds; to relative space, i. e. to portions of space separated from one or other by bodies, there are, in every instance, bounds, and those determinate ones.

As to the word place, whether it be considered as the name of a real entity or as the name of a fictitious entity, would be a question of words, barely worth explanation, and not at all worth debate.

Considered as a modification of space, it would, like that, stand upon the footing of the name of a real entity: considered as a species of relation, it would stand upon the footing of a fictitious entity. But in this latter case comes an objection: viz. that the relations which on that occasion are in question, are not place itself, or places themselves, but such relations as belong to place.

Be this as it may, place is a relative portion of space, considered either as actually occupied, or as capable of being occupied, by some real entity of the class of bodies.

Portions of the earth’s surface are considered and denominated each of them a place; but in this case, the term place is used in the physical and geographical sense of the word, not in an ontological sense.

Whether, in a physical sense, place be or be not the name of a fictitious entity, that in every psychical sense it is so, seems manifest beyond dispute. Take, for example, the place occupied by such or such an idea in the mind, by such or such a transaction in a narrative.

Time.—Be it as it may in regard to place, that the entity designated by the word time is but a fictitious entity, will, it is believed, be sufficiently manifest.

Different altogether from each other are the perceptions or ideas presented by the word place and the word time. Yet as often as time is spoken of, it is spoken of as if it were a modification of, or the same thing as place.

Like place, time, or at least any given portion of time, is spoken of in the character of a receptacle,—as in such or such a place things are done, in such or such a time things are done; portions of space or place are long or short, great or small,—so are portions of time. In the same sense we say, a quantity of time or a space of time. As bodies are spoken of as going to or from such or such a place, so operations are spoken of as going on from and to such or such a portion of time.

But of every receptacle, all the several parts are coexistent; of any portion of time, no two parts, how small soever, are coexistent. Of any given portion of time, no two of the parts are coexistent; with relation to each, all are successive. In the very import of the term coexistent, the idea of unity, is implied in respect of the portion of time supposed to be occupied; in the import of the term succession, that of diversity is of necessity implied.

Motion.—That the entity designated by the word motion is a fictitious entity seems at least equally beyond dispute.

A body, the body in question, is in motion: here, unless in motion be considered as an abbreviated expression substituted for in a state of motion, as we say, in a state of rest, motion is a receptacle, in which the body is considered as stationed. The motion of this body is slow or is retrograde. Here the body is a stationary object—a station or starting-post, of or from which the motion is considered as proceeding.

Necessarily included in the idea of motion is the idea of place and time. A body has been in motion.—When? In what case? When having, at or in one point of time, been in any one place, at another point of time it has been in any other.

Of any and every corporeal real entity, a similitude is capable of being exhibited as well in the form of a body, for instance a model, as in the form of a surface,—as in painting, or drawing, or engraving; which, in every case, is like the object represented, a stationary, permanent, and, unless by internal decay, or external force, an unchanging and unmoving object.

But by no such graphical similitude, by no picture, by no model, by no stationary object, can any motion be represented. A representation of the body as it appeared in the place occupied by it at a point of time anterior to that at which the motion commenced; a representation of the same body as it appeared in the place occupied by it at a point of time posterior to that at which the motion commenced; in these two representations, conjoined or separate, may be seen all that can be done towards the representation of motion by any permanent imitative work.

Even on the table of the mind, in imagination, in idea, in no other way can any motion be represented. There not being any real entity to represent, the entity cannot be any other than fictitious: the name employed for the purpose of representation cannot therefore be anything else than the name of a fictitious entity.

Action.—In the idea of action, the idea of motion is an essential ingredient. But to actual action, actual motion can scarcely be regarded as necessary. Action is either motion itself, or the tendency to motion. Under the term action, besides motion, a tendency, though so it be without actual motion, seems to be included. Held back by strings, a magnet and a bar of iron, suspended at a certain distance from each other, remain both of them without motion: cut the strings of either of them, it moves till it comes in contact with the other; but for the state of mutual action which preceded the cutting of the strings no such motion would have taken place.

Passion, Reaction.—Among all the bodies, large and small, with which we have any the slightest acquaintance, no instance, it is believed, can be found of action without passion, nor of passion without reaction. But without either of these accompaniments, a conception of action may be entertained, at any rate attention may be applied to it; but if on either of two objects, attention be capable of being bestowed without being bestowed upon the other, the separate lot of attention thus bestowed affords sufficient foundation for a separate name.

Here, then, are two more fictitious entities most nearly related and intimately connected with the fictitious entities action and motion, having all of them, for their common archetype, the same image or set of images: viz. that of a nutshell and nut, a starting-post and a goal; the representation of which is performed by the prepositions in, of, from, &c., employed in connexion with their respective names.

Section VI.

Fictitious Entities considered and denominated in respect of their concomitancy. Object, Subject, End in View.

In the idea of an object, the idea of some action, or at any rate some motion, seems to be constantly and essentially involved. Where the object is a corporeal entity, it is a body towards which the body in motion moves: this body, whether permanently or momentarily, stands objected: i. e. cast before that other body which moves.

Even in the case of vision, in the instance of an object of sight, the relation is naturally the same; the only difference is, that in the case of vision, the moving bodies being the rays of light, the object, instead of being the body towards which, is the body from which the motion takes place.

In the picture, the tracing of which is the effect, of the terms here in question the object is either on the same level with the source of motion, or above it; the subject, as in its literal sense, the word subject imports is below and under it.

In the case of human action,—a motion, real or fictitious, considered as being produced by an exercise of the faculty of the will, on the part of a sensitive being,—this action has, in every instance, for its cause, the desire and expectation of some good, i. e. of some pleasure or exemption from some pain, and the entity, the good by which this desire has been produced, is in this case, if not the only object, an object, and, indeed, the ultimate object, the attainment of which is, in the performance of the action aimed at.

Of entities thus intimately connected, it is not to be wondered at, if the conceptions formed, and the names bestowed in consequence, should frequently be indistinct.

In the designation of the same entity, in the designation of which the word subject is employed, the word object is at other times employed: and so also in the designation of the same entity in the designation of which the words end in view are employed, the word object is frequently also employed.

If in a case by which a demand is presented for the mention of a subject and an object: so it happen that for the designation of the subject you employ the word object, then so it will be that for the designation of that which may, with propriety, be termed the object, but cannot with propriety be termed the subject, finding the only proper word preoccupied, you will naturally feel yourself at a loss.

In a case where the faculty of the will is not considered as having any part, the designation of the end in view is a function in which any occasion for the employment of the word object, cannot have place; in this case, therefore, neither has the uncertainty which, as above, is liable to be produced by that word.

In a case where the will is supposed to be employed, and in which there is, accordingly, an end in view, one single end to the attainment of which by the power and under the orders of the will the action is directed, in any such case what may very well happen is, that there shall be other entities to which, in the course of the action, though not in the characters of ends in view, it may happen to the attention to be directed. Here, then, besides an object which may be, will be other objects, no one of which can commodiously be designated by the compound appellation, end in view.

In regard to the word subject, (as well as the word object,) one convenience is, that it may be used in the plural number. This convenience belongs to them in contradistinction to the word field. For a group of numerous and comparatively small entities, the word field will not, either in the singular or in the plural, conveniently serve; but to this same purpose the word subject, if employed in the plural, is perfectly well adapted.

If, beneath the imagined line of action, you have need to bring to view not merely one extensive fictitious immoveable body, but a multitude of smaller moveable bodies lying on it, here comes an occasion for the use of both these terms: viz. field and subject, or subjects: the field is the extensive immoveable entity, the subjects the comparatively numerous and less extensive bodies, fixed or lying loose upon the surface of it.

In the place of the word field, as well as in place of the word subject, the words subject-matter may be employed; so also the plural, subject-matters. But if, in addition to an extensive surface, you have to bring to view a multitude of smaller bodies stationed on it; if, in that case, instead of the word field, you employ the words subject-matters, you will find that you cannot commodiously, after laying down your subject-matter, have subjects stationed on it.

In the case where the action in question is a physical, a corporeal one, a question might perhaps arise whether the entities respectively designated by the words subject and object, belong to the class of real or fictitious entities: a platform on which you stand to shoot an arrow, a butt at which you shoot your arrow, to these could not be refused the appellation of real entities. But in so far as upon the platform you superinduce the character designated by the word subject, and upon the butt the character designated by the word object; of this subject and this object it might be insisted that they are but so many names of fictitious entities.

Not that for any practical purpose, a question thus turning upon mere words would be, in any considerable degree, worthy of regard.

Be this as it may, in the case in which the action in question is an incorporeal, a psychical action, having no other field than the mind, or than what is in the mind,—in this case the title of the words subject and object, as well as of the word field, to the appellation of fictitious entities, will be seen to be clear of doubt.

Section VII.

Concomitant fictitious Entities resulting from the process of Logical aggregation and division, and subalternation.

It will be seen further on more at large, how it is, that when contemplating the qualities exhibited by individuals, by abstracting the attention successively from them, quality after quality, let the group of individuals, present, past, and future, contingent included, be ever so vast and multitudinous, there will, at last, be left some quality, or assemblage of qualities, which, being found all of them existing in a certain assemblage of individuals, and not in any other, may serve for the foundation of a name by which that whole assemblage may be designated, without including in the designation any individual not included in that assemblage.* The words, mineral, vegetable, animal, may serve for examples.

Wherever any such aggregate number of individuals can be found so connected with one another,—so distinguished from all others, and, for the designation of the aggregate, the fictitious unit composed of that multitude, a name or appellation has been employed, and appropriated by use, the fictitious unit thus formed will be found capable of being divided by the imagination into lesser component aggregates or units,—these again each of them into others; and, in this way, the largest and first divided all-comprehensive aggregate will be found capable of being divided and subdivided into any number of aggregates, not greater than the whole number of individuals, actual and conceivable, contained in the original factitious and fictitious whole,—the name of each one of these component aggregates constituting, as it were, a box for containing and keeping together the several aggregates comprised in it, the entire aggregate contained in each such box being characterized by some quality or qualities in respect of which being agreed with one another, at the same time they disagree with, and are thereby distinguished from all others.

Kingdom, class, order, genus, species, variety, have been the names given to these boxes—to these factitious receptacles.

That it is to the class of fictitious, and not to the class of real entities, that these imaginary, however really useful receptacles, appertain, is, at this time of day, sufficiently clear; but the time has been when they have been mistaken for realities.

Section VIII.

Political and Quasi Political fictitious Entities.

I. Effects.—1. Obligation; 2. Right; 3. Exemption; 4. Power; 5. Privilege; 6. Prerogative; 7. Possession—physical; 8. Possession—legal; 9. Property.

II. Causes.—1. Command; 2. Prohibition, Inhibition, &c.; 3. Punishment; 4. Pardon; 5. License; 6. Warrant; 7. Judgment; 8. Division.

All these have for their efficient causes pleasure and pain, but principally pain, in whatsoever shape, and from which soever of the five sanctions or sources of pleasure or pain, derived or expected, viz.—1. The physical sanction; 2. The sympathetic sanction, or sanction of sympathy; 3. The popular or moral sanction; 4. The political, including the legal sanction; 5. The religious sanction.†

Obligation is the root out of which all these other fictitious entities take their rise.

Of all the sanctions or sources of pleasure and pain above brought to view, the political sanction being susceptible of being the strongest and surest in its operation, and, accordingly, the obligation derived from it the strongest and most effective, this is the sanction which it seems advisable to take for consideration in the first instance; the correspondent obligations of the same name which may be considered as emanating from these other fictitious entities being, in the instance of some of these sanctions, of too weak a nature to act with any sufficient force capable of giving to any of those other productions any practical value.

An obligation,—understand here that sort of obligation which, through the medium of the will, operates on the active faculty,—takes its nature from some act to which it applies itself; it is an obligation to perform or to abstain from performing a certain act.

A legal obligation to perform the act in question is said to attach upon a man, to be incumbent upon him, in so far as in the event of his performing the act, (understand both at the time and place in question,) he will not suffer any pain, but in the event of his not performing it he will suffer a certain pain, viz. the pain that corresponds to it, and by the virtue of which applying itself eventually as above, the obligation is created.

Section IX.

Fictitious Entities appertaining to Relation as between Cause and Effect.

In the idea of causation,—in the idea of the relation as between cause and effect,—in the idea of the operation or state of things by which that relation is produced, in which that relation takes its rise, the idea of motion is inseparably involved: take away motion, no causation can have place,—no result, no effect, no any-thing can be produced.

In the idea of motion, the idea of a moving body is, with equal necessity, implied.

Of the cases in which the existence of motion, relative motion, is reported to us by our senses, there are some in which the commencement of the motion is, others in which it is not manifest to our senses.

Endless and terminating. Under one or other of these denominations may all motions, observed or observable, be included.

Endless motions are those which have place among the bodies, (each of them considered in its totality,) of which the visible universe is composed.

To the class of terminating or terminative motions belong all those which have place in our planet, and, to judge from analogy, all those which have place in any other of the celestial bodies.

So far as the motions in question belong to the endless class, so far no such distinction, and, therefore, no such relation as that of cause and effect, seems to have place. Each body attracts towards it all the rest, and, were it to have place singly, the attraction thus exercised might be considered as if it operated in the character of a cause; but each body is attracted by every other, and, were it to have place singly, the attraction thus suffered might be considered in the character of an effect. But, in fact, the two words are but two different names for one and the same effect. In the case of motions that have place among the distinct bodies with which the surface of our earth is covered, action and causation are the phenomena exhibited by different bodies in the character of agents and patients. In the case of the celestial bodies, considered each in its totality, no such distinction has place. No such character as that of agent—no such character as that of patient, belongs separately to any one. They are each one of them agent and patient at the same time. No one exhibits more of agency, no one more of patiency, than any other.

Suppose that all these several bodies having been created out of nothing at one and the same instant, each with the same quantity of matter, and thence with the same attractive power that appears to belong to it at present, an impulse in a certain rectilinear direction were to be given to each of them at the same time. On this hypothesis it has been rendered, it is said, matter of demonstration, that the sort of intermediate motions which would be the result, would be exactly those which these same bodies are found by observation to exhibit.

Here, then, we should have a beginning, but even here we should not have an end. In the beginning, at a determinate point of time, we should have a motion operating in the character of a cause, but at no determinate point of time, to the exclusion of any other, should we have either a motion or a new order of things resulting from it, and produced by it, in the character of an effect.

Thelematic and athelematic.—To one or other of these denominations will all motions of the terminative class be found referable. Thelematic, those in the production of which volition, the mind of a sentient and self-moving being, is seen to be concerned. Athelematic, those in the production of which volition is not seen to have place.

In the case of a motion of the thelematic class, you have for the cause of the motion,—meaning the prime cause of whatsoever motion happens in consequence to take place, the psychical act, the act of the will of the person by whose will the motion is produced; you have that same person for the agent.

Fruitful or unfruitful, or, say ergastic or unergastic.—To one or other of these denominations will all the motions of the thelematic class be found referable. Ergastic or fruitful, all those which have for their termination and result the production of a work. Unergastic or unfruitful, all those which are not attended with any such result.

Between these two classes the line of separation, it will be manifest enough, cannot, in the nature of the case, be determinate.

A work has reference to human interests and exigencies. When, in consequence of a motion, or set of motions, of the thelematic kind, in the body or among the bodies in which the motion has terminated, or those to which it has in the whole, or in any part, been communicated, any such change of condition has place, by which, for any considerable portion of time, they are or are not regarded as being rendered, in any fresh shape, subservient to human use, a work is spoken of as having thereby been produced.

In so far as a work is considered as having been produced, any agent, who, in respect of his active talent, is regarded as having borne the principal part in the production of the work, is wont to be spoken of under the appellation of an author or the author.

In this same case any body which is regarded as having, in consequence of the motion communicated to it, been rendered contributory to the production of the work, is wont to be spoken of in the character, and by the name, of an instrument,—any body, viz. inasmuch as considered as inanimate—an instrument in the physical sense; if animated, or considered as animated, and, in particular, if regarded as rational—in the psychical sense; if regarded as simple, a tool or implement; if regarded as complex, an engine, a machine,—a system of machinery.

To the case, and to that alone, in which the motion or motions, being of the thelematic, and therein, moreover, of the ergastic kind, have had for their prime mover or principal agent concerned, a rational, or at least, a sentient, being, belong the words end, operation, means, design.

Of the word end, and its synonym, the compound term, end in view, the exposition has been already given. It consists in the idea of some good (i. e. pleasure, or exemption from pain in this or that shape or shapes) as about eventually to result to the agent in question from the proposed act in question.

Operation is a name given to any action in so far as it is considered as having been performed in the endeavour to produce a work.

The word means is a term alike applicable, with propriety, to the designation of body considered in the character of an instrument, or any action or motion considered in the character of an operation, tending to the production of a work, or any good looked to in the character of an end.

Productive and unproductive,—under one or other of these denominations, as the case may be, may be referred the action in question, in so far as where, being of the thelematic, and, moreover, of the ergastic kind, it has for its end in view the bringing into existence any intended result in the character of a work.

Productive and unproductive, whether in actual result or only in tendency, under one or other of these denominations may also be referred every motion, or set of motions, of the athelematic kind; every motion, or set of motions, produced in, by and upon such agents as are of the purely physical kind.

This distinction is applicable to all the three physical kingdoms; but, on the mention of it, the two living kingdoms, the vegetable and the animal, will be most apt to present themselves.

In the use frequently made of the word cause, may be seen an ambiguity, which, in respect of its incompatibility with any correct and clear view of the relation between cause and effect, there may be a practical use in endeavouring to remove from the field of thought and language.

On the one hand, a motion, an action, an operation; on the other hand, an agent, an operator, an author; to the designation of both these, in themselves perfectly distinct objects, the words are wont to be indiscriminately applied.

Take, for example, the questions that used to be agitated in the logical schools. Is the moon, says one of them, the cause, or a cause, of the flux and reflux of the sea? Here the moon, here the word cause is employed to designate a corporeal being considered in the character of an agent.

The cause, (says a position of which frequent use was made in the same theatres of disputation,) the cause is always proportioned to its effect. But, between the moon itself and the tide, i. e. the flux and reflux of the sea, there cannot be any proportion; they are disparate entities, the one the moon, a real entity, the other, the flux and reflux, i. e. the motions of the sea are but fictitious entities. Between the moon itself, and the water moved by it, i. e. between the quantity of both, proportion may have place; between the motion, and thence the action of the moon, and the motion of the waters, a proportion may have place. But, between the moon, a body, and the flux and reflux of the sea, no proportion can have place, neither can either be larger or smaller than the other.

In speaking of God, it has been common to speak of that inferential Being by such names as the Cause of all things, the great, the universal Cause. In this instance, the same sort of confusion, the same sort of indistinctness in the expression, the same consequent confusion in men’s conception, as in the case mentioned, is apt to have place.

The act of God, the will of God,—these are the entities, to the designation of which, and which alone, the term cause can, in the case in question, with propriety, and consistently with analogy, be employed; these, on the one hand, and the word cause on the other, are alike names of fictitious entities.

Author, and Creator,—these alone, and not the word cause, can, with propriety, be employed in speaking of God. These, as well as God, are names of real entities; not names of fictitious entities: Author, a name applicable to man, or, in a word, to any being considered as susceptible of design; Creator, a term exclusively appropriated to the designation of God, considered with reference to his works.

In the use commonly made of the terms, work, cause, effect, instrument, and in the habit of prefixing to them respectively the definitive article the, seems to be implied a notion, of which the more closely it is examined, the more plainly will the incorrectness be made to appear,—this is, that where the effect is considered as one, there exists some one object, and no more than one, which, with propriety, can be considered as its cause. Of the exemplification and verification of this supposition, there exists not, perhaps, so much as a single instance.

Take, in the first place, an effect, any effect, of the physical kind;—no effect of this kind can, it is believed, be assigned, that is not the result of a multitude of influencing circumstances; some always, in different ways, contributing to the production of it, viz. in the character of promoting and co-operating causes; others frequently contributing to the non-production of it, in the character of obstacles.

In relation to the result in question, considered in the character of an effect, suppose, at pleasure, any one body to be the prime or principal mover or agent, and the motion, the action, or the operation of it, to be the prime or principal cause.

In no instance can any such cause be in operation, but it will happen to it to be, on all sides, encompassed and surrounded by circumstances.

Those circumstances will consist of the state of the contiguous and surrounding bodies, in respect of motion or rest, form, colour, quantity, and the like.

Among these some will appear to be exercising on the result a material operative influence; others not to be exercising such influence. Influential and influencing circumstances, uninfluential or uninfluencing circumstances; in one or other of these two classes of circumstances taken together, will every circumstance by which it can happen to the principal agent or agents to be encompassed, be comprised.

Promotive or obstructive,—under one or other of these denominations may the whole assemblage of influential circumstances be comprised.

Any circumstances that act, that are considered as acting in the character of obstructive circumstances, are termed, in one word, Obstacles.

Purely natural, purely factitious, and mixed,—to one or other of these heads may every motion be referred, considered with reference to the part which the human will is capable of bearing in the production of it.

Solid, liquid, or gaseous,—in one or other of these states, at the time of the motion, will the moving body be found.

The internal constitution of the moving body, the internal constitution of the unmoveable, or non-moving bodies, with which it comes in contact, and the configuration of these same bodies;—upon all these several circumstances, or rather groups of circumstances, must the nature of the ultimate effect produced by the motion be dependent,—whether that effect be a purely physical result, or a human work.

In so far then as, by the term cause, nothing more is meant to be designated than one alone of all those sets of co-operating circumstances; be the effect what it may, the cause can never of itself be adequate to the production of it; nor, between the quantum of the effect and the quantum of the cause, can any determinate proportion have place.

But, of the case in which, in the extent given to the import attributed to the word cause, the whole assemblage of these influencing circumstances is taken into the account and comprised, it seems questionable whether so much as a single example would be to be found.

Unless the above observations be altogether incorrect, it will appear but too manifest that, in the notions commonly attached to the word cause, much deficiency, in respect of clearness and correctness, as well as completeness, cannot but have place; and that, in the inferences made from either the one to the other, whether it be the cause that is deduced, or supposed to be deduced, from the effect, or the effect that is deduced, or supposed to be deduced, from the cause, much uncertainty and inconclusiveness cannot but be a frequent, not to say an almost constant and continual, result.

Seldom, indeed, does it happen that, of the co-influencing circumstances, the collection made for the purpose is complete; nor is it always that, in such a collection, so much as the principally influencing circumstances are included.

In those cases in which the several influencing circumstances are, all of them, subject, not only to the observation, but to the powers of human agency, any such miscalculations and errors as from time to time happen to be made, may, when perceived from time to time, be corrected.

Thus it is, for example, in the case of observations that have for their field the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals.

Thus it is, moreover, with little exception in the instance of the practical applications made of the respective theories of Chemistry and Mechanics, the influencing circumstances being, for the most part, or even altogether subject, and that, at all times, not only to our observations, but to our command.

The cases in which our inferences from supposed causes to supposed effects, and from supposed effects to supposed causes, seem most precarious and exposed to error, are,—on the one hand, cases belonging to the field of medicine, on the other hand, cases belonging to the field of naval architecture.

In cases belonging to the field of medicine, the influencing circumstances belonging principally to the class of chemical phenomena—to those phenomena by which particular sorts of bodies are distinguished from each other, lie, in a great degree, out of the reach of our observation.

In cases belonging to the field of naval architecture, the influencing circumstances, belonging principally to the class of mechanical phenomena,—to those phenomena which belong in common to bodies in general, may, perhaps, in specie be, without much difficulty, comprehended in their totality by observation; but, in respect of their quantity, lie, in a great measure, beyond even the reach of observation, and, in a still greater degree, are out of the reach of command.

Prone as is the human mind to the making of hasty and imperfectly-grounded inductions on the field of physical science, it cannot but be much more so in the fields of psychology and ethics, in which is included the field of politics; commonly not only is the collection made of influencing circumstances incomplete, but uninfluencing circumstances, and even obstacles, are placed in the station of, and held up to view in the character of, principally or even exclusively operating causes.

Thus superior is the density of the clouds which overhang the relation between cause and effect in the field of morals, as compared with the field of physics. Two concurring considerations may help us to account for this difference,—1. The elements of calculation being in so large a proportion of the phychical class—such as intentions, affections, and motives,—are, in a proportional degree, situated out of the reach of direct observation. 2. In the making of the calculation, the judgment is, in a peculiar degree, liable to be disturbed and led astray by the several sources of illusion,—by original intellectual weakness, by sinister interest, by interest-begotten prejudice, and by adopted prejudice.

Material, formal, efficient, final,—by these terms in the language of the Aristotelian schools—by these terms, in the higher forms of common language, so many different species of causes are considered as designated.

Neither incapable of being applied to practice, nor of being ever applied with advantage, these distinctions present, in this place, a just claim to notice. The relation they bear to the foregoing exposition, will now be brought to view.

Matter and form,—both these, it has been seen, are necessary to existence,—meaning, to real and that physical existence,—the existence of a physical body.

1. By material cause is indicated the matter of the body in question, considered in so far as it is regarded as contributing to the production of the effect in question.

2. By formal cause, the form of the same body.

3. By efficient cause must be understood, in so far as any clear and distinct idea is attached to the term, the matter of some body or bodies: what is meant to be distinguished by it may, in general, be supposed to be the motion of that body, or assemblage of bodies, which is regarded as the principal motion,—the motion which has the principal share in the production of the effect.

But to the production of the effect,—meaning a physical effect,—whatsoever it be, a correspondent and suitable disposition of the circumjacent non-moving bodies is not (it has been seen) less necessary than a correspondent and suitable motion, or aggregate of motions, on the part of the moving body.

To the designation of the matter, and of the form, that concurs in the production of the effect, the language here in question is, therefore, we see, adequate; but, to the designation of the other influencing circumstances, we see how far it is from being adequate.

4. By final cause, is meant the end which the agent had in view; meaning, as hath been seen, by the end, if anything at all be meant by it, the good to the attainment of which the act was directed,—the good, i. e. the pleasure, or pleasures, the exemption or security from such or such pain, or pains.

It is, therefore, only in so far as the effect is the result of design on the part of a sensitive being; a being susceptible of pains and pleasures,—of those sensations which, by us, are experienced and known by the names of pleasures and pains, that the species of cause here called final can have place.

The doctrine of final causes supposes, therefore, on the part of the agent in question, the experience of pleasure and pain; of pleasures and pains, the same as those of which we have experience—for to us there are no others; employed in any such attempt as that of designating and bringing to view the idea of any others, they would be employed in designating and bringing to view so many non-entities.

Section X.

Existence, and the Classes of fictitious Entities related to it.

Existence is a quality, the most extensively applicable, and, at the same time, the most simple of all qualities actual or imaginable. Take away all other qualities, this remains: to speak more strictly, take any entity whatsoever, real or fictitious,—abstract the attention from whatsoever other qualities may have been found belonging to it, this will still be left. Existence is predicable of naked substance.

Opposite to the idea of existence is that of non-existence. Non-existence is the negation of existence. Of every other entity, real or fictitious, either existence or non-existence is at all times predicable. Whether such other entity be real or fictitious, its existence is, of course, a fictitious entity; i. e. the word existence is, in all cases, the name of a fictitious entity.

The idea of non-existence is the idea of absence extended. Take any place, and therewith, any real entity—any body existing in that place, suppose it no longer existing in that place, you suppose its absence, its relative non-existence. Expel it, in like manner, from every, from all, place, you suppose its absolute non-existence.

It is through the medium of absence, the familiar and continually recurring idea of absence, that the idea of non-existence, the terrific, the transcendant, the awful, and imposing idea of non-existence is attained.

Existence being, as above, a species of quality, is itself a fictitious entity;—it is in every real entity—every real entity is in it.

In it, the man, the object of whose appetite is the sublime, and he the object of whose appetite is the ridiculous, may here find matter for their respective banquets. Nothing has been laughed at to satiety. The punster who has played with nothing till he is tired may renew the game with existence and non-existence.

At any point of time, in any place whatsoever, take any entity, any real entity whatsoever, between its existence in that place and its non-existence in that same place, there is not any alternative, there is not any medium whatsoever.

Necessity, impossibility, certainty, uncertainty, probability, improbability, actuality, potentiality;—whatsoever there is of reality correspondent to any of these names, is nothing more or less than a disposition, a persuasion of the mind, on the part of him by whom these words are employed, in relation to the state of things, or the event or events to which these qualities are ascribed.

Down to the present time, whatsoever be this present time, whether the time of writing this, or the time of any one’s reading it, whatsoever has existed has had existence,—whatsoever has not existed has not had existence; at this time whatsoever does exist, has existence,—whatsoever does not exist has not existence; and so at any and every future point of time. Throughout the whole expanse of time, past, present, and future, put together, where will room be found for anything real to answer to any of these names?

Quality itself is but a fictitious entity, but these are all of them so many fictitious qualities. They do not, as real qualities,—they do not, like gravity, solidity, roundness, hardness, belong to the objects themselves to which they are ascribed,—in the character of attributes of the objects to which they are ascribed, they are mere chimeras, mere creatures of the imagination—nonentities.

Yet, nonentities as they are, but too real is the mischief of which some of them, and, in particular, the word necessity, has been productive:—antipathy, strife, persecution, murder upon a national, upon an international, scale.

The persuasion expressed by the word certainty has for its foundation the event itself simply. The persuasion indicated by the word necessity has for its object not only that event, but an infinity of other events, and states of things out of number, from the beginning of time, in the character of its causes.

Certainty, necessity, impossibility; exhibited seriously in any other character than that of expressions of the degree of the persuasion entertained in relation to the subject in question, by him whose words they are, in the use of these words is virtually involved the assumption of omniscience. All things that are possible are within my knowledge,—this is not upon the list; such being interpreted is the phrase, this thing is impossible.

The sort of occasion on which, without any such assumption, these terms can be applied, is that of a contradiction in terms,—a self-contradictory proposition, or two mutually contradictory propositions issuing, at the same time, from the same mouth or the same pen. But here the objects to which these attributes are, with propriety, applicable, are not the objects, for the designation of which the propositions are applied, but the propositions themselves. Propositions thus contradictory and incompatible cannot, with propriety, be applied to the same object. It is impossible that they should, i. e. inconsistent with the notions entertained by the person in question, in relation to what is proper and what improper in language

It is impossible that, among a multitude of bodies all equal to one another, four taken together should not be greater than two taken together. Why? Because, by the word four has, by every person, been designated a number greater than by the word two.

Yet, in affirmance of the truth of a proposition thus impossible, persuasion rising to the highest pitch of intensity has been entertained. Why? Because the human mind having it in its power to apply itself to any object, or to forbear to apply itself at pleasure, the person in question has exercised this power in relation to the import of the words in question, as above, i. e. to the import which, according to his experience, all persons by whom they have been employed have been constantly in the habit of annexing to them. But against an object which the mind has contrived to exclude out of the field of its attention, no objection can, in that same field, be seen to bear. Whatsoever, therefore, were the considerations by which he was engaged to endeavour to persuade himself of the truth of the self-contradictory, and therefore, impossible, propositions, remain without anything to counteract their force.*

ESSAY ON LOGIC: NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF JEREMY BENTHAM.

[* ] The enumeration is left blank in the original. Aristotle’s own arrangement is filled in, in the printing, and not that of Sanderson, which the author generally employed as the text-book of the Aristotelian system.—Ed.

[* ] 1. The earth and a projected stone.

2. A larger and a lesser magnet.

3. Liquids and gases.

[† ] The MS. of this section here breaks off abruptly. See further on this subject sec. 4, p. 204.—Ed.

[* ] Here there is in the MS. a N.B., “Query as to Spheroids.”—Ed.

[* ] See the chapters on Division and Methodization in the ensuing work on Logic.—Ed.

[† ] See the sanctions and their operation, considered at length, in the Principles of Morals and Legislation, vol. i. p. 14, et seq.—Ed.

[* ] See further on this subject, vol. vii. p. 76, et seq.—Ed.