THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 203 



mass, etc., are instances of constants ; but so are also, in a 

 more complicated degree, the terms expressing the trans- 

 formability of one sort of energy into another, and as 

 constants must also be regarded the relations of affinity 

 between chemical elements and the specificity of the direc- 

 tion of the attractive forces that appear in crystallisation. 1 



None of these constants, in fact, gives us any information 

 about anything that is immediately observed or perceived ; 

 all of them deal with possibilities only, with possibilities of 

 immediate becoming, which " exist " as realities in the most 

 general meaning which this word can have in true idealism. 



o o 



Constants are expressions for possible immediate experiences 

 of different but elemental kinds, they are concepts created 

 in order to simplify the survey of the whole of possible 

 experience. Their creation, however, is not only a matter of 

 our own choice, but has to go on according to the funda- 

 mental characters of the organisation of mind. 



It follows from what we have said that a sort of order 

 of complication exists among all the different classes of 

 constants conceived by phenomenological philosophy. The 

 simplest class relates to simple physical properties only. 

 Specific heat is a good instance of this class : it is an 

 expression of the degree in which a substance is accessible 

 to heat. The physical constants combining two fields of 

 energy, dealing with the transformation of one into the 

 other, form the next higher class, whilst chemical and 

 crystallographic constants, the one dealing with the mutual 

 relations of constants of the physical order, the other dealing 

 with the specificity of directed forces, form the two species 

 of the highest class. 



1 Compare my Naturlegriffe, Part A. 



