70 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



four-legged table. To cloak the obvious deficiencies of 

 such a table we will cause it to be coated with a thick 

 layer of enamel. We have now a four-legged red table. 

 It is no longer a blackboard, and any person not knowing 

 its origin would think us quite mad if we termed it a 

 blackboard. We should probably, however, make our 

 selves intelligible to him by stating that the " same 

 material " as was once in a blackboard is now in the red 

 table. For practical purposes this is very proper and 

 convenient, but will it help us to an accurate conception 

 of individuality if we say the blackboard and the table 

 are the same thing ? New paint and probably nails have 

 been added ; the carpenter may have supplied some 

 additional wood ; nay, more, if we begin to use our table 

 a leg may come off and a new one be put on ; after a 

 time a fresh top would be an advantage, thus even the 

 " material " of the table may cease to be same as that of 

 the blackboard. Or again, since our table is probably a 

 bad one, we will break it up and burn it, and so the black- 

 board will be converted into various gases and some 

 ashes. What has now become of it ? Size and shape, 

 temperature and colour, hardness and strength have all 

 gone. It is true that the chemist asserts that, if we could 

 completely collect the gases and ashes, one sense-impres- 

 sion at least, that of weight, would remain the same in 

 these and the original blackboard. But can we define 

 sameness to consist in the permanence of some one sub- 

 group of sense-impressions, notwithstanding the divergence 

 of the majority ? That permanence may be a link in the 

 succession of our sense-impressions, but it can hardly be 

 taken as a basis for defining individuality. If the gases 

 and ashes could be collected ! They have, indeed, been 

 scattered to the winds, and in course of time may be 

 absorbed by other vegetable life, ultimately, perhaps, to 

 reappear as other blackboards, or even in legs of mutton. 

 What has become of the " thing-in-itself " behind the 

 group of sense-impressions we termed the original black- 

 board ? Surely there is less permanence in it than in our 

 sense-impressions of the blackboard — far less than in that 



