72 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



of these iridescent worlds ; and this a thousandfold enriches 

 our own, however full and varied it may be. And thus it is 

 that biology can offer the plain man an unlimited enlargement 

 of his world, whereas the physicist would reduce him to 

 beggary. 



THE FORM OF THE QUALITY-CIRCLES 



A preliminary condition for the investigation of the 

 appearance-worlds of others is an exact knowledge of our own. 

 In the first chapter, which dealt with the spatial qualities, we 

 succeeded in forming an idea of space that permitted us to 

 describe around every animal a space like an invisible soap- 

 bubble, within which all its activities were carried on. A 

 number of fixed places give support for its sense-organs, and 

 a definite number of direction-steps give the measurement of 

 the magnitudes, and determine the movement of its limbs. 

 The direction of movement is fixed, in many cases, by immut- 

 able direction-planes. The laws of the content-qualities of 

 our mind are as changeless as the spatial laws of our appear- 

 ance-world. 



As has already been emphasised, by observing it in action, 

 we can learn nothing as to the laws regulating our own mind. 

 The activity of our qualities consists in constructing our 

 appearance-world. Considered by themselves, all our qualities 

 seem just a confused heap of building-materials, all more or 

 less alike. The laws are revealed only when the work of con- 

 struction is in progress. 



When the content-qualities are fitted into the local signs, 

 fixed places appear, having definite properties. And now the 

 outline of a fundamental law is revealed. The " circles " of 

 relationship, which were but faintly indicated in the original 

 material, can be de-limited one from another. Each place, 

 that is to say, can receive only one property from each quality- 

 circle. A certain place may be blue-green, but never blue 



