METHODS OF SCIENCE; NUMBERS 3 



certain words which have accumulated such evil 

 implications that they must either be aban- 

 doned, or withdrawn for a period of purifica- 

 tion. Two such words, 'phlogiston' and 'ether,' 

 we shall have occasion to discuss in later lec- 

 tures. However, in its best sense metaphysics 

 might well be defined as the study of the major 

 abstractions of the human mind, such as space, 

 time, matter, life, love, duty, patriotism, — we 

 need not enumerate further. A more or less 

 complete list of our major and minor abstrac- 

 tions is furnished by any unabridged diction- 

 ary. There is not a word that we use which is 

 not a product of the remarkable process of 

 abstraction which is always associated with 

 thought, and which perhaps is thought. This 

 process of abstracting or idealizing or refining 

 the raw material of experience is one which we 

 shall have frequent occasion to discuss. 



When we speak of the major abstractions we 

 mean those which have been derived from a 

 great mass of raw material through a vast num- 

 ber of these refining processes. The same mate- 

 rial of w^hich cheese is made is also used for 

 making chess sets, but in the latter case the 

 nature of the raw material is of little impor- 

 tance. The value of the chess set depends upon 



/ 



\ 



