30 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



mere relative position and the other, measure- 

 ment. 



The discovery that space is akin to number 

 we owe to Leibnitz, who also gave the best short 

 description of the scientific notion of space when 

 he wrote, "Space is the order of coexisting 

 things." The mention of coexisting things im- 

 plies that we have already formulated the con- 

 cept of time. We are not considering this plat- 

 form as it was ten years ago, this table as it is 

 now, this manuscript as it will be ten years 

 hence, but their relative positions now. We shall 

 see in the next chapter how fully this view 

 accords with modern ideas. Therefore limiting 

 ourselves for the present to an instantaneous 

 photograph of things, let us attempt to reduce 

 to simple terms the idea of arrangement or 

 spatial order. 



Even the youngest children seem to possess 

 a sense of spatial order, and indeed its rudi- 

 ments may well be supposed to fall among the 

 numerous instincts of the race. A child string- 

 ing beads sees that one bead may be trapped 

 between two others, and this is a characteristic 

 property of a one-dimensional space. If he is 

 playing with blocks strewn upon the floor he 

 finds that he can arrange them like a chain of 



