60 SCIENCE ABSOLUTE OF SPACE. 



Space and Non-Euclidean Geometry (American 

 Journal of Mathematics, Vol. I, 1878, Vol. II, 

 1879) one of these, Schmitz-Dumont, as a sad 

 paradoxer, and another, J. C. Becker, both of 

 whom would ere this have shared the oblivion 

 of -till more antiquated fighters against the 

 light, but that Dr. Schotten, praiseworthy for 

 the very attempt at a comparative planimetry, 

 happens to be himself a believer in the a priori 

 founding of geometry, while his American re 

 viewer, Mr. Ziwet, was then also an anti-non- 

 Kurlidean, though since converted. 



He says, &quot; we find that some of the best Ger 

 man text books do not try at all to define what 

 is space, or what is a point, or even what is a 

 straight line.&quot; Do any German geometries de- 

 tin r space? I never remember to have met one 

 that does. 



In experience, what comes first is a bounded 

 surface, with its boundaries, lines, and their 

 boundaries, points. Are the points whose 

 definitions are omitted anything different or 

 better? 



Dr. Schotten regards the two ideas &quot;direc 

 tion&quot; and &quot;distance 11 a&amp;gt; intuitively given in 

 the mind and as BO simple a&amp;gt; to not require 

 definition. 



When we read of two jockeys speeding 



