14 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



observation of things has taken the place of discussion 

 of words, and further, as these things have been located 

 in space, geometrically denned and subjected to mathe- 

 matical calculation. As the conceptions of space, of 

 location, and of definition in space are at the bottom of 

 all processes of measurement, it is at once clear that 

 philosophical thought is deprived of the benefit of 

 that great instrument by which scientific thought has 

 progressed. 



But, though it can in general be admitted that the 

 difference between the outer world and the inner, as well 

 as the arrangement in space of the former, points to the 

 radical difference which must exist between the study of 

 nature and the study of mind, and that the former is 

 placed in a much more advantageous position than the 

 latter, it would be a mistake to rest satisfied with this 

 distinction, or to attach to it more importance than 

 belongs to a merely preliminary statement or a first 

 approximation. The outer and the inner worlds are not 

 separated by a rigid line of demarcation ; the one flows 

 into the other, and there exists a large borderland which 

 belongs to both in common and neither to the one nor 

 the other exclusively. This is evident from the nature 

 and structure of language itself ; for this not only em- 

 ploys in close conjunction words the meaning of which 

 is to be found in opposite directions, but also contains 

 a great number of terms of which it would be difficult 

 to say to which of the two great realms they apply, or 

 that have a double meaning, being promiscuously and 

 alternately used to denote the one or the other. This 



