THE AIM AND ACHIEVEMENTS OP SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 17 



When, after the destructive process has been carried to this 

 point, the question how the qualities " hang together " so as to 

 " present the appearance of there being a substance in them " is 

 again taken up, the Objectivity of the thing its priority to out 

 perception has, in the view of most philosophers, seemed 

 untenable. Either the connexion between the qualities is 

 regarded as sharing the inconsistency and, therefore* the 

 unreality of other forms of " appearance " ; or it is merely 

 psychological. Upon the latter view " the concept of perma- 

 nently existing things" is a great "common-sense achieve- 

 ment " ;* it is " a thought-symbol for a compound sensation of 

 relative fixedness " " the whole operation [being] a mere affair 

 of economy."')' 



The view which is held without suspicion upon the plane 

 of common sense can be saved upon the plane of metaphysical 

 reflexion only by the recognition of /the Objectivity that has 7 

 already been claimed for at least some relations. If that' 

 claim be admitted it becomes possible to regard a whole which' 

 is a complex of elements in relation to one another as having 

 Objectivity apart from the fact of the Objectivity of its parts. 

 \ The " melody " which is heard when a succession of notes is 

 played upon a musical instrument is such a whole ; it consists 

 of the notes in definite Objective relations and has to be 

 " heard " as a presentation distinct from, though based upon, 

 the presentations of the single notes.J In fact, it is possible 



* James, "Humanism and Truth," Mind, N.S., No. 52, p. 461. 

 t Mach, Science of Mechanics, 2nd Eng. ed., p. 483. 

 | Ameseder (in Gegenstandstheorie, p. 498) calls this process " Pro- 

 duhion" See KusselPs review, Mind, N.S., No. 56, p. 537 ; cf. Browning's 

 lines : 



And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man, 



That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star. 

 Consider it well : each tone of our scale in itself is nought ; 

 It is everywhere in the world loud, soft, and all is said : 

 Grive it to me to use ! I mix it with two in my thought : 



And, therel Ye have heard and seen : consider and bow the head ! 



Abt Vogler, VII. 

 C 



