TflE AIM AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 5 



can be thought of) is maintained by Mr. Moore and Mr. liussell 

 to have Being. A round square and Colonel' Newcome are 

 examples of objects of thought which are to be excluded 

 from the Objective. We can, it would seem, characterise them 

 by saying that these objects lack a certain priority to and 

 independence of our thinking which is the necessary mark and 

 guarantee of undoubted items of the Objective. It may be 

 difficult to refute the argument that Colonel Newcome must have 

 had being before 1854 or Thackeray could not have thought 

 of him, but it will hardly be maintained that Thackeray 

 discovered him "in just the same sense in which Columbus 

 discovered the West Indies." At most it could be claimed (pre- 

 sumably) that " the elements so mixed in him " subsisted 

 before Thackeray, by selecting them, brought them into a special 

 relation in which they were not related prior to the act, and so 

 " created " the Colonel. 



The same distinction might have been indicated by saying 

 that the Objective contains everything that must be " reckoned 

 with," everything that must be considered as a datum for 

 human action. From this point of view it is clear that 

 although Colonel Newcome forms no part of the Objective, 

 Thackeray's conception of him does, being a thing that has 

 influenced human action on a comparatively large scale, and 

 being precisely the conception it was and no other in virtue 

 of its particular content, which must be distinguished from 

 its object. Similarly, the Objectivity of my thought of a 

 round square is demonstrated if it moves me to mirth or 

 becomes so irresistibly attractive as to make me a " case " for 

 the alienist. 



But I am not disposed at least without a struggle 

 to accept the position that this relevance to action is 

 the essence of the Objective, and not merely a property 

 of it coordinate with others. The present essay is in a 

 sense a contribution to the discussion of this burning 

 question, so that I will make here only one suggestion a 



