COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



together similar phenomena; and that error 

 consists in wrongly classifying, in the grouping 

 together of phenomena which are really distinct. 

 When we say that a child is ignorant that nitric 

 acid will burn, we mean that he has never ranked 

 together the like cases of a finger immersed in 

 nitric acid and a finger thrust against heated 

 metal. When we say that the ancients were in 

 ignorance concerning the force which keeps the 

 planets in their orbits, we mean that they, did 

 not know what that force is like — that they 

 had never grouped together the like cases of 

 the earth attracting the moon and the earth at- 

 tracting an apple. And when we say that they 

 were in error in attributing the moon's motion 

 to the volition of a presiding goddess, we mean 

 that they grouped together the unlike cases of 

 the motion of a heavenly body through the sky 

 and the motion of a chariot driven by its char- 

 ioteer along the ground. So when we say that 

 we do not fully understand the coronal flames 

 and other singular phenomena presented by the 

 eclipsed sun, we mean that we have not yet en- 

 tirely succeeded in grouping them with other 

 phenomena of which we have heretofore had 

 experience. And when we say that we cannot 

 now or at any future time know the Absolute, 

 we mean that there is not now, and never can 

 be, anything given in our experience with which 

 we can classify it. 



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