COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



thrown together in a proportion, in which it is 

 asserted that the ratio of 2 xy to y^ is equal to 

 the ratio oi ix to jy. Or, if any doubt still 

 remain as to the correctness of this, we resort 

 to the familiar device of multiplying extremes 

 and means, and obtain the identical proposi- 

 tion ixy'^-ixy'^^ in which the identity of the 

 two terms is immediately cognized, because the 

 states of consciousness which they evoke are in- 

 distinguishable from one another. 



Thus the complicated quantitative reasoning 

 by which an astronomer determines the distance 

 of a heavenly body consists in the long-contin- 

 ued compounding of immediate cognitions of 

 the equality or inequality of two or more given 

 relations or groups of relations of position and 

 magnitude. 



Before proceeding to unfold all that is im- 

 plied by this conclusion, let us consider another 

 concrete example of a somewhat different kind. 

 When a certain horned animal, of slender fig- 

 ure, with cloven hoofs, and a hairy integument, 

 is presented to the inspection of a naturalist, 

 he at once recognizes it as a giraffe ; and, if 

 required further to describe it, he observes that, 

 as having four stomachs and chewing the cud, 

 it belongs to the sub-order of ruminants ; as 

 having its toes firmly united in a solid hoof, it 

 belongs to the order of ungulata; as having 

 mammary glands and suckling its young, it be- 

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