112 SCIENCE AND METHOD. 



and preceding terms, but not with those that are 

 several places removed. 



It is unnecessary to add that each of the terms of 

 these sequences is not isolated, but forms part of a 

 very numerous category of other alarms or other 

 parries which has the same connexions as it, and 

 may be regarded as belonging to the same point in 

 space. Thus the fundamental law, though admitting 

 of exceptions, remains almost always true. Only, in 

 consequence of these exceptions, these categories, 

 instead of being entirely separate, partially encroach 

 upon each other and mutually overlap to a certain 

 extent, so that space becomes continuous. 



Furthermore, the order in which these categories 

 must be arranged is no longer arbitrary, and a 

 reference to the preceding sequence will make it 

 clear that B2 must be placed between Ai and A2, 

 and, consequently, between Bi and B3, and that it 

 could not be placed, for instance, between B3 

 and B4. 



Accordingly there is an order in which our cate- 

 gories range themselves naturally which corresponds 

 with the points in space, and experience teaches us 

 that this order presents itself in the form of a three- 

 circuit distribution board, and it is for this reason 

 that space has three dimensions. 



V. 



Thus the characteristic property of space, that of 

 having three dimensions, is only a property of our 

 distribution board, a property residing, so to speak, 

 in the human intelligence. The destruction of some 

 of these connexions, that is to say, of these associa- 



