12 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. i. 



vear, such intersection occurs, the gravitattve force of the 

 earth pulls down some of the fragments constituting this 

 zone, and unites them with its own mass. That is to say, he 

 ranks the phenomenon which is to be explained along with 

 the more familiar phenomena of heavy bodies which circulate 

 about a vast central mass, and which, by their gravitativc 

 power, draw to themselves whatsoever comes within a certain 

 distance of them. And this you feel to be a perfectly satis- 

 factory explanation. Similarly, when Newton explained the 

 manner in which these planets are kept revolving about the 

 sun, he had recourse to the hypotheses of gravitation and 

 tangential momentum. By the former he classified the 

 unknown force which kesps the moon from flying away from 

 the earth along with the familiar force which causes un- 

 supported terrestrial bodies to fall toward the earth's centre. 

 By the latter he classified the unknown force which keeps 

 the moon from tumbling down upon the earth along with the 

 familiar force which urges a stone whirled at a sling's-end to 

 fly away upon a tangent. In each case he did nothing but 

 classify phenomena which had hitherto remained unclassified ; 

 and this was rightly felt to be a triumphant explanation ; 

 although the ultimate nature of the forces operating remained 

 as mysterious as before. 



If now we proceed still further, and ask in what sense the 

 force which makes apples fall can be regarded as known by 

 us, —we can only reply, it is not known in itself, but only 

 in its manifestations throughout a number of phenomena 

 which can be classed together, and any one of which is said 

 to be known when it is perceived to be like its congeners 

 previously presented to our consciousness. We know a 

 thing only when we classify it in thought with some other 

 thing; only when we see it to be like some other thing. 

 In short, cognition is possible only through recognition. In 

 the infant, we may see that there are no cognitions until the 

 feelings awakened by the presence of external objects have 



