Stoney — Natural Science and Ontology. 48& 



I also use the term universe to mean the totality of all existing 

 things, of all these auta. It is to be noted that here and elsewhere 

 the word totality is to be understood as having a more comprehen- 

 sive meaning than the word aggregate. Any collection of auta, 

 however disorderly, would be an aggregate of them. By their 

 totality I mean the auta under one definite set of conditions, viz. : 

 under those conditions that actually prevail — with those mutual 

 relations, performing those operations, undergoing those changes 

 that actually occur. 



My own thoughts are, at all events, things that exist : they at 

 least are auta so long as they last. They are, accordingly, while 

 they last, a part of the universe of existing things. But they are 

 not the whole of that universe. In the first place, the thoughts of 

 other men and the thoughts of the lower animals are also things 

 that exist. And beside all these auta, there are also auta of the 

 kind that produce effects within men's minds through their senses. 

 This is a complete enumeration of auta — things that exist — so far 

 as known to man. 



In the last paragraph I have used the term thought in its widest 

 extension, to embrace everything of which I or my fellow-men or 

 the lower animals are conscious, whether they be sensations, per- 

 ceptions, conceptions, beliefs, feelings, memories, emotions, senti- 

 ments, judgments, acts of will, or any others. I also use the term 

 J, the ego, or my mind, to mean the totality (not the mere aggre- 

 gate) of a certain group of these thoughts. 



The minds of my fellow-men and the minds of the lower animals 

 may conveniently be classed along with my mind as the egoistic 

 part of the universe — being the part of the universe which I am 

 already in a position to know consists of auta of the same kind as 

 those that make up the ego. 



Auta of the other kind we may provisionally speak of as sense- 

 compelling auta, in contradistinction to my mind and the minds 

 of other men and animals which are groups of auta that receive 

 certain definite additions when and so long as our organs of sense 

 are forced into action by sense-compelling auta. The totality of 

 these sense-compelling auta we may for brevity designate the sense- 

 compelling universe, which will accordingly mean the same as the 

 sense-compelling part of the universe. 



The whole universe then, as known to man, consists of this 



