Stoney — Natural Science and Ontology. 501 



This phenomenon, or phenomenal thought, is itself an auto, an' 

 internal auto, a part of my group of thoughts ; while, in contrast 

 to this, it is only as an hypothesis that the object of this thought, 

 the phenomenal object, can as a whole be regarded as in existence. 

 Part of it no doubt may be temporarily in existence, viz. so long 

 as the sense-compelling auto which is the source of the perceptions 

 happens to be acting on me through my senses. During this time 

 some of the perceptions that go to make up the phenomenal object 

 are in actual existence, but only as a part of my group of thoughts. 

 None are in existence independently of the mind, nor are any of 

 the rest of the perceptions that go to make up the phenomenal 

 object in existence at that time either in or out of the mind. 

 That the whole phenomenal object is supposed to be iu existence 

 and to be distinct from the mind is therefore an hypothesis ; most 

 useful, but not to be entertained as the true theory. On the 

 other hand, the phenomenon, *. e. my thought about the pheno- 

 menal object, while it has the advantage of being an auto, is transi- 

 tory, imperfect, very variable, and almost always erroneous in some 

 respects, depending as it does on the extent of my information and 

 the amount of attention I give to it : while the phenomenal object, 

 though an hypotheton, has in it nothing in the least shifting or 

 arbitrary. It is perfectly definite — including as it must all the 

 tekmeria which its antitheton, the sense-compelling auto, actually 

 does, or can legitimately 1 create in human minds through human 

 organs of sense. 



We are now in a position to give a useful meaning to the word 

 Nature, and one which is in accordance with its usual acceptation. 

 To each auto which can act on man through his senses, we have 

 found that there corresponds a phenomenal object, viz. the syn- 

 theton of all the perceptions which that auto can produce in human 

 minds through human senses. Let then the term Mature — the 

 phenomenal world — mean the totality of all such phenomenal objects, 

 i.e. of the phenomenal objects which correspond to all the auta which 

 can act on man through his senses. This may also be called the 

 great Phenomenal Hypotheton ; and it is very important to take 

 notice that the objects of which it consists, and the changes they 



1 It is intended by the word " legitimately " to exclude cases of illusion. Legiti- 

 mately means — when every part of the line of communication is working normally and 

 satisfactorily . 



