Stoney — Natural Science and Ontology. 507 



distinguished from illusory and imaginary, if they are the legitimate 

 outcome of actually-existing onto-relations, that outcome which 

 emerges when the crude sensations primarily sent to us have been 

 worked up by the two definite acts of synthesis * described above. 



Every space relation therefore in Nature — for instance, that my 

 foot is at present three yards from the fender — has a real autic re- 

 lation in the sense-compelling universe, which is its antitheton : a 

 relation between what may be called the onto-foot and the onto- 

 fender, meaning by these terms the auta which send men the tek- 

 meria which, when synthesised, furnish those two phenomenal 

 objects. It is, however, in all such cases, the auta of the sense- 

 compelling universe and the relations of these auta to one another 

 that are what really exist. Space relations are but a simplification 

 of shadows : of the shadows cast by the autic relations within the 

 minds of men and some other animals. 



We are now in a position to deal with the important subject 

 of motion. The appearance of motion is an auto, a perception in 

 my mind ; and the existence in my mind of this perception is a 

 tekmerion, a proof to me that an event capable of producing this 

 appearance has occurred in the sense-compelling autic universe. 

 This event could send different tekmeria to me according to 

 the way I employ my senses upon it ; and the syntheton formed 

 by putting all these together is what is meant by the term motion. 

 It is accordingly a part of the great Phenomenal Hypotheton 

 which we call Nature. If we want to indicate the real occurrence 

 in the sense- compelling universe we may speak of it as the onto- 

 motion, meaning by this term the autic existence or event which 

 corresponds to the syntheto-motion in the phenomenal world. It 

 is the antitheton of that syntheto-motion. The word motion, like 

 all other similar terms, is ambiguous, and in some contexts means 

 the onto-motion, and in others the objective or syntheto-motion, 

 which latter is a kind of conjoint view, a synopton, of the actual 

 effects that are at the time being produced, and of the possible 

 effects that might have been produced, within modern men's minds, 



1 Viz. : By the synthesis of the first order, which transforms sensations and other 

 materials into perceptions ; and by the synthesis of the second order, which combines 

 perceptions into the phenomenal object, and attributes to the latter a persistent and 

 non- egoistic existence. 



SCIEN. PKOC. R.D.S. VOL. VI., PART IX. 2 Q 



