January 27, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



127 



As it is, even the index is absolutely 

 worthless. But this is not the worst fault 

 of method. The terms are all interrelated 

 and these interrelations are set forth in 

 divers ways and places in the text, but 

 there are no tabular exhibits of the rela- 

 tions, no graphic or diagrammatic repre- 

 sentations. The reader is compelled to 

 carry in his mind all these never-before- 

 heard-of correlations among ideas expressed 

 in wholly unaccustomed language. Whether 

 the author wrote his book from such a con- 

 densed scheme or not, he should have drawn 

 it up for the use of others who have never 

 di-eamed of these things before. There are 

 indications, however, that he worked en- 

 tirelj' from a system evolved in his own 

 mind, and certain passages show that he 

 would have written it better if he had first 

 worked it out in schedules, tables and 

 diagrams. 



It is, of course, no part of our duty to 

 undertake the task of tabulating the con- 

 tents of a book, and few would probably 

 be capable of doing this in the present 

 case, but some attempt or stagger at this 

 seems to be the only way of condensing the 

 enormous mass of matter that the book 

 contains into the compass of a reasonable 

 summary. All the manifold terms em- 

 ployed stand for principles, laws, relations, 

 facts, or phenomena, and these are of widely 

 different character, making it very diffi- 

 cult to find any one term that will embrace 

 them all. For want of a better one, and 

 because little used by the author, let us 

 call them all principles. In the second place, 

 all these diiferent kinds of principles are ar- 

 ranged in series, or groups, or classes, each 

 series, group, or class being distinct from 

 any other. In the third place, each series, 

 group or class consists of exactly five terms, 

 standing for five principles, which have a 

 definite and invariable order in the series. 

 The universe is found to be quinary, or, as 

 he calls it, pentalogic. Each principle in any 



series is related to the ones standing before 

 and after it, but if it has any relation to 

 those of other series it must be to those oc- 

 cupying the same place in the series, and 

 not to any others. There are, therefore, 

 vertical and horizontal relationships, but 

 there can be no diagonal or obliqvie ones. 

 There are, at least, twenty of these pen- 

 talogic series, each of five terms, which 

 alone would raise the number of terms to 

 one hundred, but there are, of course, many 

 other terms employed in defining and dis- 

 cussing these primary ones. The author 

 nowhere tells us the order in which the nu- 

 merous pentalogic series should stand, and 

 every one must arrange them as seems most 

 logical. The following attempt in this di- 

 rection makes no claim to infallibility. 



I. It seems clear that the first series must 

 be that which relates to the constitution of 

 matter. The five principles here involved 

 are what he calls the constituents of matter, 

 but which he quite as frequently denomi- 

 nates concomitants, because, as he explains, 

 they always go together and cannot be sepa- 

 rated. These five constituents are : (1) 

 number ; (2) space ; (3) motion ; (4) time; 

 (5) judgment. 



II. Without stopping to discuss the first 

 series we may pass to another, the terms of 

 which are correlated, i. e., horizontally re- 

 lated, to the fii'st. It embraces what he 

 calls essentials or manifestations, and which, 

 be says, are absolute. They are : (1) unity ; 

 (2) extension ; (3) speed; (4) persistence ; 

 (5) consciousness. 



III. Corresponding to these five essen- 

 tials, which are absolute, there are five 

 variables, which are relative, and stand as 

 follows: (1) plurality; (2) position; (3) 

 path ; (4) change ; (5) choice. 



IV. ISText in order seem to come what he 

 calls the five categories, to which everything 

 in the universe must be referred. These 

 are: (1) kinds; (2) forms; (3) forces; (4) 

 causations; (5) concepts. They also corre- 



