196 The American Naturalist. [March, e 
: 
is much more intense than that of the inhabitant of solitudes., 
The reason is, that the sociological stimuli affect us more than 
stimuli of equal or even greater intensity proceeding from ~ 
inanimate nature, or the lower orders of animate nature. So- 
ciety also engenders wide differences in the experience of its 
various members on account of financial, political and other — 
differences. The humdrum life of the common laborer is 
much less varied, and, therefore much less intense than the 
life of the gentleman of affluence and leisure who diversifies a 
his experiences by travel, letters, society and recreative F 
sports. l 
The lavish distribution of cheap literature within the last — 
quarter of a century has immensely augmented the differences 
in the quantities of living among people of the same social — 
standing. It is not uncommon to find two men engaged in — 
the same occupation one of whom cannot read or write, while — 
the other is conversant with the widest questions of political — 
and social progress. Literature thus tends to obliterate the — 
quantitative differences of life arising from certain social — 
accidents of birth, and places all men, so far as the intellectual — 
consciousness is concerned, on pretty much the same level as 
quantitative experiences. Much more might be said as to the © 
diversities of the external conditions, but this must suffice. 
We now pass on to consider the surfaces of contact. Und 
this designation are included all the external integuments 
the body as the skin, eyes, hair, and so on. For the sake 
of mathematical simplicity we will assume at present that- 
equal surfaces of contact possess equal degrees of sensibility 1m 
two individuals during equal periods of time. Then if onè — 
person present twice as much surface of contact as another, a 
that person will, other things equal, receive twice as mam 
peripheral stimulations as the other. (We here assume | 
an equal number of stimulations come from every direction 
against the unit of the surface.) Now the surfaces of contae 
vary as the square of some lineal unit. Suppose the su l 
of contact be 4 and 8 respectively ; then the linear units are 2 
and 2.8+. But the masses and weights of the bodies w99 
surfaces are 4 and 8 vary as the cube of the linear units, oF @ 
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