{Objections}

Every other science than Logic is the science of certain concrete relations. Arithmetic, for example, is the science of the relations of number – Geometry, of the relations of form – Mathematics in general, of the relations of quantity in general – of whatever can be increased or diminished. Logic, however, is the science of Relation in the abstract – of absolute Relation – of Relation considered solely in itself. An axiom in any particular science other than Logic is, thus, merely a proposition announcing certain concrete relations which seem to be too obvious for dispute – as when we say, for instance, that the whole is greater than its part: – and, thus again, the principle of the Logical axiom – in other words, of an axiom in the abstract – is, simply, obviousness of relation. Now, it is clear, not only that what is obvious to one mind may not be obvious to another, but that what is obvious to one mind at one epoch, may be anything but obvious, at another epoch, to the same mind. It is clear, moreover, that what, to-day, is obvious even to the majority of mankind, or to the majority of the best intellects of mankind, may to-morrow be, to either majority, more or less obvious, or in no respect obvious at all. It is seen, then, that the axiomatic principle itself is susceptible of variation, and of course that axioms are susceptible of similar change. Being mutable, the ›truths‹ which grow out of them are necessarily mutable too; or, in other words, are never to be positively depended upon as truths at all – since Truth and Immutability are one.

It will now be readily understood that no axiomatic idea – no idea founded in the fluctuating principle, obviousness of relation – can possibly be so secure – so reliable a basis for any structure erected by the Reason, as that idea – (whatever it is, wherever we can find it, or if it be practicable to find it anywhere) – which is irrelative altogether – which not only presents to the understanding no obviousness of relation, either greater or less, to be considered, but subjects the intellect, not in the slightest degree, to the necessity of even looking at any relation at all. If such an idea be not what we too heedlessly term ›an axiom,‹ it is at least preferable, as a Logical basis, to any axiom ever propounded, or to all imaginable axioms combined: – and such, precisely, is the idea with which my deductive process, so thoroughly corroborated by induction, commences. My particle proper is but absolute Irrelation. To sum up what has been advanced: – As a starting point I have taken it for granted, simply, that the Beginning had nothing behind it or before it – that it was a Beginning in fact – that it was a beginning and nothing different from a beginning – in short, that this Beginning was – that which it was. If this be a ›mere assumption‹ then a ›mere assumption‹ let it be.

To conclude this branch of the subject: – I am fully warranted in announcing that the Law which we have been in the habit of calling Gravity exists on account of Matter's having been irradiated, at its origin, atomically, into a limited³ sphere of Space, from one, individual, unconditional, irrelative, and absolute Particle Proper, by the sole process in which it was possible to satisfy, at the same time, the two conditions, irradiation, and generally-equable distribution throughout the sphere – that is to say, by a force varying in direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the irradiated atoms, respectively, and the Particular centre of Irradiation.

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³ ›Limited sphere‹ – A sphere is necessarily limited. I prefer tautology to a chance of misconception.