Page:Truth and Error (1898).djvu/34

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upon units. The units are the terms that are related to constitute a plurality. A unit is unrelated or absolute in unity, that is, its unity does not depend upon others, but a plurality is dependent upon a number of related units; for example, the plurality may be ten; then ten as a plurality depends upon the units of which it is composed; nine is also a plurality, but it depends only upon nine units. A plurality is therefore a relation of units considered as a sum. Unity is constant only in ultimate particles. Bodies are combined, dissolved again and recombined, making variable units of plurality.

I am writing on a sheet of paper; it is one. With a match it is ignited and disappears; it is many. It was many before the conflagration, but many in one. After the combination these molecules though disembodied as a sheet of paper are still related to one another by all the concomitants, but now their more immediate relations are with the other particles of the molecules in which they are combined, while the new bodies thus formed have relations to one another of a higher degree or order in the corporeal world, for fixed internal relations constitute incorporation. Incorporation consists in the establishment or fixation of internal relations. When a body is disincorporated its particles dissolve their relation as one and assume relation with others to constitute new bodies or enlarge other bodies.

There is a great variety of relations between numbers. Numbers in nature are unified in orders of various kinds. The orders thus developed are multitudinous and quite beyond human comprehension. As the several units are compounds of individuals of lower units they are related to one another in