Coupling

“ It thus appears by the combined evidence of the Method of Agreement, the Method of Concomitant Variations, and the most rigorous form of the Method of Difference, that neither of the two kinds of electricity can be excited without an equal [Pg 457] excitement of the other and opposite kind: that both are effects of the same cause; that the possibility of the one is a condition of the possibility of the other, and the quantity of the one an impassable limit to the quantity of the other. ”

“ With the understanding of a sphere of atoms, however, we perceive, at once, a satisfiable tendency to union. The general result of the tendency each to each, being a tendency of all to the centre, the general process of condensation, or approximation, commences immediately, by a common and simultaneous movement, on withdrawal of the Divine Volition ”

“ A Couple consists of a moving particle, raised to the degree M.A., and combined with what is technically called a 'better half.' The following are the principal characteristics of a Couple: (1) It may be easily transferred from point to point. (2) Whatever force of translation was possessed by the uncombined particle, (and this is often considerable,) is wholly lost when the Couple is formed. ”

“ Nevertheless, we are compelled to believe that a clew exists, and that it depends on these twin principles—the correlation of forces, and the inseparableness of force and matter—since each link in this seemingly endless chain, when separately examined, is found to connect with some form of matter and some kind of force, with both of which we are more or less familiar. ”

“ But the hypothesis of a chain of mutually dependent sequences, which is sufficient for the explanation that the sciences of external nature ask for, regarding the particular orders of phenomena which are their objects, implies the absurdity of a chain without a beginning, when brought, as it is before it is capable of yielding the Necessarian inference, to give a conclusive explanation of all the phenomena which may be made the objects of investigation by man. ”

“ But that which acts in conjunction with something else, being of itself incapable of operating by itself, we describe as co-operating and concausing, and say that it becomes a cause only in virtue of its being a joint-cause, and receives the name of cause only in respect of its concurring with something else, but that it cannot by itself produce the right effect. ”

“ For common mechanical attractions and 20 repulsions, the forces by which one body considered as a whole acts upon another external to it, are, as we have said, to be distinguished from those more intimate ties by which the parts of each body are held together. Now this difference is implied, if we compare the former relations, the attractions and repulsions, to alliances and wars between States, and the latter, the internal union of particles, to those bonds of affinity which connect the citizens of the same state with one another, and especially to the ties of Family. ”

“ For all other extensions of the sentence—with the single exception of the copulative union of two simple ones—arise from the repetition of the relation between subject and predicate.37 The copulative extension is now commonly indicated by means of conjunctions or other particles; e.g., ‘John wrote and Alfred was reading:’ but even now mere co-ordination is sufficient; as, John wrote, Alfred read; He came, he saw, he conquered; One rises, the other falls; Men die, books live ”

“ The union which is thus effected, and which adds a new value to every atom in nature, for it transmutes every thread throughout the whole web of relation into a golden ray, and bathes the soul in a new and sweeter element, is yet a temporary state. ”

“ The middle key of all is the copula, to be pressed when the verb is or the sign = is met. The key to the extreme right-hand is called the Full Stop, because it should be pressed when a proposition is completed, in fact in the proper place of the full stop. ”

“ When several forces act upon a line, a plane, or a solid, they produce an effect equal to that one force alone, which is called the resultant: this force has a determinate direction and a point of application, as though it were simple or had not emanated from others; why cannot this be applied to thought? Why may not a thing, although it is simple, be the product of the concurrence of various agents? ”

“ In every way, therefore, it is evident that to explain induction as the colligation of facts by means of appropriate conceptions, that is, conceptions which will really express them, is to confound mere description of the observed facts with inference from those facts, and ascribe to the latter what is a characteristic property of the former.
There is, however, between Colligation and Induction, a real correlation, which it is important to conceive correctly. Colligation is not always induction; but induction is always colligation. ”

“ Instead of an arrangement in place with numerical intervals, we have the concurrence of two or more attributes or powers in the same part or locality. A mass of gold contains, in every atom, the concurring attributes that mark the substance—weight, hardness, color, lustre, incorrosibility, etc. ”

“ That we must, is the ordinary dictum of the proclamatory “new” or “objective” or “physiological” psychology — the two “parallel” series are there, and nobody can get beyond the dead fact of their concomitancy! But why not? Surely the concomitance of the two is in Time, and conditioned by Time; that at least is indisputable, is involved in calling the relation concomitance. ”

“ Now, as the consecutive phases of history have been shown to be true cumulations, it follows that the rules which are revealed by our analysis, are rules relating to the very origin of cumulations also. The real element upon which the cumulation-phases, and the cumulation-rules together rest, is the human individual as the bearer of its psychology. Nobody, it seems to me, has shown more clearly than Simmel that it is the human individual, qua individual, which is concerned in every kind of history. ”

“ Our first step will consist in grasping each other by the hand and in applying various efforts of our wills to draw one another in different directions, seeing to it that we do this in such a way that the three joined hands remain undisturbed at the same place. By this means we can get as far as to establish that, when two persons maintain a steady direction and strength of pull, the third must alter his applied force with every change in his own direction in order to hold the two others in equilibrium. ”

“ Our mental history, says he, is, in its view,
"a perpetual formation of new compounds: and the words 'association,' 'cohesion,' 'fusion,' 'indissoluble connection,' all express the change from plurality of data to some unity of result. An explanation of the process therefore requires two things: a true enumeration of the primary constituents, and a correct statement of their laws of combination: just as, in chemistry, we are furnished with a list of the simple elements, and the with then principles of their synthesis. ”

“ Now, while fully accepting the logical definition of cause as the "antecedent or concurrence of antecedents on which the effect is invariably and unconditionally consequent," we can always single out one dynamical—antecedent the power which does the work—from the aggregate of material conditions under which that power may be distributed and applied. ”

“ The question might arise, To what extent do the distinctions thus made correspond to reality? To consider, for instance, our rule for the placing of sound reactions (50 per cent of the sounds of the shorter word to be present, in the same order, in the other word) : when a given reaction (man—minstrel) is in accordance with the rule assigned under the heading of sound reactions, can it be assumed that sound similarity and not some other relationship is the determining factor of the association in question? ”

“ Such determinately various hanging-together may be called concatenated union, to distinguish it from the 'through-and-through' type of union, 'each in all and all in each' (union of total conflux, as one might call it) , which monistic systems hold to obtain when things are taken in their absolute reality. In a concatenated world a partial conflux often is experienced. Our concepts and our sensations are confluent; successive states of the same ego, and feelings of the same body are confluent. ”

“ We proceed to illustrate this hasty sketch of the Dynamics of a Parti-cle, by demonstrating the great Proposition on which the whole theory of Representation depends, namely:—"To remove a given Tangent from a given Circle, and to bring another given Line into contact with It." ”

“ A Conjunction means literally, a union or meeting together. An ill-assorted marriage is
A COMICAL CONJUNCTION.
[Pg 107] But our conjunctions are used to connect words and sentences, and have nothing to do with the joining of hands. They are chiefly of two sorts, the Copulative and Disjunctive.
The Copulative Conjunction is employed for the connection or continuation of a sentence: as, “Jack and Gill went up the Hill,” “I will sing a song if Gubbins will,” “A thirsty man is like a City Giant, because he is a Gog for drink.” ”

“ Coitio verò non fortior.—This heading to chap. xix., taken with the seven lines that follow, and the contrast drawn between unitio and coitio, throw much light on the fundamental sense attached by Gilbert to the term coitio. It is here clearly used in the sense of mutual tendency toward union. Note also the contrasted use in chap. xx. of the verbs cohære and adhære. Adhærence connotes a one-sided force (an impossibility in physics) , cohærence a mutual force. ”

“ This primitive combination seems assumed for one advantage only, that of aiding their motion. The animals in the chain contract and expand simultaneously, the whole chain moving like one lengthened animal. ”

“ I know that table like a living thing, and yet I never saw it until to-day.”
“I suppose,” said Hugh, “that you base your system on the law of average?”
The professor laughed tolerantly. “No, I don’t. Law [225] of average,—that is child’s talk to me. Of course every table has its average, every wheel has its average, every croupier, you, I; every coup that is played, is an average with something that has gone before. Ah! these foolish system-players with their talk of average and probability and phenomenon. Why, every coup is a phenomenon as regards something that has gone before. ”

“ When they collide action and reaction are instantaneous and equal, and no speed is lost in either, but when we consider the antecedent and the consequent as cause and effect, we consider the angle of incidence and compare it with the angle of reflection, and find them equal. ”

“ Those who are accustomed to some of the more modern views of the above subject, will know that a few fundamental relations being true, certain other combinations of relations must of necessity follow; combinations unlimited in variety and extent if the deductions from the primary relations be carried on far enough. ”

“ Engaged at one period of life in proving, by experiment, that the less a cord is twisted the stronger it is—that is, that the best mode of uniting the threads of a cord is that which causes their tension to be equal in whatever direction the cord is strained ”

“ We may, by parallel reasoning, reach the conclusion that, even apart from the action of any external force, the equilibrium of a homogeneous aggregate must be destroyed by the unequal actions of its parts on each other. ”

“ COUPLER. All modern organs are provided with mechanical appliances called 'couplers.' These useful adjuncts are of two general kinds 'manual couplers' and 'pedal couplers.' (1) The former operate in one of three ways: either by taking down on one manual the key corresponding to that played on another, in which case it is a ‘unison coupler’ ”

“ By an objective connexion, I mean such a connexion as there is between the bucket in the well and the hand that draws it up,—when the hand stops, the bucket stops too; or between a man and his shadow,—when the man moves, the shadow moves too ”

“ It is understood, of course, that the couples have no components (in the generalized sense) except of the types indicated; for instance, they may consist in each case of a force applied to the top at a point of the axis, and of the accompanying reaction at the pivot. ”

“ Describing the mind thus in fluid terms, we cling as close as possible to nature. At first sight, it might seem as if, in the fluidity of these successive waves, everything is indeterminate. But inspection shows that each wave has a constitution which can be to some degree explained by the constitution of the waves just passed away. And this relation of the wave to its predecessors is expressed by the two fundamental 'laws of association,' so-called, of which the first is named the Law of Contiguity, the second that of Similarity. ”

“ It is sometimes assumed that the bond between a certain group of features which make a problem a 'Buy a things at b per thing, find total cost' problem or a 'Buy a things at b per thing, what change from c' problem or a 'What gain on buying for a and selling for b' problem or a 'How many things at a each can I buy for b cents' problem—it is assumed that the bond between these essential defining features and the operation or operations required for solution is as temporary as the bonds with the name of the buyer or the price of the thing. ”

“ The law of Mediation of Contrasts is shown in the forms of the gift. We have in the triangles, for instance, two lines running in opposite directions, connected by a third, which serves as the mediation. Contrasts and their mediations are also shown in the squares and in the forms made by combination. This gift, representing the plane, is a link between the divided solid and the line.
Step from Solid to Plane.
We have now left the solid and are approaching abstraction when we begin the study of planes. ”