So far as he can be said to have studied science at all, the motive of Epicurus was hatred for religion far more than love for natural law. He seems, indeed, to have preserved that aversion for Nature which is so characteristic of the earlier Greek Humanists. He seems to have imagined that by refusing to tie himself down to any one explanation of external phenomena, he could diminish their hold over the mind of man. For when he departs from his usual attitude of suspense and reserve, it is to declare dogmatically that the heavenly bodies are no larger than they appear to our senses, and perhaps smaller than they sometimes appear.170 The only88 arguments adduced on behalf of this outrageous assertion were that if their superficial extension was altered by transmission, their colour would be altered to a still greater degree; and the alleged fact that flames look the same size at all distances.171 It is evident that neither Epicurus nor Lucretius, who, as usual, transcribes him with perfect good faith, could ever have looked at one lamp-flame through another, or they would have seen that the laws of linear perspective are not suspended in the case of self-luminous bodiesa fact which does not tell much for that accurate observation supposed to have been fostered by their philosophy.172 The truth is, that Epicurus disliked the oppressive notion of a sun several times larger than the earth, and was determined not to tolerate it, be the consequences to fact and logic what they might.
ONE:Dimension lines should be in blue, but may be in red. Where to put them is a great point in draughting. To know where dimensions are required involves a knowledge of fitting and pattern-making, and cannot well be explained; it must be learned in practice. The lines should be fine and clear, leaving a space in their centre for figures when there is room. The distribution of centre lines and dimensions over a drawing must be carefully studied, for the double purpose of giving it a good appearance and to avoid confusion. Figures should be made like printed numerals; they are much better understood by the workman, look more artistic, and when once learned require but little if any more time than written figures. If the scale employed is feet and inches, dimensions to three feet should be in inches, and above this in feet and inches; this corresponds to shop custom, and is more comprehensive to the workman, however wrong it may be according to other standards.
TWO:A dirty, grimy figure emerged, as unlike the dashing, brilliant Countess Lalage as could be well imagined. Her face was white and drawn, but nothing could dim the fire and flash of those wonderful dark eyes.As a result of the foregoing criticism, Aristotle distinguishes four different causes or principles by which all things are determined to be what they areMatter, Form, Agent, and Purpose.226 If, for example, we take a saw, the matter is steel; the form, a toothed blade; the agent or cause of its assuming that shape, a smith; the purpose, to divide wood or stone. When we have enumerated these four principles, we have told everything that can be known about a saw. But Aristotle could not keep the last three separate; he gradually extended the definition of form until it absorbed, or became identified with, agent and purpose.227 It was what we should call the idea of function that facilitated the transition. If the very essence or nature of a saw implies use, activity, movement, how can we define it without telling its purpose? The toothed blade is only intelligible as a cutting, dividing instrument. Again, how came the saw into being? What shaped the steel into that particular form? We have said that it was the smith. But surely that is too vague. The smith is a man, and may be able to exercise other trades as well. Suppose him to be a musician, did he make the saw in that capacity? No; and here comes in a distinction which plays an immense part in Aristotles metaphysics, whence it has passed into our every-day speech. He does not make the saw qua musician but qua smith. He can, however, in the exercise of his trade as smith make many other toolsknives, axes, and so forth. Nevertheless, had he only learned to make saws it would be enough. Therefore, he does not make335 the saw qua axe-maker, he makes it qua saw-maker. Nor, again, does he make it with his whole mind and body, but only with just those thoughts and movements required to give the steel that particular shape. Now, what are these thoughts but the idea of a saw present in his mind and passing through his eyes and hands, till it fixes itself on the steel? The immaterial form of a saw creates the real saw which we use. Let us apply the preceding analogies to a natural object; for example, a man. What is the Form, the definition of a man? Not a being possessing a certain outward shape, for then a marble statue would be a man, which it is not; nor yet a certain assemblage of organs, for then a corpse would be a man, which, according to Aristotle, criticising Democritus, it is not; but a living, feeling, and reasoning being, the end of whose existence is to fulfil all the functions involved in this definition. So, also, the creative cause of a man is another man, who directly impresses the human form on the material supplied by the female organism. In the same way, every definite individual aggregate becomes what it is through the agency of another individual representing the same type in its perfect manifestation.228
TWO:Here we need no deliverance from troubles and indignities which are not felt; nor do we need to be prepared for death, knowing that we can never die. The world will no longer look askance at us, for we have ceased to concern ourselves about its reformation. No scepticism can shake our convictions, for we have discovered the secret of all knowledge through the consciousness of that which is eternal in ourselves. Thus the world of outward experience has dropped out of our thoughts, because thought has orbed into a world of its own.
TWO:Dick judged the man to be both friendly and all right, from his pleasant, affable manner and his evident knowledge of their pilots identity.An interesting example in the use of belts for communicating power to movable machinery is furnished by the travelling cranes of Mr Ramsbottom, in the shops of the L. & N. W. Railway, at Crewe, England, where powerful travelling cranes receive both the lifting and traversing power by means of a cotton rope not more than three-fourths of an inch in diameter, which moves at a high velocity, the motion being reduced by means of tangent wheels and gearing to attain the force required in lifting heavy loads. Observing the operation of this machinery, a person not familiar with the relations between force and motion will be astonished at the effect produced by the small rope which communicates power to the machinery.
TWO:CHAPTER XLVIII. HETTY SPEAKS OUT.It has already been observed that the thoughts of Socrates were thrown into shape for and by communication, that they only became definite when brought into vivifying contact with another intelligence. Such was especially the case with his method of ethical dialectic. Instead of tendering his advice in the form of a lecture, as other moralists have at all times been so fond of doing, he sought out some pre-existing sentiment or opinion inconsistent with the conduct of which he disapproved, and then gradually worked round from point to point, until theory and practice were exhibited in immediate contrast. Here, his reasoning, which is sometimes spoken of as exclusively inductive, was strictly syllogistic, being the application of a general law to a particular instance. With the growing emancipation of reason, we may observe a return to the Socratic method of moralisation. Instead of rewards and punishments, which encourage selfish calculation, or examples, which stimulate a mischievous jealousy when they do not create a spirit of servile imitation, the judicious trainer will find his motive power in the pupils incipient tendency to form moral judgments, which, when reflected on the155 individuals own actions, become what we call a conscience. It has been mentioned in the preceding chapter that the celebrated golden rule of justice was already enunciated by Greek moralists in the fourth century B.C. Possibly it may have been first formulated by Socrates. In all cases it occurs in the writings of his disciples, and happily expresses the drift of his entire philosophy. This generalising tendency was, indeed, so natural to a noble Greek, that instances of it occur long before philosophy began. We find it in the famous question of Achilles: Did not this whole war begin on account of a woman? Are the Atreidae the only men who love their wives?99 and in the now not less famous apostrophe to Lycaon, reminding him that an early death is the lot of far worthier men than he100utterances which come on us with the awful effect of lightning flashes, that illuminate the whole horizon of existence while they paralyse or destroy an individual victim.
That an Athenian, or, indeed, any Greek gentleman, should regard the common people with contempt and aversion was nothing strange. A generation earlier such feelings would have led Plato to look on the overthrow of democracy and the establishment of an aristocratic government as the remedy for every evil. The upper classes, accustomed to decorate themselves with complimentary titles, had actually come to believe that all who belonged to them were paragons of wisdom and goodness. With the rule of the Thirty came a terrible awakening. In a few months more atrocities were perpetrated by the oligarchs than the Dmos had been guilty of in as many generations. It was shown that accomplished gentlemen like Critias were only distinguished from the common herd by their greater impatience of opposition and by the more destructive fury of their appetites. With Plato, at least, all allusions on this head came to an end. He now smiled at the claims of long descent, considering that every man has had thousands and thousands of progenitors, and among them have been rich and poor, kings and slaves, Hellenes and barbarians, many times over; and even the possession of a large landed property ceased to inspire him with any respect when he compared it with the surface of the whole earth.K"A rope," Lawrence replied. "Can't you guess what that rope is for?"Next in order are strains. As the cutting action is the source of strains, and as the resistance offered by the cutting tools is as the length or width of the edges, it will be found in the present case that while other conditions thus far have pointed to small proportions, there is now a new one which calls for large proportions. In displacing the metal between teeth of three-quarters of an inch pitch, the cutting edge or the amount of surface acted upon is equal to a width of one inch and a half. It is true, the displacement may be small at each cut, but the strain is rather to be based upon the breadth of the acting edge than the actual displacement of metal, and we find here strains equal to the average duty of a large planing machine. This strain radiates from the cutting point as from a centre, falling on the supports of the work with a tendency to force it from the framing. Between the rack and the crank-shaft bearing, through the medium of the tool, cutter bar, connection, and crank pin, and in various directions and degrees, this strain may be followed by means of a simple diagram. Besides this cutting strain, there are none of importance; the tension of the belt, the side thrust in bearings, the strain from the angular thrust of the crank, and the end thrust of the tool, although not to be lost sight of, need not have much to do with problems of strength, proportion, and arrangement.