ABSTRACT
So far we have been concerned purely with the negative character of the external order—its distinction as the not-self from our own feeling and perceiving consciousness. We have now to pass to its positive characterisation as matter or substance with powers and attributes of its own. Of course, the whole complex variety of its nature, resting as it does on the particular data of experience, does not concern us here. All we have to point out is, the manner in which these grand structural concepts are formed into which particulars are fitted. We have, in a word, to define and explain the terms just used—substance, power, attribute, etc. We shall discuss this subject under two main heads—that of the unity of various attributes in the thing, and that of the permanence of substance in the midst of qualitative changes. We shall try to show that our structural conception of matter rests on these two notions, that each notion is a definite and valid conception, and that its growth may be readily explained on the principles of knowledge which we have already admitted.
