ABSTRACT
Of all relations the most complex is that of Similarity—that in virtue of which we range together objects of the same species, notwithstanding their differences of magnitude ; and in virtue of which we put into the same class, phenomena of causation that are widely contrasted in degree. The similarity which we predicate of natural objects belonging to the same class, is made up of many component similarities. Respecting dissimilarity it needs only to be said that—neglecting all those ordinary applications or rather misapplications of the word in which it is used to describe any kind of unlikeness, and confining our attention to dissimilarity proper, as existing between two geometrical figures—it is a consciousness of the non-cointension of two connatural relations between states of consciousness which arc themselves like in kind, but commonly unlike in degree.
