conceptions of _matter_ and _motion_.[132:4] And the projected theory of
energetics must satisfy the same conditions.

[Sidenote: The Quantitative Method.]

Sect. 48. But, furthermore, science has, as we have seen, an interest in
freeing its descriptions from the peculiar angle and relativity of an
individual's experience, for the sake of affording him knowledge of that
with which he must meet. Science enlightens the will by acquainting it
with that which takes place in spite of it, and for which it must hold
itself in readiness. To this end the individual benefits himself in so
far as he eliminates himself from the objects which he investigates. His
knowledge is useful in so far as it is valid for his own indefinitely
varying stand-points, and those of other wills recognized by him in his
practical relations. But in attempting to describe objects in terms
other than those of a specific experience, science is compelled to
describe them in terms of one another. For this purpose _the
quantitative method_ is peculiarly serviceable. With its aid objects
permit themselves to be described as multiples of one another, and as
occupying positions in relation to one another. When all objects are
described strictly in terms of one another, they are expressed in terms
of arbitrary units, and located in terms of arbitrary spacial or
temporal axes of reference. Thus there arises the universe of the
scientific imagination, a vast complexity of material displacements and
transformations, without color, music, pleasure, or any of all that rich
variety of qualities that the least of human experiences contains. It
does not completely rationalize or even completely describe such
experiences, but formulates their succession. To this end they are
reduced to terms that correspond to no specific experience, and for this
very reason may be translated again into all definable hypothetical
experiences. The solar system for astronomy is not a bird's-eye view of
elliptical orbits, with the planets and satellites in definite phases.
Nor is it this group of objects from any such point of view, or from any
number of such points of view; but a formulation of their motions that
will serve as the key to an infinite number of their appearances. Or,
consider the picture of the ichthysauria romping in the mesozoic sea,
that commonly accompanies a text-book of geology. Any such picture, and
all such pictures, with their coloring and their temporal and spacia