The Philistine Vol. 18 MARCH, 1904 No. 4 Complete success alienates man from his fellows, but suffering makes kinsmen of us all. Life in Intension HIS is a technical term used in logic. Intension is the obverse of extension, the same as subjective is the obverse of objective, induction of deduction. Every term or name has two significations, one in intension, one in extension. Take the name "metal." In extension that means gold, silver, tin, iron, and about fifty other substances. But why are they metals? Here is where intension comes in. It is because they have three peculiar qualities that mark them off from all other things. A metal must be simple; it cannot be broken up into other substances. It must be a good conductor of heat and electricity. It must have lustre. Gold has these three, and is heavy and yellow besides. THE PHI- Aluminum has these three, and is light and white besides. But all metals have those three essential qualities, the other qualities are accidental♣ ♣ Now let us take up Life in Intension. When I say life, I do not mean what the biologist does, that principle or power which enables a cell of protoplasm to appropriate inert matter and add a new cell to itself. Not that, but our ordinary human life. Now what are the essential qualities or characteristics of life? With metals there were three. But there is no magic in numbers, and with our life there are four. At one stage of the manifestations of animal life, there might have been three or less. Future evolution may make five necessary, but now there are but four. They are eating; effort; communicating, or mixing up with our fellows; rest. You cannot leave one of these out and have life. Let us try these, point by point, and see if any can be eliminated. First, we must eat to live. If any one doubts that, let him try it. I have always taken it for granted, three or four or five times a day as opportunity presented, and let it go at that. Second, there must be effort to have life. This may take the form of useful work, or foolish play, but it is all a giving off of energy. Third, there must be a communication or mixing THE PHIup of individuals. People cannot go off and be LISTINE hermits and perpetuate life. The race is soon snuffed out. The lonesome farmer's wife goes crazy. No, we must see each other once in a while Fourth, there is rest-sleep. And that does not need any more argument than number one. Everything has its ebb and flow: systole and diastole, seed-time and fallow: and rest is the background against which we can see effort. ¶ And is that all there is to life? Yes, that's all. All your vast schemes of education, of empire building and mechanical development, of political reform, of saving and uplifting humanity, are only incidental and accidental qualities of life. The essential qualities are the four simple ones first stated. But is that not a materialistic and low view to take of life? Let us see. These four characteristics will be the essential ones a million years from now, and I doubt if there are any new ones added to them. A teacher may think teaching is the highest form of life. But what is education for? Why, so we can eat rationally, work rationally, communicate rationally, and rest rationally. And |