1] If, in short, it is external to the terms,
how can it possibly be true _of_ them? [_Is_it_the_
_'intimacy'_suggested_by_the_little_word_'of,'_here,_
_which_I_have_understood,_that_is_the_root_of_Mr._
_Bradley's_trouble?] . . . If the terms from their
inner nature do not enter into the relation,
then, so far as they are concerned, they seem
related for no reason at all. . . . Things are spatially
related, first in one way, and then become
related in another way, and yet in no
way themselves are altered; for the relations,
it is said, are but external. But I reply that, if
----
1 But "is there any sense," asks Mr. Bradley, peevishly, on p. 579,
"and if so, what sense in truth that is only outside and 'about'
things?" Surely such a question may be left unanswered.
113
so, I can not _understand_ the leaving by the
terms of one set of relations and their adoption
of another fresh set. The process and its
result to the terms, if they contribute nothing
to it [_Surely_they_contribute_to_it_all_there_is_
_'of'_it!_] seem irrational throughout. [_If_'irrational'_
_here_means_simply_'non-rational,'_or_non-_
_deducible_from_the_essence_of_either_term_singly,_it_
_is_no_reproach;_if_it_means_'contradicting'_such_
_essence,_Mr.
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