If we should ever need
the figure in our dealings with an actual circle we should need to
have it given rightly, calculated by the usual rules; for it is the
same kind of truth that those rules elsewhere calculate.
Between the coercions of the sensible order and those of the ideal
order, our mind is thus wedged tightly. Our ideas must agree with
realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or
be they principles, under penalty of endless inconsistency and
frustration. So far, intellectualists can raise no protest. They can
only say that we have barely touched the skin of the matter.
Realities mean, then, either concrete facts, or abstract kinds of
things and relations perceived intuitively between them. They
furthermore and thirdly mean, as things that new ideas of ours must
no less take account of, the whole body of other truths already in
our possession. But what now does 'agreement' with such three-fold
realities mean?--to use again the definition that is current.
Here it is that pragmatism and intellectualism begin to part
company. Primarily, no doubt, to agree means to copy, but we saw
that the mere word 'clock' would do instead of a mental picture of
its works, and that of many realities our ideas can only be symbols
and not copies.
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