That such sham grounds are
often invoked is notorious. At a surgical operation I heard a
bystander ask a doctor why the patient breathed so deeply. "Because
ether is a respiratory stimulant," the doctor answered. "Ah!" said
the questioner, as if relieved by the explanation. But this is like
saying that cyanide of potassium kills because it is a 'poison,' or
that it is so cold to-night because it is 'winter,' or that we have
five fingers because we are 'pentadactyls.' These are but names for
the facts, taken from the facts, and then treated as previous and
explanatory. The tender-minded notion of an absolute reality is,
according to the radically tough-minded, framed on just this
pattern. It is but our summarizing name for the whole spread-out and
strung-along mass of phenomena, treated as if it were a different
entity, both one and previous.
You see how differently people take things. The world we live in
exists diffused and distributed, in the form of an indefinitely
numerous lot of eaches, coherent in all sorts of ways and degrees;
and the tough-minded are perfectly willing to keep them at that
valuation. They can stand that kind of world, their temper being
well adapted to its insecurity. Not so the tender-minded party.
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