Page:Chance, love, and logic - philosophical essays (IA chancelovelogicp00peir 0).pdf/153

 by a, b, c, d, e; and then, as there would be 2^5 or 32 different combinations of these characters, completely determinate in reference to each of them, that world would have just 32 objects in it, their characters being as in the following table:

ABCDE  AbCDE   aBCDE   abCDE ABCDe  AbCDe   aBCDe   abCDe ABCdE  AbCdE   aBCdE   abCdE ABCde  AbCde   aBCde   abCde ABcDE  AbcDE   aBcDE   abcDE ABcDe  AbcDe   aBcDe   abcDe ABcdE  AbcdE   aBcdE   abcdE ABcde  Abcde   aBcde   abcde

For example, if the five primary characters were hard, sweet, fragrant, green, bright, there would be one object which reunited all these qualities, one which was hard, sweet, fragrant, and green, but not bright; one which was hard, sweet, fragrant, and bright, but not green; one which was hard, sweet, and fragrant, but neither green nor bright; and so on through all the combinations.

This is what a thoroughly chance-world would be like, and certainly nothing could be imagined more systematic. When a quantity of letters are poured out of a bag, the appearance of disorder is due to the circumstance that the phenomena are only partly fortuitous. The laws of space are supposed, in that case, to be rigidly preserved, and there is also a certain amount of regularity in the formation of the letters. The result is that some elements are