Page:The World and the Individual, First Series (1899).djvu/531

512 case, the infinite multitude of the elements of S developes, for thought, out of the single positive purpose stated so sharply in Dedekind’s definition.

This conception of a system that can be exactly represented or imaged, element for element, by one of its own constituent parts, has of course to meet the objection that such an idea appears, upon its face, paradoxical, even if it is not out and out self-contradictory. But before judging the conception, it is well to have in mind some illustrations of its range of application. A comparison of these will show that, if self-cor-