Chapter 513 of 653

Classification

The Note-Books of Samuel Butler · Samuel Butler

There can be no perfect way, for classification presupposes that a thing has absolute limits whereas there is nothing that does not partake of the universal infinity—nothing whose boundaries do not vary.  Everything is one thing at one time and in some respects, and another at other times and in other respects.  We want a new mode of measurement altogether; at present we take what gaps we can find, set up milestones, and declare them irremovable.  We want a measure which shall express, or at any rate recognise, the harmonics of resemblance that lurk even in the most absolute differences and vice versa.

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