20

36

consists in the possibility of something being true
about something else. Ordinary An ordinary adjective
do not a when applied to an object does not assert any accomplished
fact. It says tells how an experiment
will in future experience turn out. To say that
a body is soft means that the experiment of
trying to scratch it by the moderate pressure of
a knife will always succeed. To say that a body
is hard will mean that the same experiment will
always fail. We so rarely meet with a body on
which such experiments will give variable
results without any obvious assignable reason that
the need of an adjective to express this quality has not
been felt. That is what it is to To possess a quality now
usually means that any experiments of a certain kind
that may be made in the future will turn out

36

consists in the possibility of something being true
about something else. Ordinary An ordinary adjective
do not a when applied to an object does not assert any accomplished
fact. It says tells how an experiment
will in future experience turn out. To say that
a body is soft means that the experiment of
trying to scratch it by the moderate pressure of
a knife will always succeed. To say that a body
is hard will mean that the same experiment will
always fail. We so rarely meet with a body on
which such experiments will give variable
results without any obvious assignable reason that
the need of an adjective to express this quality has not
been felt. That is what it is to To possess a quality now
usually means that anyexperiments of a certain kind
that may be made in the future will turn out