Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 6. Charles S. Peirce
functions were “due to three properties of the protoplasm or life-slime itself” (p. 193).
In Chapter 6, “The Triad in Biological Development” (sel. 27), Peirce’s examination led him to three principle factors in the process of natural selection: “1st, the principle of individual variation or sporting; 2nd, the principle of hereditary transmission, which wars with the first principle; and 3rd, the principle of the elimination of unfavorable characters.” Peirce concluded that the principle of sporting is a principle of chance corresponding to his category of first, the principle of heredity is a principle of compulsion corresponding to his category of second, and the principle of the elimination of unfavorable characters is a principle of generalization corresponding to some extent to his category of third. But he acknowledged that the correspondence of the main principles of natural selection with his categories was not perfect and he speculated that “its imperfection may be the imperfection of the theory of development” (p. 202).
In Chapter 7, “The Triad in Physics” (sel. 28), the last extant chapter sketch for the book, Peirce delivered his guess that there are three active elements in the universe: “first, chance; second, law; and third, habittaking.” Finally, we know from the “Contents” that Peirce intended to finish with chapters on sociology and theology, but there is not much indication of what fundamental triads he expected to find. He does note under “The triad in sociology” that “consciousness is a sort of public spirit among the nerve-cells” and under “The triad in theology,” that “faith requires us to be materialists without flinching,” but this only gives a little of the flavor of what Peirce might have written. It is true, though, that in his first chapter, “Trichotomy,” when he was discussing “absolutes” in cosmology, he alluded to the theological triad: “The starting-point of the universe, God the Creator, is the Absolute First; the terminus of the universe, God completely revealed, is the Absolute Second; every state of the universe at a measurable point of time is the Third” (sel. 23, pp. 173–174). Although Peirce tended to identify the third with representation, here we find, that in leading from first to last (second), third is process. Insofar as Christian theology holds that the universe is developing from “God the Creator” toward “God completely revealed,” Peirce regarded it as an evolutionary doctrine. Perhaps this is the approach he wanted to develop in Chapter 9.
Peirce had a remarkable confidence in the importance of “A Guess at the Riddle.” He was convinced that not only was it “destined to play a great part in the future,” as he wrote to Holden (W4:xxxix), but that he was inaugurating a new philosophy which, like the earlier system of Aristotle, was so comprehensive that “for a long time to come, the entire work of human reason … shall appear as the filling up of its details” (sel. 23, pp. 168–169). He envisioned his new system as a “philosophical edifice,” constructed on a deep and massive foundation, which unlike the Schelling-Hegel mansion—found to be uninhabitable almost immediately upon opening its doors—would be the principal habitat of philosophers long into the future. But Peirce’s book was never published, nor even completed, and even though he managed to get some of his architectonic ideas into print in his 1891–93 Monist series, he remained virtually the only inhabitant of the “Peirce mansion” during his own lifetime. After May 1888, when Peirce and Juliette purchased the house that would become Arisbe, Peirce would become preoccupied with architectural renovations. Chapter 1 of Peirce’s “Guess” (sel. 23), which was written out of order, may have been composed about the time Peirce began planning the renovation of his country house—when sound architectural structures became a matter of immediate practical importance for him. It is lamentable that Peirce would never finish either of his mansions and that, in their different ways, they would trammel him.
The evidence for when the Peirce’s moved to Wanda Farm and into their new house is inconclusive as it stands. By early June Peirce was using “Westfall Township,” where his new estate was located, as his return address, and by July he was using the name “Quicktown.” In an 8 June letter to Thorn, Peirce remarked that “on leaving Milford” he had lost his local clerk and on 2 July he said that his “movings” had taken five days. Yet as late as November he and Juliette stayed for a few weeks in a hotel in Milford while they dealt with legal issues pertaining to the eviction of the Quicks, which finally took place on 18 December. Probably the Peirce’s had moved to Quicktown shortly after they purchased it and occupied the secondary house, or some portion of the Quick house until the difficulties with the Quick’s continuing occupancy became acute, but so far nothing conclusive has come to light. In any case, it was not until January 1889 that the Peirce’s finally moved fully into the main house and began rebuilding it to suit their purposes.
Wherever Peirce was residing during the second half of 1888, it is certain that his new estate was much on his mind. Except for the legal difficulties that arose concerning the Quick family, Quicktown was a place of promise for Peirce, a chance to make a good life for Juliette and himself. Together they must have spent many hours making plans and thinking about the hopeful future that now seemed within their grasp. Peirce tried to keep his Coast Survey work on track but without much success. He did manage on 10 August to send in a new paper on the mean figure of the earth, expanding on his previous paper of 1881 (W4:529–34), but Thorn, suspecting that it was somehow a ploy to ease the pressure he had been exerting on Peirce to complete his major gravity report, had it evaluated by Schott who returned an indecisive verdict. Schott made a vague insinuation that Peirce may have made some unattributed use of similar results of F. R. Helmert—“whose work came under the author’s notice while writing his report”—and recommended that work on the earths shape should be kept separate from “regular pendulum matter” in any case. Of course, for Peirce, determining the shape of the earth was the principal goal of his geodetic labors, and it was hardly beside the point to keep his gravity researches integrated with their ultimate purpose. But Peirce’s paper (which has not been located) was not published, although it was probably the source for the results that Peirce used in his definition of “Earth” for the Century Dictionary. Peirce’s work on the earth’s figure and on its compression would continue to be mentioned in his monthly reports.
The texture of Peirce’s life can only be painted in pale outline in an introduction such as this one in which the aim is to provide a context for and a sketch of the intellectual development that gave birth to the writings in this volume. A more complete account of 1888 would describe more fully Peirce’s family relations, especially concerning the settlement of his mother’s and aunt’s estates, and would say more about his and Juliette’s social and domestic lives. It would also say more about some of the correspondents who have been passed over in silence, and about some unmentioned incidents and flare-ups with the Survey’s Washington office and scientific activities that have been left out—and, of course, there would be more about Peirce’s friends and colleagues and external matters that affected his life and thought. Chapter three of Joseph Brent’s Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life should be consulted for a more complete account of these matters. Perhaps the main thing still to be said about the last half of 1888 is that Juliette’s health took a turn for the worse and she would sometimes stay in New York, perhaps to be near New York physicians or because of the unsettled living conditions in Quicktown. Her health had always been worrisome for Peirce, but beginning in the spring of 1889 it would become a major concern.
On Thanksgiving Day, 29 November, Peirce wrote a newsy letter to his brother Jem. He thanked Jem for a remittance toward his inheritance and for the explanation of “fleflexnode” which “went straight into the dictionary.” He said he had been “much occupied with small but pressing matters,” and mentioned in particular the lawsuit concerning the eviction of the Quicks. He told Jem he was taking Juliette to New York on the following day and would return to the farm by himself. He reported that “Mrs. Pinchot wants us to change the name Quicktown, but I dont know that I agree with her. It is the name we found & ’Tom Quick’ is rather a romantic figure in the history of the valley”—the following year a monument to Tom Quick was erected in Milford to mark the one hundred and fifty-sixth