took recourse to such aids: the Pythagorean system of numbers is the famous example of this. But

with richer concepts these means became completely unsatisfactory, since their external

juxtaposition and contingent combination are not at all appropriate to the nature of the concept,

and make it altogether ambiguous which of the many possible relationships in complex numbers

and figures should be adhered to. Besides, the fluid character of the concept is dissipated in such

an external medium, in which each determination falls into the indifferent being outside the others.

This ambiguity could only be removed by an explanation. The essential expression of the thought is

in that case this explanation, and this symbolising is an empty superfluity.