We pass from the sign to the thing signified, and we may lay our hand upon this thing, thus gaining a direct experience of the size and shape of the touch object.
We must recognize, however, that just as no man is conscious of an infinite number of parts in what he sees, so no man is conscious of an infinite number of parts in what he touches.

He who tells me that, when I pass my finger along my paper cutter, _what I perceive_ has an infinite number of parts, tells me what seems palpably untrue.

When an object is very small, I can see it, and I cannot see that it is composed of parts; similarly, when an object is very small, I can feel it with my finger, but I cannot distinguish its parts by the sense of touch.

There seem to be limits beyond which I cannot go in either case.
Nevertheless, men often speak of thousandths of an inch, or of millionths of an inch, or of distances even shorter.

Have such fractions of the magnitudes that we do know and can perceive any real existence?
The touch world of real things as it is revealed in our experience does not appear to be divisible into such; it does not appear to be divisible even so far, and much less does it appear to be infinitely divisible.
But have we not seen that the touch world given in our experience must be taken by the thoughtful man as itself the sign or appearance of a reality more ultimate?
The speck which appears to the naked eye to have no parts is seen under the microscope to have parts; that is to say, an experience apparently not extended has become the sign of something that is seen to have part out of part.