) as the argument approaches
from below.
The second condition is obtained by replacing
by its converse; the third and fourth are obtained from the first and second by replacing
by its converse.
There is thus nothing, in the notions of the limit of a function or the continuity of a function, that essentially involves number. Both can be defined generally, and many propositions about them can be proved for any two series (one being the argument-series and the other the value-series). It will be seen that the definitions do not involve infinitesimals. They involve infinite classes of intervals, growing smaller without any limit short of zero, but they do not involve any intervals that are not finite. This is analogous to the fact that if a line an inch long be halved, then halved again, and so on indefinitely, we never reach infinitesimals in this way: after