From the English point of view it is sufficiently amusing to find such a dogma not only gravely stated, but stated as an unquestionable truth.
Here we see the experiences of quant.i.tative relations which men have gathered from surrounding bodies and generalised (experiences which had been scarcely at all generalised at the beginning of the historic period)--we find these generalised experiences, these intellectual abstractions, elevated into concrete actualities, projected back into Nature, and considered as the internal framework of things--the skeleton by which matter is sustained. But this new form of the old realism is by no means the most startling of the physio-philosophic principles. We presently read that,
"The highest mathematical idea, or the fundamental principle of all mathematics is the zero = 0."....
"Zero is in itself nothing. Mathematics is based upon nothing, and, _consequently_, arises out of nothing.
"Out of nothing, _therefore_, it is possible for something to arise; for mathematics, consisting of propositions, is something, in relation to 0."
By such "consequentlys" and "therefores" it is, that men philosophise when they "re-think the great thought of Creation." By dogmas that pretend to be reasons, nothing is made to generate mathematics; and by clothing mathematics with matter, we have the universe! If now we deny, as we _do_ deny, that the highest mathematical idea is the zero;--if, on the other hand, we a.s.sert, as we _do_ a.s.sert, that the fundamental idea underlying all mathematics, is that of equality; the whole of Oken"s cosmogony disappears. And here, indeed, we may see ill.u.s.trated, the distinctive peculiarity of the German method of procedure in these matters--the b.a.s.t.a.r.d _a priori_ method, as it may be termed. The legitimate _a priori_ method sets out with propositions of which the negation is inconceivable; the _a priori_ method as illegitimately applied, sets out either with propositions of which the negation is _not_ inconceivable, or with propositions like Oken"s, of which the _affirmation_ is inconceivable.
It is needless to proceed further with the a.n.a.lysis; else might we detail the steps by which Oken arrives at the conclusions that "the planets are coagulated colours, for they are coagulated light; that the sphere is the expanded nothing;" that gravity is "a weighty nothing, a heavy essence, striving towards a centre;" that "the earth is the identical, water the indifferent, air the different; or the first the centre, the second the radius, the last the periphery of the general globe or of fire." To comment on them would be nearly as absurd as are the propositions themselves. Let us pa.s.s on to another of the German systems of knowledge--that of Hegel.
The simple fact that Hegel puts Jacob Boehme on a par with Bacon, suffices alone to show that his standpoint is far remote from the one usually regarded as scientific: so far remote, indeed, that it is not easy to find any common basis on which to found a criticism. Those who hold that the mind is moulded into conformity with surrounding things by the agency of surrounding things, are necessarily at a loss how to deal with those, who, like Sch.e.l.ling and Hegel, a.s.sert that surrounding things are solidified mind--that Nature is "petrified intelligence."
However, let us briefly glance at Hegel"s cla.s.sification. He divides philosophy into three parts:--
1. _Logic_, or the science of the idea in itself, the pure idea.
2. _The Philosophy of Nature_, or the science of the idea considered under its other form--of the idea as Nature.
3. _The Philosophy of the Mind_, or the science of the idea in its return to itself.
Of these, the second is divided into the natural sciences, commonly so called; so that in its more detailed form the series runs thus:--Logic, Mechanics, Physics, Organic Physics, Psychology.
Now, if we believe with Hegel, first, that thought is the true essence of man; second, that thought is the essence of the world; and that, therefore, there is nothing but thought; his cla.s.sification, beginning with the science of pure thought, may be acceptable. But otherwise, it is an obvious objection to his arrangement, that thought implies things thought of--that there can be no logical forms without the substance of experience--that the science of ideas and the science of things must have a simultaneous origin. Hegel, however, antic.i.p.ates this objection, and, in his obstinate idealism, replies, that the contrary is true; that all contained in the forms, to become something, requires to be thought: and that logical forms are the foundations of all things.
It is not surprising that, starting from such premises, and reasoning after this fashion, Hegel finds his way to strange conclusions. Out of _s.p.a.ce_ and _time_ he proceeds to build up _motion_, _matter_, _repulsion_, _attraction_, _weight_, and _inertia_. He then goes on to logically evolve the solar system. In doing this he widely diverges from the Newtonian theory; reaches by syllogism the conviction that the planets are the most perfect celestial bodies; and, not being able to bring the stars within his theory, says that they are mere formal existences and not living matter, and that as compared with the solar system they are as little admirable as a cutaneous eruption or a swarm of flies.[2]
Results so outrageous might be left as self-disproved, were it not that speculators of this cla.s.s are not alarmed by any amount of incongruity with established beliefs. The only efficient mode of treating systems like this of Hegel, is to show that they are self-destructive--that by their first steps they ignore that authority on which all their subsequent steps depend. If Hegel professes, as he manifestly does, to develop his scheme by reasoning--if he presents successive inferences as _necessarily following_ from certain premises; he implies the postulate that a belief which necessarily follows after certain antecedents is a true belief: and, did an opponent reply to one of his inferences, that, though it was impossible to think the opposite, yet the opposite was true, he would consider the reply irrational. The procedure, however, which he would thus condemn as destructive of all thinking whatever, is just the procedure exhibited in the enunciation of his own first principles.
Mankind find themselves unable to conceive that there can be thought without things thought of. Hegel, however, a.s.serts that there _can_ be thought without things thought of. That ultimate test of a true proposition--the inability of the human mind to conceive the negation of it--which in all other cases he considers valid, he considers invalid where it suits his convenience to do so; and yet at the same time denies the right of an opponent to follow his example. If it is competent for him to posit dogmas, which are the direct negations of what human consciousness recognises; then is it also competent for his antagonists to stop him at every step in his argument by saying, that though the particular inference he is drawing seems to his mind, and to all minds, necessarily to follow from the premises, yet it is not true, but the contrary inference is true. Or, to state the dilemma in another form:--If he sets out with inconceivable propositions, then may he with equal propriety make all his succeeding propositions inconceivable ones--may at every step throughout his reasoning draw exactly the opposite conclusion to that which seems involved.
Hegel"s mode of procedure being thus essentially suicidal, the Hegelian cla.s.sification which depends upon it falls to the ground. Let us consider next that of M. Comte.
As all his readers must admit, M. Comte presents us with a scheme of the sciences which, unlike the foregoing ones, demands respectful consideration. Widely as we differ from him, we cheerfully bear witness to the largeness of his views, the clearness of his reasoning, and the value of his speculations as contributing to intellectual progress. Did we believe a serial arrangement of the sciences to be possible, that of M. Comte would certainly be the one we should adopt. His fundamental propositions are thoroughly intelligible; and if not true, have a great semblance of truth. His successive steps are logically co-ordinated; and he supports his conclusions by a considerable amount of evidence--evidence which, so long as it is not critically examined, or not met by counter evidence, seems to substantiate his positions. But it only needs to a.s.sume that antagonistic att.i.tude which _ought_ to be a.s.sumed towards new doctrines, in the belief that, if true, they will prosper by conquering objectors--it needs but to test his leading doctrines either by other facts than those he cites, or by his own facts differently applied, to at once show that they will not stand. We will proceed thus to deal with the general principle on which he bases his hierarchy of the sciences.
In the second chapter of his _Cours de Philosophic Positive_, M. Comte says:--"Our problem is, then, to find the one _rational_ order, amongst a host of possible systems." ... "This order is determined by the degree of simplicity, or, what comes to the same thing, of generality of their phenomena." And the arrangement he deduces runs thus: _Mathematics_, _Astronomy_, _Physics_, _Chemistry_, _Physiology_, _Social Physics_.
This he a.s.serts to be "the true _filiation_ of the sciences." He a.s.serts further, that the principle of progression from a greater to a less degree of generality, "which gives this order to the whole body of science, arranges the parts of each science." And, finally, he a.s.serts that the gradations thus established _a priori_ among the sciences, and the parts of each science, "is in essential conformity with the order which has spontaneously taken place among the branches of natural philosophy;" or, in other words--corresponds with the order of historic development.
Let us compare these a.s.sertions with the facts. That there may be perfect fairness, let us make no choice, but take as the field for our comparison, the succeeding section treating of the first science--Mathematics; and let us use none but M. Comte"s own facts, and his own admissions. Confining ourselves to this one science, of course our comparisons must be between its several parts. M. Comte says, that the parts of each science must be arranged in the order of their decreasing generality; and that this order of decreasing generality agrees with the order of historical development. Our inquiry must be, then, whether the history of mathematics confirms this statement.
Carrying out his principle, M. Comte divides Mathematics into "Abstract Mathematics, or the Calculus (taking the word in its most extended sense) and Concrete Mathematics, which is composed of General Geometry and of Rational Mechanics." The subject-matter of the first of these is _number_; the subject-matter of the second includes _s.p.a.ce_, _time_, _motion_, _force_. The one possesses the highest possible degree of generality; for all things whatever admit of enumeration. The others are less general; seeing that there are endless phenomena that are not cognisable either by general geometry or rational mechanics. In conformity with the alleged law, therefore, the evolution of the calculus must throughout have preceded the evolution of the concrete sub-sciences. Now somewhat awkwardly for him, the first remark M. Comte makes bearing upon this point is, that "from an historical point of view, mathematical a.n.a.lysis _appears to have risen out of_ the contemplation of geometrical and mechanical facts." True, he goes on to say that, "it is not the less independent of these sciences logically speaking;" for that "a.n.a.lytical ideas are, above all others, universal, abstract, and simple; and geometrical conceptions are necessarily founded on them."
We will not take advantage of this last pa.s.sage to charge M. Comte with teaching, after the fashion of Hegel, that there can be thought without things thought of. We are content simply to compare the two a.s.sertions, that a.n.a.lysis arose out of the contemplation of geometrical and mechanical facts, and that geometrical conceptions are founded upon a.n.a.lytical ones. Literally interpreted they exactly cancel each other.
Interpreted, however, in a liberal sense, they imply, what we believe to be demonstrable, that the two had _a simultaneous origin_. The pa.s.sage is either nonsense, or it is an admission that abstract and concrete mathematics are coeval. Thus, at the very first step, the alleged congruity between the order of generality and the order of evolution does not hold good.
But may it not be that though abstract and concrete mathematics took their rise at the same time, the one afterwards developed more rapidly than the other; and has ever since remained in advance of it? No: and again we call M. Comte himself as witness. Fortunately for his argument he has said nothing respecting the early stages of the concrete and abstract divisions after their divergence from a common root; otherwise the advent of Algebra long after the Greek geometry had reached a high development, would have been an inconvenient fact for him to deal with.
But pa.s.sing over this, and limiting ourselves to his own statements, we find, at the opening of the next chapter, the admission, that "the historical development of the abstract portion of mathematical science has, since the time of Descartes, been for the most part _determined_ by that of the concrete." Further on we read respecting algebraic functions that "most functions were concrete in their origin--even those which are at present the most purely abstract; and the ancients discovered only through geometrical definitions elementary algebraic properties of functions to which a numerical value was not attached till long afterwards, rendering abstract to us what was concrete to the old geometers." How do these statements tally with his doctrine? Again, having divided the calculus into algebraic and arithmetical, M. Comte admits, as perforce he must, that the algebraic is more general than the arithmetical; yet he will not say that algebra preceded arithmetic in point of time. And again, having divided the calculus of functions into the calculus of direct functions (common algebra) and the calculus of indirect functions (transcendental a.n.a.lysis), he is obliged to speak of this last as possessing a higher generality than the first; yet it is far more modern. Indeed, by implication, M. Comte himself confesses this incongruity; for he says:--"It might seem that the transcendental a.n.a.lysis ought to be studied before the ordinary, as it provides the equations which the other has to resolve; but though the transcendental _is logically independent of the ordinary_, it is best to follow the usual method of study, taking the ordinary first." In all these cases, then, as well as at the close of the section where he predicts that mathematicians will in time "create procedures of _a wider generality_", M. Comte makes admissions that are diametrically opposed to the alleged law.
In the succeeding chapters treating of the concrete department of mathematics, we find similar contradictions M. Comte himself names the geometry of the ancients _special_ geometry, and that of moderns the _general_ geometry. He admits that while "the ancients studied geometry with reference to the bodies under notice, or specially; the moderns study it with reference to the _phenomena_ to be considered, or generally." He admits that while "the ancients extracted all they could out of one line or surface before pa.s.sing to another," "the moderns, since Descartes, employ themselves on questions which relate to any figure whatever." These facts are the reverse of what, according to his theory, they should be. So, too, in mechanics. Before dividing it into statics and dynamics, M. Comte treats of the three laws of _motion_, and is obliged to do so; for statics, the more _general_ of the two divisions, though it does not involve motion, is impossible as a science until the laws of motion are ascertained. Yet the laws of motion pertain to dynamics, the more _special_ of the divisions. Further on he points out that after Archimedes, who discovered the law of equilibrium of the lever, statics made no progress until the establishment of dynamics enabled us to seek "the conditions of equilibrium through the laws of the composition of forces." And he adds--"At this day _this is the method universally employed_. At the first glance it does not appear the most rational--dynamics being more complicated than statics, and precedence being natural to the simpler. It would, in fact, be more philosophical to refer dynamics to statics, as has since been done."
Sundry discoveries are afterwards detailed, showing how completely the development of statics has been achieved by considering its problems dynamically; and before the close of the section M. Comte remarks that "before hydrostatics could be comprehended under statics, it was necessary that the abstract theory of equilibrium should be made so general as to apply directly to fluids as well as solids. This was accomplished when Lagrange supplied, as the basis of the whole of rational mechanics, the single principle of virtual velocities." In which statement we have two facts directly at variance: with M. Comte"s doctrine; first, that the simpler science, statics, reached its present development only by the aid of the principle of virtual velocities, which belongs to the more complex science, dynamics; and that this "single principle" underlying all rational mechanics--this _most general form_ which includes alike the relations of statical, hydro-statical, and dynamical forces--was reached so late as the time of Lagrange.
Thus it is _not_ true that the historical succession of the divisions of mathematics has corresponded with the order of decreasing generality. It is _not_ true that abstract mathematics was evolved antecedently to, and independently of concrete mathematics. It is _not_ true that of the subdivisions of abstract mathematics, the more general came before the more special. And it is _not_ true that concrete mathematics, in either of its two sections, began with the most abstract and advanced to the less abstract truths.
It may be well to mention, parenthetically, that in defending his alleged law of progression from the general to the special, M. Comte somewhere comments upon the two meanings of the word _general_, and the resulting liability to confusion. Without now discussing whether the a.s.serted distinction can be maintained in other cases, it is manifest that it does not exist here. In sundry of the instances above quoted, the endeavours made by M. Comte himself to disguise, or to explain away, the precedence of the special over the general, clearly indicate that the generality spoken of is of the kind meant by his formula. And it needs but a brief consideration of the matter to show that, even did he attempt it, he could not distinguish this generality, which, as above proved, frequently comes last, from the generality which he says always comes first. For what is the nature of that mental process by which objects, dimensions, weights, times, and the rest, are found capable of having their relations expressed numerically? It is the formation of certain abstract conceptions of unity, duality and multiplicity, which are applicable to all things alike. It is the invention of general symbols serving to express the numerical relations of ent.i.ties, whatever be their special characters. And what is the nature of the mental process by which numbers are found capable of having their relations expressed algebraically? It is just the same. It is the formation of certain abstract conceptions of numerical functions which are the same whatever be the magnitudes of the numbers. It is the invention of general symbols serving to express the relations between numbers, as numbers express the relations between things. And transcendental a.n.a.lysis stands to algebra in the same position that algebra stands in to arithmetic.
To briefly ill.u.s.trate their respective powers--arithmetic can express in one formula the value of a _particular_ tangent to a _particular_ curve; algebra can express in one formula the values of _all_ tangents to a _particular_ curve; transcendental a.n.a.lysis can express in one formula the values of _all_ tangents to _all_ curves. Just as arithmetic deals with the common properties of lines, areas, bulks, forces, periods; so does algebra deal with the common properties of the numbers which arithmetic presents; so does transcendental a.n.a.lysis deal with the common properties of the equations exhibited by algebra. Thus, the generality of the higher branches of the calculus, when compared with the lower, is the same kind of generality as that of the lower branches when compared with geometry or mechanics. And on examination it will be found that the like relation exists in the various other cases above given.
Having shown that M. Comte"s alleged law of progression does not hold among the several parts of the same science, let us see how it agrees with the facts when applied to separate sciences. "Astronomy," says M.
Comte, at the opening of Book III., "was a positive science, in its geometrical aspect, from the earliest days of the school of Alexandria; but Physics, which we are now to consider, had no positive character at all till Galileo made his great discoveries on the fall of heavy bodies." On this, our comment is simply that it is a misrepresentation based upon an arbitrary misuse of words--a mere verbal artifice. By choosing to exclude from terrestrial physics those laws of magnitude, motion, and position, which he includes in celestial physics, M. Comte makes it appear that the one owes nothing to the other. Not only is this altogether unwarrantable, but it is radically inconsistent with his own scheme of divisions. At the outset he says--and as the point is important we quote from the original--"Pour la _physique inorganique_ nous voyons d"abord, en nous conformant toujours a l"ordre de generalite et de dependance des phenomenes, qu"elle doit etre partagee en deux sections distinctes, suivant qu"elle considere les phenomenes generaux de l"univers, ou, en particulier, ceux que presentent les corps terrestres. D"ou la physique celeste, ou l"astronomie, soit geometrique, soit mechanique; et la physique terrestre."
Here then we have _inorganic physics_ clearly divided into _celestial physics_ and _terrestrial physics_--the phenomena presented by the universe, and the phenomena presented by earthly bodies. If now celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies exhibit sundry leading phenomena in common, as they do, how can the generalisation of these common phenomena be considered as pertaining to the one cla.s.s rather than to the other? If inorganic physics includes geometry (which M. Comte has made it do by comprehending _geometrical_ astronomy in its sub-section--celestial physics); and if its sub-section--terrestrial physics, treats of things having geometrical properties; how can the laws of geometrical relations be excluded from terrestrial physics?
Clearly if celestial physics includes the geometry of objects in the heavens, terrestrial physics includes the geometry of objects on the earth. And if terrestrial physics includes terrestrial geometry, while celestial physics includes celestial geometry, then the geometrical part of terrestrial physics precedes the geometrical part of celestial physics; seeing that geometry gained its first ideas from surrounding objects. Until men had learnt geometrical relations from bodies on the earth, it was impossible for them to understand the geometrical relations of bodies in the heavens.
So, too, with celestial mechanics, which had terrestrial mechanics for its parent. The very conception of _force_, which underlies the whole of mechanical astronomy, is borrowed from our earthly experiences; and the leading laws of mechanical action as exhibited in scales, levers, projectiles, etc., had to be ascertained before the dynamics of the solar system could be entered upon. What were the laws made use of by Newton in working out his grand discovery? The law of falling bodies disclosed by Galileo; that of the composition of forces also disclosed by Galileo; and that of centrifugal force found out by Huyghens--all of them generalisations of terrestrial physics. Yet, with facts like these before him, M. Comte places astronomy before physics in order of evolution! He does not compare the geometrical parts of the two together, and the mechanical parts of the two together; for this would by no means suit his hypothesis. But he compares the geometrical part of the one with the mechanical part of the other, and so gives a semblance of truth to his position. He is led away by a verbal delusion. Had he confined his attention to the things and disregarded the words, he would have seen that before mankind scientifically co-ordinated _any one cla.s.s of phenomena_ displayed in the heavens, they had previously co-ordinated _a parallel cla.s.s of phenomena_ displayed upon the surface of the earth.
Were it needful we could fill a score pages with the incongruities of M.
Comte"s scheme. But the foregoing samples will suffice. So far is his law of evolution of the sciences from being tenable, that, by following his example, and arbitrarily ignoring one cla.s.s of facts, it would be possible to present, with great plausibility, just the opposite generalisation to that which he enunciates. While he a.s.serts that the rational order of the sciences, like the order of their historic development, "is determined by the degree of simplicity, or, what comes to the same thing, of generality of their phenomena;" it might contrariwise be a.s.serted, that, commencing with the complex and the special, mankind have progressed step by step to a knowledge of greater simplicity and wider generality. So much evidence is there of this as to have drawn from Whewell, in his _History of the Inductive Sciences_, the general remark that "the reader has already seen repeatedly in the course of this history, complex and derivative principles presenting themselves to men"s minds before simple and elementary ones."
Even from M. Comte"s own work, numerous facts, admissions, and arguments, might be picked out, tending to show this. We have already quoted his words in proof that both abstract and concrete mathematics have progressed towards a higher degree of generality, and that he looks forward to a higher generality still. Just to strengthen this adverse hypothesis, let us take a further instance. From the _particular_ case of the scales, the law of equilibrium of which was familiar to the earliest nations known, Archimedes advanced to the more _general_ case of the unequal lever with unequal weights; the law of equilibrium of which _includes_ that of the scales. By the help of Galileo"s discovery concerning the composition of forces, D"Alembert "established, for the first time, the equations of equilibrium of _any_ system of forces applied to the different points of a solid body"--equations which include all cases of levers and an infinity of cases besides. Clearly this is progress towards a higher generality--towards a knowledge more independent of special circ.u.mstances--towards a study of phenomena "the most disengaged from the incidents of particular cases;" which is M.
Comte"s definition of "the most simple phenomena." Does it not indeed follow from the familiarly admitted fact, that mental advance is from the concrete to the abstract, from the particular to the general, that the universal and therefore most simple truths are the last to be discovered? Is not the government of the solar system by a force varying inversely as the square of the distance, a simpler conception than any that preceded it? Should we ever succeed in reducing all orders of phenomena to some single law--say of atomic action, as M. Comte suggests--must not that law answer to his test of being _independent_ of all others, and therefore most simple? And would not such a law generalise the phenomena of gravity, cohesion, atomic affinity, and electric repulsion, just as the laws of number generalise the quant.i.tative phenomena of s.p.a.ce, time, and force?
The possibility of saying so much in support of an hypothesis the very reverse of M. Comte"s, at once proves that his generalisation is only a half-truth. The fact is, that neither proposition is correct by itself; and the actuality is expressed only by putting the two together. The progress of science is duplex: it is at once from the special to the general, and from the general to the special: it is a.n.a.lytical and synthetical at the same time.
M. Comte himself observes that the evolution of science has been accomplished by the division of labour; but he quite misstates the mode in which this division of labour has operated. As he describes it, it has simply been an arrangement of phenomena into cla.s.ses, and the study of each cla.s.s by itself. He does not recognise the constant effect of progress in each cla.s.s upon _all_ other cla.s.ses; but only on the cla.s.s succeeding it in his hierarchical scale. Or if he occasionally admits collateral influences and intercommunications, he does it so grudgingly, and so quickly puts the admissions out of sight and forgets them, as to leave the impression that, with but trifling exceptions, the sciences aid each other only in the order of their alleged succession. The fact is, however, that the division of labour in science, like the division of labour in society, and like the "physiological division of labour" in individual organisms, has been not only a specialisation of functions, but a continuous helping of each division by all the others, and of all by each. Every particular cla.s.s of inquirers has, as it were, secreted its own particular order of truths from the general ma.s.s of material which observation acc.u.mulates; and all other cla.s.ses of inquirers have made use of these truths as fast as they were elaborated, with the effect of enabling them the better to elaborate each its own order of truths.
It was thus in sundry of the cases we have quoted as at variance with M.
Comte"s doctrine. It was thus with the application of Huyghens"s optical discovery to astronomical observation by Galileo. It was thus with the application of the isochronism of the pendulum to the making of instruments for measuring intervals, astronomical and other. It was thus when the discovery that the refraction and dispersion of light did not follow the same law of variation, affected both astronomy and physiology by giving us achromatic telescopes and microscopes. It was thus when Bradley"s discovery of the aberration of light enabled him to make the first step towards ascertaining the motions of the stars. It was thus when Cavendish"s torsion-balance experiment determined the specific gravity of the earth, and so gave a datum for calculating the specific gravities of the sun and planets. It was thus when tables of atmospheric refraction enabled observers to write down the real places of the heavenly bodies instead of their apparent places. It was thus when the discovery of the different expansibilities of metals by heat, gave us the means of correcting our chronometrical measurements of astronomical periods. It was thus when the lines of the prismatic spectrum were used to distinguish the heavenly bodies that are of like nature with the sun from those which are not. It was thus when, as recently, an electro-telegraphic instrument was invented for the more accurate registration of meridional transits. It was thus when the difference in the rates of a clock at the equator, and nearer the poles, gave data for calculating the oblateness of the earth, and accounting for the precession of the equinoxes. It was thus--but it is needless to continue.
Here, within our own limited knowledge of its history, we have named ten additional cases in which the single science of astronomy has owed its advance to sciences coming _after_ it in M. Comte"s series. Not only its secondary steps, but its greatest revolutions have been thus determined.
Kepler could not have discovered his celebrated laws had it not been for Tycho Brahe"s accurate observations; and it was only after some progress in physical and chemical science that the improved instruments with which those observations were made, became possible. The heliocentric theory of the solar system had to wait until the invention of the telescope before it could be finally established. Nay, even the grand discovery of all--the law of gravitation--depended for its proof upon an operation of physical science, the measurement of a degree on the Earth"s surface. So completely indeed did it thus depend, that Newton _had actually abandoned his hypothesis_ because the length of a degree, as then stated, brought out wrong results; and it was only after Picart"s more exact measurement was published, that he returned to his calculations and proved his great generalisation. Now this constant intercommunion, which, for brevity"s sake, we have ill.u.s.trated in the case of one science only, has been taking place with all the sciences.
Throughout the whole course of their evolution there has been a continuous _consensus_ of the sciences--a _consensus_ exhibiting a general correspondence with the _consensus_ of faculties in each phase of mental development; the one being an objective registry of the subjective state of the other.
From our present point of view, then, it becomes obvious that the conception of a _serial_ arrangement of the sciences is a vicious one.
It is not simply that the schemes we have examined are untenable; but it is that the sciences cannot be rightly placed in any linear order whatever. It is not simply that, as M. Comte admits, a cla.s.sification "will always involve something, if not arbitrary, at least artificial;"
it is not, as he would have us believe, that, neglecting minor imperfections a cla.s.sification may be substantially true; but it is that any grouping of the sciences in a succession gives a radically erroneous idea of their genesis and their dependencies. There is no "one _rational_ order among a host of possible systems." There is no "true _filiation_ of the sciences." The whole hypothesis is fundamentally false. Indeed, it needs but a glance at its origin to see at once how baseless it is. Why a _series_? What reason have we to suppose that the sciences admit of a _linear_ arrangement? Where is our warrant for a.s.suming that there is some _succession_ in which they can be placed?
There is no reason; no warrant. Whence then has arisen the supposition?
To use M. Comte"s own phraseology, we should say, it is a metaphysical conception. It adds another to the cases constantly occurring, of the human mind being made the measure of Nature. We are obliged to think in sequence; it is the law of our minds that we must consider subjects separately, one after another: _therefore_ Nature must be serial--_therefore_ the sciences must be cla.s.sifiable in a succession.
See here the birth of the notion, and the sole evidence of its truth.
Men have been obliged when arranging in books their schemes of education and systems of knowledge, to choose _some_ order or other. And from inquiring what is the best order, have naturally fallen into the belief that there is an order which truly represents the facts--have persevered in seeking such an order; quite overlooking the previous question whether it is likely that Nature has consulted the convenience of book-making.
For German philosophers, who hold that Nature is "petrified intelligence," and that logical forms are the foundations of all things, it is a consistent hypothesis that as thought is serial, Nature is serial; but that M. Comte, who is so bitter an opponent of all anthropomorphism, even in its most evanescent shapes, should have committed the mistake of imposing upon the external world an arrangement which so obviously springs from a limitation of the human consciousness, is somewhat strange. And it is the more strange when we call to mind how, at the outset, M. Comte remarks that in the beginning "_toutes les sciences sont cultivees simultanement par les memes esprits_;" that this is "_inevitable et meme indispensable_;" and how he further remarks that the different sciences are "_comme les diverses branches d"un tronc unique_." Were it not accounted for by the distorting influence of a cherished hypothesis, it would be scarcely possible to understand how, after recognising truths like these, M. Comte should have persisted in attempting to construct "_une ech.e.l.le encyclopedique_."
The metaphor which M. Comte has here so inconsistently used to express the relations of the sciences--branches of one trunk--is an approximation to the truth, though not the truth itself. It suggests the facts that the sciences had a common origin; that they have been developing simultaneously; and that they have been from time to time dividing and subdividing. But it does not suggest the yet more important fact, that the divisions and subdivisions thus arising do not remain separate, but now and again reunite in direct and indirect ways. They inosculate; they severally send off and receive connecting growths; and the intercommunion has been ever becoming more frequent, more intricate, more widely ramified. There has all along been higher specialisation, that there might be a larger generalisation; and a deeper a.n.a.lysis, that there might be a better synthesis. Each larger generalisation has lifted sundry specialisations still higher; and each better synthesis has prepared the way for still deeper a.n.a.lysis.
And here we may fitly enter upon the task awhile since indicated--a sketch of the Genesis of Science, regarded as a gradual outgrowth from common knowledge--an extension of the perceptions by the aid of the reason. We propose to treat it as a psychological process historically displayed; tracing at the same time the advance from qualitative to quant.i.tative prevision; the progress from concrete facts to abstract facts, and the application of such abstract facts to the a.n.a.lysis of new orders of concrete facts; the simultaneous advance in generalisation and specialisation; the continually increasing subdivision and reunion of the sciences; and their constantly improving _consensus_.
To trace out scientific evolution from its deepest roots would, of course, involve a complete a.n.a.lysis of the mind. For as science is a development of that common knowledge acquired by the unaided senses and uncultured reason, so is that common knowledge itself gradually built up out of the simplest perceptions. We must, therefore, begin somewhere abruptly; and the most appropriate stage to take for our point of departure will be the adult mind of the savage.