THE RELATIONSHIP OF MINING TO SCIENCE 611 



with the evolution of things in general. It is the usual develop- 

 ment from the general to the special, the low to the high, the 

 simple to the complex. 



But here we must observe that this marking off of our know- 

 ledge into different departments has no existence in actual fact. 

 Nature does not work under the limitations which man, to suit 

 his convenience, would sometimes ascribe to her. She is of one 

 piece woven throughout. The different sciences are not so 

 many distinct and isolated compartments, having no inter-re- 

 lationship ; but, on the contrary, are intimately connected and 

 dove-tailed into one another, so that in reality there is no clear 

 line of demarcation between one science and another. The 

 nomenclature of the sciences is nothing more than a convenient 

 mode of labelling and expressing our observations of the pheno- 

 mena taking place around us. But it is instructive as showing 

 the increased range of our knowledge ; for as soon as any 

 department becomes too unwieldy to be dealt with as one, an 

 allied department is created, and the birth of a new science is 

 the result. 



The birth-rate in the scientific world shows no evidence of 

 decreasing, nor is there any sign of diminishing vitality. On 

 the contrary, fresh territory is daily being won, and the barrier 

 of ignorance thrust further and further back. In this march of 

 science what place does mining occupy, and what has been its 

 contribution towards it ? 



It is not my purpose to claim for mining any more than its 

 just merits ; but to place it before the public in perhaps a some- 

 what different light from that in which it is usually presented, and 

 to show that the profession (for so I think it should be regarded) 

 is one not simply of commercial, but also of national concern. 



No one will deny the claim of mining to rank as an art; the 

 drawback, indeed, is that it is liable to be too exclusively so re- 

 garded. Originally, as Herbert Spencer has pointed out, 1 science 

 and art were one ; and it was only with the advent of complicated 

 processes, arising out of experience in handicraft, that they 

 became differentiated. Since then science has been supplying 

 art with truer generalisations and well-defined principles, while 

 art on its part has been supplying science with improved 

 materials and more perfect instruments. Further, the sciences 

 may even act as arts to each other ; in surveying, for example, 

 1 Essays, vol. i. : The Genesis of Science. 



