On CrysiaUography* Itg 



idea which the worcl tree expresses, embraces incomparably 

 more plants than that which is attached to the word oak^ 

 . and the latter has a greater latitude than the idea presented 

 to the mind by the word green oak. Reciprocally, every 

 abstraction from an inferior degree compresses into a 

 smaller space the number of the objects to which it is ex- 

 tended. What does methodizing effect then ? — It divides 

 and subdivides sncccssively the assemblage of objects, ac- 

 cordincr to their various characters or relations, so that, at 

 every division, all the characters enunciated in the preced- 

 ing divisions being regarded as still subsisting, the method 

 adds the expression of a new character, a new trait of re- 

 semblance, which detaches the objects contained in this 

 division. The more the sum of the relations increases, and 

 the more on the contrary the number of objects with 

 which these relations agree are diminished, and when this 

 sum is the greatest possible, when it is extended to all the 

 faces of the objects which it includes, each of ihese objects 

 is considered as representing all the others, and we say 

 that all these objects are of the same species. 



On the other hand, in proportion as the degree of abs- 

 traction is raised, the number of subdivisions which an- 

 swers to this degree diminishes : and it was this manner of 

 regarding methodical order that the illustrious Bacon had 

 in view, when he compared Nature to a pyramid the base 

 of which was occupied by an almost infinite number of 

 individuals : above this base rise the species formed by the 

 assemblage of individuals, and which are consequently ex- 

 tended over a narrower space than the base ; afterwards 

 come successively the genera composed of species, then 

 other superior genera (which answers to our orders and 

 classes); until Nature, after having become narrower and 

 narrower, terminates in a point, or in unity*. 



.We may also be able to see that the character which 

 served to connect with each other the productions of one 

 and the same division, distinguished them from those of 

 another division. Hence, and from all that precedes, re- 

 sult two remarkable advantages of the method. The first 

 is, to make us acquainted with objects not only by them- 

 selves but also by comparison, each of them being placed by 

 the method in such a manner that it turns in some measure 

 towards the rest the side in which it resembles them, and 

 presents in an opposite direction that by which it is distin- 



• Bacon, De Avement. Scient. t. ii.c. 13. See the work which has for 

 iu title " Le Ciiristianisme dc Fran9ois Bacon." Paris, an 7, t. i. j). i. 



guished 



