80 LdY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. \?> 



eyes of many. I should be sorry to suggest that the 

 speculators on scientific classification have been misled 

 by the accident of the name of one leading branch of 

 Biology — Comparative Anatomy ; but I would ask 

 whether comparison, and that classification which is the 

 result of comparison., are not the essence of every science 

 whatsoever ? Plow is it possible to discover a relation of 

 cause and effect of any hind without comparing a series 

 of cases together in which the supposed cause and effect 

 occur singly, or combined ? So far from comparison 

 being in any way peculiar to Biological science, it is, 

 I think, the essence of every science. 



A speculative philosopher again tells us that the 

 Biological sciences are distinguished by bciDg sciences 

 of observation and not of experiment ! - 1 



Of all the strange assertions into which speculation 

 without practical acquaintance with a subject may lead 

 even an able man, I think this is the very strangest. 

 Physiology not an experimental science ! Why, there 



others, that study must be advanced. In Astronomy, this method is neces- 

 sarily inapplicable ; and it is not till we arrive at Chemistry that this third 

 means of investigation can be used, and then only in subordination to the 

 two others. It is in the study, both statical and dynamical, of living bodies 

 that it first acquires its full development ; and its use elsewhere can be only 

 through its application here." — Comte's Positive Philosophy, translated by 

 Miss Martineau. Vol. i. p. 372. 



By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or inequality of 

 forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of forms — points of 

 some slight importance not only in Astronomy and Physics, but even in 

 Mathematics — are ascertained, if not by Comparison ? 



"Proceeding to the second class of means, — Enperiment cannot but bo 

 lessand less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the phenomena to bo 

 explored ; and therefore we saw this resource to be less effectual in chemistry 

 than in physics : and we now find that it is eminently useful in chemistry in 

 comparison with physiology. In fact, the nature of the phenomena seems to 

 offer almost insurmountable impediments to any extensive and prolific applivc* 

 Hon of such a procedure in biology." — Comte, vol. i. p. 3G7. 



M. Comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on, but 

 that will hardly relieve liini from the responsibility of such a paragraph as 

 the above. 



