r.] EDUCATIONAL VALVE OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES. 87 



would be at a loss in the other's place ; but the method 

 of progression, by putting one leg before the other, is 

 the same in each case. Every step of each is a combi- 

 nation of a lift and a push ; but the mountaineer lifts 

 more and the lowlander pushes more. And I think the 

 case of two sciences resembles this. 



I do not question for a moment, that while the Mathe- 

 matician is busied with deductions from general pro- 

 positions, the Biologist is more especially occupied with 

 observation, comparison, and those processes which lead 

 to general propositions. All I wish to insist upon is, 

 that this difference depends n3t on any fundamental 

 distinction in the sciences the.' nselves, but on the ac- 

 cidents of their subject-matter, of their relative com- 

 plexity, and consequent relative perfection. 



The Mathematician deals with two properties of 

 objects only, number and extension, and all the in- 

 ductions he wants have been formed and finished aires 

 ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction 

 and verification. 



The Biologist deals with a vast number of properties 

 of objects, and his inductions will not be completed, I 

 fear, for ages to come ; but when they are, his science 

 will be as deductive and as exact as the Mathematics 

 themselves. 



Such is the relation of Biology to those sciences which 

 deal with objects having fewer properties than itself. 

 But as the student, in reaching Biology, looks back upon 

 sciences of a less complex and therefore more perfect 

 nature ; so, on the other hand, does he look forward to 

 other more complex and less perfect branches of know- 

 ledge. Biology deals only with living beings as isolated 

 things — treats only of the life of the individual : but 

 there is a higher division of science still, which considers 

 living beings as a<™TC£;ates — which deals with the rela- 



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