514 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



than to the complete conceptual model. Their ultimate 

 position, therefore, cannot be absolutely fixed. The dis- 

 tinction between those physical sciences which have been 

 reduced to a more or less complete conceptual model and 

 those which remain in the catalogue raisonne state has 

 been expressed by terming the former Exact and the 

 latter Descriptive. But since in the present work we have 

 learnt to look upon all science as a description, the distinc- 

 tion rather lies in the extent to which the synoptic classi- 

 fication has been replaced by those brief conceptual 

 resumes that we term scientific formulae or laws. Thus, 

 while descriptive must be interpreted in the sense of 

 synoptic, exact must be taken as equivalent to concise or 

 precise, in the sense of the French precis. The distinction 

 is now seen to be quantitative rather than qualitative ; 

 and, as a matter of fact, considerable portions of the 

 Descriptive or Synoptic Physical Sciences already belong, or 

 are rapidly being transferred to, the Exact or Precise 

 Physical Sciences. Thus we shall find that, whenever we 

 begin to subdivide the main branches of science, the 

 boundaries are only practical and not logical. The topics 

 classified in the subdivisions cross and recross these 

 boundaries ; and although in the tables below most 

 sciences have been entered in one place only, they fre- 

 quently belong to two or more divisions at once. Hence 

 in the inter-relationship of the sciences and their continual 

 growth lies the fact of the empirical and tentative character 

 of all schemes of classification. In so far as every branch 

 of science passes, at one or more points, not only into the 

 domain of adjacent, but even of distant branches, we see 

 a certain justification for Comte's assertion that the study 

 of one-science involves a previous study of other branches ; 

 but this justification in itself is no argument for the truth 

 of his fantastic "hierarchy" of sciences (p. 508). 



S 6. — Abstract and Cojicrete Scieiues. Abstract Science 



Like Spencer, we may begin by distinguishing in the 

 sciences two groups — the Abstract and the Concrete. The 



