THE FLOWER OR THE LEAF. 351 



good even in the scientific sphere of prognosis ; and who could deny the 

 permanent value of many of the ethical, political, and historical specu- 

 lations of the ages of Plato, Thucydides, and Aristotle, even though, 

 according to the Comtist doctrine, sociological speculations should 

 have been valueless at this time, because entirely premature ? * 



The epoch of acquisition of facts, which must precede the discov- 

 ery of their laws, often stretches over long periods of time — periods 

 which interest us, because corresponding to the moment of education 

 with which this discussion is concerned. The labors of the alchemists 

 accumulated immense material on the composition of bodies and on 

 their more recondite properties long before the scientific relations of 

 chemistry could be established through the law of definite proportions. 

 Physiology, the most complex of the physical sciences, has been most 

 heterogeneous in the methods by which it has established its funda- 

 mental facts. The nature of respiration was, indeed, established by a 

 chemist, from chemical data and from chemical experiments. But the 

 nature of the circulation was partly inferred from anatomical facts — 

 the presence of valves in veins — partly demonstrated by vivisection, a 

 method of investigation which could not possibly be suggested by any 

 other science than physiology. Knowledge of physics has materially 

 assisted the interpretation of blood-j)ressure, of the expansion of the 

 lungs, and many other phenomena, first known by direct observation of 

 them. But the demonstration of the functions of the nervous system 

 has been made exclusively by means of physiological experiment and 

 clinical observation. " Science," observes Renan, " in order to formu- 

 late her laws, is obliged to make abstractions and to create simple 

 circumstances, such as Nature never presents."! This is done usually 

 with the aid of a simpler science, or one of wider generality, whose 

 mastery thus becomes indispensable to further progress. But, until the 

 moment for analysis and experiment has arrived, observation of the 

 comjDlex object is not more, but rather less difiicult than that of the 

 simple one, because in it so many varieties of details offer themselves 

 spontaneously to the attention that the mind is at once fully occupied 

 so soon as it begins to carefully observe ; whereas pure observation 

 soon exhausts the details of a simple object or phenomenon, and no fur- 

 ther progress can be made until after a profound analysis has plunged 

 below the surface. Let any one compare the rate of progress in the 

 discovery of new knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, and even 



* " What has often led linguists to regard the elementary monosyllabism of the Chi- 

 nese as the primitive condition of all languages is the tendency which leads us to con- 

 sider simpUcity as indicating a state of infancy, or, at least, as the sign of a high anti- 

 quity. But this is an error. The Chinese language, though monosyllabic, has served a 

 highly developed civilization ; on the other hand, the languages of the savages of Ameri- 

 ca, of Central and Southern Africa, offer a surprising richness of grammatical forms." 

 — Kenan, " De I'Origine du Langage," p. 13 of preface. 



f Loc. cit.y p. 59. 



