70 Some Relationships of Economic Biology 



Economic biologists have to read old books as well as new. They 

 therefore know that early naturalists wrote "Moral and Natural His- 

 tories," deahng with "everything performed by man or produced by 

 nature" in particular regions. This union by the field- worker of subjects 

 which the scholar can keep apart is due to the community of interest 

 of "moral" and "natural" study in the "qualities" of things. The 

 "moral historian" deals primarily with the "uses" dependent on the 

 existence of definite "quahties" whose presence compels the "natural 

 historian" to detail the "characters" of the things in which they are 

 manifested. The "economic naturahst" must attend both to the 

 "characters" and the "virtues" of things, the latter being the term 

 employed to include both "qualities" and "uses." 



Economic study is thus something complete in itself, which also 

 hnks "moral" and "natural" history. Hence the evolution of that 

 alternative scheme of knowledge wherein the various philosophical and 

 historical studies were aggregated as "sciences," while the activities 

 concerned in the application of knowledge were subdivided in terms of 

 the underlying purpose. The agencies charged with the apphcation of 

 knowledge in doctrine were designated "letters"; the technical pursuits 

 involving the apphcation of knowledge in practice were styled "arts." 

 In this brotherhood of the "Sciences, Letters and Arts," whose founda- 

 tion was contemporary with the evolution of the philosophical scheme 

 for the "improvement of natural knowledge," "application" was col- 

 lateral with instead of consequent upon "promotion" of knowledge. 



"Natural history" and "natural philosophy" at first bestowed appro- 

 priate attention upon the "characters" and "virtues" of all natural 

 things. Soon, however, both felt the influence of the distinction between 

 things organic and things inorganic. By degrees "natural philosophy" 

 concentrated her attention on the inorganic, leaving the organic to be 

 dealt with elsewhere. This habit led "natural philosophy," by an easy 

 transition, to the study of physical and chemical problems, leaving those 

 problems connected with organic structure and function to be dealt 

 with by the correlated economic agencies. When "natural philosophy" 

 took cognisance of physiological problems at all she did so because 

 these problems, though of biological origin, were "statical" in character. 

 This practice reacted on "natural history" whose duty is to codify and 

 co-ordinate natural knowledge and to co-operate with "natural philo- 

 sophy" in applying it. The understanding tacitly reached was that 

 "natural history" should advance as well as co-ordinate knowledge 

 regarding the characters and virtues of organisms, while "natural philo- 



