150 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



doubtedly, propose a still more embarrassing question, by asking, of 

 what use have the categories been f 



It has already been shown what Moliere thought of them. Here is 

 the opinion of the celebrated author of the Logic of Port Eoyal : "The 

 study of the categories cannot but he da)i(/erous, as it accustoms men 

 to be satisfied with words, and to believe they know everything, when 

 they are only acquainted with arbitrary names." • 



To this extravagant criticism, if it had fallen under his eyes. Am- 

 pere would have replied: That a natural classification of the sciences 

 would be the model on which the sections of an institute claiming to 

 represent the universality of human knowledge, should be scrupulously 

 formed : That a natural classification of the sciences would indicate 

 the proper omissions in the subjects of a well-arranged methodical 

 encyclopedia. That a natural classification would control a rational 

 distribution of the books in large libraries, a matter of so much im- 

 portance that Liebnitz devoted to it much thought and labor : That a 

 natural classification of the sciences would create a desirable revolution 

 in the art of teaching. 



All this is just and true. But, unfortunately, the principles which 

 a priori seemed to lead to natural classifications, have assimilated, 

 grouped, and uuited the most incongruous subjects. 



If you take the encyclopedical tree of Bacon and D'Alembert, which 

 is founded on the hypothesis, against which no objections have ever 

 been raised, that the human mind can be reduced to three faculties — 

 memory, reason, and imagination, — 3'ou will be led in the large division 

 of knowledge depending on memory to classify the history of minerals 

 and vegetables with civil history; and in sciences belonging to the do- 

 main of reason metaphysics will be associated with astronomy, ethics, 

 and chemistry. 



Follow Locke, or rather Plato, and theology and optics will be found 

 side by side. Divide, as the schools of Eome do now, all knowledge 

 into three kingdoms, the sciences of autliority^ of reason, and of obser- 

 vation, and anomalies almost laughable will arise at every step. 



These serious defects are not found iu the classifications of Ampere. 

 All analogous subjects are classed together ; all that differ are separated. 

 The author does not create at the will of his imagination pretended fun- 

 damental faculties for the basis of a system without solidity. His two 

 chief poiuts, his two Mngdoms, are the study of the world — cosmology; 

 and the study of the mind — ontology. 



The cosmological sciences are divided, in their turn, into two sub-king- 

 doms, namely, the sciences which treat of inanimate objects ; and those 

 which cousider only animate objects. The first sub-kingdom of the 

 cosmological sciences is divided again into two branches — the mathe- 

 matical and physical sciences. By always following out this division 

 by twos. Ampere succeeded in forming a table in which the whole range 

 of sciences and arts is found divided — 



