PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 203 



Hon, and, moreover, after and throngh it, reasoning, whence comes 

 our knowledge of facts; and by the aid of these facts comes our 

 knowledge of the laws of Nature ; a knowledge of the general 

 relations of the facts and of their laws ; a reasoned history of 

 nature, which may become the positive philosophy of history. 



3. The school of Geoffroy St. Hilaire employed reasoning on 

 the one part and observation on the other, whence, at the same 

 time, the knowledge of the laws of Nature were deduced inde- 

 pendently of the facts from pre-established principles, and paral- 

 leily the knowledge of the facts. 



The school of Geoffroy St. Hilaire, is at the same time a his- 

 tory and a philosophy of nature ; two sciences, (as says Isidore) 

 in one, the first only empirical and accessory — the second purely 

 rational and fundamental; two sciences parallelly developed and 

 reciprocally ind.^pendent. 



What Cuvier and his school have accomplished, is good, Tsays 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire,) but it is necessary to do more. 



Observation and analysis are indispensable, but they are not 

 sufficient. Reasoning and synthesis have their rights. Let us 

 use our senses for observation, as most and best we can ; but, 

 also, after observation, those most noble faculties within us — our 

 "judgment" and our " sagacity." 



Let us establish positive facts, and afterwards seek to deduce 

 their scientific consequences. 



" Ne faut il pas q'apres la faille des pierres, arrive leur mise en 

 oeuvre ?" 



After cutting the stone should we not put them to use ; other- 

 wise what fruit do we derive from the materials? 



But we cannot here fully elaborate the higher natural history 

 sought by Etienne. 



Happy in the conception and development of his " philosophic 

 anatomy." Happy father, in having a son whose useful life car- 

 ried the " method" to practical ends with greater certainty and 

 rapidity than could at first have been looked for. 



" Philosophic methods," in multiplied forms of utility, among 

 which witness the triumphs of acclimation. 



The teaching of Schelling at the universities of Jena, Wurtz- 

 burg and Munich, and his prolific pen, had created for his phi- 

 losophy a widespread popularity, which he lived to see justly 

 upon the wane, giving place to the rival school of the Geoffreys, 



