302 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



importance, and their study forms an inseparable 

 part of a catholic education. As thus conducted, 

 the study of chemistry need not consume more 

 than one third of the time at present assigned it, 

 and other sciences, now sadly neglected, might 

 assert their just claims to attention. 



Chemistry and molecular physics constitute the 

 proper field for the employment of the purely 

 inductive method. As we arrive at the organic 

 sciences, deduction again assumes a prominent 

 position. Of our three principal instruments for 

 interrogating Nature, --observation, experiment, 

 and comparison, the second plays in biology a 

 quite subordinate part. But while, on the one 

 hand, the extreme complication of causes involved 

 in vital processes renders the application of ex 

 periment altogether precarious in its results, on 

 the other hand, the endless variety of organic 

 phenomena offers peculiar facilities for the suc 

 cessful employment of comparison and analogy. 

 Zoology and botany are pre-eminently the sciences 

 of classification ; and if skill in the use of this 

 powerful auxiliary of thought is ever to be ac 

 quired, it must be sought in the comparative 

 study of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. 

 Theoretical logic may divide and sub-divide as 

 much as it likes ; but genera and species are dull 



