138 THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE. 



erics on the fall of heavy bodies.&quot; On this, our comment is 

 simply that it is a misrepresentation baseil upon an arbi 

 trary misuse of words a mere verbal artifice. ]&amp;gt;y choosing 

 to exclude from terrestrial physics those laws of magnitude, 

 motion, and position, which he includes in celestial physics, 

 M. Comte makes it appear that the one owes nothing to 

 the other. Xot only is this altogether unwarrantable, but 

 it is radically inconsistent with his own scheme of divisions. 

 At the outset he says and as the point is important we 

 quote from the original &quot; Pour la physique inorrjanique 

 nous voyons d abord, en nous conformant toujours ii 1 ordre 

 de gcneralite ct dc dependancc des phenomencs, quYJle doit 

 etre partagee on deux sections distinctes, suivant qu cllo 

 considcrc les phenomdnes generaux dc 1 uuivcrs, on, en par- 

 ticulier, ceux que prcscntent les corps tcrrestres. U ou la 

 physique crlestc, on 1 astronomie, soit geomctrique, soil 

 mechaniquc ; et la physique terrestrc.&quot; 



Here then we liave inorganic physics clearly divided 

 into celestial physics and terrestrial physics the pheno 

 mena presented by the. universe, and the phenomena pre 

 sented by earthly bodies. If now celestial bodies and ter 

 restrial bodies exhibit sundry leading phenomena in com 

 mon, as they do, how can the generalization of these com 

 mon phenomena be considered as pertaining to the one class 

 rather than to the other ? If inorganic physios includes 

 geometry (which M. Comte has made it do by comprehend 

 ing geometrical astronomy in its sub section celestial phy 

 sics) ; and if its sub-section terrestrial physics, treats of 

 things having geometrical properties ; how can the laws of 

 geometrical relations be excluded from terrestrial physics? 

 Clearly if celestial physics includes the geometry of ob 

 jects in the heavens, terrestrial physics includes the geometry 

 of objects on the earth. And if terrestrial physics includes 

 terrestrial geometry, while celestial physics includes celestial 

 geometry, then the geometrical part of terrestrial physics 



