SCIENCE 



SCILLY ISLANDS 



231 



It is obvious from what has gone before that 

 sciences may be grouped, or science partitioned, on 

 a broad and intelligible principle. There are the 

 Physical Sciences, which nave to do with inorganic 

 nature that is, with the laws and properties of 

 Matter, Energy, and Ether. Then there are the 

 Biological Sciences, which consider the laws of 

 Life. And finally, there are the Psychical Sciences, 

 which deal with the phenomena of Mind. The 

 influence of Life upon the Matter and Energy of the 

 Universe, profound though it is, in no way renders 

 nugatory the great principles that hold in inorganic 

 nature. These principles are the Conservation of 

 Matter and the Conservation of Energy, Ether 

 being the medium through which and by which 

 Energy is transmitted and transformed. The great 

 principle of biology, which erters along with these 

 physical principles as a factor in organic nature, is 

 the law of Biogenesis, or Life from Life. In the 

 higher mental sphere of activities these three great 

 principles still hold, however much mind may inter- 

 fere in what would otherwise have been the natural 

 progress of events in the lower spheres of activity. 

 So far no broad psychic principle comparable to 

 the physical and biological principles has been 

 discovered, or even imagined to be discoverable. 

 It must ever be remembered, however, that this 

 broad gradation in the sciences is itself a psychic 

 phenomenon. 



Numerous attempts have been made to give a 

 detailed classification of the sciences, so as to bring 

 out the natural relation of the one to the other. 

 Such classifications may have a historic interest, 

 inasmuch as they must have been largely condi- 

 tioned by the extent of knowledge or degree of 

 ignorance of the classifier. They may also have a 

 philosophic value as affording a glimpse into the 

 nature of the human mind. But" it is extremely 

 doubtful if they have in any appreciable way 

 assisted in the progress of science itself. One of 

 the most celebrated is the classification due to 

 Comte, who first explicitly drew the distinction 

 between Abstract and Concrete sciences, or what 

 might better be termed Fundamental and Deriva- 

 tive sciences ( see POSITIVISM ). The distinction is 

 most simply expressed by saying that a derivative 

 science requires for its elucidation no peculiar prin- 

 ciple or law of nature, but involves only those prin- 

 ciples which are already discussed under the funda- 

 mental sciences. The truth is that a derivative 

 science is a special or limited branch of science in 

 general, separated out for purposes more or less con- 

 crete or practical ; and it is impossible logically to 

 mark oft such special sciences as a group from other 

 branches of science, which, though no more alwtract 

 and no less special, are still treated as included in 

 the fundamental sciences. The mistake which 

 Comte himself made in classifying Astronomy in his 

 group of abstract sciences along with Mathematics, 

 Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Sociology is an 

 illustration in point. Comte's scheme has been 

 severely criticised by Herbert Spencer, who suggests 

 a threefold grouping into Abstract, Abstract-Con- 

 crete, and Concrete Sciences. The second group is 

 essentially what we have called above Physical 

 Science, including Physics and Chemistry as ordi- 

 narily understood. Sir Spencer considers it as 

 dealing with the laws of 'Force' in the abstract, 

 or as exhibited by matter. Biology appears for 

 the Bret time in the third or Concrete group as 

 exhibiting certain ' laws of redistribution of matter 

 and motion actually going on.' But surely there 

 is a fundamental science of Biology dealing with 

 the laws of vital ' Force,' and having to Botany and 

 Zoology the same kind of relation "which Physics 

 and Chemistry have to Astronomy and Geology. 

 The whole fallacy of the position lies in making 

 'Force,' even with its vague Spencerian sense, one 



of the central props of the argument. Force is 

 apparent, not real, unless we take it in the sense of 

 Energy ; but this will not apply to Mr Spencer's 

 classification. From the present outlook of science 

 the existences of the universe are five namely, 

 Ether, Matter, Energy, Life, ,and Mind. The first 

 three are inseparable agents in the simplest phenom- 

 enon that occurs in nature. They may ultimately 

 be reduced to two or conceivably to one. 



See Comte, Philosophy of the Sciences, trans, by Lewes 

 ( 1853 ; new ed. 1878 ) ; Herbert Spencer, Classification 

 of the Sciences (1864 ; new ed. 1880), and his First Prin- 

 ciples (new ed. 1884); Jevons, Principles of Science 

 (1874); Clifford, Common Sense of the Exact Sciences 

 (1885); Louis Agassiz, Essay on Classification (1859); 

 C. W. Shields, The Order of the Sciences (New York, 

 1884); J. . Mill, Logic ; Mrs Somerville, Connection of 

 the Physical Sciences (ed. by Buckley, 1877); Whewell, 

 History of Inductive Science (1837; new ed. 1877), and 

 History of Scientific Idtat (1858-60); Huxley, small 

 volume introductory to the Science Primers (1880), and 

 hia Science and Culture (1881 ) ; also the articles in this 

 work under the following headings, and books there 

 cited: 



Science and Art. See KENSINGTON. 



Scientific Frontier, a term used by Lord 

 Beaconslield at the Guildhall banquet of 9th 

 November 1878, when speaking of the boundaries 

 between India and Afghanistan. He stated that 

 at that time the frontier in question was ' a hap- 

 hazard frontier,' but that steps were being taken 

 to make it 'a scientific frontier,' by which he 

 meant a frontier that would admit of being occu- 

 pied and defended according to the requirements of 

 the science of strategy. 



Srilla. See SQUILL. 



SHlly Islands, a Cornish group, lie about 

 27 miles WSW. of Land's End. They occupy, 

 as a group, about 30 sq. m. of sea-room, and 

 consist of six large islands St Mary's (1528 

 acres; pop. 1290), Tresco (697 acres; pop. 328), 



Long. W. ff^'o! r,rcgt1. *,I5' 



St Martin's (515 acres; pop. 175), St Agnes (313 

 acres ; pop. 148), Bryher (269 acres ; pop. 103), and 

 Samson (78 acres, uninhabited ) and some thirty 



