80 CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES. 



action causes. He does not seek simply to understand 

 how sedimentary strata were formed; or how faults 

 were produced; or how moraines originated, or how 

 the beds of Alpine lakes were scooped out. But taking 

 into account all agencies co-operating in endless and 

 ever-varying combinations, he aims to interpret the 

 entire structure of the Earth s crust. If he studies 

 separately the actions of rain, rivers, glaciers, icebergs, 

 tides, waves, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. ; he does so 

 that he may be better able to comprehend their joint 

 actions as factors in geological phenomena: the object 

 of his science being to generalize these phenomena in 

 all their involved connections, as parts of one whole. 

 In like manner Biology is the elaboration of a com 

 plete theory of Life, in each and all of its involved 

 manifestations. If different aspects of its phenomena 

 are investigated apart if one observer busies himself 

 in classing organisms, another in dissecting them, 

 another in ascertaining their chemical compositions, 

 another in studying functions, another in tracing laws 

 of modification; they are all, consciously or uncon 

 sciously, helping to work out a solution of vital 

 phenomena in their entirety, both as displayed by 

 individual organisms and by organisms at large. 

 Thus, in these Concrete Sciences, the object is the 

 converse of that which the Abstract-Concrete Sciences 

 propose to themselves. In the one case we have 

 analytical interpretation; while in the other case we 

 have synthetical interpretation. Instead of synthesis 



