SIMPLE GELATIONS OBSERVED EARLIEST. 141 



stances, as well as of the state of society, of tlie arts, and of 

 the sciences all of which affect the frequency with which 

 certain groups of facts are observable. The 



fifth corollary to be noticed is, that the succession in 

 which different classes of relations are reduced to law, de 

 pends in part on their simplicity. Phenomena presenting 

 great composition of causes or conditions, have their essential 

 relations so masked, that it requires accumulated experiences 

 to impress upon consciousness the true connexions of ante 

 cedents and consequents they involve. Hence, other things 

 equal, the progress of generalization will be from the simple 

 to the complex ; and this it is which M. Comte has wrongly 

 asserted to be the sole regulative principle of the pro 

 gress. . Sixth conies the degree of abstractness. 

 Concrete relations are the earliest acquisitions. Such ana 

 lyses of them as separate the essential connexions from their 

 disguising accompaniments, necessarily come later. The 

 analyses of the connexions, always more or less compound, 

 into their elements then becomes possible. And so on con 

 tinually, until the highest and most abstract truths have 

 been reached. 



These, then, are the several derivative principles. The 

 frequency and vividness with which uniform relations are 

 repeated in conscious experience, determining the recognition 

 of their uniformity, and this frequency and vividness depend 

 ing on the above conditions, it follows that the order in 

 which different classes of facts are generalized, must depend 

 on the extent to which the above conditions are fulfilled in 

 each class. Let us mark how the facts harmonize with this 

 conclusion : taking first a few that elucidate the general 

 truth, and afterwards some that exemplify the special truths 

 which we here see follow from it. 



The relations earliest known as uniformities, are those sub 

 sisting between the common properties of matter tangi- 



