182 TUB GENESIS OF SCIENCE. 



particular cases ; &quot; which is M. Comte s definition of &quot; the 

 most simple phenomena.&quot; Does it not indeed follow from 

 the familiarly admitted fact, that mental advance is from 

 the concrete to the abstract, from the particular to the gen 

 eral, that the universal and therefore most simple truths are 

 the last to be discovered ? Is not the government of the 

 solar system by a force varying inversely as the square of 

 the distance, a simpler conception than any that preceded 

 it ? Should we ever succeed in reducing all orders of phe 

 nomena to some single law say of atomic action, as M. 

 Comte suggests must not that law answer to his test of 

 being independent of all others, and therefore most simple ? 

 And would not such a law generalize the phenomena of 

 gravity, cohesion, atomic affinity, and electric repulsion, just 

 as the laws of number generalize the quantitative phenom 

 ena of space, time and force ? 



The possibility of saying so much in support of an hypo 

 thesis the very reverse of M. Comte s, at once proves that 

 his generalization is only a half-truth. The fact is, that 

 neither proposition is correct by itself; and the actuality is 

 expressed only by putting the two together. The progress 

 of science is duplex : it is at once from the special to the 

 general, and from the general to the special : it is analytical 

 and synthetical at the same time. 



h~ M. Comte himself observes that the evolution of science 

 jhas been accomplished by the division of labour ; but he 

 /quite misstates the mode in which this division of labour 

 has operated. As he describes it, it has simply been an ar 

 rangement of phenomena into classes, and the study of each 

 class by itself. He does not recognise the constant effect 

 of progress in each class upon all other classes ; but only on 

 the class succeeding it in his hierarchical scale. Or if he 

 occasionally admits collateral influences and intercommuni 

 cations, he does it so grudgingly, and so quickly puts the 

 admissions out of sight and forgets them, as to leave the 



