THE SERIAL OEDEE EEEONEOUS. 185 



ties in each phase of mental development ; the one being 

 an objective registry of the subjective state of the other. 



From our present point of view, then, it becomes obvi 

 ous that the conception of a serial arrangement of the sci 

 ences is a vicious one. It is not simply that the schemes 

 we have examined are untenable ; but it is that the sciences 

 cannot be rightly placed in any linear order whatever. It 

 is not simply that, as M. Comte admits, a classification 

 &quot; will always involve something, if not arbitrary, at least 

 artificial ; &quot; it is not, as he would have us believe, that, 

 neglecting minor imperfections a classification may be sub 

 stantially true ; but it is that any grouping of the sciences 

 in a succession gives a radically erroneous idea of their 

 genesis and their dependencies. There is no &quot; one rational 

 order among a host of possible systems.&quot; There is no 

 &quot; true filiation of the sciences.&quot; The whole hypothesis is 

 fundamentally false. Indeed, it needs but a glance at its 

 origin to see at once how baseless it is. &quot;Why a series f 

 What reason have we to suppose that the sciences admit 

 of a linear arrangement? &quot;Where is our warrant for 

 assuming that there is some succession in which they can 

 be placed? There is no reason; no warrant. Whence 

 then has arisen the supposition ? To use M. Comte s own 

 phraseology, we should say, it is a metaphysical conception. 

 It adds another to the cases constantly occurring, of the 

 human mind being made the measure of Nature. We are 

 obliged to think in sequence ; it is the law of our minds 

 that we must consider subjects separately, one after 

 another : therefore Nature must be serial therefore the 

 sciences must be classifiable in a succession. See here the 

 birth of the notion, and the sole evidence of its truth. 

 Men have been obliged when arranging in books their 

 schemes of education and systems of knowledge, to choose 

 some order or other. And from inquiring what is the best 



