138 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



Sociology. In the arrangement of the subdivis- 

 ions of each science, he attempts to apply the 

 same principle of advancing from the general to 

 the special : thus, in Mathematics, the laws of 

 number are to be studied before those of magni- 

 tude, and these again before those of equilibrium. 

 In the arrangement of the different branches of 

 Physics, however, this principle evidently fails ; 

 it being impossible to assert that the phenomena 

 of weight and pressure are less general .than those 

 of heat, or perhaps even those of light. The 

 omission of a science of Psychology from the 

 above scheme will be deemed by most persons a 

 grave defect. Nor can M. Comte be said to have 

 at all mended the matter by offering us in its 

 stead (we blush to tell it) the wretched substi- 

 tute Phrenology. In spite of these defects, the 

 advantages of studying the sciences in this order 

 will be disputed by no one ; it being manifest 

 that each science furnishes almost indispensable 

 aid to the study of its successors, while throwing 

 comparatively little light on the subjects treated 

 by its predecessors. Each science, too, has meth- 

 ods of investigation peculiar to itself ; and it is 

 the elaborate statement of these methods that we 

 consider the most permanently valuable of M. 

 Comte's contributions to philosophy. But we do 



