The Frontiers of the Sciences 



later, when their accumulation becomes greater, 

 that the need is felt for an orderly arrangement. 

 Aristotle's classifications had this character 

 of contingency, and the development of human 

 knowledge has long ago broken down his 

 classifications. Later and more ambitious classi- 

 fiers have imagined a general classification of 

 the sciences present and future, but the pitiable 

 failure of their efforts proves their futility. 



Of all these attempts the most curious, 

 perhaps, are these of the illustrious physicist 

 Ampere. I should like to reproduce, for the 

 edification of the reader, the synoptic table in 

 which this man of genius mustered all the 

 branches of human knowledge, dividing them 

 into two kingdoms, each being divided into two 

 sub-kingdoms, and so on, until the succession 

 of divisions resulted in thirty-two sciences of 

 the first order, which gave sixty-four sciences 

 of the second, which, in their turn, were divided 

 into 128 sciences of the third order. Among 

 these 128 sciences there are some, I am 

 afraid, such as phrenegietics, cratiography 

 and threpsiology, which will not soon find a 

 place in our curricula; but, on the other hand, 



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