30 INTRODUCTION. 



semiotica, or the means of expressing ideas. Mr. Chambers, the 

 first English Cyclopaedist, also prepared a classification of knowledge, 

 in forty-seven distinct branches ; arranged as either natural or artificial, 

 internal or external : but in his Cyclopaedia, he finally adopted the 

 alphabetical arrangement. 



D'Alembert, in his preliminary dissertation on the origin, pro- 

 gress, and affiliation of the sciences, introductory to the great Die- 

 tionnaire Encyclopedique, merely revived Lord Bacon's system, with 

 some amendments ; but instead of carrying his system into practice, 

 he even doubted whether any satisfactory system could be made ; and 

 accordingly the Encyclopaedia was arranged in alphabetical order. 

 Baron Bielfield of Prussia, in his Elements of Universal Erudition, 

 also adopted Lord Bacon's system ; but with considerable modifica- 

 tion in the details. More abstruse classifications have been made by 

 Wronski of Russia in his Programme of Transcendental Philoso- 

 phy : and by the Abbe Mango, of Palermo, in his Jlcrosojia, or 

 Genealogy of the Sciences. 



Returning to England, Sir William Jones made a division of human 

 knowledge into history, arts, and sciences. Dr. Turner of Oxford, 

 divided the same into religion, arts, and sciences. Mr. Home, in his 

 Introduction to Bibliography, distributes knowledge under the four 

 heads of bibliography, history, philosophy, and literature. In Scot- 

 land, Mr. Hume incidentally comprehended all knowledge in the six 

 departments of religion, politics, metaphysics, morals, mathematics, 

 and natural philosophy. Dr. Robertson, the friend of Hume, and like 

 him a historian, comprehended the same in four departments ; religion, 

 logic, ethics, and physics. Dr. Beattie, in his Elements of Moral 

 Science, divides knowledge into history, philosophy, mathematics, and 

 poetry ; and Dr. Reid has adopted the more natural division, founded 

 on the distinction between body and mind, or material and intellec- 

 tual objects of thought; but beyond this step, his classification is 

 deemed comparatively imperfect. 



In our own country, Dr. Samuel Johnson, the first president of 

 King's, now Columbia College, in New York, prepared a work enti- 

 tled Noetica, or a general scheme for the partition of the sciences ; 

 in which he divided all knowledge into belles-lettres and philosophy : 

 the former including grammar, rhetoric, eloquence, history, poetry, 

 and criticism ; and the latter comprehending mathematics, mechanics, 

 physics, and astronomy, together with metaphysics and ethics, 

 embracing psychology, theology, economics, and politics. In this 

 arrangement, the distinction between sciences and arts was entirely 

 neglected ; the theoretical and practical parts of knowledge being 

 presented, throughout, in combination. This work was published by 

 Dr. Franklin in Philadelphia ; and reprinted in London, but with- 

 out the title. 



The late President Jefferson devoted much attention to this sub- 

 ject ; both in classifying the books of his own Library ; and in 

 arranging the professorships of the University of Virginia. Mr. 

 Jefferson adopted Lord Bacon's principle of classifying knowledge, 

 according to the mental powers employed ; and he assigned to 

 memory, civil and natural history ; to reason, moral and natural 



