32 INTRODUCTION. 



mining its nature and elements, considered by themselves ; 3. Rela- 

 tively, or comparatively, and having regard only to iis external rela- 

 tions ; and, 4. Relatively and intrinsically, having regard to its nature and 

 elements, compared with others. On this basis, Ampere founds his 

 classification of the sciences ; which we regard as decidedly superior 

 to any of those which preceded it; though we think it too complex 

 to meet with general favor, as a popular system of knowledge. 



The Proposed Classification of Knowledge. 

 The writer's attention was long since attracted to the subject of a 

 classification of all human knowledge ; in connection with the 

 project of an American Association for the promotion of Literature, 

 Science, and the Arts. His first essay on the subject, embracing 

 the principles of the present classification, was submitted to the 

 Dialectic Society of the United States Military Academy, at West 

 Point, in the spring of the year 1829; and was printed, with addi- 

 tions and amendments, in April, 1836, in the Boston Scientific 

 Tracts, for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The plan has 

 since been materially improved ; partly by the aid of learned and 

 judicious friends : and the result of much careful study has been 

 the following System of Pantology ; which is now submitted to the 

 reader's candid examination. 



In this system, all human knowledge is primarily divided into four 

 great provinces : 1. Psychonomy, including the Laws of Mind, or 

 intellectual sciences ; 2. Ethnology, or the Study of Nations, geo- 

 graphically and historically ; 3. Physiconomy, or the Laws of the 

 Material World ; and 4. Technology, or the Study of the Arts which 

 relate to material objects. These four provinces are next subdivided, 

 each into four departments : and each department embraces a group of 

 several branches of knowledge, closely related to each other. Of the 

 sixteen departments, several were already more or less distinctly formed, 

 and generally recognised : and one of them, the department of Mathe- 

 matics, served as a model, already finished, by which to fashion the 

 others. In these departments, several branches, which like the un- 

 formed stars in Astronomy, had not yet been systematically arranged, 

 may, it is believed, find their proper place ; thus completing the analy- 

 sis of general knowledge. To the four provinces, and several of the de- 

 partments, and to some few of the branches, the liberty has been taken 

 of applying new names, derived from the Greek language ; which will 

 at once be understood by the classic scholar; and which, avoiding cir- 

 cumlocution, will admit of a more exact application to these divisions 

 of knowledge, than terms which have already been used in various 

 significations. 



In arranging the departments and branches among themselves, four 

 leading principles, have, it is believed, been constantly kept in view, 

 as guides to a natural method. They are the Order of dependence ; 

 the Order of time ; the Order of place ; and the Order of resemblance. 

 The difficulty of adjusting these principles, where they conflict with 

 each other ; and of deciding, in such cases, which of them ought to 

 prevail, can only be appreciated by those who have attempted similar 

 applications : but this difficulty would arise equally in any other 



