126 THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE. 



which again divides into plants and animals. Biology^ there 

 fore, divides into Organogeny^ Phy tosopliy ^ ZoosopJiyy') 



First Kingdom. — Minerals. Mineralogy, Geology. 

 Part III. Biology. — Organosojihy, Phytogeny, Phyto-pliysiology^ 

 Phytology, Zoogeny, Physiology, Zoology, Psychology.'' 



A glance over this confused scheme shows that it is an 

 attemi^t to classify knowledge, not after the order in which 

 it has been, or may be, built np in the human conscious- 

 ness ; but after an assumed order of creation. It is a 

 pseudo-scientific cosmogony, akin to those which men have 

 enunciated from the earliest times downwards ; and only a 

 little more resi^ectable. As such it will not be thought 

 worthy of much consideration by those who, like ourselves, 

 hold that experience is the sole origin of knowledge. Oth- 

 erwise, it might have been needful to dwell on the incon- 

 gruities of the arrangements — to ask how motion can be 

 treated of before space ? how there can be rotation with- 

 out matter to rotate ? how polarity can be dealt with with- 

 out involving points and lines ? But it will serve our pres- 

 ent purpose just to point out a few of the extreme absurdi- 

 ties resulting from the doctrine which Oken seems to hold 

 in common with Hegel, that " to philosophize on Nature is 

 to rc-think the great thought of Creation." Here is a sam- 

 ple : — 



" Mathematics is the universal science ; so also is Phys- 

 io-philosophy, although it is only a part, or rather but a 

 condition of the universe ; both are one, or mutually con- 

 gruent. 



" Mathematics i-', however, a science of mere forma 

 without substance. Physio-philosophy is, therefore, mathe- 

 fnatics €7idoiced icith substance.'''' 



From the English point of view it is sufficiently amus- 

 ing to find such a dogma not only gravely stated, but 

 stated as an unquestionable truth. Here we see the expe- 



