EARLY KNOWLEDGE METHOD OF RESEARCH. 3 



three is purely conventional. That science and the arts are 

 an outgrowth from the same root, Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 demonstrates by a masterly and almost exhaustive description 

 of man's advance. " From unmistakable evidence it is clear 

 that the earliest mode of conveying the idea of any number 

 of things, was by holding up the fingers as many fingers as 

 there were things." There are many tribes in which count- 

 ing does not exceed ten the limit of finger notation. The 

 word digit (finger) is significant ; likewise are the words cubit, 

 span, foot, palm, inch, hand, grain, carat, orgyia, pace. The 

 Roman numerals, one of the earliest systems of notation, 

 were meant to represent groups of fingers. " The idea of 

 equality arrived at by this and other means gave origin to 

 two series of relations those of magnitude and those of 

 number, from which arose geometry and arithmetic." The 

 simplest unit of time, the day, nature supplies ready-made. 

 The next simplest period, the moneth or month (measurer) 

 "was also thrown upon men's notice by the conspicuous 

 changes constituting a lunation/' etc. In this manner can 

 the advance made be shown, not only in these branches, but 

 in all. Such is the truth regarding the starting point of science. 



A second point not less important is that the concrete led 

 to the abstract, that is, familiarity with concrete uniformities, 

 as Mr. Spencer so clearly puts it, has generated the abstract 

 conception of uniformity the conception of law. " Mental 

 advance is necessarily from the concrete to the abstract, from 

 the particular to the general, and, necessarily, the universal, 

 and therefore the most simple truths are last to be discovered. 

 When it is ascertained that the moon completes her cycle in 

 about thirty days, it is manifest that it becomes possible to 

 say in what number of days any specified phase of the moon 

 will recur ; and thus is quantitative prevision effected. And 

 following in the same wake came the first known astronomical 

 records which are those of the eclipses, etc." And the same 

 process obtains throughout the entire cycle of knowledge. 



The third truth, which it is important to remember, is 

 that utility was the object of early inventions and science. 

 Humboldt was the first celebrated writer who clearly detected 

 this, but to Mr. Herbert Spencer chiefly we owe the weighty 



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