xi SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS 209 



importance. Now this movement has already been set 

 forth on the side of thought, and we have already seen a 

 tolerably close correspondence between speculative and 

 practical ways of thinking. What we have now to do is to 

 consider whether the net movement on other sides of social 

 life exhibits any correspondence with this dual development. 



2. It will be well to begin with the development of mind 

 on the side of knowledge, and with the order of ideas and 

 activities most closely related thereto. Here, if anywhere, 

 we may expect to find a correspondence, and this should 

 form accordingly the simplest portion of our task. 



On the cognitive side the movement which we traced 

 proceeded from the unformed concept to the common-sense 

 order, from this to the abstract construction of a higher 

 reality, and thence again to the critical reconstruction of 

 experience. This movement is mirrored stage by stage in 

 the methods of organising experience and controlling 

 natural conditions. 



The first stage is distinguished by the prevalence of 

 Magic ; the second by the rise of the trained handicrafts on 

 a purely empirical basis. The third the development of 

 a conceptual order gives rise in the effort to grasp reality 

 as a whole to the dialectical method of metaphysics. In 

 the realm of number, of space relations and of astronomy, 

 so far as dependent on number and space relations it evolves 

 genuine sciences, while in chemistry, biology and to some 

 extent in physics it works out into a tissue of mystical 

 systems with a certain backing of empirical matter. Lastly, 

 we have the scientific treatment of nature generally through 

 the combination of experiment, systematic observation, 

 statistical verification and mathematical analysis. 1 



1 It is not, of course, to be supposed that these stages succeed one 

 another without blending. The beginnings of a practical training must 

 be put back to the first discovery of the arts. The savage who first 

 chipped a flint probably taught his child to do the same, or was imitated 

 by his neighbour. Nor does magic disappear with the rise of skilled 

 handicraft. It may even be considered as prominent though somewhat 

 transfigured in the scientific mysticism of the third stage. Nor do the 

 rule of thumb handicrafts die out. We name each stage by its leading 

 distinctive feature. This remark will apply to all the distinctions to be 

 drawn in the following paragraphs. 



