THE SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



lishment of sub-classes of phenomena, that are 

 continually less and less widely contrasted, that 

 are more and more accurately defined in their 

 limits, and more and more coherent in their 

 materials. And the ultimate perfection of know- 

 ledge would be the recognition of all the dis- 

 tinctions which exist between phenomena, and 

 the consequent establishment of classes whose 

 members would be completely alike among 

 themselves, while unlike the members of all 

 other classes. Manifestly such knowledge would 

 be, in the fullest sense of the term, scientific 

 knowledge ; which is thus seen to be merely a 

 higher and more complex development not only 

 of the knowledge of ordinary matters which we 

 do not regard as scientific, but of the rudimen- 

 tary knowledge possessed by infants, by sav- 

 ages, and by the lower animals. The dog or 

 lion has no doubt established in his mind the 

 distinction between the bright sky of day, illu- 

 minated by a single dazzling orb, and the pale 

 sky of night, spangled with a multitude of twin- 

 khng points. The savage who in his nocturnal 

 prowlings guides himself by the stars has rudely 

 classified these objects in their relations of posi- 

 tion. The shepherds of Mesopotamia and the 

 agriculturists of Attika superadded the distinc- 

 tions between stars which regularly traverse the 

 same apparent paths and stars which pursue an 

 erratic course; and in their classifications of 



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