ORGANIZATION OF THE SCIENCES 



ences — as indeed its name curiously hints to 

 us — and sociology the youngest. No doubt 

 the movements of masses, of which astronomy 

 and physics treat, were correctly formulated 

 sooner than the combinations of heterogeneous 

 molecules, which form the subject-matter of 

 chemistry. And no doubt the science of inor- 

 ganic phenomena as a whole is more complete 

 than the science of organic phenomena. All 

 this must be admitted. Yet if we examine 

 more closely into the matter, we shall discover 

 grave errors in this classification which looked 

 so fair to us on a cursory inspection. We shall 

 notice first that in many points of fundamental 

 importance it does not faithfully represent the 

 order of historic progression ; and when we 

 come to inquire into the reason of this failure, 

 we shall find that the classification errs from its 

 very simplicity, that the facts to be arranged are 

 too complex and heterogeneous to admit of 

 any such facile linear arrangement. 



In the first place the historical relations be- 

 tween astronomy and physics have been mis- 

 stated by Comte, and he has marked out the 

 province of physics after a fashion that is, at the 

 present day, completely indefensible. To class 

 together the science which treats of weight and 

 pressure, and the sciences which treat of light, 

 heat, and electricity, and to refer to the whole 

 under the general appellation of Physics, is to 



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