COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



in chemistry or physics, where the conditions 

 are simpler. Having learned from these sci- 

 ences the general theory of sound experiment- 

 ing, we may afterward safely proceed to apply 

 the same method to vital phenomena. 



The additional implement possessed by the 

 organic sciences is comparison, to which corre- 

 sponds the Method of Concomitant Variations, 

 already described. It is true we can also employ 

 this method to a large extent in the simpler 

 sciences, but it is in biology that it attains its 

 maximum efficiency. Here we have a series of 

 instances already prepared for us by Nature, in 

 which certain antecedents and consequents vary 

 together. We have a vast hierarchy of organ- 

 isms, each exhibiting some organ and the cor- 

 responding function more or less developed 

 than it is in the others. To trace the functions 

 of the nervous system, or to follow the pro- 

 cess of digestion, in its increasing complication, 

 from the star-fish up to man, is to employ the 

 logical method of comparison. And if any one 

 wishes to realize the immense power of this 

 method, let him reflect upon the revolution 

 which was wrought in the science of biology 

 when Lamarck and Cuvier began the work of 

 comparison upon a large scale. 



Hence it is that biology is eminently the 

 science of classification ; and if skill in the use 

 of this powerful auxiliary of thought is to be 

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