PHILOSOPHY AS AN ORGANON 



first datum for such a science, and in all prob- 

 ability shall never obtain that datum. Until 

 we have ascertained the distance, and calculated 

 the proper motion, of at least one or two fixed 

 stars, we cannot be certain even that the law of 

 gravitation holds in these distant regions. And 

 the distance of a star we shall probably never 

 be able even approximately to estimate. Thus 

 wrote Comte in 1835. But events > with almost 

 malicious rapidity, falsified his words. In less 

 than four years, Bessel had measured the paral- 

 lax of the star 6 1 Cygni, — the first of a bril- 

 liant series of discoveries which by this time 

 have made the starry heavens comparatively 

 familiar ground to us. What would Comte's 

 scorn have been, had it been suggested to him 

 that within a third of a century we should pos- 

 sess many of the data for a science of stellar 

 chemistry ; that we should be able to say, for 

 instance, that Aldebaran contains sodium, mag- 

 nesium, calcium, iron, bismuth, and antimony, 

 or that all the stars hitherto observed with the 

 spectroscope contain hydrogen, save (3 Pegasi 

 and a Orionis, which apparently do not ! Or 

 what would he have said, had it been told him 

 that, by the aid of the same instrument which 



characteristics of certain observed or inferred redistributions of 

 the matter and motion already existing. The latter attempt is 

 as clearly within the limits of a scientific philosophy as the 

 former is clearly beyond them. 



93 



