COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



point. For in none of the concrete sciences is 

 there anything like thorough and systematic 

 prevision, save in astronomy ; and even in as- 

 tronomy our foresight becomes precarious as 

 soon as we pass beyond the solar system, and 

 begin to inquire into the results of the mutual 

 gravitation of the innumerable stellar bodies. 

 We know that our sun is rushing, with immense 

 velocity, toward the constellation Hercules ; but 

 we cannot yet trace his orbit, as Kepler traced 

 the orbit of Mars. When we come to biology 

 and psychology, the power of accurate prevision 

 is very small ; yet no one denies that the phe- 

 nomena of life and intelligence conform to fixed 

 and ascertainable laws. In sociology we must 

 expect still less ability to predict. The truth is, 

 as Comte acutely pointed out, that while in the 

 simpler sciences our object is gained if we can 

 foretell the course of phenomena so as to be 

 able to regulate our actions by it, in the more 

 complex sciences our object is gained when we 

 have generalized the conditions under which 

 phenomena occur so as to be able to make our 

 volitions count for something in modifying 

 them. We cannot modify astronomic pheno- 

 mena, but we can predict them. We cannot pre- 

 dict, save to a limited extent, biologic pheno- 

 mena ; but knowing more and more thoroughly 

 the conditions under which they occur, we can 

 more and more skilfully modify them so as to 

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