200 • COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pi. i. 



of course recognize a large amount of historic truth. There 

 can be no doubt that anthropomorphic conceptions soonest 

 disappear from those departments of science which are earliest 

 constituted and most rapidly developed. Nor can there be 

 any doubt that in a vague and general way the Comtean 

 arrangement represents, or at any rate suggests, the historic 

 order of progression. No doubt mathematics is the oldest of 

 the sciences — 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 formu- 

 lated sooner than the combinations of heterogeneous mole- 

 cules, which form the subject-matter of chemistry. And no 

 doubt the science of inorganic 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 progres- 

 sion ; 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 com- 

 plex and heterogeneous to admit of any such facile linear 

 arrangement. 



In the first place the historical relations between 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 prepare the way for statements which are too general to 

 be accurate. In contrasting physics with astronomy, how- 

 ever, Comte is careful to let us know that he intends tc 

 designate that physics which deals with the phenomena o' 



