ch. viii.] ORGANIZATION OF TEE SCIENCES. 211 



very backward science, — more backward even than sociology, 

 of which the phenomena are far more complex. 



According to Mr. Spencer, phenomena are also generalized 

 early in proportion as they directly affect human welfare. 

 But this circumstance would appear to have far less potency 

 than the others above enumerated. There is, of course, no 

 doubt that men will earliest study those subjects which most 

 obviously concern them; but whether their study will be 

 fruitful or not depends, as it seems to me, upon the other 

 factors in the case, above enumerated. I doubt if there is 

 any instance in which this factor has actually overruled the 

 other factors, as these have continually overruled each other. 

 Sociology is the science which, more than all others, would 

 seem to have direct practical bearings upon human v> elfare ; 

 yet, although men have studied social phenomena since the 

 days of Plato, they have but lately arrived at any scientific 

 generalizations concerning them. The daily changes of 

 weather are more obviously concerned w 7 ith human interests 

 than the geological succession of extinct animals and vege- 

 tables ; yet our scientific knowledge of palaeontology, though 

 unsatisfactory enough, is yet far more advanced than our 

 scientific knowledge of meteorology. No doubt men will 

 soonest endeavour to understand the phenomena which most 

 intimately concern them ; but the order in which they will 

 come to understand them will depend upon the simplicity, 

 the concreteness, the conspicuousness, and the frequency of 

 the phenomena, and upon the number and perfection of the 

 implements of investigation which are at command. Indeed, 

 from one point of view, it may be urged that direct com- 

 plicity with human interests is often a hindrance to the 

 scientific investigation of phenomena. Doubtless the dis- 

 interested calmness with which remote mathematical and 

 physical inquiries are prosecuted is one secret • of their 

 success. As Hobbes remarked, with keen sarcasm, "even 

 the axioms of geometry would be disputed if men's passions 



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