224 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. l 



all along "been higher specialization, that there might he a 

 larger generalization ; and a deeper analysis, that there might 

 be a better synthesis. Each larger generalization has lifted 

 sundry specializations still higher; and each better synthesis 

 has prepared the way for still deeper analysis." Long before 

 Archimedes founded statics, the earliest branch of abstract- 

 concrete science, empirical generalizations had been made in 

 everyoneof the concrete sciences. Astronomy had accomplished 

 the preliminary task of classifying stars according to their 

 times of rising and setting, of tracing the apparent courses of 

 the planets, of determining the order of recurrence of lunar 

 eclipses, and of constructing chronological cycles. In geo- 

 logy some scanty progress had been made, in classifying the 

 physical features of the earth's surface, and in ascertaining 

 the properties of a limited number of minerals. In biology, 

 classification had been carried sufficiently far to enable an 

 acute observer, like Aristotle, to distinguish between the 

 selachians, or shark-tribe, and the bony fishes ; and a con- 

 siderable amount of anatomical and physiological know- 

 ledge had been acquired, as may be seen in the works of 

 Hippokrates. Even in psychology there had been made 

 a crude classification of the intellectual and emotional func- 

 tions ; and the " Politics " of Aristotle show us the statical 

 division of sociology already empirically organized. To 

 such a point had the synthetic concrete sciences arrived in 

 antiquity ; and this point they did not pass until the analytic 

 abstract-concrete sciences had furnished them with factors 

 with which to work. Astronomy must still remain in the 

 empirical stage until molar physics had generalized the 

 abstract laws of falling bodies, of the composition of forces, 

 and of tangential momentum. Geology could not advance 

 until molecular physics had supplied the general principles 

 of thermal radiation and conduction, of evaporation and pre- 

 cipitation, condensation and rarefaction. Biology was obliged 

 to wait until chemistry had thrown light upon the molecular 



