48 ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE 



II 



But, in an educational point of view, it is most 

 important to distinguish between the essence of a 

 science and the accidents which surround it ; and 

 essentially, the methods and results of Physiology 

 are as exact as those of Physics or Mathematics. 



It is said that the Physiological method is 

 especially comparative 1 ; and this dictum also finds 

 favour in the eyes of many. I should be sorry to 

 suggest that the speculators on scientific classifica- 

 tion have been misled by the accident of the name 

 of one leading branch of Biology Comparative 

 Anatomy ; but I would ask whether comparison, 

 and that classification which is the result of com- 

 parison, are not the essence of every science 

 whatsoever ? How is it possible to discover a 

 relation of cause and effect of any kind without 

 comparing a series of cases together in which the 

 supposed cause and effect occur singly, or combined ? 



1 "In the third place, we have to review the method of Com- 

 parison, which is so specially adapted to the study of living 

 bodies, and by which, above all others, that study must be 

 advanced. In Astronomy, this method is necessarily inapplic- 

 able ; and it is hot till we arrive at Chemistry that this third 

 means of investigation can be used, and then only in subordina- 

 tion to the two others. It is in the study, both statical and 

 dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its full develop- 

 ment ; and its use elsewhere can be only through its application 

 here." COMTE'S Positive Philosophy, translated by Miss Mar- 

 tineau. Vol. i. p. 372. 



By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or 

 inequality of forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or 

 similarity of forms points of some slight importance not only 

 in Astronomy and Physics, but even in Mathematics are 

 ascertained, if not by Comparison ? 



