. 



CLASSIFICATION OF SCIENCES 115 



or may be, just as scientific as any other depart- 

 ment; it is so in direct proportion to the sound- 

 ness of its scientific foundations in Chemistry, 

 Botany, Zoology, Geology, Biology, and the 

 like, and in direct proportion to its own scientific 

 industry, but not even its most enthusiastic 

 devotees will maintain that it aims directly at 

 adding to the sciences on which it is based. It 

 has begun to repay its debts, but not deliberately. 

 It is a fine example of an "Applied Science." 



Many other examples might be given, such as 

 the Science of Education and the Science of 

 Engineering, both of which appear to us to be 

 "Applied Sciences," intermediate between a 

 general or a particulate science (a "pure science") 

 on the one hand and one of the Arts or Crafts 

 on the other. Their obviously distinctive feature 

 is that they contain a large body of knowledge 

 definitely orientated towards a practical purpose. 



THE INTEREST OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF 

 THE SCIENCES. It may seem to some that, for a 

 small book of this sort, too much space has 

 been given to a very "academic" question, that 

 of the classification of the sciences. But may 

 we briefly indicate its real interest, (a) Perhaps 

 it does not matter very much which classification 

 is adopted, the important thing is to have in the 

 mind some classification which one has made one's 

 own. It is not merely that we should put our 



