SECTION 20. STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 185 



research, are, at best, true and useful for practical purposes 

 only." 1 



The fundamental thought incorporated in this Conclusion 

 should even guide those who are desirous of acquiring a know- 

 ledge of the sciences. As Comte points out: "Physicists who 

 have not first studied Astronomy, at least under its general 

 aspect; chemists who, before applying themselves to their special 

 science, have not previously studied Astronomy and then Physics; 

 physiologists who have not prepared themselves for their special 

 labours by a preliminary study of Astronomy, Physics, and 

 Chemistry: all these lack one of the fundamental conditions of 

 their intellectual development. This is still more evident in the 

 case of students who wish' to devote themselves to the positive 

 study of Social phenomena, without having in the first place 

 acquired a general knowledge of Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, 

 and Physiology." (The Fundamental Principles, etc., p. 59.) 

 Truly, as we have seen, all the sciences, arts, and crafts grow 

 to be intimately and organically connected. 2 



CONCLUSION 6. 

 Need of Shunning Vagueness and Over-Subtlety in an Enquiry. 



80. Every attempt to fasten in haste on an observation, 

 or for the matter of that on a proposition, and lose oneself 

 therein, is fatal to rapid progress. Where, therefore, a problem is 

 not definite in character, it should be approached and attacked 

 from a score of points, and rather than plunge into subtleties* 

 the problem, as in craniology, 3 for instance, should be waived 



1 "Words, being commonly framed and applied according to the capacity 

 of the vulgar, follow those lines of division which are most obvious to the 

 vulgar understanding. And whenever an understanding of greater acuteness 

 or a more diligent observation would alter those lines to suit the true 

 divisions of nature, words stand in the way and resist the change." (Bacon, 

 Novum Organum, bk. 1, 59.) "The rational school of philosophers snatches 

 from experience a variety of common instances, neither duly ascertained 

 nor diligently examined and weighed, and leaves all the rest to meditation 

 and agitation of wit." (Ibid., bk. 1, 62.) 



2 On reflection, it will become evident that an astronomer who is ignorant 

 of everything except astronomy, is likely to make grave mistakes as a con- 

 sequence. The recently developed problems relating to astro-physics, astro- 

 chemistry, and what one may call astro-biology, illustrate this. In addition, 

 the question of the personal equation including health, and that of compre- 

 hending others and communicating to them intelligibly his researches, involve 

 a corresponding knowledge of biology and specio-physics. We may proceed 

 even further, and point out the need, not only of the astronomer being 

 initiated into the mysteries of the life of practice, but of the practical man 

 and the artist not being neophytes in the domain of science. In fine, sober 

 thought suggests that every man, whatever his speciality, should be highly 

 cultured in the fullest sense of the word. 



3 The following quotation from Dr. A. C. Haddon's History of Anthropology, 

 1910, well illustrates to what length uncontrolled specialism leads: "Dr.Hagen 



