210 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



[chap. 



I propose 

 to call 

 them the 

 cosmic 

 sciences. 



ParaUel- 

 ism of the 

 abstract 

 and the 

 cosmic 

 sciences. 



Its ground. 



Gradation 

 of pheno- 

 mena from 

 the vastest 

 to the 

 smallest. 



on any one set of natural laws, but on a vast compli- 

 cation of tlieni — dynamical, thermal, chemical, and even 

 vital ; for we know that limestone and coal are organic 

 products. 



I propose to call the sciences now under consideration 

 the cosmic sciences, in opposition to those enumerated 

 above, which are abstract ones. The subject-matter of an 

 abstract science is a particular group of laws, under what- 

 ever conditions or on whatever scale they may act : thus 

 the motions of a star, the swinging of a pendulum, and 

 the rotations of a gyroscope, all belong equally to dynamics. 

 The subject-matter of a cosmic science, on the contrary, is 

 a particular group of phenomena which may have no con- 

 nexion except that they are found together : thus geology 

 includes alike the theory of volcanoes, which (in my 

 opinion at least, and I believe I am on the side of the 

 best authorities) is entirely to be referred to the laws 

 of force and heat, and the theory of the formation of 

 coral islands, Avliich is a vital process, thoiigh controlled 

 by physical agencies. 



But, though the series of the abstract sciences and 

 that of the cosmic sciences are not coincident, there is 

 a kind of approximate parallelism between them. We 

 have seen that the series of the abstract sciences begins 

 with the simplest and most general laws, and goes on to 

 the more complex and special ones. The series of the 

 cosmic sciences, in like manner, begins with the simplest 

 and vastest phenomena, and goes on to the more complex 

 and less vast ones. The parallelism between the two series 

 rests on the fact — ^which, as now expressed, is almost an 

 identical proposition — that the most general laws, which 

 are also the simplest, are those which act on the widest 

 scale; so that there is a series of phenomena from the 

 widest to the minutest, parallel to the series of laws from 

 the most general to the most special. The simplest and 

 most general of the laivs of nature are those of dynamics ; 

 the simplest and vastest of the ijlicnomcna of nature are 

 tliose of the celestial motions, Avhicla altogether depend on 

 dynamical laws. All other phenomena are almost infinitely 



