224 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



[chap. 



Mathe- 

 matics. 



orifiiiial condition of its commencement, but a late result 

 of its progress. 



In the second place, it is only an approximation to the 

 truth to say that the early development of a science 

 depends on the simplicity and generality of its subject- 

 Whatthe matter. AVhat really causes a science to be developed 

 orf In of ^^I'ly i^ partly the accessibility of the facts which consti- 

 a science tute its data, and partly the obviousness of its fundamental 

 on!"^^ conceptions. This, I think, is as nearly true as a general 

 statement of the kind can be. It is very interesting to 

 observe that the early development of a science does not 

 appear to be in any degree prevented by the elaborateness 

 and intricacy of the reasoning processes which it requires. 

 Thus, there is no other science in Avhich the reasoning 

 processes are so elaborate and intricate as in mathematics, 

 and yet it was the first among the sciences, with the 

 exception of logic, that attained to any high development: 

 the reasons of this evidently are, that the facts which 

 constitute its data are perfectly accessible, and its funda- 

 mental conceptions very obvious. This is especially true 

 Geometry of the geometrical branch of mathematics. The data of 

 alsebra. algebra, like those of geometry, are perfectly accessible; 

 but its fundamental conceptions are not so obvious as 

 those of geometry, and consequently it was later in being 

 Cliemistiy. developed. The fundamental conceptions of chemistry, on 

 the contrary, are so obvious as to present no difficulty 

 whatever ; but its data are not very easy of access, because 

 they do not lie open to observation, but have to be sought 

 out by experiment : and the same remark applies to all 

 the experimental sciences. It is sufficiently obvious, that 

 Sciences of if the other difficulties are equal, a science of obser- 

 tio^uare vation will necessarily make earlier progress than one of 

 easier than experiment. This is not so much because experiment is 

 experi- laborious, as because in the infancy of a science there is 

 ment. hardly anything to guide it ; it is a mere searching in the 

 dark. It would have needed more than human ingenuity 

 to devise, d priori and all at once, a set of experiments to 

 discover the composition of water : while it is compara- 

 tively easy to examine the anatomy of a limb, or to 



