I 
98 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Briefly, according to his system of philosophy, the sciences i 
would be arranged on the principle of proceeding from the simple 
to the complex, in the order of their comparative simplicity and 
complexity, each being sub-divided on the same principle. He 
places mathematics first, as the science of relative quantity only ; ' 
astronomy second, as a science dependent on mathematics for the 
calculation of quantities, but complicated with the phenomena ] 
presented by the heavenly bodies and the force of gravitation ; he \ 
places physics third, the pursuit of which science requires the aid ] 
of both the preceding ones ; chemistry fourth, as the next in order j 
of complexity ; biology fifth ; and lastly, the social science, as the \ 
most complicated of all, dependent as it is on all the other sciences J 
together, and so intricate in its nature, that though it must take 
its rank with the sciences, it is as yet but the shadow of a science, 
defying inquiry on scientific principles, and abiding its time in a 
state of confusion and random speculation. 
I have alluded to the philosophy of Comte — a philosophy which : 
I would not pretend to explain, or to accept, or to criticize — a > 
philosophy of great pretension, and an attempt, I conceive, to 
master difficulties lying beyond the grasp of a single human mind 
in our present state of education, merely to illustrate the tendency 
which I consider to be now apparent towards a systematic arrange- i 
ment of all the operations of our intellect with order and regu- " 
larity, a systematizing (this word is now much in use) that affords ! 
us some expectation of an approach to certainty. ; 
Doubt seems to me to be an element in our minds which I 
suggests the reverse of repose, and we feel impelled to seek the ' 
repose of mind that we desire in certainty. Alternate states of 
activity and repose are highly pleasurable to us as they succeed j 
one another in every phase of our life, constituting one of the j 
contrasts which afford us the enjoyment that we experience. We 
have contrived many devices from time to time for the sake of | 
attaining mental repose, many, I will venture to say, which have ' 
proved most delusive; but I think there is an impulse in our j 
minds now to be observed, a characteristic of the intellectual ^ 
progress of the day, which promises to direct us towards the way ! 
out, not of our difficulties, but of those difficulties which agitate 
and distress us, and to enable us to take some rest in certainty. \ 
If this be" so, if the tendency of modern thought is in the j 
direction that I have indicated, if order and system in detail are i 
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