THE ANALOGY OF THE SCIENCES. PROEM. 723. The universal system, of which we have attempted the analysis in our First Part, having been therein resolved into Disciplines, in regard to principles ; Sciences, in respect to relations; and Arts, in reference to Ends; and we having, in our Second Part, traced, in natural order, distinct outlines of the Disciplines which are instrumental to, and first in, the Series of Science, and involve with the Mathesis the two great branches of Logical and Philological, or subjective and representative science, we proceed, in this Third Part, to sketch, in like order, Outlines of the various Physiological or Objective Sciences successively, as physical, sensible, and moral, under the denominations of Physics, Esthetics, and Ethics; and first of Physics, which succeed in immediate relation to Mechanics, the last of the Mathematical Disciplines. 724. By having thus disposed of Logic and Philology, in the form of Disciplines, we have excluded their dependent branches from the series of the sciences, and limited the scope of the latter to the physiological sciences; but it is sufficient to have marked their positions; and all that is essential to our design is the developement and illustration of the universal form and connexion of infinite science, as a guide to a like unfolding of every particular science; when, having done which in its chief branches, our present intention will have been accomplished, and the way opened to a more extended, correct, and entire developement and making out of the whole. 725. Should the setting forth of the rudiments of the Sciences in these Outlines fail to afford satisfaction to proficients therein, or to those who seek more extended information in any of their branches, we may plead, in justification, that to have adapted the Sciences to especial purposes would have been a departure from our design, and a sacrifice of the more principal object, of rendering them generally omprehensible in their universal relations and connexion, for the advancement of the whole. 726. And if any inquiring mind, accomplished in many sciences, should experience disappointment that some sciences, which he has been accustomed to regard as principal in the established ranks of science, are neither to be found in our series as genera, nor as simple species of the great body of science, we may truly plead that such sciences have been raised to the first relations of importance, and not of science, by the peculiar circumstances and necessities which have called them forth; that all sciences are tributary, immediately or remotely, to every science, whence many of them have become artificially and extensively compounded, according to expedience, without regard to natural order and actual relations ; and that what is chiefly wanting in this respect is a rule and principle, such as we have attempted to supply, whereby we may securely analyze any of the established forms of science, and exhibit their natural relations; and as to those who seek extent of science in any other view, we can but refer them to the great fund of literature; or, failing there, and as a last resort, to the exhaustless stores of nature, reflection, and experiment. 727. Our chief and incumbent endeavour has been to render no individual science or subject principal, but to assign to every one its place, in subordination to the supremacy of the whole; and our greatest difficulty - a difficulty, too, which, if – we overcome, we shall incur those individual reprehensions which we may escape by failing — has been, not to say all we might have worthily and originally said upon each particular branch of science, but as little only as might serve general purpose. 728. Science is essentially theoretical ; and he our who pursues science as practical deviates from its chief office into art; and, however useful his performance may prove, he has yet performed in error; and it is to this that we owe the confusion, and many artificial and isolic forms of science, and the frequent contempt of practical men for reasoning and just speculation. 729. So intimately is every part of science related to the whole, that each science may be regarded as the centre of all knowledge, and the universe may be subordinated to every subject; nor can there be any objection to such a mode of regarding it, under due and expedient limitation, when it becomes the principal subject of a distinct treatise. 730. Now, although no one can analyze a subject which he does not comprehend and understand, yet to treat thus principally of any individual science or subject, so as fully to satisfy the mind accomplished therein, would require a depth, extent, and excellence of knowledge, and a long and elaborate discipline and practice therein, that would, if we are not mistaken, disqualify any finite mind for the task of universal arrangement, and for that impartial and uncoloured perception, which an entire and philosophic survey of science demands. 731. For it has been by overshooting the boundaries of particular sciences that the learned have hitherto failed to produce a balanced whole thereof, in which each principal branch bears its equal and appropriate part. And although flourishing shoots have at different seasons sprung from the soil of science, they have failed to afford the stately plant which, occupying the entire ground, draws the whole nourishment of the root, and by a single stem supports all its branches. 732. It is, however, no just reproach to the current sciences, that they have not always observed a due boundary, or taken a right station, and the simple, invariable forms of nature; since these, like the arts, must accommodate themselves in all ages to the wants of society, and to each other : nor do we, therefore, impugn the utility and vast importance of many of the conventional and complex forms of instituted sciences, of which the natural sciences are nevertheless the roots, and of which we have thence attempted a catalogue in a tabular view, coinciding and in connexion with our general Synopsis. 733. It remains, then, to this third part of our design, to trace the Outlines of PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, according to the three branches of Physics, ESTHETICS, and Ethics, Chemical, Vegetal, Animal. Plastic, Chromatic, Harmonic. Moral, Political, and Theological. And their dependent branches, which, taken altogether, are so far universal, that they comprehend all objective science between the extremes of the lowest matter and the highest mind, and include |