Whatever we know must be in the number of the primitive
data, or of the conclusions which can be drawn therefrom.--
J.S. Mill
To have reached, in the study of observed phenomena, the point of
perception indicated in this motto, and to feel the full force of the
remark, is to have imbibed the spirit of science---whose traits are dear
distinctions, accurate classification, and strict reference to primitive
data. The bases of all science are methodical facts. The first step to
the perfection and enlargement of a science is the resolution of its
propositions into axioms, and into propositions which are to be
proved. Dr. Reid observes--'This has been done in mathematics from the
beginning, and has tended greatly to the emolument of that science.
It has lately been done in natural philosophy, and by this means that
science has advanced more in 160 years than it had done before in 2,000.
Every science is in an unformed state until its first principles are
ascertained; after this it advances regularly, and secures the ground it
has gained.'
Classification is one of the first steps to Science. The maxim in
government, divide and conquer, retains, when applied to science, all
its wisdom without its machiavelialism. The young grammarian reduces the
mass of words, that so threaten to confound his powers, to a few natural
classes, and he conquers them separately with ease.
'The single power by which we discover resemblance or relation in
general, is a sufficient aid to us in the perplexity and confusion of
our first attempts at arrangement. It begins by converting thousands,
and more than thousands, into one; and, reducing in the same manner
the numbers tiros formed, it arrives at last at the few distinctive
characters of those great comprehensive tribes, on which it ceases to
operate, 'because there is nothing left to oppress the memory or the
understanding.'*
* Brown's Moral Philosophy, Lect, xvi.
Merell has spoken more comprehensively on this subject--'That human
knowledge dees not consist in the bare collection and enumeration of
facts; this alone would be of little service were we net to attempt the
classification of them, and to educe from such classification general
laws and principles. The knowledge, which consists in individual truths,
could never be either extensive ear definite--for the multiplicity of
objects which then must crowd in upon the mind only tends to confound
and perplex it, while the memory, overburdened with particulars, is not
able to retain a hundredth part of the materials which are collected. To
prevent this, the power el generalisation comes to our aid, by which the
individual facts are so classified under their proper conceptions, that
they may at the same time be more easily retained, and their several
relations to all other branches of knowledge accurately defined. The
colligation and classification of facts, then, we may regard as the two
first steps, which are to be taken in the attainment of truth.'*
Aristotle, says Morell, classified the _matter_, Kant the _forms_.
Aristotle was the first man who undertook the gigantic task of reducing
the multiplicity of all the objects of human knowledge to a few general
heads---1. Substance. 2. Quality. 3. Quantity. 4. Relation. Action.
6. Passion. 7. Place. 8. Time. 9. Posture. 10. Habit. Aristotle's
philosophy was _objective_, Kant's _subjective_. Kant's categories were
twelve. 1. Unity. 2. Plurality. 3. Totality. 4. Affirmation. Negation.
6. limitation. 7. Substance. 8. Casualty. 9. Reciprocity. 10.
Possibility. 11. Actuality. 12. Necessity.
'It is a fundamental principle in logic, that the power of framing
classes is unlimited as long as there is any (even the smallest)
difference to found a distinction upon.**
What Geoffroy Saint Hilaire has said of natural history is applicable
to all science:--'The first problem to be solved by him who wishes to
penetrate deeply into this; study, consists evidently in the formation
of clear and precise distinctions between the various brings. This is
the most elementary problem, in so-far as it precedes all the
others; but it is in reality, in most cases, complicated and full of
difficulties. Its accurate solution requires--first, _Observation_,
which makes known the facts; next, _Description_, which fixes them
permanently; then _Characterisation_, which selects and displays
prominently the most important of them--and lastly, _Classification_,
which arranges them in systematic order.'***
Of the value of classification, Lamartine has given a fine
illustration:----'Montesquieu had sounded the institutions and analysed
the laws of all people. By _classing_ governments he had compared them,
by comparing them he passed judgment on them; and this judgment brought
out, in its bold relief and contrast, on every page, right and force,
privilege and equality, tyranny and liberty.'****
* Morell's Hist. of Speculative Phil., p. 34, vol. 1.
** Mill, p. 165, vol. 1.
*** T. W. Thornton: Reasoner No. 72, p. 664.
**** Lamartine's Hist. Girondists, pp. 14-15, vol. 1.
Familiarity with the characteristics of science imparts considerable
power for the detection of fallacy. A logician is imperfect without
scientific tastes and habits. The man of science has all his knowledge
systematised and arranged. What other people have in confusion, he
has in order. The elements of knowledge are, more or less, as has been
observed, known to all men--but in their perfect, communicable, and
usable state, they are-known only to the educated and scientific man.
What training is to the soldier, science is to the thinker. It enables
him to control all his resources and employ his natural powers to the
best advantage. It is this which constitutes the superiority of the
educated over the ignorant. Astronomy, navigation, architecture,
geometry, political economy, morals, all rest, or should rest, and do
rest, if they have-attained to the perfection of science, on
primary facts and first principles. Every step can be measured by an
axiom--every result can be traced to a first principle.* To detect
error, then, in any province of investigation, or any domain of
argument, the logician first looks to the primary principles on which it
is based, and thus tests the legitimacy of its conclusions.
As respects those who deal in things professedly above reason, It
was well said by an anonymous writer of the old school of sturdy
thinkers,--'Of such men as these I usually demand, whether their own
assent to things they would have us believe, be grounded upon some
_rational argument_. If they say 'tis not, they are fools to believe
it themselves; and I should add to the number of fools, if, after this
acknowledgment, I should believe them: but if they say it is, I desire
them to produce their argument; for since 'tis framed by a human
understanding, the force of it may also be comprehended and judged of
by a human understanding: and tis to no purpose to say that the subject
surpasses human reason: for if it do so indeed, it will surpass _theirs_
as well as _mine_, and so leave us both upon even terms. And let the
thing assented to be what it will, the assent itself must be founded
upon a _sufficient reason_, and consequently upon one that is
_intelligible_ to the human intellect that is wrought on by it.'**
* See Beauties and Uses of Euclid, chap. vi., Logic of
Euclid.
** A Discourse on Things above Reason, 1681.
"What is it?--" "'Tis impossible the same thing should be, and not be
at the same time," are maxims of such universal usefulness, that without
them we could neither _judge, discourse,_ nor _act_. These principles
may not always make their appearance in formal propositions, but still
they guide all our thoughts in the same manner as when a musician plays
a careless voluntary upon a harpsichord--he is guided by rules of music
he long since became familiar with, though now scarcely sensible of
them.
'A butcher loses his knife, and looks all about for it, and remarks as
the motive of his search, "I am sure it must be somewhere or other."
By which rude saying it is evident he is guided by the axiom last
mentioned. Had he not the knowledge of this axiom beforehand, did he
think it possible that his knife could be _no where_ or in _no place_
he would never take pains to look for it. We may observe many such
axioms as this guiding the actions of the vulgar, and it is no unworthy
speculation to observe their behaviour and words, which proceed from
uncorrupted nature, and retrieve the axioms from which their conduct
proceeds.'*
* Solid Philosophy, asserted against the Fancies of the
Idealists. (Locke's Understanding is the work controverted.)
By J. S.. London, 1679.
The outlines of the science of morality are thus comprehensively
sketched by Sir James Mackintosh: the origin, value, and application of
first principles are indicated with his usual felicity. 'The usages and
laws of nations, the events of history, the opinions of philosophers,
the sentiments of orators and poets, as well as the observations of
common life, are in truth, the materials out of which the science of
morality to formed; and those who neglect them are justly chargeable
with a vain attempt to philosophise without regard to fact and
experienee--the sole foundation of all true philosophy.
The natural order undoubtedly dictates that we should first search for
the _original principles_ of the science in human nature; then apply them
to the regulation of the conduct of individuals, and lastly employ them
for the decision of those difficult and complicated questions that arise
with respect to the intercourse of nations.'
To search for ultimate principles is to discover at a glance the whole
bearings of a great question. Through what clouds of politics had the
historian of Rome penetrated when he announced that the principles of a
free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is
nominated by the executive.
This habit--it cannot be too often insisted on aids not only the
acquisition of knowledge, but also its _retention_. Around these first
principles, as around a standard, the thoughts naturally associate.
Touch but a remote chord of any question, and it will vibrate to
the central principle to which it has once been well attached. Every
relative impression owns a kindred connection, and the moment one is
attacked, it, like a faithful sentinel, arouses a whole troop, which,
marshalled and disciplined, bear down and challenge the enemy.'*
* Beauties and Uses of Euclid, pp. 47-9.
What Rogers has so exquisitely sung of the associations of childhood, is
true of the associations of science.
Childhood's loved group revisit! every scene,--
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green.
The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses grey,
Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.
Mute is the bell which rang at peep of dawn,
Quick'ning my truant steps across the lawn:
Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air,
When the slow dial gave a pause to care.
Up springs at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendship formed and cherished here?
And not the lightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams.