The economy of the animal kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically

발행: 1846년

분량: 540페이지

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TAE IIIJ II AN FORII. XXXI

wide but single provinces of experience With One Volce confirmit. But in proportion as a principie is univerSal, it respouis rank, Order or gradation, in the experienee it restS Upon; COmmunicating With the senses by just and successive intermediates; nnil does not talio decisions by majorities and minorities of instances; because in this proportion it has ali experienco in iis faVOr, not, hoWever, in the Way of acclamation, but as gatheredfrom the mouilis of those cardinal facts Whicli alone can repressent ali experionee. Wo have atready shewn that unlimited an atomy belongsrather to philosophy than to the separate aris and sciences, be-CRUSe philoSophy alone can use it. But it is manifest thalanatomy even thus is an applied science, and receives limiis, OrWhat amounts to the sume thing, acquires a peculiar eXtenSion,

philosophy determines linoWledge to human ministrations, and the more internat iis sphere and unlimited iis range, the more it inhabiis and destres the microcosui. For time and Spaeo Rre essentialty limited, but tho human form in iiself is infinite :honco it is that Which gives limits to nature, Whieli contains itat cithor end, in the bosom of Whicli the universe mOVOS, brenthes, and is . Thus creation relativelv to humanitu is noti ess but more than the World Os nature. This is the reason Whyphilosophy consisis in the apprehension Os human usos in ullthings, and Why everything suggesis humanity to the philosophicat spirit. For When We look upon science With this regarit, We extraet iis determinod and real essenee, and in recogniZing that Whicli is greatest sor iis, We recognige that Whicli is theexpress and sole image of the absolutely greatest.'It is triae that scienco noud not bu Christian ; it may claima freedom incompatibio With submission to a divine idea, and like the wiud blow Where it lisis, preferring to commune With

AS the pomer and skill of a workmati are seen in his Works, but not his perSon, SO the works of God express the wisdom and omnipotence of the creator, Without the least representation of his imago. And in this particular, the opinion Ofthe heatheus dissered froin the sacred verity ; as supposing the woi Id to be the imageos God, and man a litile image of the worid. The scripture never gives the WOrid that honor ; but calis it the work of his hands ; making only man the image of GOd. V Bacon, Advincernent of Learning, ' section iii.)

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then becomes reatly Obnoxio us and insulting.

limiten or determinate exhibition Os the creative posser, Where infinite uses are portrayed With the greatest amount Os realigation. It is an atom or unit in Whicli nnture is seen more easilythan in the generat universe, or in any inferior organio Subjeci: iis HSes are plainer than any Other, because it is the ultimateuse of creation. Although a microcosm, yet it leads to no partiat vieWs of the macrocosm, but to totai vieWs, Whicli hoWeverare sussiciently concentraten to bo gathored up Within the book and volume of the brain. Moreovor it is the declared image os God both in the sensibiu and rational spheres. Aud is We studyit methodically, far Dom dissipating our ideas in the intense

inane,'' it ensiles iis to reduce them to contiguity and mutuat relationship, and to convolute them On each Other, and so in Our OUn miniis to produce space and nearnes s at Once, Whicli is the prerogative of organi ged knowledge, as Os ali organi gation :

We think it wid appear, the more it is considered, that human anatomy and comparative anatomy are distinet sciences, and that notwithstanding they are Obviousty connected, the lalter ought no more tO gOvern the former, than chemistry togovern phySiology, Or mathematicS, physios. Otherwise the types and formulas oforganigation mill be gathered froin the lowest instances instead of the highest, and the Ρrocrustean homologies of the naturalisis Will cui down the human form to the levet of the star-fisti. Besides whicli Lamarck's hypothesis os developments Will continue to haunt the temple of human natural history, Dorn whicli it ought to bebanished for ever, for it defites the craille of Our race.

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to malle the ends of the earth contiguous Without destroyingilio intermediates that lie belWeen them : to represent numero usand labyrinthine means by a seW and simple principies : in laci, to accommodato science to the shOrtness of lise, and to the conditions of a boing Who is to aut for himself, not in Obedience tothe contingeticies of nature, but morally and intelligently ac- cording to his oWn constitution. Nor Will the study land iis in anthropomorphiSm, as Some Scrupulous persons dread, for itenda by regarding man Dom his persections alone, in Whichphilosophy can recognige no disserence belWeen human and

divine.

finity of Which Seneca says : Ubi aliquid animus diu protulit,

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et, magnitudinem ejus sequendo, lassatus est, infinitum coepit Vocari '' We cannot solve the human form, Where the end of creation is distinctly announced, and 8o We hurry to other 8hapes, Where the end is but dimiy visible. Thus We are accu

stili unacquainted With human physiology. of the spirituous fluid, and iis circulation, Whicli is the circle of lila; of theautomatio motion of the brain, or iis animation; of the influence of respiration upon the System generally; of the propermotioris of the Organs, they know Jess than Dothing. And intotheir study of animais they impori as much active linoWledge, as much poWer of deduction, as they have acquired froni the human body; and not a particle more. Their ignoratice of theleading moments in physical man, is pro tanto ignorance of the esse ce of life and movement in ali below him. The grandcategories are Wanting, and classification becomes impossibie. Τhe suggestive linoWledge is not given, and the lolidest indica

It is doubisul Whother the moderns, after Bacon, do notmisapprehend the nature of the a posteriori method, particularly as applied to the sciences Os organigation; and whether they have not come to thirili, that thu lo er objects of thesesciences should be investigated besore the higher.' At any

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ORDER OF STUD YIΝG ΤHE SCIENCES. XXXV

rato thoy Would devel op human after comparative physiology :is for no bellor re ason than that they cannot penetrate thelium an frame, and are tirod of sitiing do vii buforo it. Yot thoa posteriori method does not thias rogard the order of facts among them solves, but the Order of facts relatively to causes: the relation of experienee to reason in g, or the proper Weight

constitute iis value. The lo est generaligations , untd explained by and resolved into the middie principies, of Whicli they are the consequences, have only the imperfeci accu- racy of empirical laws ; While the most generat laws are too generat, and include toO DWcircumstances to give susticient indication of what happens in individual cases, where the circumstances are almost alWays immensely numeroUS. In the importance, theresore, Whicli Bacon assigns in every science to the middie principies, it is impossibie not to agree With him. But Ι conceive him to have been radicatly wrong in his doctrine respecting the mode in Whicli these axiomata media Ahould be arrived at; although there is no one proposition in his Wortis for Which he has been SO eXtravagantly eulogized. He enunciates res an universal rule that induction Ahould proceed froin the lowest to the middie principies, and Doni those to the highegi, never reversing that order, and consequently leaving no roOm for the discOvery Os neW principies by Way of deduction ut all. It is not to be conceived that a man Of Bacon's sagaci ty could have fallen into this mistine, is there had existed in his time, among

the sciences which treat os successive phenomena, one single deductive Science, SuchaS mechani CS, RStronomy, Opties, aeOustios, &c., noW are. In those Selences it is

Which Were asterWarus recogniged as the most generat trullis of the Science, Were, Osali iis accurate generaligations, those earliest arrived ut. Bacon 'S greatest merit, therelare, cannot consist, as We are SO osten told thatit did, in exploding the violous method pursued by the ancients of ssying to thehighest generalietations first, and deducing the middie principies Dom them ; Sincethis is nei ther a victous nor an exploded method, but the universalty accredited method of modern science, and that to whicli it owes iis greatest triumphs.' op. Cit., ' Vol. iii., Pp. 73, 74.

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Whicli tho senses should have in determining the mind. For in the a posteriori method there is an image of the method a priori,inasmuch as leading facts are the 1irst that can be used, undother facts are considered afterWards. Ρrincipes facts are thesrst materials of the a posteriori method, as principies of facts are, of the a priori.' The a posteriori method does not obligeus to begin in the circumferetices Os nature, and Work in Ward sto the centro; sor both history, and a just examination os that method, shew that it demand A the very contrary procedure. It was for Want of attending to this faci, that the circulation ofilio blood Was not discovered by the earlier anatomisis. Is instead os solioWing the vel iis and arteries, and ronming about in the body, they had sxed their regards upon the heari, utitii themechanicia means there exhibited, and the various facts potnting to the centre, Were dialy accounted sor, the doctrine os Harvey might have been the doctrine of Aristolle. But they

being much more difficuli thau bodily labor. Even hau no

FOr the fame reason that the ancients Were unaequainted Withthe systemio and pulmonio circulati OnS, the moderns are ignorant of the proper cardiac circulation. They exhaust the uses

of tho heari in propelling the blood through the body, passinglightly over the question, hoW the circulation of the heari it selsis maintained. In shori, having reached the centre, they desertit again us fasi as possibie, and malle it an appendage to a partos the circumserenoes; so that the heart depends for iis life-blood on iis oWn artery, V and nos vice versa. But Without pur- suing this subjeci, We are content to indicate that SWede borg's course is consistently opposite to that just described. Τhus hedeclares that the cineritious substance is Our potui os departure

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suid must be explored, is We Would explore aught olso in thebody ;' that the doctrine of the blood is the sirst to bo statud, although tho last that can bo completed that the organs os

generation ure incomprehensi ble, utiless the foui, Whicli is thoprincipat cause, Whereos those organs are the instrumentul

cati master iis leading intersections.' The fame idea, dulycarried oui, Will tend to fhew, that the highest branch os natural knowledge, or the doctrine of society, is the key to the other sciences. On the above head Lord Bacon remariis, that asno perseet vieW Of a country can be taken upon a sal; so it is impossibie to discover the remote and deep paris of any Science, by standing upon the levet of the fame science; Or Without ascending to a higher.'' From Whicli it Would appear that tho evolution of the highest science is requisite a priori, to give liseaud validity to the whole rem uinder of knowledge. Historicatly also the greatest trullis are alWays the SOOnest indicateil; as the germ, Whicli involves the future being potentialty and spiritually, precedes the organigation and the materialbody. Thus theology is older than philosophy, and philosophythan science. Thus the circulation of the animal spiriis Wasadmitted sor ages besoro that of the red blood was known.''Τhus language wears the print of natural truths of high significancy, Which Were in the world besore the sciences Were culti- Vated. Thus in human generation, Whicli corresponds to the advent of neW truth, the head is the sirst-b Orn member, or is

otherWise, tho birili is difficuli or impossibio. And in this maniter it is that the heads of sciences and philosophies are the

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earli est givon, although they are the last paris sor culture ando ducation to realige.'

Because that Which is the first to be perceived and stated is necessarily the lastio be completed, there re Μ. Comie, in his OtherWise admirable view of the progressos physical science, concludes, that the greatest trullis of ali are fictions, since theylime never Fet attained a proper scientific validity. This is rasti, and partakes of that Speculative mind which Μ. Comte professes to abjure. As V knowledge is the imageos existence ' so the theorem os iis progress may be illustraled by the growth of the OutWard man ; for example, of the human embryo or child. For the career Ofine race is but the career of a great individual. Νow in the insant, the head is ofeXtraordinary fige compared with the Other members ; the nutrition also is suid indliving, and hardly subjected to analysis, before it becomes Organie : the abdominat viscera aut upon it as gently as the toothless mouth, Whicli is indeed an emblem ofthe kindly und harmiess disposition of the whole chylopoletic series. Ultimately thebody and the members grow up to the proportions of the head, and somelimes evenoutgrow and Overbalance it. The almost impalpable nutriment of the embryo and insant is excitangen for solid and tangibie viands, Whicli are trealed during their stayin the system With a degree Of roughness, of Whicli the culting and grinding Operations of the ieeth are an evidelice and symbol. ΝOW SO it is mitti the human mind, and with human knowledge. Theology and philosophy are the capital portions of it, andas the head , they at 1irst exceed the sciences in bulli. To say how they are atthis time sed, is no easy matter; for the milk of their intellectual nurture is fluid, and directly supplied Dom the universe, not being 1irst received in palpabie vesseis of doctrine. But it Would be us rasti to suppose that they were not legitimately sed, asto SuppOSe the Same of the embryo, albeii the connexion os vesseis belWeen ii and themother has never yet been traced. At ali evenis, but stight analysis of the alimentingeXperience is required, for it is harilly compound or materiai. At this time theologyand philosophy are not employed in developing themselves, but in developing the Sciences ; every process they malle is necessarily in the direction Of the sciences, sorbuilding up the lower paris of the milid, which bring it into connexion with thenatural WOrid. TO suppose that they are doing other than this at this time, Wouldbe like supposing that the foetes head, because it is so large, must be active in cogitation, whereas it is generation and not reflexion that it has firAt to perform. Forthe Body must first be woven, before the brain can have a Lingdom to gOvern intellectually. But When the sciences, or the chest and abdomen of the mind are Strongand virile, then Such gross experience is fought as requires rude and violent reSOlution, and their bOdily part is nourished, and competes, or more than competeS, inlise and vigor With iis parent philosophy and theology. But to stos here Would beto deny rationality to man. TO imagine that experience, Our mental foOd, may be comprehended under formulas, but that iis causes and essen es are not to be elicited, is as absurd as to imagine that the terrestriat anil aorial nutrition of the lungs and stomach terminates iis use With those organs, and does not exist primardy With a view to the organic head; Or in linowledge, to concrete philosophy and theology. In whicli case the human mind would be reduced to a digestive fac, Or to a Spiritualhydatid. Conite's mistine lies in assuming that theology and philosophy, as intellectual states, existed hitherio for another end than the production of the sciences ;and he then commits the greater error of thinking that the sciences exist for them-

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The a posteriori method, then, does not imply that thoborders of scienco fhould be cultivaled be re the central districis, Or the human frame approached through the goophytes, or iis higher systems of organs solved by advancing Dom thenails and hair. On the contrary, it means no more thau that knowledge must precede inserenoes, and that teachers must belearners 1irst; but in each casu it commits the mode of learningio Common sense and scientisic experiment. What is tho sitost

Way to Stud y a given subjeci, so as ultimately to deduce it Domiis principies ' furely in most cases by, in the first instance, Studying those facts Whicli proximately and geneti catly contain

the principies. As such facts are Within nature like any others,so they are equesty subjeois of experience, and therelare Osa posteriori reasoning. The Baconian doctrine attempted toSeige them, and thus to reverse the ominous sentenco that life is stiori, and art is long.V For Were the disproportion belWeen matter and humari time real and unalterabie, tho individualcould harilly attain truth at all, even What Was sussicient for his oWn conduci. Yet according to history, principies Were givenin abundanoe to those ages Whicli required them, in despite os the non-scientisic character of the eXperience then existing; and this, because the great facts of nature, the sun und the m Oon, the earth, the sea and the shy, are aster ali the basis of themost universat ideas.

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Coneerned, generat principies; nexi froin these, by geometry, aVailing oursolves again of the leading facis existing in thismiddie region,) to particular principies ; and so in succession tostili more simplo principies; and at last to the Very Simple8t,-to the Duntain iiself, Dom Whicli nil principies, hoWever mOdised, ultimately issue. The remaining facis, buthy as they

there may be an infinite number of phenomena Whicli are immensely distant Dom the fource, and Dom Whicli it is impossibioto arrive at it fave by multiplied and circuitous routes. Nature, so vastly modified and ramisied in the Worid, may be lihonod tothe arteries and vetiis in the animal body, Whicli in their begiu- ning, as they isSue froin their fountain, the heari, are Wide comparatively; but gradually become smaller, and subdivide agnin and again untii they grow as minute as hairs or invisibio threads. Were One perfectly ignorant of the Duntain and begiti- ning of tho blood Whicli is soWing through these arteries and Veius, yet destrous to explore iis Siluation experimentally, it Would not be weli to spend any time over the capillary branc hes, or to malae repented dissections, With a view of sinding the Way from one Such branch to another. Any labor of tho LindWould probably lead iis into Other veins and arteries, and ngain

commit us to circuitous Wanderings besore We could reacti thegrand and royal aorta : and not improbably we should sali DomVeins into arteries, When intending the contrary, SO as to begoing aWay Dom the fountain instead os appronching it. . . . ASto those Who cannot obtain a sufficient knowledge of mundanethings to enable them to reason Dom principies and cauSes, itis no Wonder they are importunate for more facis, and complain that the experieuce of thousands of years leaves them still

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