ce.

The Classification of Auguste Comte, in the absence of a more exact,
complete, and inclusive one, still holds the highest rank, and is the
only one which now claims the attention of the general Thinker. It is
very restricted in its application, professing to include only the
domain which Comte calls abstract or general Science, which has for its
object the discovery of the laws which regulate Phenomena in all
conceivable cases within their domain, and excluding the sphere of what
he denominates concrete, particular, or descriptive Science, whose
function it is to apply these laws to the history of existing beings.
This throws such Natural Sciences as Botany, Zoology, Mineralogy,
Geology, etc., out of his range. He also excludes the domain of
_practical_ Knowledge, comprising what is included under the terms, the
Applied Sciences, the Arts, the Mechanical Sciences, etc. A
Classification, far more detailed and comprehensive in its scope than
anything yet published, is in preparation by Professor P. H. Vander
Weyde, of the Cooper Institute--advanced sheets of which, so far as it
is elaborated, have been kindly furnished to the writer by the
author--the incomplete state of which, however, prevents a further
consideration here.

The Principle which Comte adopted to guide him in his Classification was
the following: 'All observable phenomena may be included within a very
few natural categories, so arranged as that the study of each category
may be grounded on the principal laws of the preceding, and serve as the
basis of the next ensuing. This order is determined by the degree of
simplicity, or, what comes to the same thing, of generality of their
phenomena. Hence results their successive dependence, and the greater or
lesser facility for being studied.' In accordance with this Principle,
Comte establishes what he denominates the _Hierarchy of the Sciences_.
Mathematics stands at the base of this, as being that Science whose
Phenomena are the most general, the most simple, and the most abstract
of all. Astronomy comes next, wherein the Static and Dynamic properties
of the heavenly bodies complicate the nature of the investigation; in
Physics, Phenomena must be considered in the midst of the still greater
complications of Weight, Light, Heat, Sound, etc.; Chemistry has
additional characteristics to trace in its subjects; Biology adds the
intricacies of vital Phenomena to all below it; and Sociology, the sixth
and last o