International Congress of Arts and Science, Vol. 6: Literature and Art Comprising Lectures on Classical Literature, English Literature, Romance ... Art, Modern Architecture and Modern Painting - Taschenbuch

Excerpt from International Congress of Arts and Science, Vol. 6: Literature and Art Comprising Lectures on Classical Literature, English Literature, Romance Literature, Germanic Literature, Slavic Literature, Classical Art, Modern Architecture and Modern Painting The mutual interdependence of the constituted sciences, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, if it does not admit of uncon-trovcrtcd exposition, at least provokes arguments as definite as those of Spencer criticising Comte's classification of the sciences, or Professor Karl Pearson correcting the theories of both Spencer and Comte. But the globus intellectualis which this Congress has undertaken to survey includes other disciplines that are mainly, if not merely, collections of facts, as histories, or, at the most, systematic methods of envisaging facts, as psychology, ethics, sociology. And in respect of these, candor requires the acknowledgment that the topic of "Relations" is merely the theme of a discursive essay whose quality will vary with the talent or information of the writer, but which remains a literary exercise rather than the authoritative report of an expert. It is well that the historian of England or America should have the broad outlook of a Freeman or a Fiske. But he can do estimable work with no other equipment than the education of a gentleman, industry, and a facile pen. And similarly, though almost any fact or method of history or physical science may prove useful to the psychologist and the sociologist, hardly any could be singled out as indispensable in present practice. Inquiry into the relations of such subjects is chiefly occupied with the proof that they, scientifically speaking, exist. But, as Renan observes, the first geologists did not concern themselves with a priori demonstration of the existence of geology - they geologized. Now it may be true in the abstract that man writes books as the bee secretes honey or the silkworm spins its cocoon, and that literature as a me