Now as I am neither a specialist nor the professor of a specialism, it is evident that unless I can succeed in breaking the back of this superstition on the subject of specialisms on the threshold, this book in which I am to attempt to reconstruct a specialism, and that, too, one of the purest and narrowest, would indeed be an impertinence, and might as well never have been published or written; for the backwash of prejudice and distrust with which the majority of my readers would approach it, would of itself be sufficient to rob such new positions as I may seek to establish of any influence or authority they might otherwise happen to possess. In saying this I am speaking not without knowledge of the operation of this prejudice; one of the finest exponents of this very science of Political Economy, and one, too, who has done most to correct the errors and extend the boundaries of the orthodox system from a wider circle of thought, having not so long since been solemnly warned by a distinguished academic representative of the orthodox school, that there was no chance of his ever getting a chair in any of our universities so long as he continued to hold his present views.

Indeed this whole question of the nature and value of the different specialisms is of such vital importance for the future of knowledge, that its ventilation here, once and for all, becomes almost a necessity before I can proceed to the demonstrations which are to follow. Not that all specialisms are to be deprecated as hindrances rather than furtherances of knowledge; on the contrary, as we shall see, two out of their three great divisions are entirely fruitful. It is only the third division that is retrograde and unproductive, but unfortunately the different branches of which it is composed, dealing as they do immediately with human concerns, the truth of their conclusions is of the utmost practical importance to the world. And it is with the cultivators of this class of specialisms that I propose to break a a lance before starting on the proper subject-matter of this book.

Without further preliminary, then, we may say that, broadly speaking, these three classes of specialisms are firstly, those that are co-extensive with the range of the purely Physical Sciences; secondly those belonging to the Biological Sciences, and the Science of Medicine; and thirdly those dealing with the sciences proper to Human Life itself, and which make up the History of Civilization, such as Religion, Government, Philosophy, Psychology, Ethics, History, and Political Economy, in their various subdivisions and ramifications.

Now of the first of these, the Physical Sciences, we may say that their special peculiarity is this, that when their results are verified by the consensus of scientific observers from whom they receive their hall-mark, they can be applied now and here with entire assurance, and can be handed over to the public, and accepted by it in full confidence that it will not be deceived. Such are those connected with astronomy, physics, chemistry, light, heat, electricity, and, in its way, geology, with their thousand-fold applications to the arts, comforts, and conveniences of life. Now the main reason for this is, that they each and all work under the sovereignty of some ultimate univeral truth or law which encompasses them like a dome, and which they illustrate and enforce; under some fixed star that presides over them as at once their guide and their destiny; some overlord to whom, like vassals, they return to dedicate their spoils. Astronomy, for example, works under the sovereignty of universal gravitation; physics, optics, light, heat, and electricity, under the laws of the conservation of energy, of polarity, and of the transmission of force; chemistry, under the atomic and now the radio-active theory; geology, under the empirical combination of these, as seen in the agency of fire, water, frost, gas, and wind, in the phenomena of upheaval, pressure, denudation, and crystallisation; and all alike under the supreme immutability of natural law.

The reason, again, why these specialisms are always available for use is, that dealing as they do with inorganic matter, they are subject to mathematical tests and quantitative measurements, and so can be turned as a searchlight, not only on the present, but on the past or future of any object to which they can be applied-; differing in this, as we shall presently see, from the purely historical specialisms, which, unless they illustrate some great general law of civilisation, or help in establishing the connecting links of a process of evolution needed to make good such a law, are as impotent for guidance in the present or the future as the vanished years with which they are interred, and when pursued for themselves alone, are as great a pedantry and waste of time and human labour as the resurrection of the bones of the dead.

The reason, again, why these Physical Sciences are not only so fruitful but so progressive is, that although they move across the field in parallel furrows, each more or less independent of the rest, they are all pervaded by the same spirit, and being within easy earshot of each other, can call on one another for help in their difficulties; the chemist calling in the assistance of the physicist; the geologist exchanging notes with the astronomer; and the electrician with both; and all alike with the mathematician, who is ready at a pinch to come to the relief of each indifferently.

And the reason finally why specialism in these physical sciences is so necessary is, that it is on the invisible things of the world that the natures of the visible, tangible masses with which we have to deal depend; and unless in this age of the division of labour, bodies of men were set apart, equipped with microscopes, test-tubes, batteries, retorts, and other instruments of precision, to isolate and measure these invisible atoms, germs, ether-waves, electrons, and what not, on which the hidden nature of this opaque and all too solid world depends, the material progress of civilisation would come to an end.