Classification of facts by their intrinsic nature was introduced very late, and has made way but slowly and imperfectly. It took its rise outside the domain of history, in certain branches of study dealing with special human phenomena--language, literature, art, law, political economy, religion; studies which began by being dogmatic, but gradually assumed an historical character. The principle of this mode of classification is to select and group together those facts which relate to the same species of actions; each of these groups becomes the subject-matter of a special branch of history. The totality of facts thus comes to be arranged in compartments which may be constructed _a priori_ by the study of the totality of human activities; these correspond to the set of general questions of which we have spoken in the preceding chapter. In the following table we have attempted to provide a general scheme for the classification[188] of historical facts, founded on the nature of the _conditions_ and of the _manifestations_ of activity. I. MATERIAL CONDITIONS. (1) _Study of the body_: _A._ Anthropology (ethnology), anatomy, and physiology, anomalies and pathological peculiarities. _B._ Demography (number, sex, age, births, deaths, diseases). (2) _Study of the environment_: _A._ Natural geographical environment (orographic configuration, climate, water, soil, flora, and fauna). _B._ Artificial environment, forestry (cultivation, buildings, roads, implements, &c.). II. INTELLECTUAL HABITS (not obligatory). (1) _Language_ (vocabulary, syntax, phonetics, semasiology). Handwriting. (2) _Arts_: _A._ Plastic arts (conditions of production, conceptions, methods, works). _B._ Arts of expression, music, dance, literature. (3) _Sciences_ (conditions of production, methods, results). (4) _Philosophy and Morals_ (conceptions, precepts, actual practice). (5) _Religion_ (beliefs, practices).[189] III. MATERIAL CUSTOMS (not obligatory). (1) _Material life_: _A._ Food (materials, modes of preparing, stimulants). _B._ Clothes and personal adornment. _C._ Dwellings and furniture. (2) _Private life_: _A._ Employment of time (toilette, care of the person, meals). _B._ Social ceremonies (funerals and marriages, festivals, etiquette). _C._ Amusements (modes of exercise and hunting, games and spectacles, social meetings, travelling). IV. ECONOMIC CUSTOMS. (1) _Production_: _A._ Agriculture and stock-breeding. _B._ Exploitation of minerals. (2) _Transformation, Transport and industries_:[190] technical processes, division of labour, means of communication. (3) _Commerce_: exchange and sale, credit. (4) _Distribution_: system of property, transmission, contracts, profit-sharing.