174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



affirms that the results of the aggregate of wills are calculable. And, 

 if this he asserted of the aggregate of wills as affected by legislation, 

 it must be asserted of the aggregate of wills as affected by social influ- 

 ences at large. If it be held that the desire to avoid punishment will 

 so act on the average of men as to produce an average foreseen 

 result ; then it must also be held that, on the average of men, the 

 desire to get the greatest return for labor, the desire to rise into a 

 higher rank of life, the desire to gain applause, and so forth, will each 

 of them produce a certain average result. And to hold this is to hold 

 that there can be prevision of social phenomena, and therefore Social 

 Science. 



In brief, then, the alternative positions are these : On the one 

 hand, if there is no natural causation throughout the actions of incor- 

 porated humanity, government and legislation are absurd. Acts of 

 Parliament may, as well as not, be made to depend on the drawing 

 of lots or the tossing of a coin ; or rather there may as well be none at 

 all : social sequences having no ascertainable order, no effect can be 

 counted upon every thing is anarchic. On the other hand, if there 

 is such natural causation, then the combination of forces, by which 

 every effect or combination of effects is produced, produces them in 

 conformity with the laws of the forces. And if so, it behooves us to 

 use all diligence in ascertaining what the forces are, what are their 

 laws, and what are the ways in which they cooperate. 



Such further elucidation as is possible will be gained by discussing 

 the question to which we now address ourselves the Nature of the 

 Social Science. Along with a definite idea of this, will come a percep- 

 tion that the denial of a Social Science has arisen from the confusing 

 of two essentially different classes of phenomena which societies pre- 

 sent the one class, almost ignored by historians, constituting the 

 subject-matter of Social Science, and the other class, almost exclu- 

 sively occupying them, admitting of scientific coordination in a very 

 small degree, if at all. 



- 



EFFECTS OF FAULTY YISION IN PAINTING. 1 



By E. LIEBEEICH, 



OPHTHALMIC 6ITRGEON AND LECTUF.ER. AT 6T. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL. 



"V"T7~HEN I arrived in England about eighteen months ago, little 

 V V thinking that a short vacation tour would end in my permanent 

 residence here, I at once paid a visit to the National Gallery. I was 

 anxious to see Turner's pictures, which on the Continent I had had no 

 opportunity of doing. How great was my astonishment when, after 



1 A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution on March 8, 1872. 



