NATURE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE. 521 



any thing like the same definiteness or the same constancy, but never- 

 theless having likenesses and differences which justify the putting of 

 them into major groups most markedly contrasted, and, within these, 

 arranging them in minor groups less markedly contrasted. And just 

 as Biology discovers certain general traits of development, structure, 

 and function, holding throughout all organisms, others holding through- 

 out certain great groups, others throughout certain sub-groups these 

 contain ; so Sociology has to recognize truths of social develojoment, 

 structure, and function, that are some of them universal, some of them 

 general, some of them special. 



For, recalling the conclusion previously reached, it is manifest that, 

 in so far as human beings, considered as social units, have properties 

 in common, the social aggregates they form will have properties in 

 common ; that likenesses of nature holding throughout certain of the 

 human races, will originate likenesses of nature, in the nations arising 

 out of them ; and that such peculiar traits as are possessed by the 

 highest varieties of men must result in distinctive characters pos- 

 sessed in common by the communities into which they organize them- 

 selves. 



So that, whether we look at the matter in the abstract or in the 

 concrete, we reach the same conclusion. We need but to glance, on 

 the one hand, at the varieties of uncivilized men and the structures 

 of their tribes, and, on the other hand, at the varieties of civilized 

 men and the structures of their nations, to see inference verified by 

 fact. And thus recognizing, both a priori and a posteriori, these 

 relations between the phenomena of individual human nature and the 

 phenomena of incorporated human nature, we cannot fail to see that 

 the phenomena of incorporated human nature form the subject-matter 

 of a science. 



And now to make more definite the conception of a Social Science 

 thus shadowed forth in a general way, let me set down a few truths 

 of the kind indicated. Some that I propose to name are very familiar ; 

 and others I add, not because of their interest or importance, but be- 

 cause they are easy of exposition. The aim is simply to convey a clear 

 idea of the nature of sociological truths. 



Take, first, the general fact that along with social aggregation 

 there always goes some kind of organization. In the very lowest 

 stages, where the assemblages are very small and very incoherent, 

 there is no established subordination no centre of control. Chief- 

 tainships of settled kinds come only along with larger and more co- 

 herent aggregates. The evolution of a governmental structure, having 

 some strength and permanence, is the condition under which alone any 

 considerable growth of a society can take place. A differentiation of 

 the originally homogeneous mass of units, into a coordinating part and 

 coordinated part, is the indispensable initial step. 



