THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 3 



But to have a large surplus of vital energy implies a good organization, 

 which is on the average of cases likely to last long. So that, in fact, 

 the superiority of physique which is accompanied by strength of the 

 instincts and emotions causing marriage is a superiority of physique 

 also conducive to longevity. 



One further influence tells in the same direction. Marriage is not 

 altogether determined by the desires of men ; it is determined in part 

 by the preferences of women. Other things equal, women are attracted 

 toward men of power physical, emotional, intellectual ; and obviously 

 their freedom of choice leads them in many cases to refuse inferior 

 samples of men; especially the malformed, the diseased, and those 

 who are ill-developecl, physically and mentally. So that, in so far as 

 marriage is determined by female selection, the average result on men 

 is that, while the best easily get wives, a certain proportion of the worst 

 are left without wives. This influence, therefore, joins in bringing into 

 the ranks of married men those most likely to be long-lived, and keep- 

 ing in bachelorhood those least likely to be long-lived. 



In three ways, then, does that superiority of organization which 

 conduces to long life also conduce to marriage. It is normally ac- 

 companied by a predominance of the instincts and emotions prompting 

 marriage ; there goes along with, it that power which can secure the 

 means of making marriage practicable ; and it increases the probability 

 of success in courtship. The figures given afford no proof that mar- 

 riage and longevity are cause and consequence ; but they simply verify 

 the inference which might be drawn a priori, that marriage and lon- 

 gevity are concomitant results of the same cause. 



This striking instance of the way in which inference may be mis- 

 taken for fact, will sufficiently serve as a warning against another of 

 the dangers that await us in dealing with sociological data. Statistics 

 having shown that married men live longer than single men, it seems 

 an irresistible implication that married life is healthier than single life. 

 And yet we see that the implication is not at all irresistible : though 

 such a connection may exist, it is not demonstrated by the evidence 

 assigned. Judge, then, how difficult it must be, among those social 

 phenomena where the dependencies are more entangled, to distinguish 

 between the seeming relations and the real relations. 



Once more, we are ever liable to be led away by superficial, trivial 

 facts, from those deep-seated and really important facts which they 

 indicate. Always the small details of social life, the interesting events, 

 the curious things which serve for gossip, will, if we allow them, hide 

 from us the vital connections and the vital actions underneath. Every 

 social phenomenon results from an immense aggregate of general and 

 special causes ; and we may either take the phenomenon itself as in- 

 trinsically momentous, or, along with other phenomena, may take it as 

 indicating some inconspicuous truth of real significance. Let us con- 

 trast the two courses. 



