H THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



syllable of the prseterite in our Church service, down to the oyez shouted 

 in a law-court to secure attention, down to the retention of epaulets for 

 officers, and down to the Norman-French words in which the royal as- 

 sent is given, this persistence is everywhere traceable. And when we 

 find this persistence manifested throughout all ages in all departments 

 of the regulative organization when we see it to be the natural ac- 

 companiment of the function of that organization, which is essentially 

 restraining when we estimate the future action of the organization in 

 any case, by observing the general sweep of its curve throughout long 

 periods of the past we shall see how misleading may be the conclu- 

 sions drawn from recent facts taken by themselves. Where the regu- 

 lative organization is anywhere made to undertake additional func- 

 tions, we shall not form sanguine anticipations on the strength of im- 

 mediate results of the desired kind ; but we shall suspect that, after 

 the phase of early activity has passed by, the plasticity of the new 

 structure will rapidly diminish, the characteristic tendency toward 

 rigidity will begin to show itself, and in place of a progressive effect 

 there will come a restrictive effect. 



The reader will now understand more clearly the meaning of the 

 assertion that true conceptions of sociological changes are to be 

 reached only by contemplating their slow genesis through centuries ; 

 and that basing inferences on results shown in short periods is as 

 illusory as would be judging of the Earth's curvature by observing 

 whether we are walking up or down hill. After recognizing which 

 truth he will perceive how great is another of the obstacles in the way 

 of the Social Science. 



" But does not all this prove too much ? If it is so difficult to get 

 sociological evidence that is not vitiated by the subjective states of the 

 witnesses, by their prejudices, enthusiasms, interests, etc. if, where 

 there is impartial examination, the conditions of the inquiry are of 

 themselves so apt to falsify the result if there is so general a prone- 

 ness to assert as facts observed what were really inferences from ob- 

 servations, and so great a tendency also to be blinded by exterior trivi- 

 alities to interior essentials if, even where accurate data are accessible, 

 their multitudinousness and diffusion in Space make it impracticable 

 clearly to grasp them as wholes, while their unfolding in Time is so 

 slow that antecedents and consequents cannot be mentally represented 

 in their true relations is it not manifestly impossible that a Social 

 Science can be framed ? " 



It must be admitted that the array of objective difficulties thus 

 brought together is formidable : and were it the aim of the Social 

 Science to draw quite special and definite conclusions, which must 

 depend for their truth upon exact data accurately coordinated, it 

 would obviously have to be abandoned. But there are certain classes 

 of general facts which remain after all errors in detail, however pro- 



