THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SUPPLEMENT 



OBSERYxVTION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 



By ALEXIS DELAIEE. 



AS the Count Mole ironically observed, on 

 receiving into the French Academy the au- 

 thor of " Chatterton," " Every epoch has a litera- 

 ture of its own ; but among the writings which 

 give brilliancy to an epoch we have to distinguish 

 two classes. The one, possessing comparative 

 merit, and being adapted to the greater number 

 of readers, receives loud applause ; this is con- 

 temporaneous success. The other class, fed from 

 the sources of undying truths, is at first less cor- 

 dially received, and awaits the judgment of the 

 elite of our race." If the writings of Alfred de 

 Vigny were scornfully classed by the great states- 

 man in the first category, surely we must place 

 in the second the work whose title is given be- 

 low.* This work, though it was written at the 

 request of Francois Arago, and under the stress 

 of the disquietude produced in 1848 by the 

 " Organisation du Travail ; " and though it was 

 crowned by the Academy of Sciences at its first 

 publication, nevertheless has attracted hardly any 

 attention save from a select few. And yet, inas- 

 much as it abounds in well-established facts, and, 

 above all, is sober and moderate in its conclu- 

 sions, it offered valuable material for study to all 

 parties, liberals, economists, or communists, alike. 

 -Out, being too impartial in its deductions to please 

 any party without qualification, it was rather 

 slighted by all. Besides, a man does not readily 

 give up a pet theory, nor is it an easy thing to 

 throw off the yoke of preconceived opinions, and 



1 Translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes (with 

 some abridgment), by J. Fitzgerald, A. M. 



" Les Ouvriers Europeens : Etudes sur lesTravaux, la 

 Vie domestique et les Habitudes morales des Populations 

 ouvrieres de l'Europe," par M. F. Le Play. 2<* edition, 

 1877, 1« livraison : Les Ouvriers de VOrient. 



37 



with docile mind to have recourse to the scien- 

 tific observation of facts. Here, again, was veri- 

 fied the old saying that no man is a prophet in 

 his own country ; but, on the other side of the 

 ocean, the Americans, with their practical sense, 

 have understood better the meaning of these 

 studies on the private life, the moral habits, and 

 the occupations, of the laboring population. Dur- 

 ing the last two years several official commissions, 

 instead of adopting the often misleading processes 

 of bureaucratic statistics, have attempted, accord- 

 ing to the method of " family monographs," the 

 solution of those social problems which arise in 

 the New "World as in the Old. In these mono- 

 graphs (which, however, do not equal the models 

 given in the " Ouvriers Europeans ") are described 

 nearly four hundred households of working peo- 

 ple living under various conditions. At last, too, 

 the wish expressed by the Academy of Sciences 

 in 1856 has been fulfilled. That learned body, 

 adopting the conclusions of its commissioner, 

 Baron Charles Dupin, characterized M. Le Play's 

 method as a model one, and expressed a desire 

 that " a low-priced edition of the whole work in 

 small form might be published, so as to bring 

 within the means of all purchasers a statistical 

 work treating of interests so numerous and so 

 important." The first volume of this new edition, 

 enriched with the results of the author's contin- 

 ued researches, is now at the disposition of the 

 public. Hence it may be interesting briefly to 

 consider, in its origin and its essence, the method 

 which, in Europe as in America, has been fol- 

 lowed in the compilation of such voluminous 

 works. 



I. Utility op Scientific Method in Social 

 Studies. — One of the best notes of the present 



