704 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vestigated. A hundred years ago it 

 was objected that the legitimate meth- 

 ods of science can not be applied to 

 the study of living things. Science had 

 been created by investigations in the 

 inorganic sphere, and true science was 

 held to be limited to that sphere. 

 "When the inquirer left his gases, ores, 

 and metals, to cross the boundary and 

 begin a search into the nature of things 

 that live, he was told that life is a mys- 

 terious realm where vitality suspends 

 inorganic laws, and holds sway above 

 nature and in opposition to it. Yet 

 the province was long since conquered, 

 and annexed to the domain of " natural 

 science." The question in any case is 

 simply this : Are we dealing with phe- 

 nomena that may be observed, com- 

 pared, analyzed, generalized, and re- 

 duced to a body of principles? 



Mr. Harris discredits the method of 

 natural science in its application to so- 

 ciety, as follovvs : " From the fact that 

 all merely natural beings whether 

 mineral, plant, or animal never rise 

 to the form of self-knowing and self- 

 realizing, it follows that the application 

 of scientific method to the explanation 

 of human institutions in the ordinary 

 form is not valid. In nature we ex- 

 plain the present by the past. If we 

 attempt to explain the institutions of 

 the family, society, and the state, by 

 the rudimentary forms found in the 

 childhood of the race, or, still worse, 

 by the habits of the higher animals as 

 the ape tribe, for example we shall 

 invert the true method for social sci- 

 ence. Since all of man's institutions 

 arise as forms of combination, which 

 he has made in order to realize an ideal, 

 it follows that the first ones, historical- 

 ly, are so rudimentary as scarcely to 

 indicate their object, Avhile the later 

 and latest ones contain the explanation 

 of themselves and of their predeces- 

 sors." 



"We gather from this that Mr. Harris's 

 " Method of Study in Social Science " 

 is to ignore the historical aspect of the 



subject, and begin with the study of the 

 most complex institutions. Then why 

 not adopt the same method in the study 

 of other subjects ? Fancy him address- 

 ing a mathematical teacher as follows : 

 " Since the advanced rules of arithmetic 

 arise as forms of combination, which 

 the mathematician has made in order 

 to realize an ideal, it follows that the 

 first rules are so rudimentary as scarce- 

 ly to indicate their object, while the 

 later and latest contain the explanation 

 of themselves and of their predeces- 

 sors; therefore, begin your class and 

 keep it occupied with problems in the 

 last portions of the text-book." On 

 the contrary, it is the law of method in 

 all study to proceed from the simple to 

 the complex, from the lower to the 

 higher, and to explain the more de- 

 veloped by the less developed. Mr. 

 Harris's " method " would put an end 

 to all embryological study; for, if so- 

 ciety is not to be studied historically 

 because its first forms " are so rudi- 

 mentary as scarcely to indicate their 

 object," is not that equally true of all 

 rudimentary forms ? His method is 

 false everywhere. Adult institutions, 

 like adult animals, can only be ex- 

 plained by beginning with their germs 

 and tracing the course of organization. 



But Mr. Harris does not leave us to 

 infer the character of his new social 

 science ; he gives the formula of its 

 method in explicit terms, as follows : 

 " For the study of society, then, one 

 must seek his principle of explanation 

 not in the child or the savage, but in 

 the ideals of the prophets of humanity. 

 We are to understand Greek life through 

 a study of Homer and Plato; the mid- 

 dle ages through Dante and Thomas 

 Aquinas; modern times through Shake- 

 speare and Goethe." 



So we are to omit the child and the 

 savage in the study of society ; and 

 Mr. Harris adds, " Above all, we must 

 not make the mistake of studying man 

 as a simple individual." But what will 

 then be left to study ? "We have always 



