THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. i 77 



" Norwich Weaver-boy " (W. J. Fox), or the " Journeyman Engineer." 

 Shall we then say that, in the case of literary culture, results are pro- 

 portionate to appliances ? or shall we not rather say that, as in other 

 cases, the relation is by no means so simple a one. 



Nowhere, then, do Ave find verified this assumption which we are so 

 prone to make. Quantity of effect does not vary as quantity of means. 

 From a mechanical apparatus up to an educational system or a social 

 institution, the same truth holds. Take a rustic to see a new machine, 

 and his admiration of it will be in proportion to the multiplicity of its 

 parts. Listen to the criticism of a skilled engineer, and you will find 

 that from all this complication he infers probable failure. Not elabo- 

 ration but simplification is his aim ; knowing, as he does, that every 

 additional wheel and lever implies inertia and friction to be overcome, 

 and occasional derangement to be rectified. It is thus everywhere. 

 Up to a certain point, appliances are needful for results ; but, beyond 

 that point, results decrease as appliances increase. 



This undue belief in appliances, joined with the general bias citi- 

 zens inevitably have in favor of governmental agencies, prompts the 

 multiplication of laws. It fosters the notion that a society will be the 

 better the more its actions are everywhere regulated by artificial in- 

 strumentalities. And the effect produced on sociological speculation 

 is, that the benefits achieved by laws are exaggerated, while the evils 

 they entail are overlooked. 



Brought to bear on so immensely complicated an aggregate as a 

 society, a law rarely, if ever, produces as much direct effect as was ex- 

 pected, and invariably produces indirect effects, many in their kinds 

 and great in their sum, that were not expected. It is so even with 

 fundamental changes : witness the two we have seen in the constitu- 

 tion of our House of Commons. Both advocates and opponents of the 

 first Reform Bill anticipated that the middle classes would select as 

 representatives many of their own body. But both were wrong. The 

 class-quality of the House of Commons remained very much what it 

 was before. While, however, the immediate and special results looked 

 for did not appear, there were vast, remote, and general results fore- 

 seen by no one. So, too, with the recent change. We had eloquently- 

 uttered warnings that delegates from the working-classes would swamp 

 the House of Commons ; and nearly every one expected that, at any 

 rate, a sprinkling of working-class members would be chosen. Again 

 all were wrong. The conspicuous alteration looked for has not oc- 

 curred; but, nevertheless, governmental actions have already been 

 much modified by the raised sense of responsibility. It is thus always. 

 No prophecy is safer than that the results anticipated from a law will 

 be greatly exceeded in amount by results not anticipated. Even sim- 

 ple physical actions might suggest to us this conclusion. Let us con- 

 template one. 



vol. in. 12 



