368 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



questions, and the collection and diffu- 

 sion of information concerning them, 

 is, beyond doubt, a most useful work, 

 and, in doing it, the Association should 

 have the sympathy and God-speed of 

 the community. 



But, while recognizing that the aim 

 of this organization is excellent, and 

 much of its work highly commendable, 

 we are of opinion tliat it falls short of 

 what should be its chief duty. It fails 

 to do that for which, judging by its 

 title, it wiis specifically instituted. So 

 far from promoting social science, we 

 should rather say that social science is 

 just the sul)ject which it particularly 

 avoids. It might rather be considered 

 as a general reform convention. It is 

 an organization for public action, and 

 most of its members, hot with the im- 

 pulses of philanthropy, are full of pro- 

 jects of social relief, amelioration, and 

 improvement. Of pure investigation, 

 or the strict and passionless study of 

 society from a scientific point of view, 

 we hear but very little. The President 

 announced its leading object to be the 

 promotion of the civil-service reform, 

 and, if so, of course its leading object 

 is not the determination of the nat- 

 ural laws by which society is con- 

 stituted and regulated — that is, not 

 scientific. If we remember rightly, 

 at the establishment of the organiza- 

 tion, the question, what Social Sci- 

 ence is, became a matter of discussion, 

 when the most extraordinary and con- 

 flicting views were propounded, and 

 nobody seemed for a moment to sus- 

 pect that social science is but a branch 

 of general science, having similar ob- 

 jects, and to be pursued by the game 

 methods, as the other sciences. Social 

 science is a knowledge of the phenom- 

 ena of society, as chemical science is a 

 knowledge of the phenomena of the 

 elemental changes of matter. And as 

 the generalization of chemical facts 

 gives us chemical laws, so the generali- 

 zation of social facts must give us social 

 laws. Social science is possible just to 



the degree in which these are arrived 

 at. All the proceedings of the late 

 meeting imply that there are such 

 things as social laws, for, if there are 

 not facts that can be known and com- 

 pared, and effects that are traceable to 

 causes, and an order of relations which 

 makes it possible to calculate results, 

 then tlie whole work of such an asso- 

 ciation is futile. Every project of so- 

 cial amendment which proposes that 

 this thing shall be done rather than 

 that, or that one course of action will 

 result in evil, and another in good, pre- 

 supposes facts, principles, and a method 

 in the natural constitution of society 

 which it is the legitimate province of 

 science to investigate and determine. 

 And, if this be so, it is obvious that the 

 first and most imperative thing to be 

 done is to trace these principles out, so 

 as to arrive at a system of elementary 

 truths that may be taken as the start- 

 ing-point and foundation of all active 

 measures of social improvement. The 

 working out of something like a defi- 

 nite and authoritative basis of scien- 

 tific principles, we say, is the first thing 

 to be done, and this view is sustained 

 by all that we know of the past history 

 of science. All the arts were but blind, 

 and arbitrary, and ineffectual processes, 

 until the sciences upon which they de- 

 pended were worked out in their funda- 

 mental principles as pure questions of 

 research. Kot until the laws of phys- 

 ics, chemistry, anatomy, and jdiysiolo- 

 gy, were determined by a long coui-se of 

 patient and assiduous observation and 

 experiment, pursued with no reference 

 to any thing but the simple establish- 

 ment of the truth, did the various arts 

 become settled in their practice, so that 

 they could be pursued with efficiency, 

 economy, and success. Much useful 

 work was undoubtedly done while arti- 

 sans were still blindly groping without 

 rational guidance, cutting, and trying, 

 and wasting power, time, and materials, 

 in following empirical rules. And so, 

 as we have already recognized, much 



