GENERAL REMARKS. 415 



science. The remaining chapters are an endeavour to facilitate 

 this most desirable object. 



2. In attempting this, I am not unmindful how little 

 can be done towards it in a mere treatise on Logic, or how 

 vague and unsatisfactory all precepts of Method must neces 

 sarily appear, when not practically exemplified in the establish 

 ment of a body of doctrine. Doubtless, the most effectual 

 mode of showing how the sciences of Ethics and Politics may 

 be constructed, would be to construct them : a task which, it 

 needs scarcely be said, I am not about to undertake. But even 

 if there were no other examples, the memorable one of Bacon 

 would be sufficient to demonstrate, that it is sometimes both 

 possible and useful to point out the way, though without 

 being oneself prepared to adventure far into it. And if more 

 were to be attempted, this at least is not a proper place for the 

 attempt. 



In substance, whatever can be done in a work like this 

 for the Logic of the Moral Sciences, has been or ought to have 

 been accomplished in the five preceding Books; to which the 

 present can be only a kind of supplement or appendix, since 

 the methods of investigation applicable to moral and social 

 science must have been already described, if I have succeeded 

 in enumerating and characterizing those of science in general. 

 It remains, however, to examine which of those methods are 

 more especially suited to the various branches of moral 

 inquiry ; under what peculiar facilities or difficulties they are 

 there employed ; how far the unsatisfactory state of those 

 inquiries is owing to a wrong choice of methods, how far to 

 want of skill in the application of right ones ; and what 

 degree of ultimate success may be attained or hoped for, by a 

 better choice or more careful employment of logical pro 

 cesses appropriate to the case. In other words, whether 

 moral sciences exist, or can exist ; to what degree of per 

 fection they are susceptible of being carried ; and by what 

 selection or adaptation of the methods brought to view in 

 the previous part of this work, that degree of perfection is 

 attainable. 



