452 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



than among an equal number of Italians or English, similarly 

 taken ; or thus : of a hundred Frenchmen and an equal number 

 of Englishmen, fairly selected, and arranged according to the 

 degree in which they possess a particular mental charac 

 teristic, each number, 1, 2, 3, &c., of the one series, will be 

 found to possess more of that characteristic than the corre 

 sponding number of the other. Since, therefore, the com 

 parison is not one of kinds, but of ratios and degrees ; and since 

 in proportion as the differences are slight, it requires a greater 

 number of instances to eliminate chance ; it cannot often 

 happen to any one to know a sufficient number of cases with 

 the accuracy requisite for making the sort of comparison last 

 mentioned; less than which, however, would not constitute 

 a real induction. Accordingly there is hardly one current 

 opinion respecting the characters of nations, classes, or de 

 scriptions of persons, which is universally acknowledged as 

 indisputable.* 



And finally, if we could even obtain by way of experiment 

 a much more satisfactory assurance of these generalizations 

 than is really possible, they would still be only empirical 



* The most favourable cases for making such approximate generalizations 

 are what may be termed collective instances ; where we are fortunately enabled 

 to see the whole class respecting which we are inquiring, in action at once ; 

 and, from the qualities displayed by the collective body, are able to judge what 

 must be the qualities of the majority of the individuals composing it. Thus 

 the character of a nation is shown in its acts as a nation ; not so much in the 

 acts of its government, for those are much influenced by other causes ; but in 

 the current popular maxims, and other marks of the general direction of public 

 opinion ; in the character of the^ persons or writings that are held in permanent 

 esteem or admiration ; in laws and institutions, so far as they are the work of 

 the nation itself, or are acknowledged and supported by it ; and so forth. But 

 even here there is a large margin of doubt and uncertainty. These things are 

 liable to be influenced by many circumstances : they are partly determined by 

 the distinctive qualities of that nation or body of persons, but partly also by 

 external causes which would influence any other body of persons in the same 

 manner. In order, therefore, to make the experiment really complete, we 

 ought to be able to try it without variation upon other nations : to try how 

 Englishmen would act or feel if placed in the same circumstances in which 

 we have supposed Frenchmen to be placed ; to apply, in short, the Method of 

 Difference as well as that of Agreement. Now these experiments we cannot 

 try, nor even approximate to. 



