514 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



ment which is at all times gradually modifying the whole of 

 them. 



"In this first point of view, the provisions of sociology 

 will enable us to infer one from another (subject to ulterior 

 verification hy direct observation) the various characteristic 

 marks of each distinct mode of social existence ; in a manner 

 essentially analogous to what is now habitually practised in 

 the anatomy of the physical body. This preliminary aspect, 

 therefore, of political science, of necessity supposes that (con- 

 trary to the existing habits of philosophers) each of the 

 numerous elements of the social state, ceasing to be looked at 

 independently and absolutely, shall be always and exclusively 

 considered relatively to all the other elements, with the whole 

 of which it is united by mutual interdependence. It would be 

 superfluous to insist here upon the great and constant utility 

 of this branch of sociological speculation. It is, in the first 

 place, the indispensable basis of the theory of social progress. 

 It may, moreover, be employed, immediately, and of itself, to 

 supply the place, provisionally at least, of direct observation, 

 which in many cases is not always practicable for some of the 

 elements of society, the real condition of which may however 

 be sufficiently judged of by means of the relations which con- 

 nect them with others previously known. The history of the 

 sciences may give us some notion of the habitual importance 

 of this auxiliary resource, by reminding us, for example, how 

 the vulgar errors of mere erudition concerning the pretended 

 acquirements of the ancient Egyptians in the higher astro- 

 nomy, were irrevocably dissipated (even before sentence had 

 been passed on them by a sounder erudition) from the single 

 consideration of the inevitable connexion between the general 

 state of astronomy and that of abstract geometry, then evi- 

 dently in its infancy. It would be easy to cite a multitude 

 of analogous cases, the character of which could admit of no 

 dispute. In order to avoid exaggeration, however, it should 

 be remarked, that these necessary relations among the 

 different aspects of society cannot, from their very nature, be 

 so simple and precise that the results observed could only 

 have arisen from some one mode of mutual co-ordination. 



