254 THE DIRECTION OF MOTION. 



by this or any other desire, are actually, and not metaphori- 

 cally, to be understood in the manner shown. An 

 opposite objection may possibly be, that the several illustra- 

 tions given are elaborated truisms; and that the law of di- 

 rection of motion being once recognized, the fact that social 

 movements, in common with all others, must conform to it, 

 follows inevitably. To this it may be rejoined, that a mere 

 abstract assertion that social movements must do this, would 

 carry no conviction to the majority; and that it is needful 

 to show how they do it. For social phenomena to be unified 

 with phenomena of simpler kinds, it is requisite that such 

 generalizations as those of political economy shall be reduced 

 to equivalent propositions expressed in terms of force and 

 motion. 



Social movements of these various orders severally con- 

 form to the two derivative principles named at the outset. 

 In the first place we may observe how, once set up in given 

 directions, such movements, like all others, tend to continue 

 in these directions. A commercial mania or panic, a current 

 of commodities, a social custom, a political agitation, or a 

 popular delusion, maintains its course for a long time after 

 its original source has ceased; and requires antagonistic 

 forces to arrest it. In the second place it is to be noted that 

 in proportion to the complexity of social forces is the tor- 

 tuousness of social movements. The involved series of mus- 

 cular contractions gone through by the artizan, that he may 

 get the wherewithal to buy a loaf lying at the baker's next 

 door, show us how extreme becomes the indirectness of mo- 

 tion when the agencies at work become very numerous — a 

 truth still better illustrated by the more public social ac- 

 tions; as those which end in bringing a successful man of 

 business, towards the close of his life, into parliament. 



§ 81. And now of the general truth set forth in this 

 chapter, as of that dealt with in the last, let us ask — what is 

 our ultimate evidence? Must we accept it simply as an em- 



