1894 THE 'DISMAL SCIENCE' 337 



have had, on account of the worse than usual un- 

 punctuality of the London and Brighton this morning. 

 For I have utilised the extra time in reading and thinking 

 over your very interesting address. 



Thanks for your protest against the mischievous a 

 priori method, which people will not understand is aa 

 gross an anachronism in social matters as it would be in 

 Hydrostatics. The so-called " Sociology " is honeycombed 

 with it, and it is hard to say who are worse, the individu- 

 alists or the collectivists. But in your just wrath don't 

 forget that there is such a thing as a science of social life, 

 for which, if the term had not been so hopelessly degraded, 

 Politics is the proper name. 



Men are beings of a certain constitution, who, under 

 certain conditions, will as surely tend to act in certain 

 ways as stones will tend to fall if you leave them un- 

 supported. The laws of their nature are as invariable as 

 the laws of gravitation, only the applications to particular 

 cases offer worse problems than the case of the three 

 bodies. 



The Political Economists have gone the right way to 

 work — the way that the physical philosopher follows in 

 all complex affairs— by tracing out the effects of one great 

 cause of human action, the desire of wealth, supposing it 

 to be unchecked. 



If they, or other people, have forgotten that there are 

 other potent causes of action which may interfere with 

 this, it is no fault of scientific method but only their own 

 stupidity. 



Hydrostatics is not a " dismal science," because water 

 does not always seek the lowest level — e.g. from a bottle 

 turned upside down, if there is a cork in the neck ! 



There is much need that somebody should do for what 

 is vaguely called " Ethics " just what the Political Econo- 

 mists have done. Settle the question of what will be 

 done under the unchecked action of certain motives, and 

 leave the problem of "ought" for subsequent consideration. 



VOL. Ill Z 



