ETHOLOGY. 599 



individual is surrounded by circumstances different from these of every 

 other individual ; every nation or generation of mankind from every other 

 nation or generation : and none of these differences are without their influ- 

 ence in forming a different type of character. There is, indeed, also a cer- 

 tain general resemblance ; but peculiarities of circumstances are continually 

 constituting exceptions even to the propositions which are true in the great 

 majority of cases. 



Although, however, there is scarcely any mode of feeling or conduct which 

 is, in the absolute sense, common to all mankind ; and though the general- 

 izations which assert that any given variety of conduct or feeling will be 

 found universally (however nearly they may approximate to truth within 

 given limits of observation), will be considered as scientific propositions by 

 no one who is at all familiar with scientific investigation ; yet all modes of 

 feeling and conduct met with among mankind have causes which produce 

 them ; and in the propositions which assign those causes will be found the 

 explanation of the empirical laws, and the limiting principle of our reliance 

 on them. Human beings do not all feel and act alike in the same circum- 

 stances ; but it is possible to determine what makes one person, in a given 

 position, feel or act in one way, another in another ; how any given mode 

 of feeling and conduct, compatible with the general laws (physical and 

 mental) of human nature, has been, or may be, formed. In other words, 

 mankind have not one universal character, but there exist universal laws 

 of the Formation of Character. And since it is by these laws, combined 

 with the facts of each particular case, that the whole of the phenomena of 

 human action and feeling are produced, it is on these that every rational 

 attempt to construct the science of human nature in the concrete, and for 

 practical purposes, must proceed. 



§ 3. The laws, then, of the formation of character being the principal ob- 

 ject of scientific inquiry into human nature, it remains to determine the 

 method of investigation best fitted for ascertaining them. And the logical 

 principles according to which this question is to be decided, must be those 

 which preside over every other attempt to investigate the laws of very com- 

 plex phenomena. For it is evident that both the character of any human 

 being, and the aggregate of the circumstances by which that character has 

 been formed, ai-e facts of a high order of complexity. Now to such cases 

 we have seen that the Deductive Method, setting out from general laws, 

 and verifying their consequences by specific experience, is alone applicable. 

 The grounds of this great logical doctrine have formerly been stated ; and 

 its truth will derive additional support from a brief examination of the 

 specialties of the present case. 



There are only two modes in which laws of nature can be ascertained — 

 deductively and experimentally ; including under the denomination of ex- 

 perimental inquiry, observation as well as artificial experiment. Are the 

 laws of the formation of character susceptible of a satisfactory investigation 

 by the method of experimentation? Evidently not; because, even if we 

 suppose unlimited power of varying the experiment (which is abstractedly 

 possible, though no one but an Oriental despot has that power, or, if he had, 

 would probably be disposed to exercise it), a still more essential condition 

 is wanting — the power of performing any of the experiments with scientific 

 accuracy. 



The instances requisite for the prosecution of a directly experimental in- 

 quiry into the formation of character, would be a number of iiuman beings 



