528 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



dary importance when we are considering mankind 

 in the average, or en masse,) I believe most" com- 

 petent judges will agree that the general laws of the 

 different constituent elements of human nature are 

 now sufficiently understood, to render it possible for 

 a competent thinker to deduce from those laws the 

 particular type of character which would be formed, 

 in mankind generally, by any assumed set of circum- 

 stances. A science of Ethology, founded upon the 

 laws of Psychology, is therefore possible ; though little 

 has yet been done, and that little not at all system- 

 atically, towards forming it. The progress of this 

 important but most imperfect science will depend 

 upon a double process : first, that of deducing theore- 

 tically the ethological consequences of particular cir- 

 cumstances of position, and comparing them with the 

 recognised results of common experience; and se- 

 condly, the reverse operation; increased study of the 

 various types of human nature that are to be found in 

 the world; conducted by persons not only capable of 

 analyzing and recording the circumstances in which 

 these types severally prevail, but also sufficiently 

 acquainted with psychological laws, to be able to ex- 

 plain and account for the characteristics of the type 

 by the peculiarities of the circumstances : the residuum, 

 if any, being set down to the account of congenital 

 predispositions . 



The experimental or a posteriori part of this pro- 

 cess is carried on in our own day with much greater 

 activity than heretofore. The great step, therefore, 

 which remains to be taken in Ethology, is to deduce 

 the requisite middle principles from the general laws of 

 Psychology. The subject to be studied is, the origin 

 and sources of all those qualities in human beings which 

 are most interesting to us, either as facts to be pro- 



