537 



CHAPTER VII. 



OF THE CHEMICAL, OR EXPERIMENTAL, METHOD 

 IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCE. 



1. THE laws of the phenomena of society are, 

 and can be, nothing but the laws of the actions and 

 passions of human beings united together in the 

 social state. Men, however, in a state of society, are 

 still men; their actions and passions are obedient to 

 the laws of individual human nature. Men are not, 

 when brought together, converted into another kind 

 of substance, with different properties; as hydrogen 

 and oxygen are different from water, or as hydrogen, 

 oxygen, carbon, and azote, are different from nerves, 

 muscles, and tendons. Human beings in society have 

 no properties but those which are derived from, and 

 may be resolved into, the laws of the nature of indi- 

 vidual man. In social phenomena the Composition 

 of Causes is the universal law. 



Now, the method of philosophizing which may be 

 termed chemical overlooks this fact, and proceeds as 

 if the nature of man as an individual were not con- 

 cerned at all, or concerned in a very inferior degree, 

 in the operations of man in society. All reasoning in 

 politics or social affairs, grounded upon principles of 

 human nature, is objected to* by reasoners of this sort, 

 under such names as " abstract theory." For go- 

 verning their opinions and conduct, they profess to 

 demand, in all cases without exception, specific expe- 

 rience. 



This mode of thinking is not only general with 

 practitioners in politics, and with that very numerous 



