PHYSICAL METHOD. 565 



compensation it is precisely in these cases that we 

 are able to obtain the best empirical laws: to these 

 inquiries,, therefore, the Inverse Method is exclusively 

 adapted. But there are also, as will presently appear, 

 other cases in which it is impossible to obtain from 

 direct observation anything worthy the name of an 

 empirical law; and it fortunately happens that these 

 are the very cases in which the Direct Method is 

 least affected by the objection which undoubtedly 

 must always affect it in a certain degree. 



We shall begin, then, by looking at Sociology as 

 a science of direct Deduction, and considering what 

 can be accomplished in it, and Under what limitations, 

 by that mode of investigation. We shall, then, in a 

 separate chapter, examine and endeavour to charac- 

 terize the inverse process. 



2. It is, in the first place, distinctly apparent 

 that Sociology, considered as a system of deductions 

 a priori, cannot be a science of positive predictions, 

 but only of tendencies. We may be able to conclude, 

 from the laws of human nature applied to the circum- 

 stances of a given state of society, that a particular 

 cause will operate in a certain manner unless counter- 

 acted ; but we can never be assured to what extent or 

 amount it will so operate, or affirm with certainty 

 that it will not be counteracted ; because we can 

 seldom know, even approximatively, all the agencies 

 which may coexist with it, and still less calculate the 

 collective result of so many combined elements. The 

 remark, however, must here be once more repeated, 

 that knowledge insufficient for prediction may be most 

 valuable for guidance. It is not necessary for the 

 wise conduct of the affairs of society, no more than 

 of any man's private concerns, that we should be able 



