566 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



to foresee infallibly the results of what we do. We 

 must seek our objects by means which may perhaps 

 be defeated, and take precautions against dangers 

 which possibly may never be realised. The aim of 

 practical politics is to surround the society which is 

 under our superintendence with the greatest possible 

 number of circumstances of which the tendencies are 

 beneficial, and to remove or counteract, as far as 

 practicable, those of which the tendencies are inju- 

 rious. A knowledge of the tendencies only, though 

 without the power of accurately predicting their con- 

 junct result, gives us to a certain extent this power. 



It would, however, be an error to suppose that 

 even with respect to tendencies, we could arrive 

 in this manner at any great number of propo- 

 sitions which will be true in all societies without 

 exception. Such a supposition would be incon- 

 sistent with the eminently modifiable nature of the 

 social phenomena, and the multitude and variety of 

 the circumstances by which they are modified; cir- 

 / cumstances never the same, or even nearly the same, 

 in two different societies, or in two different periods 

 of the same society. This would not be so serious an 

 obstacle if, though the causes acting upon society in 

 general are numerous, those which influence any one 

 feature of society were limited in number; for we 

 might then insulate any particular social phenomenon, 

 and investigate its laws without disturbance from the 

 rest. But the truth is the very opposite of this. 

 Whatever affects, in an appreciable degree, any one 

 element of the social state, affects through it all the 

 ' other elements. The mode of production of all social 

 phenomena is one great case of Intermixture of Laws. 

 We can never either understand in theory or com- 

 mand in practice the condition of a society in any one 



