592 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



the original qualities of our species, but mainly of the 

 qualities produced in us by the whole previous history 

 of humanity. So long a series of actions and reactions 

 between Circumstances and Man, each successive term 

 being composed of an ever greater number and variety 

 of parts, could not possibly be calculated from the 

 elementary laws which produce it, by merely human 

 faculties. The mere length of the series would be 

 a sufficient obstacle, since a slight error in any one of 

 the terms would augment in rapid progression at every 

 subsequent step. 



If, therefore, the series of the effects themselves did 

 not, when examined as a whole, manifest any regularity, 

 we should in vain attempt to construct a general sci- 

 ence of society. We must in that case have contented 

 ourselves with that subordinate order of sociological 

 speculation formerly noticed, namely, with endea- 

 vouring to ascertain what would be the effect of the 

 introduction of any new cause, in a state of society 

 supposed to be fixed; a knowledge sufficient for most 

 of the ordinary exigencies of daily political practice, 

 but liable to fail in all cases in which the progressive 

 movement of society is one of the influencing elements ; 

 and therefore more precarious in proportion as the 

 case is more important. But since both the natural 

 varieties of mankind, and the original diversities of 

 local circumstances, are much less considerable than 

 the points of agreement, there will naturally be a 

 certain degree of uniformity in the progressive de- 

 velopment of man and of his works. And this 

 uniformity (as M. Comte remarks with much justice) 

 tends to become greater, not less, as society advances; 

 since the evolution of each people, which is at first 

 determined exclusively by the nature and circum- 

 stances of that people, is gradually brought under the 



