HISTORICAL METHOD. 595 



the theory of the mutual actions and reactions of 

 contemporaneous social phenomena ;" making pro- 

 visionally, as far as possible, abstraction, for scientific 

 purposes, of the fundamental movement which is at 

 all times gradually modifying the whole of them. 



" In this first point of view," continues M. 

 Comte*, "the previsions of sociology will enable 

 us to infer one from another (subject to ulterior 

 verification by direct observation) the various- cha- 

 racteristic marks of each distinct mode of social 

 existence ; in a manner essentially analogous to what 

 is now habitually practised in the anatomy of the 

 physical body. This preliminary aspect, therefore, of 

 political science, of necessity supposes that (contrary 

 to the existing habits of philosophers) each of the 

 numerous elements of the social state, ceasing to be 

 looked at independently and absolutely, shall be 

 always and exclusively considered relatively to all 

 the other elements, with the whole of which it is 

 united by mutual interdependence. It would be super- 

 fluous to insist here upon the great and constant 

 utility of this branch of sociological speculation : it is, 

 in the first place, the indispensable basis of the theory 

 of social progress, every rational conception of which 

 presupposes the continued preservation of the corre- 

 sponding social organism, It may, moreover, be 

 employed, immediately and of itself, to supply the 

 place, provisionally at least, of direct observation, 

 which in many cases is not always practicable for 

 some of the elements of society, the real condition of 

 which may however be sufficiently judged of by 

 means of the relations which connect them with others 

 previously known. The history of the sciences may 



Cours de Philosophic Positive, iv. 325-9. 



2 Q 2 



