HISTORICAL METHOD. 605 



laws according to which social states generate one 

 another as society advances; the axiomata media of 

 General Sociology. 



The empirical laws which are most readily ob- 

 tained by generalization from history do not amount 

 to this; they are not the "middle principles" 

 themselves, but only evidence towards the esta- 

 blishment of such principles. They consist of cer- 

 tain general tendencies which may be perceived in 

 society ; a progressive increase of some social elements 

 and diminution of others, or a gradual change in the 

 general character of certain elements. It is easily 

 seen, for instance, that as society advances, mental 

 tend more and more to prevail over bodily qualities, 

 and masses over individuals: that the occupation of 

 all that portion of mankind who are not under ex- 

 ternal restraint is at first chiefly military, but society 

 becomes progressively more and more engrossed with 

 productive pursuits, and the military spirit gradually 

 gives way to the industrial: to which many other 

 similar truths might easily be added. And with 

 generalizations of this description, ordinary inquirers, 

 even of the historical school now predominant on the 

 Continent, are satisfied. But these and all such 

 results are still at too great a distance from the ele- 

 mentary laws of human nature on which they depend, 

 too many links intervene, and the concurrence of 

 causes at each link is far too complicated, to enable 

 these propositions to be presented as direct corolla- 

 ries from those elementary principles. They have, 

 therefore, in the minds of most inquirers, remained 

 in the state of empirical laws, applicable only within 

 the bounds of actual observation; without any means 

 of determining their real limits, and of judging whether 

 the changes which have hitherto been in progress are 



