174 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



and the policies of nations are not ruled by 

 cause and effect a science of society is im- 

 possible. 



And yet, contends Ward, it was the very 

 adoption of this "altogether sound abstract 

 principle" that "led to the greatest and most 

 fundamental of all economic errors, an error 

 which has found its way into the heart of 

 modern scientific philosophy, widely influenc- 

 ing public opinion, and offering a stubborn 

 resistance to all efforts to dislodge it/' 



And now we come to the keynote of Ward's 

 whole system and at the same time to the 

 point where he completely breaks with the 

 biological sociologists. The error, which Ward 

 attributes to them all^ the refutation of which 

 is the main object of his work, is described 

 as follows: 



"This error consists in practically ignoring 

 the existence of a rational faculty in man, 

 which, while it does not render his actions 

 any less subject to natural laws, so enorm- 

 ously complicates them that they can no 

 longer be brought within the simple formulas 

 that suffice in the calculus of mere animal mo- 

 tives. This element creeps stealthily in be- 

 tween the child and the adult, and all un- 

 noticed puts the best laid schemes of econom- 

 ists and philosophers altogether aglee. A great 



