SOCIOLOGY AND FREE-WILL 



gresslon, and a third, like Vico, in ever-recur- 

 ring cycles. But is this because the facts are 

 undecipherable, or because the investigation is 

 one-sided ? Because Agassiz still believes or- 

 ganic species to be fixed, while almost all other 

 naturalists believe them to be variable in char- 

 acter, are we to infer that there is no science of 

 biology ? In such unworthy plight does Mr. 

 Froude retreat before the problem he has en- 

 countered. He starts to show us that a science 

 of history is as ridiculous an impossibility as a 

 scarlet B-flat or a westerly proportion ; and he 

 ends by mildly observing that history is a diffi- 

 cult subject, in which a series of partial exam- 

 inations may bring forth contradictory conclu- 

 sions ! 



The next bit of inference concerns us more 

 intimately. " Will a time ever be when the lost 

 secret of the foundation of Rome can be recov- 

 ered by historic laws ? If not, where is our sci- 

 ence ? " Just where it was before. The science 

 of history has nothing to do with dates, except 

 to take them, so far as they can be determined, 

 from the hands of historical criticism. They 

 are its data, not its conclusions. As Mr. Mor- 

 ley reminds us, we do not dispute the possibil- 

 ity of a science of meteorology because such 

 a science cannot tell us whether it was a dry or 

 a wet day at Jericho two thousand years ago. 

 Facts like these show us that sciences dealing 

 247 



