COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



with phenomena which are the products of many 

 and complex factors cannot hope to attain that 

 minute precision which is attained by sciences 

 deahngwith phenomena which are the products 

 of few and simple factors. They show that so- 

 ciology cannot, like astronomy, be brought un- 

 der the control of mathematical deduction. But 

 it was not necessary for Mr. Froude to write an 

 essay to prove this. 



But, continues Mr. Froude, " can you ima- 

 gine a science which would have foretold such 

 movements as '* Mohammedanism, or Chris- 

 tianity, or Buddhism ? To the question as thus 

 presented, we must answer, certainly not. Nei- 

 ther can any man foretell any such movement 

 as the typhoid fever which six months hence is 

 to strike him down. If the latter case does not 

 prove that there are no physiologic laws, neither 

 does the former prove that there are no laws of 

 history. In both instances, the antecedents of 

 the phenomenon are irresistibly working out 

 their results ; though in both cases they are so 

 complicated that no human skill can accurately 

 anticipate their course. But to a different pre- 

 sentment of Mr. Froude's question, we might 

 return a different answer. There is a sense in 

 which movements like Mohammedanism, or 

 Buddhism, or Christianity, could not have been 

 predicted, and there is a sense in w^hich they 

 could have been. What could not have been 

 248 



