ILLUSTRATIONS AND CRITICISMS 



not create such a science. For in sociology, 

 even more than in any other science, the prime 

 requisite is to formulate the law of evolution — 

 in this case, the order of sequence of historic 

 events from epoch to epoch. So far as a science 

 of society could be founded upon purely statical 

 considerations, the work had already been per- 

 formed — by Adam Smith, as regards political 

 economy, by Bentham, as regards jurisprudence, 

 and by both these great thinkers, as regards 

 ethics. But ethics, jurisprudence, and political 

 economy, put together, do not make up a sci- 

 ence of society, as Comte clearly saw. For in 

 sociology the historical element — the question 

 whence we started and whither we are bound — 

 is the element which takes precedence of all 

 others. Even ethics, jurisprudence, and politi- 

 cal economy cannot be placed upon a truly ra- 

 tional basis until we understand the order of 

 intellectual and moral change from epoch to 

 epoch. To understand the " tendencies of the 

 age " Is an indispensable prerequisite for sound 

 sociological thinking as well as for sound polit- 

 ical acting. Thus that portion of sociology which 

 treats of genesis Is, relatively to the whole sci- 

 ence, even more important than the correspond- 

 ing portions of biology and psychology. In bio- 

 logy pure and simple, we can, as we have seen, 

 obtain a tolerably complete notion of the order 

 of changes in the organism, with but occasional 



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