ILLUSTRATIONS AND CRITICISMS 



ductively from the mere observation of contem- 

 porary social phenomena. All theories formed 

 in this way, without reference to the order of 

 historic progression, are in danger of being 

 stated too absolutely, and are wont to give birth 

 only to Utopian projects. Comte was never 

 weary of pointing out the errors of those polit- 

 ical economists who deduce general laws of ac- 

 cumulation and distribution from the industrial 

 phenomena presented by a single country at a 

 particular epoch ; or of those moralists who base 

 their theories upon that absurdest of aphorisms, 

 that " human nature is always and everywhere 

 the same ; " or of those legislators who, in igno- 

 rance of the fact that humanity is travelling 

 in a definite and partially ascertainable direction, 

 fondly hope to turn it hither and thither by 

 shrewdly concocted acts of parliament. Nor, in 

 maintaining this last position, did he ever fall 

 into the opposite error, — characteristic of super- 

 ficial writers like Macaulay and Buckle, — that 

 individual genius and exertion is of little or no 

 account in modifying the course of history. He 

 did not forget that history is made by individual 

 men, as much as a coral reef is made by indi- 

 vidual polyps. Each contributes his infinites- 

 imal share of effort ; nor is the share of effort 

 always so trifling. Considering the course of 

 history merely as the resultant of the play of 

 moral forces, is there not in a Julius Caesar or 



347 



