234 COSMIC rillLOSOPRY. [pt. ii. 



is to formulate the law of evolution — in this case, the crdei 

 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 performed; by 

 Adam Smith, as regards political economy, by Benthara, as 

 regards jurisprudence, and by both these great thinkers, as re- 

 gards ethics. But ethics, jurisprudence, and political economy, 

 put together, do not make up a science 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 political economy cannot be placed 

 upon a truly rational basis ^^ntil we understand the order of 

 intellectual and moral change from epoch to epoch. To 

 understand the "tendencies of the age" is an indispensable 

 pre-requisite for sound sociological thinking as well as for 

 sound political acting. Thus that portion of sociology which 

 treats of genesis is, relatively to the whole science, even 

 more important than the corresponding portions of biology 

 and psychology. In biology 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 reference to the 

 comparatively stable and unchanging environment. In psy- 

 chology we have to take the environment into account at 

 every step ; but unless we are studying the quite special 

 problem of the growth of the mental faculties, we do not 

 need to refer to a definite and persistent succession of changes 

 in the environment. But in sociology we cannot work in 

 this way. As M. Littre has well pointed out, when we come 

 to study humanity we are met by a new phenomenon un- 

 known in biology or in psychology pure and simple. That 

 new phenomenon is Tradition, or the bequeathing of all its 

 organized intellectual and moral experience by each genera- 

 tion to its successor. Here for the first time we have an 

 environment which is rapidly changing in a definite order 



