SECTION 20 STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 217 



with the whole of the methodology and some practice therein, 

 and being well-informed generally and in the particular subject. 



The above being conceded, if the problem treated of in the 

 illustration which follows were placed independently before a 

 score of persons, the results arrived at by them, supposing they 

 agreed to become investigators, should be nearly the same. 

 The divergences ought to be trifling, more in the manner than 

 in the matter. Very little should be left to hazard or to agitation 

 of wits. 



The illustration should be examined from this standpoint. 

 Much will be perceived to follow directly from methodological 

 premises ; but owing to the methodological system having been 

 slowly and laboriously evolved, others than the author should 

 be able to present a better articulated and more patently me- 

 thodological treatment of the subject proposed. In fact, the 

 criterion of a methodology is not what the methodologist accom- 

 plishes or fails to accomplish; but what a well-informed and 

 favourably situated individual can achieve by its means in a 

 particular enquiry. 



I. FIRST AND DETAILED ILLUSTRATION. 



First Stage. Statement of the Problem. 1 



93. It is asserted that the white race is greatly superior 

 intellectually, morally, and practically, to all other races. I re- 

 solve to probe this assertion, and to examine it with a view 

 to detecting whether there exist any material differences be- 

 tween races in respect of the qualities mentioned. Having 

 regard, however, to the nature of the question, I cannot expect 

 to receive a quantitative reply in the rigid sense. I can only 

 ask for proof of "substantial" equality, inequality, or differ- 

 ence: for proof, for example, that- all peoples, with the possible 

 exception of a negligible fraction, are virtually or apparently 

 equal in respect of the characters mentioned. Again, in speaking 

 of superiority, I exclude for the sake of simplicity, as implied, 

 all superiority in the possession of humour, of beauty, and even 

 of physique apart from health, and include, as stated, only 

 intellectual, moral, and practical (such as initiative, enterprise, 

 determination, independence, courage, etc.) traits. Some of the 

 details as to the cultural capacity of individuals, can be ascer- 

 tained with relative ease in our age of education and travel 

 and the publication of reports, whereas the problem of the 

 interdependence of civilisations requires for its solution the 

 consideration of the facts elicited by history and anthropology. 



Being clear in* our minds in regard to the problem to be 

 investigated, we may proceed. 



1 Conclusions 14-15. 



