520 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



none now remain in it ■ except those which relate to man himself, the 

 most complex and most difficult subject of study on which the human 

 mind can be engaged. 



Concerning the physical nature of man, as an organized being — al- 

 though there is still much uncei-tainty and much controversy, which 

 can only be teiTtiinated by the general acknowledgment and employ- 

 ment of stricter rules of induction than are commonly recognized — 

 there is, however, a considerable body of truths which all who have 

 attended to the subject consider to be fully established ; nor is there 

 now any radical imperfection in the method observed in this depart- 

 ment of science by its most distinguished modern teachers. But the 

 laws of Mind, and, in even a gi-eater degree, those of Society, are so 

 far from having attained a similar state of even partial recognition, 

 that it is still a conti'oversy whether they are capable of becoming sub- 

 jects of science, in the strict sense of the term; and among those who 

 are agi-eed on this point there reigns the most irreconcilable diversity 

 on almost every other. Here, therefore, if anywhere, the principles 

 laid down in the preceding Books may be expected to be useful. 



If on matters so much the most important with which human intel- 

 lect can occupy itself, a more general agreement is ever to exist among 

 thinkers; if what has been pronounced "the proper study of mankind" 

 is not destined to remain the only subject which Philosophy cannot 

 succeed in rescuing from Empiricism ; the same processes through 

 which the laws of simpler phenomena have by general acknowledg- 

 ment been placed beyond dispute, must be consciously and deliberately 

 applied to those more difficult inquiries. If there are some subjects 

 on which the results obtained have finally received the unanimous as- 

 sent of all who have attended to the proof, and others on which man- 

 kind have not yet been equally successful ; on which the most sagacious 

 minds have occupied themselves from tlie earliest date, with eveiy 

 assistance except that of a ti'ied scientific method, and have never suc- 

 ceeded in establishing any considerable body of truths, so as to be 

 beyond denial or doubt ; it is by generalizing the methods success- 

 folly followed in the former inquiries, and applying them to the latter, 

 that we may hope to remove this blot upon the face of science. The re- 

 maining chapters are an attempt to facilitate this most desirable object. 



§ 2. In attempting this, I am not unmindful how little can be done 

 towards it in a mere Treatise on Logic, or how vague and unsatis- 

 factory all precepts of Method must necessarily appear, when not prac- 

 tically exemplified in the establishment of a body of doctrine. Doubt- 

 less, the most effectual way of showing how the sciences of Ethics and 

 Politics may be constructed, would be to construct them : a task which, 

 it needs scarcely be said, I am not about to undertake. But even if 

 there were no other examples, the memorable one of Bacon would be 

 sufficient to demonstrate, that it is sometimes both possible and usefol 

 to point out the way, though without being oneself prepared to adven- 

 ture far into it. And if more were to be attempted, this at least is not 

 a proper place for the attempt. 



In substance, whatever can be done in a work like this, for the Logic 

 of the Moral Sciences, has been or ought to have been accomplished 

 in the five preceding Books ; to which the present can be only a kind 

 of supplement or appendix, since the methods of investigation applica- 



