542 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



And finally, if we could even obtain by way of experiment a much 

 more satisfactory assurance of these generalizations than is really possi- 

 ble, they would still be only empirical laws. They would show, indeed, 

 that there was some connexion between the type of character foiined, 

 and the circumstances existing in the case ; but not what the precise 

 connexion was, nor to which of the peculiarities of those circumstances 

 the effect was really owing. They could only, therefore, be received 

 as results of causation, requiring to be resolved into the general laws 

 of the causes ; until the determination of which, we could not judge 

 within what limits the derivative laws might serve as presumptions in 

 cases yet unknown, or even be depended upon as permanent in the 

 very cases from which they were collected. The French people had, 

 or were supposed to have, a certain national character : but they drive 

 out their royal family and aristocracy, alter their institutions, pass 

 through a series of extraordinary events for half a century, and at the 

 end of that time are found to be, in many respects, totally altered. 

 The laboring classes are observed to be different from the higher in a 

 long series of qualities ; but it becomes customary, perhaps, to give 

 them an education more approximating to that of their superiors in 

 station, and in the next age the differences, though still real, are no 

 longer the same. 



But if the differences which you think you observe between French 

 and English, or between persons of station and persons of no station, 

 can be connected with more general laws ; if they be such as would 

 naturally flow from the differences of goveniment, former customs, and 

 physical peculiarities in the two nations, and from the diversities of 

 education, occupations, and social position in the different classes of 

 society ; then, indeed, the coincidence of the two kinds of evidence 

 justifies us in believing that we have both reasoned rightly and observed 

 rightly. Our observation, though not sufficient as proof, is ample as 

 verification. And ha\'ing ascertained not only the empirical laws but 

 the causes of the peculiarities, we need be under no difficulty in judg- 

 ing how far they may be expected to be permanent, or by what circum- 

 stances they would be modified or destroyed. 



§ 4. Since then it is impossible to obtain really accurate propositions 

 respecting the fonnation of character froro observation and experi- 

 ment alone, we are driven perforce to that which, even if it had not 

 been the indispensable, would have been the most perfect mode of in- 

 vestigation, and which it is one of the principal aims of philosophy to 

 extend ; namely, that which tries its experiments not upon the complex 



dividuals composing it. Thus the character of a nation is shown in its acts as a nation : 

 not so much in the acts of its government, for those are much influenced by other causes ; 

 but in the current popular maxims, and other marks of the general direction of pubUc 

 opinion ; in the character of the men or v.'ritings that are held in permanent esteem or 

 admiration ; in laws and institutions, so far as they are the work of the nation itself, or 

 are acknowledged and supported by it ; and so forth. But even here there is a large mar- 

 gin of doubt and uncertainty. These things are liable to be influenced by many circum- 

 stances : they are partly determined by the distinctive qualities of that nation or body of 

 persons, but partly also by external causes which would influence any other body of per- 

 sons in the same manner. In order, therefore, to make the experiment really complete, we 

 ought to be able to try it without variation upon other nations : to try how Englishmen 

 would act or feel if placed in the same circumstances in which we have supposed French- 

 men to be placed ; to apply, in short, the Method of Difference as well as that of Agree- 

 ment. Now these experiments we cannot try, nor even approximate to. 



