ETHOLOGY. 513 



facts, but xiyton the simple ones of wliich tlioy art3 conipouiKltd ; and 

 after ascertaining the laws of the causes, the composition of which 

 gives rise to the complex phenomena, then considers whether those 

 will not explain and account for the a{>proximati^ jrenerali/ations which 

 have been framed iMupirically res]ieitin<i the scijuenccs of those com- 

 plex phenomena. The laws of the formiitioii of ciiaracter arc, in short, 

 derivative laws, resultinrr from the general laws of the mind; and they 

 are to be obtained by dt'ducing them from those general laws; by sup- 

 posing any given set of circumstances, and then considering what, 

 according to the laws of mind, will be the influence of those circum- 

 stances on the formation of character. 



A science is thus formed, to which I would propose to give the 

 name of Ethology, or the Science of Character ; from ijOo^, a word 

 more nearly coiTt;sponding to the term " character" as I here use it, 

 than any other word in the same language. The name is perhaps 

 etymologically applicable to the entire science of our mental and moral 

 nature; but if as is usual and convenient, we em])loy the name l*sy- 

 chology for the science of the elementary laws of mind, Ethology will 

 sei"\e for the subordinate science which determines the kind of charac- 

 ter produced, in conformity to those general laws, by any set of cir- 

 cumstances, physical and moral. According to this <lefinition, Etliology 

 is the science which corresponds to the art of e<lucation ; in the widest 

 sense of the term, including the formation of national character as well 

 as individual. It would indeed be vain to expect (however completely 

 the laws of the formation of character might be ascertained) that we 

 could know so accurately the circumstances of any given case as to be 

 able positively to predict the character that would be produced in that 

 case. But we must i-emembcr that a degree of knowledge far short of 

 the power of actual prediction, is often of great practical value. There 

 may be great power of influencing phenomena, with a very imj)erfect 

 knowledge of the causes by which they are in any given instance de- 

 termined. It is enough that wo know that certain meaius have a ten- 

 dency/ to produce a given effect, and that others have a tendency to 

 frustrate it. When the circumstances of an individual or of a nation 

 are in any considerable degree under our control, we may, by our 

 knowledge of tendencies, be enabled to shape those circumstances in 

 a maimer much more favorable to the ends we desire than the shape 

 which they would of themselves assume. This is the limit of our 

 power ; but within this limit the power is a most important one. 



The science of Ethology may be called the Exact Science of Human 

 Nature ; for its truths are not, lik(! the iinpirical laws which depend 

 upon them, approximate generalizations, but real laws. It is, Imw ever, 

 (as in all cases of complex phenomena,) necessary to the exactnt-ss of 

 the prf)positions, that they shouhl be hypothetical only, and atlirm 

 tendencies, not facts. They must not a-ssert that something will always, 

 or certainly, happen ; but only that such and such will be the effect of 

 a o-iven cause, so far a.s it operates uncounteracted. It is a scientific 

 proptisition, that cowardice tr-nds to make men cruel ; not that it 

 always makes them so : that an interest on one side of a question 

 tends to biius the judgment; not that it invariably does so: that expe- 

 rience tends to give wisdom ; not that such is always its effect. These 

 propositions, being assertive only (»f tendencies, are not the less univer- 

 sally ti-ue because the tendencies may be counteracted. 



