546 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



erally, by any assumed set of circumstances. A science of Ethology, 

 founded upon the laws of Psychology, is therefore possible; though 

 little has yet been done, and that little not at all systematically, towards 

 formino- it. The progress of this important but most imperfect science 

 will depend upon a double process : first, that of deducing theoreti- 

 cally the ethological consequences of particular circumstances of 

 position, and comparing them with the recognized results of common 

 experience ; and secondly, the reverse operation ; increased study of 

 the various types of human nature that are to be found in the world, 

 conducted by persons not only capable of analyzing and recording the 

 circumstances in which these types severally prevail, but also suf- 

 ficiently acqviainted with psychological laws, to be able to explain and 

 account for the characteristics of the type by the peculiarities of the 

 circumstances : the residuum, if any, being set down to the account of 

 congenital predispositions. 



The" experimental or a posteriori part of this process is carried on in 

 our own day with much gi-eater activity than heretofore. The gi-eat 

 step, therefore, which remains to be taken in Ethology, is to deduce 

 the requisite middle principles from the general laws of Psychology. 

 The subject to be studied is, the origin and sources of all those quahties 

 in human beings which are most interesting to us, either as facts to be 

 produced, to be avoided, or merely to be understood- and the object 

 is, to determine, from the general laws of mind, combined with the 

 general position of our species in the universe, what actual or possible 

 combinations of circumstances are capable of promoting or of pre- 

 venting the production of those qualities. A science which possesses 

 middle principles of this kind, aiTanged in the order, not of causes, 

 but of the effects which it is desirable to produce or to prevent, is 

 duly prepared to be the foundation of the corresponding Art. And 

 when Ethology shall be thus prepared, practical education will be the 

 mere transformation of those principles into a parallel system of pre- 

 cepts, and the adaptation of these to the sum total of the individual 

 circumstances which exist in each particular case. 



It is hardly necessary again to repeat that, as in every other deduc- 

 tive science, the work of verification a j^ostcriori must proceed pan 

 passu with that of deduction a priori. The inference given by theory 

 as to the type of character which would be formed by any given cir- 

 cumstances, must be tested by specific experience of those circum- 

 stances whenever obtainable; and the whole conclusions of the science 

 must undergo a perpetual verification and correction from tlie general 

 remarks afforded by common experience respecting human nature in 

 our own age, and by history respecting times gone by. The conclusions 

 of theory cannot be trusted, unless confirmed by observation ; nor those 

 of observation, unless they can be affiliated to the theory, by deducing 

 them from the laws of human nature and from a close analysis of the 

 circumstances of the particular situation. It is the accordance of 

 tliese two kinds o.f evidence, separately taken — the consilience (as Mr. 

 Whewell would express it) of a jjriori reasoning and specific expeii- 

 ence — which forms the only sufficient ground for the principles of any 

 science so "immersed in matter," dealing with so complex and so 

 concrete phenomena, as Ethology. 



