PHYSICAL METHOD. 503 



its influencin<r circumstances whidi we had already jierform.'d fur ilin 

 tirsL Tlie detliictive so eiict; oi' Bociety (l<»rs not lay down a llicun-iii, 

 asserting in an universal manner the t'H'ect of any 'cause ; but rallior 

 teaches us liovv to frame the proper theorem for the circumstances of 

 any given case. It does not give us the laws of society in general, but 

 the means of determining the phenomena of any given society from tho 

 particular elements or data of that soci«'ty. 



All the general propositions of the deductive science arc therefore, 

 in the strictest sense of the word, hypothetical. They are grounded 

 on some supposititious set of circumstances, and declare how some 

 given cause will operate in those circumstances, supposing tliat no 

 others are combined with them. If the set of circumstances supposed 

 has been taken from those of any existing society, the conclusions 

 will be true of that society, provided, and in as far as, tin; effect of ihoso 

 circumstances shall not be modified by others which liave not been 

 taken into the account. If wo desire a nearer approach to coiicrcto 

 truth, we can only aim at it by taking, or endeavoring to take, a greater 

 number of individualizing circumstances into the computation. 



Considering, however, in how accelerating a ratio tho uncertainty of 

 our conclusions increases, as we attempt to take the efl'ect of a greater 

 number of concurrent causes into our calculations ; the hypothetical 

 combinations of circumstances upon which we construct the general 

 theorems of the science, cannot be made very complex, without so 

 rapidly accumulating a liability to error as must soon deprive our con- 

 clusions of all value. This mode of inquiry, considered as a mcai»s of 

 obtaining general propositions, must therefore, on pain of entin- fri- 

 volity, be limited to those classes of social facts wliich, though intluenrcd 

 like the rest by all sociological agents, are under tho i/nmcdiatc influ- 

 ence, principally at least, of a few only. 



§ 3. Notwithstanding the universal consensus of the social phenomena, 

 whereby nothing which takes place in any part of the operations of 

 society is without its share of influence on every other part ; and not- 

 withstanding the paramount ascendency which the general state of 

 civilization and social progress in any given society must hence exercise 

 over all the partial and subordinate phenomena ; it is not the less true 

 that different species of social facts are in the main de])endent, imme- 

 diately and in the first resort, upon difl'en-nt kinds of causes ; and there- 

 fore not only may with advantage, but must, be stu<lied apart : just as 

 in the natural body we study separately the physiology and pathology 

 of each of the principid organs and tissues, although every one is acted 

 iijx)n by the state of all the (jthers ; and althougli the peculiar consti- 

 tution and general state of health of llie organism coopi.-rates with ami 

 often preponderates over the local causes, in determining tho slate of 

 any particular organ. 



On these considerations is grounded the existence of distinct and 

 separate, though not independent, branches or departments of socio- 

 logical speculation. 



There is, for example, one large class of social phenomena, in which 

 the immediately determining causes are prin<ipally those which art 

 through the desire of wealth; and in which the jisychohfgical law main- 

 ly concerned is the familiar one, that a greater gain is prefe-rred to a 

 fimaller. I mean, of course, that portion of the phenomena of society 



