ethologv. 



5«5 



eluding under the denomination of 

 experimental inquiry, observation as 

 well as artificial experiment. Are the 

 laws of the formation of character sus- 

 ceptible of a satisfactory investigation 

 by the method of experimentation ? 

 Evidently not ; because, even if we 

 suppose unlimited power of varying 

 the experiment, (which is abstractedly 

 possible, though no one but an Oriental 

 despot has that power, or, if he had, 

 would probably be disposed to exer- 

 cise it,) a still more essential condi- 

 tion is wanting — the power of per- 

 forming any of the experiments with 

 scientific accuracy. 



The instances requisite for the pro- 

 secution of a directly experimental 

 inquiry into the formation of char- 

 acter would be a number of human 

 beings to bring up and educate from 

 infancy to mature age ; and to per- 

 form any one of these experiments 

 with scientific propriety, it would be 

 necessary to know and record every 

 sensation or impressed received by the 

 young pupil from a period long before 

 it could speak, including its own no- 

 tions respecting the sources of all those 

 sensations and impressions. It is not 

 only impossible to do this completely, 

 but even to do so much of it as should 

 constitute a tolerable approximation. 

 One apparently trivial circumstance 

 which eluded our vigilance might let 

 in a train of impressions and associa- 

 tions sufficient to vitiate the experi- 

 ment as an authentic exhibition of the 

 effects flowing from given causes. No 

 one who has sufficiently reflected on 

 education is ignorant of this truth : 

 and whoever has not will find it most 

 instructively illustrated in the writ- 

 ings of Rousseau and Helvetius on 

 that great subject. 



Under this impossibility of study- 

 ing the laws of the formation of char- 

 acter by experiments purposely con- 

 trived to elucidate them there remains 

 the resource of simple observation. 

 But if it be impossible to ascertain 

 the influencing circumstances with 

 any approach to completeness even 

 when we have the shaping of them 



ourselves, much more impossible is it 

 when the cases are further removed 

 from our observation, and altogether 

 out of our control. Consider the diffi- 

 culty of the very first step — of ascer- 

 taining what actually is the character 

 of the individual in each particular 

 case that we examine. There is hardly 

 any person living, concerning some 

 essential part of whose character 

 there are not differences of opinion 

 even among his intimate acquain- 

 tances ; and a single action, or con- 

 duct continued only for a short time, 

 goes a very little way towards ascer- 

 taining it. We can only make our 

 observations in a rough way and en 

 masse, not attempting to ascertain 

 completely in any given instance 

 what character has been formed, and 

 still less by what causes ; but only 

 observing in what state of previous 

 circumstances it is found that cer- 

 tain marked mental qualities or defi- 

 ciencies qftenest exist. These conclu- 

 sions, besides that they are mere 

 approximate generalisations, deserve 

 no reliance, even as such, unless the 

 instances are sufficiently numerous to 

 eliminate not only chance, but every 

 assignable circumstance in which a 

 number of the cases examined may 

 happen to have resembled one an- 

 other. So numerous and various, too, 

 are the circumstances which form in- 

 dividual character, that the conse- 

 quence of any particular combination 

 is hardly ever some definite and 

 strongly marked character, alwa5rs 

 found where that combination exists, 

 and not otherwise. What is obtained, 

 even after the most extensive and ac- 

 curate observation, is merely a com- 

 parative result ; as, for example, that 

 in a given number of Frenchmen, 

 taken indiscriminately, there will be 

 found more persons of a particular 

 mental tendency, and fewer of the 

 contrary tendency, than among an 

 equal number of Italians or English, 

 similarly taken ; or thus : of a hun- 

 dred Frenchmen and an equal number 

 of Englishmen, fairly selected, and 

 arranged according to the degree in 



