S66 



LOGIC Of Ttifi MORAL SCIENCES. 



which they possess a particular mental 

 characteristic, each number i, 2, 3, 

 &c., of the one series will be found to 

 possess more of that characteristic 

 than the corresponding number of 

 the other. Since, therefore, the com- 

 parison is not one of kinds, but of 

 ratios and degrees ; and since in pro- 

 portion as the differences are slight, 

 it requires a greater number of in- 

 stances to eliminate chance ; it can- 

 not often happen to any one to know 

 a suflBcient number of cases with the 

 accuracy requisite for making the sort 

 of comparison last mentioned ; less 

 than which, however, would not con- 

 stitute a real induction. Accordingly 

 there is hardly one current opinion 

 respecting the characters of nations, 

 classes, or descriptions of persons, 

 which is universally acknowledged as 

 indisputable.* 



And finally, if we could even obtain 



* The most favourable cases for malclng 

 such apiiroximate generalisations are what 

 may be termed collective instances, where 

 we are fortunately enabled to see the whole 

 class respecting which we are inquiring 

 in action at once, and, from the qualities 

 displayed by the collective body, are able 

 to judge what must be the qualities of the 

 majority of the individuals composing it 

 Thus the character of a nation is ••hown in 

 its acts as a nation ; not so much in the 

 acts of its government, for those are much 

 influenced by other causes ; but iu the cur- 

 rent popular maxims, and other marks of 

 the general direction of public opinion ; in 

 the character of the persons or writings 

 that are held in permanent esteem or ad- 

 miration ; in laws and institutions, so far 

 as they are tlie work of the nation itself, or 

 are acknowledged and supported by it ; 

 and so forth. But even here there is a 

 large margin of doubt and uncertainty. 

 These things are liable to be influenced by 

 many circumstances : they are partly de- 

 termined by ihe distinctive qualities of 

 that nation or body of persons but partly 

 also by external causes which would in- 

 fluence any other body of persons, in the 

 same manner. In order, therefore, to 

 make the experiment really complete, we 

 ought to b« able to try it without variation 

 upon othci- nation* : to try how English- 

 men would act or feel if placed in the same 

 •ircumatanc*'! in which w« have lupposed 

 Frenchmen to be placed ; to apply, in 

 abort, the Method of Difference as well as 

 that of Agreement. Now these experi- 

 ments we caunot try, nor even approxi- 

 mate to. 



by way of experiment a much more sat- 

 isfactory assurance of these generalisa- 

 tions than is really possible, they would 

 still be only empirical laws. They 

 would show, indeed, that there was 

 some connection between the type of 

 character formed and the circum- 

 stances existing in the case, but not 

 what the precise connection was, nor 

 to which of the peculiarities of those 

 circumstances the effect was reaUy 

 owing. They could only, therefore, 

 be received as results of causation, re- 

 quiring to be resolved into the general 

 laws of the causes : until the deter- 

 mination of which, we could not judge 

 within what limits the derivative laws 

 might serve as presumptions in cases 

 yet unknown, or even be depended 

 on 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, altertheir institutions, 

 pass through a series of extraordinary 

 events for the greater part of a cen- 

 tury, and at the end of that time their 

 character is found to have undergone 

 important changes. A long list of 

 mental and moral differences are ob- 

 served, or supposed to exist, between 

 men and women ; but at some future, 

 and, it may be hoped, not distant 

 period, equal freedom and an equally 

 independent social position come to 

 be possessed by both, and their differ- 

 ences of character are either removed 

 or totally altered. 



But if the differences which we 

 think we observe between French and 

 English, or between men and women, 

 can be connected with more general 

 laws ; if they be such as might be 

 expected to be produced by the differ- 

 ences of government, former customs, 

 and physical peculiarities in the two 

 nations, and by the diversities of 

 education, occupations, personal inde- 

 pendence, and social privileges, and 

 whatever original differences thewi 

 may be in bodily strength and nervous 

 sensibility between the two sexes ; 

 then, indeed, the coincidence of the 



