570 



LOGIC OF THE MOBAL SCIENCES. 



§ 6. Of these, the earlier alone has 

 been, as yet, really conceived or studied 

 as a science ; the other, Ethology, is 

 Btill to be created. But its creation 

 has at length become practicable. The 

 empirical laws, destined to verify its 

 deductions, have been formed in abun- 

 dance by every successive age of hu- 

 manity, and the premises for the 

 deductions are now sufficiently com- 

 plete. Excepting the degree of un- 

 certainty which still exists as to the 

 extent of the natural differences of 

 individual minds, and the physical 

 circumstances on which these may be 

 dependent, (considerations which are 

 of secondary importance when we are 

 considering mankind in the average, 

 or enmasse,) I believe most competent 

 judges will agree that the general 

 laws of the different constituent ele- 

 ments of human nature are even now 

 sufficiently understood to render it 

 possible for a competent thinker to 

 deduce from those laws, with a con- 

 siderable approach to certainty, the 

 particular type of character which 

 would be formed in mankind generally 

 by any assumed set of circumstances. 

 A science of Ethology, founded on 

 the laws of Psychology, is therefore 

 possible, though little has yet been 

 done, and that little not at all sys- 

 tematically, towards forming it. The 

 progress of this important but most 

 imperfect science will depend on a 

 double process : first, that of deducing 

 theoretically the ethological conse- 

 quences of particular circumstances 

 of position, and comparing them with 

 the recognised results of common ex- 

 perience ; and secondly, the reverse 

 operation — increased study of the 

 various types of human nature that 

 ure to be found in the world, con- 

 ducted by persons not only capable of 

 analysing and recording the circum- 

 ■tances in which these types severally 

 prevail, but also sufficiently acquainted 

 with psychological laws to be able to 

 explain and account for the charac- 

 teristics of the type by the peculiari- 

 ties of the circumstances, the residuum 

 alone, when there proves to be any, 



being set down to the account of con- 

 genital predispositions. 



For the experimental or d 'posteriori 

 part of this process, the materials are 

 continually accumulating by the ob- 

 servation of mankind. So far as 

 thought is concerned, the great pro- 

 blem of Ethology is to deduce the 

 requisite middle principles from the 

 general laws of Psychology. The sub- 

 ject to be studied is, the origin and 

 sources of all those qualities in human 

 beings which are 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 actiial or pos- 

 sible combinations of circumstances 

 are capable of promoting or of pre- 

 venting the production of those quali- 

 ties. A science which possesses m* Idle 

 principles of this kind, arranged 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 

 precepts, 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 re- 

 peat, that, as in every other deductive 

 science, verification d posteriori must 

 proceed 'pari passu with deduction d 

 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 speci- 

 fic experience of those circumstances 

 whenever obtainable ; and the con- 

 clusions of the science as a whole 

 must undergo a perpetual verification 

 and correction from the general re- 

 marks afforded by common experi- 

 ence respecting human nature in our 

 own age, and by history respecting; 

 times gone by. The conclusions of 

 theory cannot be trusted, unless con- 



