THE HISTORICAL METHOD. 



599 



existing among the different parts of 

 the social organism ; in other words, 

 the theory of the mutual actions and 

 reactions of contemporaneous social 

 phenomena ; "making* provisionally, 

 as far as possible, abstraction, for 

 scientific purposes, of the fundamen- 

 tal movement which is at all times 

 gradually modifying the whole of 

 them. 



"In this first point of view, the 

 provisions of sociology will enable us 

 to infer one from another (subject to 

 ulterior verification by direct observa- 

 tion) the various characteristic marks 

 of each distinct mode of social exist- 

 ence ; in a manner essentially analo- 

 gous to what is now habitually prac- 

 tised in the anatomy of the physical 

 body. This preliminary aspect, there- 

 fore, of political science, of necessity 

 supposes that (contrary to the exist- 

 ing habits of philosophers) each of the 

 numerous elements of the stxjial state, 

 ceasing to be looked at independently 

 and absolutely, shall be always and 

 exclusively considered relatively to all 

 the other elements, with the whole of 

 which it is united by mutual inter- 

 dependence. It would be superfluous 

 to insist here upon the great and con- 

 stant utility of this branch of stxiio- 

 logical speculation. It is, in the first 

 place, the indispensable basis of the 

 theory of social progress. It may, 

 moreover, be employed, immediately 

 and of itself, to supply the place, pro- 

 visionally at least, of direct observa- 

 tion, which in many cases is not always 

 practicable for some of the elements 

 of society, the real condition of which 

 may, however, be sufficiently judged 

 of by means of the relations which 

 connect them with others previously 

 known. The history of the sciences 

 may give us some notion of the ha- 

 bitual importance of this auxiliary 

 resource, by reminding us, for ex- 

 ample, how the vulgar errors of mere 

 erudition concerning the pretended 

 acquirements of the ancient Egyp- 

 tians in the higher astronomy, were 



* Court de Philosophic Fositive, iv. 325-329. 



irrevocably dissipated (even before 

 sentence had been passed on them by 

 a sounder erudition) from the single 

 consideration of the inevitable con- 

 nection between the general state of 

 astronomy and that of abstract geo- 

 metry, then evidently in its infancy. 

 It would be easy to cite a multitude 

 of analogous cases, the character of 

 which could admit of no dispute. In 

 order to avoid exaggeration, however, 

 it should be remarked that these ne- 

 cessary relations among the different 

 aspects of society cannot, from their 

 very nature, be to simple and precise 

 that the results observed could only 

 have arisen from some one mode of 

 mutual co-ordination. Such a notion, 

 already too narrow in the science of 

 life, would be completely at variance 

 with the still more complex nature 

 of sociological speculations. But the 

 exact estimation of these limits of 

 variation, both in the healthy and in 

 the morbid state, constitutes, at least 

 as much as in the anatomy of the 

 natural body, an indispensable com- 

 plement to every theory of Sociolo- 

 gical Statics, without which the in- 

 direct exploration above spoken of 

 would often lead into error. 



" This is not the place for methodi- 

 cally demonstrating the existence of a 

 necessary relation among all the pos- 

 sible aspects of the same social orga- 

 nism ; a point on which, in principle 

 at least, there is now little difference 

 of opinion among sound thinkers. 

 From whichever of the social ele- 

 ments we choose to set out, we may 

 easily recognise that it has always a 

 connection, more or less immediate, 

 with all the other elements, even 

 with those which at first sight appear 

 the most independent of it. The 

 dynamical consideration of the pro- 

 gressive development of civilised hu- 

 manity, affords, no doubt, a still more 

 efficacious means of effecting this in- 

 teresting verification of the consensus 

 of the social phenomena, by displaying 

 the manner in which every change in 

 any one part operates immediately, 

 or very speedily, upon all the rest, 



