THE HISTORICAL METHOD. 



603 



not consider themselves as foreigners 

 with regard to another part ; that 

 they set a value on their connection- 

 feel that they are one people, that 

 their lot is cast together, that evil to 

 any of their fellow-countrymen is evil 

 to themselves, and do not desire sel- 

 fishly to free themselves from their 

 share of any common inconvenience 

 by severing the connection. How 

 strong this feeling was in those ancient 

 commonwealths which attained any 

 durable greatness every one knows. 

 How happily Rome, in spite of all her 

 tyranny, succeeded in establishing the 

 feeling of a common country among 

 the provinces of her vast and divided 

 empire, will appear when any one who 

 has given due attention to the subject 

 shall take the trouble to point it out. 

 In modern times the countries which 

 have had that feeling in the strongest 

 degree have been the most powerful 

 countries; England, France, and, in 

 proportion to their territory and re- 

 sources, Holland and Switzerland ; 

 while England in her connection with 

 Ireland is one of the most signal ex- 

 amples of the consequences of its ab- 

 sence. Every Italian knows why Italy 

 is under a foreign yoke ; every Ger- 

 man knows what maintains despotism 

 in the Austrian empire ;* the evils of 

 Spain flow as much from the absence 

 of nationality among the Spaniards 

 themselves as from the presence of it 

 in their relations with foreigners : 

 while the completest illustration of all 

 is afforded by the republics of South 

 America, where the parts of one and 

 the same state adhere so slightly to- 

 gether, that no sooner does any pro- 

 vince think itself aggrieved by the 

 general government than it proclaims 

 itself a separate nation." 



§ 6. While the derivative laws of 

 social statics are ascertained by ana- 

 lysing different states of society, and 

 comparing them with one another, 

 without regard to the order of their 

 succession, the consideration of the 



* (Written and first published in 1840.) 



successiveorder is, on the contrary, pre- 

 dominant in the study of social dyna- 

 mics, of which the aim is to observe 

 and explain the sequences of social 

 conditions. This branch of the social 

 science would be as complete as it 

 can be made if every one of the lead- 

 ing general circumstances of each 

 generation were traced to its causes 

 in the generation immediately pre- 

 ceding. But the consensus is so com- 

 plete (especially in modern history) 

 that, in the filiation of one generation 

 and another, it is the whole which 

 produces the whole, rather than any 

 part a part. Little progress, there- 

 fore, can be made in establishing the 

 filiation directly from laws of human 

 nature, without having first ascer- 

 tained the immediate or derivative 

 laws according to which social states 

 generate one another as society ad- 

 vances—the axiomata media of Gene- 

 ral Sociology. 



The empirical laws which are most 

 readily obtained by generalisation 

 from history do not amount to this. 

 They are not the " middle principles " 

 themselves, but only evidence towards 

 the establishment of such principles. 

 They consist of certain general ten- 

 dencies which may be perceived in 

 society ; a progressive increase of some 

 social elements and diminution of 

 others, or a gradual change in the 

 general character of certain elements. 

 It is easily seen, for instance, that as 

 society advances, mental tend more 

 and more to prevail over bodily quali- 

 ties, and masses over individuals ; 

 that the occupation of all that portion 

 of mankind who are not under ex- 

 ternal restraint is at first chiefly 

 military, but society becomes pro- 

 gressively more and more engrossed 

 with productive pursuits, and the 

 military spirit gradually gives way 

 to the industrial ; to which many 

 similar truths might be added. And 

 with generalisations of this descrip- 

 tion ordinary inquirers, even of the 

 historical school now predominant on 

 the Continent, are satisfied. But 

 these and all such results are still at 



