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LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



all passible combinations of the special 

 causes — all varieties of individual 

 character and individual temptation 

 compatible with the general state of 

 society. The collective experiment, 

 as it may be termed, exactly separates 

 the effect of the general from that of 

 the special causes, and shows the net 

 result of the former ; but it declares 

 nothing at all respecting the amount 

 of influence of the special causes, be 

 it greater or smaller, since the scale 

 of the experiment extends to the 

 number of cases within which the 

 effects of the special causes balance 

 one another, and disappear in that 

 of the general causes. 



I will not pretend that all the de- 

 fenders of the theory have always kept 

 their language free from this same con- 

 fusion, and have shown no tendency to 

 exalt the influence of general causes at 

 the expense of special. I am of opi- 

 nion, on the contrary, that they have 

 done so in a very great degree, and by 

 so doing have encumbered their theory 

 with difficulties, and laid it open to ob- 

 jections which do not necessarily affect 

 it. Some, for example, (among whom 

 is Mr. Buckle himself,) have inferred, 

 or allowed it to be supposed that they 

 inferred, from the regularity in the re- 

 currence of events which depend on 

 moral qualities, that the moral quali- 

 ties of mankind are little capable of 

 being improved, or are of little import- 

 ance in the general progress of society, 

 compared with intellectual or econo- 

 mic causes. But to draw this infer- 

 ence is to forget that the statistical 

 tables from which the invariable aver- 

 ages are deduced were compiled from 

 facts occurring within narrow geogra- 

 phical limits, and in a small number 

 of successive years ; that is, from a field 

 the whole of which was under the ope- 

 ration of the same general causes, and 

 during too short a time to allow of 

 much change therein. All moral causes 

 but those common to the country gene- 

 rally have been eliminated by the great 

 number of instances taken ; and those 

 which are common to the whole coun- 

 try have not varied considerably in 



the short space of time comprised in 

 the observations. If we admit the 

 supposition that they have varied ; if 

 we compare one age with another, or 

 one country with another, or even one 

 part of a country with another, differ- 

 ing in position and character as to the 

 moral elements, the crimes committed 

 within a year give no longer the same, 

 but a widely different numerical ag- 

 gregate. And this cannot but be the 

 case ; for inasmuch as every single 

 crime committed by an individual 

 mainly depends on his moral qualities, 

 the crimes committed by the entire 

 population of the country must de- 

 pend in an equal degree on their col- 

 lective moral qualities. To render 

 this element inoperative upon the 

 large scale it would be necessary to 

 suppose that the general moral aver- 

 age of mankind does not vary from 

 country to country, or from age to 

 age ; which is not true, and even if it 

 were true, could not possibly be proved 

 by any existing statistics. I do not on 

 this account the less agree in the opi- 

 nion of Mr. Buckle, thattheintellectual 

 element in mankind, including in that 

 expression the nature of their beliefs, 

 the amount of their knowledge, and 

 the development of their intelligence, 

 is the predominant circumstance in de- _ . 

 termining their progress. But I am oiMi 

 this opinion, not because I regard their*" 1 

 moral or economical condition either 

 as less powerful or less variable agen- 

 cies, but because these are in a great 

 degree the consequences of the intel- 

 lectual condition, and are, in all cases, 

 limited by it, as was observed in the 

 preceding chapter. The intellectual 

 changes are the most conspicuous 

 agents in history, not from their 

 superior force, considered in them- 

 selves, but because practically they 

 work with the united power belong-, jm 

 ing to all three.* Jl 



*I have beer assured byan inHmate friend 

 of Mr. Buckle that he would not have with- 

 held his assent from these remarks, and 

 that he never intended to affirm or imply 

 that mankind are not progressive in their 

 moral as well as in their intellectual quali- 

 ties. "In dealing withhieproblem, he availed 



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