The Kinetic Theory of Economic Crises 17 



as they were for investigation in this field. We, however, in 

 adopting newer 'methods should not lose the advantages of the 

 older. It will be most convenient, therefore, to assume in *the 

 first place that progress is not continuous, but that it is attained 

 by a series of sudden springs or leaps, from one stage to another 

 and higher. We shall then be able to assume' that between the 

 different leaps a period elapses, during which there is no change 

 and in which the social phenomena bear a distinct hall-mark. 1 

 Thus we shall attain to a static clearness of thought through the 

 contrasting of one assumed epoch with another. 



Just as sociologists have characterized different periods of 

 human history as military-religious, liberal-legal, and economic- 

 ethical, so economists will give names to different stages of eco- 

 nomic development, such as the landed stage, the capitalistic 

 stage, the stage of transportation, the stage of combination and 

 organization, etc. The first duty after agreeing upon the general 

 characteristics of the stages will be to make as complete a cata- 

 logue as possible of the particular features of each of them and 

 especially of the present stage, so that each may present the 

 features of a complete environment. Progress will then appear 

 provisionally as passage from environment to environment. The 

 method will probably assume that successive environments are 

 more advanced and consist in higher (though potential) realities/ 

 The mind will conceive of the higher environments as though 

 they already existed and it were only necessary to open a door, 

 as it were, in order to enter them. It will, of course, soon be 

 perceived that there is no such regular succession of distinct 

 environments that can be contrasted with each other. Some 

 phenomena will continue very much the same, while others are 

 often changed or replaced. When change is once recognized as 

 taking place, it will soon be found that there is really no instant 

 when some change is not taking place. Every moment is char- 

 acterized anew. Thus the environments will gradually be reduced 

 to infinitesimal lengths of time and the conception will arise of a 



x Such appears t > be the method employed by Professor Patten in his 

 Theory of Social Forces. The writer does not wish Professor Patten to be 

 held responsible ior all of the suggestions made in the text in this con- 

 nection. There is danger of misconstruing a novel method. 



2 17 



