SCIENCE 



NEW YORK. MAECH 34, 18S3. 



THE COMPARATIVE METHOD OF STUDY.' 



BY GEORGE H. JOHNSON, SC.D., ST. LOUIS, MO. 



We are all acquainted with the word evolution as used in 

 natural historv to express the doctrine that many different forms 

 of animal and vegetable life have been derived from a common 

 ancestry. The use of the word in a more general sense in 

 astronomy and sociology is almost as well Ijnown. Philosophers, 

 historians, and inventors, as well as naturalists, have discovered 

 in the present generation that evolution, defined simply as the 

 theory which recognizes not only the formal and external con- 

 nection and correspondence of entities and events, but also the 

 causal connection, — so far as that may exist, — is not only true 

 but is also exceedingly useful and fruitful as a method to guide 

 thought and investigation. 



If we would make the most rapid progress on the current of 

 modern thought, we must be in the current and know its trend, 

 and to determine its trend we must know both its present condi- 

 tion and the previous conditions through which it passed to reach 

 tlie present; just as in determining the direction of a i-iver cur- 

 rent we mu?t use floats to show tlie path traced by the surround- 

 ing water, and in determining a comet's orbit we must use sev- 

 eral positions to compute its future course, so in all subjects 

 which involve human personality and social progress there are 

 certain well-determined positions formerly occupied, which, 

 compared with the present, will indicate the future. 



A good historian, for examjile, is not satisfied with his narra- 

 tive until he has shown the events in their proper relation to 

 each other. Indeed, the true scholar, the man of profound mind 

 and practical learning, is not he who has apprehended and re- 

 membered the greatest number of great and useful facts; it is 

 he who has a systematic, correllated knowledge of facts. Let 

 us consider one or two illustrations. 



In some sciences it seems as if human thought moved in a kind 

 of cycle, so that by going back far enough a period or phase in 

 the history of the science or doctrine will be found which is very 

 much like its present condition, or like any other condition 

 which we may be considering. Even back to the time of Solo- 

 mon, we have his authority for the provei-b that there is nothing- 

 new under the sun, and if it was true then it must be true more 

 particularly at the present day. This does not teach that there 

 is no real progress in human knowledge, nor tint there are no 

 new combinations of public events such as constitute history. 

 But it is evident that all motion and change in human thought, 

 all changes in national life, all movements in literature, art, and 

 even science, are not progressive. Indeed, there is very much 

 intellectual motion to only a little progress. In this respect the 

 human mind may be compared to the limbs of a child. A little 

 girl, when she is excited and hurried, will jump up and down 

 and make very little forivard motion, notwithstanding — or 

 rather because of — her eager desire to do so. She wastes a large 

 amount of energy simply in crossing a room. Her movements 

 are not properly co-ordinated ; she does not know what muscles 

 to use in order to attain the desired position. How true this is 

 of the intellectual movements of men ! 



A man in his anxiety to get ahead rapidly in the world, to ac- 

 quire more money, to get some fame or honor, position or power, 

 will make many senseless and useless actions which do not at all 

 hasten the^attainment in view. We all do it more or less; a 

 man_would be supremely wise or fortunate who was not occa- 

 sionally humiliated by discovering that his most carefully laid 

 plalis and most deliberate actions had very unfoi-eseen effects. 

 ' Abstract of a paper written for a popular audience. 



To regard the world as a stage and all the rest of mankind as 

 players is an instructive as well as amusing way of contemplat- 

 ing our fellowmen. To see politicians standing in a high place 

 and reaching forward and upward to grasjimore power and influ- 

 ence, and in their eager and irrational motions losing their foot- 

 hold and falling prostrate, is a spectacle which is constantly 

 before our eyes, at least the reaching is constantly before our 

 eyes and the falling is periodically manifest at election time. 



But the same disposition is seen, and similar accidents happen, 

 to men in all walks of life. That is to say, that the child who is 

 learning to walk, and the man who is learning to control himself 

 and other men, go through many motions and actions which are 

 not really helpful for the purpose in view. But these misguided 

 actions are educational in their results, so that if a man lives 

 long enough he is likely to become measurably wise by virtue of 

 his own mistakes. 



Men often act with very little sound theory or experience to 

 guide them. In many respects we are like a man blindfolded, 

 who hears some noise but is doubtful from whence it comes; if 

 he has the opportunity to explore the room in all directions he is 

 likely to find the right corner before long, even though his hear- 

 ing at first directly misleads him. And so in all human knowl- 

 edge, if we only have opportunities to make enough mistakes we- 

 are likely to have ultimately some measure of successful intellec- 

 tual progress. We need not experiment with what is dangerous, 

 nor carelessly make mistakes, but when we have no sure knowl- 

 edge to guide us we should learn as much as possible from the 

 experiments made by ourselves and others ; thus, proving all 

 things, we may hold fast to that which is good. 



Very much of vaunted human progress is at best only up 

 along the arc of a helix, so that there is much motion to only a 

 little rise; and, after making a complete turn or cycle, society is 

 found just where it was before, except that it is a little higher 

 in experience and therefore enjoys a wider horizon and clearer 

 view. As mountain railroads wind in grand loops and horse- 

 shoe curves around the valleys and up to the passes, making- 

 miles of road to gain a few hundred feet in altitude, so human 

 knowledge moves in a kind of cycle such that it is possible to 

 stop at any point and look back and down at the corresponding 

 point in time past. 



Does any heretical doctrine arise in the Church ? The expert 

 in ecclesiastical history will have no difficulty in telling us when 

 the same heresy long ago produced a similar dissension, and quite 

 likely he will be able to show that again and again the same doc- 

 trine in only slightly different form has been the ground for di- 

 visions in the Church. Where several of these recurring phases 

 can be definitely located it might be possible to investigate the 

 law of their recurrence or, as the physicist would say, to investi- 

 gate the period of the vibration or undulation. The weather 

 prophets, who employ themselves and amuse the public by pre- 

 dicting when we shall have the coldest day of winter and the 

 hottest day of summer, might, by the use of some statistics and 

 mathematics, derive formulas designed to express the periods of 

 moral, social, and intellectual movements. 



One reason why such formulas are impracticable is because 

 they would contain an infinite number of terms; that is to say, 

 the time of recurrence of any sociological phenomenon is a func- 

 tion of an infinite number of conditions. But most of thfse con- 

 ditions are insignificant compared with a few of the most im- 

 portant ones, and so we could apply to this problem the method 

 of finding approximately the value of an infinite but rapidly con- 

 verging series. 



For example, consider a financial panic, which is nevoi- the re- 

 sult of a single cause. At certain times the failure of a great 

 bank is enough to precipitate a widespread and disastrous panic; 



