6 INTRODUCTION. 



assign to this science a proper and well-defined position among 

 other allied branches of human knowledge,, our attention is 

 first directed to two departments of study, differing greatly in 

 matter and method, but which, nevertheless, in spite of their 

 external dissimilarity, possess this in common, that they both 

 make Man the exclusive subject of their consideration, in the 

 investigation of his nature ; we allude to the Anatomy, Physio- 

 logy, and Psychology of man, on one part ; and to the History 

 of Civilization, on the other. Our task, therefore, is to inquire 

 into what has been accomplished in these fields, as regards the 

 nature of man, and whether the results obtained form such a 

 complement that from their combination the desired knowledge 

 may be obtained. 



Anatomy, physiology, and psychology consider man as an 

 individual being, not indeed (like the practical physician and 

 pedagogue), as an examplar, but as the representative of a 

 genus : not with regard to particular accidental peculiarities 

 by which he is distinguished from other individuals of the 

 same genus ; but in so far as the common or generic character 

 of all similar individuals is represented in him, and the laws to 

 which, externally and internally, all these individuals are sub- 

 ject, appear manifested in him. But the consideration of 

 man, in his social relation, is foreign to these sciences ; the 

 whole sum of mental performances, which proceed only from a 

 multifarious reciprocal action of individualities, and which in 

 the course of centuries essentially transform the external and 

 inner life of society, lies beyond its sphere. And if Psycho- 

 logy does not altogether desist from casting a glance at this 

 sphere, it feels obliged to remain at the gate, and to rest satis- 

 fied with an historical description of certain facts, as the con- 

 catenation of the acting causes is too great to enable it to 

 reduce the course of events to psychological laws, thus finding 

 its progress obstructed just where the proper field of the 

 History of Civilization commences. The latter directs its atten- 

 tion exclusively to social life and its development ; and the con- 

 tribution which, from this point of view, it renders towards the 

 knowledge of human nature, is doubtless as essential as that 

 contributed by the natural- sciences. There remains, un- 



