THE TRANSITION OF INSTITUTIONS. 131 



as certain common traits of development. Further comparisons, simi- 

 larly made, opened large questions, such as that of the relation be- 

 tween social growth and organization, which form parts of this same 

 science — questions of transcendent importance, compared with those 

 occupying the minds of politicians and writers of history. 



The difficulties of the Social Science next drew our attention. We 

 saw that in this case, though in no other case, the facts to be ob- 

 served and generalized by the student are exhibited by an aggregate 

 of which he forms a part. In his capacity of inquirer, he should have 

 no inclination toward one or other conclusion respecting the phenom- 

 ena to be generalized ; but, in his capacity of citizen, helped to live 

 by the life of his society, embedded in its structures, sharing in its 

 activities, breathing its atmosphere of thought and sentiment, he is 

 partially coerced into such views as favor harmonious cooperation 

 with his fellow-citizens. Hence immense obstacles to the social sci- 

 ence, unparalleled by those standing in the way of any other science. 



From considering thus generally these causes of error, we turned 

 to consider them specially. Under the head of Objective Difficulties, 

 we glanced at those many ways in which evidence collected by the 

 sociological inquirer is vitiated. That extreme untrustworthiness of 

 witnesses which results from carelessness, or fanaticism, or self-inter- 

 est, was illustrated ; and we saw that, in addition to the perversions 

 of statement hence arising, there are others which arise from the ten- 

 dency there is for some kinds of evidence to draw attention, while 

 evidence of opposite kinds, much larger in quantity, draws no atten- 

 tion. Further, it was shown that the nature of sociological facts, 

 each of which is not observable in a single object or act, but is reached 

 only through registration and comparison of many objects and acts, 

 makes the perception of them harder than that of other facts. It was 

 pointed out that the wide distribution of social phenomena in space 

 greatly hinders true apprehensions of them ; and it was also pointed 

 out that another impediment, even still greater, is consequent on their 

 distribution in time — a distribution such that many of the facts to be 

 dealt with take centuries to unfold, and can be grasped only by com- 

 bining in thought multitudinous changes that are slow, involved, and 

 not easy to trace. 



Beyond these difficulties which we grouped as distinguishing the 

 science itself, objectively considered, we saw that there are other diffi- 

 culties, conveniently to be grouped as subjective, which are also great. 

 For the interpretation of human conduct as socially displayed, every 

 one is compelled to use, as a key, his own nature — ascribing to others 

 thoughts and feelings like his own ; and yet, while this automorphic 

 interpretation is indispensable, it is necessarily more or less mislead- 

 ing. Very generally, too, a subjective difficulty arises from the lack 

 of intellectual faculty complex enough to grasp these social phenom- 



