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insufficient scientific preparation of many of its students, 
proceeded to propose the institution of a new science under 
the title of Comparative Sociology, in which the comparative 
method, of which comparative anatomy affords the best 
exemplification, would be applied to the investigation of 
social phenomena. For the purposes /)f this science he pro- 
posed that all natural human societies should be compre- 
hended under five great classes. 1. The wedded pair. 2. 
The family. 3. The community (whether village, town, or 
city). 4. The tribe or nation. 5. The world or mankind. 
He pointed out that it would be necessary, not only to 
ascend and descend this scale, in order to the discovery of 
social laws and the due appreciation of social phenomena, 
but also to carefully trace and analize the various stages 
through which each of these five classes of phenomena passes 
from its origin, so that all history must contribute the materials 
from which this science must be formed. 
As exemplifications of the practical application of the pro- 
posed science, the Author referred to the subjects of education, 
jurisprudence, and to the study of the laws of property and 
the laws of exchange, which constitute the only scientific 
portion of the various researches which are comprised under 
the denomination of political economy. 
The object of the Paper was stated to be — to explain the 
general character of the proposed science as well as its vast 
extent requiring the co-operation of many labourers in its 
various fields of observation and enquiry, and to shew that its 
students may fairly hope to reap the reward of their labours 
in the gradual discovery of natural social laws which will lead 
to better order, safer progress, sounder social organization, 
and more effective political action, as well as to the removal 
of many subjects of fierce controversy between individuals, 
communities, and nations, wbich arise from our present 
ignorance of the natural laws of society, and will only cease 
when it is remedied. 
