Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/718

 694 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

supreme unification in the individual. The classification is : first, inorganic nature; second, biology; third, humanity; fourth, the individual.

He concluded that there were four classes of modifying influences in societies, arising, the first from the environment, the second from life, the third from humanity itself, and the fourth from the individuals. These modifications according to him, are entirely subordinated to the normal state in the same way as movement is to structure. The result is that "any modi- fications whatever of the social order are necessarily limited by the 'ensemble' of the fundamental forms of the structure and of the existence of the collective organism" The degree of static intensity and of dynamic momentum alone varies. But these are the limits of the variations which Comte's theory announces to us. Is it not entirely to beg the question to say that the degree of static intensity, and of dynamic momentum, alone varies? At bottom, is not the function of laws alone permanent, while its organ changes continually with the structure ? Let us take, from the standpoint of static intensity, one of Comte's fundamental laws the indissolubility of marriage. What do we observe ? In Abyssinia and in Hayti there are unions altogether free : an indi- vidual is taken and deserted according to fancy. The indissolu- bility may therefore be represented in those countries as the static intensity of I. In Morocco the rabbi Jews sanction tem- porary marriages. The static intensity may there be represented by 50. The indissolubility in Catholic western Europe may be represented by 90, and in the United States, where divorce is permitted, by 75. The fundamental law of Comte, which would be altogether the future ideal, would correspond to 100. Where is the law of structure, i. e. t the necessary and constant static ? It oscillates from I to 100. The only law, under these circum- stances, would be that the function of sexual union in the human species requires a certain duration. What is necessary to dem- onstrate is that the more permanent this duration, the better the exercise of the function is assured by a corresponding organi- zation. But still, at each moment, is not the best organization that which is the most advantageous to this moment ? There is