Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/719

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 695

only a tendency toward a stable equilibrium in each of the organs or special apparatus ; but the equilibrium may be sought, not in an isolated organ, but in the apparatus of organs, in the systems of apparatus, and especially in the ensemble of the struc- ture.

The structure of every special organ is determined, and there- fore limited, by the structure of the ensemble. At Hayti the conservation of the species and its development were doubtless better assured by free unions than by monogamy. Social statics, especially in its abstract division, ought to, and can therefore, compare only structures in the ensemble to other structures in the ensemble. As I have set forth in the Transformisme social, the standard of civilizations may be estimated for societies compared only from the standpoint of their general organization. This standard is the more stable as it is constituted by an alloy. In a primitive society a less perfect organ, from the absolute point of view, harmonizes better with the function of the ensemble than the most perfect organ of an advanced society would do. The real truth of the matter is that in the advanced societies the conser- vation and progress of the species are better assured by a certain permanency of the conjugal bond ; but in an elementary society, and especially in a military society, monogamy would have been a cause of enfeeblement, and even of social extinction.

The same is true of what Comte calls the dynamic momen- tum. A group of Fuegians or Australians recently formed, thanks to certain favorable circumstances, is entirely and almost suddenly destroyed by an epidemic or famine. On the contrary, the Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, and Russians persist throughout the centuries in spite of continued famines and epidemics. The duration of the social life may be represented in the first case by I, in the second by 50, and above that for the civilizations still better organized. Where is the dynamic law?

The truth is that there are special static and dynamic laws for the different kinds of societies and for their several organs and functions. But above these historic laws there are some few constant general and abstract laws, yet imperfectly recognized, constituting the problem which abstract sociology is to evolve