Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/443

Rh of the time universe, Darwin may with some though with much less show of reason be called its Newton. I say with less show of reason, for the causes of evolution are yet very imperfectly known.

Now, not only are all these methods applicable to the study of sociology, but all the advance in this science which has taken place in recent times has been the result of their application. For how has sociology been advanced, and must continue to be advanced? 1. By the comparison of social organisms, nations, tribes, etc., as they now exist in different portions of the earth and in different grades and kinds of civilization, with each other, in institutions, habits, customs, forms of government, etc. Is not this the taxonomic series? 2. By comparing the different stages of development of the same social organism, from savagism to the highest degree of civilization, and marking the origin, growth, and modification of government, institutions, customs, etc. Is not this the embryonic or ontogenic series? 3. By comparing with each other the successive stages of advance of all social organisms of the whole race through the rude stone, the polished stone, the bronze, and the iron conditions. This is M. Comte's historic method; but is it not the geological or phylogenic series? 4. By comparing the same social organism with itself in its normal and abnormal conditions, i. e., in a state of peace, prosperity, social health, and social sanity, with the same in various states of commotion, revolution, anarchy, social fever, and social frenzy. Is not this the pathological series? It is impossible to doubt that these are the true scientific methods of sociology. But they were all first used in biology, and only afterward imported into sociology.

But it will perhaps be objected: "This supposed relation of sociology to biology is but an analogy which has not even the merit of being new or recent. It has always been recognized. It is well expressed by the story told by Menenius Agrippa to the mutinous Roman plebeians, in which he showed the absurdity of their conduct by comparing the condition of Rome to a state of war among the members of the body. It is also admirably expressed by St. Paul in his comparison of the church to a well-organized body with different members having different functions. The analogy has always been recognized, but has not borne any special fruit in the advancement of social science, or the betterment of the social condition." To this I answer: Yes, it has always been recognized; but there are different degrees of recognition, and it is only the higher degrees which bear any scientific fruit. In this, as in other departments, a recognition of the laws of nature by the imagination gives rise to metaphor, simile, poetry, art, and in its highest manifestations is what we call genius. A dim, imperfect recognition of the same by the reason constitutes analogy. The clear recognition by the reason of the same in all its details, so that the application of appropriate methods becomes possible, constitutes science. Thus sociology, like