nature. It is evident that not only must political institutions and social manners on the one hand, and manners and ideas on the other, be always mutually connected, but, further, that this consolidated whole must be always connected, by its nature, with the corresponding state of the integral development of humanity, considered in all its aspects, of intellectual, moral, and physical activity; and the only object of any political system whatever, temporal or spiritual, is to regulate the spontaneous expansion so as to best direct it towards its determinate end. Even during revolutionary periods, when the harmony appears furthest from being duly realized, it still exists; for without it there would be a total dissolution of the social organism. During those exceptional seasons the political régime is still, in the long run, in conformity with the corresponding state of civilization, as the disturbances which are manifest in the one proceed from equivalent derangements in the other. It is observable that when the popular theory attributes to the legislator the permanent power of infringing the harmony we are speaking of, it supposes him to be armed with a sufficient authority. But every social power, whether called authority or anything else, is constituted by a corresponding assent, spontaneous or deliberate, explicit or implicit, of various individual wills, resolved, from certain preparatory convictions, to concur in a common action of which this power is first the organ and then the regulator. Thus authority is derived from concurrence, and not concurrence from authority (setting aside the necessary reaction), so that no great power can arise otherwise than from the strongly prevalent disposition. of the society in which it exists; and when there is no strong preponderance, such powers as exist are weak accordingly; and the more extensive the society the more irresistible is the correspondence. On the other hand, there is no denying the influence which, by a necessary reaction, the political system as a whole exercises over the general system of civilization, and which is so often exhibited in the action, fortunate or disastrous, of institutions, measures, or purely political events, even upon the course of the sciences and arts, in all ages of society, and especially the earliest. We need not dwell on this, for no one

denies it. The common error, indeed, is to exaggerate it, so as to place the reaction before the primary action. It is evident, considering their scientific relation to each other, that both concur in creating that fundamental agreement of the social organism which I propose to set forth in a brief manner as the philosophical principle of statical sociology. We shall have to advert repeatedly to the subject of the general correspondence between the political régime and the contemporary state of civilization, in connection with the question of the necessary limits of political action, and in the chapter which I must devote to social statics; but I did not think fit to wait for these explanations before pointing out that the political system ought always to be regarded as relative. The relative point of view, substituted for the absolute tendency of the ordinary theories, certainly constitutes the chief scientific character of the positive philosophy in its political application. If, on the one hand, the conception of this connection between government and civilization presents all ideas of political good or evil as necessarily relative and variable (which is quite another thing than being arbitrary), on the other hand it provides a rational basis for a positive theory of the spontaneous order of human society, already vaguely perceived in regard to some minor relations, by that part of the metaphysical polity which we call political economy; for if the value of any political system can consist in nothing but its harmony with the corresponding social state, it follows that in the natural course of events, and in the absence of intervention, such a harmony must necessarily be established.

INTERCONNECTION OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM

There are two principal considerations which induce me to insist on this elementary idea of the radical consensus proper to the social organism: (1) the extreme philosophical importance of this master thought of social statics, which must, from its nature, constitute the rational basis of any new political philosophy; (2) in an accessory way, that dynamical considerations of sociology must prevail throughout the rest of this

work, as being at present more interesting and therefore better understood; and it is on that account the more necessary to characterize now the general spirit of social statics, which will henceforth be treated only in an indirect and implicit way. As all artificial and voluntary order is simply a prolongation of the natural and involuntary order to which all human society tends, every rational political institution must rest upon an exact preparatory analysis of corresponding spontaneous tendencies, which alone can furnish a sufficiently solid basis. In brief, it is our business to contemplate order that we may perfect it, and not to create it, which would be impossible. In a scientific view this master thought of universal social interconnection becomes the consequence and complement of a fundamental idea established, in our view of biology, as eminently proper to the study of living bodies; not that this idea of interconnection is peculiar to that study; it is necessarily common to all phenomena, but amidst immense differences in intensity and variety, and therefore in philosophical importance. It is, in fact, true that wherever there is any system whatever, a certain interconnection must exist. The purely mechanical phenomena of astronomy offer the first suggestion of it, for the perturbations of one planet may sensibly affect another through a modified gravitation; but the relation becomes closer and more marked in proportion to the complexity and diminished generality of the phenomena, and thus it is in organic systems that we must look for the fullest mutual connection. Hitherto it had been merely an accessory idea, but then it became the basis of positive conceptions; and it becomes more marked, the more compound are the organisms and the more complex the phenomena in question, the animal interconnection being more complete than the vegetable, and the human more than the brute, the nervous system being the chief seat of the biological interconnection. The idea must therefore be scientifically preponderant in social physics, even more than in biology, where it is so decisively recognized by the best order of students. But the existing political philosophy supposes the absence of any such interconnection among the aspects of society, and it is this which has rendered it necessary for me now to

establish the point, leaving the illustration of it to a future portion of the volume. Its consideration is, in fact, as indispensable in assigning its encyclopedic rank to social science as we before saw it to be in instituting social physics a science at all.

It follows from this attribute that there can be no scientific study of society either in its conditions or its movements, if it is separated into portions and its divisions are studied apart. I have already remarked upon this in regard to what is called political economy. Materials may be furnished by the observation of different departments; and such observation may be necessary for that object, but it cannot be called science. The methodical division of studies which takes place in the simple inorganic sciences is thoroughly irrational in the recent and complex science of society, and can produce no results. The day may come when some sort of subdivision may be practicable and desirable, but it is impossible for us now to anticipate what the principle of distribution may be; for the principle itself must arise from the development of the science, and that development can take place no otherwise than by our formation of the science as a whole. The complete body will indicate for itself, at the right season, the particular points which need investigation, and then will be the time for such special study as may be required. By any other method of proceeding we shall only find ourselves encumbered with special discussions badly instituted, worse pursued, and accomplishing no other purpose than that of impeding the formation of real science. It is no easy matter to study social phenomena in the only right way, viewing each element in the light of the whole system. It is no easy matter to exercise such vigilance that no one of the number of contemporary aspects shall be lost sight of, but it is the right and the only way, and we may perceive in it a clear suggestion that this lofty study should be reserved for the highest order of scientific minds, better prepared than others, by wise educational discipline, for sustained speculative efforts, aided by an habitual subordination of the passions to the reason. There is no need to draw out any lengthened comparison between this state of things as it should be and that which is; and no existing

degree of social disturbance can surprise us when we consider how intellectual anarchy is at the bottom of such disturbance, and see how anarchical our intellectual condition appears in the presence of the principle I have laid down.

ORDER OF STATICAL STUDY

Before we go on to the subject of social dynamics I will just remark that the prominent interconnection we have been considering prescribes a procedure in organic studies different from that which suits inorganic. The metaphysicians announce as an aphorism that we should always, in every kind of study, proceed from the simple to the compound; whereas it appears most rational to suppose that we should follow that or the reverse method, as may best suit our subject. There can be no absolute merit in the method enjoined, apart from its suitableness. The rule should rather be (and there probably was a time when the two rules were one) that we must proceed from the more known to the less. Now in the inorganic sciences the elements are much better known to us than the whole which they constitute; so that in that case we must proceed from the simple to the compound. But the reverse method is necessary in the study of man and of society; man and society, as a whole, being better known to us, and more accessible subjects of study, than the parts which constitute them. In exploring the universe it is as a whole that it is inaccessible to us, whereas in investigating man or society our difficulty is in penetrating the details. We have seen in our survey of biology that the general idea of animal nature is more distinct to our minds than the simpler notion of vegetable nature, and that man is the biological unity; the idea of man being at once the most compound and the starting point of speculation in regard to vital existence. Thus if we compare the two halves of natural philosophy, we shall find that in the one case it is the last degree of composition, and in the other the last degree of simplicity, that is beyond the scope of our research. As for the rest, it may obviate some danger of idle discussions to say that the positive philosophy, subordinating