na are
obtained by deduction (from the laws of the simple facts inductively
discovered) and confirmed by observation; in sociology, on the other
hand, the laws are found through (historical) experience, and deductively
verified (from the nature of man as established by biology) only in the
sequel. Since the phenomena of society are determined not merely by the
general laws of human nature, but, above all, by the growing influence of
the past, historical studies must form the basis of sociological inquiry.

[Footnote 1: Cf. Krohn: _Beitraege zur Kenntniss und Wuerdigung der
Soziologie, Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik_, New Series,
vols. i. and iii., 1880 and 1881.]

Of the two parts of sociology, the Statics, which investigates the
equilibrium (the conditions of the existence, the permanence, and the
coexistence of social states), and Dynamics, which investigates the
movement (the laws of the progress) of social phenomena, the first was in
essence established by Aristotle. The fundamental concept of the Statics
is the _consensus_, the harmony, solidarity, or mutual dependence of the
members of the social organism. All its parts, science, art, religion,
politics, industry, must be considered together; they stand in such
intimate harmony and correlation that, for every important change of
condition in one of these parts, we may be certain of finding
corresponding changes in all the others, as its causes and effects.
Besides the selfish propensities, there dwell in man an equally original,
but intrinsically weaker, impulse toward association, which instinctively
leads him to seek the society of his fellows without reflection on the
advantages to be expected therefrom, and a moderate degree of
benevolence. As altruism conflicts with egoism, so the reason, together
with the impulse to get ahead, which can only be satisfied through
labor, is in continual conflict with the inborn disinclination to regulated
activity (especially to mental effort). The character of society depends on
the strength of the nobler incentives, that is, the social inclinations and
intellectual vivacity in opposition to the egoistic impulses and natural
inertness. The former nourish the progressive, the latter the conservative
spirit. Women are as much superior to men in the stronger development of
their sympathy and sociability as they are inferior in insight and reason.
Society is a group of families, not of individuals, and domestic