e cases, not only of proving what was
not denied, but of disproving what was not asserted; e.g. the argument
used against Malthus (whose own position was, that population increases
only _in so far as not kept down_ by prudence, or by poverty and
disease), that, at times, population has been nearly stationary; or
again, that, in some country or other, population and comfort are
increasing together, Malthus himself having asserted that this might be
so, if capital has increased. Similarly, even Reid, Stewart, and Brown
(not merely Dr. Johnson) urged that Berkeley ought, if consistent, to
have run his head against a post, as though the non-recognition of an
occult _cause_ of sensations implies disbelief in any _fixed order among
them_.

BOOK VI.

ON THE LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Many complex problems have been resolved through the use of the
Scientific Methods, and thus only. The most complex of all problems are
the problems relating to Man himself; and of them those concerned with
the Mind and Society have never been scientifically resolved. They can
be rescued from empiricism, if at all, only by being submitted to some
of the methods already characterised as applicable to science in
general. Which of these methods must be selected, and why; what are the
causes of previous failures; and what degree of success now is possible
or probable, will be considered in this book, when a preliminary
objection (_based on the theory of free will_), that men's actions are
not, like other natural events, subject to invariable laws, has been
first removed.

CHAPTER II.

LIBERTY AND NECESSITY.

The theory of _free will_, viz. that the will is determined by itself,
and not by antecedents, was invented as being more in accordance with
the dignity of human nature and our consciousness of freedom, than
_philosophical necessity_. The latter doctrine, in laying down simply
that our volitions and actions are invariable consequents of our
antecedent states of mind, and that, given our motives, character, and
disposition, other men could predict our conduct as certainly as any
physical event, states indeed nothing which is in itself either
contradicted by our consciousness, or degrading; yet the doctrine of
causation, as applied to volition, is supposed, from the natural
tendency of the mind to imagine falsely that a mysterious constraint is
exercised by _any_ antecedent over