only present the
introduction of new and perplexing elements for every new case. The
influence, again, of individuals, or accident of war, or natural
catastrophes, is greater in proportion as the State is smaller, and
therefore makes it more difficult to observe the permanent and
underlying influences. It seems to me, therefore, that the study, say
of English history, where we have a continuous growth over many
centuries, where the disturbing influences of individuals or chance are
in a greater degree cancelled by the general tendencies working beneath
them, we have really a far more instructive field for political
observation. This may help us to see what are the kinds of results
which may be anticipated from sociological study undertaken in a
serious spirit. The growth, for example, of the industrial system of
England is a profoundly interesting subject of inquiry, to which we are
even now only beginning to do justice. Historians have admitted, even
from the time of Hume, that the ideal history should give less of mere
battles and intrigues, and more account of those deeper and more
continuous processes which lie, so to speak, beneath the surface. They
have hardly, I think, even yet realised the full bearing and importance
of this observation. Yet, of late, much has been done, though much
still remains to do, in the way of a truly scientific study of the
development of institutions, political, ecclesiastical, industrial, and
so forth, of this and other countries. As this tendency grows, we may
hope gradually to have a genuine history of the English people; an
account--not of the virtues and vices of Mary Queen of Scots, or
arguments as to the propriety of cutting off Charles I.'s head--but a
trustworthy account of the way in which the actual structure of modern
society has been developed out of its simpler germs. The biographies of
great kings and generals, and so forth, will always be interesting; but
to the genuine historian of the future they will be interesting not so
much as giving room for psychological analyses or for dramatic
portraits, but as indications of the great social forces which produced
them, and the direction of which at the moment may be illustrated by
their cases. I have spoken of the history of our industrial system. To
know what was the position of the English labourer at various times,
how it was affected by the political changes or by the great mechanical
discoveries, to observe what grievances