Excerpt from Aspects of the Social Problem

It is this principle which Operates in the following papers through all the differences of their subject-matter. It shows itself in the sympathetic scrutiny of the skilled helpers of the poor, who, in their analyses of causes of distress or methods of reform, insist on entering into the mind, habits, and feelings of the classes under consideration, and on comprehending their lives from the beginning to the end. In the treatment of history and statistics the same tendency may be noted. The statistical student especially, who is trained by practical contact with the effort to help the poor, is led to plead for better statistical instruments and a finer use of them, because the human mind is so delicate and so complex a growth. Not even the ways of birds can be understood from mere books and measurements, and man is of more value than many sparrows. If political economy is to form part of a true social science, its abstractions must be criticised in the light of a more complete and a finer experience. No science of organisms can dispense with highly-trained obser vation of life. The scientific logician will corroborate this view. T 0 count means to count something, and all infer ence from enumeration depends on the precise nature of that which is enumerated. It is long since Lotze drew attention to the readiness with which this fact is forgotten.

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