THE believer in the possibility of a science of history is not called upon to hold either the doctrine of predestination or that of freedom of the will.
History is the modification of man by nature and of nature by man.
We shall find a regularity in the variations of virtuous and vicious actions that proves them to be the result of large and general causes which, working upon the aggregate of society must produce certain consequences without regard to the decision of particular individuals. In the earliest civilizations nature is more prominent than man, and the imagination is more stimulated than the understanding. In the European civilizations man is the more prominent, and the understanding is more stimulated than the imagination. Hence the advance of European civilization is characterised by a diminishing influence of physical laws and an increasing influence of mental laws. Clearly, then, of the two classes of laws which regulate the progress of mankind the mental class is more important than the physical.