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elements, which for him are men, are too dissimilar, too variable, too capricious, in a word, too complex them- ^selves.Furthermore, history does not repeat itself; how, then, is he to select the interesting fact, the fact which is repeated ?Method is precisely the selection of facts, and accordingly our first care must be to devise a method.Many have been devised because none holds the field undisputed.Nearly every socio- logical thesis proposes a new method, which, however, ^its author is very careful not to apply, so that sociology20 SCIENCE AND METHOD.is the science with the greatest number of methods and the least results.It is with regular facts, therefore, that we ought to begin ; but as soon as the rule is well established, as soon as it is no longer in doubt, the facts which are in complete conformity with it lose their interest, since they can teach us nothing new.Then it is the excep- tion which becomes important.We cease to look for resemblances, and apply ourselves before all else to differences, and of these differences we select first those that are most accentuated, not only because they are the most striking, but because they will be the most instructive.This will be best explained by a simple example.Suppose we are seeking to determine a curve by observing some of the points on it.The practical man who looked only to immediate utility would merely observe the points he required for some special object ; these points would be badly distributed on the curve, they would be crowded together in cer- tain parts and scarce in others, so that it would be impossible to connect them by a continuous line, and they would be useless for any other application.The scientist would proceed in a different manner.Since he wishes to study the curve for itself, he will distribute the points to be observed regularly, and as soon as he knows some of them, he will join them by a regular line, and he will then have the complete curve.But how is he to accomplish this?If he has determined one extreme point on the curve, he will not remain close to this extremity, but will move to the other end.After the two extremities, the central point is the most instructive, and so on.Thus when a rule has been established, we have first
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