512 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
in human affairs. It may not be the something alleged. It surely is not present in the proportions alleged. It is a real something, however, and the final science of society must know it and place it.
For instance, Barth distinguishes first "The Individualistic View of History." There are still historians who hold that the actions of great individuals are the only proper content of history. There is no universal or general current which from the begin- ning of society carries the hero along with the rest of mankind. On the contrary, according to this view, each hero digs the course of his own current. This may have relations with the similar life-courses of other great men, but it by no means forms part of a great common current. The individualists think of the great personalities as free, as creators out of nothing, as first links of a new chain of events, which are so independent of the past that they are capable of beginning a new life in opposition to the endeavors of the past.
It is evident that so far as this view prevails there is no possi- bility of science. Science is knowledge of things in their correla- tion. If they have no correlation, there is no material for science. If there are no recurrences, no uniformities in societary events, there is no possibility of the rudiments of all science. There can be no descriptive classification.
In order to appreciate the problem with which we are now dealing, it may be an advantage to state it in concrete form, thus : The things that we want most to know about society are not things of the past, but of the present and the future. We turn back to the past because it is once for all before our eyes. It is a reality. We hope it will reveal some guidance for present and future. We want to know how men should act if they would make the most of life. We want to know what influences are at work, and how they work, in affecting social conditions. To that end we inquire into great historical movements, for example the transfer of power in the Italian peninsula from the old Roman element to the barbarian element. We call it the fall of Rome. We name other similar movements : the breaking up of the Caro- lingian monarchy into European feudalism ; or the consolidation
