INTRODUCTORY 
27 
strained, intolerably efficient spectre called 
the economic man,” “ the standard popinjay 
of science,” who had, he imagined, “ been 
so little injured by the criticism of half a 
century,” he was addressing an audience in 
bulk as spectral as the spectre that he abjured. 
There is another difficulty of which much 
has occasionally been made, namely, that 
we are dealing not merely with living creatures 
but with living creatures who seemingly direct 
their own lives. The fact that human beings 
have volition—“ free will,” broadly under 
stood—is supposed to militate against any 
attempt to frame laws relating to their actions. 
They could always choose, if they liked, to 
break the supposed laws. A complete exam 
ination of this difficulty would carry us too 
deeply into psychology, but it may be 
remarked here (1) that much human experi 
ence, at any rate, is not a matter of choice— 
for instance, that connected with our bodily 
needs—and (2) that reason governs us and 
that as reasonable we act in a uniform way. 
Side by side with this defence of deduction 
from the results of minute analysis, something 
must be said of the method which has some 
times been opposed to it, namely, induction 
from historical facts or every-day happenings. 
Of the fecundity of this induction, that is,