LE PLAY METHOD OF SOCIAL OBSERVATION 663
In opposition to the fault, so general in our time, which con- sists in treating social questions from an exclusive point of view, the Le Play method of monographs embraces, in its entirety, the existence of a family considered under all its aspects. It directs the observer, moreover, by rules determined with rigor- ous precision, by a question-book completely applicable to all families, in whatever latitude and in whatever civilization they belong ; and this uniform framework facilitates comparisons upon which true social laws must be founded.
The necessity of making these social studies precise and complete gives to the monographs some complication. Never- theless they are not on that account tasks accessible only to very cultivated minds ; the method has been often applied with success by men little educated, but guided by good sense. Every judicious observer will succeed in this sort of work if he will consult well the work entitled La Mtthode d Observation, in which are briefly set forth the origin, the description, and the history of the method. (It forms the first volume of the second edition of Ouvriers curoptens in six volumes 8vo.)
2. The dominant idea in monographs of families. In the main family monographs are derived from a higher idea called forth by the observation of facts.
Crises of misfortune are common in the history of societies of complex constitution ; the precarious situation of France for more than two centuries might at first view be regarded as one of those periods of decay which habitually follow epochs of prosperity. But the actual state of our country, and of the countries of the West led by our example, offers a character exceptional, new, and of grave importance. It is the special- ization which has extended itself even to the primary social unity, the family. It is this infinite parceling out of sentiments and interests which no longer permits people to confer together on the subject of local means of reform. Happily, unity of spirit subsists in numerous regions of the Orient and of the North, and even in the Occident, in certain oases of social peace. One can, without going out of Europe, observe nations
