was devoted to a study of the "natural evolution of human society," while the other, "Modern Custom and Ancient Law," treats of the questions of law among the Ossetins of the Caucasus, Four years later, he again published two works bearing the same relation to each other. One was "Tableau des origines et de lévolution de la famille et de la propriété," while the other was a two-volume work entitled "Law and Custom in the Caucasus." Several of his later works are devoted to primitive institutions, and the second volume of his "Sociology" (1910) treats of genetic sociology, or, as the author himself defines it, "a study of the points of departure in the history of the family, the race, property, political rule, and psychic activity."
"For Kovalevsky," says Professor A. Maximov, "the problems of mere description are of secondary importance; he aims to give the broadest possible sociological view, that would explain the significance and the origin of different customs, and give each one its place in the genetic scheme of development. Even in his works on the Caucasus, Kovalevsky does not attempt to give a systematic presentation of the law among the different tribes, but rather to show under what cultural influences this law originated and what elements in it show traces of archaic influences. Kovalevsky aims not to gather or discover new facts, but to interpret those already known." Here again Kovalevsky remains true to the principles he laid down in his work on the comparative method.
As a historian of human institutions, Kovalevsky believes that history is made by the minority, that thought is the guiding factor in human development, although he does not deny that political ideas are dependent upon the existing social and economic conditions. What he attempts to prove, however, is that ideas are not only produced by life, but exert a decided influence upon it. These views are especially prominent in three of his greatest works. The first of these is the "Economic Development of Europe during the Period Preceding the Growth of Capitalism," a three-volume work, treating of the evolution of land ownership and agriculture, of industry, the condition of the peasant and the laboring class, as they existed in Western Europe during the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Middle Ages. His second great work is "The Development of Modern Democracy," in five volumes, in which he treats the social and economic conditions that existed in France before the Revolution, the democratic legislation that followed, and the fall of the aristocratic republic in Venice. Finally, his last great work of general character, which has unfortunately remained unfinished, is entitled, "From Direct Popular Rule to Representative Government, and from Patriarchal Monarchy to Parliamentarism." The title of this work is fully expressive of the wide range of subjects that Kovalevsky intended to treat in this work.
But it was not in ancient institutions alone that Kovalevsky was keenly interested; modern problems were no less fascinating to him. The evidence of this is found not only in his articles,
