704 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



plains in the preface to the present volume, his circumstances of health and 

 fortune were most discouraging. 



Though approaching the completion of his seventy-seventh year, neither 

 Mr. Spencer's age nor his long struggle with infirmity has dimmed the 

 vigor of his thought or the lucidity of his diction. The closing chapters of 

 the present volume exhibit the strength of a mind unimpaired and of a 

 conviction undaunted by the apparent drift of events in a direction con- 

 trary to that in which he sees the salvation of society. No pessimistic 

 reflections have obliterated his early vision of an ideal man in a relatively 

 perfect social state. " Long studies," he athrms at the conclusion of his 

 work, "... have not caused me to recede from the belief expressed nearly 

 fifty years ago that ' the ultimate man will be one vv'hose private require- 

 ments coincide with public ones. He will be that manner of man who, in 

 spontaneously fulfilling his own nature, incidentally performs the func- 

 tions of a social unit.' " 



The volume now before us includes the discussion of Ecclesiastical, Pro- 

 fessional, and Industrial Institutions. The consideration of the two latter 

 topics, not contemplated at the outset, has displaced the general survey of 

 progress which was to have completed the Principles of Sociology. The 

 finished structure is not marred; the change has enhanced the practical 

 value of the work. In this adaptation to the requirements of added expe- 

 rience and maturer reflection the Synthetic Philosophy is seen to be itself 

 a product of evolution, a vital expression of progressive thought, rather 

 than a mechanically constructed system. That its final form is so near to 

 the original plan is a remarkable testimony to the profound scientific pre- 

 science of the author. 



The first two sections of the present volume have already received notice 

 in these pages. The concluding section, on Industrial Institutions, is the 

 latest product of Mr. Spencer's thought, and treats of the problems now 

 ujipermost in the minds of men. The discussion, therefore, has more than 

 a merely theoretical value. It presents the mature judgment of the great- 

 est thinker of our time on questions of immediate i^ractical import. It 

 therefore challenges the thoughtful attention of all to whom the perfection 

 of individual character and of the societary forms best adajited to assure 

 the progress of the race is a matter of supreme interest. 



Reviewing the different stages of industrial progress, Mr. Spencer op- 

 timistically concludes that advancement has been more rapid in the cen- 

 tury now closing than in all the past of man's career upon the earth a 

 conclusion seemingly justified by the facts which he skillfully marehals in 

 its support. This progress has been characterized by an increasing speciali- 

 zation of functions and division of labor, thus illustrating the universal 

 law of evolution. The chief incentives to early industrial effort grew out 

 of the steady increase of population, the militant structure of society, and 

 the love of ornament common to primitive peoples. Further industrial 

 progress, however, is seen to be dependent on the decline of the military 

 spirit. Peace alone answers the conditions requisite to continuous effort, 

 Ijromotes econom3% and encourages better methods. Hostilities between 

 tribes and nations prevent free interchange and competition, and so favor 

 adulteration in materials and the survival of inefficient methods. " Thus in 

 all ways increase of population by its actions and reactions develops a social 

 organism which becomes more heterogeneous as it becomes larger, while 



