SAVAGERY AND SURVIVALS. 389 



says, "is the self-knowledge of humanity; it is the potential 

 knowledge of the present with reference to its development from 

 the past." * Thus, history is not politics, not simply the science 

 of government, and a story of revolutions and conquest, nor sim- 

 ply literature ; but is more. It is something which includes the 

 history of culture, of law and custom, the development of the fam- 

 ily, justice, the social life as well as the political life. It is an un- 

 folding panorama of the self-conscious development of humanity. 



History has become more and more sociological in its charac- 

 ter, and perhaps this has caused much of the confusion which 

 surrounds the definition of the comparatively new term " sociol- 

 ogy." Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer have shown a disposi- 

 tion to appropriate this scientific conception of history and call it 

 " sociology," giving history a subordinate place under the latter. 

 What the true position of sociology will be in the hierarchy of 

 sciences time alone can settle. Perhaps we shall ultimately call 

 history in the scientific sense " sociology," putting it, as Comte 

 and Spencer do, at the head of all the sciences, or perhaps we may 

 make of it a philosophy of society, dealing with universal laws 

 and universal types, for which history, its chief adjunct, will fur- 

 nish the data ; or we may regard sociology in a way similar to the 

 popular conception of it at present, as the science which deals 

 with social problems. 



It is, however, institutional history or historical sociology that 

 is so attracting the attention of scholars at the present time. 

 There is no study, perhaps, so attractive as the study of primitive 

 society, the habits and customs of savage life, the development of 

 culture and of moral and religious ideas; while its chief profit 

 lies in the solution and understanding of our own progress and 

 development in a continuous line from the historic past. If we 

 would understand the development of our modern state, we must 

 study the beginnings of family life and government, the evolution 

 of the state from the family. To deal intelligently with the 

 divorce problem in modern society, one must study the origin and 

 early history of marriage, and approach the solution of the prob- 

 lem from the historical point of view. 



In many of our ceremonial institutions, our fashions, habits, 

 dress, ornamentation, opinions, notions of marriage, property, and 

 law we are but the slaves of the customs and traditions of the 

 past. It may be of interest to look at some of these habits and 

 customs of savage life. We might ask the question, " How is the 

 course of civilization traced ? " One means is through the aid 

 of survivals. And what do we mean by " survivals ? " " Those 



* Droysen's Principles of History. 



