EDITOR'S TABLE. 



619 



cer, one is classified as low and station- 

 ary, and another as decaying or retro- 

 grading ; and that the social career of 

 the declining and dead civilizations, 

 Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Mexi- 

 can, and Peruvian, are made the sub- 

 jects of investigation, as well as the 

 advancing communities of the present 

 time. Prof. Cairnes declares that Mr. 

 Spencer has " completely ignored " the 

 phenomena of social retrogression, when 

 within a year Mr. Spencer has issued 

 the first volume ever printed on the 

 sociological history of a group of de- 

 cayed communities. 



Nor is this all ; there is even less 

 excuse than now appears for the absurd 

 misrepresentations in Prof. Cairnes's ar- 

 ticle. Mr. Spencer has commenced the 

 " Principles of Sociology," and two 

 numbers of that work had appeared 

 before Prof. Cairnes published his crit- 

 icism. Again we say, that he was 

 bound to have consulted these, or have 

 held his peace in regard to Mr. Spen- 

 cer's doctrines. The following quota- 

 tion from the part last issued, and 

 which was printed two months before 

 the Fortnightly article, will settle the 

 question, and render any further notice 

 of the professor's argument unneces- 

 sary : 



"Evolution is commonly oonoeived to 

 imply in every thing an intrinsic tendency 

 to become something higher, hut this is an 

 erroneous conception of it. In all oases it is 

 determined by the cooperation of inner and 

 outer factors. . . . Usually neither advance 

 nor recession results, and often, certain pre- 

 viously-acquired structures being rendered 

 superfluous, there results a simpler form. 

 Only now and then does the environing 

 change initiate in the organism a new com- 

 plication, and so produce a somewhat higher 

 typo. Hence the truth that while for im- 

 measurable periods some types have neither 

 advanoed nor receded, and while in other 

 types there has been further evolution, there 

 are many types in which retrogression has 

 happened. ... Of all existing species of 

 animals, if we include parasites, the greater 

 number have retrograded from a structure to 

 which their remote ancestors had once ad- 

 vanced. Often, indeed, progression in some 



types involves retrogression in others. For 

 always the more evolved type, conquering 

 by the aid of its acquired superiority, tends 

 to drive competing types into inferior habi- 

 tats, and less profitable modes of life ; usu- 

 ally implying some disuse and decay of their 

 higher powers. 



"As with organic evolution, so with su- 

 per-organic evolution. Though, taking the 

 entire assemblage of societies, evolution may 

 be held inevitable as an ultimate effect of 

 the cooperating factors, intrinsic and extrin- 

 sic, acting on them all through indefinite 

 periods of time, yet it cannot be held inev- 

 itable in each particular society, or even 

 probable. A social organism, like an indi- 

 vidual organism, undergoes modifications 

 until it comes into equilibrium with envi- 

 roning conditions, and thereupon continues 

 without further change of structure. When 

 the conditions are changed, meteorologically 

 or geologically, or by alterations in the Flora 

 and Fauna, or by migration consequent on 

 pressure of population, or by flight before 

 usurping races, some change of social struct- 

 ure is entailed. But this change does not nec- 

 essarily imply advance. Often it is toward 

 neither a higher nor a lower structure. 

 Where the habitat entails modes of life 

 that are inferior, some degradation results. 

 Only occasionally is the new combination 

 of factors such as to cause a change consti- 

 tuting a step in social evolution, and initiat- 

 ing a social type which spreads and sup- 

 plants inferior social types. For with these 

 super-organic aggregates, as with the organ- 

 ic aggregates, progression in some produces 

 retrogression in others ; the more-evolved 

 societies drive the less-evolved societies into 

 unfavorable habitats, and so entail on them 

 decrease of size, or decay of structure. 



"Direct evidence forces this conclusion 

 upon us. Lapse from higher civilization 

 to lower civilization, made familiar during 

 school-days, is further exemplified as our 

 knowledge widens. Egyptians, Babyloni- 

 ans, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Jews, 

 Greeks, Eomans it needs but to name these 

 to be reminded that many large and highly- 

 evolved societies have either disappeared, 

 or have dwindled to barbarous hordes, or 

 have been long passing through slow decay. 

 Euins show us that in Java there existed, in 

 the past, a more developed society than ex- 

 ists now ; and the like is shown by ruins in 

 Cambodia. Peru and Mexico were once the 

 seats of sooieties large and elaborately or- 

 ganized, that have been disorganized by 

 conquest; and where the cities of Central 

 America once contained great populations, 



