LITERARY NOTICES. 



413 



course, if any one nation is cherishing 

 schemes that are in their nature incon- 

 sistent with peace with its neighbors, 

 that nation could not be counted on for 

 any sincere co-operation ; and therefore 

 the first thing to do would be to invite 

 from each nation as frank and full a 

 statement as possible of its views and 

 aspirations, in order that the extent to 

 which these came into conflict with 

 those of other nations might be deter- 

 mined. We can not resist the belief 

 that, if the matter were taken in hand 

 seriously, the British Government, as 

 being more directly interested in the 

 peace of Europe, taking the lead, and 

 the Government of this country lending 

 it all the moral support possible, a 

 hopeful beginning might be made. The 

 thing could not be done in a day ; but, 

 unless we have faith enough to believe 

 in the possibility of its being done, how 

 is it going to be done at all or at any 

 time? War has lasted through nine- 

 teen centuries of the Christian era, and 

 still exists as a horrible fact and still 

 more dread possibility in the era of sci- 

 ence. It has lasted too long. Chris- 

 tianity and science should unite their 

 forces to crush it. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Psychic Factors of Civilization. By 

 Lester F. Ward. Boston : Ginn & Co. 

 Pp. 369. Price, $2. 



In this book Dr. Ward elaborates and re- 

 enforces the main plea of his Dynamic Soci- 

 ology, published ten years ago. His central 

 thought is that civihzation owes its chief im- 

 pulse to man's conscious effort to better his 

 lot an effort in which, so far from imitating 

 the operations of Nature, man has modified 

 or even reversed them. In this view, civili- 

 zation for its further advance must look 

 more and more to a control in the highest 

 sense artificial, which shall aim solely at the 

 public good, restraining all self-regarding 

 activities in conflict therewith. The chap- 

 ters before us embody the observations of 

 an accomplished naturalist, and add original 



and brilliant illustrations to an argument 

 somewhat familiar. Every skillfully drawn 

 picture such as this, which limns the felicity 

 awaiting mankind when self-love and social 

 shall be the same, kindles the moral imagi- 

 nation, and in so far has distinct value. But 

 whether the practical orchestration of hu- 

 man wills and motives, which Dr. Ward holds 

 to be eminently feasible, is feasible, or even 

 possible, may well be questioned. As time 

 goes on, and the problems of life, political 

 and social, grow in complexity, the task of 

 bringing self-interest and the public weal 

 into accord does not become easier, as multi- 

 plied failures abundantly attest. One of the 

 reasons is that the democratic spirit which 

 justly maintains the equality of rights is apt 

 unjustly to ignore or resent the inequalities 

 of talent and character which difference man 

 from man. And only a hearty acknowledg- 

 ment of these inequalities can yield the as- 

 sured leadership and the loyal adhesion upon 

 which social progress largely depends. Dr. 

 Ward holds that with better social conditions 

 character would be reformed. True. But 

 how can there be that in the mass which is 

 not in the atom ? Our author is of the 

 school which woidd have reform begin at 

 the outermost circle of human life, the po- 

 litical, and thence pass to the core and cen- 

 ter, the individual heart. In this kind of 

 project there is an oblique and subtle flattery 

 in that blame for individual woes and priva- 

 tions is laid solely at the door of " society," 

 of institutions, of somebody or something 

 outside the sufferer himself. Never by any 

 chance do the painters of social Utopias 

 show how wide is the home acre for im- 

 provement, how much neglected it is, albeit 

 that its plow awaits no sanction from the 

 lawmaker, and how the despised field for 

 tilth which surrounds every man's door is 

 just the place for him to gain the skill, the 

 discipline, needful in planning and carrying 

 out the large transformations which gild the 

 dreams of socialistic prophecy. Dr. Ward 

 enlarges, and without exaggeration, on the 

 wastes and burdens of industrial competi- 

 tion. Experience in Great Britain amply 

 proves that many of these wastes and bur- 

 dens disappear on the simple organization of 

 the co-operative store an establishment in 

 this country as rare as an observatory. Co- 

 operation requires forbearance, steadfast- 



