LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



tainablc by direct effort ; it must itself be 

 sought through means. The means of prog- 

 ress, which therefore become the second 

 proximate end, must consist in the. proper 

 kind of action, but such action is only less 

 difficult of direct attainment than is progress 

 itself. Here, again, the necessary means 

 must be adopted to secure the end. 



The higher forms of action, such as se- 

 riously affect the condition of society, are 

 chiefly the result of the ideas or opinions 

 entertained. In a general sense, then, opin- 

 ion may be regarded as the means to action, 

 and hence as the third proximate end. But 

 direct attempts to influence opinion are also 

 practically futile ; means must be employed 

 here, as before. 



Ideas and opinions rest upon the data 

 in possession of the mind. Such data, to 

 conduce to the several proximate ends, and 

 through these to the ultimate end of well- 

 being, or happiness, must be in harmony 

 with reality. In other words, the data of 

 opinion must consist in knowledge. Knowl- 

 edge, therefore, is the fourth proximate end, 

 the attainment of which will carry with it 

 that of all the less remote ones, and also 

 that of the ultimate end. Now, knowledge 

 may be attained by the direct effort of the 

 individual ; but the mind is most receptive 

 of it during the plastic period of youth, be- 

 fore an appreciation of its value can have 

 been acquired sufficient to insure the effort 

 to obtain it. To leave it to enforce itself, 

 therefore, is virtually to fail of its attain- 

 ment, so that this also is to be secured only 

 through means. 



The means to knowledge is instruction or 

 education. This is defined as " the universal 

 distribution of the most important extant 

 knowledge." As an end, education can be 

 easily secured by direct effort, even of so- 

 ciety in its collective capacity. It differs 

 from all the other ends in requiring no fur- 

 ther means for its accomplishment than the 

 mere mechanical appliances. Education, 

 therefore, constitutes the most remote proxi- 

 mate end, and the initial means to the at- 

 tainment of all the less remote ends, and 

 also of the ultimate end of the general wel- 

 fare. All these ends may, therefore, be 

 wholly neglected and left to take care of 

 themselves, and the entire energy of society 

 may be concentrated upon this most remote 



end, or initial means, to the highest social 

 progress. 



The second volume of Mr. Ward's work 

 opens with a chapter treating chiefly of 

 man's relation to the universe, which he in- 

 sists must be more clearly conceived before 

 any further progress can be made in phi- 

 losophy, and it ends with a statement of 

 the definitions and theorems of dynamic so- 

 ciology. The remaining six chapters are 

 devoted to the detailed consideration of the 

 six theorems, one being given to each of the 

 great ends, in the order in which we have 

 noticed them. The work, therefore, closes 

 with a radical discussion of the claims of 

 education as above defined, as the supreme 

 essential condition to further and higher so- 

 cial progress. 



No idea can be given in such a brief 

 notice as this of the number of important 

 subjects of great public interest at the 

 present time that are traversed by Mr. Ward 

 in these solid volumes. The work is more 

 constructive than critical, but it deals 

 throughout with live topics and urgent pub- 

 lic problems. The author takes radical is- 

 sue with his philosophic predecessors, and 

 arrives at new results for which he claims 

 the sanction of science and reason. As the 

 reader will perhaps have inferred, the drift 

 of his reasoning is toward a great extension 

 of coercive agency and government control 

 in the work of social progress. His work 

 is, in fact, a vigorous and systematic assault 

 upon the doctrine of laissez /aire, and the 

 policy of leaving things to spontaneous in- 

 fluences and the self-regulation of private 

 enterprise. It is, perhaps, the strongest 

 defense yet made of the enlargement of 

 state functions for the direction of social 

 affairs. The task was an ambitious one, 

 but the manner of its execution proves that 

 it was not presumptuous. 



The merits of Mr. Ward's work are un- 

 questionably such as to entitle it to the se- 

 rious attention of students ; but, aside from 

 its intrinsic claims, its logic is so strongly 

 in the direction of predominant American 

 tendencies, that it is sure to be welcomed 

 by many as a representative exposition of 

 American policy and thought. It appeals 

 strongly to different classes of thinkers. 

 Boldly coping with the ripened systems of the 

 Old World, it will commend itself to many 



