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THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



age in pursuing comprehensive sociological 

 inquiries. 



So large and laborious was the under- 

 taking upon which he engaged and so diffi- 

 cult was it to command capable assistance 

 in carrying out the project, so heavy the ex- 

 pense of the undertaking, both in securing 

 the protracted services of capable assistants 

 and in the publication of the works, which 

 Mr. Spencer had to meet alone, and so in- 

 tensely was Mr. Spencer himself absorbed in 

 the execution of his elaborate system of 

 philosophy, that the "Descriptive Sociology" 

 proceeded slowly, and was published irregu- 

 larly as the parts were successively brought 

 to completion. They therefore appear in an 

 order that was determined by the circum- 

 stances of their preparation. Of all the 

 savage races upon the globe, the very lowest 

 are the Negritto tribes and the Malayo-Poly- 

 nesian races. These are dealt with in Part 

 III of the cyclopaedia. Seventeen examples 

 are given as types of the lowest races, viz. : 

 the Fuegians, Andamanese, Veddahs, Aus- 

 tralians, Tasmanians, New Caledonians, New 

 Guinea people, Fijians, Sandwich Islanders, 

 Tahitians, Tongans, Samoans, New Zealand- 

 ers, Dyaks, Javans, Sumatrans, Malagasy. 

 Part IV is devoted to thirteen of the repre- 

 sentative African races ; Part V to fifteen of 

 the Asiatic races ; and Part VI to seventeen 

 of the principal American races. These four 

 parts exemplify the undeveloped, or the but 

 rudely developed forms of social life which 

 are to be taken as starting-points in study- 

 ing the development of mankind. Part II is 

 devoted to more advanced forms of society, 

 the imperfect civilizations of which are de- 

 cayed or extinct, and it embraces the Mexi- 

 cans, the Central Americans, the Chibchas, 

 and the Peruvians. This line of study is 

 also still further pursued in Part VII, which 

 delineates the social life and the form of 

 civilization attained by the Hebrews and the 

 Phoenicians. Part I and Part VII i, the 

 first and last issued, are devoted to the so- 

 ciological history of the English and the 

 French as old historic and still flourishing 

 civilizations. There is a more or less con- 

 tinuous social history of England and France, 

 running through some two thousand years 

 and culminating in their present high devel- 

 opment, which makes them the best exam- 

 ples for tracing the slow-working agencies 



by which the highest social conditions have 

 been attained. The sociology of the French 

 is the most elaborately worked out of all, 

 the part devoted to it being so large as to 

 rank it as a double number. 



It was Mr. Spencer's original intention 

 to include some other societies in his proj- 

 ect, but, as its execution threatened to be- 

 come pecuniarily ruinous, he closed the 

 undertaking with Part VIII. But the schol- 

 arship of the world owes him its best thanks 

 for having carried this great, original, and 

 invaluable work to such satisfactory com- 

 pletion as it has actually attained. The 

 history of the advance of knowledge hardly 

 furnishes a parallel to this enterprise. Mr. 

 Spencer foresaw many years ago that the 

 establishment upon a sound and permanent 

 basis of the highest and most important of 

 all the sciences, that of human society, would 

 depend upon such a collection and systema- 

 tization of its immense data as had never 

 been attempted or even dreamed of by in- 

 quirers upon social subjects. All science 

 rests upon the foundation of observed facts, 

 and these facts must be as extensive as the 

 generalizations to be built upon them. And, 

 because such data were neither at hand nor 

 forthcoming, nor deemed possible of pro- 

 curement, it was held that sociology could 

 never become a legitimate and well-grounded 

 science. It might be a region of specula- 

 tion, but it could have no valid inductive 

 basis. Mr. Spencer perceived that there was 

 no reason in the necessity of things for this 

 hopeless conclusion, and he accordingly un- 

 dertook the preliminary work of preparing 

 a solid foundation for the new science. Nor 

 is it too much to say that the issue of the 

 first part of the " Descriptive Sociology " 

 settled the question. So eminent an au- 

 thority upon this class of subjects as Mr. E. 

 B. Tylor, author of the " Early History of 

 Mankind," remarked upon its appearance, 

 " It is a sufficient answer to all disbelievers 

 in the possibility of a science of history." 



That this great work should not have 

 been appreciated by the age to which it was 

 offered is not surprising. The sciences that 

 have been long established are still strug- 

 gling for educational recognition, and no 

 form of intellectual labor is so ill appreci- 

 ated in these times and especially in this 

 country as that which aims at the extension 



