EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 73 



that have appeared in this magazine 

 during the last two years, are records 

 of equally painstaking research. 

 Moreover, they are both excellent 

 examples of what a strict adherence 

 to scientific method has done and 

 may yet be expected to do toward 

 clearing up the knotty problems in 

 economics that are now engaging 

 public attention. 



United with his great learning, 

 and a rare power of generalization, 

 Mr. Wells possessed in full measure 

 that intellectual honesty which is 

 the indispensable characteristic of 

 the true man of science. This ena- 

 bled him to follow without doubt or 

 hesitation wherever the facts might 

 lead ; and with his clear perception 

 of their real import, joined to his 

 habit of independent thought, traits 

 that are displayed throughout all his 

 more formal writings, they are what 

 in our opinion constitute his title to 

 distinction. They give to his teach- 

 ings, which have already done more 

 than any other agency that we 

 know toward placing the subject of 

 political economy on a sound scien- 

 tific basis, a high and enduring char- 

 acter. 



A BORROWED FOUNDATION. 



"The central idea of Professor 

 Griddings's Principles of Sociology, a 

 work that has the honor of being the 

 first independent attempt in English 

 to treat of sociology as such, is that 

 we must postulate on the part of 

 human beings what he calls a con- 

 sciousness of kind. Critics of his 

 volume have naturally told him that 

 this is essentially a philosophical 

 idea, found in Hegel and in British 

 ethical writers of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury." 



We quote the above from an ar- 

 tol. liv. — 20 



tide by Professor Caldwell, entitled 

 Philosophy and the Newer Sociol- 

 ogy, in the October Contemporary. 

 We are not prepared to dispute Pro- 

 fessor Caldwell's statement that the 

 idea of the " consciousness of kind " 

 may be found in the writers to whom 

 he refers ; but it would have been 

 very much to the point if he had 

 mentioned that it is to be found most 

 clearly enunciated in Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer's Principles of Sociology. 

 In an article contributed to this 

 magazine in December, 1896, Mr. 

 Spencer took occasion to point out 

 that what Professor Giddings seemed 

 to regard as an apergu peculiar to 

 himself had been distinctly formu- 

 lated years before in his own writ- 

 ings. In proof of this he quoted the 

 following passages: 



"Sociality having thus com- 

 menced, and survival of the fittest 

 tending ever to maintain and in- 

 crease it, it will be further strength- 

 ened by the inherited effects of habit. 

 The perception of kindred beings, 

 perpetually seen, heard, and smelt, 

 will come to form a predominant 

 part of consciousness — so predomi- 

 nant that absence of it will inevitably 

 cause discomfort." "Among crea- 

 tures led step by step into gregari- 

 ousness, there will little by little be 

 established a pleasure in being to- 

 gether — a pleasure in the conscious- 

 ness of one another's presence — a 

 pleasure simpler than, and quite dis- 

 tinct from, those higher ones which 

 it makes possible." 



The fact is that there is much 

 more in Spencer than most recent 

 writers have ever explored; and the 

 newer sociologists would do well, 

 before putting forward claims to 

 originality, to make sure that they 

 have not been anticipated by the 

 veteran philosopher. 



