EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 43 



publication, heavy; yet it was essential 

 to the completeness of his system and of 

 immense importance to the progress of 

 knowledge, and Mr. Spencer did not 

 for a moment hesitate to undertake it. 

 lie first devised a system of tables suit- 

 ed to present the whole scheme of so- 

 cial facts, displayed by any community, 

 in such a manner that these facts can be 

 compared with each other at a glance, 

 while the social elements of different 

 communities can also be brought into 

 comparison with the greatest facility. 

 These Sociological Tables are marvels 

 of analytic skill, simplicity, and com- 

 prehensiveness ; and the command they 

 give over the results of investigation 

 is commensurate with the greatness of 

 the subject t# which they apply. 



Having fixed upon a method of pres- 

 entation, Mr. Spencer divided the com- 

 munities of mankind into three great 

 groups : the existing savage races of 

 Asia, Africa, and America ; the exist- 

 ing civilized races of "Western Europe ; 

 and the extinct civilizations of Egypt, 

 Palestine, Greece, Eome, and Peru. 

 Five years ago he engaged an able 

 scholar a graduate of the University 

 of Edinburgh to devote himself to the 

 study of the savage races, and gather 

 from all the most reliable sources the 

 facts relating to their social state. The 

 Tables are then gradually filled in, and 

 each one becomes a summary, we might 

 almost say a map, of the social condi- 

 tion of the community to which it is 

 devoted. The first volume of the So- 

 ciological Tables will embrace descrip- 

 tions of some seventy or eighty of the 

 principal savage tribes, and will be ac- 

 companied by an octavo volume of ex- 

 tracts from the authorities consulted, 

 and on which the summary of the Ta- 

 bles rests. This portion of the under- 

 taking is now nearly completed. An- 

 other able scholar also an Edinburgh 

 graduate has been for some years en- 

 gaged upon the existing civilizations, 

 the results of which will be published 

 in a second volume of Tables and the 



second accompanying volume of au- 

 thorities, and this work is also well ad- 

 vanced. A German historical student 

 has also taken up the extinct civiliza- 

 tions, and will prepare the third volume 

 upon this division of the subject. We 

 shall thus have the full realization of 

 what Mr. Spencer pointed out many 

 years ago, in the above-quoted extract, 

 as a great desideratum, and which will 

 create the new and important science 

 of Descriptive Sociology. It is hardly 

 necessary to say that such a work will 

 stand upon its own merits, and have a 

 general usefulness that will no way de- 

 pend upon Mr. Spencer's philosophical 

 doctrines. 



A CORRECTICX. 



Mr. Editor. In one of the late num- 

 bers of your periodical, I observe that 

 you say, in casually alluding to my Chi- 

 cago Address, that I treat the doctrine 

 which classes mental and physical forces 

 in the same category as being "hereti- 

 cal." There is but one sense in which 

 the word "heretical" can be properly 

 understood, or even understood at all 

 and that is, the sense of opposition to 

 the prevailing religious belief. Under- 

 standing the word in this sense, there 

 can be no difference of opinion what- 

 ever, among any of the parties to this 

 discussion, as to the " heresy " involved 

 in the doctrine in question. The doc- 

 trine is as much heretical in your view, 

 and in Mr. Herbert Spencer's, as it is in 

 mine. 



But, the inference which the reader 

 is left necessarily to draw from your 

 remark is, that I attempted to contro- 

 vert the doctrine, on the ground that it 

 is heretical a thing which I did not do 

 at all. I did not even, if I remember 

 aright, take the trouble to remark that 

 the doctrine is an heretical doctrine, that 

 being a thing so obvious that it may be 

 allowed to "go without saying." My 

 actual argument was that, in assuming 

 the equivalency and convertibility of 

 mental and physical forces, we are una- 



