THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 



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dread sovereign, which Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, be- 

 stowed upon us the people of England, when first He sent Your Ma- 

 jesty's Royal Person to rule and reign over us," etc., etc. Think of 

 such a dedication of such a book to such a man ; and then ask if, along 

 with a sentiment thus expressing itself, there could go any thing like 

 balanced judgments of political transactions. 



Does there need an illustration of the extent to which balanced 

 judgments of political transactions are made impossible by this senti- 

 ment during times when it is strong ? We have one in the warped 

 conceptions formed respecting Charles I. and Cromwell ; and respect- 

 ing the changes with which their names are identified. Now that 

 many generations have gone by, and it begins to be seen that the one 

 was not worthy to be prayed for as a martyr, while the other deserved 

 treatment quite unlike that of exhuming his body and insulting it, it 

 begins to be seen, also, how utterly wrong have been the interpretations 

 of the events they took part in, and how entirely men's sentiments of 

 loyalty have incapacitated them for understanding those events under 

 their sociological aspects. 



Naming this as an instance of a more special perverting effect of 

 this sentiment, we have here chiefly to note its more general pervert- 

 ing effect. From the beginning it has tended ever to keep in the fore- 

 ground of consciousness the governing agent as causing social phe- 

 nomena ; and so has kept in the background of consciousness all other 

 causes of social phenomena or, rather, the one has so completely oc- 

 cupied consciousness as to exclude the other. If we remember that 

 history has been full of the doings of kings, but that only in quite re- 

 cent times have the phenomena of industrial organization, conspicuous 

 as they are, attracted any attention if we remember that, while all 

 eyes and all thoughts have been turned to the actions of rulers, no 

 eyes and no thoughts have, until modern days, been turned to those 

 vital processes of spontaneous cooperation by which natural life, and 

 growth, and progress, have been carried on we shall not fail to see 

 how profound have been the resulting errors in men's conclusions 

 about social affairs. And, seeing this, we shall infer that the emotion 

 excited in men by embodied political power must now, and for a long- 

 time to come, be a great obstacle to the formation of rational sociolo- 

 gical conceptions tending, as it must ever do, to exaggerate the im- 

 portance of the political factor in comparison with other factors. 



Under the title of " Subjective Difficulties Emotional," I have 

 here entered upon an extensive field, the greater part of which remains 

 to be explored. The effects of impatience, the effects of that all-glori- 

 fying admiration felt for military success, the effects of that sentiment 

 which makes men submit to authority by keeping up a superstitious 

 awe of the agent exercising it, are but a few among the effects which, 

 the emotions produce on sociological beliefs. Various other effects 



