THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 733 



panying evils are essentially the same, the resulting benefits are essen- 

 tially the same. Is it not a truism that without divergence from that 

 which exists, whether it be in politics, religion, manners, or any thing 

 else, there can be no progress ? And is it not an obvious corollary 

 that the temporary evils accompanying the divergence, are outbal- 

 anced by the eventual good ? It is certain, as Mr. Arnold holds, that 

 subordination is essential ; but it is also certain that insubordination 

 is essential essential, if there is to be any improvement. There are 

 two extremes in the state of a social aggregate, as of every other ag- 

 gregate, which are fatal to evolution rigidity and incoherence. A 

 medium plasticity is the healthful condition. On the one hand, a force 

 of established structures and habits and beliefs, such as offers con- 

 siderable resistance to change ; on the other hand, an originality, an 

 independence, and an opposition to authority, energetic enough to 

 overcome the resistance little by little. And, while the political non- 

 conformity we call Radicalism has the function of thus gradually 

 modifying one set of institutions, the religious nonconformity we call 

 Dissent has the function of thus gradually modifying another set. 



That Mr. Arnold does not take this entirely-unprovincial view, 

 which would lead him to look on Dissenters with less aversion, may 

 in part, I think, be ascribed to that over-valuation of foreign restraints 

 and under-valuation of home freedom, which his bias of anti-patriotism 

 fosters ; and serves further to illustrate the disturbing effects of this 

 bias on sociological speculation. 



And now to sum up this somewhat too elaborate argument. The 

 general truth that, by incorporation in his society, the citizen is in a 

 measure incapacitated for estimating rightly its characters and actions 

 in relation to those of other societies, has been made abundantly mani- 

 fest. And it has been made manifest also that when he strives to 

 emancipate himself from these influences of race, and country, and 

 locality, which warp his judgment, he is apt to have his judgment 

 warped in the opposite way. From the perihelion of patriotism he is 

 carried to the aphelion of anti-patriotism ; and is almost certain to 

 form views that are more or less eccentric, instead of circular, all- 

 sided, balanced views. 



Partial escape from this difficulty is promised by basing our socio- 

 logical conclusions chiefly on comparisons made among other societies 

 excluding our own. But even then these perverting sentiments are 

 sure to intrude more or less ; for we cannot contemplate the institutions 

 of other nations without our sympathies or antipathies being in some 

 degree aroused by consciousness of likeness or unlikeness to our own in- 

 stitutions. Discounting our conclusions as well as we may, to allow for 

 the errors we are thus led into, we must leave the entire elimination of 

 such errors to a future in which the decreasing antagonisms of socie- 

 ties will go along with decreasing intensities of these sentiments. 



