EDITOR'S TABLE. 



265 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SOCIOLOGY AND THEOLOGY AT YALE 

 COLLEGE. 



SOME weeks ago an attempt was 

 made to get up a public sensa- 

 tion out of a reported disagreement in 

 the faculty of Yale College, concern- 

 ing the teaching of sociology. It was 

 alleged that a conflict had arisen be- 

 tween President Porter and Professor 

 Sumner of the chair of Social Science, 

 in regard to the use as a text-book of 

 Spencer's "Study of Sociology" a 

 conflict in which the faculty participat- 

 ed, and which might lead to difficulty. 

 Professor Sumner was interviewed, and 

 said it was an old affair, and had been 

 greatly exaggerated ; and he hoped that 

 the press would not disquiet itself by 

 working up a discussion of the subject 

 which could do no good to anybody. 

 This was, of course, the signal of a gen- 

 eral outbreak; both the secular and the 

 religious journals "going in" with ex- 

 traordinary unction. Though much in- 

 terested in the matter, we acted upon 

 the hint of Professor Sumner, and re- 

 frained from any remark in the May 

 " Monthly." But the occasion has been 

 used in such a way that some further 

 comment is needful. 



It was a wise and an appropriate 

 thing on the part of the authorities of 

 Yale College to establish a professorship 

 for the teaching of social science. The 

 subject is one of growing public impor- 

 tance in all civilized countries, and it is 

 of transcendent interest in this country, 

 where everybody takes so deep an in- 

 terest in the administration of public 

 affairs. The step was, moreover, im- 

 peratively demanded by the progress 

 of knowledge. No intelligent man will 

 deny that social order is based upon 

 natural laws, and exemplifies cause and 

 effect. Social phenomena may be ana- 



lyzed and classified, and reduced to gen- 

 eral expressions or principles, like the 

 other phenomena of Nature. Notwith- 

 standing the apparent chaos of politics, 

 and the discords of legislation, there is 

 nevertheless an underlying regularity in 

 the action of social forces which makes 

 rational politics and legislation possible. 

 Laws are bad or good because there is 

 a constitution of society by which their 

 goodness or badness is determined. It 

 is no longer a question that these social 

 laws shall be worked out as an indepen- 

 dent body of science ; and this has been 

 already so far accomplished as to lead 

 to valuable practical results, and make 

 it in the highest degree expedient that 

 our eminent institutions of learning 

 should recognize the subject, and enter 

 upon the duty of teaching what is known 

 of it, and of contributing to its further 

 development. 



In creating this chair, therefore, 

 Yale College was only conforming to the 

 intellectual requirements of the time; 

 but it was nevertheless a courageous 

 proceeding, for which the institution is 

 to be honored. There is no mistaking 

 the significance of the term social sci- 

 ence. It implies that human society is 

 a part of Nature to be studied by obser- 

 vation and induction, like the other 

 parts of Nature, and to be pursued in 

 conformity with established scientific 

 method. That method is occupied witli 

 the determination of facts and those 

 orderly relations of facts which are ex- 

 pressed as generalizations. As in as- 

 tronomy or in botany so in sociology, 

 the inquirer has to observe and compare 

 phenomena throughout the whole field, 

 so as to formulate the great activities 

 that are displayed in each sphere, and 

 thus arrive at a connected and compre- 

 hensive body of natural laws which 



