PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 841* 



PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



XII. EVOLUTION OF THE PROFESSIONS. 

 By HERBERT SPENCER. 



THE saying that we can not put old heads on young shoulders, 

 figuratively expresses, among other truths, the truth that 

 the beliefs which in youth result from small information joined 

 with undisciplined thought and feeling, can not, until after long 

 years, be replaced by the beliefs which wider knowledge and 

 better balanced mental powers produce. And while it is usually 

 impracticable to ante-date the results of mental development and 

 culture, it is also usually impracticable to arouse, during early 

 stages, any such distrust of convictions then formed, as should be 

 caused by the perception that there is much more to be learned. 



This general remark, trite in substance though it is, I am 

 prompted to make a propos of the profound change which study 

 of many peoples in many places and times causes in those ideas 

 of social organization which are current ideas entertained not 

 only by the young but also by the majority of the old, who, rela- 

 tively to the subject-matter to be investigated, are also young. 

 For patient inquiry and calm thought make it manifest that 

 sundry institutions regarded with strong prejudices have been 

 essential institutions; and that the development of society has 

 everywhere been determined by agencies especially political 

 and ecclesiastical of characters condemned by the higher senti- 

 ments and incongruous with an advanced social ideal. 



One in whom aversion to autocratic rule is strong, does not 

 willingly recognize the truth that without autocratic rule the 

 evolution of society could not have commenced ; and one to 

 whom the thought of priestly control is repugnant, can not, with- 

 out difficulty, bring himself to see that during early stages 

 priestly control was necessary. But contemplation of the evi- 

 dence, while proving these general facts, also makes it manifest 

 that in the nature of things groups of men out of which organ- 

 ized societies germinate, must, in passing from the homogeneous 

 to the heterogeneous, have first assumed the form in which one 

 individual predominates a nucleus of the group serving as a 

 center of initiation for all subsequent steps in development. 

 Though, as fast as society advances, and especially as fast as the 

 militant type yields place to the industrial type, a centralized 

 and coercive control, political and ecclesiastical, becomes less 

 needful, and plays a continually decreasing part in social evolu- 

 tion ; yet the evidence compels us to admit that at first it was 

 indispensable. 



VOL. XLTIII. 49* 



