LITERARY NOTICES. 



113 



not yet published a false statement, as it 

 had been issued in quarterly parts during 

 the past two years by Williams & Norgate, 

 of London, the publishers of " Social Stat- 

 ics " and all the volumes of the " Philoso- 

 phy." Though we may not expect in Brit- 

 ish Quarterly Reviewers any very high sense 

 of honor, there is a barefaced recklessness 

 in this proceeding which well illustrates the 

 sort of treatment that Herbert Spencer has 

 been receiving ever since he published the 

 first volume of his "Philosophy" in 1862. 



The readers of The Popular Science 

 Monthly will hardly need to be told that 

 the volume now published is the first of 

 three which are intended to work out sys- 

 tematically the principles of the science of 

 society. We have often explained the rela- 

 tion of these works to the philosophical 

 volumes that have preceded them, and to 

 the "Descriptive Sociology," which gives a 

 comprehensive account of different types 

 of the social state ; and we have published 

 various articles, from advance-sheets of the 

 work itself, illustrating the quality and 

 scope of the discussion contained in the 

 volume before us. The work differs widely 

 and profoundly from any that has ever ap- 

 peared professing to deal with the subject 

 of social science, and it is gratifying to see 

 at last some cordial recognition of its great 

 originality, value, and importance, from the 

 leading critics of the English press. This 

 is all the more satisfactoiy, that Mr. Spen- 

 cer has conquered it against the steady 

 pressure of a powerful and long-sustained 

 antagonism. Having commented freely 

 upon the work, and given illustrations of it, 

 in the course of its publication, we prefer 

 now to furnish our readers with the view 

 taken of the completed volume by an influ- 

 ential London journal. The following is 

 the notice that appeared in the Pall Mall 

 Gazette : 



" Those who have followed the develop- 

 ment of Mr. Spencer's ' System ' will have 

 no difficulty in understanding the position 

 held in it by the present volume. ' Hitherto 

 he has been occupied in setting forth the 

 laws of organic evolution, the ' Principles 

 of Biology ' having dealt with the physical 

 aspect of that process, the 'Principles of 

 Psychology ' with its mental aspects. Both 

 these works treat of the individual life of 



the organism ; but when organisms come 

 into relation to each other, form societies, 

 and produce results which could not be 

 achieved except by coordinated action, we 

 are confronted by a new set of phenomena. 

 We are in presence of what Mr. Spencer 

 calls super-organic evolution. The task of 

 sociology it is now, we fear, too late to 

 protest against the use of one of the most 

 disagreeable words ever coined is to in- 

 terpret these new facts, to classify them, 

 and to render intelligible the passage from 

 one stage of progress to another. Among 

 bees, wasps, and ants, we find the first indi- 

 cations of cooperation, associated with a 

 certain degree of division of labor ; and 

 some of the higher types of vertebrata, 

 such as rooks, combine in a still more 

 marked manner. These instances of co- 

 ordinated action are, however, of slight 

 moment compared with the phenomena pre- 

 sented by human societies ; it is, therefore, 

 with the latter alone that sociology is con- 

 cerned. 



" The subject is so vast and complicated 

 that it is difficult to treat of it without 

 being either dull or superficial. Mr. Spen- 

 cer, as those who know his writings would 

 expect, escapes both dangers. As in his 

 previous expositions, he confines himself to 

 a few large principles ; and these are so 

 clearly expressed, so systematically ar- 

 ranged, and supported by so immense an 

 array of proofs and illustrations, that read- 

 ers "wholly unaccustomed to philosophical 

 inquiry may follow his argument with in- 

 terest. Not even a German professor could 

 have undertaken to bring together without 

 help the enormous mass of materials which 

 are here utilized. Mr. Spencer has had ex- 

 cellent assistance in collecting facts, and he 

 has woven them with the skill of a master 

 into a consistent and suggestive theory. 



"In social evolution there are two fac- 

 tors : extrinsic and intrinsic. The former 

 include all those outward influences, such 

 as climate, surface, flora, and fauna, which 

 determine human action ; by the latter are 

 meant the qualities of the units that make 

 up society. Mr. Spencer devotes only one 

 chapter to the extrinsic factors; but this 

 suffices to indicate how many favorable 

 conditions are necessary to the formation 

 of a society, and how rarely these condi- 



VOL. XI. 8 



