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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing chapters to this present volume, and 

 that, in his opinion, ' it may be some time 

 possibly months before he is able to re- 

 sume work at his ordinary, slow rate.' Still, 

 this regret should not unduly depress us, 

 seeing that we have now in our hands a 

 bulky volume of over 700 pages, in which 

 the author lays down the principal founda- 

 tion-lines of his scientific structure. Most 

 of Mr. Spencer's admirers, perhaps, have 

 looked forward to the doctrine of social evo- 

 lution as the most valuable and interesting 

 result of the author's labors. It is quite 

 natural, indeed, that many, to whom the un- 

 familiar conceptions of biology and the ab- 

 struse subtilties of psychology are some- 

 what repellent, should look forward to the 

 promised exposition of sociology, with its 

 more familiar ideas of industry, religion, 

 government, etc. To this it may be added 

 that, just now, there is a large concentra- 

 tion of scientific interest on all historical 

 problems, and many who were indifferent to 

 the first principles of matter and motion 

 will look with eagerness into the present 

 volume for its theory of social progress. It 

 may at once be said that all who have an- 

 ticipated this work will find in it ample in- 

 tellectual material of the most interesting 

 sort. The author here takes us far enough 

 to enable us to see how his previous vol- 

 umes have been leading up to a clear and 

 scientific conception of society and its laws 

 far enough, too, for us to discern the rev- 

 olution which the theory of evolution is to 

 effect in many current notions respecting 

 social phenomena. . . . 



"Mr. Spencer's theory of primitive ideas 

 seems to us so much the most important 

 element in the volume that we have dwelt 

 on it at length, to the neglect of the other 

 parts. Of what remains, only a very few words 

 can be said. After completing his account 

 of the data of psychology, the author passes 

 to liis Second Part, which has for its theme 

 ' The Inductions of Sociology.' Under this 

 head Mr. Spencer discusses the nature of 

 society as an organism, the ideas of social 

 growth, social structures and functions, 

 and the division of the social organism into 

 three systems of organs, namely, the sus- 

 taining, tlie distributing, and the regulat- 

 ing, answering to those of digestion, circu- 

 lation, and nervous coordination, in the in- 



dividual organism. The analogy between a 

 society and a bodily organism is worked out 

 with remarkable ingenuity, according to the 

 sketch given by the author in the popular 

 introduction to sociology already alluded to. 

 Mr. Spencer succeeds, we think, in estab- 

 lishing the closeness of this similarity, and, 

 what is more, in showing how it arises from 

 the fundamental similarity of the processes 

 of evolution underlying individual and so- 

 cial growth. Thus, for example, the curious 

 analogy in the distributing systems of the 

 two kinds of organism between the up and 

 down lines of railway and the veins and 

 arteries, is seen, on reflection, to be some- 

 thing more than an accidental coincidence. 

 At the same time, Mr. Spencer appears to 

 us to have become more clearly aware of 

 the limits of this analogy, and of the cir- 

 cumstances which mark off social aggre- 

 gates from single, living organisms. 



" After thus determining the data and 

 leading principles of sociology, Mr. Spencer 

 proceeds, in his Third Part, to deal with 

 social phenomena themselves that is to 

 say, the movements or processes which 

 make up social development. He begins 

 with the domestic relations, the account of 

 which brings the volume to a close. We 

 have no space left to follow the author in 

 his interesting review of the gradual devel- 

 opment of monogamy out of the primitive 

 relations of the sexes. His views on the 

 nature of marriaire without the tribe and 

 marriage within the trilje (exogamy and 

 endogamy), of polyandry, and polygamy, 

 and of their relations of coexistence Jind 

 sequence, rest in part on the researches and 

 conclusions of writers like Mr. McLennan, 

 while in some important particulars they 

 deviate from this writer's theories. It 

 strikes us that Mr. Spencer here exhibits an 

 increased power of seizing the many influ- 

 ences which contribute to a complex result. 

 The highly-interesting character of this part, 

 as of the whole volume, makes us look for- 

 ward to the continuation of this work on 

 ' Sociology,' which, we strongly suspect, to 

 judge by the little progress already made, 

 is going to be much more voluminous than 

 the works on ' Biology ' and ' Psychology.' 

 May the author's health speedily allow 

 him to carry forward his great enter- 

 prise ! " 



