EDITOR'S TABLE. 



121 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



M 



MALLOCK AND BIS NEW SCIENCE. 



R. WILLIAM HUEEELL MAL- 

 LOCK, having settled to his 

 own eminent satisfaction the little pre- 

 liminary question, "Is Life worth Liv- 

 ing ? " has now taken another step in 

 his intellectual career. And this new 

 step is, if possible, more ambitious than 

 the preceding, for he informs us that 

 he is the discoverer of a new science. 

 He has lately issued a little book enti- 

 tled " Social Equality ; a Short Study 

 in a Missing Science," * in which he 

 professes to have come upon the main- 

 spring of human progress, and to have 

 found the very tap-root of all civiliza- 

 tion. These are simply the desire for 

 inequality, which Mr. Mallock declares 

 to be an essential and universal element 

 of human nature. This is, no doubt, 

 a considerable thing to have accom- 

 plished, but it is not Mr. Mallock's spe- 

 cial discovery : what he claims is to 

 have discovered the " Science of Human 

 Character," while his philosophy of 

 inequality is but a deduction from it. 

 The " New York Evening Post," dis- 

 cussing Mr. Mallock's book in a promi- 

 nent article, makes light of his pre- 

 tensions, and closes by saying, " The 

 whole argument is really a juggle with 

 words, and his discovery of the science 

 of human character a monstrous mare's 

 nest." "We are inclined very much to 

 agree with this verdict, and to regard 

 Mr. Mallock's book, considered as a 

 contribution to thought, as not worth 

 reading. 



But it will be asked, Why, then, 

 notice it ? The reply is, that a man, 

 though he may be of little account as a 

 philosopher, may yet have significance 

 as a phenomenon ; and that a book, 

 though essentially worthless, may still 



* G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 212. Price, $1.25. 



be influential and mischievous. Mr. 

 Mallock discourses freely, boldly, and 

 ingeniously on social science, and the 

 public to which he appeals is but very 

 imperfectly instructed upon that sub- 

 ject. And not only so, but it happens 

 that just now there is no little ferment 

 in regard to social questions, while so 

 much that is crude, shallow, and ridicu- 

 lous is passed off under the name, that 

 doctrines, no matter how absurd, if 

 emanating from a prominent author, are 

 sure to get attention and find accept- 

 ance. Mr. Mallock is, moreover, a lively 

 and agreeable writer, and this is so great 

 a merit as, with many, to excuse any 

 amount of speculative nonsense. That 

 a jaunty and garish litterateur should 

 announce himself as a great revealer of 

 new scientific truth would seem on the 

 face of it to be an excellent joke, but 

 nothing facetious is here intended. We 

 do not propose to analyze Mr. Mallock's 

 book, nor to answer his arguments, but 

 only to characterize the performance, 

 and extract from it its unintended lesson. 

 Of the author's claim to have dis- 

 covered a new science, we have sim- 

 ply to say that its impudence is only 

 equaled by its stupidity. Mr. Mallock 

 evidently neither knows what science 

 is, nor has he the faintest idea of the 

 conditions of its origin and develop- 

 ment. There can be little doubt that 

 he is profoundly ignorant of even its 

 rudiments, and has probably never made 

 a solitary original observation, if even 

 attempt at observation, in any of the 

 sciences, although encompassed by their 

 phenomena from childhood, ne cer- 

 tainly can know nothing of the diffi- 

 culty of scientific research, the amount 

 of labor it involves, or the mental dis- 

 cipline demanded for its successful pur- 

 suit, even in the elementary stages of 

 its investigation. He seems to be ob- 



