622 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



phrases, the second part (English-German- 

 French) about 76,000, and the third (Ger- 

 man-English-French) over 90,000. As was 

 inevitable in a work involving so much re- 

 search, errors are not wanting, and a mul- 

 titude of technical terms have been omit- 

 ted. Nevertheless, the author has rendered 

 an inestimable service to the world of let- 

 ters in the compilation of this dictionary ; 

 its defects will disappear under revision, as 

 new editions are called for. In the mean 

 time we are very well satisfied with the 

 work as it stands, and can heartily com- 

 mend it as a trustworthy guide to the sy- 

 nonomies of technical terms in the three 

 foremost languages of modern industrial 

 life. 



Peincipia, or Basis of Social Science: 

 Being a Survey of the Subject from 

 the Moral and Theological, yet Liberal 

 and Progressive Standpoint. By R. J. 

 Wkight. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin- 

 cott & Co. Pp. 524. Price, $3.50. 

 The activity of modern speculation on 

 social subjects, while yet there are so few 

 principles established for the guidance of 

 thought, has led to the widest and wildest 

 diversity in the treatment of this class of 

 questions. This is perhaps the highest 

 sphere of intellectual liberty, for in most 

 other departments of thought there are re- 

 straints which come from more or less set- 

 tled ideas. Thus in religion there are es- 

 tablished creeds; in practical politics, con- 

 stitutions, precedents, and the body of 

 laws ; in history, canons of interpretation ; 

 in science, facts, generalizations, and de- 

 termined methods rail of which exert a 

 regulative and controlling influence over the 

 speculative tendency. But in the social 

 field very little help comes from any such 

 sources, and the fertile thinker is as free to 

 spin theories and excogitate a philosophy 

 as if he had been the first to start inquiry 

 in this domain. That principles will at 

 length be established to direct the course 

 of investigation, we are not permitted to 

 doubt ; but, thus far, the chaos of social 

 philosophy, and the conflict of social doc- 

 trines, are the most striking facts in regard 

 to them. 



Mr. Wright has made an earnest book, 

 which is pervaded by an excellent spirit 

 and noble aspirations, but his views are 



original and independent, and he has done 

 his own thinking throughout, from his ex- 

 position of a radical and thorough-going 

 socialism down to the punctuation of his 

 volume, which he has carried out according 

 to his own rules. So full a freedom of 

 treatment ought to favor originality of sug- 

 gestion and freshness of opinion, and the 

 book will accordingly be found to contain 

 many ingenious ideas, and to abound in 

 hints and statements which will find a use- 

 ful place in the future development of the 

 subject. The author makes no large claims 

 for his work, but simply submits it to the 

 common-sense of his readers for what it 

 may be worth in helping them to the study 

 and understanding of social questions ; and 

 "hopes that, if the public cannot tolerate 

 these writings as a work of science, they 

 will, at any rate, tolerate them as a kind of 

 sermon to politicians and statesmen." 



Mr. Wright classes the elements or ac- 

 tivities of man's social life in six categories 

 or units, as follows: There is, first, the indi- 

 vidual ; second, the family ; third, the so- 

 cial circle by which he means groups of 

 affiliated or closely-connected families ; and, 

 fourth, the precinct by which he means to 

 designate the neighborhood principle. The 

 precinct is a fundamental idea in the social 

 series which the author develops with spe- 

 cial prominence. "Precincts," he says, 

 "are neighborhoods organized into civil 

 governments ; they are territories within 

 territories ; they are parts of a tribe or na- 

 tion, and are not self-existent. In other 

 words, precincts arc the organizations of 

 the neighborhood principle in civil govern- 

 ment. They might be compared with the 

 ' States ' of the American Union by calling 

 them very small and reformed 'states.' 

 The precinct is the fourth fundamental ele- 

 ment or ' personality ' of society as deter- 

 mined in our analytics." The precinct is dis- 

 tinguished from the corporation, and is the 

 smallest political group, but in Mr. Wright's 

 scheme it is endowed with many of the 

 most important functions of government. 



The fifth unit is the nation, which is- 

 political on the larger scale ; and the sixth 

 unit of society is mankind, or the human 

 race, the aggregate of all nationalities. 

 Under this classification the author dis- 

 cusses a wide range of questions in fact, 



