RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO BIOLOGY. 433 



upward through mental philosophy, moral philosophy, and so connect- 

 ino- again with sociology through the religious organization, the church ; 

 3. The Scientific course, commencing with mathematics and passing up 

 through the hierarchy of science, as already given, and so connecting 

 again with sociology through the industrial organization, the guild. 



I have made only three fundamental corporations of the social or- 

 ganism. Friedrich Schlegel, the celebrated writer on philosophy of his- 

 tory, in a series of articles entitled " Characteristics of the Age," makes 

 five essential corporations rising one above the other in the following 

 order, viz., the family, the guild, the state, the school, the church. 

 But the least reflection, I thmk, will show that the family and the school 

 belong to a different order from the other three, being subordinate and 

 preparatory to them, not coordinate with them. The former are inter- 

 nal, elahorative ; the latter external, visible, public, final results. I am 

 sure that the more we reflect upon this subject, the more we will be 

 convinced that there are only three fundamental and strictly coordinate 

 corporations. 



We have seen that it is the guild which is most directly and closely 

 connected with the scientific column, and with our material nature. In 

 accordance with this fact we find that it is this sub-organism which is 

 by far the most perfectly organized. It is in this that we see most 

 perfectly carried out the law of differentiation and specialization of 

 social functions and mutual dependence of parts ; and the strongest 

 tendency to identification of the individual life with the social function. 

 In other words, it is precisely here, as Ave should expect, that we find 

 the nearest approach to the ideal of material organization. In accord- 

 ance with the same fact we also find that the corresponding department 

 of social science, viz., political economy, is that which is by far the most 

 perfectly developed. 



There are three mistakes made by thinkers on the subject of sociol- 

 ogy, all founded on a too limited view of the structure of the social 

 organism, each consisting of an attempt to absorb the whole organism 

 into one of the fundamental corporations — to regard the great field of 

 sociology as connected with only one of the supporting columns men- 

 tioned above. Lawyers, politicians, statesmen, and indeed people gen- 

 erally, regard sociology as most closely connected with the history 

 column, and would make the state paramount. The state is for them 

 the social organism. Theologians and moralists, on the other hand, 

 would make the church paramount in importance if not absolutely 

 absorbing the others, and sociology as most closely connected with the 

 psychology column. The modern materialist would make the guild the 

 paramount corporation, and sociology as most closely connected through 

 biology with the scientific column. The political philosopher is apt, 

 therefore, to cling only to empirical laws and so-called practical methods, 

 unaware of or denying the connection of sociology with any more fun- 

 damental departments of science, and especially its connection with 



