370 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



and the subjects just referred to as pre- 

 sented in the tables are now entered 

 upon. Chapter III. is devoted to the 

 " Original External Factors of Social 

 Evolation," and the extracts we now 

 publish are a small part of tins exposi- 

 tion. The same questions are touched 

 upon here that Mr. Buckle took up in 

 the early part of his introduction to the 

 "History of Civilization," although it 

 is hardly necessary to say that they are 

 very differently treated. 



It may be proper to call attention 

 to one feature of the forthcoming work 

 which will be of general interest. In 

 the preceding volumes on " Biology " 

 and "Psychology," Mr. Spencer has 

 undoubtedly lost some reputation as a 

 popular writer. Those who had read 

 with interest and enthusiasm his brill- 

 iant essays, toiled hard over the Bio- 

 logical and Psychological discussions, 

 and got the impression that Mr. Spen- 

 cer had degenerated in his power of lu- 

 cid and felicitous exposition. The dif- 

 ficulty, however, was not in the writer, 

 but in the subjects, the facts with which 

 he chiefly dealt being more or less sci- 

 entific, technical, and foreign to gen- 

 eral readers. Dealing with principles 

 and relations, his statements were ne- 

 cessarily abstract, but the trouble was 

 that the terms of the relations and 

 the facts from which the principles 

 were derived were unfamiliar to the 

 common mind. But, in treating of So- 

 ciology, or the phenomena of society, 

 Mr. Spencer again enters a sphere of 

 thought the elements of which are 

 no longer foreign to ordinary thought. 

 The "Principles of Sociology" will 

 discuss questions that are quite within 

 the range of popular apprehension, 

 and the difficulty, of which much com- 

 plaint has formerly been made, will dis- 

 appear. That Mr. Spencer is very far 

 from having lost or impaired his pow- 

 er of familiar and telling statement we 

 have lately had abundant proof in his 

 series of articles on the " Study of So- 

 ciologyj" a work which is being now 



widely read and enjoyed by many who 

 were at first under the impression that 

 they would be unable to follow and un- 

 derstand him. 



The " Principles of Sociology " will 

 be published in quarterly parts, with 

 regularity if Mr. Spencer's health allows. 

 They will be sold at sixty cents a num- 

 ber, or furnished to regular subscribers 

 at two dollars a year. That the informa- 

 tion to be contained in this work will be 

 of the highest value and importance we 

 need scarcely say, and it may be strongly 

 commended on this ground alone ; but 

 we appeal to our readers to patronize 

 it, and to induce their friends also to do 

 so, on the further ground that Mr. 

 Spencer is engaged upon a great origi- 

 nal and constructive enterprise, and 

 ought to be so amply sustained that 

 he shall suffer no impediment or an- 

 noyance of a pecuniary nature in pros- 

 ecuting his work. 



WAR A2^D EDUCATION. 



One of the most striking results of 

 the sudden rise of a military feeling 

 throughout the country, during the civil 

 war, was the influence it exerted upon 

 education. One might have reasoned 

 that if our educational system be, from 

 top to bottom, that perfection of wis- 

 dom which many claim for it, it is the 

 one thing that would have remained 

 unaffected by the accidental circum- 

 stances of a war into which we drifted. 

 But our system of education is as far 

 as possible from being strongly knit and 

 firmly organized, and as, on the other 

 hand, it is loose and unsettled, it was 

 very naturally affected by the preva- 

 lence of the military feeling. This was 

 seen by the adoption of military exer- 

 cises in a great number of schools, un- 

 der the idea that they were to become 

 part of the regular and permanent pol- 

 icy of instruction. And where these 

 were not adopted there was still a new 

 impulse in the way of marching, mar- 

 shaling, and manoeuvring the classes 



