SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



703 



that it can not in some way express 

 the absolute reality of things with- 

 out the use of symbols or formulae. 

 Well, science must share that re- 

 proach with the human intellect of 

 which it is the product and manifes- 

 tation; but we do not see why the 

 reproach should be brought against 

 it by its own most shining represent- 

 atives. Rather might Lord Kelvin 

 have said: "Science in my day has 

 been most prolific of blessing to 



mankind; it is proceeding apace 

 with its appointed task of enabling 

 men to understand for practical 

 purposes the world in which they 

 live, and what shall be the limit to 

 its achievements in that direction no 

 one can foretell. As to the ' riddle of 

 the universe,' of which we sometimes 

 hear, that lies beyond its ken : only 

 when thought ceases to be condi- 

 tioned will that riddle — not be read, 

 but — disappear." 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



Prof. Giddings's Principles of Sociology * is a very opportune book. A 

 disposition has been manifesting itself for several years to call almost 

 everything sociology. Most of the popular journals now have a depart- 

 ment of sociology, into which they put everything going on in society that 

 does not clearly belong to party politics. All the " advanced " social ques- 

 tions are being discussed under the head of sociology. Especially are so 

 classed the zealous utterances of a large group of well-meaning persons 

 who believe something ought to be done for the less favored members of 

 society. In this class are great numbers of warm-hearted clergymen who 

 think they see in the teachings of the Master a warrant for preaching 

 wholesale social reforms, and this they call "Christian sociology." Add 

 to this the thousand problems of charity, philanthropy, and general social 

 betterment of the condition of the jjoor, and we have already in the in- 

 fancy even of the word sociology a burden of unscientific and half charla- 

 tanic applications of it that threaten to sink it as deeply into obloquy and 

 contempt as a similar procedure sunk that etymologically far better word, 

 phrenology, half a century ago. 



Of course, Mr. Herbert Spencer's great work, now happily completed, 

 on the Principles of Sociology, not to speak of his Descriptive Sociology, 

 and his other works on that subject, would have sufficed to save it from 

 such a fate, but as it is in America that the tendencies .above pointed out 

 are most pronounced, so there was needed in America a standard work that 

 should teach, so far as known, what sociology is, and serve in some degree 

 to stem the tide of degeneration. Prof. Giddings's book to a considerable 

 extent supplies this need. Those who, in the main justly, complain that it 

 ignores all questions of social progress, that it treats wholly of what is, and 

 not at all of what ought to he, should not forget the peculiar conditions 

 under which it was written, as briefly described above. Whether Prof. 



* The Principles of Sociology. By Franklin Henry Giddings, M. A., Professor of Sociology in 

 Columbia University. Pp. xvi + 476, 8vo. New York and London : Macmillan & Co. Price, $3. 



