226 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



induction of science, be it in pliysics or astronomy, are not new. 

 They are to be found in every volume of history, whether ancient 

 or modern, narrative or analytical, and when once pointed out thrust 

 themselves into consciousness with resistless force, JSTot otherwise 

 could it be. The historian that sought to transfer to his pages the 

 phenomena of social and political life in any country or age could 

 no more fail to contribute the data that enabled Mr. Spencer to 

 frame his induction than the physicist and astronomer that con- 

 tributed to Newton's great achievement. When he described a war, 

 he had to describe the butchery, plunder, devastation, and degrada- 

 tion it entailed; he had to note the enlargement of the power of the 

 monarch or oligarchy that carried it on with the most success. Wlien 

 he described the return of peace, he had to describe the revival of in- 

 dustry and prosperity; he had to note the impatience of the people 

 under the restraints that the necessities of conflict always impose, 

 the refinement of their feelings, manners, and tastes, the growth of 

 their intelligence in depth and breadth. But only a mind unusually 

 skilled in the art of interpretation could grasp the significance of these 

 varied phenomena, and bind them with the indissoluble bond of an 

 immutable law of social life. 



Now that Mr. Spencer has done this memorable service for sci- 

 ence, it is possible for minds of less power and originality to scan 

 the pages of history, and to observe for themselves the play of the 

 forces that make for barbarism. As they follow the path that he has 

 blazed, they will see that nothing could be more obvious than the 

 relation of cause and effect between the ravages of war and social 

 degeneration. The very word war, which General Sherman once 

 defined as hell itself, conjures up a picture of economic, social, and 

 moral devastation that does not require the aid of poets or orators to 

 heighten. The avowed object of this form of human activity is 

 destruction pure and simple — destruction of property and destruc- 

 tion of life. The obvious corollary is the destruction of everything 

 in the social fabric that conserves either life or property — freedom, 

 honesty, virtue. Most vividly does Motley, who had no social theory 

 to defend, bring out the truth in his story of one of the fearful raids 

 of Alva in the Netherlands. " The page which records that vic- 

 torious campaign," he says, speaking of the attack on Groningen at 

 the opening of the struggle with Spain, " is foul with outrage and 

 red with blood. Not one of the horrors which accompany the pas- 

 sage of hostile troops through a defenseless country was omitted. 

 Maids and matrons were ravished in multitudes; old men butchered 

 in cold blood. As Alva returned with the rear guard of his anny, 

 the whole sky was red with a constant conflagration; the very 

 -earth seemed changed to ashes. Every peasant's hovel, every 



