412 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Ecclesiastical Institctions. Being Part 

 VI of the " Principles of Sociology." By 

 Herbert Si'ENCEn. Pp.193. Priee, $1.25. 



The great life-work of Herbert Spencer, 

 the "Philosophy of Evolution," advances 

 toward completion, but it has moved slowly 

 of late. Persistent ill-health and occupation 

 with other subjects, and other parts of the 

 system than that immediately in hand, have 

 considerably delayed the appearance of the 

 present volume. 



Of the general nature of Spencer's " Syn- 

 thetic Philosophy " little needs here to be 

 said. Our readers are aware that it is a 

 systematic attempt to explain the course of 

 nature, the progress of life, the origin of 

 man, and the institutions of human society, 

 by one universal law of unfolding known 

 as evolution. While in one aspect this sys- 

 tem is simply a new organization of knowl- 

 edge based upon the progress of science, 

 and more comprehensive and unified than 

 anything previously attained, in another as- 

 pect it is a new body of doctrine which dis- 

 credits and replaces the most wide-spread 

 and deeply cherished traditional beliefs of 

 mankind. In the volume now before us 

 Mr. Spencer has reached that stage in the 

 development of his system in which he 

 comes into the sharpest collision with all- 

 prevalent religious dogma. 



No discussion of the evolution of human 

 society is possible which does not make 

 the study of primitive social conditions and 

 ideas prominent and fundamental. If the 

 higher social forms were potentially in- 

 volved in the lower, and had grown out of 

 them by the working of natural laws, then 

 the first and most important step of the in- 

 vestigation must be into the nature, capaci- 

 ties, and limitations of the primitive man, 

 and the character of the primitive elements 

 of society which grew out of, and were de- 

 termined by, the attributes of the primitive 

 man. Accordingl}', the first part of the 

 first volume of the " Principles of Sociolo- 



gy 



' The Data of Sociology " — Is devoted 



to primitive man and that order of primary 

 conceptions which was embodied in the ear- 

 liest and rudest social institutions. These 

 institutions are now so highly developed that 

 we have got in a way of separating ourselves 

 from "the heathen" by a great gulf, which 



makes all continuity of relations between 

 the lowest and the highest impossible. But, 

 if evolution be true, the highest is derived 

 from the lowest by unbroken chains of caus- 

 ation, and there is no other possible way of 

 explaining and understanding existing insti- 

 tutions than by tracing their derivation back 

 to primitive germinal conditions. This is, 

 at any rate, the only way open to science 

 which is an exposition of the natural order ; 

 and sociology only becomes a true science 

 as it is pursued by the method adopted by 

 Mr. Spencer of working out the laws under 

 which social progress has taken place. The 

 data of sociology in the primitive conditions 

 which initiated the lowest social state con- 

 stitute, therefore, the essential basis of the 

 science, and determine the whole course of 

 subsequent elucidation. 



In Part II Mr. Spencer works out " The 

 Inductions of Sociology," or the nature, 

 structure, and functions of the organism of 

 society; and in Part III, "The Domestic 

 Relations," he treats of the maintenance of 

 species, the relations of the sexes in pi'iml- 

 tive society, and the development of the 

 family. 



A'olume II of the " Principles of Soci- 

 ology" begins with Part IV, on "Ceremo- 

 nial Institutions," the evolution of which is 

 traced from early to advanced societies. Part 

 V takes up "Political Institutions," and 

 these with their development by the same 

 method. " Ecclesiastical Institutions " (Part 

 VI), now published, as the title imports, 

 treats of the evolution of existing religious 

 organizations from their lower forms in 

 primitive society. Its necessary implication, 

 of course, is, that the religious, like all other 

 social institutions, have a natural genesis, 

 and can only be explained as derivations 

 from pre-existing forms which carry us back- 

 ward and downward to the religious notions, 

 rites, and observances of the earliest men. 

 The nature of the religious idea is first un- 

 folded, and it is shown how religious cere- 

 monies were at first mixed with others, so 

 that medicine-man, ruler, and priest, were 

 combined in the same individual. The rise 

 of a separate priesthood and of religious 

 hierarchies is then traced out, and the argu- 

 ment is pursued till we reach the modern 

 forms of ecclesiastical institutions, "Church 

 and State," "Nonconformity," and "The 

 Moral Influences of Priesthoods." Two 



