ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 31 



The Secretary of the Council announced that the President had 

 designated the Vice-Presidents to their several sections, as follows : 



Dr. Fletcher, Section of Somatology ; Mr. Ward, Section of 

 Sociology; Col Mallery, Philology, Philosophy, and Psychology; 

 Prof. Mason, Technology. 



Mr. Ward then read a paper entitled "Mind as a Social 

 Factor." -'^ 



Abstract. 



It was maintained that, notwithstanding the general disposition 

 to exalt and deify the mind, still this had thus far amounted to little 

 more than lip-service, and that the real power of human intellect as 

 the lever of civilization was not merely ignored but practically 

 denied. Touching lightly upon the metaphysical school of philos- 

 ophy, of which this had always been true, he directed his main 

 argument against the now far more powerful influence in the same 

 direction which the most advanced scientific thinkers are exerting. 

 The tendency of the evolutionists to contemplate man solely from 

 the biological standpoint, and to treat society as a simple continua- 

 tion of the series of results accomplished by evolution in the lower 

 departments of being, was strongly condemned. Himself a con- 

 sistent evolutionist, and firm believer in the doctrine of man's descent 

 from humbler forms of existence, Mr. Ward still cogently main- 

 tained that in studying development an entirely new set of canons 

 must be adopted the moment the phenomena of the human intellect 

 present themselves for consideration. Henceforth a new factor, 

 wholly different from any before employed, enters into the problem, 

 and correspondingly new and distinct methods of research must be 

 adopted. Just as the biologist finds in the advent of life on the 

 globe a new and enormous factor such as compels him to investigate 

 the organic world with an entirely new set of principles and methods 

 from those that are applicable to physics, chemistry, etc., so, Mr. 

 Ward maintained, Avhen the developed psychic faculty appeared a 

 second change of base in science, equally thorough and complete, 

 was imperatively demanded. The failure of modern philosophers, 

 headed by Mr. Herbert Spencer, to recognize this patent truth had 

 led to the let-alone doctrine, which possesses a certain fascination 



* Published in full in "Mind" (London) for October, 1884, pp. 563-573. 



