i. HISTORIAN VERSUS EVOLUTIONIST. 



THE words " Development" and "Evolu- 

 tion " fit the changing course of human 

 institutions and ideas so well that it seems, and 

 indeed is, nothing new to find them applied to 

 history. But there has been a temptation to 

 assume that the conceptions of biology can be 

 transferred to the facts of society without the 

 need of a critical investigation of their validity 

 in this new sphere. And those who are en- 

 gaged in historical research regarding special 

 periods or particular institutions are apt to 

 resent the procedure of the proudly scientific 

 sociologist, who simply labels large groups of 

 facts, taken from different ages and countries, 

 with some biological heading without having 

 gone through the labour of investigating con- 

 crete details himself. It is so very easy to say 

 " Evolution" instead of saying "History," and 

 to use a few Darwinian phrases as keys to 



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