EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY.* 



EiTHKK prospectively or immediately, the central figure 

 in each one of the topics of the essays of this course upon 

 Evolution is Man ; and in its full scope, in the topic of this 

 evening, the central iigure is Associated Man, in process of 

 evolution as such, in the ])resence and under the influence 

 of earlier and rudimentary forms or types of societary asso- 

 ■ciation found in vegetal and animal life generally. 



The largeness, complexity, and, in its early stages and 

 history, the obscurity of the subject, therefore become evi- 

 dent at a glance. The experience of the Master himself 

 illustrates the difficulties to be met with in its treatment. 

 AVhether or not it be true, as we suspect, that Mr. Spencer 

 found in it the initial imimlses that led to the Avorking out 

 of his system of philosophy, it is evident that all his pre- 

 viously written books lead naturally and inevitably up to 

 those he has written on the subject of Sociology. And yet 

 on reaching that branch of his system, in due course, he 

 found himself i)ractically forced to prepare a special and 

 preliminary work on the " study " of it, devoted substan- 

 tially to an extended examination and explanation of the 

 almost insurmountable obstacles and hindrances to be met 

 with in presenting and in understanding it. 



Comprehensively, at the outset, he describes the entire 

 objective and subjective worlds as fairly l)arricaded with 

 them; and subsequently, descending to particulars, he pre- 

 sents and describes, through some hundreds of pages, like 

 so many specimen grains of sand taken from an ocean beach, 

 samples of ''l)ias," with which the human mind is infested, 

 such as the educational, the patriotic, the class, the politi- 

 cal, and finally, worst of all, the theological bias, all of which 

 interfere witli the proper study and comprehension of the 

 subject. He then occupies nearly one hundred additional 

 pages in setting forth the "discipline," the " preparation in 

 biology " and "psychology" required for the proper study, 



* CorvKKiiiT. 1880, by The Xt-w Ideal Tuhlishing Co. 



