SPENCER'S "SOCIAL ORGANISM" 137 



unavailable to Comte writing a quarter of a 

 century earlier. 



Thus Spencer seems to recognize that his 

 essay on "The Social Organism" is largely an 

 ingenious analogy, from which conclusions 

 must be drawn with caution. Not that bour- 

 geois scientists have always exhibited a very 

 scientific temper in this regard. On the 

 contrary they have, on every possible occasion, 

 proclaimed that certain alleged truths in 

 physics or biology were in irreconcilable con- 

 tradiction to certain Socialist conclusions in 

 sociology. 



But we may find a key to Spencer's chariness 

 in the matter of drawing conclusions in the 

 rather surprising fact, which will appear 

 presently, that the one legitimate conclusion 

 which the analogy will thoroughly sustain, is 

 an exact contradiction to all that Spencer had 

 ever proclaimed on social questions. 



The essay itself, like a great deal of 

 Spencer's writing, is prolix and wearisome, so 

 we shall select only his most important and 

 striking comparisons. 



The introduction is excellent and has for its 

 text Sir James Mackintosh's great saying — 

 great in his non-evolutionary age though very 

 common-place today — "Constitutions are not 

 made, but grow." He then declares "the central 



