io ' ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book i all, their methods of studying them. In a word, they 

 are endeavouring to follow the masters of physical 

 science along the precise path which has led the 

 latter to such solid and such definite results. 

 Yet despite We have now, however, to record a singular 



r'diii- an d disappointing truth. Though men of science 

 aii have, in the manner just described, been engaged 



parties com- _ J ' 



plain that the for years in the field of sociological study ; though 



results of their , , . . 1-1 / 



study are in- the way was prepared for them by men like Comte, 

 Mill, and Buckle ; though amongst them have been 

 men like Mr. Spencer, with capacities of the highest 

 order, and though certain results have been reached 

 of the kind desired, complaints are heard from 

 thinkers of all shades of opinion that these results are 

 singularly unsatisfactory and inconclusive when com- 

 pared with the efforts that have been made in reaching 

 them, and still more when compared with the results 

 of corresponding efforts in the sphere of physics. 



Professor No one complains more loudly of this comparative 



r failure than some of the most distinguished students 



instance, com- o f soc j a i science themselves. Professor Marshall, 



plain of the 



fact, but can for instance, who has done more than any other 



suggest no ex- . 1-1 



of it. rLnglish author to breathe into technical economics 

 the spirit of evolutionary science, admits that Comte, 

 who laid the foundation of sociology, and Mr. 

 Spencer, who has invested it with a definitely 

 scientific character, have brought to the study of 

 "mans actions in society unsurpassed knowledge 

 and great genius, and have made epochs in thought 

 by their broad surveys and suggestive hints " ; but 

 neither of them, he proceeds to say, has succeeded 



