1 2 ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book i Those who complain so justly of the failure of social 



science and who yet show themselves altogether at 



The answer a loss to account for it, might have seen their way 



will be found . . . -111 



in the fact just to answering this question had they concentrated 

 that sodai their attention on a point that was just now alluded 

 attempts to ta ^ was J ust now ob serv ed that the problems 

 answer two which social science aims at answering, and is 



distinct sets of 



questions; popularly expected to answer, are of two distinct 

 kinds the philosophic or religious, and the practical ; 

 the former being concerned with the destinies of 

 humanity as a whole, with movements extending 

 over enormous periods of time, and with the remote 

 past and future far more than with the present ; the 

 other being concerned exclusively with the present 

 or the near future, and with changes that will affect 

 either ourselves or our own children. 



and one set Now it will be found that social science, whilst busy- 

 speculative ing itself with both these sets of problems, has met 

 with the failures which are alleged against it, only 

 in dealing with the latter, and that, so far as regards 

 the former, it has successfully reached conclusions 

 comparable in precision and solidity to those of the 

 physicists and biologists whose methods it has so 

 conscientiously followed. Professor Marshall's own 

 treatise on The Principles of Economics, and that of 

 Mr. Kidd on Social Evolution likewise, abound in 

 admissions that this statement of the case is correct. 

 Professor Marshall's account of the rise and fall of 

 civilisation as caused by climate, by geographical 

 position, and the influence of one race and one 

 civilisation on another, an account of which he 



