ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book I 

 Chapter 2 



Mr. Kidd's 

 confusion is 

 the result of 

 no accidental 

 error. It is 

 the inevitable 

 result of a 

 radically 

 fallacious 

 method, 



and of this 

 method the 

 chief exponent 

 is Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, 



thinks about them both, under the single category 

 of "man"; he builds up his conclusions by joining 

 together the very things which, in arranging his 

 premises, he had so carefully put asunder ; and the 

 result of his speculation reduced to its simplest 

 terms is this that "man" could have done, at any 

 period of his history, and if reason had been his 

 sole guide, actually would have done, something that 

 was against the interests of the stronger part of 

 him, and beyond the power of the weaker. 



The reader will not find much difficulty in under- 

 standing that if sociologists persist in reasoning 

 thus, they are hardly likely to arrive at any con- 

 clusion sufficiently definite to guide us in the 

 practical difficulties of life. It may be urged, 

 however, that such language as we have been 

 considering, though used by scientific writers, is 

 intended itself to be rhetorical rather than scientific, 

 or that it betrays the inaccuracy of this or that 

 individual thinker, instead of arising from a funda- 

 mental error in method. If any one thinks this, 

 he shall soon be disabused of his opinion. The 

 reader shall now be presented with a brief summary 

 of the method deliberately followed, and of some of 

 the conclusions arrived at by that distinguished 

 thinker who has done more than any one else to 

 impart to sociology the character which it at present 

 possesses ; and the error which lies at the bottom of 

 the reasoning we have been just considering shall 

 there be exhibited, systematically exemplified, and 

 explicitly and elaborately defended, It is perhaps 



