FROM 

 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



Science offers to supersede religion as guide to conduct In form of 

 theoretical sociology Appealing to biology and evolution Soci- 

 ology distinguished from politics From economics From social 

 philosophy Akin to evolutionary ethics Our point of view; 

 morality taken for granted 



WHEN the French garrison left Rome in 1870, 

 fears were openly expressed that anarchy would 

 break out, but the Italian troops were promptly 

 marched in, and all went quietly. Religion is 

 supposed to be a retreating force in modern life, 

 and many, even of those who are no friends to 

 religion, suffer grave apprehensions as they look 

 forward to a state of society emancipated from all 

 religious restraint; but others tell us that science 

 will find a remedy. Religion may go off duty, but 

 science will take its place. Never was this concep- 

 tion more confidently advanced, or with more elabo- 

 ration, than in the first founding of sociology under 

 its present name. 



We must clear the ground, however, by a distinc- 

 tion. It is theoretical sociology that we have in 



