2 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD CHAP. 



view, a coherent, deliberate body of doctrines, 

 making, among other claims, the startling claim 

 which we have noted above. Much that goes under 

 the name of sociology is matter of quite a different 

 kind. We may call it practical sociology, and we 

 may describe it as a somewhat formless mass of 

 good intentions. In detail it offers many valuable 

 suggestions ; scientifically it is a thing of naught. 

 If we were foolish enough to busy ourselves with it in 

 this discussion we should be embarking on unknown 

 waters, possibly upon a shoreless sea. We shall 

 therefore take nothing to do with practical sociology. 

 It is the science or alleged science of sociology that 

 claims our attention! 



One outstanding feature of this science is its con- 

 nection with biology. In the early days of modern 

 history, mathematics stood out in sharp and isolated 

 relief as a well-finished and well-formulated science. 

 Hence an impression got abroad that other sciences 

 were to be perfected by treatment on mathematical 

 lines. Spinoza's Ethics, with its array of definitions, 

 postulates, and axioms, and with its pedantic series of 

 syllogisms, is only the most celebrated and most 

 notable among many similar attempts. In our time, 

 biology seems to have cast a like spell upon the 

 minds of not a few. It is biology nowadays which 

 threatens to invade and annex every province of 

 thought. Already in Auguste Comte, the founder 

 or the godfather of sociology, biology counts for a 

 great deal, and subsequent evolutionary speculation 

 has enlarged its claims to infinity. If we achieve 

 anything in this essay, it will probably be in the way 

 of .finding a definition (or a cluster of definitions) for 



