24 Tlie Scope and Principles 



II. In urging the study of Man in his historical relar 

 tions, however, evohitionists do not claim that society 

 should take no forward step, or that man should simply 

 imitate or repeat the past. An able student of social and 

 economic problems. Prof. Wm. G. Sumner, a gentleman 

 whose abilities I admire and with many of whose conclu- 

 sions I agree, in an article entitled " What is Civil Lib- 

 erty ?" in a recent number of the Popiihir Science Monthly, 

 makes the remarkable statement that the doctrine of man's 

 natural liberty is a "dogma," of purely metaphysical origin, 

 and asserts, in italicised phrase, that " that dogma has never 

 had an historical foundation, but is the purest example that 

 could be brought forward of an out and out a priori dogma." 

 "The doctrine of evolution," he adds, "instead of support- 

 ing the natural equality of all men, would give a demon- 

 stration of their inequality ; and the doctrine of the strug- 

 gle for existence would divorce lii)erty and equality as 

 incompatible with each other." " Civil liberty," he says 

 elsewhere, "is not a scientific fact. It is not in the order 

 of nature " ; and all these startling assertions he makes /?i 

 defense of the doctrine, the natural foundations of which 

 he arbitrarily endeavors to undermine. 



To the evolutionist it is quite evident that if the learned 

 Professor Avas as well instructed in l)iology as he is in the- 

 ology, metaphysics and the a priori discussions of poetical 

 economy, he would quite otherwise interpret the sociologi- 

 cal teachings of Evolution. He is but a poor student of 

 natural science, indeed, who would simply content himself 

 with learning facts, witliout endeavoring to trace their re- 

 lations, to study their causal connections, and therefrom to 

 (b;iw i)rophetic inferences to guide his future investiga- 

 tions, to interpret underlying laws, and thus enable liim to 

 push forward to new discoveries.* To say that Evolution 

 "does not point toward civil liberty" because communities 

 of men have never existed complet<dy under its beneiicent 

 sway, is to cut away from scientific research that very 

 synthetizing and prophetic quality which is its noblest and 



•If the doctrine of man's natural liberty is only a "dopruia," as the Pro- 

 fessor (iL-clan-s,— :i men- sitcculative ideal, and notliint;' more,— then it is idle 

 to iiurstie sucli a cliimara, or to base upon it a social jihilosopliy. lint if it is 

 a eoiidition of social c(|Milibriiini, toward tlic realization of wliicli man lias 

 been working tliroufrliout all the stafjes of social dc\clo]iniciit, then, like the 

 moral law, It is discoverable tliront;h ex)ierience and hisloriital investigation, 

 and is strictly "iu the order of nature," though uot as a coiuidetely realized 

 ideal in society. 



