520 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



sociological theory. Independently of Darwin, in 

 1859 Mr. J. S. Stuart-Glenn ie laid emphasis on the 

 sociological importance of the conflict of races, a 

 process in which the conquerors were often the con- 

 quered, becoming merged in and modified by those 

 whom they had physically subdued. 



The same general idea has been more recently 

 worked out in detail by Gumplowicz in his Rassen- 

 Tcampf (1883) and Grundriss der Sociologie 

 {1885), who, while rejecting biological analogy, has 

 an essentially Darwinian outlook. He emphasises 

 the ceaseless struggle, alike in peace and in war, and 

 the resulting re-adjustments of social groups, the 

 strong becoming barons, captains of industry, or a 

 cultured caste; the weak becoming serfs, wage- 

 earners, or " the uneducated." But the antagonism 

 ends in some mutual re-adjustments; the weaker are 

 rarely eliminated, at least not rapidly; they are 

 subjected by the stronger to new ends ; and the struc- 

 ture of society becomes more complex. " The great 

 merit of Gumplowicz's work is that he constructs his 

 sociology out of strictly sociological materials." 



The use of the selection-formula in accounting for 

 social evolution has been denounced by many as il- 

 legitimate, but, so far as we can judge, the objections 

 mainly refer to the mistake that some biological so- 

 ciologists have made in supposing that the form of 

 the selective process in mankind might be inferred 

 a priori from the form of the selective process in 

 plants and animals. As Prof. D. G. Ritchie says: 

 " Biological conceptions are certainly less inadequate 

 than mathematical, physical, or chemical conceptions 

 in the treatment of the problems of human society; 

 but an uncritical use of them in a more complex ma- 





