14 SOCIOLOGY. 



My object iu addressing you is to ask the great favour of your informing me 

 wlu'ther you think vrell of our intention, and if so, can you. if you think fit, 

 kindly give us— at any time that may be convenient to you— the benefit of any 

 suggestions? 



We are modest in expecting any marked practical results from the establish- 

 ment of our now Section, but we all feel " tliat the character of the aggregate is 

 determined by the characters of tlie units," and we are content "to see how 

 comparatively little can be done, and yet to find it worth while to do that 

 little." 



I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your faithful and obedient Servant, 



(Signed) William B. Hughes. 

 Herbert Spencer, Esquire. 



The very valuable and iuteresting reply received from Mr. Herbert 

 Speucer is as follows : — 



38, Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W., March 20th, 1883. 



Dear Sir, — I wish that others who write to me would all assign as good a 

 reason as that given in your letter of the 19th. 



The contents of it give mo great satisfaction. My aims from the beginning 

 have been directed towards the application of philosophy to the guidance of 

 life, individual and social ; and I rejoice to perceive at length a practical 

 recognition of the truth that Sociology must be studied from the evolutionary 

 point of view, and that political conduct can be rightly guided only when a 

 ritioual theory of Society has been established. I wish you all success in your 

 undertaking, which cannot but result in some good, even if but little. 



In respect of suggestions which you invite, I will say only tnat I think the 

 growth and prosperity of any organisation is bound up with the doing of work 

 of some kind or other. Mere receptivity will not sutHce: there must be inde- 

 pendent activity. In this case, where the aim is the diffusion of a doctrine, the 

 work may properly take the form of further elaboration of its component 

 truths by furtiier investigation of evidence. Particular points should be taken 

 up by individual members or groups of members, with the view of gatheiing 

 together evidence bearing on them, and setting forth the conclusions. As you 

 indicate " Education" as one of tlie first objects to be dealt with, you might, iu 

 connection with it take up the alleged relations between ignorance and crime, 

 and education and morality. There is the evidence afforded by the different com- 

 munities of Europe and America. There is tlie evidence afforded by different 

 classes in the same community. There is the evidence afforded by different 

 localities in the same community. In each of these inquii-ies there is ample 

 scope for effort, and gi'eat need for it. Various special questions, with the accom- 

 panying suggested investigations, will arise in the course of your reading ; and 

 my belief is both that you will succeed best as a Society, and will unquestionably 

 do most good, if, along with the discussion of principles, you carry on inquiries 

 concerning the results of conformity and nonconformity to them. 

 I am, faithfully yours, 



(Signed) HERBERT Spencer. 

 William B. Hughes, Esq. 



P.S.— It occurs to me that for a Biological Society there is a class of questions 

 specially appropriate to be taken up in connection with Sociology — I mean the 

 modification of men's natures consequent upon social conditions. There is a 

 large groujj of inquiries to be made respecting the effects produced upon the 

 physique by this or that kind of treatment, now tending to kill the feeble, now 

 to preserve the feeble; tending to check this or that disease, or to leave it its 

 free course. There is another large class of questions concerning the mental 

 effects of legislation of this or that kind — the fostering or the repression of this 

 or that sentiment, and this or that intellectual power, aud the consequent 

 changes of character and cajiacity produced in nations by political causes. 



