SOCIOLOGY. 27 



alwavs the tendency of discipleship to magnify the effect of the 

 master's teachings; and to credit the master with all the doctrines he 

 teaches."* And further—" The advocates of a cause usually overstate 

 their case." One of tlio chief teachings of " The Study of Sociology" 

 is to eliminate the various forms of bias that afifect accurate Sociolo- 

 gical generalizations. To members of this Section, the mere mention 

 of these aphorisms of the Author of the Synthetic Philosophy— on 

 whose rich stores I have drawn so largely — will suffice, for they, 

 happily, do not come within the category of those of whom Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer says that "only by varied iteration can alien 

 conception be forced ou rehictant minds." f 



Of the Doctrine of Evolution as set forth iu Mr. Herbert Spencer's 

 writings, and in the works of Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Ernst 

 Haeckel, and others, I need say nothing to an assembly of Naturalists. 

 So far back as 1873 the late Sir Wyville Thomson, whoso name will 

 ever be associated with the origin and development of the "Challenger" 

 work, wrote, " I do not think that I am speaking too strongly when I say 

 that there is now scarcely a single competent genoi-al Naturalist who 

 is not prepared to accept some form of the doctrine of evolution. "J 

 Able writers, such as the late Mr. Walter Bagehot in his " Physics 

 and Politics," have applied it in other directions, and others are following 

 the example. 



Its most bright, encouraging, impressive, hopeful, and even sublime 

 aspect is that the " process of moditication upon modification which 

 has brought life to its present height must raise it still higher,"§ and 

 that the most particular ways "in which this moving equilibrium, this 

 further evolution, this higher life, this greater co-ordination of actions, 

 may be expected to show itself, will be in intelligence and morality." 



Regarding intelligence, Mr. Herbert Spencer says : " There is ample 

 room for advance iu this direction, and ample demand for it. Our 

 lives are universally shortened by our ignorance. In attaining com- 

 plete knowledge of our own natures and of the natures of surrounding 

 things — iu ascertaining the conditions of existence to which we must 

 conform, and in discovering meaus of conforming to them under all 

 variations of seasons and ciicumstances — we have abundant scope for 

 intellectual progress."** 



Regarding morality — that is, in greater power of self regulation — 

 Mr. Herbert Speucer says : " Right conduct is usually come short of 

 more from defect of will thau defect of knowledge. To the due 

 co-ordination of those complex actions whicli constitute human life 

 in its civilised form, there goes not only the pre-requisite — recoguition 



* " The Data of Ethics." by Herbert Spencer, 1879, p. G. 

 + " Essays," 2ud series, page CO. 



: " The Depths of tlie Sea," by C. Wyville Thomsou, F.E.S., 1873, p. 9. 

 § Herbert Speucer. ' Postscript to American Address.' " Couteinporary 

 Review," Januarj-, 188;i. 



** " Principles of Biology," vol. ii., p. 49C. 



