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NA TURE 



[April 2$, 1874 



The statics of Sociology, at any given epoch, deals with 

 phenomena which are the results of evolution. When 

 Sociology is regarded in its dynamical aspect, the doc- 

 trine of evolution properly understood and limited, recog- 

 nising and accounting for both the relative perfection and 

 imperfection of a given social state, occupies the true 

 mean between the altogether optimist view of social pro- 

 gress which finds expression in the lines — 



As round and round we run, 

 Ever the truth comes uppermost, 

 And ever the right is done ; 



and the altogether pessimist view embodied in the dictum 

 of a distinguished living thinker, " The history of man- 

 kind is a huge pis-allcr.^^ But when Sociology is regarded 

 in its statical aspect, an abusive use may easily be made 

 of the doctrine of evolution. A given social state bears 

 a relation to the past social states from which it is an out- 

 growth, and also to existing circumstances and conditions. 

 Led away by the tendency of modern thought, so happily 

 described by Mr. Bagehot as making everything " an 

 antiquity," the sociologist is apt to dwell upon the first of 

 these relations, to the e.xclusion of the second. From 

 such one-sidedness Mr. Spencer does not appear to be 

 altogether free. 



It is always useful to know the nature, the magnitude, 

 and the position of the difficulties that have to be en- 

 countered in the course of an inquiry. Mr. Spencer has 

 given more explicitly and in fuller detail than any previous 

 writer has done, an analysis of the difficulties in the way 

 of sociological investigations. These difficulties are ob- 

 jective and subjective ; difficulties inherent in the object 

 of sociological science, and difficulties originating in the 

 observer himself The data of Sociology, the actions of 

 men incorporated into societies, arc distributed over long 

 periods of time, and wide areas of space. The socio- 

 logical inquirer must necessarily rely for his data upon 

 past and contemporary records. But records may not 

 exist ; deep-lying circumstances of importance may be 

 obscured by superficial circumstances ; evidence will 

 suffer vitiation through the want of perspicacity or of im- 

 partiality in the observer. A comprehensive, patient, and 

 judicious employment of the comparative method is the 

 only means by which order can be educed out of the 

 chaotic mass of data which the recorded histories of 

 societies offer. Mr. Spencer and his collaborateurs will 

 deserve the gratitude of every sociological inquirer, for 

 the extensive collection and collation of these materials, 

 now in progress in the atlas- like folios of the "Descriptive 

 Sociology." 



Formidable as are the objective difficulties which beset 

 sociological researches, not less formidable are the sub- 

 jective difficulties. This class of difficulties originates 

 either in the intellectual or in the emotional character of the 

 observer. The want of a faculty adequate in plasticity 

 and complexity to the many-sidedness and complexity of 

 the object of investigation, and the tendency to automor- 

 phism, to make self the measure of things, are the 

 principal intellectual obstacles to Sociology. Automor- 

 phism i^ one of the most fertile sources of error. " To 

 understand," says Mr. Spencer, " any fact in social evolu- 

 tion we have to see it as resulting from the joint actions 

 of individuals having certain natures ; and this even by 

 care and effort we are able to do but very imperfectly. 



Our interpretation must be automorphic ; and yet auto- 

 morphism perpetually misleads us." 



In Sociology man is at once the observer and the ob- 

 served ; the inquirer is a unit of the aggregate whose 

 laws he is investigating. We may observe a transit of 

 Venus with the impartiality due to the absence of personal 

 concern ; we are not impartial observers of a social event 

 with which our own interests are intimately bound up. 

 Accuracy of observation is thus interfered with by senti- 

 ment. From the observer's emotional nature spring the 

 various kinds of bias, educational, patriotic, class, poli- 

 tical, and theological, described and abundantly exempli- 

 fied by Mr. Spencer in a succession of chapters deserving 

 of careful study, but to which space prevents more than a 

 reference. 



Attention to questions of scientific discipline and 

 method is so rare among scientific men, that Mr. Spencer's 

 book would deserve commendation for this feature, if for 

 no other. Discipline should have reference to the work 

 to be performed. Sociology being the most complex of 

 the sciences, the sociological inquirer needs a discipline 

 capable of producing an adequately powerful instrument 

 of research. Falling back upon his classification of the 

 sciences, into Abstract sciences, which investigate the 

 forms of phenomena, Abstract-concrete sciences, which 

 investigate the factors of phenomena, and Concrete 

 sciences, which investigate the products themselves in 

 their totality, Mr. Spencer shows the need in Sociology of 

 the discipline in the necessities of relation derived from 

 the first ; in the distinctness given to the notion of simple 

 causation derived from the second ; and in the formation 

 of the conception of continuous, complex, contingent, and 

 fructifying causation derived from the third. Not, of 

 course, that there can be an exhaustive or even a deep 

 study of all or any of these sciences ; a disciplinary study 

 is all that is contended for, a study sufficient to enable 

 the sociological inquirer to grasp the cardinal ideas 

 proper to each science. But there is a more intimate de- 

 pendence of -Sociology upon the sciences of physical and 

 psychical life, therefore the sociologist stands in need of 

 a deeper acquaintance with biological and psychological 

 truths. Amongst the most interesting and valuable 

 chapters in the book are those in which Mr. Spencer 

 enforces the need of an adequate preparation in biology 

 and psychology. Positive arguments are supplemented 

 by negative arguments, arguments based upon striking 

 exemplifications of the errors that have arisen in the prac- 

 tical sciences of politics and education from ignoring 

 biological and psychological teachings. 



The view taken by Mr. Spencer of the method proper 

 to sociological inquiries seems, as far as can be gathered 

 from his own procedure, to differ little from that advo- 

 cated and expounded by Mr. Mill. Placing Sociology 

 next after psychology in his System of Philosophv, and 

 asserting, as he does everywhere, the dependence of social 

 phenomena upon psychological facts connected with the 

 social units, Mr. Spencer's method appears to be to trace 

 out deductively the connection of the empirical sociologi- 

 cal truths, arrived at by generalisation from the data fur- 

 nished by historical records, with the ultimate laws of 

 human nature established by psychology. This is essen- 

 tially Mr. Mill's inverse or historical deductive method 

 applied to sociological inquiry. 



