UTOPIAN LEGISLATION 441 



shifted, these laws and criteria are deprived of their natural 

 basis, and revert once more to their original basis in party 

 interests. It is the task of sociological jurisprudence to observe 

 these shiftiags of the balance of power, and to draw from this 

 observation conclusions as to the future constitution of juris- 

 prudence. Especially must sociology be careful to maintain 

 the congruity of Right and Might, and to prevent, as far as pos- 

 sible, the social disasters which must ensue from an antagonism 

 between these factors." ^ 



In other words, all legislation must take into consideration 

 not merely the traditions of the past, but also the facts of the 

 present. And the balance of power between the various com- 

 ponent elements of a society, which is an im.doubted fact of 

 every " present," must be the chief consideration of the legis- 

 lator. The traditions of the past must only be taken into 

 consideration in so far as they are also elements of resistance 

 to reform in the present, for it is the duty of the social reformer 

 to take into consideration the elements of resistance to every 

 project of reform. It is upon the measure of the resistance that 

 may be expected to it that the possibility of every reform depends. 

 Generous utopianists would faia see a number of reforms 

 enforced, some of which, though by no means all, would incon- 

 testably be of use to the society at large ; but they forget that 

 the usefulness of a reform is no guarantee of its popularity, for 

 prejudice and tradition are stronger than any appreciation of 

 the real needs of society. This ignoring at the present time of 

 the elements of resistance is the chief reason of the failure of so 

 many reform projects ; and it is fatal to social legislation. It 

 must be the task, the difficult but necessary task, of sociology 

 to affect an adaptation of social reform projects to the actually 

 prevailing conditions. 



1 A. Monger, Rectoral Discourse at Vienna University, 1895. Cited 

 by W. Schallmayer, Vererbwng und Auslese im Lehenalauf der Volker, 

 p. 236. Jena, 1903. 



