EDITOR'S TABLE. 



623 



difficulty," as Mr. Gibson allows — can- 

 not be free from errors is obvious, and 

 from all the foregoing causes it is pe- 

 culiarly exposed to unscrupulous criti- 

 cism. When these considerations are 

 taken into account, Mr. Gibson's case 

 of alleged errors in the tabular state- 

 ments on the part of Mr. Collier is 

 simply pitiful. His six-column search 

 for flaws and defects yields the follow- 

 ing outcome. 



Mr. Collier enters his numerous and 

 varied facts in their proper relations 

 in the tables in the most condensed 

 language possible, as he was compelled 

 to do by the nature of the presenta- 

 tion ; but this, of course, affords Mr. 

 Gibson an opportunity, which he duly 

 improves, to complain of the want of 

 explanations. For the classified facts 

 Mr. Collier gives in the accompany- 

 ing text the exact words of the au- 

 thorities which he has followed, and 

 Mr. Gibson has no admiration for 

 disjointed "scraps." Mr. Collier has 

 made quotations from about one hun- 

 dred and seventy works, which were 

 of course sought as the best, and 

 which the intelligent reader will see 

 comprehend the great mass of authen- 

 tic English history. Mr. Gibson im- 

 peaches none of these authorities, but 

 sublimely discredits the whole, declar- 

 ing that they " are not, in the histori- 

 cal sense of the word, authorities at 

 all." This, of course, is mere asser- 

 tion. The "historical sense" can be 

 nothing else than common-sense ap- 

 plied to history, and that can only re- 

 quire the compiler to seek the best 

 possible sources of information. If the 

 regular historians have failed to fur- 

 nish it, it must be gathered from other 

 and scattered sources. Mr. Spencer's 

 tables give strong evidence of being a 

 faithful reflex of the social state. They 

 are full of gaps where information 

 could not be supplied; and the best 

 authorities extant have been diligently 

 searched for the statements, names and 

 pages being carefully given ; what more 



can be reasonably asked? Although he 

 does not attempt to show wherein the 

 authorities are untrustworthy, he tries 

 to make out three or four instances in 

 which the quotations are insufficient to 

 justify the statements based upon them 

 in the tables. Again, he says there is no 

 clear trace that he (Mr. Collier) has any 

 perception of the relative value of the 

 different facts he has come across in 

 the one hundred and seventy volumes 

 which he has consulted. It is but just 

 to Mr. Collier to say that, while he 

 has quoted one hundred and seventy 

 volumes, he has consulted a far larger 

 number, and it is a sufficient reply to 

 Mr. Gibson's insinuation regarding Col- 

 lier's defective "perception" of the 

 relative values of his facts, that their 

 valuation was not his business, and if 

 some are more valuable than others he 

 could not very well help it. Mr. Spen- 

 cer has pointed out in his preface the 

 difficulty of reducing such multifarious 

 details to a tabular statement in paral- 

 lel columns, while the advance of soci- 

 ety constantly gives rise to new ele- 

 ments. The exigencies of the classifi- 

 cation required that, to a certain ex- 

 tent, diverse though kindred facts 

 should be grouped together. But this 

 does not protect him from the hyper- 

 critical Gibson, who carps at the dis- 

 tributions, and thinks that "most of 

 the information under the head ' Mor- 

 als ' ought to be transferred to the head- 

 ing of ' Law and Politics ; ' " while the 

 diversity of objects that Mr. Collier 

 has included under the head of " Tools 

 and Implements" is gravely pointed 

 out in the array of objections. Of 

 Mr. Collier's omissions this keen-eyed 

 critic has discovered one which he 

 duly chronicles : it is the failure to 

 mention " dramatic poetry." Mr. Gib- 

 son is captious over the deficiency of 

 the statements, and thinks that more 

 facts are wanted. He says : " It would 

 be the merest impertinence for Mr. 

 Spencer's sociological student to draw 

 conclusions from such miserable data 



