EDITOR'S TABLE. 



625 



tion of law throughout all the work- 

 ings of Nature, has entered with its 

 new method upon the study of society. 

 Tn what does the social structure con- 

 sist? what are the nature and laws of 

 its activities ? what are the conditions 

 of its development ? These are its prob- 

 lems. Science always begins with the 

 observation, determination, and classi- 

 fication, of facts. This is its first so- 

 licitude. To get at the facts with the 

 highest certainty and the greatest ex- 

 actness and fullness that are possible, 

 is the primary and inexorable duty of 

 the true scientific inquirer. To put 

 these facts in their proper relations, so 

 as to draw from them the principles 

 and laws by which they are governed, 

 is the essence of scientific method, and 

 to this Mr. Spencer has rigorously con- 

 formed by devoting a separate and ex- 

 tensive work to the systematized data 

 that are necessary for valid reasoning 

 upon social subjects. All this, says 

 Mr. Gibson, is of no use, because, if it is 

 " done with as great accuracy and intel- 

 ligence as possible," it is still worthless 

 from its superficiality. And so, court 

 frivolities and the trumperies and trivi- 

 alities of personal incident are the deep 

 things for which the "historical sense" 

 must make research, while the inves- 

 tigation of principles and laws is the 

 •vorthless work of shallow scientists! 

 That will do for Mr. Gibson. Let him 

 return to his dust-holes and rubbish- 

 bins, and enjoy their obscurities and 

 confusions as the profundities of his- 

 tory. "We should not have meddled 

 with him on his own account, but Mr. 

 Spencer's work is a challenge to his 

 party, and we were interested in seeing 

 what they would do about it. Their 

 champion has done the best and the 

 only thing that he could, and that is to 

 merge his attack upon Spencer into a 

 final assault upon science itself. 



We reproduce on another page the 

 brief but suggestive address of Mr. 

 vol. iv. — 40 



George Kipley, upon laying the corner- 

 stone of the new Tribune building. Vt 

 was fitting that the paper which was 

 founded by Mr. Greeley, and devoted 

 to progressive ideas, and which has 

 had so wide an influence in educating 

 the American people, now that its 

 founder and master-spirit has passed 

 away, should be solemnly rededicated 

 to the continued advance and diffusion 

 of liberal thought and growing knowl- 

 edge. A political partisan press we 

 must, undoubtedly, continue to have, 

 just as we must have war, pestilence, 

 crime, corruption, and other evils ; but 

 it is coincident and will be coterminous 

 with public ignorance, shortsighted- 

 ness, and the general reign of dema- 

 gogism. We accordingly hail with 

 pleasure every indication of revolt 

 against party domination, and the in- 

 creasing recognition of those wider 

 and deeper interests with which the 

 permanent prosperity of society is in- 

 volved. In the diffusion of science in 

 cheap popular forms, the Tribune has 

 always taken a leading part ; and its re- 

 cent efforts in this way add strength 

 to the pledge now offered, that the 

 same policy will be pursued in the fu- 

 ture. In a few compressed sentences 

 Mr. Eipley happily sketches the recent 

 movements of philosophic thought, and 

 discerns the full significance of that 

 latest and largest synthesis of ideas to 

 which scientific inquiry has brought the 

 foremost minds of the age. Nothing 

 is more significant of positive intellect- 

 ual advance than to see a great news- 

 paper, immersed as it must be in the 

 practical concerns of daily life, yet 

 holding its course in the world of . 

 thought by the higher lights of science 

 and philosophy. The career and char- 

 acter of this journal have undoubtedly 

 been, in a large measure, determined 

 by the active mind of Mr. Greeley ; but 

 no estimate of its public influence 

 would be just that should omit the 

 prolonged and distinctive labors of its 

 able literary editor, now president of 



