PREFACE TO PART VI. 



THREE years and a half have elapsed since the issue of 

 P olitical Institutions iliv preceding division of the Princi 

 ples of Sociology. Occupation with other subjects has been 

 one cause of this long delay; but the delay has been in a 

 much greater degree caused by ill-health, which has, during 

 much of the interval, negatived even that small amount of 

 daily work which I was previously able to get through. 



Two other parts remain to be included in Vol. II Pro 

 fessional Institutions and Industrial Institutions. Whether 

 these will be similarly delayed, I cannot of course say. I 

 entertain hopes that they may be more promptly completed ; 

 but it is possible, or even probable, that a longer rather than 

 a shorter period will pass before they appear if they ever 

 appear at all. 



Bayswater, October, 1885. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



precautions, errors creep in where 

 many pieces of evidence are given. The detection of these 

 is a service rendered by critics which is commonly of more 

 value than other services rendered by them; and which, in 

 some cases, partially neutralizes their disservices. 



I have myself had special difficulties to encounter in 

 maintaining correctness. Even with unshaken health, it 

 would have been impossible for me to read the five hun 

 dred and odd works from which the materials for the Prin 

 ciples of Sociology have been extracted; and, as it is, having 

 been long in a state in which reading tells upon me as much 



ix 



