PREFACE. vii 



ceded by an explanatory note. Usually, though not uni 

 formly, references have been given in those cases only 

 where actual quotations are made. 



London, November, 1879. 



PREFACE TO PART V. 



THE division of the Principles of Sociology herewith is 

 sued, deals with phenomena of Evolution which are, above 

 all others, obscure and entangled. To discover what truths 

 may be affirmed of political organizations at large, is a task 

 beset by difficulties that are at once many and great diffi 

 culties arising from unlikenesses of the various human 

 races, from differences among the modes of life entailed by 

 circumstances on the societies formed of them, from the nu 

 merous contrasts of sizes and degrees of culture exhibited by 

 such societies, from their perpetual interferences with one 

 another s processes of evolution by means of wars, and from 

 accompanying breakings-up and aggregations in ever- 

 changing ways. 



Satisfactory achievement of this task would require the 

 labours of a life. Having been able to devote to it but two 

 years, I feel that the results set forth in this volume must 

 of necessity be full of imperfections. If it be asked why, 

 being thus conscious that far more time and wider inves 

 tigation are requisite for the proper treatment of a subject 

 so immense and involved, I have undertaken it, my reply 

 is that I have been obliged to deal with political evolution 

 as a part of the general Theory of Evolution; and, with due 

 regard to the claims of other parts, could not make a more 

 prolonged preparation. Anyone w r ho undertakes to trace 

 the general laws of transformation which hold throughout 

 all orders of phenomena, must have but an incomplete 



