140 
Kinley—The Direction of Social Reform. 
or another of them. The wrecks of these schemes strew the 
world’s pathway for more than a generation, though most of 
them contain some of the elements necessary to success. The 
very fact of their conception and existence, the very fact that, 
they have been so earnestly believed in by so many intelligent 
people, emphasizes the fact of the existence of a social question 
more than could be done by any recital of its causes or its 
details. 
On the other hand, the fact that so many of these schemes 
have been shattered on the hard rocks of real life is the best of 
evidence that they did not conform to the conditions of social 
growth. It is not enough for successful reform that wrong 
exists. It is not enough that the wrong is recognized, or that 
plans are made for its removal or its cure. The plans them¬ 
selves must be framed in conformity with the laws of social 
growth if it is desired to construct them so as to insure suc¬ 
cess. To do so requires the scientific consideration of the 
mode of development of social life. Reform must learn from 
evolution. Present conditions are not absolute. Society is a. 
growth, its life, a continuity. The present depends on the 
past, is conditioned by the past. Any new institution, then,, 
must have a vital historical connection with those already 
existing. To attempt to introduce one under any other circum¬ 
stances would be like trying to set a house on a new foundation 
without regard to the size, shape or strength of the foundation. 
The inevitable result of any such attempt is to produce 
social jars, discontent, and wrong. This is not mere theory. 
It has been proved in history again and again. One of the 
most notable instances is the settling of the English legal and 
land-tenure systems on India. The law of Hindoo society is so 
unlike that of England that it could not, so to speak, be 
squeezed into the English legal framework without great in¬ 
justice and distress. It is too vague to conform to English 
strict legal formulas. Sir Henry Maine says, on this subject: 
There is no doubt that the establishment of a tribunal on 
similar principles [as the English courts] would now-a-days be 
regarded as a measure of the utmost injustice and danger.”* 
* Village Communities, p. 37. 
