Mar., 1891. 
THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY. 
59 
the political and religious systems of which they have now 
become quite independent. They owe their authority and 
power to the custom which sanctions them. The influence 
exerted over habits and conduct by codes of etiquette, and 
over the details of daily life by the dictates of fashion, have 
to be considered, although much greater in the past than in 
the present. No influence which helps, in however slight a 
degree, to mould human life can be ignored by the student of 
Sociology. 
Having gone so far, we may fairly claim to have dealt 
with the governing forces of social phenomena. There 
remains for us to consider the structures and functions 
governed. Tor this purpose, Spencer divides all societies 
into two divisions, the regulative and operative divisions, and 
notes that the inquiries of highest importance in social 
science concern the relations between them. We must trace 
the history of industry, its slow development, and regulation 
by trade guilds, unions, and so forth ; its relation to the 
ecclesiastical and political powers, and to the changing and 
developing nature of the citizens, there being here, as every¬ 
where, a reciprocity of influence. We seek in Sociology for 
the keys by which to solve the problems caused by the present 
great and growing conflict between capital and labour. We find 
that, whereas labour was actual property, it is now simply an 
article of commerce, whose value varies, and which sometimes 
fails to find a purchaser. About the time when equal rights 
were granted to all men, a change in the methods of pro¬ 
duction entirely altered the condition of the workers—the 
capitalist regime began, and brought in its train many of our 
present social evils. The possession of equal political rights 
naturally embitters the demand for equality of conditions, and 
the struggle between capital and the labour which it feeds has 
reached an acute crisis. In our consideration of these ques¬ 
tions, narrowly classed as “ Political Economy,” we begin by 
tracing the separation and subsequent development of the 
distributive and productive systems of industry, and follow on 
to consider the growth of the principle of “ division of labour” 
in each class, and of the mutual co-operation which is the 
natural corollary of the “ division of labour.” Moreover, we 
must consider the effects which the many varied industries of 
civilised life produce on each other; the advance and improve¬ 
ment caused by their mutual help and interdependence. Here 
again we find the strength of unity :— 
“ All are needed by each one ; 
Nothing is fair or good alone.” 
Having considered the organisation and life of each society, 
as developed by social evolution, there remain to be con- 
