60 
THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY. 
Mak., 1891. 
sidered the closely associated developments of language, 
knowledge, morals, and aesthetics. 
We trace the development of language from simple sounds 
expressing sense perceptions, to the complex words by which 
the most abstract conceptions of human thought are expressed; 
of knowledge, from the simple explanations of the action of 
surrounding life and nature which the primitive savage verified 
and confirmed by repeated observation, to the reasoned hypo¬ 
theses of the Synthetic Philosophy itself ; of morals, from the 
self-respecting instinct of physical man, to the altruistic senti¬ 
ments of the more developed human being ; of aesthetics, from 
the play-impulses which led to a simulation of pleasurable 
activity, in mental faculties which had been too long dormant, 
to the highest excellence which has been reached in the fine 
arts. 
We have now, then, examined the “ scope” of our science 
of Sociology in detail ; the result is that we find ourselves in 
infinity. We cannot find the beginning of our knowledge, and 
we cannot trace its end. 
The study of Sociology is the coping stone of our palace 
of Evolution ; the building is insecure if a single stone of 
knowledge is omitted or misplaced. We are in the habit of 
looking at society, and especially at the political and religious 
constitution of things, and their record of a few thousand 
years ; and the record seems vast, and the society a stable 
and permanent—even a necessary—part of the cosmos : we 
look at the same phenomena as subjects for scientific enquiry, 
and all is changed. We find we are looking at a changing, 
growing, and developing Jiving organism, the history of whose 
life is known to us only as the history of hours out of count¬ 
less ages ; but of which even that limited knowledge enables 
us to see that the progression has been gradual and orderly, 
the connection between cause and effect absolute and un¬ 
changeable. We trace the growth of the present complex 
conditions of life back to forms of great simplicity, widely 
modifiable by circumstances, and only acquiring stability and 
permanence after long and slow process of accommodation to 
the environment. But the progress has been unceasing, and 
retrogression has been only apparent. 
In our study of the Data of Ethics we saw that so great 
has been the triumph of mind over matter during the last 
century, that man’s social environment has actually tempo¬ 
rarily outstripped in its development the capacity of the 
human organism for adaptability, and so checked progress 
for the time being ; this has been the case also at preceding 
stages in the process of Evolution. Many times, even to the 
primitive savage, the social environment was beyond that to 
