1‘22 
SOCIOLOGY. 
My object iu addressing yon is to ask the great favour of your informing me 
whether you think well of our intention, and if so, can you, if you think fit, 
kindly give us—at any time that may be convenient to you—the benefit of any 
suggestions? 
We are modest in expecting any marked practical results from the establish¬ 
ment of our new Section, but we all feel “ that the character of the aggregate is 
determined by the characters of the units,” and we are content “ to see how 
comparatively little can be done, and yet to find it worth while to do that 
little.” 
I have the honour to be. Sir, 
Your faithful and obedient Servant, 
(Signed) William R. Hughes. 
Herbert Spencer, Esquire. 
The very valuable and interesting reply received from Mr. Herbert 
Spencer is as follows :— 
38, Queen’s Gardens, Bayswater, W., March 20th, 1883. 
Dear Sir,—I wish that others who write to me would all assign as good a 
reason as that given in your letter of the 19th. 
The contents of it give me great satisfaction. My aims from the beginning 
have been directed towards the application of philosophy to the guidance of 
life, individual and social; and I rejoice to perceive at length a practical 
recognition of the truth that Sociology must be studied from the evolutionary 
point of view, and that political conduct can be rightly guided only when a 
rational theory of Society has been established. I wish you all success in your 
undertaking, which cannot but result iu some good, even if but little. 
In respect of suggestions which you invite, I will say only that I think the 
growth and prosperity of any organisation is bound up with the doing of work 
of some kind or other. Mere receptivity will not suffice: there must be inde¬ 
pendent activity. In this case, where the aim is the diffusion of a doctrine, the 
work may properly take the form of further elaboration of its component 
truths by further investigation of evidence. Particular points should be taken 
up by individual members or groups of members, with the view of gathering 
together evidence bearing on them, and setting forth the conclusions. As you 
indicate “ Education” as one of the first objects to be dealt with, you might, in 
connection with it take up the alleged relations between ignorance and crime, 
and education and morality. There is the evidence afforded by the different com¬ 
munities of Europe and America. There is the evidence afforded by different 
classes in the same community. There is the evidence afforded by different 
localities in the same community. In each of these inquiries there is ample 
scope for effort, and great need for it. Various special questions, with the accom¬ 
panying suggested investigations, will arise in the course of your reading; and 
my belief is both that you will succeed best as a Society, and will unquestionably 
do most good, if, along with the discussion of principles, you carry on inquiries 
concerning the results of conformity and nonconformity to them. 
I am, faithfully yours, 
(Signed) Herbeet Spencer. 
William R. Hughes, Esq. 
P.S.—It occurs to me that for a Biological Society there is a class of questions 
specially appropriate to be taken up in connection with Sociology—I mean the 
modification of men’s natures consequent upon social conditions. There is a 
large group of inquiries to be made respecting the effects produced upon the 
physique by this or that kind of treatment, now tending to kill the feeble, now 
to preserve the feeble; tending to check this or that disease, or to leave it its 
free course. There is another large class of questions concerning the mental 
effects of legislation of this or that kind—the fostering or the repression of this 
or that sentiment, and this or that intellectual power, and the consequent 
changes of character and capacity produced in nations by i)olitical causes. 
