Bagehot's analysis of the English Constitution will be helpful to this end; and we doubt if there is any other volume so useful to our countrymen to peruse before visiting England. It will enable Americans to understand many things that at first perplex and disgust them in an old historic country, where all that most impresses the mind is so different from what we are accustomed to here.
"It remains further to say that Mr. Bagehot's work has a charming readableness that would not be suspected from its title or subject. It is written with an easy liveliness, a vivacious wit, and a felicity of style, that place it high in the scale of literary excellence.
"The studies of character of Brougham and Peel, that are appended to the present edition, and have not before appeared in this country, will be read with avidity, as they not only serve to throw additional light upon the modern politics of England, but give us an interesting insight into the intellectual life of two of the most conspicuous men who have figured in public affairs during the past generation."
THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY.
The Principles of Sociology. By Herbert Spencer, Author of "First Principles of Biology," "Principles of Psychology," etc., etc. Vol. I., pp. 734. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price, $2.50.
The sixth volume of Spencer's "Synthetic Philosophy" is now before us. This great work was entered upon with many doubts as to its merits if executed, and many more as to whether it would ever get done at all. It has, however, moved slowly forward for the last fifteen years, against obstacles, both internal and external, which would have ordinarily brought such an enterprise to a stand long ago. The author's imperfect health has been a serious and constant impediment; the expensiveness of the undertaking has greatly imperiled its continuance; and the carelessness, stupidity, and downright perversity of reviewers, or those who undertook to interpret the system to the public, have been little calculated to inspirit the author in the progress of his work. Instead of welcoming with sympathy and intelligent encouragement a great effort like this to effect a higher unity of the different departments of knowledge, which modern science has begun to make possible, Mr. Spencer has been treated rather as if he had committed some grave offense against the interests of mankind. We have still large classes who look upon science with jealousy, and especially resent any effort to make it the basis of philosophy, or to develop it into a comprehensive and authoritative body of thought; and these classes have opposed and vilified from the commencement Spencer's work without scruple or reserve. It is gratifying to note that this unworthy feeling is giving way in many quarters, and is replaced by a growing disposition to do justice to his views; but in other quarters the old tactics of depreciation and misrepresentation are still pursued. We refer to the latest example. Our readers will remember that a year or two since the British Quarterly Review opened its columns to a very unmanly and vindictive assault upon Spencer, which had no excuse even under the largest license of decent reviewing. That there was some animus in the writer's mind quite apart from the fair and legitimate purpose of such work, was obvious enough at the time; but, if there could have been any doubt about it, that doubt is dispelled by the recent course of this Quarterly. In its January issue it contained another elaborate article professing to be a review of Spencer's "Sociology;" but the reader will hardly credit the statement that this work was not even referred to in the article. It was nothing less than an attack upon the old "Social Statics," a book published twenty-six years ago, and having in its preface to the later reprints an explicit warning to all readers that it does not contain a true representation of Mr. Spencer's present views. The course of the Quarterly was all the more outrageous, when it is remembered that Mr. Spencer had stated in this preface that the subject discussed in "Social Statics" would be reconsidered and placed upon a broader basis in the "System of Philosophy" upon which he has been at work since 1860. The writer in the Review added, in a note at the end of his article, that at the time it went to press the volume of Spencer's "Principles of Sociology" was
