not yet published—a false statement, as it had been issued in quarterly parts during the past two years by Williams & Norgate, of London, the publishers of "Social Statics" and all the volumes of the "Philosophy." Though we may not expect in British Quarterly Reviewers any very high sense of honor, there is a barefaced recklessness in this proceeding which well illustrates the sort of treatment that Herbert Spencer has been receiving ever since he published the first volume of his "Philosophy" in 1862.
The readers of The Popular Science Monthly will hardly need to be told that the volume now published is the first of three which are intended to work out systematically the principles of the science of society. We have often explained the relation of these works to the philosophical volumes that have preceded them, and to the "Descriptive Sociology," which gives a comprehensive account of different types of the social state; and we have published various articles, from advance-sheets of the work itself, illustrating the quality and scope of the discussion contained in the volume before us. The work differs widely and profoundly from any that has ever appeared professing to deal with the subject of social science, and it is gratifying to see at last some cordial recognition of its great originality, value, and importance, from the leading critics of the English press. This is all the more satisfactory, that Mr. Spencer has conquered it against the steady pressure of a powerful and long-sustained antagonism. Having commented freely upon the work, and given illustrations of it, in the course of its publication, we prefer now to furnish our readers with the view taken of the completed volume by an influential London journal. The following is the notice that appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette:
"Those who have followed the development of Mr. Spencer's 'System' will have no difficulty in understanding the position held in it by the present volume. 'Hitherto he has been occupied in setting forth the laws of organic evolution, the 'Principles of Biology' having dealt with the physical aspect of that process, the 'Principles of Psychology' with its mental aspects. Both these works treat of the individual life of the organism; but when organisms come into relation to each other, form societies, and produce results which could not be achieved except by coördinated action, we are confronted by a new set of phenomena. We are in presence of what Mr. Spencer calls super-organic evolution. The task of sociology—it is now, we fear, too late to protest against the use of one of the most disagreeable words ever coined—is to interpret these new facts, to classify them, and to render intelligible the passage from one stage of progress to another. Among bees, wasps, and ants, we find the first indications of coöperation, associated with a certain degree of division of labor; and some of the higher types of vertebrata, such as rooks, combine in a still more marked manner. These instances of coordinated action are, however, of slight moment compared with the phenomena presented by human societies; it is, therefore, with the latter alone that sociology is concerned.
"The subject is so vast and complicated that it is difficult to treat of it without being either dull or superficial. Mr. Spencer, as those who know his writings would expect, escapes both dangers. As in his previous expositions, he confines himself to a few large principles; and these are so clearly expressed, so systematically arranged, and supported by so immense an array of proofs and illustrations, that readers wholly unaccustomed to philosophical inquiry may follow his argument with interest. Not even a German professor could have undertaken to bring together without help the enormous mass of materials which are here utilized. Mr. Spencer has had excellent assistance in collecting facts, and he has woven them with the skill of a master into a consistent and suggestive theory.
"In social evolution there are two factors: extrinsic and intrinsic. The former include all those outward influences, such as climate, surface, flora, and fauna, which determine human action; by the latter are meant the qualities of the units that make up society. Mr. Spencer devotes only one chapter to the extrinsic factors; but this suffices to indicate how many favorable conditions are necessary to the formation of a society, and how rarely these condi-
