men upon such a matter. Yale College has been endowed by the gifts of Christian men almost exclusively. To use the foundation they have established for the propagation of skepticism is a breach of trust and is no better than burglary or forgery."
The "Christian at Work" remarks: "It might be of little moment if his text-book were a treatise on pure mathematics or chemistry. But it is otherwise upon such a subject as sociology. That concerns the relation of man to the state, and vice versa; it treats of the moralities, and of laws designed to conserve the Sabbath and enforce morality, and of the claims of religion. To all such laws Mr. Spencer is avowedly hostile. . . . Put the youth under the dominion of Spencer's social system, and they will deny the right of the state to enforce a day of rest, or make laws for any other purpose than the bare protection of life and property. Under Spencer's system all other laws would be done away with, and we should have a condition of affairs in which one right alone would be recognized—the right of every one to do as one pleased. . . . We trust the accomplished Professor will himself see the wisdom of deferring to a very proper feeling which we believe unmistakably exists on the part of the Christian public, that nothing should be allowed, however otherwise excellent in itself, which will in the slightest degree unsettle the minds of the young by giving them a bias toward a pernicious, dangerous sociology, which seeks to eliminate public education from the state, and rejects the moral element in legislation save as required for the protection of life and property."
The "Independent" says of the "Study of Sociology": "Theologically it is probably the most objectionable book Spencer has written, making no secret of its contempt for believers in the Christian religion, who are told that they must lay aside their faith if they wish to study sociology. There is enough of this intolerance to make the book decidedly offensive. We are not surprised that complaint was made against the book, although we believe that no pupil of Professor Sumner will accuse him of any lack of faithfulness in pointing out the weak or misleading passages in any author whose textbook he uses. We presume that, before another class has occasion to pursue the study, the works to which this was an introduction, or some better book, will be ready for use, and will replace, with its collections of facts, the offensive philosophizings of the 'Study of Sociology.'"
These extracts are fairly representative of the ideas and the spirit of the religious press of this country. Passing by the various misrepresentations with which they bristle, what is their common upshot? That in its treatment of social science Yale College is bound to take into account, first of all, its theological character as a Christian institution. We say, on the contrary, that the first duty of Yale College, as a seat of liberal learning, is to truth, which is to be cordially welcomed from all sources. It is bound to recognize, first of all, that knowledge is progressive, and to teach it in its most developed and perfected forms. It is not at liberty to disregard the lessons of experience. There was a time when the great universities of Europe were called upon to resist the progress of astronomy, in the name of Christianity. Later, they were again called upon to resist the progress of geology, in the name of Christianity. And now our colleges are called upon to resist the progress of sociology, in the name of Christianity. The demand, futile in the former cases, is now ridiculous. It is an anachronism, and serves only as a register of the survival of bigotry. The mortifying fact is, that we in this country are behind the age in liberty of thought as a guiding principle in higher education. The Reverend Chan-
