SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITIES.
THERE was nothing commonplace about the title that first confronted the readers of the initial number of The Popular Science Monthly in May, 1872. The Study of Sociology: Our Need of It, had the flavor of that happy and legitimate audacity that makes things "go." For nobody knew what "sociology" was. Only a few curious readers of Comte, and subscribers to Mr. Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy, had ever met with the word. It is familiar enough now; and if the repetition of phrases meant always the assimilation of ideas, we might expect the coming generation to think of society as rationally as it will think of the solar system and the descent of man. "Sociology" confronts us in the morning newspaper; it is the favorite fad of philanthropic institutions; it is discussed in ministers' meetings, and it pleasantly stimulates the scientific ganglia of ladies' clubs.
The popular history of sociology in these twenty-three years has therefore been interesting and instructive. To Mr. Spencer and his followers the word has always meant a strictly scientific description and explanation of society as it is and as it has been. The business of the sociologist, as Mr. Spencer understands it, is to interpret the life and organization of society in terms of natural causation and evolution; not to abolish evil for dissatisfied people, nor to invent new moral worlds for gullible people, nor to fit out reformers with a brand new set of rules of thumb. But it was inevitable that as soon as the serious scientific study of society was talked about the uninstructed and incompetent should try their hands at the task; and a curious mess they have made of it. They have seized upon the word sociology and made it do service in aid of every crazy enterprise and sentimental crusade that all the cranks in Christendom have ever thought of. To cap the climax, the theologians of the Christian socialist variety, and certain so-called "economists" who enjoy airing their disbelief in pretty much everything that used to be called political economy, have put their heads together and invented something that they call "Christian sociology," a last ridiculous manifesto in the warfare of obscurantism against science. Unable longer to sell text-books of six day geology, these estimable persons will see to it that the law of population and the formula of marginal utility are put on a safe Christian basis!
Meanwhile, however, a real and great progress has been made in the constructive development of scientific sociology, and, what is not less important, in teaching it. But it has been made so quietly that the general scientific public is scarcely aware of what has been accomplished. In European universities of the first class sociology is to-day firmly established as a recognized subject for degree work, and it is taught by extremely able men. De Greef at Brussels, Gumplowicz at Gräz, Letourneau at Paris, Durkheim at Bordeaux, and Simmel at Berlin are professors who combine scientific training with a philosophical grasp of their subject. In this country Prof. Sumner began using Spencer's Study of Sociology as a text-book at Yale soon after its publication. Since then courses in sociology have rapidly multiplied in our colleges. The new University of Chicago recognized the claims of such studies by putting Prof. Small, whose teaching has been based in a good degree on the views put forth in Ward's Dynamic Sociology, in charge of a well-equipped department of social science. Columbia College last year
