views. He proceeds to say that now, after the lapse of fourteen years, were he writing out his thoughts on the subject, he would express himself somewhat differently on several specified points. Then by way of excusing himself from rewriting his views, and of showing the little importance of his doing so, he concludes his preface with these conclusive words, expressing himself in the third person: "When, however, he comes to the closing volumes of this system, should he ever get so far, he proposes to set forth in them the developed conclusions of which 'Social Statics' must be considered a rough sketch." What more conclusive proof could we need that "Social Statics" was still, then and there, a substantial embodiment of his views?
The critic says that the author of the work in question appears to have "an obscure conception of social science," etc. It is to be remembered, however, that social science is a very large science, susceptible of very diverse renditions, or modes of consideration, and that, when viewed, as it is by Mr. Spencer and his especial admirers, from the lofty standpoint of universal science, it would be likely to present somewhat different points of prominence for scientific consideration from those it would present from the far less ambitious standpoint from which it is viewed by the author in question—the standpoint of the practical statesman and jurist.
By way of illustrating the fairness and justness of his criticism, the critic quotes an isolated passage from the work under his consideration, which, unexplained, and rent from its context, would appear only as Greek, Hebrew, or Sanscrit, to the general reader; a passage in which, after the example of Mr. Spencer himself, and other modern scientists, the author had casually drawn on astronomical science for illustration, and instituted a similitude between the forces of cosmical and social life. But was that a really fair selection? What would our critic think if any one should undertake to judge Mr. Spencer, either as a sociologist or a general scientist, solely by his fundamental postulate that all evolution is from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous?
The critic would have conveyed to his readers a far more just idea of the scope and real character of the work under his review—a mere preliminary work as it is—if he had seen fit to quote the seven propositions laid down in the author's sixth chapter, embodying, as they claim to do, the essential import of all the most recent and most advanced thought in social philosophy; nay, embodying, in outline, the very quintessence of Mr. Spencer's peculiar views, with the addition of only a few highly-important ideas, which he seems to have either overlooked or undervalued.
And here it may be proper to remark that there is no essential antagonism between Mr. Spencer and the author who has incurred the displeasure of The Popular Science Monthly. On fundamental principles, and in the general drift of their reasonings, likewise, they
