Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/505

Rh before, the assumed law of association. We find that the author has unconsciously passed from the consideration of "customs" in the ethnographic sense, to "habit" in the most general psychological sense, and it is consequently a considerable feat of self-restraint on the part of Professor Bascom to have refrained from discussing in this division all the social phenomena to which the rest of the book refers. They are surely not less liable to the influence of habit than the sample activities mentioned in this division.

A third suspicion gathers force with the beginning of Part III, "Civics as a Factor in Sociology," viz., that for the sake of a mechanical classification the author has inextricably entangled the distinctions which he has undertaken to simplify. I can make nothing but confusion out of these two sentences on the same page (289): "Civics discusses the forms and the development of the state, its functions, the duties and rights of the citizen in reference to it, and its duties and rights in reference to the citizen." . . . "Civics lies between Custom and Economics on the one hand, and Ethics and Religion on the other." My perplexity increases when I read on the next page: "The pure moral impulses that spring up in Ethics and Religion encounter in Civics the inertia and the momentum alike of a slow, continuous, universal evolution," etc. Professor Bascom should have published a key to this peculiar dialect, so that his readers might be able to find out when he is talking about conduct, and when about the sciences which deal with certain relations of conduct.

A fourth suspicion gathers strength with each page of the volume, viz., that the appearance of system in treatment is a logical illusion. There is method and order most rigorously sustained throughout, but the structure is essentially arbitrary. Who could guess, for example, whether the same or different divisions of the book contain the following groups of topics?—(1) The Labor Movement; Coöperation; Profit-Sharing; Saving and Loan Associations; Gains of Workmen. (2) Injustices of Taxation; Principles on which Taxes should be Laid; Forms of Taxes; Indirect Taxes. It so happens that Professor Bascom discusses the former group in the division "Economics" and the latter in the division "Civics," but it would not have strained his method perceptibly if he had arranged to reverse the situation, or if he had transferred both groups to the division "Ethics."

In a word, the book contains a wealth of edifying discourse upon a multitude of subjects, but the dignity of these miscellaneous