Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/474

 460 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and what is true will be classified and each truth assigned its place in a general system.

If the great law of the conservation of energy and the cor- relation of forces, which has brought order out of chaos in the physical world, can be extended to the psychic and social world, at whatever sacrifice of false pride, the gain must be stupendous. If there can really be established a "dynamics of mind" 1 and a "mechanics of society," the era of speculation in these fields is over and the era of science has begun. An age of psychic and social invention and discovery must follow, ushering in an age of social machinery. The general acceptance of such a truth, if it be a truth (and if it be not there is no social science), might ultimately have the effect to transform and unify the entire system of human government by substituting, as has been done in the physical world, the laws and powers of nature for those of man.

While I cannot but regard this as by far the most important of all sociological principles, I freely admit that there are many others of high utilitarian rank that simply require verification, elucidation and elaboration. Once established they should be fully recognized, no matter how humble or obscure the source from which they may have emanated, and speedily added to the common stock of knowledge.

But aside entirely from all extravagant claims for any system, independently of the question whether any of the alleged social principles are sound, it is still safe to assert that there must be elements for a science of society, and that when these elements are detected, collated and reduced to law such a science will be established ; and it is further beyond question that when the true science of society shall be established and accepted as other sciences are accepted, its influence on the interests of man and the destiny of the race will be as much greater than that of the simpler sciences as sociology is nearer to man and more intimately bound up with all that concerns his welfare.

LESTER F. WARD. WASHINGTON, D. C.

1 Psychic Factors of Civilization, chap. XV.