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 680 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the nature of this subject-matter to be such as to demand that it be studied in the simpler phases of its development, as well as in the more complex phases, if we are to hope to arrive at an ade- quate understanding of any given phase. It is a corollary of this that, if we are to comprehend perfectly any given type of association as it appears among human beings, we must study it as it appears among beings lower than human, if it be found to have an existence among these lower beings.

4. That this comparison of one phase with another, higher or lower in the genetic series of associational phenomena, means nothing less than the application of the comparative method to the subject-matter of sociology.

5. That, in consideration of the nature of the relations obtain- ing between the activities of living organisms and certain great groups of stimuli, it appears that these stimulus-complexes afford bases upon which to attempt a comparison of the organ- ism- and the activity-groupings growing up around these com- plexes.

Ralph G. Kimble. The University of Chicago.