Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/856

 836 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of warfare, to overcome which societies are formed ; that the power of the king is supreme. He fails to solve the problem of the age.

Locke next follows with an important contribution. This is the principle of indifference. " There are things in their own nature indif- ferent," he declares. He thus adds a new group to the old categories of the good and the bad — the indifferent. He attacks superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other, declaring that all ideas come through sense impressions. There is no expression without impression. Any excess of expression is either superstition or enthusi- asm, and therefore bad.

Dr. Fatten next speaks of the relation of Locke to deism, and in the following passage seems to contradict part of his theory : " If we follow the development of abstract thought subsequent to Locke, the contri- butions of the deists cannot be overlooked. But it is more important to look on the practical side of Locke's work and see how the deists are connected with it. Viewed in this way they make a stage in religious development that begins with Locke and ends with Wesley."' Does not this conflict with his statement in chap, i that it is impossible to follow the history of thought in any one field independently — that the development of any line of thought does not depend on the ante- cedent thought in the same field, but on new economic conditions of the later epoch ? The deists attack the prevailing notion of God, denying that he delegated his power to anyone, or that he interfered in the affairs of men. Consequently they were antagonists of the current doctrine of the divine right of kings. At this time Newton began his work which resulted in a reconstruction of the theory of the universe. The law of gravitation transformed the old concept of chaos to the new one of cosmos. Dr. Patten tells us that since Locke there has been no development of political thought in England. Progress in the eighteenth century was absolutely independent of political life. Does careful investigation of English political institutions warrant his summary disposal of this most important topic ?

To Locke, the deists, and Newton are due the new idea of God as a God of love, the transformation of morality (everything of which the reason can judge is placed in the new category of the indifferent), and the separation of government and law from morals and religion. Two new types of character now arise — the stalwart, who places race ideals above reason, and the mugwump, who places reason first.

The next chapter, on " The Moralists," traces the evolution of

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