Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/859

 REVIEWS 839

dislike of customs and traditions. People became individual, concrete, and local in their habits of thought. This attitude of mind fitted them for the next epoch.

The fifth chapter opens with a discussion of the causes of the decline of France. Our author boldly asserts that the wickedness and vice of the people were in no wise responsible for the decline of the country. He attributes the decay to economic causes — the rise in the price of wheat especially — which produced a constantly increasing deficiency in her economic resources. To the French Revolution he gives a pic- turesque value only, for he says : " The revolution in commerce, industry, social philosophy, and national ideals would have gone on just the same if France had submitted quietly to the inevitable loss of power and the rule of the Bourbons. She did not alter the course of history by her bold struggle for supremacy, but simply made history more interesting."'

This chapter, which is entitled "The Economists," shows how thought in the nineteenth century is dominated by economists and philosophers who believe in social progress through influence as opposed to progress by selection. Thus we find the economic utilitarian and the philosophic Utopian making human happiness the end of action. From this point of view Carlyle, Newman, Spencer, and Gladstone may all be classed together. Bentham first appears on the scene with the principle that security, not comfort, is the goal of human society. He gives us a negative idea of pleasure, emphasizing the removal of pain more than the acquisition of pleasure. Society was to be improved by burdening the evil-doer until he ceased to do wrong. Malthus follows with his theory of population, which caused an immediate con- flict between the economists and the moralists, as it taught that pro- gress meant poverty. To Ricardo is due the new concept of society which now arises. Smith and Malthus viewed society as an agricultural community. Now emphasis is laid upon the city and all the economic problems and complications which it entails.

John Stuart Mill contributes a new ideal of social progress and a new method of thought. His method was first that of pure induction based on experience. The generalizations thus obtained are then used as premises for deduction, and conclusions reached through this deduc- tion are verified by fresh induction. The study of Wordsworth and the ideas of Sterling and St. Simon had great influence on Mill's own development. Comte also was one of the important factors in shaping ■P. 278.