Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/429

 REVIEWS 413

and costly efforts to further and realize these ends because they set a value on them.

In practical social science this valuation of ends is vital, for with- out an estimate of worth which may be used as a criterion there is no rational and solid basis for a judgment of any social arrangement.

Practical social science must consider two problems when it passes judgment, or arranges the materials for a judgment, on any social arrangement, device, movement, or tendency : Is the end valuable and the most valuable, all things considered ? and, Are the proposed means most suitable and efficient ? The latter, it is conceivable, might be studied somewhat apart from the former. The sociologist might reserve his verdict as to the end and merely say: "Assuming that the proposed object is socially valuable, what is the best disposition of available social forces to attain it?"

But, after all, human reason would regard such a solution as super- ficial and unsatisfactory. There is no way of avoiding a discussion of the worth of ends in a study of the value of institutions, systems, laws, customs, or tendencies. In the case before us the end is religious satisfactions.

At this point an attempt to study the meaning and value of religion and the theological implications of the social consciousness is useful to sociology, whether we are thinking of it as an explanatory or as a practical science.

The alternative of agnosticism, of course, is still open, and there is no absolute demonstration of the ism which would make unbelief impossible. Taste and preference may not be forced.

The case of religion is the same as that of friendship, or knowl- edge, or art, or moral character. The man who has personal experi- ence of these values can bear witness to them, nothing more. They must be personally taken into consciousness by active and creative choice, and then they are seen in their true nature and " proof " is not asked.

What a skilful art critic or interpreter does for pictures, music, or verse, Professor King has done, with a high degree of success, for religion.

CHARLES R. HENDERSON.

Savings and Savings Institutions, By JAMES HENRY HAMILTON.

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1902. Pp.436. THE economic principles of thrift are discussed under the head of "The Theory of Savings," but while the orthodox position is clearly