Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/724

704 plains in the preface to the present volume, his circumstances of health and fortune were most discouraging.

Though approaching the completion of his seventy-seventh year, neither Mr. Spencer's age nor his long struggle with infirmity has dimmed the vigor of his thought or the lucidity of his diction. The closing chapters of the present volume exhibit the strength of a mind unimpaired and of a conviction undaunted by the apparent drift of events in a direction contrary to that in which he sees the salvation of society. No pessimistic reflections have obliterated his early vision of an ideal man in a relatively perfect social state. "Long studies," he affirms at the conclusion of his work, ". . . have not caused me to recede from the belief expressed nearly fifty years ago that ‘the ultimate man will be one w'hose private requirements coincide with public ones. He will be that manner of man who, in spontaneously fulfilling his own nature, incidentally performs the functions of a social unit.’”

The volume now before us includes the discussion of Ecclesiastical, Professional, and Industrial Institutions. The consideration of the two latter topics, not contemplated at the outset, has displaced the general survey of progress which was to have completed the Principles of Sociology. The finished structure is not marred; the change has enhanced the practical value of the work. In this adaptation to the requirements of added experience and maturer reflection the Synthetic Philosophy is seen to be itself a product of evolution, a vital expression of progressive thought, rather than a mechanically constructed system. That its final form is so near to the original plan is a remarkable testimony to the profound scientific prescience of the author.

The first two sections of the present volume have already received notice in these pages. The concluding section, on Industrial Institutions, is the latest product of Mr. Spencer's thought, and treats of the problems now uppermost in the minds of men. The discussion, therefore, has more than a merely theoretical value. It presents the mature judgment of the greatest thinker of our time on questions of immediate practical import. It therefore challenges the thoughtful attention of all to whom the perfection of individual character and of the societary forms best adapted to assure the progress of the race is a matter of supreme interest.

Reviewing the different stages of industrial progress, Mr. Spencer optimistically concludes that advancement has been more rapid in the century now closing than in all the past of man's career upon the earth—a conclusion seemingly justified by the facts which he skillfully marshals in its support. This progress has been characterized by an increasing specialization of functions and division of labor, thus illustrating the universal law of evolution. The chief incentives to early industrial effort grew out of the steady increase of population, the militant structure of society, and the love of ornament common to primitive peoples. Further industrial progress, however, is seen to be dependent on the decline of the military spirit. Peace alone answers the conditions requisite to continuous effort, promotes economy and encourages better methods. Hostilities between tribes and nations prevent free interchange and competition, and so favor adulteration in materials and the survival of inefficient methods. "Thus in all ways increase of population by its actions and reactions develops a social organism which becomes more heterogeneous as it becomes larger, while