PREFACE TO PART IV.A

Of the chapters herewith published, constituting Part IV of The Principles of Sociology, seven have already seen the light: not, however, all of them in England. For reasons which need not be specified, it happened that the chapter on Titles was not, like those preceding it, published in the Fortnightly Review at the same time that it was published in periodicals in America, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Russia; and it is therefore new to English readers. Five other chapters, namely V, IX, X, XI, and XII, have not hitherto appeared either at home or abroad.

For deciding to issue by itself, this and each succeeding division of Vol. II of the Principles of Sociology, I have found several reasons. One is that each division, though related to the rest, nevertheless forms a whole so far distinct, that it may be fairly well understood without the rest. Another is that large volumes (and Vol. II threatens to exceed in bulk Vol. I) are alarming; and that many who are deterred by their size from reading them, will not fear to undertake separately the parts of which they are composed. A third and chief reason is that postponement of issue until completion of the entire volume, necessitates an undesirable delay in the issue of its earlier divisions: substantially-independent works being thus kept in manuscript much longer than need be.

The contents of this Part are not, indeed, of such kind as to make me anxious that publication of it as a whole should be immediate. But the contents of the next Part, Edition: current; Page: [iv] treating of Political Institutions, will, I think, be of some importance; and I should regret having to keep it in my portfolio for a year, or perhaps two years, until Parts VI, VII, and VIII, included in the second volume, were written. [Inclusion of these proves impracticable.]

On sundry of the following chapters when published in the Fortnightly Review, a criticism passed by friends was that they were overweighted by illustrative facts. I am conscious that there were grounds for this criticism; and although I have, in the course of a careful revision, diminished in many cases the amount of evidence given (adding to it, however, in other cases) the defect may still be alleged. That with a view to improved effect I have not suppressed a larger number of illustrations, is due to the consideration that scientific proof, rather than artistic merit, is the end to be here achieved. If sociological generalizations are to pass out of the stage of opinion into the stage of established truth, it can only be through extensive accumulations of instances: the inductions must be wide if the conclusions are to be accepted as valid. Especially while there continues the belief that social phenomena are not the subject-matter of a Science, it is requisite that the correlations among them should be shown to hold in multitudinous cases. Evidence furnished by various races in various parts of the world, must be given before there can be rebutted the allegation that the inferences drawn are not true, or are but partially true. Indeed, of social phenomena more than all other phenomena, it must, because of their complexity, hold that only by comparisons of many examples can fundamental relations be distinguished from superficial relations.

In pursuance of an intention intimated in the preface to the first volume, I have here adopted a method of reference to authorities cited, which gives the reader the opportunity of consulting them if he wishes, though his attention to them is not solicited. At the end of the volume will be found the needful clues to the passages extracted; preceded Edition: current; Page: [v] by an explanatory note. Usually, though not uniformly, references have been given in those cases only where actual quotations are made.

PREFACE TO PART V.

The division of the Principles of Sociology herewith issued, deals with phenomena of Evolution which are, above all others, obscure and entangled. To discover what truths may be affirmed of political organizations at large, is a task beset by difficulties that are at once many and great—difficulties arising from unlikenesses of the various human races, from differences among the modes of life entailed by circumstances on the societies formed of them, from the numerous contrasts of sizes and degrees of culture exhibited by such societies, from their perpetual interferences with one another’s processes of evolution by means of wars, and from accompanying breakings-up and aggregations in ever-changing ways.

Satisfactory achievement of this task would require the labours of a life. Having been able to devote to it but two years, I feel that the results set forth in this volume must of necessity be full of imperfections. If it be asked why, being thus conscious that far more time and wider investigation are requisite for the proper treatment of a subject so immense and involved, I have undertaken it, my reply is that I have been obliged to deal with political evolution as a part of the general Theory of Evolution; and, with due regard to the claims of other parts, could not make a more prolonged preparation. Anyone who undertakes to trace the general laws of transformation which hold throughout all orders of phenomena, must have but an incomplete Edition: current; Page: [vi] knowledge of each order; since, to acquaint himself exhaustively with any one order, demanding, as it would, exclusive devotion of his days to it, would negative like devotion to any of the others, and much more would negative generalization of the whole. Either generalization of the whole ought never to be attempted, or, if it is attempted, it must be by one who gives to each part such time only as is requisite to master the cardinal truths it presents. Believing that generalization of the whole is supremely important, and that no one part can be fully understood without it, I have ventured to treat of Political Institutions after the manner implied: utilizing, for the purpose, the materials which, in the space of fourteen years, have been gathered together in the Descriptive Sociology, and joining with them such further materials as, during the last two years, have been accumulated by inquiries in other directions, made personally and by proxy. If errors found in this volume are such as invalidate any of its leading conclusions, the fact will show the impolicy of the course I have pursued; but if, after removal of the errors, the leading conclusions remain outstanding, this course will be justified.

Of the chapters forming this volume, the first seven were originally published in the Fortnightly Review in England; and, simultaneously, in monthly periodicals in America, France, and Germany. Chapters VIII and IX were thus published abroad but not at home. Chapters XVII and XVIII appeared here in the Contemporary Review; and at the same time in the before-mentioned foreign periodicals. The remaining chapters, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XIX, now appear for the first time; with the exception of chapter XI, which has already seen the light in an Italian periodical—La Rivista di Filosofia Scientifica.

PREFACE TO PART VI.

Three years and a half have elapsed since the issue of Political Institutions—the preceding division of the Principles of Sociology. Occupation with other subjects has been one cause of this long delay; but the delay has been in a much greater degree caused by ill-health, which has, during much of the interval, negatived even that small amount of daily work which I was previously able to get through.

Two other parts remain to be included in Vol. II—Professional Institutions and Industrial Institutions. Whether these will be similarly delayed, I cannot of course say. I entertain hopes that they may be more promptly completed; but it is possible, or even probable, that a longer rather than a shorter period will pass before they appear—if they ever appear at all.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Notwithstanding precautions, errors creep in where many pieces of evidence are given. The detection of these is a service rendered by critics which is commonly of more value than other services rendered by them; and which, in some cases, partially neutralizes their disservices.

I have myself had special, difficulties to encounter in maintaining correctness. Even with unshaken health, it would have been impossible for me to read the five hundred and odd works from which the materials for the Principles of Sociology have been extracted; and, as it is, having been long in a state in which reading tells upon me as much Edition: current; Page: [viii] as writing, I have been obliged to depend mainly on the compilations made for me, and some years ago published under the title of Descriptive Sociology, joined with materials collected by assistants since that time. Being conscious that in the evidence thus gathered, there would inevitably be a per-centage of errors, I lately took measures to verify all the extracts contained in the first volume of the Principles of Sociology: fortunately obtaining the aid of a skilled bibliographer, Mr. Tedder, the librarian of the Athenæum Club. The result was not unsatisfactory. For though there were found many mistakes, literal and verbal, yet out of more than 2,000 statements quoted, two only were invalidated: one losing its point and the other being cancelled.

With this division of the work I followed what seemed a better course, but not with better result. While it was standing in type and before any of it was printed, I had all the extracts compared with the passages from which they were copied; and expected thus to insure perfect correctness. But though apparent errors were removed, two unapparent errors remained. In one case, the gentleman who had made for me an extract from the Records of the Past, had misunderstood a story translated from the hieroglyphics: a thing easy to do, since the meanings of the translations are often not very clear. And in the other case, an extract concerning the Zulus had been broken off too soon: the copyist not having, as it seems, perceived that a subsequent sentence greatly qualified the sense. Unfortunately, when giving instructions for the verification of extracts, I did not point out the need for a study of the context in every case; and hence, the actual words quoted proving to be correctly given, the errors of meaning passed unrectified.

Beyond removal of these mis-statements, two changes of expression have been made for the purpose of excluding perverse misinterpretations.