Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXII. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. "The evolution of governments, general and local, as determined by natural causes; their several types and metamorphoses; their increasing complexity and specialization; and the progressive limitation of their functions." I. PRELIMINARY. 434 In pursuing sociological inquiries, and especially those on which we are now entering, we must, as much as possible, exclude whatever emotions the facts are calculated to excite, and attend solely to the interpretation of tho facts.1 435. We must bo prepared to recognize the usefulness of the superstitions of primitive man. We must not let our feelings blind us to the proofs that inter-social conflicts have furthered the development of social structures. Moreover, dislikes to governments of certain kinds must not prevent us from seeing their fitnesses to their circumstances. So, too, with tho associated ownership of man by man. In brief, trustworthy interpretations of social arrangements imply an almost passionless existence. 436. Maintenance of this mental attitude will be furthered by keeping "before ourselves the truth that in human actions the absolutely'bad may be the relatively good, and the absolutely good may be the relatively bad. 437. Another of our ordinary conceptions has to be much 1 The subject-matter of this division is treated in far greater detail in Mr. Spencer's ancillary work--The Study of Sociology. widened before political evolution can be rightly interpreted. The words "civilized" and " savage" must have meanings given to them differing greatly from those which are current. That broad contrast usually drawn wholly to the advantage of the men who form large nations, and to the disadvantage of the men who form simple groups, a better...