DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY; OR GROUPS OF SOCIOLOGICAL FACTS, CLASSIFIED AND ARRANGED BY HERBERT SPENCER, COMPILED AND ABSTRACTED BY DAVID DUNCAN, M.A., Professor of Logic, &c., in the Presidency College, Madras; RICHARD SCHEPPIG, Ph.D.; and JAMES COLLIER. EXTRACT FROM THE PROVISIONAL PREFACE. Something to introduce the work of which an instalment is annexed, seems needful, in anticipation of the time when completion of a volume will give occasion for a Permanent Preface. In preparation for The Principles of Sociology, requiring as bases of induction large accumulations of data, fitly arranged for comparison, I, some twelve years ago, commenced, by proxy, the collection and organization of facts presented by societies of different types, past and present; being fortunate enough to secure the services of gentlemen competent to carry on the process in the way I wished. Though this classified compilation of materials was entered upon solely to facilitate my own work; yet, after having brought the mode of classification to a satisfactory form, and after having had some of the Tables filled up, I decided to have the undertaking executed with a view to publication; the facts collected and arranged for easy reference and convenient study of their relations, being so presented, apart from hypothesis, as to aid all students of Social Science in testing such conclusions as they have drawn and in drawing others. The Work consists of three large Divisions. Each comprises a set of Tables exhibiting the facts as abstracted and classified, and a mass of quotations and abridged abstracts otherwise classified, on which the statements contained in the Tables are based. The condensed statements, arranged after a uniform manner, give, in each Table or succession of Tables, the phenomena of all orders which each society presents-constitute an account of its morphology, its physiology, and (if a society having a known history) its development. On the other hand, the collected Extracts, serving as authorities for the statements in the Tables, are (or, rather will be, when the Work is complete) classified primarily according to the kinds of phenomena to which they refer, and secondarily according to the societies exhibiting these phenomena; so that each kind of phenomenon as it is displayed in all societies, may be separately studied with convenience. In further explanation I may say that the classified compilations and digests of materials to be thus brought together under the title of Descriptive Sociology, are intended to supply the student of Social Science with data, standing towards his conclusions in a relation like that in which accounts of the structures and functions of different types of animals stand to the conclusions of the biologist. Until there had been such systematic descriptions of different kinds of organisms, as made it possible to compare the connexions, and forms, and actions, and modes of origin, of their parts, the Science of Life could make no progress. And in like manner, before there can be reached in Sociology, generalizations having a certainty making them worthy to be called scientific, there must be definite accounts of the institu tions and actions of societies of various types, and in various stages of evolution, so arranged as to furnish the means of readily ascertaining what social phenomena are habitually associated. Respecting the tabulation, devised for the purpose of exhibiting social phenomena in a .convenient way, I may explain that the primary aim has been so to present them that their relations of simultaneity and succession may be seen at one view. As used for delineating uncivilized societies, concerning which we have no records, the tabular form serves only to display the various social traits as they are found to co-exist. But as used for delineating societies having known histories, the tabular form is so employed as to exhibit not only the connexions of phenomena existing at the same time, but also the connexions of phenomena that succeed one another. By reading horizontally across a Table at any period, there may be gained a knowledge of the traits of all orders displayed by the society at that period; while by reading down each column, there may be gained a knowledge of the modifications which each trait, structural or functional, underwent during successive periods. Of course, the tabular form fulfils these purposes but approximately. To preserve complete simultaneity in the statements of facts, as read from side to side of the Tables, has proved impracticable; here much had to be inserted, and there little; so that complete correspondence in time could not be maintained. Moreover, it has not been possible to carry out the mode of classification in a theoretically-complete manner, by increasing the number of columns as the classes of facts multiply in the course of Civilization. To represent truly the progress of things, each column should divide and sub-divide in successive ages, so as to indicate the successive differentiations of the phenomena. But typographical difficulties have negatived this: a great deal has had to be left in a form which must be accepted simply as the least unsatisfactory. The three Divisions constituting the entire work, comprehend three groups of societies:(1) Uncivilized Societies; (2) Civilized Societies-Extinct or Decayed: (3) Civilized SocietiesRecent or Still Flourishing. These divisions have at present reached the following stages :DIVISION I.-Uncivilized Societies. Commenced in 1867 by the gentleman I first engaged, Mr. DAVID DUNCAN, M.A. (now Professor of Logic, &c., in the Presidency College, Madras), and continued by him since he left England, this part of the work is complete. It contains four parts, including "Types of Lowest Races," the "Negrito Races," the "Malayo-Polynesian Races," the "African Races," the "Asiatic Races," and the "American Races." DIVISION II.-Civilized Societies-Extinct or Decayed. On this part of the work Dr. RICHARD SCHEPPIG has been engaged since January, 1872. The first instalment, including the four Ancient American Civilizations, was issued in March, 1874. A second instalment, containing "Hebrews and Phoenicians," will shortly be issued. DIVISION III.-Civilized Societies-Recent or Still Flourishing. Of this Division the first instalment, prepared by Mr. JAMES COLLIER, of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh Universities, was issued in August, 1873. This presents the English Civilization. It covers seven consecutive Tables; and the Extracts occupy seventy pages folio. The next part, presenting in a still more extensive form the French Civilization, is now in the press. The successive parts belonging to these several Divisions, issued at intervals, are composed of different numbers of Tables and different numbers of Pages, The Uncivilized Societies occupy four parts, each containing a dozen or more Tables, with their accompanying Extracts. Of the Division comprising Extinct Civilized Societies, the first part contains four, and the second contains two. While of Existing Civilized Societies, the records of which are so much more extensive, each occupies a single part. March, 1880. H. S. |