The study of sociology / by Herbert Spencer.

  • Herbert Spencer
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The study of sociology / by Herbert Spencer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    able laws. I submit that it contains no such thing. Let me illustrate by saying, What if I wrote as follows Upon the ground oi what is termed liberty, flagrant crimes have been committed : and (likewise) in the name of law and ordej, human rights have been trodden under foot.’ “ 1 should not by thus writing condemn liberty, or condemn law and order; but condemn only the inferences that men draw, or say they draw, fiom them. Up to that point the parallel is exact: and I hope it will be seen that Mr. Spencer has inadvertently put upon my words a meaning they do not bear. L sing the parallel thus far for the sake of clearness, I carry it no farther. For while I am ready to give in my adhesion to liberty, and likewise to law and order, on evolution and on unchangeable laws I had rather be excused. “ Tlie words with which I think Madame de Stael ends Corinne, are the best for me :—Je ne veux ni la bldmer, ni I’absoudre. Before I could presume to give an opinion on evolution, or on unchangeable laws, I should wish to know more clearly and more fully than I yet know, the meaning attached to those phrases by the chief apostles of the doctrines; and very likely even after accomplishing this preliminary stage, I might lind myself insufficiently supplied with the knowledge required to draw the line between true and false. I have then no repugnance to any conclusions whatever, legitimately arising upon well-ascertained facts or well-tested reasonings : and my complaint is that the functions of the Almighty as Creator and Governor of the world are denied upon grounds, which, whatever be the extension given to the phrases I have quoted, appear to me to be utterly and mani- festly insufficient to warrant such denial. “ I am desirous to liberate myself from a supposition alien, I think, to my whole habits of mind and life. But I do not desire to effect this by the method of controversy; and if Mr. Spencer does not see, or does not think, that he has mistaken the meaning of my words, I have no more darts to throw ; and will do myself, indeed, the pleasure of con- cluding with a frank avowal that his manner of handling what he must naturally consider to be a gross piece of folly is as far as possible from being offensive. “ Believe me, “ Most faithfully yours, “ W. E. Gladstone.”
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