REVIEWS 545
models and the origination of inventions as copies tor imitative dif fusion.
The chapters which deal with the organization of communication, the mechanism of social volition, reflex social action, etc., are full of interesting concrete illustrations, and contain much of valuable sug- gestion and comment. The attempts, however, to reduce to mathe- matical precision such problems as, what proportion of the population an adequate e"lite should include, or how long it takes a social volition to penetrate the social mass, result in half-admitted failure and leave the impression of wasted effort. Throughout the last chapters of the book M. Novicow's two hobbies, free trade and international federa- tion, canter with loose rein and even the hint of an active spur.
On the whole, the book must be regarded as an organization of somewhat familiar materials, rather than as a distinct contribution to the theories being worked out by the psychological school represented by Tarde, Durkheim, De Greef, Baldwin, and others.
GEORGE E. VINCENT.
Christian Missions and Social Progress. A Sociological Study of Foreign Missions. By REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. Flem- ing H. Revell Company, 1897. ^ n two volumes. Vol. I. Pp. 468.
THIS volume is the first part of an elaborate discussion of the social condition of the peoples among whom Christian missions are sustained, and of the social results which are claimed for those missions. It was inevitable that discussion should reach this point, and this book is a pioneer. The literature of missions is already rich in materials, but it has not yet been treated from the standpoint of general culture-his- tory. Indeed, the work under examination is not written with scien- tific method and purpose ; it is distinctly the plea of an advocate, and must so be read. The advocate is well informed, honest, patient, and means to be generous to those who are criticised. In the nature of the case, where whole nations and races are under view, the chances of error are multiplied. It would require minute and encyclopedic knowledge of the customs, laws, and sentiments of all mankind to verify or test all the numerous statements in this volume. The vices of the non-Christian races are described in two hundred and eighty pages, a long, tragic, and pitiful catalogue of the demonic side of
