L. F. WARD'S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. 305 Dynamic Sociology, or Applied Social Science, as based upon Statical Sociology and the less Complex Sciences. By LESTER F. WABD, A.M., 2 vols. New York : Appleton, 1883. Pp. 706, 690. This acute, original, and somewhat bizarre book might be succinctly described as ' Practical Proposals for a Short Cut to Utopia,' or rather, its able author intends it for that : but in reality its proposals are on the whole quite as impracticable as those of most other previous realistic Utopia-mongers. In the main, indeed, the work is fundamentally political in its motive, and as such it would demand no notice here : but the treatment is so purely philosophical, and the psychological passages are so numerous and often so interesting, that it calls for some slight criticism, from this side at least, on the part even of a specially philosophical and psychological journal. Here in brief is a bald resume of Mr. "Ward' s central envisagement of the great sociological problem. Happiness is the final end of all human endeavour. It can only be attained or increased for the mass of men by means of Progress. But Progress hitherto has proceeded by the wasteful natural method of evolution. This implies a constant rhythm, a sort of tidal wave, now advancing, now receding, in which the total gain is measured only by the excess of the forward impulse over the nearly equal backward one. Natural selection is a slow and uneconomical process : artificial selection is far more rapid, direct, and effective. In the one case, the better organisms only slowly survive in a life and death struggle with the worse- endowed ; in the other case, the best breeders are chosen before- hand, and the conditions are rendered as easy as possible for the most desirable among the offspring. Even so sociology and social development must pass from their present passive or natural stage to an active, artificial, and teleological stage. At present, whatever advance man makes is made by natural selec- tion, and is in one sense the result of chance. But just as man has directed the development of his domestic animals by artificial selection, so must he direct the development of his own social organism by the application of a teleological method. The old slow and imperceptible genetic progress must be superseded by a new and rapid purposive progress. The social forces must be controlled by intelligent design. How is this end to be attained? By the diffusion of knowledge. It is want of knowledge that keeps men back from progress. If every man were fully and properly educated, progress would be pursued as a definite aim, sociology would enter the dynamic phase, and happiness would be in train of universal acquisition. Education is Mr. Ward's panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to : the cure for our curse of overworked millions on the one hand, and unemployed millions on the other. Viewed in itself, this central theme is so familiar, trite, and almost trivial, that Mr. Ward might seem to have hard work in
