and of which the total result is not intended by anybody. Evolutionary progress accompanies and influences intentional progress, but would not exist without it. The survival of the fittest in the social world is not the true counterpart of the survival of the fittest in the physiological world; it is rather the domination of the fittest. The struggle which causes social progress is a struggle of the few against the few. It is a struggle fundamentally different from the Darwinian struggle for existence. Progress is mainly the result of a struggle, not to execute work in the best way, but a struggle to give the best orders for its execution. It is the struggle to employ, not the struggle to be employed, that is the main cause of progress. This struggle of the few against the few, resulting in the domination of the fittest, is as necessary for the maintenance of civilization as it is for its progress. It is this struggle which causes the survival of the largest number of great men, not the largest number of men of average capacity, that is the cause of progress. In any study of sociology, therefore, the first step to be taken is to study the part played by great men. (W. H. Mallock in Contemporary Review, December 1895, and January 1896.)
Geography and Sociology.—All who have considered the philosophy of history have taken account of three factors: race, epoch, environment. Whatever the relative importance, all writers recognize in the latter a fundamental factor. Most of them, however, after formally making mention of it in their introductory remarks, have dismissed it from further consideration. A marked change is taking place in this respect. Mr. Freeman and Mr. Bryce are the apostles of the movement. The new conception makes geography subordinate to history and yet superior to it. It stands to history as anatomy does to art. It becomes a branch of economic as well as of historical inquiry, deriving from that fact twofold importance. In every science which deals with man a similar diversion of opinion can be traced; one which emphasizes the importance of the hereditary influences, the other those of environment. But in the latter a fundamental distinction must be made between physical and social environment. The importance of this distinction lies in the fact that with the advance in culture, it is the latter, subtler aspect which becomes progressively of greater importance. The scope and purpose of this new phase of geography, the study of physical environment, are well defined. It is a branch of economics, with a direct bearing upon history and sociology. In a sense the science maybe termed merely a mode of sociological investigation; and in this sense there is no limit to its application. (W. Z. Ripley in the Political Science Quarterly for December 1895.)
Bulletin of Events in the Field of City Government.—First number, November 1895, contains 16 pages of concise report of important municipal events in New York and thirteen other cities. Second number, equal space, to New York and nine other cities, with four pages of miscellaneous information. A valuable conspectus of civic life in representative centers. (Published monthly by The City Club of New York, 27 Pine street.)
Neither Individualism nor Collectivism.—Individualism and collectivism are the great antitheses, the two contradictory solutions of an eternal problem. The history of this autonomy is in reality the history of human thought. Whoever solves this holds the key to all the great theoretical and practical questions in social science, in philosophy, in religion. But a social Christianity ofitrs a conciliation of these two contradictory terms. The religious question and the social question are one. Individualism is insufficient in both, for it undervalues solidarity. So, on the other hand, the collectivist conception is insufficient, for it exaggerates solidarity. For the socialist the individual is only an instrument, a tool, a member of a class. The conception of the state in antiquity is essentially socialistic. The distinction of species and individual is only relative. The individual in the abstract does not exist; nor does society in the abstract. That which does exist is the individual associated, and society individualized. And in the individual associated, in this social man, is found both individual and species, organ and organism. These are the two fundamental principles, individualism and solidarity. The two conceptions are complementary on one condition, however; that is the fusion of the one in the other and the formation of a conception altogether
