To the Editor of the "Nor Sin,—May I be allowed to correct a ourrent misconception regarding nature of, and my connexion division of Herbert Spencer's works which bears the title Descriptive Sociology Many years #go, I undertook for Mr. Herbert Spencer to prepare the volume {or this series desliog with the Chinese i in. Owing to the natare of the work and to my being able to devote to it bat a very time per day, it naters long period, a delay which, had its advantages, since I was al incorporate valaable material published during the interval. The time set for the tark was that used by the majority at those places where I ba for card-playing and similar indoor recreations. As I bad to refrain from these, in order to avoid unreasonable postponement of its completion, it became known that I was occupied in much time and nee it was popularly asserted that I was translating Herbert Spencer into Chinese Thoogb, as occasion arose, I denied that I was engaged on any such work, I did not go farther out of my way to contradict this false assertion, because I thought that the work, when complete, would speak for itself. ' Trans-Luting Herbert Spencer into Chinese" might or might not be a desirable task to accomplish (and though portions of Herbert Spencer's philosophy bare been translated into Chinese by Dr. Yen and others, a translation of the whole of the Syatem of Synthetic Philosophy and of all Spencer's other works would, I think, be both impracticable, owing to lack of equivalent phraseology in Chinese, and impolitic, owing to the exceedingly small Chinese public to which it woald appeal, and could only be carried oat at jormous lost). Bat I bare certainly not been engaged on any such undertaking. Romour and fact are here, as de ly was of an entirely different natare; bat thing is done, I hear it not only implied, bat definitely stated, that I haw ated Herbert Spencer into Chinese!"—s tak which " lady friend recently facetiously remarked was bardly necessary, as Herbert Spencer's writings were sufficiently Chinese hi eady!—thus betraying lack of tance with aystem of philosophy remarkable for i I would ask, therefore, both in the interests. the trath, and because it is, I consider, deplorable that Englishmen, shove all, should be so ignorant of their philosophers in general and especially of one whose works have been appreciated and hin dnetrines advantageously adopted in Germany and America and to explain briefly what Spencer's aystem of philosophy is, and what actually is the share I have bad in the portion of it above-mentioned.
Stated in as few words as possible, the system of Synthetic Philosophy ves an account of the Universe in its entirety. It interprets all phenomena by the law of avolation, which Spencer was the first to define (in the most abstract definition ever given, inevitably from its universal scope) and to apply to all orders of phenomena in-ie, organic, and saper-organic. His system begins by drawing the line between the Unknowable and the Knowable, showing what we cannot know, and why we cannot know it. After this, the Knowable is interpreted in terms of the me in ible redistributi 0 tion is one phase, and dissolution ite complement) resulting from the absence of a bomegencity that is infinite and abeolate. It having previously been social generally held, that the stellar systems in general, and thie solar system particular, and all tbattheroinie—plants, animale, men, minds. societies, morals, etc,, had been specially created in ready-made form, and brought from somamhere else and placed where they are, it was not sufficient to state, per contra, that they had growo, but it was Firat Principles, two volamas of the system are devoted to Biology, two to Psychology, three to Sociology, and two to Ethice.
It is with the Sociology that Tam immediately concerned. Spetc Principles of Sociology, tormivg vole 6 to 8 of his system, inductive verification of his instances taken from all kinds at all times of the world's history, In order to have these in systematic form, he the Descriptine Sociology. by the way, bad the eathasiastio approval of no lees an sathority thoo M. Tame. Ite general ature may best be described in Spencer's orna words and abridged extracts, otberwite classified, on which the statements contained in the Tables are based. The condensed 8 uniform gi sion of Tables, the phenomena of all orders which each society presente—constitute an account of its morchology, its physiology, and (if " society ing @ known history) its development. On the other band, the colleeted Extracts, serving as authorities for the statements in the Tables, are (or, rather, will be, when the work i plete,) 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 sll societies, may be separately studied with convenience. digests of materials to be thas brought together under the title of Descriptire Sociology, are intended to supply the student of Social Science with date standing towards his conclusions in relation like that in which accounts of the stroctares and fanctions of different types of animals stand to the conelasions of the Biol there had been such criptions of different kinds of organisms, 8 made it possible to compare the con-noxious, and forms and actions, and modes of origin, of their parte, 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 institutions and actions of societies of various types and various stages of evolution 0 arranged a8 to furnish means of readily ascertaining what phenomena are habitually associated.
The compilation of the Chinese volume of thie series involved, firet, a division of the history, fr m the earliest times to the prerent day, into periods, the old unscientific dynastic division the only one hitherto adopted by writers on Chit This done, there ing, seleotion, abridgement, and classification of all the existing information on Chios, implying more research in the whole of the relevant literature, native and for-olga, dealing with the land and its people than be hitherto been carried out by ing or dead. Itie factory, therefore, not onl; ly to fin Auto-Herbert Spencer's opinion of required for work of this ud in his Biography his apprecia of my own its, bat aleo to tic letters from many whose appreciation I doubly apprecise on account of the value their ud lives give to their expressed In every one of these letters reference is made to the enormous amount of labour involved. The labour, indeed, is even more than the wartac ofthe. work. iteclf beceune mach had to be cast aside as irrelevant or unreliable, jost as in sifting heap of the proportion mall compared with the though the labour of sifting remai being io most cases in ere proportion to the amount of liable material discovered), Whilst the same information was repeated io book after book, information of the kind required was in most cases only found after mach laborious research. The fact that the retained material, as finally red, consists of about mill the tota Even in ich seem comparatively ple, the natare of the work, if properly understood, will be seen to have involved " vast amount of labour. might seem easy, for instance, to write down the names of the Chief Persons who have feared in Ohinese history. Yet a little thought will show that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.