120 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
utopists, all seem to be merely exponents of rival schools of thought, united only as a group whose interests are theoretical, in opposition to the group of statesmen and ecclesiastical organ- izers, philanthropists, and educationists whose one bond of union again is apt to be merely that their interests are practical. It is the privilege of him who is a student both of sociological history and of historical sociology to see that rival schools and opposing parties are not in the long run isolated bodies of doctrine, or antagonistic sects, but different ways of approaching the great problem how to live. In Condorcet we see a man with a pas- sion for righteous action, but convinced that action cannot be righteous unless it is based on the fullest knowledge which con- temporary science and history can yield. Like Kant, he knew and realized that action without theory is blind, and theory with- out action is empty. We see him therefore assiduously exploring all the accessible avenues of approach to sociology. How deep a habit it must have become with him to alternate and combine thought and action, theory and practice, we realize when we see him capable of dispassionate sociological reflection in the very crisis of his life. He alone, said Comte, continued in the storm of the Revolution regenerative meditation.
That is tantamount to saying that he combined and fused in his personality a real and living unification of the science of sociology and the art of social practice.
VICTOR BRAN FORD.
LONDON.
DISCUSSION.
[In the absence of Mr. Branford, the foregoing lecture was read by the chairman of the club. The discussion that followed was stenographically reported. Students of social psychology and of advanced pedagogy will cer- tainly find the report worth reading. It is accordingly appended. It contains instructive evidence about the reaction of middle-class Englishmen, above the median line in education, upon a discussion which sociologists would regard as quite free from technicalities, and unusually direct and lucid in style. EDITORS. 1
A: I think all our feelings must be sympathetic toward the chairman, who has made such a gallant effort in our behalf ; and I think a little sympathy is due to ourselves, for, without saying anything against the merits of the paper and they are many yet I think the effect of it upon our minds must have been
