NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 149
intellectual structure is explained by our social life. There is a social grammar, as well as a social logic, and that grammar is a science of life. The entire world appears as a society in process of formation. Selection in general is the choosing of beings the most capable of satisfying the fundamental appetite, not only in the present moment, but in the whole course of their existence, not only in their individual life, but in the race as well. The attempts to reduce society to an organism ought to be opposed. If society is an organism, it is such only in its rudimentary stages. The chief difference between an organism and society is that in an organism the cells are deprived of their true consciousness for the benefit of the whole, while in society the individual posesses the true consciousness, and social consciousness is only the coinci- dence of individual consciousnesses in certain common sentiments. All admit that it is impossible to treat society as an organism without extending the organic idea to conditions which have developed the social life of humanity. Idealistic monism posits universal relationships and a universal society in affirming the identity of that which is within with that which is without us. A. FouiLLEE, "Necessite" d'une Interpretation Psychologique et Sociologique du Monde," Revue Philosophique, May 1896.
The Fabian Society. This society was founded some thirteen years ago by a group of obscure social reformers, whose avowed object was to effect the moral regen- eration of society. The society accepts the Collectivist doctrine with all of its conse- quences, and is a powerful antagonist of anarchism in all its forms. That which is peculiar to the society is its method:* it proposes to conquer by delay by education However, it also believes in striking when the time comes, and striking hard. The members of the society are divided into local groups, and are expected to participate in the work according to their power and their means. The total membership is about six hundred ; it does not permit indiscriminate additions to its membership. The mem- bership includes many journalists, poets, economists, historians, members of the Lon- don School Board and County Council, and similar influential personages. The soci ety publishes many pamphlets, differing from much socialistic literature, inasmuch as every fact and statistic quoted is carefully authenticated. Their most important publi- cation is the volume entitled: "Essays on Socialism," which has had an enormous cir- culation. SIDNEY WEBB, in The Revue de Paris for March i8g6.
Why Progress Is by Leaps. Each new discovery in science and art becomes an aid to all previous discoveries. Such an invention is not a mere addition to man's achievements it is a multiplier of them. The sciences and arts are series of permuta- tions, where the newest of the factors, because newest, multiplies all the factors that went before. This is well illustrated in the use of fire by primitive man, or in that of electricity in recent times. Electricity in the past century has proved to be the creator of a thousand material resources; the cornerstone of physical regeneration; a stimulus to the moral sense, by making what otherwise were an empty wish rise to sympathy ful- filled ; while in more closely binding up the good of the bee with the welfare of the hive, it is an educator and confirmerof every social bond. The principle of permutation, illus- trated in both fire and electricity, interprets not only the vast expansion of human empire won by a new weapon of prime power, it explains also why these accessions are brought under rule with ever-accelerated pace. Every new talent but clears the way for the talents newer still, which are born fn.m it. This principle accounts for the leaps of progress, human and general, for the acccl< hat progress, and for there being
chapters missing in its story. C-EORGE II.KS, in The Popular Science Monthly for June 1896.
Solution of the Race Problem. If the negroes were evenly distributed through- out the United States they would constitute only about 12 per cent, of the population and there would be no race problem. The race problem exists because of conccntra- M certain localities. These are (i) lowlands along the Atlantic coast, where there are 2,700,000 negroes and 1,800,000 whites; (2) the Mississippi bottom-., when- tin-H- are 501,405 whites and 1,101.1*4 negroes; an<! ( the Texas Black belt, where there are 82,310 whites and 126,297 blacks. Elsewhn ,, n > 10 to 30 per
cent, of the .total population. In only one of these black districts are the negroes
