Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/550

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536 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

enjoy, and the harmony between the two can only be accounted for, as stated, by adaptation." '

I have quoted these passages to show how careful I was to draw the distinction clearly between static and dynamic sociology and to disclaim all pretension to having attempted to treat the former subject. I would not have done so if there had not been numerous indications that certain persons, teachers of sociology in our great universities, look upon my works as practically covering the whole of that great science. I certainly deserve no such compliment, and positive harm might result, not only to the student but to the science, from perpetuating the mistake. All I have pretended to do has been, after looking over this vast field and discovering certain neglected patches, to proceed as best I could to cultivate these, leaving the larger areas to those better equipped for their culture. But I certainly did exert myself to draw the boundary lines as carefully as possible, and to show in the most fundamental way how the statical phenomena differ from the dynamical ones. Much more stress was, of course, laid upon the essential nature of dynamic agencies in society. Starting upon the basic distinction of feeling and function, I rang all the changes that could be produced upon this fundamental antinomy. Indeed, so forcibly did it strike me that I made an exception in its favor, and departed from my otherwise fixed policy of publishing no part of my philosophy in advance of the complete work, and three years before that work appeared I read a paper on "Feeling and Function as Factors in Human Development" before the section of Anthro- pology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Boston in 1880, reports of which appeared in the daily press, 2 and an abstract prepared by myself was published in Science* in which not only was the general principle fully stated, but a classification of the social forces was given, substantially identical with that finally drawn up and published in Dynamic Sociology (Vol. I, p. 472).

1 Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I, pp. 701-702.

2 See the Boston Advertiser for September I, 1880, p. I.

  • Science, Original Series, Vol. I, New York, October 23, 1880, pp. 210-211.