REVIEWS 279
tainly welcome this. So far as essentials are concerned, Dr. Ward has packed as much into his three recent papers on "Contemporary Soci- ology" (AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Vol. VII, Nos. 4, 5, and 6) as this book contains. It is divided into four parts, following a preface on " The Actual Status of the Study of Sociology," and an introduction on "The Precursors of Sociology." Part I treats of "Sociology Based on Physics and Natural Science;" Part II is entitled "Sociology Based upon Biology;" Part III deals with "Soci- ology Based upon Psychology; " and Part IV designates its subject as "Sociology Based upon Social Science."
More writers are cited than in Earth's Philosophic der Geschichte als Sociologie, but there is no advance upon Earth's diagnosis of the tendencies betrayed by people at each of their view-points. Dr. Squillache has presented a very well-balanced account of the different schools of sociological doctrine, but, while his estimates of the writers are interesting, they are by no means novel. Students of sociology need such a text as this, and it is a matter of congratulation that the Italians are producing a literature of the subject worthy to be used in the higher institutions of the country.
A. W. S.
D'ou nous venons. Essais suivis d'une Etude sur la decadence des peuples. Par LEON POUTET. Paris : Fontemoing. Pp. 381.
THIS is a sort of thesaurus of picturesque details picturing evolu- tion, and especially social evolution, at different stages of its progress, and in different divisions of human activity. It is hardly a philosophy,
but rather a panorama of evolution.
A. W. S.
Les classes sociales: Analyse de la vie sociale. Par ARTHUR BAUER. Ouvrage recompense par 1'Institut de France. Paris: Giard et Briere. Pp. 359.
WITHOUT finding in this book a very long journey toward the goal of sociology, we may still pronounce it worthy of serious attention by the most competent sociologists. Its object is to discover what are "the social facts." The second chapter discusses the possibility of a social science. The third chapter analyzes various methods of social science. The fourth chapter presents "the method," and the fifth
