PREFACE
Of the essays collected in this volume the following are, so far as I know, now printed for the first time: the title-essay, "A Parable," "Advancing Social and Political Organization in the United States," the "Memorial Day Address," the "Introductory Lecture to Courses in Political and Social Science," and "The Predicament of Sociological Study." The titles of the first and last of these are not the ones which stood on the manuscripts. The first was called "Socialism," but I have taken the liberty of renaming it in order to give both to it and to this volume a more distinctive title. The last was headed "Sociology" and required to be distinguished from the essay on Sociology in "War and Other Essays." The long essay on "Organization in the United States" is a find which should rejoice at least those former students of Sumner who pursued the study of American history with him. I should add to this list of new material the Memorial Addresses, which were included at request; that of Mr. Baldwin, however, has already been published among the records of the Yale class of 1885.
The presence of new Sumner essays in this volume, as in preceding ones, bears witness to the author's habit of withholding his writings from publication. Though I knew of this tendency I have been astonished at the amount, and also at the degree of elaboration, of the written manuscript found among his literary effects. Manuscripts were written and re-written, and then laid aside, apparently with no thought of publication. Meanwhile the eager mind of the author pressed on to other ranges, and
