WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ; AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. [For particulars, see end of the volume.] DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY. COMPILED AND ABSTRACTED BY PROF. DUNCAN, DR. SCHEPPIG, AND MR. COLLIER. 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; [For particulars, see end of the volume.] INSTITUTIONS: BEING PART IV. OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. (The first Portion of Vol. II.) BY HERBERT SPENCER. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; 1879. 265. i. 400 PREFACE. Or the chapters herewith published, constituting Part IV of The Principles of Sociology, seven have already seen the light not, however, all of them in England. For reasons which need not be specified, it happened that the chapter on Titles was not, like those preceding it, published in the Fortnightly Review at the same time that it was published in periodicals in America, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Russia; and it is therefore new to English readers. Five other chapters, namely IV, IX, X, XI, and XII, have not hitherto appeared either at home or abroad. For deciding to issue by itself, this and each succeeding division of Vol. II of the Principles of Sociology, I have found several reasons. One is that each division, though related to the rest, nevertheless forms a whole so far distinct, that it may be fairly well understood without the rest. Another is that large volumes (and Vol. II threatens to exceed in bulk Vol. I) are alarming; and that many who are deterred by their size from reading them, will not fear to undertake separately the parts of which they are composed. A third and chief reason is that postponement of issue until completion of the entire volume, necessitates an undesirable delay in the issue of its earlier divisions substantially-independent works being thus kept in manuscript much longer than need be. The contents of this Part, are not, indeed, of such kind as to make me anxious that publication of it as a whole should be immediate. But the contents of the next Part, treating of Political Institutions, will, I think, be of some importance; and I should regret having to keep it in my portfolio for a year, or perhaps two years, until Parts VI, VII, and VIII, included in the second volume, were written. |