REVIEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

REVIEWS.

The Study of Sociology. By. Herbert . Spencer. (Second Notice.) To speak favourably of a writer whose conclusions, in tlie main, are in accordance with our own, is a comparatively easy task. Onr difficulties begin when we cease to folio w our quondam guide, and have to give intelligible reasons for our apostasy. It will be convenient when showing where we dissent from Mr Spencer, to take the points of divergence, not in the order of their relative importance, but in the order of their appearance in his book. This method will bring us, almost at the outset, face to face with Mr Spencer's treatment of the " Great Man Theory" of history—a theory upon which he pours the unmeasured vials of his contempt— regarding it, as we think, unreasonably |as a passive denial of a Social Science. We cannot help thinking that I our author is here really fighting with a shadow—that it is a mere question of terms—or, at most, a repetition of the well-worn story of the Golden and Silver Shield. Few of the most ardent hero-worshippers—-not even Oarlyle himself would be hardy enough to deny that ' "the genesis of a great man depends on 1 the antecedents furnished by the society he is born in." Who ever dreamed of "a Wait, with all his inventive power, living in a tribe ignorant of iron, or in a tribe that could only get as much iron as a fire blown by hand-bellows will snislt ¥*■ Wh: t the hero worshippers contend for is simply this—that, as in a cornfield, where the'-^ conditions of growth are apparently alike one particular stalk will shoot far above the rest—or, aa in a forest, a single trunk will tower conspicuously above its fellows -—so from time to time do men arise whoso intellectual, or it may be, whose nya-al stature, when compared with that of even the ablest of their contemporaries, may well be termed prodigious. And further, that the influence of such men, not only upon their own generation, but upon all succeeding generations of men, is incomparably greater than anything thai can • "- be accounted for by snch convenient foraiulfe as "transmitted instincts," or " the spirit of the age." It matters noi to onr argument whether such exceptional beings are to be regarded as instruments raised up by Providence for special Sads, or whether they "are to be looked upon simply as phenomena, for which, in. -. the present imperfect state of our knowledge, there is no accounting. Tte exceptional man, the wonder-worker, is there, and cannot be ignored merely because we are not prepared with. a neat theory as io his. origin that shall be acceptable to all parties._ We do not hesitate to take tli© special instance th»t M. Spencer adduces in support of hia doctrine, as confirmatory of our own view of the prodigious influence upon mankind that has occasionally been exercised by minds of the highest order—an influence that can scarcely be explained away by tho theory of "antecedent modifications." "Xenophon," he says, and we fully agree with him,•« could not have achiev/1 his celebrated feat had his Ten Thousand beon feeble, or cowardly, or imubordinato." Bufc, on the other hand, how many of the Ten Thousand, who, after ihe murder oi* their generals, remained for a whilo helpless as sheep without a shepherd, wonld have lived to hail the lon<*-sought-for waters of . the Black Sea, had they hot been encouraged when they fainted — urged forward when they shrank, and sternly repressed when they Were mutinous, by him who was the soul of that immortal retreat, the very memory of which would probably have perished long a*o but for the pen of the hero who has told the story of- hia own And comrades' exploits so well ? Again : — "Oaesar would never have made his conquests without disciplined troops, inheriting their prestige, and tactics and organisation from the Romans who lived before them." -let disciplined Roman legions, inheriting, in addition to all that they got from their remote ancestors, the mighty prestige of Caesar himself, were disgracefully beaton under tha' ft leadership of Varus,' by those very Germans whom the genius of the great commander had routed again and again a few years before. We do not deny "that the stra+egetical genius of Moltke would have triumphed in- no great campaigns had there not been a nation of some forty millions to supply soldiers, &c. ;" but wa ' do contend that, if a leader of anything like the great German strategist' 3 ability had directed the gallant but ill-coia-manded hosts of France, the disaster o£ Sedan would never have happened, and the historian of that campaign would have had a very different story.to tell. The inefficiency of all Government administration, as compared with that of ' private firms, is a favourite theme with Mr Spencer, We think that he has not "~- only greatly overstated his oase, but that the illustrations which he employs in support of his statements really prov© very little. He refers to what ha ia pleased to term three " avoidable" • catastrophes that had happened to men-of-w; r ■ within the previous twelvemonth, and ft goes on to say that "their frequency is further shown by tho fact that before the next chapter was published, two others ~— had occurred. The Lord Clyde ran aground in the Mediterranean, and the Royal Alfred was seven hours on tlie Ba- - ;hama reef, &c. We scarcely know to what conclusions we might not be driven - if wq were to adopt this style of argi*.

theUt. .It would be easy,-by pickihg but b a short period in the history, not of the o ■whole British mercantile marine, but of a I single large firm of shipowners, to show I that ourboasted private enterprise is pc- a casionally as powerless as Government n management to avert the most shocking p disasters. It would not require many p such catastrophes as that of the North- v fleet to balance the account againsfc Go- c vernment. "We are much mistaken if s the scandalous instances of private reck- a lessness and incapacity brought to liglit by t Mr Plimsoll would nofc incline the scale s grievously the other way. The huge r ironclad built for tho Brazilian Govern- 1: ment that, for aughfc we know, is still £ hanging helplessly on the ways at Mill- a wail, wifch a broken back, was builfc and i attempted to be launched by private en- 3 terprise aloue. Was it official or private 1 bunglers who were at such pains to build 1 the then largest steamboat in the world, i the Great Britain, in a narrow creek, i where au enormous expenditure had to , he incurred before she could possibly be 1 got down to the sea, thus repeating in < actual life an incident that seemed al- 1 most too improbable for fiction. For s even in childhood we had some difficulty 1 in swallowing that part of Crusoe's story i where he is described as hewing out a • big canoe, which be finds he cannot i gee into deep water without digging ] a canal several miles long. Private 1 sagacity also contrived to strand this no- • ble vessel on her second trip. We firmly i believe that our worst men-of war are better builfc, better manned, and better i commanded thau the choicest specimens i of the mercantile marine. And this is . just what might have been reasonably ex- • pected a priori, when it is considered that everything in the equipment of the man- '. of-war has been provided rather with an ■ eye to perfect efficiency than to economy. In the construction of the Royal Navy i the question "Will it pay?" i 3 seldom ' asked. But the primary object of the . private trader is to fit out his vessels at the least possible cost, consistent with their keeping afloat afc all, and, as recent revelations have shown, the constant tendency is to sacrifice safety and efficiency to cheapness. Nor should it be forgotten that the extraordinary notoriety given to every disaster that foefals the "royal navy," is a disturbing -element in estimating the relative frequency of failures in its administration and that of private shipowners. The Opposition alone may be trusted to exhibit the minutest blunder tlirough the largest and most distorted magnifying mediums. A gunboat in the Royal Navy will make more splash in going down, and will leavo a longer disturbance behind her, than was ever made by the foundering of a merchantman, like the London, of ten times her size. It is to the interest of no one but the penny-a-liner to dilate npoYi the gross incapacity shown in the wrecking of the scores of merchantmen that go down every year, without receiving more thau the briefest passing notice. We have been at pains to express ourselves very fully on thi3 point, because although we are altogether opposed to Government intermeddling in matters that can be better done by private enterprise, we expressly except from that category the building and general management of. the Royal Navy. We do not think that the honour of the British flag and the protection of Brifcish commerce can yet be safely, put up to public tender, even though the most respectable firms should be bidders, and tho penalties exacted for breach of contract should be measured by millions. Although we freely admit that in his passage-of-arms with Mr Matthew Arnold our author has by far the best ef it, we cannot leave unnoticed a passage which, though relegated to the notes, is quite unworthy of Mr Spencer. He points out triumphantly several undoubted defects jn a paragraph of Addison's, that Mr Arnold had been imprudent enough to select as an example of " classical English, perfect; in lucidity, measure, and propriety," Here* the controversy might fitly have ended. But Mr Spencer proceeds to say oi himself—apparently somewhat boastfully— " Having, when young, successfully resisted that classical culture which Mr Arnold thinks needful, I may be blind to the beauties he perceives, and my jmdisciplined taste may lead me to condemn as^ defects what are, in fact, perfections. Knowing absolutely nothing of the masterpieces of ancient literature in the original, and very little in jtranslation, I suppose'l must infer that a familiarity "^rith them equal to Jlr Arnold's familiarity would have given me a capacity for admiring these traits of style that he admires. Perhaps redundance of epithets would have-given me pleasure; perhaps I should have been delighted by duplications of meaning; perhaps from incohtsistenfc metaphors I might have received some now-unimaginable gratification." Now, one of the best points made by Mr Spencer at the very beginning of his book is his exposure- of the absurd confidence with -which scientific men will Volunteer an opinion on subjects of which they "know absolutely nothing." And when a man of Mr Spencer's eminence selects "redundance of epithets," "duplication of meaning," and "inconsistent njetaphors," as typical of a classical style, he only makes "tho judicious grieve." 3Syen a slight knowledge of those Greek and E,oman writers, an acquaintance with whom ffhe has so successfully resisted," would have taught him that their iocomparable terseness and their absolute freedom froni r.e.duodancy of epithets have been the despair alike of imitators and translators. The translator wiio can reproduce the graphic force ol Thncydides or the pithiness of Tacitus, not only in anything like the same number of English words, bufc in English .afc all, is yet fc,o be born. And the attitude of thankfulness for ignorance is hardly a becoming one for a philosopher. In spite of these occasional "follies of tlio wise," we end as we began, by recommending our readers to peruse carefully a book that will not bear hasty reading, but will well repay the study of many weeks, and, beyond most books, will set. its readers a-ihinking, AU Bound the World; An Illustrated Record of Voyages, Travels, and Adventures in all parts of the Globe. Edited by W. F. AiNSwor„TH,F.R.G S., F.S.A., &c; with Two Hundred Illustrations after drawings by Gustave Dor 6, Berard Lancelot, Jule3 Noel, and other eminent artists ; and six finely-engraved Maps full-coloured. Second Series, London and Glasgow : Wm. Collins, Sons, and Co. Dunedin: Wm. Hay, Princes street arid Battray streefc. The second series of this work fully sustains the high reputation wliich the earlier volume had acquired. • Both in the 'interest of the narratives and the style of ' their illustration ifc is unsurpassed by any collection of travels to be found in the huge catalogue of published books, and as a single volume upon it 3 own subject is only equalled by the firsfc series of the work. As to the subject kiatter of the narratives of travel and adventure, tastes vary so much tbat we do not attempt to pronounce which of these interesting volumes is likely to find most favour witn readers. To our own minds they are alike good, and, instead of making any c unparison between the two, or between t tern and other similar books, we propose briefly to recapitulate the contents of the ~ volume before us. The first chapter is an account of a rapid bufc very complete survey of Canada and the Northern States of the Union, the St. Lawrence, Ontario, Niagara, the Prairies, Washington. All these.have been pourtrayed by so many hands, thafc it is pleasant to find our narrator in the presenfc case rather disposed to pleasant chatter aboufc the men and things he passed in and out' amongst, thati to the repetition of twicetold descriptions, The iUustratuw are

by Grandsire, Lancelot, Paul Huet, and others. Among theso, tiie " White-headed Eagle," by ltouyer, and the "Double Bridge," by Lancelot, may be singled out as most striking pictures. A very good map of the Dominion of Canada accompanies the narrative. From America we pass to Central Africa, and are presented with an epitome of the travels and discoveries of Barth. The illustrations of scenes in the interior arc chiefly by Rouargue, and are capital specimens of his bright bold style. . Following this is a short account of the adventures of the missionary Kraff in East Africa during his second journey to found a Mission Station at TJkambani. A chapter on Fiji and the Fijians follows. One of the illustrations here, "A Dance of Fijian Warriors," by Dord, is very striking. The letter press is a compilation, presumably by the editor, and is instructive as well as interesting. Passing events lend to it a more than usual interest. Back again to Africa the mysterious. The sources of the Nile form the subject of the following chapter. This coijtaius a series of narratives by French travellers, whose works are unknown to the general body of English readers, a circumstance which affords us a pleasant chapter on a subject rather well worn now, and on which a mere compilation from English books of travel, however cleverly executed, would have been a failure. Then follows a chapter which possesses perhaps more interest on account of its author than its subject-. It is an account of the voyage of Don Giovanni Martai, from Genoa to Santiago, and across the peninsula of South America. To most of our readers the name of Martai will recall nothing celebrated. The obscure traveller of 1523, however, is now His Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth. The narrative is of some interest in itself as depicting the condition at that time of a line of travel which has of late been taken by a good many of our fellow colonists, although in a direction the reverse of that followed by the clerical party, whose adventures it relates, viz., from Buenos Ayres across the South American Continent to Valparaiso. A useful map is given, and some spirited illustrations by Diiveau, D'Eastrel, and Lancelot add to the pleasure with which the account of these stra: ge countries and peoples is read. A journey to the West Indies and New Orleans, Australian Discovery, and the Australian Colonies, and a Trip to Norway, form the subjects of the next portion of the book. The Australian chapters are of little interest here, except for their illustrations. These are all by French artists, and some of them are very striking. They are tame, however, in comparison with the drawings which illustrate the Trip to Norway. For scenery, figures, faces, costume, grouping, drawings, these are the gems of ihe whole collection—the subject matter and tho artist's work being alike delightful. Tripoli, Russia, and Lebanon, are next visited in order. Here a drawing of the Cedars of Lebanon, by Edward Riou, ought not to pass unmentioned. After a beautifully illustrated chapter on Mexico and the Mexicans, follows an account of New Caledonia, which we should have wished, to have seen longer. Hence we go back to the Old World. Portugal, Athens, and Denmark form the subjects of three chapters of remarkable interest. Dealing with well worn themes, both authors and artists have been wonderfully successful in producing works full of iiitarest, far above the calibre of what we could have ventured to expect on such subjects in a compilation like this. A rapid account of the Bermudas, West Indies, British Guiana, and tho Isthmus of Panama complete the collection. To those who want a book to wile away odd intervals of time, a handsome illustrated book for the drawing-room table, a book full of interest to teach young folk what is to bg found in the world into which they have been born—for any and all these purposes we heartily commend "All Round the World."