The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-06-04
Herbert Spencer on the Qualifications
OfLaW Makers.

Summing up the results OF the dis.
cussion, may We not reasonably say
that there lie before the legislator
several open secrets, which yet are
80 open cha! they ought not to re.
main secrets to one who undertakes
the vast and terrible responsibility OF
dealing with millions upon millions
Of human beings by measures which,
II they do not conduce to their hap
piness, will increase their miseries and
accelerate tbeir deaths?
There is first OF all the undeniable
truth, conspicuous and yet absolutely
ignored, that there are no phenomena
which a society presents but what
have their origins in the phenomena
of individual human life. which
again have their roots in vital phe'
nomena at large. And there ia the
Inevitable implication that unless
these vital phenomena, bodily and
mental, are chaotic in their relations
Ia supposition excluded by the very
maintenance OF life) the resulting
phenomena which grow out OF them
when associated human beings have
to cooperate. Evidently, then. when
one who has not studied such re-
suIting phenomena of social order
undertakes to regulate society ne is
pretty certain to work mischiefs.
In the second place, apart from G.
priori reasoning. this conclusion
should be forced on the legislature by
comparisons OF societieg. 1t ought to
be sufficiently manifest that, before
meddling with the details OF social
organisation, inquiry should be made
whether social organization has q
natural history; and that, to answer
this inquiry, it would be well. setting
out with the simplest societies, to see
in what respects social structures
agree. Such comparative sociology.
pursued to o very small extent, shows
q substantial uniformity Of genesis.
The habitual existence OF chieftain-
ship, and the establishment OF chiefly
authority by war; the rise everywhere
of the mediciue.man and priest; the
presence of cult having in all places
the same fundamental traits; the traces
of division of labor, early displayed,
which gradually become more marked
and the various complications, polltl-
cal. ecclesiastial, industrial. which
arise as groups are compounded and
recompounded by war-quickly
prove to any who compares them
that. apart from all their special diff
erences, societies have general re-
semblances in their modes OF origin
and development. They present
traits OF structure showing that
social organization has laws which
override Individual Wills; and laws
the disregard of which must be
fraueht with disaster.
And then in the third place. there
is that mass of guiding information
yielded by the records OF law making
In our own country and in other
countries, which still more obviously
demsnds attention. Here and else
where attempts Of multitudinous
kinds, made by kings and statesmen.
have failed to do the good intended
and have worked unexpected evils.
Century after century new meaA
sures like the old ones, ard other
measures akin IN principle, have
again disappointed hopes and again
brought disaster. And yet it 10
thought neither by electors nor by
these they elect that there is sny
need for systematic study Of that leg
islstion which in by-gone ages went
on working the i'll .being OF the people
when i! tried to achieve their we'll
being. Surely there can beno fitness
for legislative functions without wide
knc Wedge ofthose legislative exDeri>
encts which the past mas bequeathed.
Popular Science Monthly.