The herald., 1895-04-17
BENJAMIN sKIDD'S BOOK
JAMES H.. CRITICS.

4
| At the public Libraries. in several of the
Eastern states, Benjamin. Kidd's Social
| Evolution ranks third among the books
that enjoy the largest circulation, and
| Macmillan & Co., its publishers, have
made the book still more popular by
/ printing twenty-five cent edition Of ii
! that is as good as the bound volume
in every way except that heavy paper
takes the place OF pasteboard and cloth
covering. ,4..~
But it is neither the price nor the good
workmanship of the book that is wholly
responsible for its wide circulation. Ben
! jamin Kidd has handled in a new way
, the social problems that are uppermost in
the minds of thong htful, and the lives of all
civilized men and women. His handling
is novel in its way. Add to this the fact
that it is pessimistic in logic. if not in
detail, and the secret of the popularity of
the book is no longer a secret. Perhaps
it is wrong to say that Social Evolution
is popular book. In the sense that
rrilby is popular. Mr.. Kidd's book never
can become SO, and the wide circulation
it enjoys really argues as much for the
increasing thoughtfulness of the people
as it does for the novelty or excellence of
the book.
Social Evolution is rather destructive
than a constructive work, in Intention
at least. Natural selection is it's keynote
There are 374 pages in ALL and the mes
sage they bear is simply this: That the
evolution of man is and must be contrary
to mans intellect, and that il the intel
locf ShnuIl fin lxr
adjust his social life so as to take out of
1t the fierce and all-consuming struggle
for daily bread then would evolution
cease and degeneracy commence. 1t is a
most ingenious argument, in the render
ing of which are cited some new facts
and considerations that have not entered
into the deductions of other econom C
writer's. Mr.. Kidd asserts with particular
cogency:
First that the process of social devel-
opment which has been taking place, and
which is still in progress in our western
civilization, is not the product of the in
tellect. but that the motive force behind
1t has had its seat and origin in that fund
OF altruistic feeling with which our civil
lzation has become equipped. Second.
that this altruistc development, aid the
deepening and softening of character
which has accompanied it, are the direct
and peculiar product of the religious sys-
tenn on which our civilization is founded
Third, that to science the significance OF
the resulting process of social evolution, in
which all the people are being slowly
brought into the rivalry of existence on
equal conditions, consists in the single
fact that this rivalry has tended to be
thereby raised to the highest degree of
efficiency as a cause of progress it has
ever attained.
Mr.. Kidd takes radical ground here
with Herbert Spencer, and in fact with
all the modern economic writer's, who
maintain, or rather assert, unthnkingly
perhaps, that the atrustic sentiment
is kind of product that is being accum-
ulated by the refining influences of civ
ilization that is, in turn but a roduct OF
our greater intellectual powers.
Comes now Mr.. Kidd and actually
questions whether the civilized man has
higher intellect than the savage. And
not only does he question it, but immedi-
ately sets about to prove the negative.
Speaking of the constantly lauded achiev-
ments of modern society, Mr.. Kidd says:
But to take, as is often done. such re-
suits to be the measure of the intellectual
difference separating us from the lower
races, is clearly a most short-sighted and
altogether unjustitiable procedure. 1t
only needs little reflection to enable us
to perceive that the marvellous accom-
plshments of modern civilization are
primarily the measure of social stability
and social efficiency, and not of the intel
lectual pre- eminence OF the peoples who
have produced them.
All these, and many other things that
Mr.. Kidd has to say in this rather sur
prising volume, so to show at least that
political economy, as a science. does not
yet rest on a firm and lasting basis. 1t
is not yet science, any more than is re-
ligion, when viewed from the multi
plcity of modern standpoints. and the
truth is, to those who have that vision of
things. that this age can accomplish great
mechanical feats, but that the literature
OF the ancient Aryan races must lie
searched by the student who would know
the meaning of things. If Mr.. Kidd has
pointed out some things that the modern
philosophers have overlooked in forming
their thesis, at least he has not possessed
himself of all the facts before making his
conclusions. and l veritably albeit hum
bly,, believe he is wrong when he says in
eIeCI Cudt IL bHc lUIcltCI Oh man gains
the ascendancy then will man begin to
degenerate. He points out very clearly, it
would seen, that the law Of natural selec-
ton never has had and never can have
! intellectual sanction. since it is the law
of the strong against the weak. But is it
not possible. even very probable. that
when certain point has been reached in
this social efficiency" of MI. Kidd S
that the intellect can step in and breed a
| better and a higher race of human kind?-
even as the law Of natural selection has
been superseded by the intellect of man
| in the evolution of the bl oded horse?
And if this is not to be So then what is
| the use of anything?
CHICAGO HUMOR