The San Francisco call., 1903-12-14
CREATED SOCIOLOGY.

l think it may fairly be said that
Mr.. Spencer was the creator of the
science of sociology. Certainly his con-
tributions to the subject far exceed in
value and extent those of any other
man. His we'll sustained theory Of the
origin of religions = alone sufficient
to insure him enduring fame as So
cioIogist. This theory was first ex-
pounded in an essay published in the
Fortnightly Review in 1870, entitled
Animal Worship; Mr.. Spencer there
vigorously combated the doctrine es-
poused by Professor Max Muller and
others that the gods of savages are
'"personified powers of nature. All re-
ligicns. Mr.. Spencer contends, arose out
of ghost worship.
The shade or spirit of a deceased per-
son is regarded as persisting after
death. which is looked upon as only
prolonged insensibility; and if the de-
ceased had been an important or pow
erful parsonage in life his spirit was
naturally propitiated in the belief that
when it would come to" or return to
the body, the revived man would dis
play a friendly feeling toward those
who had propitiated his wandering
spirit. Hence the practice of embalm-
ing the dead or placing their bodies be-
yond the reach of devouring animals
by burying them or putting them in
other inaccessible places. Hence, also
the custom of placing in their graves
implements of warfare. and among
some tribes of burying alive with them
their wives and dogs. This belief in
the departure and return of the spirit
arose chiefly out of the vivid dreams
to which savages are especially subject
The worship of material objects Mr.
Spencer shows to be derivative, arising
in various ways out of ghost worship.
Mr.. Spencer's ethical doctrines are
set forth in his Principles of Ethics, I"
by which the Synthetic Philosophy"
was brought to a close. Here for the
first time it was demonstrated that
moral obligations have natural basis
Mr.. Spencer was a utilitarian, but not
in the narrow and conventional sense
He attributed moral intuitions not to
the experiences of the individual, but
of the whole race, human and sub
human. These vast experiences, ex-
tending over millions of years, have
produced in us moral faculties, with
their appropriate sentiments and ideas;
while innate to the individual Except
ing such notifications thereof as the
experiences of a single life produce),
they have been acquired by the race.
POLITICAL SERVICE.
But Herbert Spencers most practical
and possibly greatest service to human
ity were rendered in the field of po-
litical science. At the early age of
% he published the Proper Sphere of
Government wherein he advanced
ideas which for sixty years thereafter
he expounded with superb ability and
illustrated by multitudinous facts gath
cred by him from every age and cline.
/ think it may be said without ex-
aggeration that his contributions to the
science of government far exceed in
merit those of all other writers COM
bined. He was the first to perceive that
growing industrialism necessitates linn
iting and specializing the functions OF
government. He was the most enlight-
ened and vigorous opponent of hydra
headed socialism and paternalism the
world has ever known. There is no