Excerpt from Sociology Applied to Practical Politics
In my first volume, Civilization and Progress, I endeavoured to lay down the First Principles of Sociology with their laws and dependencies, in so far, that is to say, as these could be extracted from a general survey of the evolution of Societies and Nations as a whole. In the third volume of my History of Intellectual Development I went a step farther, and endeavoured to exhibit the practical use to which such First Principles might be put, if they were applied to the Politics of different nations, over periods of time sufficiently long to allow temporary disturbances calculated to deflect them from their normal course of evolution to work themselves out. For this purpose, I selected as object-lessons for my forecast the Political and Social Evolution of England, France, and America, respectively, for the Twentieth Century, as foreshadowed from their evolution in the Past; my idea being to see to what extent Sociology could supply Politics with an instrument, or set of principles, which, like a ship's compass and chart, would enable practical Statesmen to embark with more confidence and on longer voyages over the open political sea of the Future, than would be possible at present, where from the absence of such compass and chart they are obliged, like ancient mariners, to hug the shore, and living from hand to mouth, to wait patiently on Providence for wind and tide. Now, should Sociology be able to furnish us with such general guidance, it would at least help to keep the evolution of nations up to the highest possibilities marked out for them by their special natural powers and advantages; as well as keep that evolution in as straight a path as possible, and so avoid those to-and-fro tackings and zig-zags of political reaction, which obscure a nation's political bearings, confuse its judgments, and waste its force.
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