THE NEW SOCIOLOGY.*
THIS 18 an elaborate work applying Darwinism and the New Darwinism to social problems. It is divided into three parts. The first,,Avotti "The Theory of Descent," deals elaborately • Heredity and Selection in Socklogy. By George Chatterton-Hill, London; A. and C. Black. L128. 6d. net.] with the doctrine of species ; the second, entitled "Social Pathology," traces the effect of certain phenomena, such as suicide and insanity, and altruism, on social life ; while the third deals with "The Actual Conditions of Social Selection." The first part is technical in the extreme. Mr. Chatterton- Hill accepts the theory of Weismann as to germinal selection, and apparently finds no difficulty in its intense complexity. The purely intellectual character of that theory—the absence of the simplicity which is manifest in all other laws of Nature—does not appear to appal him. We cannot here open up this complex question. The whole matter is in the transition etage ; but we certainly anticipate a simpler solution of heredity than that offered by Weismann. We find ourselves in direct issue with Mr. Chatterton-Hill with respect to many of the results deduced by him from the facts of current social life. His conclusion from statistics that "Catholicism affords greater protection against suicide than Protestantism does," though no doubt borne out by the figures, really means merely that where there is an effective religious sanction suicide declines. The term "Protestant" must include all sorts and conditions of men with all sorts and no sort of belief. If any particular sect of Protestantism applied the test to active members of that sect, it would probably be found that the rate of suicide was as low as, or even lower than, among Roman Catholics. Hence we are not prepared to accept the conclusion that "this greater liability of the Protestant community to suicide results from a lack of integration and cohesion among societies which are Protestant." It is the absence of religion that makes suicide common, not (as Mr. Chatterton-Hill admits) the type of religion. The further conclusions that family life and patriotism are strong deterrents against suicide are fairly obvious. What Mr. Cbatterton-Hill calls "a socialised belief" is, he considers, the strongest protection against suicide. We must, therefore, be thinks, re-establish a principle (akin to the influence of the Church or of the economic life of the Middle Ages) "capable of ensuring adequate social integration. From this conclusion we may draw the corollary that individualism is the great danger confronting us at the present time." It is a curious corollary to draw from the alleged increase in the rate of suicide,—the clime of self-destruction. We have even less sympathy with the attack on "altruistic sentiments." The statement that "individualistic, and not altruistic, influences are to-day prominent" is accom- panied by a depreciatory reference to the value of altruism, and an assertion of the fact that Christianity "is an indis- pensable factor in social development." Such a series of con- tradictions renders this far too lengthy work difficult to follow. The note of the book is the function of religion in an organic society. Mr. Chatterton-Hill demands "a spiritual organisation assuring the integration and stability of society?' So have thinking men in all ages. But Christianity can only achieve this end through altruism. "Who would be carried let him carry another," cried Thomas it Kemple nearly five centuries ago, and the cry is the cry of the present hour.
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