Ceremonial Institutions

Author : Herbert Spencer
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330050491
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (54 download)

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Download or read book Ceremonial Institutions written by Herbert Spencer and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Ceremonial Institutions: Being Part IV. Of the Principles of Sociology (the First Portion of Vol; II) On sundry of the following chapters when published in the Fortnightly Review, a criticism passed by friends was that they were overweighted by illustrative facts. I am conscious that there was ground for this criticism; and although I have, in the course of a careful revision, diminished in many cases the amount of evidence given (adding to it, however, in other cases) the defect may still be alleged. That with a view to improved effect I have not suppressed a larger number of illustrations, is due to the consideration that scientific proof, rather than artistic merit, is the end to be here achieved. If sociological generalizations are to pass out of the stage of opinion into the stage of established truth, it can only be through extensive accumulations of instances: the inductions must be wide if the conclusions are to be accepted as valid. Especially while there continues the belief that social phenomena are not the subject-matter of a science, it is requisite that the correlations among them should be shown to hold in multitudinous cases. Evidence furnished by various races in various parts of the world, must be given before there can be rebutted the allegation that the inferences drawn are not true, or are but partially true. Indeed, of social phenomena more than all other phenomena, it must, because of their complexity, hold that only by comparisons of many examples can fundamental relations be distinguished from superficial relations. In pursuance of an intention intimated in the preface to the first volume, I have here adopted a method of reference to authorities cited, which gives the reader the opportunity of consulting them if he wishes, though his attention to them is not solicited. At the end of the volume will be found the needful clues to the passages extracted; preceded by an explanatory note. Usually, though not uniformly, references have been given in those cases only where actual quotations are made. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.