PREFACE.
‘What is writ is writ-Would it were worthier ! ‘ BYRON.
‘J’ay seulement faict icy un areas de fleurs eatrangieres, n’y ayant fourny du mien que le filet à les lier. ‘– MONTAIGNE : De la Physionomie, p. 47.
I have sought in this book to set forth two aspects of mind — its cause and its use. But these two are really but one, since its use is its cause.
Since I put the finishing strokes, ten years ago, upon a system of social science which I called Dynamic Sociology my mind at least, if not my pen, has been at work along two lines suggested by the recognized imperfection of that scheme. I have been prompted, on the one hand, to build the superstructure higher, and on the other, to lay the foundations deeper. In the first of these directions I have not only been impelled by my own inward sense, but I have been quite strongly urged by others who thought it was my duty to make a direct application of the principles of dynamic sociology to the living issues of the times, and who believed it better that this be done by one who had them in his grasp than left to others who might never fully feel their true significance.
In the opposite direction, that of strengthening the foundations, the pressure has been entirely from within, and yet it is to this that I have yielded, partly because it was much stronger, and partly because I realized that it properly belonged to me to do, while the other more properly belongs to that trained army of social economists, now so rapidly increasing, who are studying and teaching by the inductive method.