I dwell on these points of method partly because sociology is a comparatively new study (in spite of the labours of the Sociological Society), partly because young scholars are inclined to be too timid, afraid of mak ing mistakes or of breaking with tradition. And the issue affects that wider circle of readers who are eager to study social questions but hesitate because of their lack, or supposed lack, of qualifications of an academ1e kind. There are many men and women, (those e.g. Associated with the w.e.a. And many others who have not even a remote connection with Universities) whose mental habits are quite consistent with an approach to psychology or sociology, if they can be brought to realize that the subject-matter of these studies lies all round them, and needs only to be selected in the light of large principles.

One might go further: for it is now apparent that philosophy can only be created, and re-created, when its roots are spread abroad in the common soil, but to pursue this theme would carry us beyond the range of a preface.

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