Merton Leland Miller and Lester Frank Ward

“ The fact is, in this case, that Kidd never rises to the conception of a pleasure economy, and his whole notion of social evolution is such as may take place in a pain economy. This is well adapted to the dominion of gods and spirits whose supposed mysterious power inspires awe and arouses terror, i.e., religion.
In an inchoate pleasure economy the only dangers are those that result from excess. These are vice, disease, and race degeneracy. The chief object of fear is temptation. ”

“ Ethnology, as it is understood by some students, has to do with peoples, groups of mankind separated from other groups, linguistically, physically or geographically, but has nothing to do with "race." Race is thought to be purely a zoological question. Others understand ethnology to be the study of races of men, varieties in the zoological sense, and their subdivisions into smaller groups, peoples. ”

“ The modern tendency on the part of the economist to recognize consumption as an important factor in economic discussion is a product of the unconscious and unnamed movement above referred to, which is nothing less than a movement that has been slowly progressing for ages for a pain economy towards a pleasure economy. ”

“ Is man a single zoological species, divided into races, that is, varieties, or is he a genus divided into species? From a study of race crossing, from anatomical resemblances, from psychic unity and on physiological grounds, the author concludes that man is one species, and that his subdivisions are only varieties. The first part closes with a review of the criteria physical and mental, used in determining race. Of the physical the most valuable are the shape of the skull, the facial and nasal indices and the hair. There is today no pure race. ”

“ The psychologist must see in it the key to the solution of many psychic puzzles; the sociologist reads into it both the statics and the dynamics of his science, while to the moral philosopher as well as to the historian it underlies both optimism and pessimism and points the way to meliorism.
In the mind of the economist these terms of course naturally suggested themselves as a consequence of prolonged reflection upon the fundamental conception and significance of utility, and in fact they embody in a conveniently homogenous and undifferentiated form the entire philosophy of utilitarianism. ”

“ Darwin's "Natural Selection," and Spencer's "Survival of the Fittest" are further examples, while Huxley's "Neurosis and Psychosis" in psychology, his "Homotaxis" in geology, and his "Agnosticism" in philosophy have done incalculable service in crystallizing ideas. It is in this class, and scarcely below any of these, that I would place the "Pain Economy" and "Pleasure Economy" of Patton as introduced and defined in this essay. They embody the professional economist's view of one of the deepest and at the same time just now most pressing of all the problems of practical philosophy. ”

“ Language is the "chief mental criterion." Here we are on uncertain ground. Uncertain however only when we forget with what readiness people may change and often have changed their speech. Difference of language does not mean necessarily difference of race. ”

“ The "Fundamental Problems" are really fundamental to ethnology but are not strictly ethnology. It seems necessary, however, to have this matter included to make the subsequent discussion clear. After defining terms the author treats of the physical evolution of man, including man's relation to the other animals, remains of man, etc. This is evidently a question in physical anthropology. Mental evolution is noticed in a few pages. When did mankind first appear on the earth? It is an interesting problem and one far from solved. ”

“ Just as there are peoples belonging to the White, Caucasian or Eurafrican race who are almost black, so there are men of a light brown or yellow color who belong to the Black, Ethiopian or Austafrican race. Racial divisions are based not on any one character but on many taken together. But men differ not merely physically. ”

“ The "weaker and purer" sensory currents furnish "ideas of the environment," while the "motor feelings" only furnish "ideas of the organism." What he means by motor feelings as distinguished from motor impulses following normally upon the discharges of the sensori-motor centers it is difficult to see. He seems to think there can be motor without sensory phenomena, and to forget that all sensory currents, whether peripheral or internal may produce motor effects. ”

“ He makes two classes: "knowledge-producing ideas" and "action-producing ideas." Instead of an idea being itself a form of knowledge derived from sense impressions, he makes it a producer of knowledge. ”

“ These discussions certainly contain nothing new, although some of the statements are true and important, as that "clear perceptions of the environment and the power of definite adjustments depend on the mental mechanism," and that "the single aim of progressive animals is to escape from competition." We will pass it over with a protest against such a contradiction as "static progress," to say nothing of such tautology as "dynamic progress."
Chapter ii., on "Race Psychology," is a pretentious affair, and ought to be reviewed by a trained psychologist. ”

“ In such cases the one who first launches the right word becomes a general benefactor in concentrating attention on the living issue and thus preventing the waste that results from scattered forces and desultory and sporadic thinking. ”

“ The palæolithic, neolithic and metal ages are taken up in their natural order. The famous relic sites, notably those of England, France and America, the kitchen-middens, lake-dwellings, crannoges, dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, traces of peoples long since disappeared in name even if still represented by their descendants, are noticed in considerable detail and with many illustrations. ”

“ This absorbs all energy, and there is not time even to balance the gains and losses of life in order to see whether the play is worth the candle.
The whole attention of society is concentrated on the effort to escape destruction. All motives to action are negative. ”

“ Professor Prestwich has suggested 20,000 or 30,000 years as man's age. On a question so much in debate as that of man's antiquity, dependent as it is on the date of the glacial epoch, moderate and tentative views are to be preferred. ”

“ The second part of the work, that devoted to primary ethnical groups, which may be more properly called ethnology, is valuable as a concise statement of the afTmities of the peoples of the world today and a discussion of some important questions. ”