Overview

The most familiar facts are often hardest to understand. This is described by Ward as the illusionof the near. Because of nearness we get no perspective; because of continual presence we becomeused to one view and fail to perceive others.To the consideration of new facts we come with comparatively open minds, impressed by eachitem and its relation to the rest; but facts long known are supposed to be understood, and we resentthe slight offered to our intelligence in the proposal to reconsider. Yet the most revolutionarydiscoveries have been made among precisely the most familiar facts; as in the nature and use ofsteam, or the endless potentialities of coal tar.We had, and used, and supposed we knew, our own bodies, through long centuries of living anddying, yet our late-learned physiology was able to show us facts most vitally important which we hadnever dreamed of. Social phenomena have been going on about us since we began to be human;they are as familiar as physical or physiological phenomena, but even less understood. Yet theinteraction of social forces and social conditions form increasingly prominent factors in human life.Primitive man was most affected by physical conditions, he had to adjust himself mainly to theexigencies of climate, of the soil, of animal competitors. Modern man has to adjust himself mainly tosocial conditions; he is most affected by governments, religions, economic systems, education, general customs. Yet the study of this especially pressing and important environment is but littleadvanced. The smooth-worn commonplace facts slip through our fingers, and we fail to see themeaning of our most important surroundings simply because we have always had them. Also weallow ourselves to be discouraged by the extent and complexity of social conditions. This is quiteneedless.Grass may be studied in any patch, regardless of the acreage of our prairies, or the height of theplumes of the Pampas. A tree would seem appallingly complex if we tried to understand it from across-section taken through the branching top; but from root to leaf it is not so hard to follow.Moreover, early writers on this subject have frightened us with technicalities. Mention some patentfact about our social composition, show a relation, suggest a law, and your alarmed hearer cries: Oh, that is Political Economy! I cannot understand that, it is too difficult! It is really a pity thatsuch awe should be felt in the contemplation of our social processes; as though a man were afraid tolearn anything about his digestion on the ground that it was physiolog

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