sis
necessary to the knowledge of his problem, as well as for patient
assistance and inspiring interest. The gradual unfolding of the
conclusions, the logical unity of the whole, and the explanation of that
which before was not clear, have all been the fruit of this patient
field-work.

The study of human society is at the present time little more than a
classifying of material. Only with great reserve should any student
announce ultimate results, or generalize upon the whole problem. For
this period of classifying and analyzing the material, such study of
limited populations as this should have value. The author makes no
apology for the smallness of his field of study. Quaker Hill is not even
a civil division. It is a fraction of a New York town. Therefore no
statistical material of value is available. It is, moreover, not now an
economic unit, though it still may be considered a sociological one.
This study, therefore, must be of interest as an analysis of the working
of purely social forces in a small population, in which the whole
process may be observed, more closely than in the intricate and subtle
evolution of a larger, more self-sufficient social aggregate.

The descriptive history of Quaker Hill, which it is my purpose in this
book to write, comprises three periods; and the descriptive sociology
records two differing yet related forms of social life, connected by a
period of transition. This study will then be made up of three parts:
First, the Quaker Community; second, the Transition; and third, the
Mixed Community. The periods of time corresponding to these three are:
The Period of the Quaker Community, 1730 to 1830; second, the Period of
Transition, 1830 to 1880; and third, the Period of the Mixed Community,
1880 to 1905.

The Quaker Community, which ran its course in the one hundred years
following the settlement of the Hill, presents the social history of a
homogeneous population, assembled in response to common stimuli,
obedient to one ideal, sharing an environment limited by nature,
cultivating an isolation favored by the conditions of the time,
intermarrying, and interlacing their relations of mutual dependence
through a diversified industry; knowing no government so well as the
intimate authority of their Monthly Meeting; and after a century
suffering absorption in the commerce and thinking of the time through
increased freedom of communication.

The Transition follows the Division of the Quaker M