national characteristics in which lies concealed the tenacious
rejuvenating power of our nation." (See p. 418 of this volume.)

The predisposition to draw large inferences coupled with that pronounced
conservatism detract in a measure from the authenticity of Riehl's work
in the department of Social Science, which to him is fundamentally "the
doctrine of the natural inequality of mankind." (See p. 417 of this
volume.)

That Riehl, despite his conservative bias, is not a reactionary out and
out has already been stated. He stands for evolutionary, not
revolutionary, social reform; in his opinion the social-economic order
can be bettered by means of the gradual self-improvement of society, and
in no other way. Unless, moreover, the improvement be effected without
the sacrifice of that basic subdivision of society, the needful social
stability is bound to be upset by the "proletariat"--namely, the entire
"fourth estate" reinforced by the ever increasing number of deserters,
renegades, and outcasts who have drifted away from their appointed
social level.

Notwithstanding this rather dogmatic attitude of which, among other
things, a sweeping rejection of "Woman Emancipation," was one corollary,
Riehl's organic theory of society as explicitly stated in his _Civic
Society_ has a great and permanent usefulness for our time because of
its thoroughgoing method and its clear-cut statement of problems and
issues. The leader of the most advanced school of modern historians,
Professor Karl Lamprecht, goes so far as to declare that the social
studies of W.H. Riehl constitute the very corner stone of scientific
Sociology. In this achievement, to which all of his scholarly endeavors
were tributary, Riehl's significance as a historian of culture may be
said to culminate.

WILHELM HEINRICH RIEHL

FIELD AND FOREST[11]

TRANSLATED BY FRANCES H. KING

The intimate connection between a country and its people may well start
with a superficial survey of the external aspects of a country. He sees
before him mountain and valley, field and forest--such familiar
contrasts that one scarcely notices them any longer; and yet they are
the explanation of many subtle and intimate traits in the life of the
people. A clever schoolmaster could string a whole system of folklore on
the thread of mountain and valley, field and forest. I will be content
to invite further meditation by some thoughts on field and forest, the
_tame_ and the _wild_ c