thus the first step to comprehension of the present, one indispensable
to any attempt at the scientific forecast of the future, which must
avoid as far as it can the dangers of mere utopianism.

F--LITERATURE OF CIVICS

No discussion of the preliminaries and fundamentals of Civics can omit
some consideration of the vast and ever growing literature of cities.
But how are we to utilise this? How continue it? How co-ordinate it with
the needed independent and first-hand survey of city by city? And how
apply this whole knowledge of past and present towards civic action?

The answer must plainly be a concrete one. Every city [Page: 116]
however small, has already a copious literature of its topography and
history in the past; one, in fact, so ample that its mere bibliography
may readily fill a goodly volume,[1] to which the specialist will long
be adding fresh entries. This mass of literature may next be viewed as
the material for a comprehensive monograph, well enriched with maps and
illustrations, such as many cities can boast; and this again may be
condensed into a guide-book. Guide-books have long been excellent in
their descriptive and historical detail, and are becoming increasingly
interpretative also, especially since Mr. Grant Allen transferred his
evolutionary insight and his expository clearness from natural to civic
history.

[1] e.g., Erskine Beveridge, LL.D., Bibliography of
Dunfermline.--_Dunfermline, 1902._ 8vo.

After this general and preliminary survey of geographic environment and
historic development, there nowadays begins to appear the material of a
complementary and contemporary volume, the Social Survey proper. Towards
this, statistical materials are partly to be found amid parliamentary
and municipal reports and returns, economic journals and the like, but a
fresh and first-hand survey in detail is obviously necessary. In this
class of literature, Mr. Booth's monumental Survey of London, followed
by others, such as Mr. Rowntree's of York, have already been so widely
stimulating and suggestive that it may safely be predicted that before
many years the Social Survey of any given city will be as easily and
naturally obtainable as is at present its guide-book; and the
rationalised census of the present condition of its people, their
occupation and real wages, their family budget and culture-level, should
be as readily ascertainable from the one, as their antecedents
understood or their monuments v