The subjects of study that deal with the various phases of human activity, as expressed in social groups, are known as the social sciences. Those which we may profitably notice in this connection are history, ethics, government, law, sociology, and economics.

History brings to us from the past the record of social achievement, which, if properly interpreted, serves as a guide for present action and assists to forecast the future. History is not merely, as an eminent English historian once wrote, past politics; it is a great deal more. It is, so to speak, the foundation on which all the other social sciences are built, since a complete understanding of any one of them depends on a correct knowledge of past events' and past developments.

Ethics is concerned with the human duties of mankind; with the application of the golden rule to human relations. Every day we hear professional men speak of the ethics of their respective professions. A physician, for example, is guided in his professional acts by an elaborate code of medical ethics. Likewise the lawyer, the surgeon, the dentist, and the teacher, each has the ethical standards of his group to follow and to maintain.

A third social science is government, or political science, known in the high school as civics. This science deals with the government of social groups as expressed in constitutions and in the administration of laws, and with numerous other social aspects, as political conventions, primaries, and elections. Closely akin to political science is law, which concerns itself primarily with laying down definite rules to govern individuals in their relations with each other and with the state.

Another social science is sociology, which, in its narrow sense, deals with the distinctively social relations among individuals. Consequently, the chief concern of sociologists is with the social welfare of the people. To that end they engage not only in a study of the causes that produce inequalities, but also in an attempt to better social conditions. Theirs is a very practical work which leads them into the homes, as well as into the social centers now to be found in all large cities. It is well to notice in passing, however, that some authorities use the term "sociology" in a broader sense to include all the social sciences.

Still another social science is economics. Unlike those already mentioned, this science deals largely with the material aspects of life. It tries in a scientific spirit to explain the activities of mankind in securing a living; to study man as a wealth-getter and a wealth-user; to account for the motives and forces that constantly appear in the business relations of the world. Because of the materialistic viewpoint which economics must necessarily take, many writers and teachers consider it to be a mean science, "dismal," selfish, and even sordid. They forget, however, that the average man, irrespective of his occupation or station in life, must produce goods as well as con-* sume them; that he cannot, if he would, avoid intimate business contact with his fellow men and with his surroundings; and that his opportunity to enjoy the higher things of life must follow after, and wait on, the satisfaction of his more materialistic needs.