THE ANARCHY OF MODERN POLITICS. 451 



multiplication of public offices, by making access to these as easy as 

 possible, and by changing the incumbents as often as possible. Yield- 

 ing in the first place to an evil necessity, they have afterward con- 

 verted that necessity into a general resource of government, by trust- 

 ing, as a regular thing, to the interested support of energetic and 

 ambitious men with whom they divide the profits arising from the 

 management of the public business. How dangerous such an expe- 

 dient is from the point of view of the governments themselves, it is 

 almost needless to point out ; since it must necessarily call forth far 

 more claims than it can satisfy, and consequently excite against the 

 established regime passions far stronger than any it can evoke for its 

 support.* If we just look at the selections for a generation or two past 

 for the most eminent political functions, is there any reason why the 

 great majority of our aspiring men should not conceive the hope of 

 climbing in their turn to similar positions ? Another marked feature 

 of the times is the disposition to trust to material agencies or mere 

 acts of legislation for the removal of evils that have their root in men's 

 ideas and in social customs. An amendment to a constitution or a 

 charter is proffered as a plan of political salvation ; or, worse still, we 

 are asked to rest our hopes on the substitution of this man for that in 

 a cabinet. Meanwhile, the absence of any clear or comprehensive con- 

 ception of the social future affords a career only to the most vulgar 

 kind of ambition. At no former epoch, probably, were such chances 

 ever offered to a presuming and adventurous mediocrity. The quality 

 chiefly required in public life is fluency of speech ; above all, a fluency 

 which suffers no abatement if it is suddenly called on to change sides 

 on a question. In a time of weak and wavering convictions there has 

 naturally been a demand for representatives characterized by the 

 vagueness of their intellectual habits and an habitual lack of fixed 

 opinions. Unless we could hope that such a condition of things would 

 be but transitory, it would really constitute the most shameful social 

 degradation. That hope we may, however, entertain. If there are 

 forces of decomposition at work, there are also though their action 

 may not be so conspicuous forces of regeneration ; and what is needed 

 to give these a decisive victory is the formulation and application of a 

 true political philosophy. 



Such was the view taken by Comte, over forty years ago, of the 

 then political situation in France and other countries enjoying consti- 

 tutional regimes. Matters have not mended since his day : principles 

 are more than ever discredited in political affairs ; parties no longer 

 even profess them ; and government and legislation are carried on at 

 mere hap-hazard. The great object with party managers is to get 

 all important questions taken " out of politics," so that there may be 



* How exactly this applies to the existing situation in France, and how nearly it de- 

 scribes the situation here, no reader will fail to remark. 



