42 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



in any movement that may please a portion of liis constituency," 

 "would obviate all such trouble. . . . Such laws would be en- 

 forced by the State and local boards of health, and, in case of their 

 failure or neglect, such attention and assistance from the national 

 powers should be given as the circumstances of the case may 

 require." * That is to say, again, a defective principle inopera- 

 tive on a small scale can be made a success on a large one. Al- 

 though a despotic local law can not be enforced, a despotic na- 

 tional law will be scrupulously observed. If local officials can be 

 blinded in " one hundred and one wavs," national officials are sub- 

 ject to no such impairment of vision. 



II. 



But this is only a fresh illustration of the pathetic faith of the 

 chronic invalid, ever on the search for a new pill or a new tonic. 

 A change from one despotism to another, or from one set of offi- 

 cials to another, will not deliver society from the defects of human 

 nature. Much less will that blessing come from the increase of 

 despotism and the multiplication of officials. Such quackery has 

 been tried from the dawn of Greek democracy down to the latest 

 product of popular sovereignty the Brazilian Republic. It has 

 failed ; it must inevitably fail. It violates a law of social devel- 

 opment as immutable as the law of gravitation, one that punishes 

 those that fail to heed it with equal certainty and severity. I 

 refer to the law set forth by Mr. Spencer that the more peaceful 

 and industrious a nation becomes, the less is its need of the re- 

 straints of either custom or legislation. But of this matchless 

 induction of modern science the social reformers of to-day have 

 no conception. They act upon the assumption that the world has 

 made no headway in a thousand years ; that men are still barba- 

 rians and require the shackles of an age of disorder ; that there 

 must be the official mechanism of an old French or Prussian 

 despotism, which had no other use than to recruit and drill troops 

 and to wring taxes from despised and impoverished toilers. But 

 since the days of feudal chaos humanity, despite the obstacles 

 thrown in its path by ignorance and interest, has gained ground. 

 Men have outlived the rules and regulations of a military despot- 

 ism. They do not pay homage to the occupant of a throne, sur- 

 rounded by courtiers as intent on the plunder of subjects as sol- 

 diers on the plunder of enemies. Their allegiance is to another 

 ruler, which, though less regal, is not less powerful ; it is con- 

 science, the embodied restraints that come of peace, sympathy, 

 and culture. 



* Proceedings, Cleveland, 1896, p. 31. 



