EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



publishers. They thus simplify the 

 matter completely, and present to the 

 American people the naked issue, Will 

 you pay for what you appropriate? 

 "Will you protect our property rights as 

 you protect those of your own authors? 

 "Will you render us the justice to which 

 we are entitled by the moral judgment 

 of the civilized world? Mr. Collins 

 wants far more ; but, if he has the 

 slightest idea of getting it, we advise 

 him to possess his soul in great patience 

 and abstain from futile flurries, for he 

 will assuredly have to wait a long time 

 before he gets what he wants. 



POLITICS AGAINST POLITICAL SCIENCE. 



It is needless to call attention to Mr. 

 George's vigorous and impressive article 

 which opens this number of the " Month- 

 ly," on " The Kearney Agitation in 

 California," as illustrative of the work- 

 ing of American political and social in- 

 stitutions. The name of the writer and 

 the interest of the topic will cause his 

 contribution to be carefully read. Mr. 

 George closes by invoking the scientific 

 spirit and the scientific method in the 

 study of these phenomena, which he 

 thinks demands the serious attention 

 of the most thoughtful men. 



This appeal is legitimate, and is 

 prompted by the inevitable logic of the 

 situation. There must be a far better 

 general understanding of the working 

 of social forces before anything can be 

 hoped from remedial measures; but we 

 are here confronted at the outset with 

 difficulties of a very formidable charac- 

 ter. One of the chief of these is that the 

 spirit of our politics is radically anti- 

 scientific. It is essentially hostile to 

 science because it cultivates systematic 

 misrepresentation, while the first re- 

 quirement of science is allegiance to 

 truth. Science begins with morality. 

 It implies rectitude of thought, exemp- 

 tion from prejudice and passion, and 

 the utmost attainable accuracy in its 



representations. It is a school the 

 only school we have for discipline in 

 truthfulness. Partisan politics, on the 

 contrary and partisanship is the es- 

 sence of polities is a school of decep- 

 tion and falsehood, and all its influ- 

 ences are at war with the fundamental 

 virtue of truthfulness. If it be thought 

 we are going too far in saying that our 

 political institutions educate the people 

 to immorality, we appeal to the highest 

 authority on moral subjects which our 

 country has produced. 



More than forty years ago Dr. "Wil- 

 liam Ellery Channing gave a lecture in 

 Boston on the subject of self-culture. 

 In speaking of the means of self-im- 

 provement open to the people of this 

 nation he refers to politics, or to the 

 influence of our popular institutions in 

 arousing the mental activity of citizens 

 which thereby becomes a means of gen- 

 eral self-education. But, having turned 

 the customary patriotic compliment to 

 this beneficent action of our form of 

 government, Dr. Channing pauses, as if 

 conscious that he had gone too far, and 

 then proceeds in a very different strain 

 to acknowledge that, as a matter of fact, 

 no such benign result is gained. He de- 

 clares, on the contrary, that the influ- 

 ence of politics is to produce a wide- 

 spread demoralization by a subversion 

 of all the cardinal virtues of character. 

 He says : 



It may be said that I am describing what 

 free institutions ought to do for the character 

 of the individual, not their natural effects ; 

 and the objection, I must own, is too true. Our 

 institutions do not cultivate us, as they might 

 and should ; and the chief cause of the fail- 

 ure is plain. It is the strength of party spirit ; 

 and so blighting is its influence, so fatal to 

 self-culture, that I feel myself bound to warn 

 every man against it who has any desire of 

 improvement. I do not tell you it will destroy 

 your country. It wages a worse war against 

 yourselves. Truth, justice, candor, fair-deal- 

 ing, sound judgment, self-control, and kind 

 affections, are its natural and perpetual prey. 



I do not say that you must take no side 

 in politics. The parties which prevail around 

 you differ in character, principles, and spirit, 

 though far less than the exaggeration of pas- 



