77 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



men were discovering that it was desirable, in the interest of soci- 

 ety, that all men should be as free as possible, consistently with 

 those interests ; and that they should all be equally bound by the 

 ethical and legal obligations which are essential to social exist- 

 ence. It will be observed that this conclusion is one which might 

 be arrived at by observation and induction from the phenomena 

 of past and present experience. My belief is that it is the conclu- 

 sion which must be reached by those means, when they are rightly 

 employed and that, in point of fact, the doctrines of freedom and 

 equality, so far as they were preached by the Stoics and others, 

 would have not the least success, if they had not been so far ap- 

 proved by experience and so far in harmony with human instincts 

 that the Roman jurists found they could work them up with effect 

 into practical legislation. For the a priori arguments of the phi- 

 losophers in the last century of the republic, and the first of the 

 empire, stand examination no better than those of the philoso- 

 phers in the centuries before and after the French Revolution. 

 As is the fashion of speculators, they scorned to remain on the 

 safe if humble ground of experience, and preferred to prophesy 

 from the sublime cloud-land of the a priori ; so that, busied with 

 deduction from their ideal " ought to be," they overlooked the 

 " what has been," the " what is," and the " what can be." 



It is to them that we owe the idea of living " according to na- 

 ture " ; which begot the idea of the " state of nature " ; which be- 

 got the notion that the " state of nature " was a reality, and that, 

 once upon a time, " all men were free and equal " which again 

 begot the theory that society ought to be reformed in such a man- 

 ner as to bring back these halcyon days of freedom and equality ; 

 which begot laissez faire and universal suffrage ; which begot the 

 theory so dear to young men of more ambition than industry, that 

 while every other trade, business, or profession requires theoreti- 

 cal training and practical skill, and would go to the dogs if those 

 who carry them on were appointed by the majority of votes of 

 people who know nothing about it and very little about them 

 the management of the affairs of society will be perfectly success- 

 ful if only the people who may be trusted to know nothing will 

 vote into office the people who may be trusted to do nothing. 



If this is the political ideal of the modern followers of Rous- 

 seau, I, for my part, object to strive after it, or to do anything 

 but oppose, to the best of my ability, those who would fain drive 

 us that way. Freedom, used foolishly, and equality, asserted in 

 words, but every moment denied by the facts of nature, are things 

 of which, as it seems to me, we have rather too much already. If 

 I mistake not, one thing we need to learn is the necessity of limit- 

 ing individual freedom for the general good ; and another, that 

 although decision by a majority of votes may be as good a rough- 



