4 ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 



fection and refinement are only the effects of observation, and reflec- 

 tion on the moving principles, and, lastly, on the examination of the 

 due correspondence between cause and effect, with regard to the prac- 

 tical application of those inventions. When we have arrived at that 

 point of perfection which, bearing the stamp of sound theory, and, at 

 the same time, answering all the purposes of practical application, we 

 are as apt to neglect the repetition of the elementary principles, just 

 as we were, a little before, but ill-disposed to recapitulate the rough 

 mechanical effects in the early state of the invention. Bacon very 

 happily characterises that progressive state of human development. 

 The first steps toward advance in civilization, which constitutes the 

 deduction, derived from pure experience, are thus styled by him, 

 axiomata infima: they are the points of direction, arising rather from 

 physical than mental activity, and constitute the first conditions of the 

 organization of society, and are more or less in possession of the most 

 savage people. The step which lies in the extreme opposite to the 

 former is, the indulgence in theories and philosophical researches into 

 abstract principles, apart from the beaten tract of practice. This course 

 is generally and zealously adopted by those nations who, having ad- 

 vanced considerably on the high path of civilization, and not imme- 

 diately encumbered with difficulties, are not pressed by necessity, or 

 stimulated by a power of a more practical turn. Such theorists, hav- 

 ing so little of practical ballast (if we may be permitted the expres- 

 sion) in their composition, soar away from the earth into the clouds 

 of metaphysical obscurity, scarcely short of utter unintelligibility ; 

 yet we must do them justice, and admit that their abstract exertions 

 are doubtless manifestations of noble and reflecting minds, although 

 their efforts are hardly productive or useful for practical life itself. 

 Suprema et generalissima rationalia sunt et ahstracta et nil hahent 

 solidi. It is only those axioms which unite theory with practice, like 

 vitality with matter, that lead on directly to consummation in the va- 

 rious branches of human knowledge and practical life : they are the 

 axiomata media, vera et solida et viva, in quibus humance res et 

 fortunoB sitae sunt. 



" All this is understood by itself with us," observed Sir J. Mack- 

 intosh to Mons. de Stael, in reply to the admiration which the latter 

 expressed at a very philosophical essay which had just then appeared 

 at Paris, on the principles of constitutional liberty. A similar an- 

 swer might have been uppermost in the mind of Napoleon, although, 

 perhaps, he might not have deemed it prudent to utter the same. In 

 reply to the eulogy bestowed by the writers of the day on the merits 



