286 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



which is " blown about by every wind of doctrine," but on 

 discipHned force, which stands between the caprice of the mob 

 and the stabiUty of the realm ; for that reason, too, the first 

 action of the revolutionists in Russia was to abolish discipline 

 in the army, and the first hope of the revolutionists in this 

 country was to corrupt the police. 



A classic anecdote has preserved an illustration of public 

 opinion in the early days of the Roman Empire. When St. 

 Paul was shipwrecked on Melita a viper fastened on his hand 

 and the barbarians said, " No doubt this man is a murderer, 

 whom, though he hath escaped from the sea, yet Justice hath 

 not suffered to live," But when they " beheld nothing amiss 

 come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a 

 god." 



That anecdote explains clearly enough the necessity of 

 government by force among savages. Self-preservation is the 

 first law of every government, as of every individual. But 

 when public opinion is so volatile that the same man ranks as a 

 murderer and a god in the same half-hour, government by 

 public opinion is impossible. There must be a certain stability 

 in public opinion before government can place any reliance 

 on it. 



It is not very difficult for the historian to gauge the part 

 played by public opinion in any age. In the Roman Republic, 

 for instance, opinion was obviously influential in politics ; its 

 working is manifest at every turn. Under the Empire it seemed 

 to decay, but in fact it did not cease to operate. What hap- 

 pened was that the Empire secured absolute political stability, 

 and apart from administrative details (which were a matter for 

 experts) and military revolutions (in which opinion was helpless) 

 there was nothing to discuss. But the public opinion of the 

 time remained vigorous and active ; and deprived of a political 

 channel, it found vent in theological discussion. Where Cato 

 and Cicero had discussed forms of government, Arius and 

 Athanasius discussed faith and doctrine ; and the tumults 

 which these disputes evoked shows that public opinion followed 

 the definitions and counter-definitions of rival creeds with 

 keen interest. Popular riots accompanied the General Councils 

 of the Church ; it is as though a Cockney mob broke into 

 the proceedings of the Aristotelian Society while Professors 

 Wildon Carr and Whitehead are discussing the nature of the 

 Absolute. 



As the Church became supreme, however, even this avenue 

 for public opinion was blocked. When the Christians were in 

 a minority they were persecuted ; when they became a majority 

 they persecuted each other ; but in the Middle Ages there were 

 no persecutions, only crusades — there was nobody left to per- 



