412 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



without challenge; the prior question is 

 not raised whether the case is one in 

 wliich the majority should seek to im- 

 pose by force its will on the minority. 

 The question is not asked whether so- 

 ciety, if left free to act according to its 

 own laws, would not in due time — which 

 is always better than undue time — ac- 

 complish the good that is aimed at, and 

 with better ultimate results than when 

 force is invoked to hasten the reform. 



The specific danger of our time is 

 the easy access which mere majorities 

 have to the law-making power, with the 

 consequent passion our several commu- 

 nities have acquired for what may he 

 called the law-making habit— a habit 

 entirely comparable with the drink-habit 

 or the opium-habit. We stimulate or 

 soothe ourselves with laws, as the case 

 may be, instead of striving to bring 

 about the end we desire by free co- 

 operation. We legislate (in the most 

 futile manner) against oleomargarine, 

 we legislate against " bucket-shops," we 

 legislate against railway discriminations, 

 we legislate, or threaten legislation, 

 against " combines " and " trusts " ; and, 

 having legislated, we legislate again and 

 again to make up the deficiencies or re- 

 move the contradictions of former legis- 

 lation. Meantime the growth of free 

 opinion and sentiment on the subject- 

 matter of all this law-mongering is not 

 aided but retarded. One result of this 

 vicious habit is, that we do not give our- 

 selves time to properly understand the 

 workings of this or that tendency before 

 we rush to legislation in order to for- 

 ward or hinder it, according to the 

 opinion we have been led to think it 

 hurtful or beneficial. And how easily 

 in many of these matters public opinion 

 is swayed by mere catch-words no ju- 

 dicious student of public affairs can help 

 being aware. As regards the treatment 

 of our bodily ills, we have — at least in- 

 telligent people have — got to the point 

 of distrusting the quacks who undertake 

 to drive away every specific ailment by 

 an equally specific nostrum ; and we 



give our confidence rather to those who 

 study the general conditions on which 

 health depends, and who place their 

 own chief reliance on the curative force 

 of Nature. In statecraft, however, we 

 hear nothing, broadly speaking, of gen- 

 eral principles, nothing of the tendency 

 of things to right themselves if left 

 alone, nothing of the organic and or- 

 ganizing forces of society, but every- 

 thing of the dependence of social well- 

 being upon specific measures of legisla- 

 tion. Politically, we are yet in the dark 

 ages. It is true we have thrown off 

 the power of the personal tyrant, but 

 we have not entered into the freedom 

 of those who look to Nature for their 

 guidance, and who resent the yoke of 

 all arbitrary laws, no matter by whom 

 enacted. The time will come when the 

 art of government, like the art of heal- 

 ing with which it has many points of 

 analogy, will be put upon a natural 

 basis, and then it will be seen more 

 clearly than now how little government 

 has to do with social organization be- 

 yond providing for it the necessary con- 

 ditions of order and stability. 



A PHILISTINE CEAMPION. 



A CERTAIN record tells us that when 

 the Philistine army was drawn up in front 

 of that of Israel, a champion of great 

 size, arrayed in portentous armor and 

 carrying a sword and spear of enormous 

 proportions, came forth from the Philis- 

 tine ranks and challenged the Hebrews 

 to send a man to fight with him. We 

 read also that when David, the son of 

 Jesse, stepped forth to the encounter, 

 armed with a few pebbles, the huge 

 Philistine "cursed him by his gods." 

 Now, somehow or other, the Lord of 

 Argyll and the Isles, who has lately 

 stood forth, from another "Philistine" 

 camp, to challenge the hosts of sci- 

 ence, and, if not to curse, to indulge at 

 least in some good Homeric loidoria, 

 reminds us powerfully of that Goliath 

 of Gath who had so vast a contempt 



