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difficulties do we encounter! Starting from principles funda- 

 mentally the same, how many diversities of governments and 

 laws and institutions do we witness, not amongst mankind in 

 general, — for this is a needlessly too wide induction to support 

 our view, — but even among those portions which are civilized 

 and in almost daily intercourse with each other. What diver- 

 sities of manners and customs, laws and governments do we 

 find in Europe alone ! In fact, theoretical polities, like 

 theoretical mechanics, involve so many accidental considera- 

 tions, there are so many extraneous circumstances to be 

 taken into account, so many forces have been neglected or 

 incorrectly estimated, or have eluded the grasp of calculation 

 altogether, that we find our theory, however true its principles, 

 or faultless its construction, or symmetrical its results, to be 

 of very little practical use. In truth, the great utility of those 

 sciences consists chiefly in this, that they afford us general 

 principles, which must universally hold, however modified 

 they may be by external causes. They very rarely afford a 

 complete solution to any question which may be submitted to 

 the examination of the politician or the engineer. In confir- 

 mation of this view, I might point to the various questions 

 which, both political and social, have yet to receive their true 

 solution ; the inexplicable state of portions of our own 

 country, the countless plausible theories and infallible reme- 

 dies which, long floating in the minds of men, and clouding 

 their view, have been dissipated by experience, as " light 

 dispels the dark." 



"I do not mean to assert, that there are no false theo- 

 ries or visionary speculations now ; we have, however, 

 this advantage over those who have gone before us, the 

 benefit of their experience; their shipwrecks reveal to us 

 those rocks and quicksands which we must avoid ; we 

 have reached an older age of the world, and one that 

 should be wiser than those which have gone before, since 

 the world, as our great English philosopher has truly 



