THE CHEMICAL METHOD. 467 



ideas to have heard that Bacon taught mankind to follow ex 

 perience, and to ground their conclusions on facts instead of 

 metaphysical dogmas think that, by treating political facts in 

 as directly experimental a method as chemical facts, they are 

 showing themselves true Baconians, and proving their adver 

 saries to he mere syllogizers and schoolmen. As, however, the 

 notion of the applicability of experimental methods to political 

 philosophy cannot coexist with any just conception of these 

 methods themselves, the kind of arguments from experience 

 which the chemical theory brings forth as its fruits (and which 

 form the staple, in this country especially, of parliamentary and 

 hustings oratory,) are such as, at no time since Bacon, would 

 have been admitted to be valid in chemistry itself, or in any 

 other branch of experimental science. They are such as these ; 

 that the prohibition of foreign commodities must conduce to 

 national wealth, because England has flourished under it, or be 

 cause countries in general which have adopted it have flourished ; 

 that our laws, or our internal administration, or our constitu 

 tion, are excellent for a similar reason : and the eternal argu 

 ments from historical examples, from Athens or Rome, from 

 the fires in Smithfield or the French Revolution. 



I will not waste time in contending against modes of 

 argumentation which no person, with the smallest practice in 

 estimating evidence, could possibly be betrayed into ; which 

 draw conclusions of general application from a single unana- 

 lysed instance, or arbitrarily refer an effect to some one among 

 its antecedents, without any process of elimination or com 

 parison of instances. It is a rule both of justice and of good 

 sense to grapple not with the absurdest, but with the most 

 reasonable form of a wrong opinion. We shall suppose our 

 inquirer acquainted with the true conditions of experimental 

 investigation, and competent in point of acquirements for 

 realizing them, so far as they can be realized. He shall know 

 as much of the facts of history as mere erudition can teach 

 as much as can be proved by testimony, without the assistance 

 of any theory ; and if those mere facts, properly collated, can 

 fulfil the conditions of a real induction, he shall be qualified 

 for the task. 



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