OT. vi.] THE ATTITUDE OF PHILOSOPHY. 491 



moving, and would move in spite of him. Yet he thought 

 to establish in Eomanized Europe an Oriental patriarchal 

 despotism, and he thought by mere brute force to bring ovej 

 half the civilized world to a religious system which it had 

 for ever discarded. And thus, though he wielded a powei 

 such as no man for centuries had wielded before him, he 

 achieved absolutely nothing. At the end of his evil career, 

 he was farther from each of his cherished aims than at the 

 beginning. The physical power of Spain was exhausted in 

 the vain effort to stem the course of events, and all the 

 credit the son of Charles V. ever earned was that of being 

 one of the most mischievous among the enemies of the 

 human race. 



Now, our practical object in studying human progress 

 scientifically is to be able to arrive at certain definite general 

 principles of statesmanship. In every branch of speculative 

 or practical activity, men begin by reasoning from parti 

 culars to particulars, accomplishing their results by a kind 

 of sagacious instinct which hits upon the means requisite 

 for attaining a given end. But after a while, as science pro 

 gresses, they establish general principles of action, and work 

 with a distinct consciousness of the adaptation of the means 

 employed to the end proposed. From being instinctive and 

 irregular, their proceedings become ratiocinative and sys 

 tematic ; witness the whole history of industrial art. And, 

 as that history shows, the more intelligent and coherent the 

 course of proceeding, the less is the time and effort wasted 

 in vain experiment. It is just the same in politics. We need 

 to understand the conditions essential to progress, and the 

 direction which progress is taking, that we may avoid the 

 mischief entailed by stupid and ignorant legislation, and 

 secure the benefits arising from legislation that is scientifi 

 cally conceived and put into operation with a distinct con 

 sciousness of the ends to be secured. We need sociology 

 that we may not waste our energies and damage society in 



