9.] NOTES. 81 



p 



It is in barbarous communities that the task of government is 

 most difficult. 



Cf. the end of Article III. in Book v. chap. I. of Adam Smith's 

 Wealth of Nations. With the whole of this passage, cf. pp. 48-61. 



The substance of the passage is that, other things being equal, 

 all arts, and therefore the arts of government and war among 

 "the rest, will be practised with greater success by those who 

 have had a proper training, than bv mere empirics. A quack 

 doctor, who by a given remedy has cured a fever, may cure an 

 other by the same remedy, if the two cases happen to be exactly 

 alike ; but a man trained in the principles of medicine, who 

 knows how and why his medicines act, will be able to adjust his 

 remedies to different constitutions and to different forms of the 

 same disease. Similarly a mere empiric may hit upon a tax 

 which will be productive, and which will be paid willingly : a 

 scientific statesman will be able to make a rational and trust 

 worthy forecast. Cf. Essay xii. " So are there mountebanks 

 for the politique body ; men that undertake great cures and 

 perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want I 

 the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out." By 7 

 Learning Bacon intends chiefly a knowledge of history, or raiEKer \ 

 of what we should call thejphilosophy of history. In the Intro 

 duction to Book 2, he repeats that a liberal education, i.e., 

 an education in histories, modern languages, books of policy and 

 civil discourse, and other the like p.nah laments imto service of 

 estate, is a necessary qualification for statesmanship^ The whole 

 tendency of Burke 's political teaching is in harmony with these 

 remarks of Bacon. The spirit of Bacon's teaching reappears too 

 in Carlyle's Hero-worship, which is, in reality, a demand that 

 nations should be governed by the wisest and best of their 

 citizens. 



1. 19. as for the disgraces, etc. The meaning of the sentence 

 is that politicians try to discredit learning on the following 

 grounds. The use of be for are was common, specially in refer 

 ence to a number of persons or things considered as a kind or 

 class. 



1. 24. curious, careful. With this passage cf. p. 13. 8 seqq., 

 where the objections here raised are answered. If their know 

 ledge of history suggests to them so many courses of action that 

 they are puzzled which to choose, yet it teaches them when 

 further hesitation is dangerous, and at the same time enables 

 them to act on a reasonable principle, when they do act. 



1. 25. peremptory, obstinate. It is said that learned men 

 adhere too strictly to rigid rules and principles, from which, in 

 practice, deviations are often required. For instance, it is often 

 said that ' modified free trade ' is expedient for some countries : 

 ' a learned statesman ' might enforce pure free trade everywhere. 



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