218 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



the Irish, before the famine of 1845, was the most reckless, 

 according to common reports. Both lived on the cheapest kind 

 of food, and both suffered the same extremities from the same 

 cause. But we shall often have occasion to illustrate the position 

 that Political Economy teaches the tendency of certain natural 

 laws, and that serious inconvenience and loss follow the breach 

 of these laws. 



When people, then, speak of this science as harsh and stern 

 and dismal, they are unwittingly, no doubt, but surely pre- 

 ferring ignorance to knowledge. All law is the will of God, and 

 the will of God is never harsh, stern, or dismal, except to those 

 who wilfully defy it. As well call the art of the physician stern 

 or harsh, because it warns men that the laws of health cannot 

 be broken with impunity, but must be obeyed, except to the 

 manifest danger of those who violate them, and their probable 

 detriment. 



It was stated at the beginning of this paper that Political 

 Economy is an inductive science, and that by this is meant that 

 its conclusions are gathered from the observation of facts that 

 it is a science of experience, not of demonstration. This state- 

 ment requires a little expansion and illustration. 



Out of a few definitions and axioms, the geometrician builds 

 up a series of proofs. So, again, a mathematician lays down a 

 few simple rules in arithmetic, algebra, and the like, and from 

 these educes a series of processes by which the most elaborate 

 calculations can bo developed. Similarly, the logician proposes 

 a few laws of thought, and from them constructs or analyses 

 complicated reasonings. It is not necessary in a paper like this 

 to raise the question as to what is the origin of those principles 

 from which sciences like the above-named have their commence- 

 ment. It is sufficient to point to the fact that they deal with 

 certain forms as laws of thought, which are apparently the 

 constituents or conditions of the mind. 



In the physical universe there are a vast mass of phenomena. 

 In some of these phenomena man is able to lay down an hypo- 

 thesis, and then proceed to verify or reject the hypothesis by 

 experiment. For example, a chemist tells us that water is com- 

 posed of two gases ; and he can prove this incontestably, for 

 he can exhibit the production of water, by employing certain 

 agencies which operate on these two gases when they are 

 brought together. In the same way, the electrician has been 

 able not only to account for the phenomena of thunder and 

 lightning, but to exhibit the spark and sound on a small scale. 

 He is able to verify his hypothesis, and to establish a physical 

 law. 



There is another set of phenomena, the proof of which is due 

 to the verification of hypothesis by observation. This is the way 

 in which the laws of astronomical science have been generally 

 discovered. The orbit of comets was, for example, first stated 

 as an hypothesis. The discoverer then tried whether the actual 

 course of the comet accorded with the place in which the hypo- 

 thesis anticipated the body would be. In time the anticipation 

 was satisfied. It is in this way that most astronomical dis- 

 coveries have been made, though it must be allowed that the 

 most brilliant and suggestive of all, the spectrum analysis, was 

 indebted to the method of experiment for its verification. 



Now Political Economy is an inductive science of observation. 

 We can make no experiments on society ; we cannot construct 

 a state in which we can wholly control all the constituents 

 which contribute to an economical problem. All we can do is 

 to anticipate, watch, and verify our anticipation ; or if we find 

 the facts at variance with our theory, to account for the dis- 

 crepancy, or discard our theory. Nothing has done, and nothing 

 can do, more harm to this science than to lay down a few hard 

 rules, and then to account for the facts by the rules. The 

 proper thing to do is to search for the rule in the facts. For 

 example, some very ingenious writers have laid down certain 

 positions about rent, population, profit, capital, which are found 

 to be at variance with the facts of society, with things as they 

 really are. We shall have occasion to illustrate the errors 

 which such unyielding and unverified hypotheses engender. 



In concluding this prefatory lesson, I may observe that the 

 study of Political Economy constitutes the key to much which 

 is otherwise unintelligible in history. History proposes to deal 

 with the events which have occurred in the social progress and 

 decay of human societies. Part of its inquiries are the wars by 

 which empires have been founded and lost ; and, indeed, it is 

 too often the case, that those who have busied themselves with 



the rise, growth, and downfall of communities, have laid too 

 much stress on these continual and superficial occurrences, and 

 have given little or no attention to the social condition of the 

 nations whose history they profess to teach. But we may be 

 certain of this, that the vicissitudes to which such nations have 

 been subjected are all susceptible of an economical interpretation. 

 An economist finds no great difficulty in explaining the brief 

 duration of Oriental empires, in accounting for the short-lived 

 brilliancy of ancient Greece, for the growth of the Roman power, 

 for its utter downfall, and for the long duration of social 

 barbarism which followed it. Nor does he find himself unable 

 to anticipate the greater durability of modern societies, and the 

 causes which give our civilisation its strength and coherence, 

 while he is conscious of the hindrances which oppose its fuller 

 development, and the difficulties which menace it. 



In my next lesson I shall treat of the progress of modern 

 society, and show how its economy has been constructed. 



LESSONS IN" GERMAK- 



100. THE ADVERBS. 



-LXX. 



(1.) Adverbs in German, as in other languages, serve to 

 modify the signification of verbs, participles, adjectives, and 

 often, also, that of one another ; denoting, for the most part, 

 certain limitations of time, place, degree, and manner. Hence 

 they are usually classified according to their meaning. 



(2.) They are indeclinable ; and formed, either by derivation 

 or composition, from almost every other part of speech : of 

 some, however, the origin is wholly unknown. 



Arranged according to derivation, adverbs are divisible into 

 the following classes : 



101. ADVERBS FORMED FROM NOUNS. 

 Adverbs are formed from nouns by affixing the letter 9. This 

 termination 8 is nothing more than the sign of the genitive sin- 

 gular ; which case, not only of nouns, but also of adjectives, 

 participles, etc., is often made to perform the office of an ad- 

 verb. Examples : 



from ber SDJorgcn, morning. 



ber Sag, day. 



S, in part, or partly ; ber Sl;et, part. 



Slugs, swiftly ; ber Slug, flight. 



3)urc()gef)enbg. generally ; burcfygefyenb, passing through. 



3ufcl)enb, visibly ; jufefyenb, looking at. 



102. ADVERBS FORMED FROM ADJECTIVES. 



(1.) Adverbs are formed from adjectives by the addition of 

 the suffixes licfy, fiaft, and ItngS; which, except the last, are 

 also regular adjective terminations. These endings are chiefly 

 expressive of manner ; and may be translated sometimes by a 

 corresponding suffix (as the English ly or ishly), and sometimes 

 by some equivalent phrase. Examples : 



S, in the mornin 

 S!ag3, in the day ; 



2Baf)t(tcf>, truly, verily ; 

 Coif aft; maliciously ; 

 2Beigltcf>, wisely ; 

 ffrctltcfy, sure, to be sure 

 S3lmbling, blindly ; 



(2.) The letter , also, as above stated, added to adjectives, 

 gives rise to a class of adverbs ; thus, 



from ttntfir, true. 

 ,, bofe, evil, wicked. 

 ftcife, wise. 

 ,, fret, free, sure. 

 . fctinb, blind. 



StecfytS, on the right ; 

 2tnf3, on the left ; 

 Sinter?, otherwise ; 

 aSeretM, already; 

 SSefonberS, particularly : 

 StetS, continually ; 



from recfyt, right. 

 linf, left, 

 anber, other, 

 berett, ready, 

 fcefonber, particular, 

 (let, continual. 



The letter 8 is, also, sometimes affixed to adverbs ending in 

 mat ; as, normals, formerly ; bamals, at that time ; sietmalS, many 

 times. For numeral adverbs ending in maf, let, etc., see the sec- 

 tion on Numerals. 



(3.) Here note, also, that almost all German adjectives, in 

 the absolute form that is, in the simple form without the ter- 

 minations of declension are employed as adverbs; thus, cr reitnt 

 fcfmeff, he runs rapidly ; cr tyanbelt clirltcfj, he acts honestly. 



103. ADVERBS FORMED FROM PRONOUNS. 

 (1.) These are, chiefly, tit, there (from bet, tie. ta8, this or that); 



