THE SOCIAL REFORMER 15 



scepticism. I do not mean the unbridled imagination 

 which runs away from facts, but that saner power which 

 is the light of much of our seeing, because it can anticipate 

 facts, and forecast the consequences that flow from general 

 principles. The social sceptic is a dealer in generalities, 

 and his thinking is much too facile. He sees the collision 

 of purposes in human society, and the wrongs and suffer- 

 ing and disorder which spring therefrom. But he does 

 not see that these are the offspring, on the one side, of 

 the very faith in law which he condemns as an illusion. 

 On his theory, no purpose would be foiled and no strife 

 of purposes would arise, no expectation could be dis- 

 appointed and no failure experienced ; for the pursuit of 

 ends would be impossible. To loosen the bonds of society 

 is not merely to dissolve it into the dust and powder of 

 individual units, but to destroy these units themselves 

 for man is a rational being only in virtue of society. 



The source of this error lies in the view that is taken 

 of the nature of universals : they are regarded as the 

 results of inference. It is the same error as brands physical 

 laws as mere generalisations invented by abstract thought 

 things useful for explanation, or at least for intercommuni- 

 cation, but having no existence in the realm of the real. 

 On this view the idea of necessary law, whether physical 

 or social, is one of the late products of reflective thought. 

 In truth, however, it is not so much a product of thought 

 as it is a postulate and constitutive principle of thinking, 

 which necessarily manifests its presence in every rational 

 act. The housewife, though all unconscious, assumes the 

 uniformity of nature when she places the kettle over the 

 fire, and she postulates the stable order of society in order- 

 ing goods from her grocer. In one sense it is true that 



