1 6 THE WORKING FAITH OF 



the uniformity of nature is only a hypothesis, and a hypo- 

 thesis imperfectly established, for there are sequences we 

 cannot trace ; and this is still more manifestly true of 

 social uniformities. But, on the other hand, at whatever 

 point we deny the truth of these hypotheses, there know- 

 ledge and action cease. Their truth is as wide as our 

 rational life, and is a condition of that life. 



But it may be answered : Granted that man never acts 

 except with a view to results, and that the most ardent 

 missionary of social chaos does not expect to gather grapes 

 from thorns or figs from thistles ; granted that man cannot 

 live in society, and that there cannot be a society, except 

 under the conception of the uniformity of connection 

 between antecedent and consequent, between desire and 

 will, and will and act ; and granted, even, that what we 

 must conceive as real is as good as real for us it still 

 does not follow that we can discover these laws. 



To this objection I shall proffer only one answer, an 

 answer, moreover, that comes from man's experience, and 

 not merely from theories of that experience. It is, that 

 there are some experiments in social well-being which will 

 be tried no more by any civilised people. There are conse- 

 quences which we would pronounce impossible beforehand, 

 not because our procedure is a priori, but because the 

 judgment of history lies behind it and sustains it. 



Mankind has not only experienced much since it housed 

 itself in caves, but has learned much from its experience. 

 Distances we cannot measure separate the earliest life 

 of man, the crude societies of the clan and tribe, the 

 civic states of Greece, the iron imperialism of Rome, and 

 the modern states of Europe. During this long history 

 men have sought their private ends, fulfilled the duties of 



