1889 ESSAYS ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 263 



from Tyre. Sketch maps of Palestine and Mesopotamia, 

 with notes from the best authorities on the geography of 

 the two countries, belong in all probability to the articles 

 on ( The Flood " and " Hasisadra's Adventure." To realise 

 clearly the size, position, and relation of the parts to the 

 whole, was the mechanical instinct of the engineer which 

 was so strong in him. 



The four articles which followed in quick succession on 

 " The Natural Inequality of Man," " Natural and Political 

 Rights," " Capital the Mother of Labour," and " Govern- 

 ment," appeared in the January, February, March, and 

 May numbers of the Nineteenth Century, and, as was said 

 above, are directed against a priori reasoning in social 

 philosophy. The first, which appeared simultaneously with 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer's article on Justice ' in the Nine- 

 teenth Century, assails, on the ground of fact and history, 

 the dictum that men are born free and equal, and have 

 a natural right to freedom and equality, so that property 

 and political rights are a matter of contract. History de- 

 nies that they thus originated ; and, in fact, ' proclaim 

 human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve 

 his brother." Yet, in justice to Rousseau and the influ- 

 ence he wielded, he adds : 



It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds 

 for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify 

 our instincts. 



Thus if, in their plain and obvious sense, the doctrines 

 which Rousseau advanced are so easily upset, it is probable that 

 he had in his mind something which is different from that 

 sense. 



When they sought speculative grounds to justify the 

 empirical truth 



that it is desirable, in the interests of society, that all men should 

 be as free as possible, consistently with those interests, and that 

 they should all be equally bound by the ethical and legal obli- 

 gations which are essential to social existence, ' the philoso- 

 phers," as is the fashion of speculators, scorned to remain on 

 the safe if humble ground of experience, and preferred to 

 prophesy from the sublime cloudland of the a priori. 



