The Scientific Method. 333 



the theorist and doctrinaire, who has found one general 

 principle which so possesses his mind that he can think 

 of no other, and who applies it in season and out of season 

 without the slightest reference to conditions. The other 

 hete noire is the man who is so short-sighted that he never 

 can see beyond his nose, who hates a theorist much more 

 than he hates the devil, because he regards the latter as a 

 thoroughly practical being, and whose thought never 

 transcends the expediency of the moment. Of the two, 

 the former state is to be preferred. It is better, I suppose, 

 to "hitch your Avagon to a star," which may indeed drag 

 you along roughly, not always in the road, but will still 

 keep you moving over magnificent distances and cheer you 

 with its light. If on the other hand you attach it to a 

 purbliiid ass, the beast will take you nowhere, but will 

 presently demolish your vehicle, and perhaps yourself, with 

 its vicious kicks. The true method for politics is that 

 described by Wordsworth Donnisthorpe in a recently pub- 

 lished work : " The need should be insisted on for the 

 thorough study of law in the concrete, and the discovery, 

 not the manufacture, of the true statical laws which are 

 actually operative in societies ; of their tendency and of 

 the dynamical laws of their change and development. It 

 is by the discovery of these laws that we shall find our- 

 selves in possession of true and useful practical guides 

 through the labyrinth of legislation and politics. . . . The 

 art of politics is the application of the science of nomology 

 to the concrete, just as engineering is the application to 

 human wants of the science of mechanics, and as naviga- 

 tion is one of the arts based on the science of astronomy ; 

 until Ave have mastered the science we shall make little 

 progress with the corresponding art. . . . To-day we are 

 on the high road to Socialism ; to-morrow the fates only 

 know Avhere Ave shall be. The only cure for this policy of 

 drift is a patient and intelligent study . . . Avhereby middle 

 principles of practical application are to be brought to 

 light and the absurd fallacies of social doctrinaires put to 

 flight forever."* 



I shall not pause to speak of practical philanthropy, 

 further than to remind you that charity never Avill take the 

 place of justice, and is at best the temporary not the 

 ultimate relief for suffering human nature. Largesse will 



""Individualism; A System of Politics," IX. 



