700 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



requirements, or in measure inadequate 

 to requirements. Control exercised for 

 evil is tyranny, and should, wherever 

 possible, be ressted; control exercised 

 for good is government in the best sense 

 and deserves loyal acquiescence and 

 support. Control in excess of require- 

 ments again is tyranny, even though ex- 

 ercised not by a monarch but by a ma- 

 jority of the citizens ; control in due 

 proportion to requirements is govern- 

 ment in a good sense ; control inade- 

 quate to requirements means a greater 

 or less degree of anarchy. It should 

 not be difficult to interest the minds of 

 the young in deciding or trying to de- 

 cide for themselves certain practical 

 questions to which these definitions 

 would naturally give rise. Take the 

 government of a given country at a 

 given time : was it tyrannical or was 

 it reasonable government ? Did it de- 

 serve resistance or support ? Such and 

 such laws, are they in excess of require- 

 ments, or are they such as circumstances 

 demand? What are we to understand 

 by " requirements " ? Requirements for 

 what? Here is the opportunity for 

 pointing out how purely meddlesome 

 and intrusive a great deal of legislation 

 is the mere mandates of majorities 

 who want to have their way in every- 

 thing, and are not content to win others 

 over by persuasion, but insist on forcing 

 them into conformity by legal measures. 

 The " requirements " it can be shown, 

 beyond which political control should 

 not go, are the requirements of national 

 cohesion. Whatever tends to enforce 

 uniformity of practice or habit or opin- 

 ion beyond the demands of national 

 unity partakes of the nature of tyranny, 

 whether the authority that imposes it 

 has one head or a million heads. The 

 necessity for government in the true 

 sense can be made evident to the weak- 

 est understanding, and from this will 

 obviously flow the duty of every citizen 

 to aid in the maintenance of law and 

 order. What kind of a society, it may 

 be asked, would that be the sole foun- 



dations of which were force and fraud? 

 What would become of human industry 

 if the laborer could not depend on re- 

 ceiving his honest wages, or any worker 

 on protection in carrying on his employ- 

 ment? Law, it will be seen, is no re- 

 straint upon the good, but is their shield 

 against the aggressions of the evil ; to 

 the latter alone is it a terror, and they 

 alone can have any interest in weaken- 

 ing its authority. Yet even they would 

 suffer were there no law, and conse- 

 quently the ideal condition of things 

 for a bad man would be one in which 

 others obeyed the law while he suc- 

 ceeded in evading it. The habitual 

 criminal is thus no better than a beast 

 of prey or a parasite. 



Teaching of this nature addressed to 

 a class in which some kind of public 

 opinion was capable of being evoked 

 would, we are persuaded, do much to 

 create in the minds of the young a sense 

 of the interest they have in upholding 

 the institutions of the country, both na- 

 tional and municipal. We incline to the 

 opinion that this interest should first be 

 awakened by means of general consid- 

 erations upon government before de- 

 tailed instruction is given in the national 

 Constitution. When the time has come 

 for the latter, the different purposes 

 which each power in the State is intend- 

 ed to serve should be carefully explained, 

 and the pupils should be invited to ex- 

 ercise their own independent judgment 

 upon the Constitution as a whole and 

 upon its several parts. They might be 

 freely asked whether they could suggest 

 anything better, and the whole subject 

 should be commended to them as one 

 in which they have an interest that can 

 not safely be neglected. It should be 

 impressed upon them that, if honest peo- 

 ple do not take an interest in politics^ 

 dishonest people are sure to do so, and 

 that the only way to nullify the influ- 

 ence of the bad is for the good those 

 who have the welfare of their country 

 at heart to occupy the field in over- 

 whelming numbers themselves. 



