2SII ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM vi 



rights are generally clear enough, though it is 

 iVr ( |uently extremely hard to say at what point 

 it is wise to cease our attempts to enforce them. 



The notion that the social body should be or- 

 ganised in such a manner as to advance the 

 welfare of its members, is as old as political 

 thought ; and the schemes of Plato, More, Robert 

 Owen, St. Simon, Comte, and the modern so- 

 cialists, bear witness that, in every age, men 

 whose capacity is of no mean order, and whose 

 desire to .benefit their fellows has rarely been 

 excelled, have been strongly, nay, enthusiastically, 

 convinced that Government may attain its end 

 the good of the people by some more pffprtnnl 

 cess than the very simple and easy one of 

 putting its hands in its pockets, and letting them 

 alone. 



It may be, that all the schemes of social or- 

 ganisation which have hitherto been propounded 

 are impracticable follies. But if this be so the 

 fact proves, not that the idea which underlies 

 them is worthless, but only that the science of 

 politics is in a very rudimentary and imperfect 

 state. Politics, as a science, is not older than 

 astronomy ; but though the subject-matter of the 

 latter is vastly less complex than that of the 

 former, the theory of the moon's motions is not 

 quite settled yet. 



Perhaps it may help us a little way towards 

 getting clearer notions of what the State may and 



