46 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PARTI 



dency was doubtless good within limits ; but does 

 this fact constitute any presumption whatever in 

 favour of the anarchist, revolutionary or philosophi- 

 cal, who bids us entirely abolish organised govern- 

 ment, and promises in return a golden age of perfect 

 happiness ? The mere fact that a policy was wise 

 or was inevitable up till now is no proof that it ought 

 to be further persevered in. The surgeon may have 

 removed first a finger, then the hand, then the fore- 

 arm, as he found gangrene appearing and reappear- 

 ing ; but that is no reason whatever for operating at 

 the shoulder if the upper arm is healthy. 



Again, we may quote Mr. Mackenzie's statement 

 of the objections to the policy under discussion, 

 the policy of pushing on along the lines where nature 

 or history has shown us the way. If we could be 

 certain of distinguishing the master tendency of an 

 age from the crowd of rival tendencies in which it is 

 all but lost, then history might be a sufficient guide. 

 But too often, says Mr. Mackenzie, reflection becomes 

 conscious of a social maxim only when the maxim is 

 overripe, when it is ceasing to be healthy, or even to 

 be completely alive. And so the conscientious stu- 

 dent is apt to prolong the tendencies of the recent 

 past rather than to detect the true needs of the pres- 

 ent or the tendencies of the immediate future. He 

 exhibits the weakness of the doctrinaire. The prac- 

 .tical man, who is in touch with reality, though only 

 half conscious of the principles and reasons why his 

 policy is the right one, is more truly scientific than 

 his pretentious critic in the arm-chair. When all 

 men contribute to build a prophet's tomb, one may 

 shrewdly conjecture that his message is no longer 



