TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 607° 
Homer, as the fine Greek proverb has it, is not ‘enough for everything.’ We- 
should, by following this course, limit ourselves in a manner which none who haye 
sought to work in a scientific spirit have ever done in any other branch of research, 
and should restrict the study, the bounds of which we should desire to extend, into 
becoming merely a record of the past—an empty record, also, for instead of our 
investigation being instinct with life, it would soon become a mere series of dead 
reminiscences. 
In saying this I am not unmindful of the very sagacious remark made by 
Professor Ingram, to whose discourse, delivered to this Section at Dublin, I have 
referred before. Speaking of political economy, he observed, ‘ It is the most difficult 
of all the sciences, because it is that im which the phenomena dealt with are the 
most complex, and dependent on the greatest variety of conditions, and in which, 
-accordingly, appearances are most deceitful, and error takes the most plausible forms,’ 
Bearing this warning in mind, and remembering the limitations already laid down 
as to those points which we should shun, let us proceed to consider in what direc- 
tion lies the true course of economic progress. 
‘And here I shall best point out-the process through which our study may be 
aided if I quote from a work which, though it may not in all respects fully come up 
to the promise of its title, yet contains within its pages a great storehouse of genuine 
thought—the ‘ Novum Organum Renovatum’ of Dr. Whewell. . The first chapter 
‘of Dr. Whewell’s second book, which deals with the construction.of science, 
commences thus:—The two processes by which science ts constructed are the expli- 
cation of conceptions, and the colligation of facts. The definition contained in this 
statement is so clear and complete that it may almost pass for a truism. But it 
contains the axiom on which every science must be founded. Our own observa- 
tion places before us constantly the texts of the Book of Economic Science, but, 
as has been well said, ‘these convey no knowledge to us tillwe have discovered 
the alphabet by which they are to be read.’ 
Here, again, we shall do well to bear in mind the warning just quoted as to 
Economic Science being the most difficult of all the sciences, because, in it, error 
takes the most plausible forms. It is because this science deals with the facts of 
social life, with matters which all can observe, and consequently think themselves 
capable of judging, that it appears to be so easy, and in reality is so difficult. 
Again, let us consider the circumstances under which the study of political 
economy has to be carried on. Political economy exists both as the science 
which solves the problems of social existence, and as the art in which that science 
is applied in practice to ordinary life.. Now, it differs from almost every other 
branch of science in the fact that in it scarcely any experiment is ever possible. 
We cannot, to revert to a point previously mentioned, call the application of the 
principle of Free Trade to the financial legislation of this country an experiment. 
It was the work of men confident in their science ; justly confident, because they 
felt certain, from the teachings of that science, that the act would succeed. 
But since experiment cannot be tried, what course should the student follow ? 
At this point we may with advantage glance for a moment at the two schools into 
which economic writers have principally shown a tendency to divide of late years— 
the historic and the philosophic schools. A science which deals with the facts 
of human life, and yet does not admit of experiment, must be the more indebted 
to observation. Here, we may see, is the opportunity for those who follow the 
historical method. But mere observation directed by no principle is unaware 
what facts it should gather, or how the connection of these facts should be 
explained. Hence the work is incomplete without the application of correct 
theory. This arrangement supposes the pre-existence of theory before the historical 
method can be applied. _Endeayour to avoid the conclusion as we may, we are 
driven to admit that our science must be founded on theory, call it by what name 
you will: abstraction, which lies at the root of the deductive, or hypothesis, which 
forms the basis of the inductive method.. , : 
'.-It is. remarkable that in the writings of Adam Smith we may find. the habits 
of mind exemplified on which.both these schools of thought haye based their 
Teasoning. As was well observed by the late Mr, Walter Bagehot, it was precisely 
