TRAXSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 7G5 



if tliey regard it as a sign of a more wliolesome condition of mind. The com- 

 plaint may be due to the fact that the guidance sought is not such as the 

 professors can offer, and that the advice, whicli they are able and ready to give, is 

 considered inadequate or supertluous. 



I am going to address myself to the audacious task of endeavouring to indicate 

 by actual example the guidance which the economic professor may furnish to the 

 practical man on the questions of the day ; and I have prefaced my attempt with 

 these observations to show that I am aware of the hazard and difficulty attendant. 

 Were I to seek for an appropriate metaphor to describe my venture, t might find 

 it by saying that I was about to disturb a hornets' nest ; and, if I am fortunate 

 enough to escape with the scornful neglect of the practical man, I am afraid that 

 the professor may be less compassionate, and that his sting may prove as venomous. 

 I may, perhaps, plead in excuse that it is at once the traditional privilege and the 

 inherited duty of occujiants of presidential chairs to devote their observations 

 especially to that part of their science with which they have been most closely 

 connected. I have certainly endeavoured on the one hand to bestow a consider- 

 iible portion of my time on the scientific study of economics as expounded in 

 systematic treatises, and, on the other, my occupation as College Treasurer has 

 forced me into intimate contact with the hard facts of at least one department of 

 practical life, I would not for one moment claim that this dual experience gives 

 me any title to speak with authority on the relations of economic science to 

 practical affairs ; but it has determined the grooves in which my tboughts have 

 mainly run, and, so far as I may presume to a special acquaintance with any 

 department of economic speculation, it is with that whicli concerns the bearing of 

 theory on practice. Without unbecoming arrogance, I may, perhaps, think that I 

 possess in not very disproportionate measure the failings of the practical man and 

 the academic professor ; and in this capacity I undertake the task before me. 



Before considering some particular questions of the day we may determine the 

 general character of the guidance offered by economics in matters of practice. I 

 believe that in this connection economists must disclaim a pretension to strict 

 neutrality. Much, no doubt, may be urged in support of the claim, and consider- 

 able advantages might follow from its successful establishment. The cool 

 examination of heated questions in the dry light of science might seem the 

 appropriate occupation of the academic professor. From the serene heights of 

 tranquil speculation he might complacently look down on the heat and turmoil of 

 affairs, and, standing apart from the conflict himself, refuse to assist any combatant. 

 But the strict maintenance of this attitude is a * counsel of perfection ' and a 

 practical impossibility. The student must be more or less than human who, 

 dealing with a department of knowledge so intimately related to the welfare of 

 humiinity, can avoid, as the result of his scientiiic inquiry, forming a favourable 

 view of one coui-se of conduct and an adverse opinion of another, and endeavouring 

 to promote the former, and to hinder the latter, both by advice and by act. He 

 cannot be content to observe the connection of cause and effect without trying to 

 set in motion the cause or to restrain its action. He cannot acquiesce* in the 

 speculative solution of a problem without being impelled to embody his theory in 

 practice. He cannot contemplate the misery due to bad economic arrangements 

 without seeking to devise and apply a remedy ; and, viewing the matter histori- 

 cally, the practical object of benefiting their fellow-creatures has been at least as 

 powerful a motive with great economic thinkers as the speculative aim of 

 enlarging the boundaries of knowledge. They have been reproached for hardness 

 of heart and dulness of imagination, and the popular account is prone to regard 

 them as dry and unfeeling ; but the description is a travesty of the facts, and their 

 errors have probably been due as often to excess as to lack of enthusiasm. The 

 recurring contrast of wealth and poverty, of careless ease and careworn want, of 

 lavish indulgence and narrow penury, has awakened as responsive a chord in their 

 hearts as in that of the most .ardent and generous socialist ; and it is impossible to 

 run over the conspicuous names on the roll of economic worthies without being 

 impressed by the warmth of their zeal for social reform, and the intensity and 

 persistence of their anxiety to remove or mitigate human suffering. The 'economic 



