July 33, 1886.] 



science:. 



85 



mass of economic information. The mind of the 

 student is soaked with knowledge of the past ex- 

 perience of mankind, with descriptions of present 

 institutions, and with statistical details of eco- 

 nomic life. No one can teach a class of students 

 without being amazed at the eagerness with which 

 they absorb the details of economic history, such 

 as the finances of the civil war, or the silver legis- 

 lation of the United States ; or the interest with 

 which they listen to the discussion of economic 

 problems now in course of solution, like the Irish 

 land question ; or the curiosity with which they 

 regard even statistical data of the movements of 

 population and the course of trade. This is not 

 to be wondered at. Every active intellect has a 

 natural curiosity as to the history of the race 

 and the institutions and customs of other na- 

 tions. The inductive method satisfies this legit- 

 imate curiosity in a systematic and scientific 

 way. Whether we are able or not to solve the 

 particular problem which we have set before 

 us, we at least get an intelligent knowledge 

 of its difiiculties. Whether or not we arrive at 

 general principles, we gain information which in 

 itself will be of value. This is a great advantage 

 over the old method, which, when it was wrong, 

 was altogether wrong and misleading. The new 

 method is at least fruitful, and we get some result 

 from our labor, even if we do not attain all that 

 we sought for. 



Again, the use of the inductive method tends 

 to broaden our views of the relations of society. 

 It familiarizes us with economic problems as they 

 have come up in history, and shows us how they 

 have been solved at different times and by differ- 

 ent nations. It teaches us to view them from all 

 sides, — in the light of past experience ; in con- 

 nection with the present state of civilization ; 

 from the stand-point of different nations, classes, 

 and individuals. The new method is radical, in- 

 asmuch as it shows that economic arrangements 

 are founded partly on the nature of things, but 

 are also due in great part to the present state of 

 civilization, and, to a certain extent, to accident 

 and chance. It makes us ready to acquiesce in the 

 possibility of changes in the future even in some 

 institutions hitherto regarded as fundamental : in 

 other words, it makes us believers in evolution and 

 progTess. But the new method is even more conser- 

 vative : for it teaches us that social institutions 

 and arrangements are the result of long growth 

 and evolution ; that they are intimately connected 

 with civilization, and, when once established, are 

 not to be lightly overthrown. History shows this : 

 for it reveals how slow a growth real civilization 

 is, and by what hard struggles we have attained 

 to our present state. Comparison of institutions 



shows it : for it proves how universal are the 

 human wants which the present institutions sat- 

 isfy. Statistics sliows it : for it discloses how 

 complicated and delicate the social organization 

 is, and the danger of laying violent hands on it. 

 Socialists and revolutionists are generally men of 

 one idea, followers of one-sided abstract theories. 

 The true conservatism comes, as Burke long ago 

 pointed out, from that reverence for the wonder- 

 ful machinery of social organization which study 

 by the inductive inethod gives. 



Another advantage of the inductive method is 

 that it prevents the science from degenerating 

 into a mere collection of stereotyped formulae, 

 and the practice of the science into the mechan- 

 ical apj)lication of these formulae to the facts of 

 human life. The danger which besets political 

 economy in this respect has been abundantly 

 illustrated above. Nothing in literature is sadder 

 than the fatalistic pessimism which John Stuart 

 Mill finds forced upon him after considering the 

 possibility of an improvement in the condition of 

 the laboring-class, on the basis of the wage-fund 

 theory and the Malthusian law of population. 

 Nothing was more destructive to the influence of 

 political economy than the positive condemnation 

 of factory laws and national education, which its 

 teachers drew from the principle of self-interest 

 and free competition. It is desirable, of course, to 

 reach principles which are stable and always ap- 

 plicable ; but we must not close the doors too soon 

 against further evidence, and treat our science as 

 a final revelation instead of a body of empirical 

 laws gathered from the experience of mankind 

 up to the present time, and with our present 

 means of knowledge. It is true that the law of 

 gravitation never changes ; but the laws of politi- 

 cal economy are not of that kind. As Bagehot 

 has clearly shown, even the law of self-interest 

 has absolutely no existence, or is entirely in abey- 

 ance in many communities and under certain 

 circumstances. The laws of political economy 

 are secondary laws, and it is not to be supposed 

 that we have formulated them exactly and finally. 

 It is as if a hundred years ago physicists had laid 

 it down as an absolute immutable law that per- 

 sons could not be transported faster than twelve 

 miles an hour, because horses could not drag 

 stage-coaches over turnpike roads at a greater 

 speed. The old political economy is full of such 

 mistaken assumptions that the generaUzation from 

 a narrow range of experience is a highest prin- 

 ciple. The inductive method teaches us at least 

 modesty and caution. 



A final advantage of the new method, closely 

 connected with the one just mentioned, is that 

 scientific truths are not so easily used for selfish 



