LAW IN POLITICS. 355 



under conditions favourable to their exercise in a 

 right direction. And as in the material world, the 

 knowledge we have acquired of the powers of 

 Nature, and of the methods of turning them to use, 

 has been slowly gained in the lapse of ages, and 

 as all we discover does but reveal how much we 

 have yet to know ; so in the immense world of 

 the Mind and Character of Man, our knowledge of 

 the methods by which it may be well and wisely 

 governed, has advanced only by slow degrees. 

 There is a boundless field of discovery still open to 

 those who investigate the laws which govern the de- 

 velopment of our nature. When we look at the high 

 degrees of excellence which that nature so often 

 attains under favourable conditions for the growth 

 and exercise of its better powers, and when we 

 contrast this with its stunted and distorted growth 

 as exhibited among large portions of Mankind, it 

 becomes a question of deep and endless interest 

 to know how far these conditions are subject 

 to the control of Will through the use of means. 

 If such means can ever be devised, it must be 

 by knowledge, first of the elementary forces 

 which have a constant operation on Human Char- 



