426 REIGN OF LAW. 



is not so prosperous or so happy as that we 

 should readily or willingly believe in the ex- 

 haustion of the means which are at our disposal 

 for its better guidance. Especially in the great 

 Science of Politics which investigates the com- 

 plicated forces whose action and reaction deter- 

 mine the condition of organized societies of men, 

 we are still standing, as it were, only at the break 

 of day. Our command over the external elements 

 of Nature is, beyond all comparison, in advance 

 of our command over the resources of Human 

 Character. 



Special causes retard the progress of know- 

 ledge in this department of inquiry. Many pro- 

 blems so difficult and intricate that they never 

 can be solved except by patient observation, 

 patient thought, and yet more patient action, are 

 as yet hardly recognised to be problems at all. 

 We look on the facts of Nature and of human 

 life through the dulled eyes of Custom and Tradi- 

 tional Opinion. And when some misery worse 

 than others forces itself upon the acknowledg- 

 ment of the world, men are slow to discover or 

 admit their own power over the sources whence 



