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XXXVII. — On the Application of the Principle of Relative, or Proportional, 

 Equality to International Organisation. By Professor Lorimer. 



(Read 18th March 1867.) 



Aristotle has a saying, which he has frequently repeated and which is 

 often quoted, to the effect that the same degree of precision is not attainable in 

 all branches of inquiry, and that it would be just as absurd to exact demonstra- 

 tion from a politician or an orator, as to accept probable reasoning from a mathe- 

 matician. It is a saying full of truth and acuteness. To the cultivators of 

 ethical and political philosophy, for whom it was intended, it is invaluable 

 both as an encouragement and a warning; and yet, in behalf of the latter 

 more especially, I often wish that it had never been said. Proceeding from such 

 a master, I am persuaded that it has often tempted them to rest satisfied with a 

 degree of success far short of the limits which the nature of their subjects really 

 imposed ; whilst, on the other hand, it has afforded an apology for excluding social 

 and political philosophy from the meditations of learned bodies like this. I do 

 not mean that they have been formally excluded. I know that the constitution 

 of this, and of most similar societies, has always embraced the social as well 

 as the physical sciences. But so rarely have those of us who were occupied with 

 the former availed ourselves of the privileges of Fellowship, that it has come to 

 be regarded almost as a matter of admission on our part, that our subjects defy 

 scientific treatment : that when we talk of tracing out laws of social wellbeing 

 or progress, we use words which either have no meaning at all, or which indicate 

 a very faint analogy between the methods which we affect to follow and those 

 really employed in the physical sciences : and that pretty nearly all that can be 

 done is to hand us and our subjects over to the companionship of party politicians 

 and popular declaimers. 



It is not surprising that this view should prevail, especially amongst those 

 whose notions of the necessity of scientific precision, in other departments of 

 study, are the strictest. It is rare to find a mathematician, or an astronomer, 

 who does not despise politics ; and I myself sympathise with their feelings to so 

 great an extent, that it will not diminish the reverence with which I have been 

 accustomed to regard them, nor shall I affect to view it as a mark of inhospi- 

 tality, though some of the very ablest of those who listen to me should expect 

 me to apologise for the subject Avhich I am about to introduce to their notice 

 this evening. 



I am, however, so deeply impressed with the momentous character of the 

 interests which centre in the social sciences, when rightly understood, that I 



VOL. XXIV. PART III. 7 M 



