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    If ail the observed facts upon which any physical science is founded yvere lost and forgotten , ; the observations might be renewed , and from these observations the science might be reconstructed . But when the evidence of historical facts is lost , nothing can replace ^ them ; and although inferences as to human life and society may he drawn from other facts , still the void created by the loss in question can never be supplied ! Iftheobservations by which Kepler calculated the orbit of Itfars had been destroyed by . fire , they might have been replaced by subsequent astronomers ; but if the work of Thucydides had perished , we should have been deprived- for ever of-bis authentic and instructive narrative . "It is for this reason that the preservation of historical evidence is of primary importance ^ W destroyed , it can never be restored . The chemist can at any moment reproduce the phenomena of niatter ; he can elicit the electric spark , or decompose \ yaterj but no human power can evoke the long series of events which must ( for example ) have occurred ^ on tlie banks of the Euphrates and the Mile ,

    before the dav \ rn of authentic history . . Hence , too , it is . a mistake to suppose that erudition is distinct in its aim from science ; and that the collection of facts relative to a past age of the world is a barren exercise of misdirected diligence , or the mere caprice of a frivolous curiosity . It is the business of erudition to collect , verify , weigh , compare , arrange , expound , and illustrate , the testimonies to ancient facts connected with man : the leanied are the pioneers aiid ministers of history , and furnish the materials out 6 f which the philosophy of politics and human nature is , in part , constructed . So far is the man of erudition from dealing with facts inferior in importance to physical facts , that the facts with which he deals are unique ; if lost , they can never be replaced , inasmuch as they possess an individuality which can never be imitated . Whereas physical facts always recur , and can often be reproduced at will ; and hence , whatever value may belong to accurate and intelligent observations in any department of physics , they certainly have not that value which consists in their loss being irreparable . " , And here is one on EXPERIMENT IN POLITICS . " The method of scientific experiment , though it can be applied , in certain cases , to man considered physiologically , cannot be applied to political society . We cannot treat the body politic as a corpus vile—and vary its circumstances at our pleasure , for the sake only of ascertaining abstract truth . We cannot do in politics what the experimenter does in chemistry : we cannot try how the substance is affected bychangeof temperature , byburning , by dissolution in liquids ; by combination with other chemical agents , and the like . We cannot take a portion of the community in our hand , as the king of Brobdignag took Gulliver , view it in different aspects , and place it in different positions , in order to solve social problems , and satisfy our speculative curiosity . " Nevertheless , it would be an error to suppose that political science would gain any addition to its stock of positive information by the adoption of the method of experiment , or that the facts upon which it is founded could be better or more fully ascertained by experimentation , than by the method of simple observation . The physical philosopher is-compelled to interrogate nature by experiments , because she is mute . But man , the subject of politics , can speak : he can declare his feelings spontaneously j or hie can answer interrogations . Hence the experiments of physical science , are , after all , a feeble and rude contrivance , compared with the methods of investigation in politics . Scientific experiment is an imperfect substitute for that information which a man can give respecting his experience ; respecting his internal feelings and changes of consciousness , and the events which have passed within the range of his senses . The information which experiment , can extract from insentient masses of matter , or from gases and fluids , is scanty and uninstructive as compared with the answers of human intelligence . The responses of one oracle are brief and meagre , as compared with the copious and godlike

    accents which proceed from the other shrine . "If , on the other hand , every portion of matter was animated ; if , according to the ancient pagan faith , every tree Lad its dryad , every stream its naiad ; if the lightning , the winds , the element of fire , and all the great powers of nature , were each subject to their appropriate deity ; or if , as in the European mythology of more recent times , gnomes and fairies and elves presided over external objects , we might obtain from lifeless matter information concerning its attributes and qualities . If we could appeal to the supernatural beings described by Pope , and by evocations and magic formulas compel them to reveal the mysteries of nature , experiment might be discarded as superfluous : —

    " Some in the fields of purest other play And bask and whiton in the blazo of day . Some guide the courso of wandering orbs on high , Or roll tho planets through the boundless sky . Somo , less rofinod , bonoath tho moon ' palo light , Pursuo tho stars that shoot across tho night ; Or suck tho mists in grosser air bolow ; Or dip their pinions in tho painted bow ; Or brow fiorco tempests on tho wintry main ; Or o ' er the glebo distil tho kindly rain . With such informants us these upon tho laws of physical phenomena , wo should despise tho tardy process of experimental investigation , and , as in human affairs , should resort to tho testimony of percipient witnesses . tho

    " The different advantages which are afforded to tho observer by voluntary communications of intelligence , and by experiments upon unintelligent mattor , may bo illustrated by a comparison of human and veterinary medicine . Buffon recommends the more careful ""Cultivation of veterinary medicine , as tending to throw light upon human medicine , by tho facilities for scientific study which it presents j among , which ho enumerates tho unrestricted power of making oxporiments , and trying new roinedios , Now tho veterinary art has been cultivated with much assiduity and skill since tho time of Buffon , and yet it has thrown littlo or no light upon human pathology and therapeutics . It has boon fouudthnt tho explanations which tho human patient aflbrdH to tho physician , respecting his stato and sensations , aro far more instructive than tho experiments which tho veterinary practitioner may muko upon n dumb , irrational animal , In tho treatment of infants , tho phyflician is subject to n similar disadvantage , without tho corresponding advantage of u facility of making oxporiments qn his patient .

    " Whorovor there is intelligence thoro id sensibilit y ; , and wherever there is sensibility , experiment , as such , niero philosophical manipulation for tho sake of detormining truth , is inapplicable . Each method excludes tho other ; but tho information dorived from an intelligent subject is more instructive than that attainable by tho method of oxporimtmt , ucting upon insontiont matter , "A . physical p hilosopher molting researches into the properties of mattor ,

    compared with a political philosopher inquiring , into the nature of governments and laws , and the tendencies of human institutions , is like a traveller in a foreign country who can speak the language of the natives , compared with a traveller who is unable to hold converse with them . " We commend the following to the meditation of all so-called

    PKACTIOAIi MEN . " One of the leading sects among the classical physicians—the Empiricirejected all abstract reasoning upon jnedicine , even to the study of physiology , and relied exclusively upon the experiments made by former physicians in the treatment of diseases . Those modes of treatment which had been successful were good , and those which had failed were bad . They recognised no other standard of medical practice , and no other source of medical science . The Empirici , therefore , founded their doctrine exclusively upon the experimenta fructijera of their predecessors , converting them into experimenta Iticifera , and making them serve as guides . All medical practice must be founded , in part , upon reasoning of this nature ; and the error of the method employed by the Empirici consisted , not in

    watching and recording the effects of certain plans of treatment , but m confining themselves to the results of these observations , and in excluding from'their system the assistance to be derived from anatomy and physiology , and even pathology . In this respect , they correspond exactly with those political reasoners who assume the distinctive appellation of ' practical men '— that is to say , they argue from the observations and experiments belonging to a particular department ( which method , so far as it goes , is sound and right ) ; but they exclude altogether from their view those general theorems of political philosophy which are founded on a wider induction , and represent facts lying out of the sphere of their experience . The materials of the practical man are generally sound arid valuable , but they must be properly employed , in order to make a good structure . In general , it requires a man whose in to turn these

    mind has taken a wider range than the limited subject question , materials to good account . It is only by combining them with results derived from a more extensive view , that they can be safely applied in practice ; whereas the practical man , confident in his own precise but limited knowledge , applies his opinions without the due corrections and allowances , and is blind to considerations which lie out of the circle of his personal experience . " There are very many points which we should combat , did we enter into detailed examination of this work ; but as the usefulness of the work is not materially affected by them , we pass them by . As Martial says—. < " Sunt bona , sunt quajdam mediocria , sunt mala plura Qua 3 tegis ; ahternon fit , Avite , liber !"

    Untitled Article

    " OUR CORRESPONDENT" IN ITALY . The Personal Adventures of " Our oion Correspondent" in Itahj ^ By Michael Burke Honan . In two vols . Chapman and Hall . Here are two gay rattling volumes of personal adventure , animal spirits , and coxcombry , showing , saith the title-page trulyjjnough , " now an active campaigner can find good quarters when other men he in the fields ; good dinners when other men are half-starved ; and good . wine ,-though the friend Vivian

    king ' s staff be reduced to half-rations . " Our light-hearted himself is not a greater coxcomb , nor more complacent in his coxcombry . He rattles away with Irish spirits and Irish veracity . You never believe him , yet you never weary of his talk . Very properly leaving in the columns of the Times all that he wrote as " Our Own" for the Times , he chafes confidentially and convivially with the reader upon all his personal experiences . The fastidious exigencies of grammar do not always arrest him any more than " dull accuracy . " He will not spoil a good story by too prosaic a regard for fact . His object is to amuse , and he amuses . We cannot do better than to give a taste of his quality in two different styles .

    Here is one relating HOW HE OUTWITTED THE MINISTERS . " It will bq remembered by those who then took an interest in Portuguese affair . ? , that during the political fever caused by the rivalry of the conservative and liberal parties , the Chambers had not been called together for , I believe , three year * , and that , in 1848 , tho greatest curiosity was excited in Lisbon and London , to ascci tain in what manner thospecch from the throno would speak of tho homo policy of tho government , and of its relations with the British cabinet , by whoso agency the Queen had been saved from tho claims of the Oporto Junta , and by the presence of whoso fleot in the Tagus , I huvo reason to know , tho authority of Donna Maria was still sustained .

    " Tho Chamber was to open on a given Monday , and , on that day , the royal speech was to bo first heard ; but as tho mail steamer , which left Lisbon for Southampton only at intervals of ten days , started on tho Saturday , it was evident that eight days in tho transmission of tho document would bo lost , and tho ' Times , ' and the other London morning journals bo placed on an equality in point of date , or perhaps bo anticipated ^ tho evening papers , in which case , I would wring my hands in despair , and Printing House Square would , on that occasion onlyho hung in black . .

    , ..., „„ . ,, " But how , in the name of common sense , was tho speech to be had forty-eight hours before it was to ho spoken , or how could it bo called " a speech" boforo it actually had been delivered , as wo all know that ovon on tho very morning of the opening of a session , it is necessary sometimes to reviHO and retouch tho discourse P I know , moreover , that it was useless for mo to address any member of tho government , for what minister of state would compromise himself by such an indiscretion , or how could ho appear boforo the Queen and his colleagues , whon tho return steamer arrived , und tho ' Times / containing tho evidence of his folly , bo

    in ovory hand ? " These wore tho difficulties that besot me ; lot us hco how tlioy woro overcome , for I did Bond homo , by tho Saturday steamer , tho speech from-tho throno , and tho ' Times' published , on Wednesday , tho manifesto of Donna Maria , which sho delivered on tho previous Monday—a rapidity of receiving intelligence only to bo accomplished by despatching a balloon with a fair wind , an caglo trained to do carrier-pigeon ' s duty , or tho submarine telegraph , whon Lwbon and London are brought into contact by somo five hundred Miles of sympathetic wires . It being useless , oh I have shown , to apply to any member of tho cabinot , or to persona known from their high station to bo in relation with it , I spent a . weary night in thinking how the coxvp was to bo accomplished without compromising any public authority , or even drawing suspicion in any particular direction . At last I

    Untitled Article

    ¦ .. . •; . ¦ :: ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ : / ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ - ¦ - . ¦ ; ¦ m ¦ JvymMi 1 « 52 . ] T H E L BAD IB . 613

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 26, 1852, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1941/page/17/