he dead bones. The English theorists, as has been
admirably shown by Mr. Morley in his 'Rousseau,' acted after their
national method. They accepted doctrines which, if logically developed,
would have led to a radical revolution, and therefore refused to develop
them logically. They remained in their favourite attitude of compromise,
and declined altogether to accommodate practice to theory. Locke's
political principles fairly carried out implied universal suffrage, the
absolute supremacy of the popular will, and the abolition of class
privileges. And yet it never seems to have occurred to him that he was
even indirectly attacking that complex structure of the British
Constitution, rooted in history, marked in every detail by special
conditions of growth, and therefore anomalous to the last degree when
tried by _a priori_ reasoning, of which Burke's philosophical eloquence
gives the best explanation and apology. Similarly, Clarke's theology is
pure deism, embodied in a series of propositions worked out on the model
of a mathematical text-book, and yet in his eyes perfectly consistent
with an acceptance of the orthodox dogmas which repose upon traditional
authority. This attitude of mind, so intelligible on this side of the
Channel, was utterly abhorrent to Rousseau's logical instincts.
Englishmen were content to keep their abstract theories for the closet
or the lecture-room, and dropped them as soon as they were in the pulpit
or in Parliament. Rousseau could give no quarter to any doctrine which
could not be fitted into a symmetrical edifice of abstract reasoning. He
carried into actual warfare the weapons which his English teachers had
kept for purposes of mere scholastic disputation. A monarchy, an order
of privileged nobility, a hierarchy claiming supernatural authority,
were not logically justifiable on the accepted principles. Never mind,
was the English answer, they work very well in practice; let us leave
them alone. Down with them to the ground! was Rousseau's passionate
retort. Realise the ideal; force practice into conformity with theory;
the voice of the poor and the oppressed is crying aloud for vengeance;
the divergence of the actual from the theoretical is no mere trifle to
be left to the slow action of time; it means the misery of millions and
the corruption of their rulers. The doctrine which had amused
philosophers was to become the war-cry of the masses; the men of '89
were at no loss to translate into p