I shall labour, above all things, to avoid that
which appears to me to have been the constant source of political error:
I mean the attempt to give an air of system, of simplicity, and of
rigorous demonstration, to subjects which do not admit it. The only
means by which this could be done, was by referring to a few simple
causes, what, in truth, arose from immense and intricate combinations,
and successions of causes. The consequence was very obvious. The system
of the theorist, disencumbered from all regard to the real nature of
things, easily assumed an air of speciousness. It required little
dexterity to make his argument appear conclusive. But all men agreed
that it was utterly inapplicable to human affairs. The theorist railed
at the folly of the world, instead of confessing his own; and the men of
practice unjustly blamed philosophy, instead of condemning the sophist.
The causes which the politician has to consider are, above all others,
multiplied, mutable, minute, subtile, and, if I may so speak,
evanescent; perpetually changing their form, and varying their
combinations; losing their nature, while they keep their name;
exhibiting the most different consequences in the endless variety of men
and nations on whom they operate; in one degree of strength producing
the most signal benefit; and, under a slight variation of circumstances,
the most tremendous mischiefs. They admit indeed of being reduced to
theory; but to a theory formed on the most extensive views, of the most
comprehensive and flexible principles, to embrace all their varieties,
and to fit all their rapid transmigrations; a theory, of which the most
fundamental maxim is, distrust in itself, and deference for practical
prudence. Only two writers of former times have, as far as I know,
observed this general defect of political reasoners; but these two are
the greatest philosophers who have ever appeared in the world. The first
of them is Aristotle, who, in a passage of his Politics, to which I
cannot at this moment turn, plainly condemns the pursuit of a delusive
geometrical accuracy in moral reasonings as the constant source of the
grossest error. The second is Lord Bacon, who tells us, with that
authority of conscious wisdom which belongs to him, and with that power
of richly adorning truth from the wardrobe of genius which he possessed
above almost all men, "Civil knowledge is conversant about a subject
which, above all others, is most immersed in matt