. The rapid vicissitudes of
power, in which each party successively appealed to the favour of the
masses as the arbiter of success, accustomed the masses to be arbitrary
as well as insubordinate. The fall of many governments, and the frequent
redistribution of territory, deprived all settlements of the dignity of
permanence. Tradition and prescription ceased to be guardians of
authority; and the arrangements which proceeded from revolutions, from
the triumphs of war, and from treaties of peace, were equally regardless
of established rights. Duty cannot be dissociated from right, and
nations refuse to be controlled by laws which are no protection.

In this condition of the world, theory and action follow close upon each
other, and practical evils easily give birth to opposite systems. In the
realms of free-will, the regularity of natural progress is preserved by
the conflict of extremes. The impulse of the reaction carries men from
one extremity towards another. The pursuit of a remote and ideal object,
which captivates the imagination by its splendour and the reason by its
simplicity, evokes an energy which would not be inspired by a rational,
possible end, limited by many antagonistic claims, and confined to what
is reasonable, practicable, and just. One excess or exaggeration is the
corrective of the other, and error promotes truth, where the masses are
concerned, by counterbalancing a contrary error. The few have not
strength to achieve great changes unaided; the many have not wisdom to
be moved by truth unmixed. Where the disease is various, no particular
definite remedy can meet the wants of all. Only the attraction of an
abstract idea, or of an ideal state, can unite in a common action
multitudes who seek a universal cure for many special evils, and a
common restorative applicable to many different conditions. And hence
false principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just
aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social
life of nations.

Theories of this kind are just, inasmuch as they are provoked by
definite ascertained evils, and undertake their removal. They are useful
in opposition, as a warning or a threat, to modify existing things, and
keep awake the consciousness of wrong. They cannot serve as a basis for
the reconstruction of civil society, as medicine cannot serve for food;
but they may influence it with advantage, because they point out the
direction, though