men to increase the power
or force of cohesion, to strengthen the fibres of the State, so that the
force of such impulsive blows may not be felt, nor disturb the
continuity of the framework of the State. If such measures had been
adopted in the neighbouring country of France, much misery might have
been avoided, and the terrible revolutions which have so frequently
convulsed her social system entirely prevented.

_Friction_ is another disturbing element in our calculations, and
although it may be made a useful servant, it is a bad master in
mathematics, as in polemics. Without the aid of friction, progress would
be impossible. For example: Take the case of a man with perfectly smooth
skates on perfectly hard, smooth ice; he would be unable to reach the
land unless he had provided himself with some stones, by throwing which
he would just be able to get to his destination by a backward motion.
The engine would be unable to proceed on its iron road if it were not
for friction. The same is true in polemical science: the government of
the country would not be able to be carried on under our present
conditions if it were not for _party friction_. But suppose it increased
indefinitely, party friction becomes party _obstruction_; and the engine
of the State would no longer proceed smoothly and evenly along its
appointed course at the rate of sixty miles an hour, but would resemble
an old-fashioned coach, up to its axle-trees in mud, its motion
altogether stopped by the action of party friction.

We have seen that forces have two ways of acting: that of compelling
rest and that of producing motion. In statics forces act so as to
prevent any change of motion, or disturb the body's original position.
In kinetics, on the contrary, the power is recognised as acting so as to
produce or change a body's motion. Now, in polemical science we have
these two ways of considering the action of forces. There is the
_statical_ or _conservative_ force, which compels rest, which seeks
security, stability, and peace, and is not ardently devoted to change.
It reduces the system to equilibrium. There are, of course, two kinds of
equilibrium--_stable_ and _unstable_--according as the social and
political system is in a healthy or unhealthy state. If a body is in
stable equilibrium, and any slight motion takes place, the body will
return immediately to its former position; but if in unstable, it will
decline further and further away from its origina