ogical concepts do the work of
observation of facts. It involves, again, a clear perception of the
kind of questions which can be profitably asked, and the limits within
which an answer, not of the illusory kind, can really be expected. And
then we may come to see that, without knowing it, we have really been
trying a vast and continuous experiment, since the race first began to
be human. We have, blindly and unconsciously, constructed a huge
organism which does, somehow or other, provide a great many millions of
people with a tolerable amount of food and comfort. We have
accomplished this, I say, unconsciously; for each man, limited to his
own little sphere, and limited to his own interests, and guided by his
own prejudices and passions, has been as ignorant of more general
tendencies as the coral insect of the reef which it has helped to
build. To become distinctly conscious of what it is that we have all
been doing all this time, is one step in advance. We have obeyed in
ignorance; and as obedience becomes conscious, we may hope, within
certain narrow limits, to command, or, at least, to direct. An enlarged
perception of what have been the previous results may enable us to see
what results are possible, and among them to select what may be worthy
ends. It is not to be supposed that we shall ever get beyond the need
of constant and careful experiment. But, in proportion as we can
cultivate the right frame of mind, as each member of society requires
wider sympathies and a larger horizon, it is permissible to hope that
the experiments may become more intelligent; that we shall not, as has
so often been done, increase poverty by the very remedies which are
intended to remove it, or diverge from the path of steady progressive
development, into the chase of some wild chimera, which requires for
its achievement only the radical alteration of all the data of
experience. "Annihilate space and time, and make two lovers happy," was
the modest petition of an enthusiast; and he would probably have been
ready to join in the prayer, "make all men angels, and then we shall
have a model society". Although in saying this my immediate moral is to
preach sobriety, I do not intend to denounce enthusiasm, but to urge a
necessity of organising enthusiasm. I only recommend people not to
venture upon flying machines before they have studied the laws of
mechanics; but I earnestly hope that some day we may be able to call a
balloon as we now ca