out for Utopia; and I think
that a doctrine which requires to be enforced by every means in our
power.

This tendency, of course, comes out prominently in the important
discussions of social and economic problems. That is a matter upon
which I cannot now dwell, and which has been sufficiently emphasised by
many eminent writers. If modern orators confined themselves to urging
that the old economists exaggerated their claims to scientific
accuracy, and were, in point of fact, guilty of many logical errors and
hasty generalisations, I, at least, could fully agree with them. But
the general impression seems to be, that because the old arguments were
faulty, all argument is irrelevant: that because the alleged laws of
nature were wrongly stated, there are no laws of nature at all; and
that we may proceed to rearrange society, to fix the rate of wages or
the rent of land or the incomes of capitalists without any reference at
all to the conditions under which social arrangements have been worked
out and actually carried on. This is, in short, to sanction the most
obvious weakness of popular movements, and to assure the ignorant and
thoughtless that they are above reason, and their crude guesses
infallible guides to truth.

One view which tries to give some plausibility to these assumptions is
summed up in the now current phrase about the "masses" and the
"classes". We all know the regular process of logical fence of the
journalist, _i.e._, thrust and parry, which is repeated whenever such
questions turn up. The Radical calls his opponent Tory and reactionary.
The wicked Tory, it is said, thinks only of the class interest; believes
that the nation exists for the sake of the House of Lords; lives in a
little citadel provided with all the good things, which he is ready to
defend against every attempt at a juster distribution; selfishness is
his one motive; repression by brute force his only theory of government;
and his views of life in general are those of the wicked cynics who gaze
from their windows in Pall Mall. Then we have the roll of all the abuses
which have been defended by this miscreant and his like since the days
of George III.--slavery and capital punishment, and pensions and
sinecures, and protection and the church establishment. The popular
instinct, it is urged, has been in the right in so many cases that there
is an enormous presumption in favour of the infallibility of all its
instincts. The reply, of course,