o long as the roar of the Transvaal lioness, surrounded by her
cubs, shall be heard from the heights of the Drakensberg, so long
shall the Boers remain unconquered."
Now, the Boers have surmounted the armorial bearings of the South
African Republic with an eagle, bird of prey beloved of conquerers. It
is true that in the left quarter of their coat of arms is a small lion
lying down with bristling mane. It is probably the lady-friend of this
ferocious quadruped which Dr. Kuyper has chosen to symbolise the people
of the Transvaal.
I would merely remark to him that the highest summit of the Drakensberg
rises to an elevation of something like 10,000 feet. It is situated away
from the frontier of the Transvaal, between Natal, Basutoland, and the
Orange Free State. I imagine it is there that Dr. Kuyper's Transvaal
lioness is to take her stand, in order to carry out Krueger's programme
"Africa for the Afrikanders, from the Zambesi to Simon's Bay." But the
poor animal would not be long on that height, before she would die of
cold and hunger. This concluding imagery well reflects the spirit of Dr.
Kuyper's essay; it demonstrates to perfection the rapacious and
megalomaniac ideal of the Boers; and in his grandiloquence the author
contrives to express exactly the reverse of what he means.
4.--_Moral Unity by Means of Unity of Method._
Here again Dr. Kuyper puts metaphor in the place of reasoning; a truly
Eastern mode of discussion.
Ever since I entered upon public life, I have always endeavoured, in the
study of social and political phenomena, to eliminate subjective
affirmations, the dogmatic and comminatory _a priori_, the antiquated
methods which consist of taking words for things, _nomina_ for _numina_,
metaphors for realities.
Physical and biological science owe to the objective method the progress
that, from the times of Bacon and Galileo, has transformed the face of
the world; social science must henceforth replace rhetoric,
scholasticism and all balderdash of that kind; affirmations, _a priori_,
and excommunications, by the rigorous scrutiny of facts: Unity of Method
will lead to Moral Unity.[25]
[Footnote 25: Yves Guyot. _Les Principes de 1789 et le Socialisme_.]
APPENDIX A.
I cannot do better than reproduce at the end of this pamphlet the
analysis made by me in _Le Siecle_, March 14th, of a remarkable article
written by M. Tallichet, Editor of the _Bibliotheque Universelle de
Lausa
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