tailieunhanh - PHYSICS AND POLITICS OR THOUGHTS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF 'NATURAL SELECTION' AND 'INHERITANCE' TO POLITICAL SOCIETY

One peculiarity of this age is the sudden acquisition of much physical knowledge. There is scarcely a department of science or art which is the same, or at all the same, as it was fifty years ago. A new world of inventions—of railways and of telegraphs— has grown up around us which we cannot help seeing; a new world of ideas is in the air and affects us, though we do not see it. A full estimate of these effects would require a great book, and I am sure I could not write it; but I think I may. | PHYSICS AND POLITICS OR THOUGHTS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL SELECTION AND INHERITANCE TO POLITICAL SOCIETY BY WALTER BAGEHOT NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION also published in the International Scientific Series crown 8vo. 5s. CONTENTS. I. THE PRELIMINARY AGE II. THE USE OF CONFLICT III. NATION-MAKING IV. NATION-MAKING V. THE AGE OF DISCUSSION VI. VERIFIABLE PROGRESS POLITICALLY CONSIDERED NO. I. THE PRELIMINARY AGE. One peculiarity of this age is the sudden acquisition of much physical knowledge. There is scarcely a department of science or art which is the same or at all the same as it was fifty years ago. A new world of inventions of railways and of telegraphs has grown up around us which we cannot help seeing a new world of ideas is in the air and affects us though we do not see it. A full estimate of these effects would require a great book and I am sure I could not write it but I think I may usefully in a few papers show how upon one or two great points the new ideas are modifying two old sciences politics and political economy. Even upon these points my ideas must be incomplete for the subject is novel but at any rate I may suggest some conclusions and so show what is requisite even if I do not supply it. If we wanted to describe one of the most marked results perhaps the most marked result of late thought we should say that by it everything is made an antiquity. When in former times our ancestors thought of an antiquarian they described him as occupied with coins and medals and Druids stones these were then the characteristic records of the decipherable past and it was with these that decipherers busied themselves. But now there are other relics indeed all matter is become such. Science tries to find in each bit of earth the record of the causes which made it precisely what it is those forces have left their trace she knows as much as the tact and hand of the artist left their mark on a classical gem. It would be tedious and it is not in my way