Do we wish to decide a
question in chemistry or geometry? No one pretends to have the
knowledge instinctively; we are not ashamed to consult Draper; we make
no difficulty about referring to Euclid.
But in social science authority is but little recognized. As such a
one has to do daily with morals, good or bad, with hygiene, with
economy, with politics reasonable or absurd, each one considers
himself skilled to comment, discuss, decide, and dogmatize in these
matters.
Are you ill? There is no good nurse who does not tell you, at the
first moment, the cause and cure of your malady.
"They are humors," affirms she; "you must be purged."
But what are humors? and are these humors?
She does not trouble herself about that. I involuntarily think of this
good nurse when I hear all social evils explained by these common
phrases: "It is the superabundance of products, the tyranny of
capital, industrial plethora," and other idle stories of which we
cannot even say: _verba et voces praetereaque nihil_: for they are also
fatal mistakes.
From what precedes, two things result--
1st.
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