powers. For political and other purposes, in which capacity of a high order is requisite, there must be single persons possessing that degree of power, in order to arrive at sound practical conclusions. This want cannot be supplied by numbers, more than a wall could be battered down by musket-balls, however thickly poured in, though the same weight of metal, cast into cannonshot, would instantly lay it prostrate.

§ 9. One form in which the general voice and sentiment embodies itself is Proverbs, or apophthegms whose authority is derived from their popular reception.* For this reason, the attention, both of philosophers and practical men, has from an early date been directed to proverbs. Their importance has been recognised, as representing and concentrating the experience of many men, and even of many generations; as being the brief and pointed expression of the inferences which popular observation and sagacity have collected from human life. The Jews were guided by the proverbs of their wise king, and a moral apophthegm was attributed to each of the seven sages of Greece. Aristotle even thought that proverbs were the remains of the philosophy of an extinct race of men, which had been preserved on account of their conciseness and wisdom.† Every modern nation possesses its collection of proverbs; many of which are, with the necessary changes of expression and form, common to all the European languages, and have a general currency by a sort of jus gentium.

Proverbs being maxims, in the nature either of obser

* "The wit of one man, and the wisdom of many," is a definition of proverbs attributed to a living statesman.

+ See Schneidewin Præf. ad Param. Gr. p. 1. Compare Rhet. II. 21.

vation or of precept, upon human life or conduct, are accredited by the tacit verification which they have undergone in their tradition from one individual and one generation or nation to another. If their truth or soundness had not been recognised by those who used them, and handed them on, they would soon have gone into oblivion.

In general, however, proverbs express only empirical laws of human nature*—that is to say, being generalizations from partial experience, they are only true within certain limits, and subject to certain conditions. Before, therefore, a popular proverb can be safely used for philosophical purposes as evidence of a general truth, it must undergo a process of analysis; it must be limited according to the mental tendencies which it involves, and the circumstances in which it is applicable. In this manner, proverbs which are apparently contradictory may be reconciled, and the partial truth which they contain will be extracted and rendered profitable.

Thus, to take a familiar example of opposite proverbial precepts: there are adages in all languages warning against precipitation as "Festina lente;" "Hâtez-vous lentement;" "Eile mit weile;" Eile mit weile;" "Kommt zeit, kommt rath;" "The more haste, the worse speed;" "Haste makes waste." On the other hand, there are proverbs against procrastination and delay, as-"Bald gethan ist wohlgethan;" "Delay not till to-morrow what may be done to-day;" "A stitch in time saves nine." These opposite maxims, though absolute and universal in their form, require to be limited and qualified, in order to adapt them respectively to the cases in which it is expedient to act with deliberation and caution,

* See Mill's System of Logic, b. III. c. 16; b. VI. c. 5, § 1.

and those in which a rapid glance and speedy decision are requisite. In order to make this adaptation, the circumstances of the several cases must be analyzed, and the causes of the difference in the mode of treatment for each class, must be investigated. By this process, the empirical law will be converted into a scientific law, and the generalization will be restricted to the limits within which it holds good.

So, if we compare the following French proverbs"Force passe droit," "Sagesse vaut mieux que force," "Chose forcée de petite durée,"* we may easily see that each expresses a partial truth, but is not true universally. Again, such adages as-" Il est plus facile de "Il conseiller que de faire," "Familiarity breeds contempt," "Necessity is the mother of invention," "The town for wealth, the country for health," and the Italian proverb cited by Bacon

Di danaro, di senno, e di fede,

C'è ne manco che non crede

are doubtless often true; but they are generalizations from a limited and variable experience, and not scientific truths expressive of tendencies in human nature. Hence, these abbreviations of past experience, these concise expressions of popular wisdom, cannot be used as substitutes for scientific inquiry; nor can they take their place in a system of accurate knowledge without undergoing a process of correction and adaptation.

§ 10. Wherever, in the preceding pages, the opinion of the skilled or enlightened few has been preferred to that of the uninformed many, and the judgment of the general public has been treated as unimportant, the re

* Leroux de Lincy, tom. II. pp. 201, 224, 316.

mark must be understood to be confined to popular opinion considered as a standard of truth. Regarded as a fact, popular opinion, whether right or wrong, must always be important, since there are many things in which the preponderance of numbers necessarily exercises a decisive influence. It is always a material consideration when we can say of any party, or body of persons, what Cicero said of the Epicurean sect, "Qui auctoritatem minimam habet, maximam vim, populus cum illis facit." *

§ 11. Thus, with respect to affairs of state, the acquiescence of the majority of the population in the acts of the government, or their dislike of these acts, and their consequent desire to resist, thwart, or evade them, must always command attention. The state of feeling among the people towards their government, is always a matter of moment, whether its acts be intrinsically right or wrong. The existence of a disaffected or rebellious spirit among the people can never be a subject of trifling concern, however just, wise, and politic the conduct of the government may have been, and however unmerited the disfavour into which it may have fallen. So, with respect to the imposition of a tax, and the administration of criminal law, it is not sufficient that the fiscal measure, or the scale of punishments, should be defensible on rational grounds-it is necessary that they should enjoy some portion of popular favour, or, at least, not shock the feelings and prejudices of the public. Unpopularity, in short, in all political matters, is a fact which never can be safely overlooked; and even where the measures of a government, or the conduct of a statesman, may have been misunderstood and mis

* De Fin. II. 14.

judged, merely because they were founded on views in advance of public opinion, it must always be taken into account as a material element in all political calculations. Popularity is as important in affairs of government as numbers are in war; and it would be as impossible for a statesman to succeed who could not obtain the support, or at least the acquiescence, of a large portion of the population, as for a general to gain a victory with a handful of men against overwhelming forces.

The stability and success of every government must mainly depend upon the approbation, or acquiescence, with which its measures are viewed by the great mass of the community. By internal concord, a small state may become powerful; by internal discord, a large state is sure to be rendered weak. Although the theory of the social compact is groundless, yet government rests ultimately on a tacit agreement for a common end. It exists by the voluntary obedience of the majority of the people, and, armed with that support, it enforces its laws against each individual who successively violates them. The introduction, therefore, of the numerical principle, in one form or other, becomes necessary for every government which is to be established on a firm basis. As to the manner in which this principle is legally recognised in the constitution of free States, and in which its operation is modified in practice, more will be said in the following chapters.

§ 12. There are other subjects, besides government, in which the predominant practice, or usage, or taste, of the great body of the people is a matter of sovereign importance, as establishing a standard, whether good or bad, for the guidance of all those whose business it is to supply the wants of the public, in the way either of comfort, or amusement, or intellectual gratification, or