Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/627

Rh the case, for science has no real value, except as it is present in the consciousness of the thinker, and it is inseparable from the exercise of the faculties. Science in books is of no importance for civilization. We will not speak of the immense importance of intellectual development, which Buckle regarded as the very essence of civilization. The mode of this development is a question for a theory of progress. It consists principally of an enlarging adaptation of ideas to external facts, and to one another; and the most natural explanation will be given when we apply Darwin's admirable inductions to the formation of ideas.

The French have boasted that they were the leaders of civilization in virtue of their intellectual superiority. But the Germans and English make the same pretensions. Yet the French mind appears to hold preeminent rank in certain respects, as for instance in taste for the beautiful, for grace, and for elegance. The country which produced Moliére is now the only one that has a theatre worthy of the name; our painters are the first in the world; and in France alone are the refinements of an exquisite taste exhibited in the minor details of every-day life. We owe all this to the æsthetic influence of the capital.

The French mind also excels in all the lively and brilliant qualities of imagination. Still, it must be admitted that these qualities are blended with very grave defects. The philosophical faculties are in some degree weakened by the development of taste, and the refinement of the imagination often hinders the cultivation of the reason. We have, to be sure, some men of great distinction in all the sciences, but it cannot be gainsaid that instruction is not as wide-spread in France as in Germany; and moral science is far more backward here than in England. We have no taste for consecutiveness, method, long deduction, or patient analyses.

These defects expose us to grave dangers in political life especially, and this brings us to the consideration of social relations and institutions as they have a bearing upon civilization.

There are two things to be considered in the social order, viz., the rights of individuals, and the system of institutions guaranteeing them. As the definition of these rights depends on the development of the race in their ideas, morals, instincts, etc., we need but refer to what we have already said on the development of organs and faculties, to show how far these rights extend. But the case is different with governmental institutions which derive force not from the progress of individuals, but from the evolution of society, and the historic development of the nation. In times of order and tranquillity we are disposed to reduce governmental functions to the minimum. For this reason, prosperity sometimes leads to decadence. When the government is weakened, the