Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/137

Rh Money taken from a man for an object that he does not approve, such as circulating libraries, public baths, and a hundred and one other schemes supposed to be for the benefit of people, is as much a violation of the principle of equal rights, the unfailing test of a high civilization, as the highwayman's possession of a traveler's purse. The same is true of taxes in support of so-called public charities, which are not charities at all, properly speaking. They are simply compulsory largesses, since they are not voluntary contributions prompted by the altruism of the citizen, but forced contributions that he is always glad to escape.

So enormously has this policy of aggression grown within the past few years; so indifferent have people become to the fundamental duty of human society, namely, the maintenance of order and the enforcement of justice; little wonder that "a spirited foreign policy" is now one of the most cherished ideals of the American people. It is only an extension of the domestic aggression to the field of foreign politics. People that violate incessantly and without the slightest compunction the rights of one another, no matter what fine motives they may give themselves in justification, are certain to be deficient in respect for the rights of the foreigner. Not in a negative way alone by the passage of tariff and anti-immigration acts will they attack him. But they will attack him positively, issuing blustering declarations of defiance and insult, proposing the violation of the laws of nations in order to interfere in behalf of rebellious subjects, conniving at conspiracies to overthrow a monarchical government in the interest of a more democratic one, and making elaborate preparations on land and sea to engage in any conflict that may be provoked.

The induction to be made from an examination of these phenomena of American social and political life is obvious. It is that we shall never reach the highest civilization by the path that we are pursuing so energetically and with so much self-satisfaction. A continuance of the policy of aggression, both domestic and foreign, can not fail to end disastrously. Devotion to the work of perfecting our criminal laws and the suppression of crime; to the simplification of our civil laws, making justice cheap and easy; and to the redemption of our various governments from the pilferers that have taken possession of them, may not appeal very powerfully to the imagination of men intent on great and showy schemes of state philanthropy. But it will do infinitely more to promote American civilization. It will teach men to respect the rights of others, and to do nothing that will violate even remotely the principle of justice. It will lead them to depend upon themselves—that is, voluntary co-operation, instead of the state—that is, compulsory co-operation—to promote the schemes of the philanthropist for the alleviation of human suffering and the advancement of the human race.

ABSTRACTIONS IN EDUCATION.

A article by Mr. Frederick Burk in the Atlantic Monthly gives a vivid idea of the uselessness and worse than uselessness of much of the instruction that is imparted to normal-school classes under the head of Psychology and Methods of Education. Mr. Burk has been attending classes in several of the foremost institutions for the training of teachers, and furnishes verbatim reports of what he heard. As we think it of importance that attention should be called as widely as possible to his