Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/392

370 to the French people of its future dwellings, was too evidently a parade or a deception: in such cases the question is tantamount to the answer, and, besides, had this answer been unconditioned, France was scarcely more at liberty to give it than I was; ten million ignorant men cannot constitute a wise one. A people on being consulted may indeed tell the form of government they like, but not the form they need; this is possible only through experience; time is required to ascertain if the political dwelling is convenient, durable, proof against inclemencies, suited to the occupant's habits, pursuits, character, peculiarities, and caprices. Now, as proof of this, we have never been content with our own; within eighty years we have pulled it down thirteen times in order to rebuild it, and this we have done in vain, not having yet found one that suits us. If other people have been more fortunate, if in other countries many political institutions are durable and last indefinitely, it is because they have been organized in a peculiar manner, around a primitive and massive nucleus, supported on some old central edifice, many times repaired, but always preserved, enlarged by degrees, adapted and modified, according to the wants of the inhabitants. None of them were built at one stroke on a new pattern, and according to the provisions of reason alone. We must perhaps admit that there is no other way of building permanently, and that the sudden concoction of a new constitution, suitable and durable, is an undertaking surpassing the forces of the human mind. In any event, I came to the conclusion that if we should ever discover the one we need it will not be by the means in practice. The point is to discover it, if it exists, and not to put it to vote. In this respect our preferences would be fruitless; Nature and history have chosen for us in advance; it is for us to adapt ourselves to them as it is certain they will accommodate themselves to us. The social and political mould into which a nation may enter and remain is not subject to its will, but determined by its character and its past."

From this point of view, M. Taine came to the conclusion that his country needed, first of all, to be studied systematically, and the present work is the first of a series which together are designed to constitute a philosophic study of modern France. The "Ancient Régime," the volume now published, is devoted to the pre-Revolutionary period, and is to be followed by a work on the French Revolution, which will in turn be preparatory to a third, on the "New Régime," designed to interpret recent and contemporary France. The enterprise will be executed with the undoubted ability that distinguishes this brilliant and versatile author, and will permanently identify his name with modern French history. At any rate, the present book is instructive and fascinating to a remarkable degree. It is at the same time a vivid and life-like picture of French society anterior to the Revolution, and a subtile and comprehensive analysis of the forces at work in it, that issued in the revolutionary outbreak. A marked characteristic of the work is the freshness of a large portion of its materials, resulting from the author's indefatigable researches among hitherto unexplored masses of original correspondence, documents, and records.

admirable lecture of President White upon this subject, which was published in for February and March, is now issued in a separate form, with important additions, by the author. Although a small book, it covers broad ground, and treats the subject in a decisive way. The thesis maintained is this: "In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed interest of religion, no matter how conscientious such interference may have been, has resulted in the direst evils both to religion and to science, and invariably. And, on the other hand, all untrammeled scientific investigation, no matter how dangerous to religion some of its stages may have seemed, for the time, to be, has invariably resulted in the highest good of religion and of science." In working out the proof of these propositions, President White has traversed an extensive field of historical resources, dealing successively with the rise and progress of geography, astronomy, chemistry and physics, anatomy and medicine, geology, political economy, agriculture and engineering, and scientific instruction. The whole discussion has been carefully gone over, and much amplified in its present form. In his preface the author says: "I have now given it careful revision, correcting some errors, and extending it largely by presenting new facts and developing various points of interest in the general discussion. Among the subjects added or rewrought are: in astronomy, the struggle of Galileo and the retreat of the Church after its victory; in chemistry and physics, the compromise between science and theology