and usages, of putting into practice the most highly evolved and perfected of political principles. But the methods must correspond with the principles. Whoever intrudes his views on public notice should justify the intrusion by its supposed need, with the hope that among the many works in the same field the labour of each may contribute to the general purpose.

Before setting forth the scheme on which a science is to be presented, it is useful and instructive to compute the latitude and longitude of that science, to find its place in the system of sciences; more important still, to find out the relationship it bears to its nearest kindred sciences. Between sciences of a certain class there is an interdependence. They mutually assist and explain each

other.

Whatever exists and may be the object of scientific investigation is to be found in nature. Human efforts create nothing; they can only combine and utilise existing things. That such efforts may be efficient they must act in obedience to natural laws. The object of scientific research is to ascertain nature's laws and the properties of natural things; and this is the limit of science. Science is the precursor of art, and its director. Art acting alone acts blindly: it may by accident produce a fortunate effect, but it can have no assurance that the end it seeks will be attained. To accomplish the best results science and art should move hand in hand. The term "nature" is by no means to be limited in its signification to material things and the laws which govern them. The intellect with its various properties is a part of nature as truly as are all material objects. Intellectual and moral laws there are as well as physical, and equally within the power of scientific examination. In fact, without the existence of laws all research would be futile. Chance offers no ground for science. Nature presents two grand divisions. In one are all material things. In the other is everything

made possible by the existence of an intellect in man. Corresponding to these are the two branches of physical, and mental or moral science. It is to be regretted that for the latter class there is no distinctly appropriate designation. Physics has been seized upon to describe the science of matter, though etymologically it is much more comprehensive. The terms "moral" and "mental" have each a special signification, the one indicating qualities of right and wrong, the other describing intellectual action. The term "moral" will here be used to comprehend qualities and actions non-physical. On the part of students of moral science a protest against the ways of students of physical science is here appropriate. They have applied in their own sphere words having a more enlarged signification. They claim "science" as their own, and leave to others the vague and unpopular term "philosophy." Physics is nature, and nature is the base of all sciences. There is still another class of sciences termed "abstract," comprehending the idea of individual existences, and of extension, the domain of mathematics; of reasoning in general, the domain of logic; and of possibly the general theory of language. These three classes cover the whole realm of scientific investigation, the abstract, the physical, the moral. Within the last of these

Political Science enrolls itself.

The different departments of moral science seem to have been created by a species of evolution in scientific research. The intellect itself, with its properties, powers, and modes of action, gives rise to the science of mental philosophy or psychology. The powers of perception, within the intellect, of right and wrong, of duties and obligations, form the science of moral philosophy or ethics. The necessities of social existence create the science of politics. Man is thus viewed in the three phases of an intellectual being, a moral being, and a social being. These sciences are closely allied. Ethics

depends on the properties of the mind. Politics has its foundation in ethics.

Having placed politics among the sciences, and defined its relative position, the question may properly be asked whether its claim to that position is warranted, whether it deserves the name of science at all. To most persons politics seems so essentially practical in its nature that the term "art" would appear a more precise designation. As has before been pointed out, science and art are so intimately associated that in many cases it is by no means easy to determine the dividing line, not always distinctly marked. To ascertain the justness of the claim, let us consider what that is to which the name "Political Science" is applied.

Absolute isolation is almost an impossibility. It is not good for man to be alone, in any sense of the expression. In such condition his nature is stunted, his powers are undeveloped. Everything points to the social state as that in which man finds the opportunities for the exercise of all his faculties. The apparent paradox is nevertheless true that man in nature is man in society. How the various states of society which we see before us have arisen, it is difficult to know. They come from combinations of circumstances difficult to trace, and impossible to control. However created, of one thing we may be sure, that their sole purpose, the only legitimate and natural one, is to promote the general welfare of those who compose them, and this maxim is true that states of society are entitled to approval or to condemnation exactly as they fulfil or fail to fulfil this purpose. Ascertained purpose furnishes the scientific basis of the study. General welfare is a comprehensive term, and in fact Political Science is a comprehensive subject. Still it is possible to fix a limit beyond which State authority should not extend, or rather to set forth the principles to which in each case the question may be referred. The problem is one

which ages have grappled with. The contest between excessive authority on the one side and popular rights on the other side has always been waged; but it has been an unequal contest. It is a peculiarity of State power that there is no tribunal before which it can be summoned. The wager of battle is the old mode of trial. Injuries are long submitted to before taking this dread appeal. The advantage in the contest is thus always on the side of the present power. It will be the chief glory of modern systems to avert this appeal by appointing a method within their Constitutions for correcting abuses or effecting reform.

The theory of political societies is that the guardianship of the rights which belong to man is deputed to the governing body, that by this means harmony is secured, individual contention is avoided, the weak are protected against the power of the strong, and in fact the general rights are better secured than if left to individual care. In addition certain co-operative advantages are obtained by works of a general character not within individual power to effect. This is what government proposes to itself to accomplish and what it has for ages been doing with varying degrees of success. To determine what are the human rights within the province of the society to protect, the mental and moral constitution of man must be investigated. The intimate association of politics with ethical science is here apparent. Ethics unfolds the rights; but to determine which of them are within the guardant duty of the State, and which of them are clearly without its province, is one of the most difficult problems, -and to this Political Science addresses itself. In all this there is plenty of room for scientific research; but Political Science does not stop here. Having fixed the end to be accomplished, the means is still to be considered. The different systems of government which may exist, the peculiar merits belonging to each, the

union of these merits in another form, the character of the peoples to which governmental systems are applied, the fitness of the instrument to its object, the special study of cause and effect in the results of political measures, all to be studied in strict accord with scientific principles, entitle Political Science to a high rank among

the sciences.

History has as many departments as there are topics of human interest. It is to the moral sciences what experiment is to the physical sciences. It furnishes facts from which by induction laws are established, and a test for the verification of theories. The history of communities, their growth, and their form of government, illustrate Constitutional systems. The history of wars, of treaties, of the rise of customs, shows the genesis of International Law. The history of commerce, of finance, and of industrial movements gives a clue to methods of economic administration. The history of judicial and municipal forms enlightens jurisprudence. Psychology is explained by the growth of intellect and modes of thought; ethics, by the growth of morals; ethnology, by the changes and development of races and peoples. It is not alone in the history of the past that Political Science finds its experiments. Modern practices and modern theories are constantly in evidence. There is a clinical study in progress in every parliament, in every

executive action.

Wherever the relation of the ruler and the ruled exists, there is the province of Politics. Its scope is so large that it admits of several departments, each of which may be the subject of special study. The first department is that of government in general and Constitutional systems. It considers the purpose of government, the rights of man as affected by the fact of society, the limit of State action and the proper functions of the State, the methods in which those functions may best be performed, the