Year: 1873

PascalIsa that most OF the evils OF
life arose from mans being unable to
sit still in ROOM and, though 1 do
not go that length, it is certain that we
should have been far wiser race than
we are if we had been reader to SIT
auiet-we should have known much
better the way IN whicllit was best to
act wheHwe came to act. The rise of
physical science, the first great body OF
practical truth provable to all men, ex-
eniplifies this in the plainest way. If
it had not been for quiet people, who
sat still and studied the other sections
of the cone, if other people had not sat
still and studied the theory of infinitesi-
mails, or other quiet people had not sat
still and worked out the doctrine OF
chances, the most dreamy moonshine,


as the purely practical mind would con-
slider, of all human pursuits if idle
star-gazers - had not watched long and
carefully the motions of the heavenly
bodies-our modern astronomy would
have been impossible, and, without our
astronomy, +" our ships, our colonies,
our seamen, all which makes modern
life modern life, could not have existed.
Ages of sedentary, quiet, thinking peo-
pie were required before that noisy ex-
istence began, and without those pale
preliminary students it never could
have been brought into being. If we
consider how much science has done
and how. much it is doing for mankind,
and if the over-activity of men is proved
to be the cause vey science came so
late into the world, and is so small and
scanty still, that viii convince most
people that our orer-activity is a very
great evil But this is only part, and
perhaps not the greatest part, OF the
harm, that over-aNivity does. As L
have said, 1t is inherited from times
when life was simple, objects were
plain, and quick action generally led to
desirable ends. If A kills b before b
kills A, then A survives and the human
race is a race of AS. But the issues OF
life are plain no longer. To act rightly
in modern society requires great deal
of previous study, great deal of assim-
Hated information, n great deal of sharp
ened imagination and these prerequi-
sites of sound action require much time
and, was going to say, much 9 lying
i'll the sun, a long period of ''mere-
passiveness. Even the art of killing
one another, which at first particularly
-,
them to be slow. A hasty general Is
the worst general nowadays; the best
is sort of Won Moltke, who is passive,
if any man ever was passive ; who is
''silent ia seven languages ;" who pos
sesses more and better accumulated in
| formation as to the best way of killing
people than any one who ever lived.
This man plays restrained and con-
siderate game of chess with his enemy.
/ / wish tle art of benefitting men had
kept pace with the art of destroying
them for, though war has become
slow, philanthrophy has remainedhasty.
The most melancholy of human reflec-
tions. perhaps, is that, on the whole, it
| is n question whether the benevolence
of mankind does most good or harm.
Great good, no doubt, philanthropy
does, but then nIt also does evil 1t
augments so much vice, it multiplics so
much suffering, it brings to life such
great populations to suffer and 10 be
vicious, that it is open to argument
whether it be or not an evil to the
world, and this entirely because excel
lent people fancy that they can do
much by rapid action-that they will
most benefit the world when they most
relieve their own feelings that as soon
as an evil is seen, something" ought to
be done to stay and prevent it. One
may incline to hope that the bal
ance of good over evil is in favor OF be
nevolence one can hardly bear to think
that it is so but anyhow it is certain


that there is rs'st heavy debit OF evil,


and that this berden might almost al


have been spared us if philanthropists


as well as others had not inherited from


their barbarous forefathers a Wild pas


sion for instant action.-Bayehota


Physics and Politics