Lanterna Rally

Author: Charles Kendall Adams

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13: 9781331225263

Excerpt from The Relations of Political Science to National Prosperity: An Address Delivered at the Opening of the School of Political Science of the University of Michigan, October 3, 1881 The conditions on which he insisted, it will be observed, were three in number: first, that there should be a foundation in a good general education; second, that there should be a thorough education in political affairs; and, third, that the education, thus provided for, should be in harmony with the principles of the government in which the person so educated is to live. The full significance of the positions assumed by the great poet grows out of two very simple, but very fundamental and very important principles. These are, first, that the nature of all popular governments is determined, not so much by institutions as by popular opinion; and, second, that popular opinion is always shaped and guided by the educated classes. But is it true that the nature of a government depends more upon popular opinion than upon institutions? Yes, and for very simple reasons. Institutions are not the product of spontaneous generation, but are made by men. They do not precede intelligence, but follow it. They are the product of thought and will; and, therefore, like all other products, are either well or ill-constructed. Not only that, but when the political machinery is once complete, it has no power to work, of itself. Like all machinery, it is dependent upon some force from without. It must be worked by men. It demands, not simply acquiescence but also participation. There is no power in a law or an institution by itself, for the reason that a law or an institution is simply a means by which human intelligence and human will are applied. And so we find that no excellence of institutions is able to enforce a law that is at variance with the dominant force in society. Accordingly, in any community whatever, if there is a general repugnance to a statute, that statute cannot be enforced except by some external power. Give the wisest laws to the North American Indians. Does any one suppose that such laws could be made operative by any other agency than a foreign force? It required a thousand years to persuade the barbarians who overran the Roman Empire to accept and enforce the laws of civilization. And the reason was simply that a shorter length of time was not enough to convert the dominant force of society to a better way of thinking. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.