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Article THE GENERAL ASSUEANCE ADVOCATE. ← Page 3 of 6 →
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The General Assueance Advocate.
civilization , and are perhaps destined to mark , not , we would hope , its decadence , but a more advanced stage towards the highest perfection of which humanity is capable . Among the English , these changes will not be effected by those hurried fits and starts , those random bounds and leaps in the dark which characterise the movements ( we hardly know , as yet , whether to say progress ") of our continental neighbours , and
which at one moment carry them on beyond their era , at another period by the mere force of re-action , throw them as far behind it—now bestowing an amount of liberty identical with anarchy , and then imposing a restraint synonymous with despotism . Those sudden changes will not occur here ; but our mode of progression has its disadvantages as well as its advantages . If we do not forget the actual for the ideal ,
we too often drown the knowledge of what may and should he in the memory of what is , antl consent to the maintenance of the statu quo , when we should be pressing forward . If we do not become oblivious of the practical in the discussion of first principles , we not unfrequently in our practice are too forgetful of principles . If we do not venture on radical changes , but advance by slow degrees , we are too apt to patch
and botch a rotten system , each mend making a hole which necessitates fresh repairs . If other nations are too scientific in their legislation , we perhaps fall
into the opposite extreme . If French and German statesmen , for example , are too much given to theorise on false or imperfect generalization , it is possible that we theorise too little , when the means of correct induction are ready to our hands . It is useless either here or elsewhere , to look for the remedies of these mental evils to statesmen themselves , we must ask them of the people whom they govern ; for all governments ,
even the most despotic , are to some extent reflections of the popular mind , exhibiting , and for the most part exaggerating , both its good and evil qualities , its elements of failure and success , its mixed capabilities for good and evil . Now as legislation clearly has a tendency to take a social direction , and more particularly and immediately to deal with the local position and tbe industrial habits of masses of men , as affecting
the happiness and prosperity of the people , it is perhaps needless to point out the fact , that that tendency must bring legislation to the verge of the domain of science ; if , indeed , like mingled spheres , law making and scientific research do not overlap and partly contain each other . The foundation of a system of social laws must be based upon the labours of the statistician and the deductions of the philosopher , or they must be
worthless . It is with this impression that we beg to draw the attention of those gentlemen , who perform the highest and most scientific part of the business of Life Assurance , to the extremely important and interesting subject of the influence of locality and employment , both separately and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The General Assueance Advocate.
civilization , and are perhaps destined to mark , not , we would hope , its decadence , but a more advanced stage towards the highest perfection of which humanity is capable . Among the English , these changes will not be effected by those hurried fits and starts , those random bounds and leaps in the dark which characterise the movements ( we hardly know , as yet , whether to say progress ") of our continental neighbours , and
which at one moment carry them on beyond their era , at another period by the mere force of re-action , throw them as far behind it—now bestowing an amount of liberty identical with anarchy , and then imposing a restraint synonymous with despotism . Those sudden changes will not occur here ; but our mode of progression has its disadvantages as well as its advantages . If we do not forget the actual for the ideal ,
we too often drown the knowledge of what may and should he in the memory of what is , antl consent to the maintenance of the statu quo , when we should be pressing forward . If we do not become oblivious of the practical in the discussion of first principles , we not unfrequently in our practice are too forgetful of principles . If we do not venture on radical changes , but advance by slow degrees , we are too apt to patch
and botch a rotten system , each mend making a hole which necessitates fresh repairs . If other nations are too scientific in their legislation , we perhaps fall
into the opposite extreme . If French and German statesmen , for example , are too much given to theorise on false or imperfect generalization , it is possible that we theorise too little , when the means of correct induction are ready to our hands . It is useless either here or elsewhere , to look for the remedies of these mental evils to statesmen themselves , we must ask them of the people whom they govern ; for all governments ,
even the most despotic , are to some extent reflections of the popular mind , exhibiting , and for the most part exaggerating , both its good and evil qualities , its elements of failure and success , its mixed capabilities for good and evil . Now as legislation clearly has a tendency to take a social direction , and more particularly and immediately to deal with the local position and tbe industrial habits of masses of men , as affecting
the happiness and prosperity of the people , it is perhaps needless to point out the fact , that that tendency must bring legislation to the verge of the domain of science ; if , indeed , like mingled spheres , law making and scientific research do not overlap and partly contain each other . The foundation of a system of social laws must be based upon the labours of the statistician and the deductions of the philosopher , or they must be
worthless . It is with this impression that we beg to draw the attention of those gentlemen , who perform the highest and most scientific part of the business of Life Assurance , to the extremely important and interesting subject of the influence of locality and employment , both separately and