JANUS IN MODERN LIFE
JANUS
IN
MODERN LIFE
BY
W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., F.B.A., &c.
Fools only learn by their own experience,
Wise men learn by the experience of others.
LONDON:
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. LTD.
10 ORANGE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.
1907.
"There are two roads to reformation for mankind—onethrough misfortunes of their own, the other through thoseof others; the former is the more unmistakable, the latterthe less painful.... For it is history, and history alone,which, without involving us in actual danger, will matureour judgment, and prepare us to take right views, whatevermay be the crisis or the posture of affairs."
Polybius.
PREFACE.
These papers essay an understanding of some ofthe various principles which underlie the course ofpolitical movements in the present age. There is noattempt at introducing any considerations which arenot familiar to every intelligent person, nor anycomparisons with other instances which are notalready well known in history. Why considerationswhich seem so obvious when stated, should yet notbe familiar, may perhaps be due to the estrangementbetween science and corporate life, which is anunhappy feature of a time of transition both in educationand in motives.
The point of view here is that of public andgeneral conditions and not of private variations ofbeliefs. Such moral factors, though all important tothe individual, are not so much the subject of thedirect physical causes and effects which are here considered.Similarly the beneficial result of privatebenevolence is not added to these considerations,because it is largely outside of the effects of conduct,and finds its good in amending or neutralising theevil consequences of various actions. It will alwaysvihave its scope, but in opposition to, rather than inconcert with, the direct effects which we are here toconsider.
Too often the objections to various new views arebased upon some sentiment of one party, rather thanupon the reason which is common to all parties.Here, on the contrary, the aim is to consider thenatural consequences of various actions, apart frompersonal opinion, and therefore on a common groundwhich all readers can equally accept.
The position of a partisan or an advocate has beenavoided so far as possible. No doubt to many of thestatements and deductions here, one party or anotherwould cry, Anathema. As a whole the results are morein accord with Individualism than with Collectivism;but an attempt is made to trace what are the limitsof a Collectivism that may not involve deleteriousconsequences. It may seem a fault to many mindsthat no cut and dried definite system or course ofaction is advocated; many people prefer a medicinewhich is guaranteed to relieve all their complaints,instead of a physiological research on the obscurecauses of their troubles. But, if we are to advance,we must study the diseases of bodies politic with thesame disinterestedness,