The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature

The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature - All volumes

THE FUTURE OF INDIA. A COUP D'TAT. THEATRICAL MAKE-SHIFTS AND BLUNDERS. I.WINTER-MORN IN THE COUNTRY. II.WINTER-MORN IN TOWN. THE HAPPY VALLEY. THE PHNICIANS IN GREECE. SOME GOSSIP ABOUT LEICESTER SQUARE. A WOMAN'S LOVE. AN IMPERIAL PARDON. CHRISTMAS IN MOROCCO. THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE ITALIAN POETS. THE VAQUERO. TWO MODERN JAPANESE STORIES. SUPPOSED CHANGES IN THE MOON. RECOLLECTIONS OF THACKERAY. Speculation as to the political future is not a very fruitful occupation. In looking back to the prognostications of the wisest statesmen, it will be observed that they were as little able to foresee what was to come a generation or two after their death, as the merest dolt amongst their contemporaries. The Whigs at the beginning of the last century thought that the liberties of Europe would disappear if a prince of the House of Bourbon were securely fixed on the throne of Spain. The Tories in the last quarter of that century considered that if England lost her American provinces she would sink into the impotence of the Dutch Republic. The statesmen who assembled at the Congress of Vienna would have laughed any dreamer to scorn who should have suggested that in the lifetime of many of them Germany would become an empire in the hands of Prussia, France a well-organized and orderly republic, and the "geographical expression" of Italy vitalised into one of the great powers of Europe. Nevertheless, if politics is ever to approach the dignity of a science, it must justify a scientific character by its ability to predict events. The facts are too complicated, probably, ever to admit the application of exact deductive reasoning; and in the growth of civilised society new and unexpected forms are continually springing up. But though practical statesmen will not aim at results beyond the immediate future, it is impossible for men who pass their lives in the study of the difficult task of government to avoid speculations as to the future form of society to which national efforts should be directed. Some theory or other, therefore, is always present, consciously or unconsciously, to the mind of politicians. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 35432
Author: Various
Release Date: Feb 28, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Alden, John B. (John Berry), 1847-1924