Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/654

632 TB? ECONOMIC JOURNAL best express myself by pointing to an example which will be present to the memory of all here, the example of ardent sympathy perfecting reason which is afforded by the noble life of Toynbee. To return to what I was saying about the di?culty--even when you have perceived a relevant consideration--of rightly ap- preciating its weight, there is a specific for this failing, namely statistics. Statistics are an indispensable part of the equipment of the modern publicist; and it is truer now than in Plato's time that he who has no regard for the art of counting will not be himself of much account. It will be my duty to take occasional opportunities of discoursing on the methods of statistics?the logic of numbers, in which fallacies unfortunately form a large chapter. When we have done our best to correct our practical judgments, there will still be, as Mill sa. ys, 'almost a. lway, s room for a modest doubt as to our practical conclusions. This modesty and this doubt are particularly appropriate in the case of the academic teacher, who, expected to know some- thing about all the branches of his subject, cannot be expected to have examined many of them closely and at first hand. In the balance of judgment he may measure those weights which, so to speak, are most regularly shaped and admit of theoretical d.etermination; but he must be ever prepared for the balance being turned by practical considerations of which he has not taken due acdount. Therefore he should 'teach, not preach,' in the words of Professor Walker. Or, as it has been said by another eminent American economist, Professor Dunbar, a high authority on method (in a recent essay on the' Academic Study of Political Economy ') ? the instructor is not concerned with ' the propagation of his own views. He is interested in making his reasoning process clearly understood; but this is because of the. value of the logical process itself.' Professor Dunbar specifies several good reasons why 'the teacher's opinion upon some burning question of the day' should not be commm?icated to his pupils. There occurs to me as pertinent another case in which the teacher will not give an opinion?he may not have got one. Having dilated at such length on theory and its application to l?ractice, I am unable to devote proportionate attention to the advantages of historical studies. But you will not expect me ? Quarterlit Journal of E?ics, July, 1891.