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—one through misfortunes of their own, the other through those of others; the former is the more unmistakable, the latter the less painful.... For it is history, and history alone, which, without involving us in actual danger, will mature our judgment, and prepare us to take right views, whatever may be the crisis or the posture of affairs.
Polybius.

These papers essay an understanding of some of the various principles which underlie the course of political movements in the present age. There is no attempt at introducing any considerations which are not familiar to every intelligent person, nor any comparisons with other instances which are not already well known in history. Why considerations which seem so obvious when stated, should yet not be familiar, may perhaps be due to the estrangement between science and corporate life, which is an unhappy feature of a time of transition both in education and in motives.
The point of view here is that of public and general conditions and not of private variations of beliefs. Such moral factors, though all important to the individual, are not so much the subject of the direct physical causes and effects which are here considered. Similarly the beneficial result of private benevolence is not added to these considerations, because it is largely outside of the effects of conduct, and finds its good in amending or neutralising the evil consequences of various actions. It will always have its scope, but in opposition to, rather than in concert with, the direct effects which we are here to consider.
Too often the objections to various new views are based upon some sentiment of one party, rather than upon the reason which is common to all parties. Here, on the contrary, the aim is to consider the natural consequences of various actions, apart from personal opinion, and therefore on a common ground which all readers can equally accept.