The Practical Character Of The Historical Method In Political Economy.
Before I close, I must refer to a possible objection which may be made to historical or physiological Political Economy: that it may indeed be taught, but that it cannot be a practical science. If it be assumed that those principles only are practical, which may be applied immediately by every reader, in practice, this work must disclaim all pretensions to that title. I doubt very much if, in this sense, there is a single science susceptible of a practical exposition.[181] Genuine practitioners, who know life with its thousands of relations by experience, will be the first to grant that such a collection of prescriptions, when the question is the knowledge and guidance of men, would be misleading and dangerous in proportion as such prescriptions were positive and apodictic, that is non-practical and doctrinarian.
Our endeavor has been, not to write a practical book, but to train our readers to be practical. To this end, we have sought to describe the laws of nature which man cannot control, but, at most, only utilize. We call the attention of the reader to the different points of view, from which every economic fact must be observed, to do justice to every claim. We would like to accustom the reader, when he is examining the [pg 116] most insignificant politico-economical fact, never to lose sight of the whole, not only of public economy but of national life. We are very strongly of the opinion, that only he can form a correct judgment and defend his views against all objections, on such questions as to where, how and when certain liens and charges, monopolies, privileges, services etc., should be abolished, who fully understands why they were once imposed or introduced. Especially, do we not desire to impress a certain number of rules of action on those who have confided themselves to our guidance, after having first demonstrated their excellence. Our highest ambition is to put our readers in a way to discover such rules of direction for themselves, after they have conscientiously weighed all the facts, untrammeled by any earthly authority whatever.[182][183]