Of all studies there is none more fascinating and more
exasper- ating than Political gcience. If it confines itself to abstrac- tions it often becomes ludicrous ; if it strives to adapt itself to practical affairs and contemporary conditions it tends to (Continued on pare 682.)
seem cynical and unprincipled. In whichever sphere it moves, a contradictory spirit makes us sharply aware of the comple- mentary and neglected province. What possible relevance, one is tempted to ask, could the theory of Sovereignty have to the conduct of everyday life ? And yet. when the issue is started from the other end, when, for instance, the rights of the conscientious objector are being discussed, we are impatient and contemptuous of considerations such as custom and expediency, and must put on the panoply of metaphysics. In The Common Weal Mr. Fisher sets out to satisfy both schools ; he seasons morality with policy, legality with com- mon sense ; and he pays mom attention to the psychological factor, the habit of obedience to the State's authority, than is usually accorded it by publicists. To the thorough-going idealist this last aspect of the question is a dull and even a discreditable one, incapable of engendering the spark of mysticism which Rousseau and Bosanquet, in their remoter speculations, were able to strike so plentifully and bring to such a glow.
Qualified by these divided allegiances, Mr. Fisher's conclu- sions arc necessarily tentative. They indicate tendencies and recommend lines of action, but they are not, except when concerned with extreme theories of anarchy, communism or political quietism, crystallized into a system. Mr. Fisher writes easily and with an agreeable touch of rhetoric. He deals very comprehensively with his subject, making it as concrete as possible by the use of examples and illustrations. These are not the preposterous instances which one immedi- ately feels could never happen and would not matter if they did ; they are genuine problems of political obligation. Mr. Fisher's path is smoothed by his acceptance of the Aristotelian generalization that man is a political animal. Accordingly, we hear little of the. State of Nature except in so far as it is reproduced in the relationships of Sovereign Powers. It is, of course, the bugbear of the League of Nations, this want of " a common power to keep them all in awe." Mr. Fisher searches in vain for such a sanction, and is obliged.to fall back upon the proposition, often put forward, often disproved that the most valuable preventive to war is the cost it entails:
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