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Experimental  ^Legislation

like  earthquakes  and  cataclysms,  which  disturb  the
continuous  course  of  social  growth.  They  effect
revolutionary  rather  than  habitual  changes.  Sometimes ­
  they  do  much  good;  sometimes  much  harm  ;
but  in  any  case  it  is  hardly  possible  to  forecast  the
result  of  a  considerable  catastrophic  change  in  the
social  organism.  Therefore  I  hold  unhesitatingly
that,  whenever  it  is  possible,  legislation  should
observe  the  order  of  nature,  and  proceed  tentatively.
Social  progress,  I  have  said,  is  social  experimentation. ­
  Every  new  heading  that  is  inserted
in  the  “  London  Trades  Directory”  is  claimed  by
those  private  individuals  who  have  tried  a  new
trade  and  found  it  to  answer.  The  struggle  for
existence  makes  us  all  look  out  for  chances  of
profit.  We  are  all,  perhaps,  in  some  degree
inventors,  but  some  are  more  bold  and  successful
than  others.  Now,  every  man  who  establishes  a
shop  or  factory  or  social  institution  of  a  novel
kind  is  trying  an  experiment.  If  he  hits  an
unsupplied  need  of  his  fellow  men,  the  experiment
succeeds  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  has  something  succeeding
or  following  it—namely,  repetition  by  himself  and
others.  The  word  “  success  ”  is  a  most  happy  one,
etymologically.  To  have  success  is  to  have  a
future—a  future  of  imitators.
It  is  quite  apparent  that  all  the  great  novelties
of  recent  times  have  been  worked  out  in  this
tentative  way.  How,  for  instance,  has  our  vast
and  marvellous  railway  system  been  developed  ?