Experimental  Legislation

i

FOOL,  Mr.  Edgeworth,  is  one  who  has  never

1  made  an  experiment.”  Such  are,  I  believe,
the  exact  words  of  a  remark  which  Erasmus
Darwin  addressed  to  Richard  Lovell  Edgeworth.
They  deserve  to  become  proverbial.  They  have
the  broad  foundation  of  truth,  and  the  trenchant
disregard  of  accuracy  in  detail,  which  mark  an
adage.  Of  course,  the  saying  at  once  suggests
the  question  :  What  is  an  experiment  ?  In  a
certain  way,  all  people,  whether  fools  or  wise  men,
are  constantly  making  experiments.  The  education
of  the  infant  is  thoroughly  experimental  from  the
very  first,  but  in  a  haphazard  and  unconscious
way.  The  child  which  overbalances  itself  in
learning  to  walk  is  experimenting  on  the  law  of
gravity.  All  successful  action  is  successful  experiment ­
  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  term,  and
every  mistake  or  failure  is  a  negative  experiment,
which  deters  us  from  repetition.  Our  mental
framework,  too,  is  marvellously  contrived,  so  as  to
go  on  ceaselessly  registering  on  the  tablets  of  the