ABSTRACT
Government is perhaps the most serious of all human undertakings. The reader will doubtless have anticipated the view that is taken. England became great, and the greatness of England coincided with the advent of government by natural selection. The Spanish Government, deprived of its natural sustenance, literally perished of inanition, and the failure of its mental powers produced a general paralysis, which spread insidiously through every branch of national enterprise. The importance attributed to government in the pages is in marked contrast to the general opinion of Englishmen, who are frequently taught to take a pride in believing that in their past history they owe everything to themselves and nothing to their rulers. Finally, good government implies a faculty which is beyond all price, and which is at the same time almost purely intellectual, the faculty, namely, of making the right decision in an emergency.
