242 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, IX. Long con- tinuance of the excesses committed by the ' Times.' Suggested explanation of the phe- nomenon. reproduction of his words will give him enough of pain. At the mere sight of what he penned, he will writhe like a disinterred worm unwit- tingly cut by the spade. Not simply during a day or two, but week after week, nay, month after month, the excesses of the great journal continued ; and, if one be asked how it happened that in a country sup- posed to be firm, sober, and self-respecting, extravagance of this kind could be long and persistently rampant, the explanation I offer is this : The English are not a logical people, and so ill-versed in abstractions, so dimly acquainted with the idea of what a Continental mind would accept as a ' principle,' that, to guide them in their search after truth, they have not the clue of pure reason. Under such conditions, they are for the most part confined to two methods. When adopting the first one, they seek after truth by travelling through masses of detail, and the conclusions they reach in that way are not only apt to be just but suggestive of wise and moderate, though somewhat clumsy measures. The obvious fault of the method is its ex- treme slowness — a slowness so hampering that, if there were no other expedient, the whole country would be passing its life in a politi- cal jury-box, for ever, for ever, for (iver en- quiring, enquiring, enquiring. What commonly makes England possible is the second method — and that is, the swift, trenchant argument of ridiculi'.. But here, it need hardly be said, the
