Hence, we must turn over the leaves of the book of the past, and study its economic aspect, as we have studied its political and literary aspect. We must follow living nations through their divers periods of development, and fathom the causes of the destruction of those that are dead. When we are dealing with the comparative study of the economic destinies of nations, our investigations are limited to a small number of individual nations—a further reason not to omit any, and above all, to scrutinize, as an anatomist would with his scalpel, the principle of life of those which are no more. We may, by accounting to ourselves for the immense variety of phenomena which are brought to light by the _application_ of principles to facts, and in which nothing is absolute or permanent, in which, on the contrary, everything is relative and successive, acquire that sureness of touch and correctness of vision which are among the most valuable conquests of science. It would be a mistake to suppose that theory simplifies practical solutions. Far from providing us with a sort of formulary, it teaches us to put our finger on a number of difficulties. It brings to the surface the many aspects and fertile and varied considerations, the examination of which is the mission of the real statesman and legislator. In this way, the action of thought and the power of the moral idea are revealed with most _éclat_. Man ceases to be an inert element, and manifests himself as a sensible being, and the sublime thought of Pascal: “Humanity is like one man who lives and learns always,” is verified by the result. The wish to violently abdicate the past, it would be vain and rash to attempt to realize. The lessons it transmits to us are as instructive as the picture it unrolls before our eyes is attractive. We have no longer but to see and hear, to be cured of the most generous impatience with what is, and to retreat from the most perilous attempts. XIV. The unvarying testimony of ages affirms the continued and gradual amelioration of man by individual energy and moral thought.(48) Want and suffering have urged him forward. Foresight, labor, sacrifice and virtue have in part redeemed him. No right has been lessened or usurped, and every step in civilization has been a step in the way of freedom. Instead of making the latter responsible for a material and moral wretchedness which it is called upon to cure, we may prove, that, in proportion as real liberty and legal guarantees increase, evil diminishes.