Positive Philosophy

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858 edition. Excerpt: ... INVENTIONS. '699 sion and improvement of navigation converted it into a practical need. Whether gunpowder was now invented, or revived from disuse, the sudden employment of fire-arms is a sign of the times. Military methods were improved, that the in- ire*1""dustrial population might defend itself against the military caste, without undergoing the long and irksome apprenticeship formerly necessary; and the art was particularly suitable to the paid soldiery, whom kings and cities might thus enable to conquer a powerful feudal coalition. I have before pointed out that this new facility did not protract the warlike period; and we must be very well aware that the prevalence of war does not depend on the excellence of its apparatus; for the warfare of our own time is immeasurably less than our knowledge and resources would enable it to be, if the spirit were not wanting. And again, I think it a mistake to suppose that the increased expense of modern warfare is owing to the introduction of new apparatus. I believe, on the contrary, that if we could compare the accounts of ancient and modern warfare, we should find that the new methods are decidedly economical, and that the increased expense arises from the substitution of mercenaries for volunteer armies, --a change which must have produced the same result, if the weapons had remained the same as of old. Again, I must point out the services rendered to natural philosophy by the scientific pursuit of war, --by means at once of the common interest in those departments of knowledge, and of the special establishments which seem to make the military spirit an instrument, as it were, of modern civilization, through the rational positivity which it has thus acquired. The commonest error in regard to...