The truth is, that a skilled bureaucracy⁠—a bureaucracy trained from early life to its special avocation⁠—is, though it boasts of an appearance of science, quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business. That art has not yet been condensed into precepts, but a great many experiments have been made, and a vast floating vapour of knowledge floats through society. One of the most sure principles is, that success depends on a due mixture of special and non-special minds⁠—of minds which attend to the means, and of minds which attend to the end. The success of the great joint-stock banks of London⁠—the most remarkable achievement of recent business⁠—has been an example of the use of this mixture. These banks are managed by a board of persons mostly not