The Divine Science of Politics

A few thoughts from John Adams:

"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
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"Politics are the divine science, after all." (letter to Abigail Adams, 1780)

As I was reading this, it occurred to me that John Adams felt it his duty to "study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy," not so that his sons would study those other disciplines in place of politics, but because they would need a firm foundation of, what he termed, "the divine science" of politics, in order to properly understand those other disciplines. Likewise, a foundational understanding of "mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture," with their foundation of political understanding, would be necessary for the next generation to properly understand the application in "painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

Foundational, fundamental truths, if thoroughly and deeply understood by parents, are easily and naturally passed on to the next generation in their childhood, so that, when mature, that next generation can build on those truths, line upon line, precept on precept.

And, from George Washington:
"A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?"