whereas wealth grows, as we have seen, with the decline of values. This may seem to be in opposition to the general idea of wealth, but the opposition is only apparent and not real. The positive wealth of an individual is to be measured by the power he exercises; but his relative wealth, by the amount of effort required of others before they can acquire similar power. A man, owning a house that affords him shelter, and a farm that yields him food and clothing, has positive wealth. If asked to fix a price at which he would part with them, he would estimate the amount of effort that would be required of others before they could acquire similar power, and find therein the measure of his wealth as compared with that of others. His positive wealth consists in his power over nature; his relative wealth is the measure of his power as compared with that of his fellow-men.

Improvements, however, taking place in the mode of making bricks and clearing lands, he finds forthwith a diminution of his comparative, but not of his positive wealth, for his house shelters, and his farm feeds him, as before. The decline in the former is a consequence of increase in the wealth and power of the whole community; and that decline becomes more rapid as improvements multiply, because each successive step is attended by diminution in the obstacles offered by nature to the production of houses and farms, and increase in the number produced, with steady improvement in the condition of the community at large.

Wealth existing in the ratio of the power to command the services of nature, the greater that power the less will be the value of commodities, and the greater the quantity that may be obtained in return to any given amount of labor. With every step in this direction, there will be a diminution in the proportion borne by the time required for producing the necessaries of life, to that which may be given to the preparation of machinery for obtaining further control over nature; or, to the purposes of education, recreation, or enjoyment. The progress of man is, therefore, in the ratio of the decline in the value of commodities, and of the increase in his own.

§ 4. Modern political economy, having made for itself a being which it denominated man, from whose composition it excluded all those parts of the ordinary man that are common to him and the angels, retaining carefully all those common to him and the beasts of the forest, has been forced to exclude from its definition of wealth all that pertains to the

feelings, the affections, and the intellect. Its teachers are, therefore, driven to the necessity of treating as unproductive, all employments of mind or of time that do not take a material form. Magistrates, and men of letters, teachers, men of science, artists, and others-the Humboldts and the Thierrys, the Savignys and the Kents, the Aragos and the Davys, the Canovas and the Davids, are regarded as unproductive, except so far as they produce things; that is, they are considered unproductive in so far as they act directly upon mankind; and yet productive when considered in their consequences, that is to say in regard to the abilities, the faculties, and the values-the knowledge, the skill, the virtue, -which they diffuse among men.

By the definition of wealth above given, this inconsistency is avoided, and the word brought back to its original signification of general happiness, prosperity, and power; not the power of man over his fellow-man, but over himself, his faculties, and the wonderful forces provided for his use.

§ 5. Adam Smith was no advocate of centralization. He believed in a policy tending to the creation of local centres of action, and not in that one which looked to prevent association by compelling all the farmers of the world to resort to a single and distant market when they desired to convert their food and wool into cloth. Such, however, was the policy of Britain; and therefore did it become necessary for Mr. Malthus to prove that the pauperism which was the necessary consequence of centralization, had its origin in a great natural law which forbade that the quantity of food should keep pace with the demands of an increasing population. Next came Mr. Ricardo, to whom the world is indebted for the idea that cultivation had always commenced on the rich soils of the earth, and that the men then flying to the colonies were going from the poor soils to the rich ones; when directly the reverse had always been the case. His doctrine, and that of his followers, is therefore that of dispersion, centralization, and large cities; whereas that of Dr. Smith looked towards association, towards local selfgovernment, and towards countries abounding in towns and villages, in which should be performed the various exchanges of the surrounding territory.

The whole tendency of modern political economists has been in a direction opposite to that indicated by the author of the Wealth of Nations as the true one; and therefore it

has been, that their science has become limited to the single idea, how it is that material wealth may be increased -leaving altogether out of view the consideration of the morality, the intelligence, or the happiness, of the communities they desired to teach. Hence it is that it has gradually taken so repulsive a form, and that one among its most eminent teachers-Mr. Senior-has found himself called upon to say to his readers, that the political economist is required to look solely to the growth of wealth, and to the measures by which it may be promoted; allowing "neither sympathy with indigence, nor disgust at profusion and avarice, neither reverence for existing institutions, nor detestation of existing abuses, neither love of popularity, nor of paradox, nor of system, to deter him from stating what he believes to be the facts, or from drawing from those facts what he believes to be the legitimate conclusions."

Happily, true science makes no such demands upon its teachers. The more they study it, the more must they become satisfied that the "indigence" they see around them is the result of human, not of divine, laws; the greater must be their "detestation of existing abuses" tending to perpetuate poverty and wretchedness; and the stronger their determination honestly to labor for their extirpation.

Wealth grows with the power of man to satisfy the greatest want of his nature, the desire for association with his fellow-man. The more rapid its growth, the greater is the tendency towards the disappearance of "indigence" on the one hand, and of "profusion and avarice" on the other; towards the development of individuality and of the feeling of responsibility towards both God and man; and towards having society assume that form which is most calculated for facilitating the progress of the latter towards the high position for which he was at first intended, that of master and director of the great forces of nature.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY.

1. In what society consists. The words society and commerce but different modes of expressing the same idea. That there may be commerce, there must be differences. Combinations, in society subject to the law of definite proportions.

2. Every act of association an act of motion. Laws of motion those which govern the societary movement. All progress in the direct ratio of the substitution of continued for intermitted motion. No continuity of motion, and no power where there exist no differences. The more numerous the latter, the more rapid is the societary movement, and the greater the tendency towards acceleration. The more rapid the motion, the greater is the tendency towards diminution in the value of commodities, and increase in that of man.

23. Causes of disturbance, tending to arrest of the societary motion. In the hunter state, brute force constitutes man's only wealth. Trade commences with the traffic in bones, muscles, and blood-the trade in man.

4. Trade and commerce usually regarded as convertible terms, yet wholly different-the latter being the object sought to be accomplished, and the former only the instrument used for its accomplishment. Commerce grows with decline in the power of the trader. War and trade regard man as the instrument to be used; whereas, commerce regards trade as the instrument to be used by man.

25. Development of the pursuits of man the same as that of science the passage being from the abstract to the more concrete. War and trade the most abstract, and therefore first developed.

26. Labors required for effecting changes of place, next in the order of development. Diminish in their proportions, as population and wealth increase.

27. Labors required for effecting mechanical and chemical changes of form. Require a higher degree of knowledge.

28. Vital changes in the forms of matter. Agriculture the great pursuit of man. Requires a large amount of knowledge, and therefore late in its development.

9. Commerce last in the order. Grows with the growth of the power of association. 10. The more perfect the power of association, the more does society tend to take a natural form, and the greater its tendency to durability.

11. Natural history of commerce. Subjects, order, succession, and co-ordination, of the classes of producers, transporters, and consumers of industrial products, classified and illustrated. The analogies of natural law universal.

12. Erroneous idea that societies tend, naturally, to pass through various forms, ending always in death. No reason why any society should fail to become more prosperousfrom age to age.

13. Theory of Mr. Ricardo leads to results directly the reverse of this-proving that man must become more and more the slave of nature, and of his fellow-men.

§ 1. CRUSOE was obliged to work alone. When he had been joined by Friday, society commenced; but in what did it consist? In the existence of another person on his island? Certainly not. Had Friday refrained from talking to him and from exchanging services with him, there would still have been no society. It was the exchange of services which produced society; or in other words, association. Every act of association being an act of commerce, the terms society and commerce are but different modes of expressing the same idea.

That commerce may exist, there must be difference. Had

Crusoe and Friday been limited to the exercise of any one and the same faculty, there could have been no more association between them than between two particles of oxygen or hydrogen. Bringing these two elements together, combination takes place; and so it is with man. Society consists in combinations resulting from the existence of differences. Among purely agricultural communities association scarcely exists; whereas, it is found in a high degree where the farmer, the lawyer, the merchant, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the mason, the miller, the spinner, the weaver, the builder, the smelter of ore, the refiner of iron, and the maker of engines, have been brought together.

So, too, is it in the inorganic world; the power of combination growing with the increase of differences, but always in accordance with the law of definite proportions. A thousand atoms of oxygen placed in a receiver, will remain motionless; but introduce a single atom of carbon, and excite their affinities, and motion will be produced, a portion of the former combining with the latter, and producing carbonic acid. The remainder of the oxygen will continue motionless. If, however, successive atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, be introduced, new combinations will be formed, until motion will have been produced throughout the whole, but always in obedience to a certain well-ascertained law of proportions.

So is it with Society, the tendency to motion being in the direct ratio of the harmony of the proportions of the parts. Inorganic bodies, however, have always, and in all places, the same power of combination. Not so with man. Being capable of progress, the power of combination, with him, grows with the successive development of his faculties; and should increase from year to year as society attains more and more to those proportions which are necessary for taking up each and every faculty of the individual man. Association increases with the increase of differences, and diminishes with their diminution, until at length motion ceases to exist; as has been the case in all countries which have declined in wealth and population.

§ 2. In the inorganic world, every combination is an act of motion. So it is in the social one, every act of association being an act of motion, ideas being communicated, services rendered, and commodities exchanged. All force results from motion. What, then, are its laws?