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diff --git a/36541-8.txt b/36541-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..774642e --- /dev/null +++ b/36541-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12292 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political +Economy, by John Ruskin + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy + + +Author: John Ruskin + + + +Release Date: June 27, 2011 [eBook #36541] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNTO THIS LAST AND OTHER ESSAYS ON +POLITICAL ECONOMY*** + + +E-text prepared by David Clarke and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +UNTO THIS LAST AND OTHER ESSAYS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY + +by + + +JOHN RUSKIN + + + + + + + +London +Melbourne & Toronto +Ward Lock & Co Limited +1912 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PART I. + PAGE + THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART 7 + + LECTURE I. 11 + 1. Discovery 23 + 2. Application 28 + + LECTURE II. 46 + 3. Accumulation 46 + 4. Distribution 65 + + ADDENDA 86 + Note 1.--"Fatherly Authority" 86 + " 2.--"Right to Public Support" 90 + " 3.--"Trial Schools" 95 + " 4.--"Public Favour" 101 + " 5.--"Invention of new wants" 102 + " 6.--"Economy of Literature" 104 + " 7.--"Pilots of the State" 106 + " 8.--"Silk and Purple" 107 + + + PART II. + + UNTO THIS LAST 117 + + ESSAY + I.--The Roots of Honour 127 + II.--The Veins of Wealth 143 + III.--"Qui Judicatis Terram" 156 + IV.--Ad Valorem 173 + + + PART III. + + ESSAYS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY[A] + + I.--MAINTENANCE OF LIFE: WEALTH, MONEY AND RICHES 207 + Section 1. Wealth 214 + " 2. Money 219 + " 3. Riches 222 + + II.--NATURE OF WEALTH, VARIATIONS OF VALUE, THE NATIONAL + STORE, NATURE OF LABOUR, VALUE AND PRICE, THE CURRENCY 225 + + III.--THE CURRENCY-HOLDERS AND STORE-HOLDERS, THE DISEASE + OF DESIRE 252 + + IV.--LAWS AND GOVERNMENTS: LABOUR AND RICHES 278 + + [A] These Essays were afterwards revised and amplified, and + published with others under the title "Munera Pulveris." + + + + +THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The greater part of the following treatise remains in the exact form +in which it was read at Manchester; but the more familiar passages of +it, which were trusted to extempore delivery, have been since written +with greater explicitness and fullness than I could give them in +speaking; and a considerable number of notes are added, to explain the +points which could not be sufficiently considered in the time I had at +my disposal in the lecture-room. + +Some apology may be thought due to the reader, for an endeavour to +engage his attention on a subject of which no profound study seems +compatible with the work in which I am usually employed. But profound +study is not, in this case, necessary either to writer or reader, +while accurate study, up to a certain point, is necessary for us all. +Political economy means, in plain English, nothing more than +"citizens' economy"; and its first principles ought, therefore, to be +understood by all who mean to take the responsibility of citizens, as +those of household economy by all who take the responsibility of +householders. Nor are its first principles in the least obscure: they +are, many of them, disagreeable in their practical requirements, and +people in general pretend that they cannot understand, because they +are unwilling to obey them; or, rather, by habitual disobedience, +destroy their capacity of understanding them. But there is not one of +the really great principles of the science which is either obscure or +disputable--which might not be taught to a youth as soon as he can be +trusted with an annual allowance, or to a young lady as soon as she is +of age to be taken into counsel by the housekeeper. + +I might, with more appearance of justice, be blamed for thinking it +necessary to enforce what everybody is supposed to know. But this +fault will hardly be found with me, while the commercial events +recorded daily in our journals, and still more the explanations +attempted to be given of them, show that a large number of our +so-called merchants are as ignorant of the nature of money as they are +reckless, unjust, and unfortunate in its employment. + +The statements of economical principle given in the text, though I +know that most, if not all, of them are accepted by existing +authorities on the science, are not supported by references, because I +have never read any author on political economy, except Adam Smith, +twenty years ago.[1] Whenever I have taken up any modern book upon +this subject, I have usually found it encumbered with inquiries into +accidental or minor commercial results, for the pursuit of which an +ordinary reader could have no leisure, and, by the complication of +which, it seemed to me, the authors themselves had been not +unfrequently prevented from seeing to the root of the business. + + [1] 1857. + +Finally, if the reader should feel inclined to blame me for too +sanguine a statement of future possibilities in political practice, +let him consider how absurd it would have appeared in the days of +Edward I. if the present state of social economy had been then +predicted as necessary, or even described as possible. And I believe +the advance from the days of Edward I. to our own, great as it is +confessedly, consists, not so much in what we have actually +accomplished, as in what we are now enabled to conceive. + + + + +LECTURE I. + + +Among the various characteristics of the age in which we live, as +compared with other ages of this not yet _very_ experienced world, one +of the most notable appears to me to be the just and wholesome +contempt in which we hold poverty. I repeat, the _just_ and +_wholesome_ contempt; though I see that some of my hearers look +surprised at the expression. I assure them, I use it in sincerity; and +I should not have ventured to ask you to listen to me this evening, +unless I had entertained a profound respect for wealth--true wealth, +that is to say; for, of course, we ought to respect neither wealth nor +anything else that is false of its kind: and the distinction between +real and false wealth is one of the points on which I shall have a few +words presently to say to you. But true wealth I hold, as I said, in +great honour; and sympathize, for the most part, with that +extraordinary feeling of the present age which publicly pays this +honour to riches. I cannot, however, help noticing how extraordinary +it is, and how this epoch of ours differs from all bygone epochs in +having no philosophical nor religious worshippers of the ragged +godship of poverty. In the classical ages, not only there were people +who voluntarily lived in tubs, and who used gravely to maintain the +superiority of tub-life to town-life, but the Greeks and Latins seem +to have looked on these eccentric, and I do not scruple to say, absurd +people, with as much respect as we do upon large capitalists and +landed proprietors; so that really, in those days, no one could be +described as purse proud, but only as empty-purse proud. And no less +distinct than the honour which those curious Greek people pay to their +conceited poor, is the disrespectful manner in which they speak of +the rich; so that one cannot listen long either to them, or to the +Roman writers who imitated them, without finding oneself entangled in +all sorts of plausible absurdities; hard upon being convinced of the +uselessness of collecting that heavy yellow substance which we call +gold, and led generally to doubt all the most established maxims of +political economy. Nor are matters much better in the middle ages. For +the Greeks and Romans contented themselves with mocking at rich +people, and constructing merry dialogues between Charon and Diogenes +or Menippus, in which the ferryman and the cynic rejoiced together as +they saw kings and rich men coming down to the shore of Acheron, in +lamenting and lamentable crowds, casting their crowns into the dark +waters, and searching, sometimes in vain, for the last coin out of all +their treasures that could ever be of use to them. But these Pagan +views of the matter were indulgent, compared with those which were +held in the middle ages, when wealth seems to have been looked upon by +the best men not only as contemptible, but as criminal. The purse +round the neck is, then, one of the principal signs of condemnation in +the pictured Inferno; and the Spirit of Poverty is reverenced with +subjection of heart, and faithfulness of affection, like that of a +loyal knight for his lady, or a loyal subject for his queen. And +truly, it requires some boldness to quit ourselves of these feelings, +and to confess their partiality or their error, which, nevertheless, +we are certainly bound to do. For wealth is simply one of the greatest +powers which can be entrusted to human hands: a power, not indeed to +be envied, because it seldom makes us happy; but still less to be +abdicated or despised; while, in these days, and in this country, it +has become a power all the more notable, in that the possessions of a +rich man are not represented, as they used to be, by wedges of gold or +coffers of jewels, but by masses of men variously employed, over whose +bodies and minds the wealth, according to its direction, exercises +harmful or helpful influence, and becomes, in that alternative, Mammon +either of Unrighteousness or of Righteousness. + +Now, it seemed to me that since, in the name you have given to this +great gathering of British pictures, you recognise them as +Treasures--that is, I suppose, as part and parcel of the real wealth +of the country--you might not be uninterested in tracing certain +commercial questions connected with this particular form of wealth. +Most persons express themselves as surprised at its quantity; not +having known before to what an extent good art had been accumulated in +England: and it will, therefore, I should think, be held a worthy +subject of consideration, what are the political interests involved in +such accumulations; what kind of labour they represent, and how this +labour may in general be applied and economized, so as to produce the +richest results. + +Now, you must have patience with me, if in approaching the specialty +of this subject, I dwell a little on certain points of general +political science already known or established: for though thus, as I +believe, established, some which I shall have occasion to rest +arguments on are not yet by any means universally accepted; and +therefore, though I will not lose time in any detailed defence of +them, it is necessary that I should distinctly tell you in what form I +receive, and wish to argue from them; and this the more, because there +may perhaps be a part of my audience who have not interested +themselves in political economy, as it bears on ordinary fields of +labour, but may yet wish to hear in what way its principles can be +applied to Art. I shall, therefore, take leave to trespass on your +patience with a few elementary statements in the outset, and with, the +expression of some general principles, here and there, in the course +of our particular inquiry. + +To begin, then, with one of these necessary truisms: all economy, +whether of states, households, or individuals, may be defined to be +the art of managing labour. The world is so regulated by the laws of +Providence, that a man's labour, well applied, is always amply +sufficient to provide him during his life with all things needful to +him, and not only with those, but with many pleasant objects of +luxury; and yet farther, to procure him large intervals of healthful +rest and serviceable leisure. And a nation's labour, well applied, is +in like manner, amply sufficient to provide its whole population with +good food and comfortable habitation; and not with those only, but +with good education besides, and objects of luxury, art treasures, +such as these you have around you now. But by those same laws of +Nature and Providence, if the labour of the nation or of the +individual be misapplied, and much more if it be insufficient,--if the +nation or man be indolent and unwise,--suffering and want result, +exactly in proportion to the indolence and improvidence,--to the +refusal of labour, or to the misapplication of it. Wherever you see +want, or misery, or degradation, in this world about you, there, be +sure, either industry has been wanting, or industry has been in error. +It is not accident, it is not Heaven-commanded calamity, it is not the +original and inevitable evil of man's nature, which fill your streets +with lamentation, and your graves with prey. It is only that, when +there should have been providence, there has been waste; when there +should have been labour, there has been lasciviousness; and, +wilfulness, when there should have been subordination.[2] + + [2] Proverbs xiii. 23: "Much food is in the tillage of the poor: + but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment." + +Now, we have warped the word "economy" in our English: language into a +meaning which it has no business whatever to bear. In our use of it, +it constantly signifies merely sparing or saving; economy of money +means saving money--economy of time, sparing time, and so on. But that +is a wholly barbarous use of the word--barbarous in a double sense, +for it is not English, and it is bad Greek; barbarous in a treble +sense, for it is not English, it is bad Greek, and it is worse sense. +Economy no more means saving money than it means spending money. It +means, the administration of a house; its stewardship; spending or +saving, that is, whether money or time, or anything else, to the best +possible advantage. In the simplest and clearest definition of it, +economy, whether public or private, means the wise management of +labour; and it means this mainly in three senses: namely, first, +_applying_ your labour rationally; secondly, _preserving_ its produce +carefully; lastly, _distributing_ its produce seasonably. + +I say first, applying your labour rationally; that is, so as to obtain +the most precious things you can, and the most lasting things, by it: +not growing oats in land where you can grow wheat, nor putting fine +embroidery on a stuff that will not wear. Secondly, preserving its +produce carefully; that is to say, laying up your wheat wisely in +storehouses for the time of famine, and keeping your embroidery +watchfully from the moth: and lastly, distributing its produce +seasonably; that is to say, being able to carry your corn at once to +the place where the people are hungry, and your embroideries to the +places where they are gay, so fulfilling in all ways the Wise Man's +description, whether of the queenly housewife or queenly nation. "She +riseth while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a +portion to her maidens. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry, her +clothing is silk and purple. Strength and honour are in her clothing, +and she shall rejoice in time to come." + +Now, you will observe that in this description of the perfect +economist, or mistress of a household, there is a studied expression +of the balanced division of her care between the two great objects of +utility and splendour; in her right hand, food and flax, for life and +clothing; in her left hand, the purple and the needlework, for honour +and for beauty. All perfect housewifery or national economy is known +by these two divisions; wherever either is wanting, the economy is +imperfect. If the motive of pomp prevails, and the care of the +national economist is directed only to the accumulation of gold, and +of pictures, and of silk and marble, you know at once that the time +must soon come when all these treasures shall be scattered and blasted +in national ruin. If, on the contrary, the element of utility +prevails, and the nation disdains to occupy itself in any wise with +the arts of beauty or delight, not only a certain quantity of its +energy calculated for exercise in those arts alone must be entirely +wasted, which is bad economy, but also the passions connected with the +utilities of property become morbidly strong, and a mean lust of +accumulation merely for the sake of accumulation, or even of labour +merely for the sake of labour, will banish at last the serenity and +the morality of life, as completely, and perhaps more ignobly, than +even the lavishness of pride and the lightness of pleasure. And +similarly, and much more visibly, in private and household economy, +you may judge always of its perfectness by its fair balance between +the use and the pleasure of its possessions. You will see the wise +cottager's garden trimly divided between its well-set vegetables, and +its fragrant flowers; you will see the good housewife taking pride in +her pretty table-cloth, and her glittering shelves, no less than in +her well-dressed dish, and her full storeroom; the care in her +countenance will alternate with gaiety, and though you will reverence +her in her seriousness, you will know her best by her smile. + +Now, as you will have anticipated, I am going to address you, on this +and our succeeding evening, chiefly on the subject of that economy +which relates rather to the garden than the farm-yard. I shall ask you +to consider with me the kind of laws by which we shall best distribute +the beds of our national garden, and raise in it the sweetest +succession of trees pleasant to the sight, and (in no forbidden sense) +to be desired to make us wise. But, before proceeding to open this +specialty of our subject, let me pause for a few moments to plead with +you for the acceptance of that principle of government or authority +which must be at the root of all economy, whether for use or for +pleasure. I said, a few minutes ago, that a nation's labour, well +applied, was amply sufficient to provide its whole population with +good food, comfortable clothing, and pleasant luxury. But the good, +instant, and constant application is everything. We must not, when our +strong hands are thrown out of work, look wildly about for want of +something to do with them. If ever we feel that want, it is a sign +that all our household is out of order. Fancy a farmer's wife, to whom +one or two of her servants should come at twelve o'clock at noon, +crying that they had got nothing to do; that they did not know what to +do next: and fancy still farther, the said farmer's wife looking +hopelessly about her rooms and yard, they being all the while +considerably in disorder, not knowing where to set the spare +hand-maidens to work, and at last complaining bitterly that she had +been obliged to give them their dinner for nothing. That's the type of +the kind of political economy we practise too often in England. Would +you not at once assert of such a mistress that she knew nothing of her +duties? and would you not be certain, if the household were rightly +managed, the mistress would be only too glad at any moment to have the +help of any number of spare hands; that she would know in an instant +what to set them to;--in an instant what part of to-morrow's work +might be most serviceably forwarded, what part of next month's work +most wisely provided for, or what new task of some profitable kind +undertaken? and when the evening came, and she dismissed her servants +to their recreation or their rest, or gathered them to the reading +round the work-table, under the eaves in the sunset, would you not be +sure to find that none of them had been overtasked by her, just +because none had been left idle; that everything had been accomplished +because all had been employed; that the kindness of the mistress had +aided her presence of mind, and the slight labour had been entrusted +to the weak, and the formidable to the strong; and that as none had +been dishonoured by inactivity so none had been broken by toil? + +Now, the precise counterpart of such a household would be seen in a +nation in which political economy was rightly understood. You complain +of the difficulty of finding work for your men. Depend upon it, the +real difficulty rather is to find men for your work. The serious +question for you is not how many you have to feed, but how much you +have to do; it is our inactivity, not our hunger, that ruins us: let +us never fear that our servants should have a good appetite--our +wealth is in their strength, not in their starvation. Look around this +island of yours, and see what you have to do in it. The sea roars +against your harbourless cliffs--you have to build the breakwater, and +dig the port of refuge; the unclean pestilence ravins in your +streets--you have to bring the full stream from the hills, and to send +the free winds through the thoroughfare; the famine blanches your lips +and eats away your flesh--you have to dig the moor and dry the marsh, +to bid the morass give forth instead of engulphing, and to wring the +honey and oil out of the rock. These things, and thousands such, we +have to do, and shall have to do constantly, on this great farm of +ours; for do not suppose that it is anything else than that. Precisely +the same laws of economy which apply to the cultivation of a farm or +an estate apply to the cultivation of a province or of an island. +Whatever rebuke you would address to the improvident master of an +ill-managed patrimony, precisely that rebuke we should address to +ourselves, so far as we leave our population in idleness and our +country in disorder. What would you say to the lord of an estate who +complained to you of his poverty and disabilities, and, when you +pointed out to him that his land was half of it overrun with weeds, +and that his fences were all in ruin, and that his cattle-sheds were +roofless, and his labourers lying under the hedges faint for want of +food, he answered to you that it would ruin him to weed his land or to +roof his sheds--that those were too costly operations for him to +undertake, and that he knew not how to feed his labourers nor pay +them? Would you not instantly answer, that instead of ruining him to +weed his fields, it would save him; that his inactivity was his +destruction, and that to set his labourers to work was to feed them? +Now, you may add acre to acre, and estate to estate, as far as you +like, but you will never reach a compass of ground which shall escape +from the authority of these simple laws. The principles which are +right in the administration of a few fields, are right also in the +administration of a great country from horizon to horizon: idleness +does not cease to be ruinous because it is extensive, nor labour to be +productive because it is universal. + +Nay, but you reply, there is one vast difference between the nation's +economy and the private man's: the farmer has full authority over his +labourers; he can direct them to do what is needed to be done, whether +they like it or not; and he can turn them away if they refuse to work, +or impede others in their working, or are disobedient, or quarrelsome. +There _is_ this great difference; it is precisely this difference on +which I wish to fix your attention, for it is precisely this +difference which you have to do away with. We know the necessity of +authority in farm, or in fleet, or in army; but we commonly refuse to +admit it in the body of the nation. Let us consider this point a +little. + +In the various awkward and unfortunate efforts which the French have +made at the development of a social system, they have at least stated +one true principle, that of fraternity or brotherhood. Do not be +alarmed; they got all wrong in their experiments, because they quite +forgot that this fact of fraternity implied another fact quite as +important--that of paternity or fatherhood. That is to say, if they +were to regard the nation as one family, the condition of unity in +that family consisted no less in their having a head, or a father, +than in their being faithful and affectionate members, or brothers. +But we must not forget this, for we have long confessed it with our +lips, though we refuse to confess it in our lives. For half an hour +every Sunday we expect a man in a black gown, supposed to be telling +us truth, to address us as brethren, though we should be shocked at +the notion of any brotherhood existing among us out of church. And we +can hardly read a few sentences on any political subject without +running a chance of crossing the phrase "paternal government," though +we should be utterly horror-struck at the idea of governments claiming +anything like a father's authority over us. Now, I believe those two +formal phrases are in both instances perfectly binding and accurate, +and that the image of the farm and its servants which I have hitherto +used, as expressing a wholesome national organization, fails only of +doing so, not because it is too domestic, but because it is not +domestic enough; because the real type of a well-organized nation must +be presented, not by a farm cultivated by servants who wrought for +hire, and might be turned away if they refused to labour, but by a +farm in which the master was a father, and in which all the servants +were sons; which implied, therefore, in all its regulations, not +merely the order of expediency, but the bonds of affection and +responsibilities of relationship; and in which all acts and services +were not only to be sweetened by brotherly concord, but to be enforced +by fatherly authority.[3] + + [3] See note 1st, in Addenda [p. 86]. + +Observe, I do not mean in the least that we ought to place such an +authority in the hands of any one person, or of any class or body of +persons. But I do mean to say that as an individual who conducts +himself wisely must make laws for himself which at some time or other +may appear irksome or injurious, but which, precisely at the time they +appear most irksome, it is most necessary he should obey, so a nation +which means to conduct itself wisely, must establish authority over +itself, vested either in kings, councils, or laws, which it must +resolve to obey, even at times when the law or authority appears +irksome to the body of the people, or injurious to certain masses of +it. And this kind of national law has hitherto been only judicial; +contented, that is, with an endeavour to prevent and punish violence +and crime: but, as we advance in our social knowledge; we shall +endeavour to make our government paternal as well as judicial; that +is, to establish such laws and authorities as may at once direct us in +our occupations, protect us against our follies, and visit us in our +distresses: a government which shall repress dishonesty, as now it +punishes theft; which shall show how the discipline of the masses may +be brought to aid the toils of peace, as discipline of the masses has +hitherto knit the sinews of battle; a government which shall have its +soldiers of the ploughshare as well as its soldiers of the sword, and +which shall distribute more proudly its golden crosses of +industry--golden as the glow of the harvest, than now it grants its +bronze crosses of honour--bronzed with the crimson of blood. + +I have not, of course, time to insist on the nature or details of +government of this kind; only I wish to plead for your several and +future consideration of this one truth, that the notion of Discipline +and Interference lies at the very root of all human progress or power; +that the "Let alone" principle is, in all things which man has to do +with, the principle of death; that it is ruin to him, certain and +total, if he lets his land alone--if he lets his fellow-men alone--if +he lets his own soul alone. That his whole life, on the contrary, +must, if it is healthy life, be continually one of ploughing and +pruning, rebuking and helping, governing and punishing; and that +therefore it is only in the concession of some great principle of +restraint and interference in national action that he can ever hope to +find the secret of protection against national degradation. I believe +that the masses have a right to claim education from their government; +but only so far as they acknowledge the duty of yielding obedience to +their government. I believe they have a right to claim employment from +their governours; but only so far as they yield to the governour the +direction and discipline of their labour; and it is only so far as +they grant to the men whom they may set over them the father's +authority to check the childishnesses of national fancy, and direct +the waywardnesses of national energy, that they have a right to ask +that none of their distresses should be unrelieved, none of their +weaknesses unwatched; and that no grief, nor nakedness, nor peril +should exist for them, against which the father's hand was not +outstretched, or the father's shield uplifted.[4] + + [4] Compare Wordsworth's Essay on the Poor-Law Amendment Bill. + I quote one important passage:--"But, if it be not safe to + touch the abstract question of man's right in a social state + to help himself even in the last extremity, may we not still + contend for the duty of a Christian government, standing _in + loco parentis_ towards all its subjects, to make such + effectual provision that no one shall be in danger of + perishing either through the neglect or harshness of its + legislation? Or, waiving this, is it not indisputable that + the claim of the State to the allegiance, involves the + protection of the subject? And, as all rights in one party + impose a correlative duty upon another, it follows that the + right of the State to require the services of its members, + even to the jeoparding of their lives in the common defence, + establishes a right in the people (not to be gainsaid by + utilitarians and economists) to public support when, from + any cause, they may be unable to support themselves."--(See + note 2nd in Addenda [p. 90]). + +Now, I have pressed this upon you at more length than is needful or +proportioned to our present purposes of inquiry, because I would not +for the first time speak to you on this subject of political economy +without clearly stating what I believe to be its first grand +principle. But its bearing on the matter in hand is chiefly to prevent +you from at once too violently dissenting from me when what I may +state to you as advisable economy in art appears to imply too much +restraint or interference with the freedom of the patron or artist. We +are a little apt, though, on the whole a prudent nation, to act too +immediately on our impulses, even in matters merely commercial; much +more in those involving continual appeals to our fancies. How far, +therefore, the proposed systems or restraints may be advisable, it is +for you to judge; only I pray you not to be offended with them merely +because they _are_ systems and restraints. Do you at all recollect +that interesting passage of Carlyle, in which he compares, in this +country and at this day, the understood and commercial value of man +and horse; and in which he wonders that the horse, with its inferior +brains and its awkward hoofiness, instead of handiness, should be +always worth so many tens or scores of pounds in the market, while the +man, so far from always commanding his price in the market, would +often be thought to confer a service on the community by simply +killing himself out of their way? Well, Carlyle does not answer his +own question, because he supposes we shall at once see the answer. The +value of the horse consists simply in the fact of your being able to +put a bridle on him. The value of the man consists precisely in the +same thing. If you can bridle him, or which is better, if he can +bridle himself, he will be a valuable creature directly. Otherwise, in +a commercial point of view, his value is either nothing, or accidental +only. Only, of course, the proper bridle of man is not a leathern one: +what kind of texture it is rightly made of, we find from that command, +"Be ye not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, +whose mouths must be held in with bit and bridle." You are not to be +without the reins, indeed, but they are to be of another kind; "I will +guide thee with mine Eye." So the bridle of man is to be the Eye of +God; and if he rejects that guidance, then the next best for him is +the horse's and the mule's, which have no understanding; and if he +rejects that, and takes the bit fairly in his teeth, then there is +nothing left for him than the blood that comes out of the city, up to +the horsebridles. + +Quitting, however, at last these general and serious laws of +government--or rather bringing them down to our own business in +hand--we have to consider three points of discipline in that +particular branch of human labour which is concerned, not with +procuring of food, but the expression of emotion; we have to consider +respecting art: first, how to apply our labour to it; then, how to +accumulate or preserve the results of labour; and then, how to +distribute them. But since in art the labour which we have to employ +is the labour of a particular class of men--men who have special +genius for the business, we have not only to consider how to apply the +labour, but first of all, how to produce the labourer; and thus the +question in this particular case becomes fourfold: first, how to get +your man of genius; then, how to employ your man of genius; then, how +to accumulate and preserve his work in the greatest quantity; and +lastly, how to distribute his work to the best national advantage. Let +us take up these questions in succession. + + +I. DISCOVERY.--How are we to get our men of genius: that is to say, by +what means may we produce among us, at any given time, the greatest +quantity of effective art-intellect? A wide question, you say, +involving an account of all the best means of art education. Yes, but +I do not mean to go into the consideration of those; I want only to +state the few principles which lie at the foundation of the matter. Of +these, the first is that you have always to find your artist, not to +make him; you can't manufacture him, any more than you can manufacture +gold. You can find him, and refine him: you dig him out as he lies +nugget-fashion in the mountain-stream; you bring him home; and you +make him into current coin, or household plate, but not one grain of +him can you originally produce. A certain quantity of art-intellect is +born annually in every nation, greater or less according to the nature +and cultivation of the nation or race of men; but a perfectly fixed +quantity annually, not increaseable by one grain. You may lose it, or +you may gather it; you may let it lie loose in the ravine, and buried +in the sands, or you may make kings' thrones of it, and overlay temple +gates with it, as you choose: but the best you can do with it is +always merely sifting, melting, hammering, purifying--never creating. +And there is another thing notable about this artistical gold; not +only is it limited in quantity, but in use. You need not make thrones +or golden gates with it unless you like, but assuredly you can't do +anything else with it. You can't make knives of it, nor armour, nor +railroads. The gold won't cut you, and it won't carry you; put it to a +mechanical use, and you destroy it at once. It is quite true that in +the greatest artists, their proper artistical faculty is united with +every other; and you may make use of the other faculties, and let the +artistical one lie dormant. For aught I know, there may be two or +three Leonardo da Vincis employed at this moment in your harbours and +railroads: but you are not employing their Leonardesque or golden +faculty there, you are only oppressing and destroying it. And the +artistical gift in average men is not joined with others; your born +painter, if you don't make a painter of him, won't be a first-rate +merchant, or lawyer; at all events, whatever he turns out, his own +special gift is unemployed by you; and in no wise helps him in that +other business. So here you have a certain quantity of a particular +sort of intelligence, produced for you annually by providential laws, +which you can only make use of by setting it to its own proper work, +and which any attempt to use otherwise involves the dead loss of so +much human energy. Well, then, supposing we wish to employ it, how is +it to be best discovered and refined? It is easily enough discovered. +To wish to employ it is to discover it. All that you need is, a school +of trial[5] in every important town, in which those idle farmers' lads +whom their masters never can keep out of mischief, and those stupid +tailors' 'prentices who are always stitching the sleeves in wrong way +upwards, may have a try at this other trade; only this school of trial +must not be entirely regulated by formal laws of art education, but +must ultimately be the workshop of a good master painter, who will try +the lads with one kind of art and another, till he finds out what they +are fit for. Next, after your trial school, you want your easy and +secure employment, which is the matter of chief importance. For, even +on the present system, the boys who have really intense art capacity, +generally make painters of themselves; but then, the best half of +their early energy is lost in the battle of life. Before a good +painter can get employment, his mind has always been embittered, and +his genius distorted. A common mind usually stoops, in plastic chill, +to whatever is asked of it, and scrapes or daubs its way complacently +into public favour.[6] But your great men quarrel with you, and you +revenge yourselves by starving them for the first half of their lives. +Precisely in the degree in which any painter possesses original +genius, is at present the increase of moral certainty that during his +early years he will have a hard battle to fight; and that just at the +time when his conceptions ought to be full and happy, his temper +gentle, and his hopes enthusiastic--just at that most critical period, +his heart is full of anxieties and household cares; he is chilled by +disappointments, and vexed by injustice; he becomes obstinate in his +errors, no less than in his virtues, and the arrows of his aims are +blunted, as the reeds of his trust are broken. + + [5] See note 3rd, in Addenda [p. 95]. + + [6] See note 4th, in Addenda [p. 101]. + +What we mainly want, therefore, is a means of sufficient and +unagitated employment: not holding out great prizes for which young +painters are to scramble; but furnishing all with adequate support, +and opportunity to display such power as they possess without +rejection or mortification. I need not say that the best field of +labour of this kind would be presented by the constant progress of +public works involving various decoration; and we will presently +examine what kind of public works may thus, advantageously for the +nation, be in constant progress. But a more important matter even than +this of steady employment, is the kind of criticism with which you, +the public, receive the works of the young men submitted to you. You +may do much harm by indiscreet praise and by indiscreet blame; but +remember, the chief harm is always done by blame. It stands to reason +that a young man's work cannot be perfect. It _must_ be more or less +ignorant; it must be more or less feeble; it is likely that it may be +more or less experimental, and if experimental, here and there +mistaken. If, therefore, you allow yourself to launch out into sudden +barking at the first faults you see, the probability is that you are +abusing the youth for some defect naturally and inevitably belonging +to that stage of his progress; and that you might just as rationally +find fault with a child for not being as prudent as a privy +councillor, or with a kitten for not being as grave as a cat. But +there is one fault which you may be quite sure is unnecessary, and +therefore a real and blameable fault: that is haste, involving +negligence. Whenever you see that a young man's work is either bold or +slovenly, then you may attack it firmly; sure of being right. If his +work is bold, it is insolent; repress his insolence: if it is +slovenly, it is indolent; spur his indolence. So long as he works in +that dashing or impetuous way, the best hope for him is in your +contempt: and it is only by the fact of his seeming not to seek your +approbation that you may conjecture he deserves it. + +But if he does deserve it, be sure that you give it him, else you not +only run a chance of driving him from the right road by want of +encouragement, but you deprive yourselves of the happiest privilege +you will ever have of rewarding his labour. For it is only the young +who can receive much reward from men's praise: the old, when they are +great, get too far beyond and above you to care what you think of +them. You may urge them then with sympathy, and surround them then +with acclamation; but they will doubt your pleasure, and despise your +praise. You might have cheered them in their race through the asphodel +meadows of their youth; you might have brought the proud, bright +scarlet into their faces, if you had but cried once to them "Well +done," as they dashed up to the first goal of their early ambition. +But now, their pleasure is in memory, and their ambition is in heaven. +They can be kind to you, but you never more can be kind to them. You +may be fed with the fruit and fullness of their old age, but you were +as the nipping blight to them in their blossoming, and your praise is +only as the warm winds of autumn to the dying branches. + +There is one thought still, the saddest of all, bearing on this +withholding of early help. It is possible, in some noble natures, that +the warmth and the affections of childhood may remain unchilled, +though unanswered; and that the old man's heart may still be capable +of gladness, when the long-withheld sympathy is given at last. But in +these noble natures it nearly always happens, that the chief motive of +earthly ambition has not been to give delight to themselves, but to +their parents. Every noble youth looks back, as to the chiefest joy +which this world's honour ever gave him, to the moment when first he +saw his father's eyes flash with pride, and his mother turn away her +head lest he should take her tears for tears of sorrow. Even the +lover's joy, when some worthiness of his is acknowledged before his +mistress, is not so great as that, for it is not so pure--the desire +to exalt himself in her eyes mixes with that of giving her delight; +but he does not need to exalt himself in his parents' eyes: it is +with the pure hope of giving them pleasure that he comes to tell them +what he has done, or what has been said of him; and therefore he has a +purer pleasure of his own. And this purest and best of rewards you +keep from him if you can: you feed him in his tender youth with ashes +and dishonour; and then you come to him, obsequious, but too late, +with your sharp laurel crown, the dew all dried from off its leaves; +and you thrust it into his languid hand, and he looks at you +wistfully. What shall he do with it? What can he do, but go and lay it +on his mother's grave? + +Thus, then, you see that you have to provide for your young men: +first, the searching or discovering school; then the calm employment; +then the justice of praise: one thing more you have to do for them in +preparing them for full service--namely, to make, in the noble sense +of the word, gentlemen of them; that is to say, to take care that +their minds receive such training, that in all they paint they shall +see and feel the noblest things. I am sorry to say, that of all parts +of an artist's education this is the most neglected among us; and that +even where the natural taste and feeling of the youth have been pure +and true, where there was the right stuff in him to make a gentleman +of, you may too frequently discern some jarring rents in his mind, and +elements of degradation in his treatment of subject, owing to want of +gentle training, and of the liberal influence of literature. This is +quite visible in our greatest artists, even in men like Turner and +Gainsborough; while in the common grade of our second-rate painters +the evil attains a pitch which is far too sadly manifest to need my +dwelling upon it. Now, no branch of art economy is more important than +that of making the intellect at your disposal pure as well as +powerful; so that it may always gather for you the sweetest and +fairest things. The same quantity of labour from the same man's hand, +will, according as you have trained him, produce a lovely and useful +work, or a base and hurtful one, and depend upon it, whatever value it +may possess, by reason of the painter's skill, its chief and final +value, to any nation, depends upon its being able to exalt and refine, +as well as to please; and that the picture which most truly deserves +the name of an art-treasure, is that which has been painted by a good +man. + +You cannot but see how far this would lead, if I were to enlarge upon +it. I must take it up as a separate subject some other time: only +noticing at present that no money could be better spent by a nation +than in providing a liberal and disciplined education for its +painters, as they advance into the critical period of their youth; and +that also, a large part of their power during life depends upon the +kind of subjects which you, the public, ask them for, and therefore +the kind of thoughts with which you require them to be habitually +familiar. I shall have more to say on this head when we come to +consider what employment they should have in public buildings. + +There are many other points of nearly as much importance as these, to +be explained with reference to the development of genius; but I should +have to ask you to come and hear six lectures instead of two if I were +to go into their detail. For instance, I have not spoken of the way in +which you ought to look for those artificers in various manual trades, +who, without possessing the order of genius which you would desire to +devote to higher purposes, yet possess wit, and humour, and sense of +colour, and fancy for form--all commercially valuable as quantities of +intellect, and all more or less expressible in the lower arts of +ironwork, pottery, decorative sculpture, and such like. But these +details, interesting as they are, I must commend to your own +consideration, or leave for some future inquiry. I want just now only +to set the bearings of the entire subject broadly before you, with +enough of detailed illustration to make it intelligible; and therefore +I must quit the first head of it here, and pass to the second, namely, +how best to employ the genius we discover. A certain quantity of able +hands and heads being placed at our disposal, what shall we most +advisably set them upon? + + +II. APPLICATION.--There are three main points the economist has to +attend to in this. + +First, To set his men to various work. + +Secondly, To easy work. + +Thirdly, To lasting work. + +I shall briefly touch on the first two, for I want to arrest your +attention on the last. + +I say first, to various work. Supposing you have two men of equal +power as landscape painters--and both of them have an hour at your +disposal. You would not set them both to paint the same piece of +landscape. You would, of course, rather have two subjects than a +repetition of one. + +Well, supposing them sculptors, will not the same rule hold? You +naturally conclude at once that it will; but you will have hard work +to convince your modern architects of that. They will put twenty men +to work, to carve twenty capitals; and all shall be the same. If I +could show you the architects' yards in England just now, all open at +once, perhaps you might see a thousand clever men, all employed in +carving the same design. Of the degradation and deathfulness to the +art-intellect of the country involved in such a habit, I have more or +less been led to speak before now; but I have not hitherto marked its +definite tendency to increase the price of _work_, as such. When men +are employed continually in carving the same ornaments, they get into +a monotonous and methodical habit of labour--precisely correspondent +to that in which they would break stones, or paint house-walls. Of +course, what they do so constantly, they do easily; and if you excite +them temporarily by an increase of wages, you may get much work done +by them in a little time. But, unless so stimulated, men condemned to +a monotonous exertion, work--and always, by the laws of human nature, +_must_ work--only at a tranquil rate, not producing by any means a +maximum result in a given time. But if you allow them to vary their +designs, and thus interest their heads and hearts in what they are +doing, you will find them become eager, first, to get their ideas +expressed, and then to finish the expression of them; and the moral +energy thus brought to bear on the matter quickens, and therefore +cheapens, the production in a most important degree. Sir Thomas Deane, +the architect of the new Museum at Oxford, told me, as I passed +through Oxford on my way here, that he found that, owing to this +cause alone, capitals of various design could be executed cheaper than +capitals of similar design (the amount of hand labour in each being +the same) by about 30 per cent. + +Well, that is the first way, then, in which you will employ your +intellect well; and the simple observance of this plain rule of +political economy will effect a noble revolution in your architecture, +such as you cannot at present so much as conceive. Then the second way +in which we are to guard against waste is by setting our men to the +easiest, and therefore the quickest, work which will answer the +purpose. Marble, for instance, lasts quite as long as granite, and is +much softer to work; therefore, when you get hold of a good sculptor, +give him marble to carve--not granite. That, you say, is obvious +enough. Yes; but it is not so obvious how much of your workmen's time +you waste annually in making them cut glass, after it has got hard, +when you ought to make them mould it while it is soft. It is not so +obvious how much expense you waste in cutting diamonds and rubies, +which are the hardest things you can find, into shapes that mean +nothing, when the same men might be cutting sandstone and freestone +into shapes that meant something. It is not so obvious how much of the +artists' time in Italy you waste, by forcing them to make wretched +little pictures for you out of crumbs of stone glued together at +enormous cost, when the tenth of the time would make good and noble +pictures for you out of water-colour. I could go on giving you almost +numberless instances of this great commercial mistake; but I should +only weary and confuse you. I therefore commend also this head of our +subject to your own meditation, and proceed to the last I named--the +last I shall task your patience with to-night. You know we are now +considering how to apply our genius; and we were to do it as +economists, in three ways:-- + + To _various_ work; + To _easy_ work; + To _lasting_ work. + +This lasting of the work, then, is our final question. + +Many of you may, perhaps, remember that Michael Angelo was once +commanded by Pietro di Medici to mould a statue out of snow, and that +he obeyed the command.[7] I am glad, and we have all reason to be +glad, that such a fancy ever came into the mind of the unworthy +prince, and for this cause: that Pietro di Medici then gave, at the +period of one great epoch of consummate power in the arts, the +perfect, accurate; and intensest possible type of the greatest error +which nations and princes can commit, respecting the power of genius +entrusted to their guidance. You had there, observe, the strongest +genius in the most perfect obedience; capable of iron independence, +yet wholly submissive to the patron's will; at once the most highly +accomplished and the most original, capable of doing as much as man +could do, in any direction that man could ask. And its governour, and +guide, and patron sets it to build a statue in snow--to put itself +into the service of annihilation--to make a cloud of itself, and pass +away from the earth. + + [7] See the noble passage on this tradition in "Casa Guidi + Windows." + +Now this, so precisely and completely done by Pietro di Medici, is +what we are all doing, exactly in the degree in which we direct the +genius under our patronage to work in more or less perishable +materials. So far as we induce painters to work in fading colours, or +architects to build with imperfect structure, or in any other way +consult only immediate ease and cheapness in the production of what we +want, to the exclusion of provident thought as to its permanence and +serviceableness in after ages; so far we are forcing our Michael +Angelos to carve in snow. The first duty of the economist in art is, +to see that no intellect shall thus glitter merely in the manner of +hoar-frost; but that it shall be well vitrified, like a painted +window, and shall be set so between shafts of stone and bands of iron, +that it shall bear the sunshine upon it, and send the sunshine through +it, from generation to generation. + +I can conceive, however, some political economist to interrupt me +here, and say, "If you make your art wear too well, you will soon have +too much of it; you will throw your artists quite out of work. Better +allow for a little wholesome evanescence--beneficent destruction: let +each age provide art for itself, or we shall soon have so many good +pictures that we shall not know what to do with them." + +Remember, my dear hearers, who are thus thinking, that political +economy, like every other subject, cannot be dealt with effectively if +we try to solve two questions at a time instead of one. It is one +question, how to get plenty of a thing; and another, whether plenty of +it will be good for us. Consider these two matters separately; never +confuse yourself by interweaving one with the other. It is one +question, how to treat your fields so as to get a good harvest; +another, whether you wish to have a good harvest, or would rather like +to keep up the price of corn. It is one question, how to graft your +trees so as to grow most apples; and quite another, whether having +such a heap of apples in the store-room will not make them all rot. + +Now, therefore, that we are talking only about grafting and growing, +pray do not vex yourselves with thinking what you are to do with the +pippins. It may be desirable for us to have much art, or little--we +will examine that by and by; but just now, let us keep to the simple +consideration how to get plenty of good art if we want it. Perhaps it +might be just as well that a man of moderate income should be able to +possess a good picture, as that any work of real merit should cost +£500 or £1,000; at all events, it is certainly one of the branches of +political economy to ascertain how, if we like, we can get things in +quantities--plenty of corn, plenty of wine, plenty of gold, or plenty +of pictures. + +It has just been said, that the first great secret is to produce work +that will last. Now, the conditions of work lasting are twofold: it +must not only be in materials that will last, but it must be itself of +a quality that will last--it must be good enough to bear the test of +time. If it is not good, we shall tire of it quickly, and throw it +aside--we shall have no pleasure in the accumulation of it. So that +the first question of a good art-economist respecting any work is, +Will it lose its flavour by keeping? It may be very amusing now, and +look much like a work of genius. But what will be its value a hundred +years hence? + +You cannot always ascertain this. You may get what you fancy to be +work of the best quality, and yet find to your astonishment that it +won't keep. But of one thing you may be sure, that art which is +produced hastily will also perish hastily; and that what is cheapest +to you now, is likely to be dearest in the end. + +I am sorry to say, the great tendency of this age is to expend its +genius in perishable art of this kind, as if it were a triumph to burn +its thoughts away in bonfires. There is a vast quantity of intellect +and of labour consumed annually in our cheap illustrated publications; +you triumph in them; and you think it is so grand a thing to get so +many woodcuts for a penny. Why, woodcuts, penny and all, are as much +lost to you as if you had invested your money in gossamer. More lost, +for the gossamer could only tickle your face, and glitter in your +eyes; it could not catch your feet and trip you up: but the bad art +can, and does; for you can't like good woodcuts as long as you look at +the bad ones. If we were at this moment to come across a Titian +woodcut, or a Durer woodcut, we should not like it--those of us at +least who are accustomed to the cheap work of the day. We don't like, +and can't like, _that_ long; but when we are tired of one bad cheap +thing, we throw it aside and buy another bad cheap thing; and so keep +looking at bad things all our lives. Now, the very men who do all that +quick bad work for us are capable of doing perfect work. Only, perfect +work can't be hurried, and therefore it can't be cheap beyond a +certain point. But suppose you pay twelve times as much as you do now, +and you have one woodcut for a shilling instead of twelve; and the one +woodcut for a shilling is as good as art can be, so that you will +never tire of looking at it; and is struck on good paper with good +ink, so that you will never wear it out by handling it; while you are +sick of your penny-each cuts by the end of the week, and have torn +them mostly in half too. Isn't your shilling's worth the best bargain? + +It is not, however, only in getting prints or woodcuts of the best +kind that you will practise economy. There is a certain quality about +an original drawing which you cannot get in a woodcut, and the best +part of the genius of many men is only expressible in original work, +whether with pen and ink--pencil or colours. This is not always the +case; but in general, the best men are those who can only express +themselves on paper or canvass; and you will, therefore, in the long +run, get most for your money by buying original work; proceeding on +the principle already laid down, that the best is likely to be the +cheapest in the end. Of course, original work cannot be produced under +a certain cost. If you want a man to make you a drawing which takes +him six days, you must, at all events, keep him for six days in bread +and water, fire and lodging; that is the lowest price at which he can +do it for you, but that is not very dear: and the best bargain which +can possibly be made honestly in art--the very ideal of a cheap +purchase to the purchaser--is the original work of a great man fed for +as many days as are necessary on bread and water, or perhaps we may +say with as many onions as will keep him in good humour. That is the +way by which you will always get most for your money; no mechanical +multiplication or ingenuity of commercial arrangements will ever get +you a better penny's worth of art than that. + +Without, however, pushing our calculations quite to this +prison-discipline extreme, we may lay it down as a rule in +art-economy, that original work is, on the whole, cheapest and best +worth having. But precisely in proportion to the value of it as a +production, becomes the importance of having it executed in permanent +materials. And here we come to note the second main error of the day, +that we not only ask our workmen for bad art, but we make them put it +into bad substance. We have, for example, put a great quantity of +genius, within the last twenty years, into water-colour drawing, and +we have done this with the most reckless disregard whether either the +colours or the paper will stand. In most instances, neither will. By +accident, it may happen that the colours in a given drawing have been +of good quality, and its paper uninjured by chemical processes. But +you take not the least care to ensure these being so; I have myself +seen the most destructive changes take place in water-colour drawings +within twenty years after they were painted; and from all I can gather +respecting the recklessness of modern paper manufacture, my belief is, +that though you may still handle an Albert Durer engraving, two +hundred years old, fearlessly, not one-half of that time will have +passed over your modern water-colours, before most of them will be +reduced to mere white or brown rags; and your descendants, twitching +them contemptuously into fragments between finger and thumb, will +mutter against you, half in scorn and half in anger, "Those wretched +nineteenth-century people! they kept vapouring and fuming about the +world, doing what they called business, and they couldn't make a sheet +of paper that wasn't rotten." And note that this is no unimportant +portion of your art economy at this time. Your water-colour painters +are becoming every day capable of expressing greater and better +things; and their material is especially adapted to the turn of your +best artists' minds. The value which you could accumulate in work of +this kind would soon become a most important item in the national +art-wealth, if only you would take the little pains necessary to +secure its permanence. I am inclined to think, myself, that +water-colour ought not to be used on paper at all, but only on vellum, +and then, if properly taken care of, the drawing would be almost +imperishable. Still, paper is a much more convenient material for +rapid work; and it is an infinite absurdity not to secure the goodness +of its quality, when we could do so without the slightest trouble. +Among the many favours which I am going to ask from our paternal +government, when we get it, will be that it will supply its little +boys with good paper. You have nothing to do but to let the government +establish a paper manufactory, under the superintendence of any of our +leading chemists, who should be answerable for the safety and +completeness of all the processes of the manufacture. The government +stamp on the corner of your sheet of drawing-paper, made in the +perfect way, should cost you a shilling, which would add something to +the revenue; and when you bought a water-colour drawing for fifty or a +hundred guineas, you would have merely to look in the corner for your +stamp, and pay your extra shilling for the security that your hundred +guineas were given really for a drawing, and not for a coloured rag. +There need be no monopoly or restriction in the matter; let the paper +manufacturers compete with the government, and if people liked to save +their shilling, and take their chance, let them; only, the artist and +purchaser might then be sure of good material, if they liked, and now +they cannot be. + +I should like also to have a government colour manufactory; though +that is not so necessary, as the quality of colour is more within the +artist's power of testing, and I have no doubt that any painter may +get permanent colour from the respectable manufacturers, if he +chooses. I will not attempt to follow the subject out at all as it +respects architecture, and our methods of modern building; respecting +which I have had occasion to speak before now. + +But I cannot pass without some brief notice our habit--continually, as +it seems to me, gaining strength--of putting a large quantity of +thought and work, annually, into things which are either in their +nature necessarily perishable, as dress; or else into compliances with +the fashion of the day, in things not necessarily perishable, as +plate. I am afraid almost the first idea of a young rich couple +setting up house in London, is, that they must have new plate. Their +father's plate may be very handsome, but the fashion is changed. They +will have a new service from the leading manufacturer, and the old +plate, except a few apostle spoons, and a cup which Charles the Second +drank a health in to their pretty ancestress, is sent to be melted +down, and made up with new flourishes and fresh lustre. Now, so long +as this is the case--so long, observe, as fashion has influence on the +manufacture of plate--so long _you cannot have a goldsmith's art in +this country_. Do you suppose any workman worthy the name will put his +brains into a cup or an urn, which he knows is to go to the melting +pot in half a score years? He will not; you don't ask or expect it of +him. You ask of him nothing but a little quick handicraft--a clever +twist of a handle here, and a foot there, a convolvulus from the +newest school of design, a pheasant from Landseer's game cards; a +couple of sentimental figures for supporters, in the style of the +signs of insurance offices, then a clever touch with the burnisher, +and there's your epergne, the admiration of all the footmen at the +wedding-breakfast, and the torment of some unfortunate youth who +cannot see the pretty girl opposite to him, through its tyrannous +branches. + +But you don't suppose that _that's_ goldsmith's work? Goldsmith's work +is made to last, and made with the man's whole heart and soul in it; +true goldsmith's work, when it exists, is generally the means of +education of the greatest painters and sculptors of the day. Francia +was a goldsmith; Francia was not his own name, but that of his master +the jeweller; and he signed his pictures almost always, "Francia, the +goldsmith," for love of his master; Ghirlandajo was a goldsmith, and +was the master of Michael Angelo; Verrocchio was a goldsmith, and was +the master of Leonardo da Vinci. Ghiberti was a goldsmith, and beat +out the bronze gates which Michael Angelo said might serve for gates +of Paradise.[8] But if ever you want work like theirs again, you must +keep it, though it should have the misfortune to become old fashioned. +You must not break it up, nor melt it any more. There is no economy in +that; you could not easily waste intellect more grievously. Nature may +melt her goldsmith's work at every sunset if she chooses; and beat it +out into chased bars again at every sunrise; but you must not. The way +to have a truly noble service of plate, is to keep adding to it, not +melting it. At every marriage, and at every birth, get a new piece of +gold or silver if you will, but with noble workmanship on it, done for +all time, and put it among your treasures; that is one of the chief +things which gold was made for, and made incorruptible for. When we +know a little more of political economy, we shall find that none but +partially savage nations need, imperatively, gold for their +currency;[9] but gold has been given us, among other things, that we +might put beautiful work into its imperishable splendour, and that the +artists who have the most wilful fancies may have a material which +will drag out, and beat out, as their dreams require, and will hold +itself together with fantastic tenacity, whatever rare and delicate +service they set it upon. + + [8] Several reasons may account for the fact that goldsmith's + work is so wholesome for young artists; first, that it gives + great firmness of hand to deal for some time with a solid + substance; again, that it induces caution and steadiness--a + boy trusted with chalk and paper suffers an immediate + temptation to scrawl upon it and play with it, but he dares + not scrawl on gold, and he cannot play with it; and, lastly, + that it gives great delicacy and precision of touch to work + upon minute forms, and to aim at producing richness and + finish of design correspondent to the preciousness of the + material. + + [9] See note in Addenda on the nature of property [p. 107]. + +So here is one branch of decorative art in which rich people may +indulge themselves unselfishly; if they ask for good art in it, they +may be sure in buying gold and silver plate that they are enforcing +useful education on young artists. But there is another branch of +decorative art in which I am sorry to say we cannot, at least under +existing circumstances, indulge ourselves, with the hope of doing good +to anybody, I mean the great and subtle art of dress. + +And here I must interrupt the pursuit of our subject for a moment or +two, in order to state one of the principles of political economy, +which, though it is, I believe, now sufficiently understood and +asserted by the leading masters of the science, is not yet, I grieve +to say, acted upon by the plurality of those who have the management +of riches. Whenever we spend money, we of course set people to work: +that is the meaning of spending money; we may, indeed, lose it without +employing anybody; but, whenever we spend it, we set a number of +people to work, greater or less, of course, according to the rate of +wages, but, in the long run, proportioned to the sum we spend. Well, +your shallow people, because they see that however they spend money +they are always employing somebody, and, therefore, doing some good, +think and say to themselves, that it is all one _how_ they spend +it--that all their apparently selfish luxury is, in reality, +unselfish, and is doing just as much good as if they gave all their +money away, or perhaps more good; and I have heard foolish people even +declare it as a principle of political economy, that whoever invented +a new want[10] conferred a good on the community. I have not words +strong enough--at least I could not, without shocking you, use the +words which would be strong enough--to express my estimate of the +absurdity and the mischievousness of this popular fallacy. So, putting +a great restraint upon myself, and using no hard words, I will simply +try to state the nature of it, and the extent of its influence. + + [10] See note 5th, in Addenda [p. 102]. + +Granted, that whenever we spend money for whatever purpose, we set +people to work; and, passing by, for the moment, the question whether +the work we set them to is all equally healthy and good for them, we +will assume that whenever we spend a guinea we provide an equal number +of people with healthy maintenance for a given time. But, by the way +in which we spend it, we entirely direct the labour of those people +during that given time. We become their masters or mistresses, and we +compel them to produce, within a certain period, a certain article. +Now, that article may be a useful and lasting one, or it may be a +useless and perishable one--it may be one useful to the whole +community, or useful only to ourselves. And our selfishness and folly, +or our virtue and prudence, are shown, not by our spending money, but +by our spending it for the wrong or the right thing; and we are wise +and kind, not in maintaining a certain number of people for a given +period, but only in requiring them to produce, during that period, the +kind of things which shall be useful to society, instead of those +which are only useful to ourselves. + +Thus, for instance: if you are a young lady, and employ a certain +number of sempstresses for a given time, in making a given number of +simple and serviceable dresses, suppose, seven; of which you can wear +one yourself for half the winter, and give six away to poor girls who +have none, you are spending your money unselfishly. But if you employ +the same number of sempstresses for the same number of days, in +making four, or five, or six beautiful flounces for your own +ball-dress--flounces which will clothe no one but yourself, and which +you will yourself be unable to wear at more than one ball--you are +employing your money selfishly. You have maintained, indeed, in each +case, the same number of people; but in the one case you have directed +their labour to the service of the community; in the other case you +have consumed it wholly upon yourself. I don't say you are never to do +so; I don't say you ought not sometimes to think of yourselves only, +and to make yourselves as pretty as you can; only do not confuse +coquettishness with benevolence, nor cheat yourselves into thinking +that all the finery you can wear is so much put into the hungry mouths +of those beneath you: it is not so; it is what you yourselves, whether +you will or no, must sometimes instinctively feel it to be--it is what +those who stand shivering in the streets, forming a line to watch you +as you step out of your carriages, _know_ it to be; those fine dresses +do not mean that so much has been put into their mouths, but that so +much has been taken out of their mouths. The real politico-economical +signification of every one of those beautiful toilettes, is just this; +that you have had a certain number of people put for a certain +number of days wholly under your authority, by the sternest of +slave-masters--hunger and cold; and you have said to them, "I will +feed you, indeed, and clothe you, and give you fuel for so many days; +but during those days you shall work for me only: your little brothers +need clothes, but you shall make none for them: your sick friend needs +clothes, but you shall make none for her: you yourself will soon need +another, and a warmer dress; but you shall make none for yourself. You +shall make nothing but lace and roses for me; for this fortnight to +come, you shall work at the patterns and petals, and then I will crush +and consume them away in an hour." You will perhaps answer--"It may +not be particularly benevolent to do this, and we won't call it so; +but at any rate we do no wrong in taking their labour when we pay them +their wages: if we pay for their work we have a right to it." No;--a +thousand times no. The labour which you have paid for, does indeed +become, by the act of purchase, your own labour: you have bought the +hands and the time of those workers; they are, by right and justice, +your own hands, your own time. But, have you a right to spend your own +time, to work with your own hands, only for your own advantage?--much +more, when, by purchase, you have invested your own person with the +strength of others; and added to your own life, a part of the life of +others? You may, indeed, to a certain extent, use their labour for +your delight: remember, I am making no general assertions against +splendour of dress, or pomp of accessories of life; on the contrary, +there are many reasons for thinking that we do not at present attach +enough importance to beautiful dress, as one of the means of +influencing general taste and character. But I _do_ say, that you must +weigh the value of what you ask these workers to produce for you in +its own distinct balance; that on its own worthiness or desirableness +rests the question of your kindness, and not merely on the fact of +your having employed people in producing it: and I say farther, that +as long as there are cold and nakedness in the land around you, so +long there can be no question at all but that splendour of dress is a +crime. In due time, when we have nothing better to set people to work +at, it may be right to let them make lace and cut jewels; but, as long +as there are any who have no blankets for their beds, and no rags for +their bodies, so long it is blanket-making and tailoring we must set +people to work at--not lace. + +And it would be strange, if at any great assembly which, while it +dazzled the young and the thoughtless, beguiled the gentler hearts +that beat beneath the embroidery, with a placid sensation of luxurious +benevolence--as if by all that they wore in waywardness of beauty, +comfort had been first given to the distressed, and aid to the +indigent; it would be strange, I say, if, for a moment, the spirits of +Truth and of Terror, which walk invisibly among the masques of the +earth, would lift the dimness from our erring thoughts, and show us +how--inasmuch as the sums exhausted for that magnificence would have +given back the failing breath to many an unsheltered outcast on moor +and street--they who wear it have literally entered into partnership +with Death; and dressed themselves in his spoils. Yes, if the veil +could be lifted not only from your thoughts, but from your human +sight, you would see--the angels do see--on those gay white dresses of +yours, strange dark spots, and crimson patterns that you knew not +of--spots of the inextinguishable red that all the seas cannot wash +away; yes, and among the pleasant flowers that crown your fair heads, +and glow on your wreathed hair, you would see that one weed was always +twisted which no one thought of--the grass that grows on graves. + +It was not, however, this last, this clearest and most appalling view +of our subject, that I intended to ask you to take this evening; only +it is impossible to set any part of the matter in its true light, +until we go to the root of it. But the point which it is our special +business to consider is, not whether costliness of dress is contrary +to charity; but whether it is not contrary to mere worldly wisdom: +whether, even supposing we knew that splendour of dress did not cost +suffering or hunger, we might not put the splendour better in other +things than dress. And, supposing our mode of dress were really +graceful or beautiful, this might be a very doubtful question; for I +believe true nobleness of dress to be an important means of education, +as it certainly is a necessity to any nation which wishes to possess +living art, concerned with portraiture of human nature. No good +historical painting ever yet existed, or ever can exist, where the +dresses of the people of the time are not beautiful: and had it not +been for the lovely and fantastic dressing of the 13th to the 16th +centuries, neither French, nor Florentine, nor Venetian art could have +risen to anything like the rank it reached. Still, even then, the best +dressing was never the costliest; and its effect depended much more on +its beautiful and, in early times, modest, arrangement, and on the +simple and lovely masses of its colour, than on gorgeousness of clasp +or embroidery. Whether we can ever return to any of those more perfect +types of form, is questionable; but there can be no question, that all +the money we spend on the forms of dress at present worn, is, so far +as any good purpose is concerned, wholly lost. Mind, in saying this, I +reckon among good purposes, the purpose which young ladies are said +sometimes to entertain--of being married; but they would be married +quite as soon (and probably to wiser and better husbands) by dressing +quietly, as by dressing brilliantly: and I believe it would only be +needed to lay fairly and largely before them the real good which might +be effected by the sums they spend in toilettes, to make them trust at +once only to their bright eyes and braided hair for all the mischief +they have a mind to. I wish we could, for once, get the statistics of +a London season. There was much complaining talk in Parliament last +week, of the vast sum the nation has given for the best Paul Veronese +in Venice--£14,000: I wonder what the nation meanwhile has given for +its ball-dresses! Suppose we could see the London milliners' bills, +simply for unnecessary breadths of slip and flounce, from April to +July; I wonder whether £14,000 would cover _them_. But the breadths of +slip and flounce are by this time as much lost and vanished as last +year's snow; only they have done less good: but the Paul Veronese will +last for centuries, if we take care of it; and yet we grumble at the +price given for the painting, while no one grumbles at the price of +pride. + +Time does not permit me to go into any farther illustration of the +various modes in which we build our statue out of snow, and waste our +labour on things that vanish. I must leave you to follow out the +subject for yourselves, as I said I should, and proceed, in our next +lecture, to examine the two other branches of our subject, namely, how +to accumulate our art, and how to distribute it. But, in closing, as +we have been much on the topic of good government, both of ourselves +and others, let me just give you one more illustration of what it +means, from that old art of which, next evening, I shall try to +convince you that the value, both moral and mercantile, is greater +than we usually suppose. + +One of the frescoes by Ambrozio Lorenzetti, in the town-hall of Siena, +represents, by means of symbolical figures, the principles of Good +Civic Government and of Good Government in general. The figure +representing this noble Civic Government is enthroned, and surrounded +by figures representing the Virtues, variously supporting or +administering its authority. Now, observe what work is given +to each of these virtues. Three winged ones--Faith, Hope, and +Charity--surround the head of the figure, not in mere compliance with +the common and heraldic laws of precedence among Virtues, such as we +moderns observe habitually, but with peculiar purpose on the part of +the painter. Faith, as thus represented, ruling the thoughts of the +Good Governour, does not mean merely religious faith, understood in +those times to be necessary to all persons--governed no less than +governours--but it means the faith which enables work to be carried +out steadily, in spite of adverse appearances and expediencies; the +faith in great principles, by which a civic ruler looks past all the +immediate checks and shadows that would daunt a common man, knowing +that what is rightly done will have a right issue, and holding his way +in spite of pullings at his cloak and whisperings in his ear, +enduring, as having in him a faith which is evidence of things unseen. +And Hope, in like manner, is here not the heavenward hope which ought +to animate the hearts of all men; but she attends upon Good +Government, to show that all such government is _expectant_ as well +as _conservative_; that if it ceases to be hopeful of better things, +it ceases to be a wise guardian of present things: that it ought +never, as long as the world lasts, to be wholly content with any +existing state of institution or possession, but to be hopeful still +of more wisdom and power; not clutching at it restlessly or hastily, +but feeling that its real life consists in steady ascent from high to +higher: conservative, indeed, and jealously conservative of old +things, but conservative of them as pillars, not as pinnacles--as +aids, but not as idols; and hopeful chiefly, and active, in times of +national trial or distress, according to those first and notable words +describing the queenly nation. "She riseth, _while it is yet night_." +And again, the winged Charity which is attendant on Good Government +has, in this fresco, a peculiar office. Can you guess what? If you +consider the character of contest which so often takes place among +kings for their crowns, and the selfish and tyrannous means they +commonly take to aggrandize or secure their power, you will, perhaps, +be surprised to hear that the office of Charity is to crown the King. +And yet, if you think of it a little, you will see the beauty of the +thought which sets her in this function: since in the first place, all +the authority of a good governor should be desired by him only for the +good of his people, so that it is only Love that makes him accept or +guard his crown: in the second place, his chief greatness consists in +the exercise of this love, and he is truly to be revered only so far +as his acts and thoughts are those of kindness; so that Love is the +light of his crown, as well as the giver of it: lastly, because his +strength depends on the affections of his people, and it is only their +love which can securely crown him, and for ever. So that Love is the +strength of his crown as well as the light of it. + +Then, surrounding the King, or in various obedience to him, appear the +dependent virtues, as Fortitude, Temperance, Truth, and other +attendant spirits, of all which I cannot now give account, wishing you +only to notice the one to whom are entrusted the guidance and +administration of the public revenues. Can you guess which it is +likely to be? Charity, you would have thought, should have something +to do with the business; but not so, for she is too hot to attend +carefully to it. Prudence, perhaps, you think of in the next place. +No, she is too timid, and loses opportunities in making up her mind. +Can it be Liberality then? No: Liberality is entrusted with some small +sums; but she is a bad accountant, and is allowed no important place +in the exchequer. But the treasures are given in charge to a virtue of +which we hear too little in modern times, as distinct from others; +Magnanimity: largeness of heart: not softness or weakness of heart, +mind you--but capacity of heart--the great _measuring_ virtue, which +weighs in heavenly balances all that may be given, and all that may be +gained; and sees how to do noblest things in noblest ways: which of +two goods comprehends and therefore chooses the greatest: which of two +personal sacrifices dares and accepts the largest: which, out of the +avenues of beneficence, treads always that which opens farthest into +the blue fields of futurity: that character, in fine, which, in those +words taken by us at first for the description of a Queen among the +nations, looks less to the present power than to the distant promise; +"Strength and honour are in her clothing--and she shall rejoice IN +TIME TO COME." + + + + +LECTURE II. + + +The heads of our subject which remain for our consideration this +evening are, you will remember, the accumulation and the distribution +of works of art. Our complete inquiry fell into four divisions--first, +how to get our genius; then, how to apply our genius; then, how to +accumulate its results; and lastly, how to distribute them. We +considered, last evening, how to discover and apply it;--we have +to-night to examine the modes of its preservation and distribution. + + +III. ACCUMULATION.--And now, in the outset, it will be well to face +that objection which we put aside a little while ago; namely, that +perhaps it is not well to have a great deal of good art; and that it +should not be made too cheap. + +"Nay," I can imagine some of the more generous among you, exclaiming, +"we will not trouble you to disprove that objection; of course it is a +selfish and base one: good art, as well as other good things, ought to +be made as cheap as possible, and put as far as we can within the +reach of everybody." + +Pardon me, I am not prepared to admit that. I rather side with the +selfish objectors, and believe that art ought not to be made cheap, +beyond a certain point; for the amount of pleasure that you can +receive from any great work, depends wholly on the quantity of +attention and energy of mind you can bring to bear upon it. Now, that +attention and energy depend much more on the freshness of the thing +than you would at all suppose; unless you very carefully studied the +movements of your own minds. If you see things of the same kind and of +equal value very frequently, your reverence for them is infallibly +diminished, your powers of attention get gradually wearied, and your +interest and enthusiasm worn out; and you cannot in that state bring +to any given work the energy necessary to enjoy it. If, indeed, the +question were only between enjoying a great many pictures each a +little, or one picture very much, the sum of enjoyment being in each +case the same, you might rationally desire to possess rather the +larger quantity, than the small; both because one work of art always +in some sort illustrates another, and because quantity diminishes the +chances of destruction. But the question is not a merely arithmetical +one of this kind. Your fragments of broken admirations will not, when +they are put together, make up one whole admiration; two and two, in +this case, do not make four, nor anything like four. Your good +picture, or book, or work of art of any kind, is always in some degree +fenced and closed about with difficulty. You may think of it as of a +kind of cocoa-nut, with very often rather an unseemly shell, but good +milk and kernel inside. Now, if you possess twenty cocoa-nuts, and +being thirsty, go impatiently from one to the other, giving only a +single scratch with the point of your knife to the shell of each, you +will get no milk from all the twenty. But if you leave nineteen of +them alone, and give twenty cuts to the shell of one, you will get +through it, and at the milk of it. And the tendency of the human mind +is always to get tired before it has made its twenty cuts; and to try +another nut; and moreover, even if it has perseverance enough to crack +its nuts, it is sure to try to eat too many, and so choke itself. +Hence, it is wisely appointed for us that few of the things we desire +can be had without considerable labour, and at considerable intervals +of time. We cannot generally get our dinner without working for it, +and that gives us appetite for it; we cannot get our holiday without +waiting for it, and that gives us zest for it; and we ought not to get +our picture without paying for it, and that gives us a mind to look at +it. Nay, I will even go so far as to say, that we ought not to get +books too cheaply. No book, I believe, is ever worth half so much to +its reader as one that has been coveted for a year at a bookstall, and +bought out of saved half-pence; and perhaps a day or two's fasting. +That's the way to get at the cream of a book. And I should say more on +this matter, and protest as energetically as I could against the +plague of cheap literature, with which we are just now afflicted, but +that I fear your calling me to order, as being unpractical, because I +don't quite see my way at present to making everybody fast for their +books. But one may see that a thing is desirable and possible, even +though one may not at once know the best way to it--and in my island +of Barataria, when I get it well into order, I assure you no book +shall be sold for less than a pound sterling; if it can be published +cheaper than that, the surplus shall all go into my treasury, and save +my subjects taxation in other directions; only people really poor, who +cannot pay the pound, shall be supplied with the books they want for +nothing, in a certain limited quantity. I haven't made up my mind +about the number yet, and there are several other points in the system +yet unsettled; when they are all determined, if you will allow me, I +will come and give you another lecture, on the political economy of +literature.[11] + + [11] See note 6th, in Addenda [p. 104]. + +Meantime, returning to our immediate subject, I say to my generous +hearers, who want to shower Titians and Turners upon us, like falling +leaves, "Pictures ought not to be too cheap;" but in much stronger +tone I would say to those who want to keep up the prices of pictorial +property, that pictures ought not to be too dear, that is to say, not +as dear as they are. For, as matters at present stand, it is wholly +impossible for any man in the ordinary circumstances of English life +to possess himself of a piece of great art. A modern drawing of +average merit, or a first-class engraving, may perhaps, not without +some self-reproach, be purchased out of his savings by a man of narrow +income; but a satisfactory example of first-rate art--masterhands' +work--is wholly out of his reach. And we are so accustomed to look +upon this as the natural course and necessity of things, that we never +set ourselves in any wise to diminish the evil; and yet it is an evil +perfectly capable of diminution. It is an evil precisely similar in +kind to that which existed in the middle ages, respecting good books, +and which everybody then, I suppose, thought as natural as we do now +our small supply of good pictures. You could not then study the work +of a great historian, or great poet, any more than you can now study +that of a great painter, but at heavy cost. If you wanted a book, you +had to get it written out for you, or to write it out for yourself. +But printing came, and the poor man may read his Dante and his Homer; +and Dante and Homer are none the worse for that. But it is only in +literature that private persons of moderate fortune can possess and +study greatness: they can study at home no greatness in art; and the +object of that accumulation which we are at present aiming at, as our +third object in political economy, is to bring great art in some +degree within the reach of the multitude; and, both in larger and more +numerous galleries than we now possess, and by distribution, according +to his wealth and wish, in each man's home, to render the influence of +art somewhat correspondent in extent to that of literature. Here, +then, is the subtle balance which your economist has to strike: to +accumulate so much art as to be able to give the whole nation a supply +of it, according to its need, and yet to regulate its distribution so +that there shall be no glut of it, nor contempt. + +A difficult balance, indeed, for us to hold, if it were left merely to +our skill to poise; but the just point between poverty and profusion +has been fixed for us accurately by the wise laws of Providence. If +you carefully watch for all the genius you can detect, apply it to +good service, and then reverently preserve what it produces, you will +never have too little art; and if, on the other hand, you never force +an artist to work hurriedly, for daily bread, nor imperfectly, because +you would rather have showy works than complete ones, you will never +have too much. Do not force the multiplication of art, and you will +not have it too cheap; do not wantonly destroy it, and you will not +have it too dear. + +"But who wantonly destroys it?" you will ask. Why, we all do. Perhaps +you thought, when I came to this part of our subject, corresponding to +that set forth in our housewife's economy by the "keeping her +embroidery from the moth," that I was going to tell you only how to +take better care of pictures, how to clean them, and varnish them, and +where to put them away safely when you went out of town. Ah, not at +all. The utmost I have to ask of you is, that you will not pull them +to pieces, and trample them under your feet. "What!" you will say, +"when do we do such things? Haven't we built a perfectly beautiful +gallery for all the pictures we have to take care of?" Yes, you have, +for the pictures which are definitely sent to Manchester to be taken +care of. But there are quantities of pictures out of Manchester which +it is your business, and mine too, to take care of no less than of +these, and which we are at this moment employing ourselves in pulling +to pieces by deputy. I will tell you what they are, and where they +are, in a minute; only first let me state one more of those main +principles of political economy on which the matter hinges. + +I must begin a little apparently wide of the mark, and ask you to +reflect if there is any way in which we waste money more in England, +than in building fine tombs? Our respect for the dead, when they are +_just_ dead, is something wonderful, and the way we show it more +wonderful still. We show it with black feathers and black horses; we +show it with black dresses and bright heraldries; we show it with +costly obelisks and sculptures of sorrow, which spoil half of our most +beautiful cathedrals. We show it with frightful gratings and vaults, +and lids of dismal stone, in the midst of the quiet grass; and last, +and not least, we show it by permitting ourselves to tell any number +of lies we think amiable or credible, in the epitaph. This feeling is +common to the poor as well as the rich, and we all know how many a +poor family will nearly ruin themselves, to testify their respect for +some member of it in his coffin, whom they never much cared for when +he was out of it; and how often it happens that a poor old woman will +starve herself to death, in order that she may be respectably buried. + +Now, this being one of the most complete and special ways of wasting +money;--no money being less productive of good, or of any percentage +whatever, than that which we shake away from the ends of undertakers' +plumes--it is of course the duty of all good economists, and kind +persons, to prove and proclaim continually, to the poor as well as the +rich, that respect for the dead is not really shown by laying great +stones on them to tell us where they are laid; but by remembering +where they are laid, without a stone to help us; trusting them to the +sacred grass and saddened flowers; and still more, that respect and +love are shown to them, not by great monuments to them which we build +with _our_ hands, but by letting the monuments stand, which they built +with _their own_. And this is the point now in question. + +Observe, there are two great reciprocal duties concerning industry, +constantly to be exchanged between the living and the dead. We, as we +live and work, are to be always thinking of those who are to come +after us; that what we do may be serviceable, as far as we can make it +so, to them as well as to us. Then, when we die, it is the duty of +those who come after us to accept this work of ours with thanks and +remembrance, not thrusting it aside or tearing it down the moment they +think they have no use for it. And each generation will only be happy +or powerful to the pitch that it ought to be, in fulfilling these two +duties to the Past and the Future. Its own work will never be rightly +done, even for itself--never good, or noble, or pleasurable to its own +eyes--if it does not prepare it also for the eyes of generations yet +to come. And its own possessions will never be enough for it, and its +own wisdom never enough for it, unless it avails itself gratefully and +tenderly of the treasures and the wisdom bequeathed to it by its +ancestors. + +For, be assured, that all the best things and treasures of this world +are not to be produced by each generation for itself; but we are all +intended, not to carve our work in snow that will melt, but each and +all of us to be continually rolling a great white gathering snowball, +higher and higher--larger and larger--along the Alps of human power. +Thus the science of nations is to be accumulative from father to son: +each learning a little more and a little more; each receiving all that +was known, and adding its own gain: the history and poetry of nations +are to be accumulative; each generation treasuring the history and the +songs of its ancestors, adding its own history and its own songs: and +the art of nations is to be accumulative, just as science and history +are; the work of living men not superseding, but building itself upon +the work of the past. Nearly every great and intellectual race of the +world has produced, at every period of its career, an art with some +peculiar and precious character about it, wholly unattainable by any +other race, and at any other time; and the intention of Providence +concerning that art, is evidently that it should all grow together +into one mighty temple; the rough stones and the smooth all finding +their place, and rising, day by day, in richer and higher pinnacles to +heaven. + +Now, just fancy what a position the world, considered as one great +workroom--one great factory in the form of a globe--would have been in +by this time, if it had in the least understood this duty, or been +capable of it. Fancy what we should have had around us now, if, +instead of quarrelling and fighting over their work, the nations had +aided each other in their work, or if even in their conquests, instead +of effacing the memorials of those they succeeded and subdued, they +had guarded the spoils of their victories. Fancy what Europe would be +now, if the delicate statues and temples of the Greeks,--if the broad +roads and massy walls of the Romans,--if the noble and pathetic +architecture of the middle ages, had not been ground to dust by mere +human rage. You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I +tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the +worm--we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who +abolish--ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame, and +the soul of man is to its own work as the moth, that frets when it +cannot fly, and as the hidden flame that blasts where it cannot +illumine. All these lost treasures of human intellect have been wholly +destroyed by human industry of destruction; the marble would have +stood its two thousand years as well in the polished statue as in the +Parian cliff; but we men have ground it to powder, and mixed it with +our own ashes. The walls and the ways would have stood--it is we who +have left not one stone upon another, and restored its pathlessness to +the desert; the great cathedrals of old religion would have stood--it +is we who have dashed down the carved work with axes and hammers, and +bid the mountain-grass bloom upon the pavement, and the sea-winds +chaunt in the galleries. + +You will perhaps think all this was somehow necessary for the +development of the human race. I cannot stay now to dispute that, +though I would willingly; but do you think it is _still_ necessary for +that development? Do you think that in this nineteenth century it is +still necessary for the European nations to turn all the places where +their principal art-treasures are into battle-fields? For that is what +they are doing even while I speak; the great firm of the world is +managing its business at this moment, just as it has done in past +time. Imagine what would be the thriving circumstances of a +manufacturer of some delicate produce--suppose glass, or china--in +whose workshop and exhibition rooms all the workmen and clerks began +fighting at least once a day, first blowing off the steam, and +breaking all the machinery they could reach; and then making +fortresses of all the cupboards, and attacking and defending the +show-tables, the victorious party finally throwing everything they +could get hold of out of the window, by way of showing their triumph, +and the poor manufacturer picking up and putting away at last a cup +here and a handle there. A fine prosperous business that would be, +would it not? and yet that is precisely the way the great +manufacturing firm of the world carries on its business. + +It has so arranged its political squabbles for the last six or seven +hundred years, that not one of them could be fought out but in the +midst of its most precious art; and it so arranges them to this day. +For example, if I were asked to lay my finger, in a map of the world, +on the spot of the world's surface which contained at this moment the +most singular concentration of art-teaching and art-treasure, I should +lay it on the name of the town of Verona. Other cities, indeed, +contain more works of carriageable art, but none contain so much of +the glorious local art, and of the springs and sources of art, which +can by no means be made subjects of package or porterage, nor, I +grieve to say, of salvage. Verona possesses, in the first place, not +the largest, but the most perfect and intelligible Roman amphitheatre +that exists, still unbroken in circle of step, and strong in +succession of vault and arch: it contains minor Roman monuments, +gateways, theatres, baths, wrecks of temples, which give the streets +of its suburbs a character of antiquity unexampled elsewhere, except +in Rome itself. But it contains, in the next place, what Rome does not +contain--perfect examples of the great twelfth-century Lombardic +architecture, which was the root of all the mediæval art of Italy, +without which no Giottos, no Angelicos, no Raphaels would have been +possible: it contains that architecture, not in rude forms, but in the +most perfect and loveliest types it ever attained--contains those, not +in ruins, nor in altered and hardly decipherable fragments, but in +churches perfect from porch to apse, with all their carving fresh, +their pillars firm, their joints unloosened. Besides these, it +includes examples of the great thirteenth- and fourteenth-century +Gothic of Italy, not merely perfect, but elsewhere unrivalled. At +Rome, the Roman--at Pisa, the Lombard, architecture may be seen in +greater or in equal nobleness; but not at Rome, nor Pisa, nor +Florence, nor in any city of the world, is there a great mediæval +Gothic like the Gothic of Verona. Elsewhere, it is either less pure in +type or less lovely in completion: only at Verona may you see it in +the simplicity of its youthful power, and the tenderness of its +accomplished beauty. And Verona possesses, in the last place, the +loveliest Renaissance architecture of Italy, not disturbed by pride, +nor defiled by luxury, but rising in fair fulfilment of domestic +service, serenity of effortless grace, and modesty of home seclusion; +its richest work given to the windows that open on the narrowest +streets and most silent gardens. All this she possesses, in the midst +of natural scenery such as assuredly exists nowhere else in the +habitable globe--a wild Alpine river foaming at her feet, from whose +shore the rocks rise in a great crescent, dark with cypress, and misty +with olive: illimitably, from before her southern gates, the tufted +plains of Italy sweep and fade in golden light; around her, north and +west, the Alps crowd in crested troops, and the winds of Benacus bear +to her the coolness of their snows. + +And this is the city--such, and possessing such things as these--at +whose gates the decisive battles of Italy are fought continually: +three days her towers trembled with the echo of the cannon of Arcola; +heaped pebbles of the Mincio divide her fields to this hour with lines +of broken rampart, whence the tide of war rolled back to Novara; and +now on that crescent of her eastern cliffs, whence the full moon used +to rise through the bars of the cypresses in her burning summer +twilights, touching with soft increase of silver light the rosy +marbles of her balconies--along the ridge of that encompassing rock, +other circles are increasing now, white and pale; walled towers of +cruel strength, sable-spotted with cannon-courses. I tell you, I have +seen, when the thunderclouds came down on those Italian hills, and all +their crags were dipped in the dark, terrible purple, as if the +winepress of the wrath of God had stained their mountain-raiment--I +have seen the hail fall in Italy till the forest branches stood +stripped and bare as if blasted by the locust; but the white hail +never fell from those clouds of heaven as the black hail will fall +from the clouds of hell, if ever one breath of Italian life stirs +again in the streets of Verona. + +Sad as you will feel this to be, I do not say that you can directly +prevent it; you cannot drive the Austrians out of Italy, nor prevent +them from building forts where they choose. But I do say,[12] that you, +and I, and all of us, ought to be both acting and feeling with a full +knowledge and understanding of these things, and that, without trying +to excite revolutions or weaken governments, we may give our own +thoughts and help, so as in a measure to prevent needless destruction. +We should do this, if we only realized the thing thoroughly. You drive +out day by day through your own pretty suburbs, and you think only of +making, with what money you have to spare, your gateways handsomer, +and your carriage-drives wider--and your drawing-rooms more splendid, +having a vague notion that you are all the while patronizing and +advancing art, and you make no effort to conceal the fact, that within +a few hours' journey of you, there are gateways and drawing-rooms +which might just as well be yours as these, all built already; +gateways built by the greatest masters of sculpture that ever struck +marble; drawing-rooms, painted by Titian and Veronese; and you won't +accept, nor save these as they are, but you will rather fetch the +house-painter from over the way, and let Titian and Veronese house the +rats. "Yes," of course, you answer; "we want nice houses here, not +houses in Verona. What should we do with houses in Verona?" And I +answer, do precisely what you do with the most expensive part of your +possessions here: take pride in them--only a noble pride. You know +well, when you examine your own hearts, that the greater part of the +sums you spend on possessions are spent for pride. Why are your +carriages nicely painted and finished outside? You don't see the +outsides as you sit in them--the outsides are for other people to see. +Why are your exteriors of houses so well finished, your furniture so +polished and costly, but for other people to see? You are just as +comfortable yourselves, writing on your old friend of a desk, with the +white cloudings in his leather, and using the light of a window which +is nothing but a hole in the brick wall. And all that is desirable to +be done in this matter, is merely to take pride in preserving great +art, instead of in producing mean art; pride in the possession of +precious and enduring things, a little way off, instead of slight and +perishing things near at hand. You know, in old English times, our +kings liked to have lordships and dukedoms abroad, and why should not +you merchant princes like to have lordships and estates abroad? +Believe me, rightly understood, it would be a prouder, and in the full +sense of our English word, more "respectable" thing to be lord of a +palace at Verona, or of a cloister full of frescos at Florence, than +to have a file of servants dressed in the finest liveries that ever +tailor stitched, as long as would reach from here to Bolton:--yes, and +a prouder thing to send people to travel in Italy, who would have to +say every now and then, of some fair piece of art, "Ah! this was +_kept_ here for us by the good people of Manchester," than to bring +them travelling all the way here, exclaiming of your various art +treasures, "These were _brought_ here for us, (not altogether without +harm) by the good people of Manchester." "Ah!" but you say, "the Art +Treasures Exhibition will pay; but Veronese palaces won't." Pardon me. +They _would_ pay, less directly, but far more richly. Do you suppose +it is in the long run good for Manchester, or good for England, that +the Continent should be in the state it is? Do you think the perpetual +fear of revolution, or the perpetual repression of thought and energy +that clouds and encumbers the nations of Europe, is eventually +profitable for _us_? Were we any the better of the course of affairs +in '48; or has the stabling of the dragoon horses in the great houses +of Italy, any distinct effect in the promotion of the cotton-trade? +Not so. But every stake that you could hold in the stability of the +Continent, and every effort that you could make to give example of +English habits and principles on the Continent, and every kind deed +that you could do in relieving distress and preventing despair on the +Continent, would have tenfold reaction on the prosperity of England, +and open and urge, in a thousand unforeseen directions, the sluices of +commerce and the springs of industry. + + [12] The reader can hardly but remember Mrs. Browning's beautiful + appeal for Italy, made on the occasion of the first great + Exhibition of Art in England:-- + + "O Magi of the east and of the west, + Your incense, gold, and myrrh are excellent!-- + What gifts for Christ, then, bring ye with the rest? + Your hands have worked well. Is your courage spent + In handwork only? Have you nothing best, + Which generous souls may perfect and present, + And He shall thank the givers for? no light + Of teaching, liberal nations, for the poor, + Who sit in darkness when it is not night? + No cure for wicked children? Christ,--no cure, + No help for women, sobbing out of sight + Because men made the laws? no brothel-lure + Burnt out by popular lightnings? Hast thou found + No remedy, my England, for such woes? + No outlet, Austria, for the scourged and bound, + No call back for the exiled? no repose, + Russia, for knouted Poles worked underground, + And gentle ladies bleached among the snows? + No mercy for the slave, America? + No hope for Rome, free France, chivalric France? + Alas, great nations have great shames, I say. + No pity, O world, no tender utterance + Of benediction, and prayers stretched this way + For poor Italia, baffled by mischance? + O gracious nations, give some ear to me! + You all go to your Fair, and I am one + Who at the roadside of humanity + Beseech your alms,--God's justice to be done. + So, prosper!" + +I could press, if I chose, both these motives upon you, of pride and +self-interest, with more force, but these are not motives which ought +to be urged upon you at all. The only motive that I ought to put +before you is simply that it would be right to do this; that the +holding of property abroad, and the personal efforts of Englishmen to +redeem the condition of foreign nations, are among the most direct +pieces of duty which our wealth renders incumbent upon us. I do +not--and in all truth and deliberateness I say this--I do not know +anything more ludicrous among the self-deceptions of well-meaning +people than their notion of patriotism, as requiring them to limit +their efforts to the good of their own country;--the notion that +charity is a geographical virtue, and that what it is holy and +righteous to do for people on one bank of a river, it is quite +improper and unnatural to do for people on the other. It will be a +wonderful thing, some day or other, for the Christian world to +remember, that it went on thinking for two thousand years that +neighbours were neighbours at Jerusalem, but not at Jericho; a +wonderful thing for us English to reflect, in after-years, how long it +was before we could shake hands with anybody across that shallow salt +wash, which the very chalk-dust of its two shores whitens from +Folkestone to Ambleteuse. + +Nor ought the motive of gratitude, as well as that of mercy, to be +without its influence on you, who have been the first to ask to see, +and the first to show to us, the treasures which this poor lost Italy +has given to England. Remember all these things that delight you here +were hers--hers either in fact or in teaching; hers, in fact, are all +the most powerful and most touching paintings of old time that now +glow upon your walls; hers in teaching are all the best and greatest +of descendant souls--your Reynolds and your Gainsborough never could +have painted but for Venice; and the energies which have given the +only true life to your existing art were first stirred by voices of +the dead, that haunted the Sacred Field of Pisa. + +Well, all these motives for some definite course of action on our part +towards foreign countries rest upon very serious facts; too serious, +perhaps you will think, to be interfered with; for we are all of us in +the habit of leaving great things alone, as if Providence would mind +them, and attending ourselves only to little things which we know, +practically, Providence doesn't mind unless we do. We are ready enough +to give care to the growing of pines and lettuces, knowing that they +don't grow Providentially sweet or large unless we look after them; +but we don't give any care to the good of Italy or Germany, because we +think that they will grow Providentially happy without any of our +meddling. + +Let us leave the great things, then, and think of little things; not +of the destruction of whole provinces in war, which it may not be any +business of ours to prevent; but of the destruction of poor little +pictures in peace, from which it surely would not be much out of our +way to save them. You know I said, just now, we were all of us engaged +in pulling pictures to pieces by deputy, and you did not believe me. +Consider, then, this similitude of ourselves. Suppose you saw (as I +doubt not you often do see) a prudent and kind young lady sitting at +work, in the corner of a quiet room, knitting comforters for her +cousins, and that just outside, in the hall, you saw a cat and her +kittens at play among the family pictures; amusing themselves +especially with the best Vandykes, by getting on the tops of the +frames, and then scrambling down the canvasses by their claws; and on +someone's informing the young lady of these proceedings of the cat and +kittens, suppose she answered that it wasn't her cat, but her +sister's, and the pictures weren't hers, but her uncle's, and she +couldn't leave her work, for she had to make so many pairs of +comforters before dinner. Would you not say that the prudent and kind +young lady was, on the whole, answerable for the additional touches of +claw on the Vandykes? Now, that is precisely what we prudent and kind +English are doing, only on a larger scale. Here we sit in Manchester, +hard at work, very properly, making comforters for our cousins all +over the world. Just outside there in the hall--that beautiful marble +hall of Italy--the cats and kittens and monkeys are at play among the +pictures: I assure you, in the course of the fifteen years in which I +have been working in those places in which the most precious remnants +of European art exist, a sensation, whether I would or no, was +gradually made distinct and deep in my mind, that I was living and +working in the midst of a den of monkeys;--sometimes amiable and +affectionate monkeys, with all manner of winning ways and kind +intentions;--more frequently selfish and malicious monkeys, but, +whatever their disposition, squabbling continually about nuts, and the +best places on the barren sticks of trees; and that all this monkeys' +den was filled, by mischance, with precious pictures, and the witty +and wilful beasts were always wrapping themselves up and going to +sleep in pictures, or tearing holes in them to grin through; or +tasting them and spitting them out again, or twisting them up into +ropes and making swings of them; and that sometimes only, by watching +one's opportunity, and bearing a scratch or a bite, one could rescue +the corner of a Tintoret, or Paul Veronese, and push it through the +bars into a place of safety. Literally, I assure you, this was, and +this is, the fixed impression on my mind of the state of matters in +Italy. And see how. The professors of art in Italy, having long +followed a method of study peculiar to themselves, have at last +arrived at a form of art peculiar to themselves; very different from +that which was arrived at by Correggio and Titian. Naturally, the +professors like their own form the best; and, as the old pictures are +generally not so startling to the eye as the modern ones, the dukes +and counts who possess them, and who like to see their galleries look +new and fine (and are persuaded also that a celebrated chef-d'oeuvre +ought always to catch the eye at a quarter of a mile off), believe the +professors who tell them their sober pictures are quite faded, and +good for nothing, and should all be brought bright again; and, +accordingly, give the sober pictures to the professors, to be put +right by rules of art. Then, the professors repaint the old pictures +in all the principal places, leaving perhaps only a bit of background +to set off their own work. And thus the professors come to be +generally figured in my mind, as the monkeys who tear holes in the +pictures, to grin through. Then the picture-dealers, who live by the +pictures, cannot sell them to the English in their old and pure state; +all the good work must be covered with new paint, and varnished so as +to look like one of the professorial pictures in the great gallery, +before it is saleable. And thus the dealers come to be imaged, in my +mind, as the monkeys who make ropes of the pictures, to swing by. +Then, every now and then, in some old stable or wine-cellar, or +timber-shed, behind some forgotten vats or faggots, somebody finds a +fresco of Perugino's or Giotto's, but doesn't think much of it, and +has no idea of having people coming into his cellar, or being obliged +to move his faggots; and so he whitewashes the fresco, and puts the +faggots back again; and these kind of persons, therefore, come +generally to be imaged in my mind, as the monkeys who taste the +pictures, and spit them out, not finding them nice. While, finally, +the squabbling for nuts and apples (called in Italy "bella +libertà") goes on all day long. + +Now, all this might soon be put an end to, if we English, who are so +fond of travelling in the body, would also travel a little in soul. We +think it a great triumph to get our packages and our persons carried +at a fast pace, but we never take the slightest trouble to put any +pace into our perceptions; we stay usually at home in thought, or if +we ever mentally see the world, it is at the old stage-coach or waggon +rate. Do but consider what an odd sight it would be, if it were only +quite clear to you how things are really going on--how, here in +England, we are making enormous and expensive efforts to produce new +art of all kinds, knowing and confessing all the while that the +greater part of it is bad, but struggling still to produce new +patterns of wall-papers, and new shapes of tea-pots, and new pictures, +and statues, and architecture; and pluming and cackling if ever a +tea-pot or a picture has the least good in it;--all the while taking +no thought whatever of the best possible pictures, and statues, and +wall-patterns already in existence, which require nothing but to be +taken common care of, and kept from damp and dust: but we let the +walls fall that Giotto patterned, and the canvasses rot that Tintoret +painted, and the architecture be dashed to pieces that St. Louis +built, while we are furnishing our drawing-rooms with prize +upholstery, and writing accounts of our handsome warehouses to the +country papers. Don't think I use my words vaguely or generally: I +speak of literal facts. Giotto's frescos at Assisi are perishing at +this moment for want of decent care; Tintoret's pictures in San +Sebastian at Venice, are at this instant rotting piecemeal into grey +rags; St. Louis's Chapel, at Carcassonne, is at this moment lying in +shattered fragments in the market-place. And here we are all cawing +and crowing, poor little half-fledged daws as we are, about the pretty +sticks and wool in our own nests. There's hardly a day passes, when I +am at home, but I get a letter from some well-meaning country +clergyman, deeply anxious about the state of his parish church, and +breaking his heart to get money together that he may hold up some +wretched remnant of Tudor tracery, with one niche in the corner and no +statue--when all the while the mightiest piles of religious +architecture and sculpture that ever the world saw are being blasted +and withered away, without one glance of pity or regret. The country +clergyman does not care for _them_--he has a sea-sick imagination that +cannot cross Channel. What is it to him, if the angels of Assisi fade +from its vaults, or the queens and kings of Chartres fall from their +pedestals? They are not in his parish. + +"What!" you will say, "are we not to produce any new art, nor take +care of our parish churches?" No, certainly not, until you have taken +proper care of the art you have got already, and of the best churches +out of the parish. Your first and proper standing is not as +churchwardens and parish overseers in an English county, but as +members of the great Christian community of Europe. And as members of +that community (in which alone, observe, pure and precious ancient art +exists, for there is none in America, none in Asia, none in Africa), +you conduct yourselves precisely as a manufacturer would, who attended +to his looms, but left his warehouse without a roof. The rain floods +your warehouse, the rats frolic in it, the spiders spin in it, the +choughs build in it, the wall-plague frets and festers in it, and +still you keep weave, weave, weaving at your wretched webs, and +thinking you are growing rich, while more is gnawed out of your +warehouse in an hour than you can weave in a twelvemonth. + +Even this similitude is not absurd enough to set us rightly forth. The +weaver would, or might, at least, hope that his new woof was as stout +as the old ones, and that, therefore, in spite of rain and ravage, he +would have something to wrap himself in when he needed it. But _our_ +webs rot as we spin. The very fact that we despise the great art of +the past shows that we cannot produce great art now. If we could do +it, we should love it when we saw it done--if we really cared for it, +we should recognise it and keep it; but we don't care for it. It is +not art that we want; it is amusement, gratification of pride, present +gain--anything in the world but art: let it rot, we shall always have +enough to talk about and hang over our sideboards. + +You will (I hope) finally ask me what is the outcome of all this, +practicable, to-morrow morning by us who are sitting here? These are +the main practical outcomes of it: In the first place, don't grumble +when you hear of a new picture being bought by Government at a large +price. There are many pictures in Europe now in danger of destruction +which are, in the true sense of the word, priceless; the proper price +is simply that which it is necessary to give to get and to save them. +If you can get them for fifty pounds, do; if not for less than a +hundred, do; if not for less than five thousand, do; if not for less +than twenty thousand, do; never mind being imposed upon: there is +nothing disgraceful in being imposed upon; the only disgrace is in +imposing; and you can't in general get anything much worth having, in +the way of Continental art, but it must be with the help or connivance +of numbers of people who, indeed, ought to have nothing to do with the +matter, but who practically have, and always will have, everything to +do with it; and if you don't choose to submit to be cheated by them +out of a ducat here and a zecchin there, you will be cheated by them +out of your picture; and whether you are most imposed upon in losing +that, or the zecchins, I think I may leave you to judge; though I know +there are many political economists, who would rather leave a bag of +gold on a garret-table, than give a porter sixpence extra to carry it +downstairs. + +That, then, is the first practical outcome of the matter. Never +grumble, but be glad when you hear of a new picture being bought at a +large price. In the long run, the dearest pictures are always the best +bargains; and, I repeat (for else you might think I said it in mere +hurry of talk, and not deliberately), there are some pictures which +are without price. You should stand, nationally, at the edge of Dover +cliffs--Shakespeare's--and wave blank cheques in the eyes of the +nations on the other side of the sea, freely offered, for such and +such canvasses of theirs. + +Then the next practical outcome of it is: Never buy a copy of a +picture, under any circumstances whatever. All copies are bad; because +no painter who is worth a straw ever _will_ copy. He will make a study +of a picture he likes, for his own use, in his own way; but he won't +and can't copy; whenever you buy a copy, you buy so much +misunderstanding of the original, and encourage a dull person in +following a business he is not fit for, besides increasing ultimately +chances of mistake and imposture, and farthering, as directly as +money _can_ farther, the cause of ignorance in all directions. You +may, in fact, consider yourself as having purchased a certain quantity +of mistakes; and, according to your power, being engaged in +disseminating them. + +I do not mean, however, that copies should never be made. A certain +number of dull persons should always be employed by a Government in +making the most accurate copies possible of all good pictures; these +copies, though artistically valueless, would be historically and +documentarily valuable, in the event of the destruction of the +original picture. The studies also made by great artists for their own +use, should be sought after with the greatest eagerness; they are +often to be bought cheap; and in connection with the mechanical +copies, would become very precious: tracings from frescos and other +large works are also of great value; for though a tracing is liable to +just as many mistakes as a copy, the mistakes in a tracing are of one +kind only, which may be allowed for, but the mistakes of a common +copyist are of all conceivable kinds: finally, engravings, in so far +as they convey certain facts about the pictures, without pretending +adequately to represent or give an idea of the pictures, are often +serviceable and valuable. I can't, of course, enter into details in +these matters just now; only this main piece of advice I can safely +give you--never to buy copies of pictures (for your private +possession) which pretend to give a _facsimile_ that shall be in any +wise representative of, or equal to, the original. Whenever you do so, +you are only lowering your taste, and wasting your money. And if you +are generous and wise, you will be ready rather to subscribe as much +as you would have given for a copy of a great picture, towards its +purchase, or the purchase of some other like it, by the nation. There +ought to be a great National Society instituted for the purchase of +pictures; presenting them to the various galleries in our great +cities, and watching there over their safety: but in the meantime, you +can always act safely and beneficially by merely allowing your artist +friends to buy pictures for you, when they see good ones. Never buy +for yourselves, nor go to the foreign dealers; but let any painter +whom you know be entrusted, when he finds a neglected old picture in +an old house, to try if he cannot get it for you; then, if you like +it, keep it; if not, send it to the hammer, and you will find that you +do not lose money on pictures so purchased. + +And the third and chief practical outcome of the matter is this +general one: Wherever you go, whatever you do, act more for +_preservation_ and less for _production_. I assure you, the world is, +generally speaking, in calamitous disorder, and just because you have +managed to thrust some of the lumber aside, and get an available +corner for yourselves, you think you should do nothing but sit +spinning in it all day long--while, as householders and economists, +your first thought and effort should be, to set things more square all +about you. Try to set the ground floors in order, and get the +rottenness out of your granaries. _Then_ sit and spin, but not till +then. + + +IV. DISTRIBUTION.--And now, lastly, we come to the fourth great head +of our inquiry, the question of the wise distribution of the art we +have gathered and preserved. It must be evident to us, at a moment's +thought, that the way in which works of art are on the whole most +useful to the nation to which they belong, must be by their collection +in public galleries, supposing those galleries properly managed. But +there is one disadvantage attached necessarily to gallery exhibition, +namely, the extent of mischief which may be done by one foolish +curator. As long as the pictures which form the national wealth are +disposed in private collections, the chance is always that the people +who buy them will be just the people who are fond of them; and that +the sense of exchangeable value in the commodity they possess, will +induce them, even if they do not esteem it themselves, to take such +care of it as will preserve its value undiminished. At all events, so +long as works of art are scattered through the nation, no universal +destruction of them is possible; a certain average only are lost by +accidents from time to time. But when they are once collected in a +large public gallery, if the appointment of curator becomes in any way +a matter of formality, or the post is so lucrative as to be disputed +by place-hunters, let but one foolish or careless person get +possession of it, and perhaps you may have all your fine pictures +repainted, and the national property destroyed, in a month. That is +actually the case at this moment, in several great foreign galleries. +They are the places of execution of pictures: over their doors you +only want the Dantesque inscription, "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi che +entrate." + +Supposing, however, this danger properly guarded against, as it would +be always by a nation which either knew the value, or understood the +meaning, of painting,[13] arrangement in a public gallery is the +safest, as well as the most serviceable, method of exhibiting +pictures; and it is the only mode in which their historical value can +be brought out, and their historical meaning made clear. But great +good is also to be done by encouraging the private possession of +pictures; partly as a means of study (much more being always +discovered in any work of art by a person who has it perpetually near +him than by one who only sees it from time to time), and also as a +means of refining the habits and touching the hearts of the masses of +the nation in their domestic life. + + [13] It would be a great point gained towards the preservation + of pictures if it were made a rule that at every operation + they underwent, the exact spots in which they have been + re-painted should be recorded in writing. + +For these last purposes the most serviceable art is the living art of +the time; the particular tastes of the people will be best met, and +their particular ignorances best corrected, by painters labouring in +the midst of them, more or less guided to the knowledge of what is +wanted by the degree of sympathy with which their work is received. So +then, generally, it should be the object of government, and of all +patrons of art, to collect, as far as may be, the works of dead +masters in public galleries, arranging them so as to illustrate the +history of nations, and the progress and influence of their arts; and +to encourage the private possession of the works of _living_ masters. +And the first and best way in which to encourage such private +possession is, of course, to keep down the prices of them as far as +you can. + +I hope there are not a great many painters in the room; if there are, +I entreat their patience for the next quarter of an hour: if they will +bear with me for so long, I hope they will not, finally, be offended +by what I am going to say. + +I repeat, trusting to their indulgence in the interim, that the first +object of our national economy, as respects the distribution of modern +art, should be steadily and rationally to limit its prices, since by +doing so, you will produce two effects; you will make the painters +produce more pictures, two or three instead of one, if they wish to +make money; and you will, by bringing good pictures within the reach +of people of moderate income, excite the general interest of the +nation in them, increase a thousandfold the demand for the commodity, +and therefore its wholesome and natural production. + +I know how many objections must arise in your minds at this moment to +what I say; but you must be aware that it is not possible for me in an +hour to explain all the moral and commercial bearings of such a +principle as this. Only, believe me, I do not speak lightly; I think I +have considered all the objections which could be rationally brought +forward, though I have time at present only to glance at the main one, +namely, the idea that the high prices paid for modern pictures are +either honourable, or serviceable, to the painter. So far from this +being so, I believe one of the principal obstacles to the progress of +modern art to be the high prices given for good modern pictures. For +observe, first, the action of this high remuneration on the artist's +mind. If he "gets on," as it is called, catches the eye of the public, +and especially of the public of the upper classes, there is hardly any +limit to the fortune he may acquire; so that, in his early years, his +mind is naturally led to dwell on this worldly and wealthy eminence as +the main thing to be reached by his art; if he finds that he is not +gradually rising towards it, he thinks there is something wrong in his +work; or, if he is too proud to think that, still the bribe of wealth +and honour warps him from his honest labour into efforts to attract +attention; and he gradually loses both his power of mind and his +rectitude of purpose. This, according to the degree of avarice or +ambition which exists in any painter's mind, is the necessary +influence upon him of the hope of great wealth and reputation. But the +harm is still greater, in so far as the possibility of attaining +fortune of this kind tempts people continually to become painters who +have no real gift for the work; and on whom these motives of mere +worldly interest have exclusive influence;--men who torment and abuse +the patient workers, eclipse or thrust aside all delicate and good +pictures by their own gaudy and coarse ones, corrupt the taste of the +public, and do the greatest amount of mischief to the schools of art +in their day which it is possible for their capacities to effect; and +it is quite wonderful how much mischief may be done even by small +capacity. If you could by any means succeed in keeping the prices of +pictures down, you would throw all these disturbers out of the way at +once. + +You may perhaps think that this severe treatment would do more harm +than good, by withdrawing the wholesome element of emulation, and +giving no stimulus to exertion; but I am sorry to say that artists +will always be sufficiently jealous of one another, whether you pay +them large or low prices; and as for stimulus to exertion, believe me, +no good work in this world was ever done for money, nor while the +slightest thought of money affected the painter's mind. Whatever idea +of pecuniary value enters into his thoughts as he works, will, in +proportion to the distinctness of its presence, shorten his power. A +real painter will work for you exquisitely, if you give him, as I told +you a little while ago, bread and water and salt; and a bad painter +will work badly and hastily, though you give him a palace to live in, +and a princedom to live upon. Turner got, in his earlier years, +half-a-crown a day and his supper (not bad pay, neither); and he +learned to paint upon that. And I believe that there is no chance of +art's truly flourishing in any country, until you make it a simple and +plain business, providing its masters with an easy competence, but +rarely with anything more. And I say this, not because I despise the +great painter, but because I honour him; and I should no more think of +adding to his respectability or happiness by giving him riches, than, +if Shakespeare or Milton were alive, I should think we added to +_their_ respectability, or were likely to get better work from them, +by making them millionaires. + +But, observe, it is not only the painter himself whom you injure, by +giving him too high prices; you injure all the inferior painters of +the day. If they are modest, they will be discouraged and depressed by +the feeling that their doings are worth so little, comparatively, in +your eyes;--if proud, all their worst passions will be aroused, and +the insult or opprobrium which they will try to cast on their +successful rival will not only afflict and wound him, but at last sour +and harden him: he cannot pass through such a trial without grievous +harm. + +That, then, is the effect you produce on the painter of mark, and on +the inferior ones of his own standing. But you do worse than this; you +deprive yourselves, by what you give for the fashionable picture, of +the power of helping the younger men who are coming forward. Be it +admitted, for argument's sake if you are not convinced by what I have +said, that you do no harm to the great man by paying him well; yet +certainly you do him no special good. His reputation is established, +and his fortune made; he does not care whether you buy or not: he +thinks he is rather doing you a favour than otherwise by letting you +have one of his pictures at all. All the good you do him is to help +him to buy a new pair of carriage horses; whereas, with that same sum +which thus you cast away, you might have relieved the hearts and +preserved the health of twenty young painters; and if among those +twenty, you but chanced on one in whom a true latent power had been +hindered by his poverty, just consider what a far-branching, +far-embracing good you have wrought with that lucky expenditure of +yours. I say, "Consider it" in vain; you cannot consider it, for you +cannot conceive the sickness of heart with which a young painter of +deep feeling toils through his first obscurity;--his sense of the +strong voice within him, which you will not hear;--his vain, fond, +wondering witness to the things you will not see;--his far away +perception of things that he could accomplish if he had but peace, and +time, all unapproachable and vanishing from him, because no one will +leave him peace or grant him time: all his friends falling back from +him; those whom he would most reverently obey rebuking and paralysing +him; and last and worst of all, those who believe in him the most +faithfully suffering by him the most bitterly;--the wife's eyes, in +their sweet ambition, shining brighter as the cheek wastes away; and +the little lips at his side parched and pale, which one day, he knows, +though he may never see it, will quiver so proudly when they name his +name, calling him "our father." You deprive yourselves, by your large +expenditure for pictures of mark, of the power of relieving and +redeeming _this_ distress; you injure the painter whom you pay so +largely;--and what, after all, have you done for yourselves, or got +for yourselves? It does not in the least follow that the hurried work +of a fashionable painter will contain more for your money than the +quiet work of some unknown man. In all probability, you will find, if +you rashly purchase what is popular at a high price, that you have got +one picture you don't care for, for a sum which would have bought +twenty you would have delighted in. For remember always that the price +of a picture by a living artist, never represents, never _can_ +represent, the quantity of labour or value in it. Its price +represents, for the most part, the degree of desire which the rich +people of the country have to possess it. Once get the wealthy classes +to imagine that the possession of pictures by a given artist adds to +their "gentility," and there is no price which his work may not +immediately reach, and for years maintain; and in buying at that +price, you are not getting value for your money, but merely disputing +for victory in a contest of ostentation. And it is hardly possible to +spend your money in a worse or more wasteful way; for though you may +not be doing it for ostentation yourself, you are, by your +pertinacity, nourishing the ostentation of others; you meet them in +their game of wealth, and continue it for them; if they had not found +an opposite player, the game would have been done; for a proud man can +find no enjoyment in possessing himself of what nobody disputes with +him. So that by every farthing you give for a picture beyond its fair +price--that is to say, the price which will pay the painter for his +time--you are not only cheating yourself and buying vanity, but you +are stimulating the vanity of others; paying literally, for the +cultivation of pride. You may consider every pound that you spend +above the just price of a work of art, as an investment in a cargo of +mental quick-lime or guano, which, being laid on the fields of human +nature, is to grow a harvest of pride. You are in fact ploughing and +harrowing, in a most valuable part of your land, in order to reap the +whirlwind; you are setting your hand stoutly to Job's agriculture, +"Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." + +Well, but you will say, there is one advantage in high prices, which +more than counterbalances all this mischief, namely, that by great +reward we both urge and enable a painter to produce rather one perfect +picture than many inferior ones: and one perfect picture (so you tell +us, and we believe it) is worth a great number of inferior ones. + +It is so; but you cannot get it by paying for it. A great work is only +done when the painter gets into the humour for it, likes his subject, +and determines to paint it as well as he can, whether he is paid for +it or not; but bad work, and generally the worst sort of bad work, is +done when he is trying to produce a showy picture, or one that shall +appear to have as much labour in it as shall be worth a high +price.[14] + + [14] When this lecture was delivered, I gave here some data for + approximate estimates of the average value of good modern + pictures of different classes; but the subject is too + complicated to be adequately treated in writing, without + introducing more detail than the reader will have patience + for. But I may state, roughly, that prices above a hundred + guineas are in general extravagant for water-colours, and + above five hundred for oils. An artist almost always does + wrong who puts more work than these prices will remunerate + him for into any single canvass--his talent would be better + employed in painting two pictures than one so elaborate. The + water-colour painters also are getting into the habit of + making their drawings too large, and in a measure attaching + their price rather to breadth and extent of touch than to + thoughtful labour. Of course marked exceptions occur here + and there, as in the case of John Lewis, whose drawings are + wrought with unfailing precision throughout, whatever their + scale. Hardly any price can be remunerative for such work. + +There is however, another point, and a still more important one, +bearing on this matter of purchase, than the keeping down of prices to +a rational standard. And that is, that you pay your prices into the +hands of living men, and do not pour them into coffins. + +For observe that, as we arrange our payment of pictures at present, no +artist's work is worth half its proper value while he is alive. The +moment he dies, his pictures, if they are good, reach double their +former value; but, that rise of price represents simply a profit made +by the intelligent dealer or purchaser on his past purchases. So that +the real facts of the matter are, that the British public, spending a +certain sum annually in art, determines that, of every thousand it +pays, only five hundred shall go to the painter, or shall be at all +concerned in the production of art; and that the other five hundred +shall be paid merely as a testimonial to the intelligent dealer, who +knew what to buy. Now, testimonials are very pretty and proper things, +within due limits; but testimonial to the amount of a hundred per +cent. on the total expenditure is not good political economy. Do not +therefore, in general, unless you see it to be necessary for its +preservation, buy the picture of a dead artist. If you fear that it +may be exposed to contempt or neglect, buy it; its price will then, +probably, not be high: if you want to put it into a public gallery, +buy it; you are sure, then, that you do not spend your money +selfishly: or, if you loved the man's work while he was alive, and +bought it then, buy it also now, if you can see no living work equal +to it. But if you did not buy it while the man was living, never buy +it after he is dead: you are then doing no good to him, and you are +doing some shame to yourself. Look around you for pictures that you +really like, and in buying which you can help some genius yet +unperished--that is the best atonement you can make to the one you +have neglected--and give to the living and struggling painter at once +wages, and testimonial. + +So far, then, of the motives which should induce us to keep down the +prices of modern art, and thus render it, as a private possession, +attainable by greater numbers of people than at present. But we should +strive to render it accessible to them in other ways also--chiefly by +the permanent decoration of public buildings; and it is in this field +that I think we may look for the profitable means of providing that +constant employment for young painters of which we were speaking last +evening. + +The first and most important kind of public buildings which we are +always sure to want, are schools: and I would ask you to consider very +carefully, whether we may not wisely introduce some great changes in +the way of school decoration. Hitherto, as far as I know, it has +either been so difficult to give all the education we wanted to our +lads, that we have been obliged to do it, if at all, with cheap +furniture in bare walls; or else we have considered that cheap +furniture and bare walls are a proper part of the means of education; +and supposed that boys learned best when they sat on hard forms, and +had nothing but blank plaster about and above them whereupon to employ +their spare attention; also, that it was as well they should be +accustomed to rough and ugly conditions of things, partly by way of +preparing them for the hardships of life, and partly that there might +be the least possible damage done to floors and forms, in the event of +their becoming, during the master's absence, the fields or instruments +of battle. All this is so far well and necessary, as it relates to the +training of country lads, and the first training of boys in general. +But there certainly comes a period in the life of a well educated +youth, in which one of the principal elements of his education is, or +ought to be, to give him refinement of habits; and not only to teach +him the strong exercises of which his frame is capable, but also to +increase his bodily sensibility and refinement, and show him such +small matters as the way of handling things properly, and treating +them considerately. Not only so, but I believe the notion of fixing +the attention by keeping the room empty, is a wholly mistaken one: I +think it is just in the emptiest room that the mind wanders most; for +it gets restless, like a bird, for want of a perch, and casts about +for any possible means of getting out and away. And even if it be +fixed, by an effort, on the business in hand, that business becomes +itself repulsive, more than it need be, by the vileness of its +associations; and many a study appears dull or painful to a boy when +it is pursued on a blotted deal desk, under a wall with nothing on it +but scratches and pegs, which would have been pursued pleasantly +enough in a curtained corner of his father's library, or at the +lattice window of his cottage. Nay, my own belief is, that the best +study of all is the most beautiful; and that a quiet glade of forest, +or the nook of a lake shore, are worth all the schoolrooms in +Christendom, when once you are past the multiplication table; but be +that as it may, there is no question at all but that a time ought to +come in the life of a well trained youth, when he can sit at a writing +table without wanting to throw the inkstand at his neighbour; and when +also he will feel more capable of certain efforts of mind with +beautiful and refined forms about him than with ugly ones. When that +time comes, he ought to be advanced into the decorated schools; and +this advance ought to be one of the important and honourable epochs of +his life. + +I have not time, however, to insist on the mere serviceableness to our +youth of refined architectural decoration, as such; for I want you to +consider the probable influence of the particular kind of decoration +which I wish you to get for them, namely, historical painting. You +know we have hitherto been in the habit of conveying all our +historical knowledge, such as it is, by the ear only, never by the +eye; all our notions of things being ostensibly derived from verbal +description, not from sight. Now, I have no doubt that, as we grow +gradually wiser--and we are doing so every day--we shall discover at +last that the eye is a nobler organ than the ear; and that through the +eye we must, in reality, obtain, or put into form, nearly all the +useful information we are to have about this world. Even as the matter +stands, you will find that the knowledge which a boy is supposed to +receive from verbal description is only available to him so far as in +any underhand way he gets a sight of the thing you are talking about. +I remember well that, for many years of my life, the only notion I had +of the look of a Greek knight was complicated between recollection of +a small engraving in my pocket Pope's Homer, and reverent study of the +Horse Guards. And though I believe that most boys collect their ideas +from more varied sources, and arrange them more carefully than I did; +still, whatever sources they seek must always be ocular: if they are +clever boys, they will go and look at the Greek vases and sculptures +in the British Museum, and at the weapons in our armouries--they will +see what real armour is like in lustre, and what Greek armour was like +in form, and so put a fairly true image together, but still not, in +ordinary cases, a very living or interesting one. Now, the use of your +decorative painting would be, in myriads of ways, to animate their +history for them, and to put the living aspect of past things before +their eyes as faithfully as intelligent invention can; so that the +master shall have nothing to do but once to point to the schoolroom +walls, and for ever afterwards the meaning of any word would be fixed +in a boy's mind in the best possible way. Is it a question of +classical dress--what a tunic was like, or a chlamys, or a peplus? At +this day, you have to point to some vile woodcut, in the middle of a +dictionary page, representing the thing hung upon a stick, but then, +you would point to a hundred figures, wearing the actual dress, in its +fiery colours, in all actions of various stateliness or strength; you +would understand at once how it fell round the people's limbs as they +stood, how it drifted from their shoulders as they went, how it veiled +their faces as they wept, how it covered their heads in the day of +battle. _Now_, if you want to see what a weapon is like, you refer, in +like manner, to a numbered page, in which there are spear-heads in +rows, and sword-hilts in symmetrical groups; and gradually the boy +gets a dim mathematical notion how one scymitar is hooked to the right +and another to the left, and one javelin has a knob to it and another +none: while one glance at your good picture would show him,--and the +first rainy afternoon in the schoolroom would for ever fix in his +mind,--the look of the sword and spear as they fell or flew; and how +they pierced, or bent, or shattered--how men wielded them, and how men +died by them. But far more than all this, is it a question not of +clothes or weapons, but of men? how can we sufficiently estimate the +effect on the mind of a noble youth, at the time when the world opens +to him, of having faithful and touching representations put before him +of the acts and presences of great men--how many a resolution, which +would alter and exalt the whole course of his after-life, might be +formed, when in some dreamy twilight he met, through his own tears, +the fixed eyes of those shadows of the great dead, unescapable and +calm, piercing to his soul; or fancied that their lips moved in dread +reproof or soundless exhortation. And if but for one out of many this +were true--if yet, in a few, you could be sure that such influence had +indeed changed their thoughts and destinies, and turned the eager and +reckless youth, who would have cast away his energies on the +race-horse or the gambling-table, to that noble life-race, that holy +life-hazard, which should win all glory to himself and all good to his +country--would not that, to some purpose, be "political economy of +art?" + +And observe, there could be no monotony, no exhaustibleness, in the +scenes required to be thus pourtrayed. Even if there were, and you +wanted for every school in the kingdom, one death of Leonidas; one +battle of Marathon; one death of Cleobis and Bito; there need not +therefore be more monotony in your art than there was in the +repetition of a given cycle of subjects by the religious painters of +Italy. But we ought not to admit a cycle at all. For though we had as +many great schools as we have great cities (one day I hope we _shall_ +have), centuries of painting would not exhaust, in all the number of +them, the noble and pathetic subjects which might be chosen from the +history of even one noble nation. But, besides this, you will not, in +a little while, limit your youths' studies to so narrow fields as you +do now. There will come a time--I am sure of it--when it will be found +that the same practical results, both in mental discipline, and in +political philosophy, are to be attained by the accurate study of +mediæval and modern as of ancient history; and that the facts of +mediæval and modern history are, on the whole, the most important +to us. And among these noble groups of constellated schools which I +foresee arising in our England, I foresee also that there will be +divided fields of thought; and that while each will give its scholars +a great general idea of the world's history, such as all men should +possess--each will also take upon itself, as its own special duty, the +closer study of the course of events in some given place or time. It +will review the rest of history, but it will exhaust its own special +field of it; and found its moral and political teaching on the most +perfect possible analysis of the results of human conduct in one +place, and at one epoch. And then, the galleries of that school will +be painted with the historical scenes belonging to the age which it +has chosen for its special study. + +So far, then, of art as you may apply it to that great series of +public buildings which you devote to the education of youth. The next +large class of public buildings in which we should introduce it, is +one which I think a few years more of national progress will render +more serviceable to us than they have been lately. I mean, buildings +for the meetings of guilds of trades. + +And here, for the last time, I must again interrupt the course of our +chief inquiry, in order to state one other principle of political +economy, which is perfectly simple and indisputable; but which, +nevertheless, we continually get into commercial embarrassments for +want of understanding; and not only so, but suffer much hindrance in +our commercial discoveries, because many of our business men do not +practically admit it. + +Supposing half a dozen or a dozen men were cast ashore from a wreck on +an uninhabited island and left to their own resources, one of course, +according to his capacity, would be set to one business and one to +another; the strongest to dig and to cut wood, and to build huts for +the rest: the most dexterous to make shoes out of bark and coats out +of skins; the best educated to look for iron or lead in the rocks, and +to plan the channels for the irrigation of the fields. But though +their labours were thus naturally severed, that small group of +shipwrecked men would understand well enough that the speediest +progress was to be made by helping each other,--not by opposing each +other; and they would know that this help could only be properly given +so long as they were frank and open in their relations, and the +difficulties which each lay under properly explained to the rest. So +that any appearance of secresy or separateness in the actions of any +of them would instantly, and justly, be looked upon with suspicion by +the rest, as the sign of some selfish or foolish proceeding on the +part of the individual. If, for instance, the scientific man were +found to have gone out at night, unknown to the rest, to alter the +sluices, the others would think, and in all probability rightly think, +that he wanted to get the best supply of water to his own field; and +if the shoemaker refused to show them where the bark grew which he +made the sandals of, they would naturally think, and in all +probability rightly think, that he didn't want them to see how much +there was of it, and that he meant to ask from them more corn and +potatoes in exchange for his sandals than the trouble of making them +deserved. And thus, although each man would have a portion of time to +himself in which he was allowed to do what he chose without let or +inquiry,--so long as he was working in that particular business which +he had undertaken for the common benefit, any secresy on his part +would be immediately supposed to mean mischief; and would require to +be accounted for, or put an end to: and this all the more because, +whatever the work might be, certainly there would be difficulties +about it which, when once they were well explained, might be more or +less done away with by the help of the rest; so that assuredly every +one of them would advance with his labour not only more happily, but +more profitably and quickly, by having no secrets, and by frankly +bestowing, and frankly receiving, such help as lay in his way to get +or to give. + +And, just as the best and richest result of wealth and happiness to +the whole of them, would follow on their perseverance in such a system +of frank communication and of helpful labour;--so precisely the worst +and poorest result would be obtained by a system of secresy and of +enmity; and each man's happiness and wealth would assuredly be +diminished in proportion to the degree in which jealousy and +concealment became their social and economical principles. It would +not, in the long run, bring good, but only evil, to the man of +science, if, instead of telling openly where he had found good iron, +he carefully concealed every new bed of it, that he might ask, in +exchange for the rare ploughshare, more corn from the farmer, or in +exchange for the rude needle, more labour from the sempstress: and it +would not ultimately bring good, but only evil, to the farmers, if +they sought to burn each other's cornstacks, that they might raise the +value of their grain, or if the sempstresses tried to break each +other's needles, that each might get all the stitching to herself. + +Now, these laws of human action are precisely as authoritative in +their application to the conduct of a million of men, as to that of +six or twelve. All enmity, jealousy, opposition, and secresy are +wholly, and in all circumstances, destructive in their nature--not +productive; and all kindness, fellowship, and communicativeness are +invariably productive in their operation,--not destructive; and the +evil principles of opposition and exclusiveness are not rendered less +fatal, but more fatal, by their acceptance among large masses of men; +more fatal, I say, exactly in proportion as their influence is more +secret. For though the opposition does always its own simple, +necessary, direct quantity of harm, and withdraws always its own +simple, necessary, measurable quantity of wealth from the sum +possessed by the community, yet, in proportion to the size of the +community, it does another and more refined mischief than this, by +concealing its own fatality under aspects of mercantile complication +and expediency, and giving rise to multitudes of false theories based +on a mean belief in narrow and immediate appearances of good done here +and there by things which have the universal and everlasting nature of +evil. So that the time and powers of the nation are wasted, not only +in wretched struggling against each other, but in vain complaints, and +groundless discouragements, and empty investigations, and useless +experiments in laws, and elections, and inventions; with hope always +to pull wisdom through some new-shaped slit in a ballot-box, and to +drag prosperity down out of the clouds along some new knot of electric +wire; while all the while Wisdom stands calling at the corners of the +streets, and the blessing of heaven waits ready to rain down upon us, +deeper than the rivers and broader than the dew, if only we will obey +the first plain principles of humanity, and the first plain precepts +of the skies; "Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion, +every man to his brother; and let none of you imagine evil against his +brother in your heart."[15] + + [15] It would be well if, instead of preaching continually about + the doctrine of faith and good works, our clergymen would + simply explain to their people a little what good works + mean. There is not a chapter in all the Book we profess to + believe, more specially and directly written for England, + than the second of Habakkuk, and I never in all my life + heard one of its practical texts preached from. I suppose + the clergymen are all afraid, and know that their flocks, + while they will sit quite politely to hear syllogisms out of + the epistle to the Romans, would get restive directly if + they ever pressed a practical text home to them. But we + should have no mercantile catastrophes, and no distressful + pauperism, if we only read often, and took to heart, those + plain words:--"Yea, also, because he is a proud man, neither + keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and + cannot be satisfied,--Shall not all these take up a parable + against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, + 'Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his: and to + him that _ladeth himself with thick clay_.'" (What a + glorious history, in one metaphor, of the life of a man + greedy of fortune.) "Woe to him that coveteth an evil + covetousness that he may set his nest on high. Woe to him + that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by + iniquity. Behold, is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the + people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall + weary themselves for very vanity." + + The Americans, who have been sending out ships with sham + bolt-heads on their timbers, and only half their bolts, may + meditate on that "buildeth a town with blood." + +Therefore, I believe most firmly, that as the laws of national +prosperity get familiar to us, we shall more and more cast our toil +into social and communicative systems; and that one of the first means +of our doing so, will be the re-establishing guilds of every important +trade in a vital, not formal, condition;--that there will be a great +council or government house for the members of every trade, built in +whatever town of the kingdom occupies itself principally in such +trade, with minor council halls in other cities; and to each +council-hall, officers attached, whose first business may be to +examine into the circumstances of every operative, in that trade, who +chooses to report himself to them when out of work, and to set him to +work, if he is indeed able and willing, at a fixed rate of wages, +determined at regular periods in the council-meetings; and whose next +duty may be to bring reports before the council of all improvements +made in the business, and means of its extension: not allowing private +patents of any kind, but making all improvements available to every +member of the guild, only allotting, after successful trial of them, a +certain reward to the inventors. + +For these, and many other such purposes, such halls will be again, I +trust, fully established, and then, in the paintings and decorations +of them, especial effort ought to be made to express the worthiness +and honourableness of the trade for whose members they are founded. +For I believe one of the worst symptoms of modern society to be, its +notion of great inferiority, and ungentlemanliness, as necessarily +belonging to the character of a tradesman. I believe tradesmen may be, +ought to be--often are, more gentlemen than idle and useless people: +and I believe that art may do noble work by recording in the hall of +each trade, the services which men belonging to that trade have done +for their country, both preserving the portraits, and recording the +important incidents in the lives, of those who have made great +advances in commerce and civilization. I cannot follow out this +subject, it branches too far, and in too many directions; besides, I +have no doubt you will at once see and accept the truth of the main +principle, and be able to think it out for yourselves. I would fain +also have said something of what might be done, in the same manner, +for almshouses and hospitals, and for what, as I shall try to explain +in notes to this lecture, we may hope to see, some day, established +with a different meaning in their name than that they now +bear--workhouses; but I have detained you too long already, and cannot +permit myself to trespass further on your patience except only to +recapitulate, in closing, the simple principles respecting wealth +which we have gathered during the course of our inquiry; principles +which are nothing more than the literal and practical acceptance of +the saying, which is in all good men's mouths; namely, that they are +stewards or ministers of whatever talents are entrusted to them. Only, +is it not a strange thing, that while we more or less accept the +meaning of that saying, so long as it is considered metaphorical, we +never accept its meaning in its own terms? You know the lesson is +given us under the form of a story about money. Money was given to the +servants to make use of: the unprofitable servant dug in the earth, +and hid his Lord's money. Well, we, in our poetical and spiritual +application of this, say, that of course money doesn't mean money, it +means wit, it means intellect, it means influence in high quarters, it +means everything in the world except itself. And do not you see what a +pretty and pleasant come-off there is for most of us, in this +spiritual application? Of course, if we had wit, we would use it for +the good of our fellow-creatures. But we haven't wit. Of course, if we +had influence with the bishops, we would use it for the good of the +Church; but we haven't any influence with the bishops. Of course, if +we had political power, we would use it for the good of the nation; +but we have no political power; we have no talents entrusted to _us_ +of any sort or kind. It is true we have a little money, but the +parable can't possibly mean anything so vulgar as money; our money's +our own. + +I believe, if you think seriously of this matter, you will feel that +the first and most literal application is just as necessary a one as +any other--that the story does very specially mean what it says--plain +money; and that the reason we don't at once believe it does so, is a +sort of tacit idea that while thought, wit, and intellect, and all +power of birth and position, are indeed _given_ to us, and, therefore, +to be laid out for the Giver,--our wealth has not been given to us; +but we have worked for it, and have a right to spend it as we choose. +I think you will find that is the real substance of our understanding +in this matter. Beauty, we say, is given by God--it is a talent; +strength is given by God--it is a talent; position is given by God--it +is a talent; but money is proper wages for our day's work--it is not a +talent, it is a due. We may justly spend it on ourselves, if we have +worked for it. + +And there would be some shadow of excuse for this, were it not that +the very power of making the money is itself only one of the +applications of that intellect or strength which we confess to be +talents. Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more +industrious, more persevering, and more sagacious. Well, who made him +more persevering or more sagacious than others? That power of +endurance, that quickness of apprehension, that calmness of judgment, +which enable him to seize the opportunities that others lose, and +persist in the lines of conduct in which others fail--are these not +talents?--are they not, in the present state of the world, among the +most distinguished and influential of mental gifts? And is it not +wonderful, that while we should be utterly ashamed to use a +superiority of body, in order to thrust our weaker companions aside +from some place of advantage, we unhesitatingly use our superiorities +of mind to thrust them back from whatever good that strength of mind +can attain? You would be indignant if you saw a strong man walk into a +theatre or a lecture-room, and, calmly choosing the best place, take +his feeble neighbour by the shoulder, and turn him out of it into the +back seats, or the street. You would be equally indignant if you saw a +stout fellow thrust himself up to a table where some hungry children +were being fed, and reach his arm over their heads and take their +bread from them. But you are not the least indignant if, when a man +has stoutness of thought and swiftness of capacity, and, instead of +being long-armed only, has the much greater gift of being +long-headed--you think it perfectly just that he should use his +intellect to take the bread out of the mouths of all the other men in +the town who are of the same trade with him; or use his breadth and +sweep of sight to gather some branch of the commerce of the country +into one great cobweb, of which he is himself to be the central +spider, making every thread vibrate with the points of his claws, and +commanding every avenue with the facets of his eyes. You see no +injustice in this. + +But there is injustice; and, let us trust, one of which honourable men +will at no very distant period disdain to be guilty. In some degree, +however, it is indeed not unjust; in some degree it is necessary and +intended. It is assuredly just that idleness should be surpassed by +energy; that the widest influence should be possessed by those who are +best able to wield it; and that a wise man, at the end of his career, +should be better off than a fool. But for that reason, is the fool to +be wretched, utterly crushed down, and left in all the suffering which +his conduct and capacity naturally inflict?--Not so. What do you +suppose fools were made for? That you might tread upon them, and +starve them, and get the better of them in every possible way? By no +means. They were made that wise people might take care of them. That +is the true and plain fact concerning the relations of every strong +and wise man to the world about him. He has his strength given him, +not that he may crush the weak, but that he may support and guide +them. In his own household he is to be the guide and the support of +his children; out of his household he is still to be the father, that +is, the guide and support of the weak and the poor; not merely of the +meritoriously weak and the innocently poor, but of the guiltily and +punishably poor; of the men who ought to have known better--of the +poor who ought to be ashamed of themselves. It is nothing to give +pension and cottage to the widow who has lost her son; it is nothing +to give food and medicine to the workman who has broken his arm, or +the decrepit woman wasting in sickness. But it is something to use +your time and strength to war with the waywardness and thoughtlessness +of mankind; to keep the erring workman in your service till you have +made him an unerring one; and to direct your fellow-merchant to the +opportunity which his dullness would have lost. This is much; but it +is yet more, when you have fully achieved the superiority which is due +to you, and acquired the wealth which is the fitting reward of your +sagacity, if you solemnly accept the responsibility of it, as it is +the helm and guide of labour far and near. For you who have it in your +hands, are in reality the pilots of the power and effort of the +State.[16] It is entrusted to you as an authority to be used for good +or evil, just as completely as kingly authority was ever given to a +prince, or military command to a captain. And, according to the +quantity of it that you have in your hands you are the arbiters of the +will and work of England; and the whole issue, whether the work of the +State shall suffice for the State or not, depends upon you. You may +stretch out your sceptre over the heads of the English labourers, and +say to them, as they stoop to its waving, "Subdue this obstacle that +has baffled our fathers, put away this plague that consumes our +children; water these dry places, plough these desert ones, carry this +food to those who are in hunger; carry this light to those who are in +darkness; carry this life to those who are in death;" or on the other +side you may say to her labourers: "Here am I; this power is in my +hand; come, build a mound here for me to be throned upon, high and +wide; come, make crowns for my head, that men may see them shine from +far away; come, weave tapestries for my feet, that I may tread softly +on the silk and purple;[17] come, dance before me, that I may be gay; +and sing sweetly to me, that I may slumber; so shall I live in joy, +and die in honour." And better than such an honourable death, it were +that the day had perished wherein we were born, and the night in which +it was said there is a child conceived. + + [16] See note 7th, in Addenda [p. 106]. + + [17] See note 8th, in Addenda [p. 107]. + +I trust, that in a little while, there will be few of our rich men +who, through carelessness or covetousness, thus forfeit the glorious +office which is intended for their hands. I said, just now, that +wealth ill used was as the net of the spider, entangling and +destroying: but wealth well used, is as the net of the sacred fisher +who gathers souls of men out of the deep. A time will come--I do not +think even now it is far from us--when this golden net of the world's +wealth will be spread abroad as the flaming meshes of morning cloud +are over the sky; bearing with them the joy of light and the dew of +the morning, as well as the summons to honourable and peaceful toil. +What less can we hope from your wealth than this, rich men of +England, when once you feel fully how, by the strength of your +possessions--not, observe, by the exhaustion, but by the +administration of them and the power--you can direct the +acts,--command the energies,--inform the ignorance,--prolong the +existence, of the whole human race; and how, even of worldly wisdom, +which man employs faithfully, it is true, not only that her ways are +pleasantness, but that her paths are peace; and that, for all the +children of men, as well as for those to whom she is given, Length of +days are in her right hand, as in her left hand Riches and Honour? + + + + +ADDENDA. + + +Note, p. 19.--"_Fatherly authority._" + +This statement could not, of course, be heard without displeasure by a +certain class of politicians; and in one of the notices of these +lectures given in the Manchester journals at the time, endeavour was +made to get quit of it by referring to the Divine authority, as the +only Paternal power with respect to which men were truly styled +"brethren." Of course it is so, and, equally of course, all human +government is nothing else than the executive expression of this +Divine authority. The moment government ceases to be the practical +enforcement of Divine law, it is tyranny; and the meaning which I +attach to the words, "paternal government," is, in more extended +terms, simply this--"The executive fulfilment, by formal human +methods, of the will of the Father of mankind respecting His +children." I could not give such a definition of Government as this in +a popular lecture; and even in written form, it will necessarily +suggest many objections, of which I must notice and answer the most +probable. + +Only, in order to avoid the recurrence of such tiresome phrases as "it +may be answered in the second place," and "it will be objected in the +third place," etc., I will ask the reader's leave to arrange the +discussion in the form of simple dialogue, letting _O._ stand for +objector, and _R._ for response. + +_O._--You define your paternal government to be the executive +fulfilment, by formal human methods, of the Divine will. But, +assuredly, that will cannot stand in need of aid or expression from +human laws. It cannot fail of its fulfilment. + +_R._--In the final sense it cannot; and in that sense, men who are +committing murder and stealing are fulfilling the will of God as much +as the best and kindest people in the world. But in the limited and +present sense, the only sense with which _we_ have anything to do, +God's will concerning man is fulfilled by some men, and thwarted by +others. And those men who either persuade or enforce the doing of it, +stand towards those who are rebellious against it exactly in the +position of faithful children in a family, who, when the father is out +of sight, either compel or persuade the rest to do as their father +would have them, were he present; and in so far as they are expressing +and maintaining, for the time, the paternal authority, they exercise, +in the exact sense in which I mean the phrase to be understood, +paternal government over the rest. + +_O._--But, if Providence has left a liberty to man in many things in +order to prove him, why should human law abridge that liberty, and +take upon itself to compel what the great Lawgiver does not compel? + +_R._--It is confessed, in the enactment of any law whatsoever, that +human lawgivers have a right to do this. For, if you have no right to +abridge any of the liberty which Providence has left to man, you have +no right to punish any one for committing murder or robbery. You ought +to leave them to the punishment of God and Nature. But if you think +yourself under obligation to punish, as far as human laws can, the +violation of the will of God by those great sins, you are certainly +under the same obligation to punish, with proportionately less +punishment, the violation of His will in less sins. + +_O._--No; you must not attempt to punish less sins by law, because you +cannot properly define nor ascertain them. Everybody can determine +whether murder has been committed or not, but you cannot determine how +far people have been unjust or cruel in minor matters, and therefore +cannot make or execute laws concerning minor matters. + +_R._--If I propose to you to punish faults which cannot be defined, or +to execute laws which cannot be made equitable, reject the laws I +propose. But do not generally object to the principle of law. + +_O._--Yes; I generally object to the principle of law as applied to +minor things; because, if you could succeed (which you cannot) in +regulating the entire conduct of men by law in little things as well +as great, you would take away from human life all its probationary +character, and render many virtues and pleasures impossible. You would +reduce virtue to the movement of a machine, instead of the act of a +spirit. + +_R._--You have just said, parenthetically, and I fully and willingly +admit it, that it is impossible to regulate all minor matters by law. +Is it not probable, therefore, that the degree in which it is +_possible_ to regulate them by it, is also the degree in which it is +_right_ to regulate them by it? Or what other means of judgment will +you employ, to separate the things which ought to be formally +regulated from the things which ought not. You admit that great sins +should be legally repressed; but you say that small sins should not be +legally repressed. How do you distinguish between great and small +sins; and how do you intend to determine, or do you in practice of +daily life determine, on what occasions you should compel people to do +right, and on what occasions you should leave them the option of doing +wrong? + +_O._--I think you cannot make any accurate or logical distinction in +such matters; but that common sense and instinct have, in all +civilized nations, indicated certain crimes of great social +harmfulness, such as murder, theft, adultery, slander, and such like, +which it is proper to repress legally; and that common sense and +instinct indicate also the kind of crimes which it is proper for laws +to let alone, such as miserliness, ill-natured speaking, and many of +those commercial dishonesties which I have a notion you want your +paternal government to interfere with. + +_R._--Pray do not alarm yourself about what my paternal government is +likely to interfere with, but keep to the matter in hand. You say that +"common sense and instinct" have, in all civilized nations, +distinguished between the sins that ought to be legally dealt with and +that ought not. Do you mean that the laws of all civilized nations are +perfect? + +_O._--No; certainly not. + +_R._--Or that they are perfect at least in their discrimination of +what crimes they should deal with, and what crimes they should let +alone? + +_O._--No; not exactly. + +_R._--What _do_ you mean, then? + +_O._--I mean that the general tendency is right in the laws of +civilized nations; and that, in due course of time, natural sense and +instinct point out the matters they should be brought to bear upon. +And each question of legislation must be made a separate subject of +inquiry as it presents itself: you cannot fix any general principles +about what should be dealt with legally, and what should not. + +_R._--Supposing it to be so, do you think there are any points in +which our English legislation is capable of amendment, as it bears on +commercial and economical matters, in this present time? + +_O._--Of course I do. + +_R._--Well, then, let us discuss these together quietly; and if the +points that I want amended seem to you incapable of amendment, or not +in need of amendment, say so: but don't object, at starting, to the +mere proposition of applying law to things which have not had law +applied to them before. You have admitted the fitness of my +expression, "paternal government:" it only has been, and remains, a +question between us, how far such government should extend. Perhaps +you would like it only to regulate, among the children, the length of +their lessons; and perhaps I should like it also to regulate the +hardness of their cricket-balls: but cannot you wait quietly till you +know what I want it to do, before quarrelling with the thing itself? + +_O._--No; I cannot wait quietly: in fact I don't see any use in +beginning such a discussion at all, because I am quite sure from the +first, that you want to meddle with things that you have no business +with, and to interfere with healthy liberty of action in all sorts of +ways; and I know that you can't propose any laws that would be of real +use.[18] + + [18] If the reader is displeased with me for putting this foolish + speech into his mouth, I entreat his pardon; but he may be + assured that it is a speech which would be made by many + people, and the substance of which would be tacitly felt by + many more, at this point of the discussion. I have really + tried, up to this point, to make the objector as intelligent + a person as it is possible for an author to imagine anybody + to be, who differs with him. + +_R._--If you indeed know that, you would be wrong to hear me any +farther. But if you are only in painful doubt about me, which makes +you unwilling to run the risk of wasting your time, I will tell you +beforehand what I really do think about this same liberty of action, +namely, that whenever we can make a perfectly equitable law about any +matter, or even a law securing, on the whole, more just conduct than +unjust, we ought to make that law; and that there will yet, on these +conditions, always remain a number of matters respecting which +legalism and formalism are impossible; enough, and more than enough, +to exercise all human powers of individual judgment, and afford all +kinds of scope to individual character. I think this; but of course it +can only be proved by separate examination of the possibilities of +formal restraint in each given field of action; and these two lectures +are nothing more than a sketch of such a detailed examination in one +field, namely, that of art. You will find, however, one or two other +remarks on such possibilities in the next note. + + +Note 2nd, p. 21.--"_Right to public support._" + +It did not appear to me desirable, in the course of the spoken +lecture, to enter into details or offer suggestions on the questions +of the regulation of labour and distribution of relief, as it would +have been impossible to do so without touching in many disputed or +disputable points, not easily handled before a general audience. But I +must now supply what is wanting to make my general statement clear. + +I believe, in the first place, that no Christian nation has any +business to see one of its members in distress without helping him, +though, perhaps, at the same time punishing him: help, of course--in +nine cases out of ten--meaning guidance, much more than gift, and, +therefore, interference with liberty. When a peasant mother sees one +of her careless children fall into a ditch, her first proceeding is to +pull him out; her second, to box his ears; her third, ordinarily, to +lead him carefully a little way by the hand, or send him home for the +rest of the day. The child usually cries, and very often would clearly +prefer remaining in the ditch; and if he understood any of the terms +of politics, would certainly express resentment at the interference +with his individual liberty: but the mother has done her duty. +Whereas the usual call of the mother nation to any of her children, +under such circumstances, has lately been nothing more than the +foxhunter's,--"Stay still there; I shall clear you." And if we always +_could_ clear them, their requests to be left in muddy independence +might be sometimes allowed by kind people, or their cries for help +disdained by unkind ones. But we can't clear them. The whole nation +is, in fact, bound together, as men are by ropes on a glacier--if one +falls, the rest must either lift him or drag him along with them[19] +as dead weight, not without much increase of danger to themselves. And +the law of right being manifestly in this, as, whether manifestly or +not, it is always, the law of prudence, the only question is, how this +wholesome help and interference are to be administered. + + [19] It is very curious to watch the efforts of two shopkeepers + to ruin each other, neither having the least idea that his + ruined neighbour must eventually be supported at his own + expense, with an increase of poor rates; and that the + contest between them is not in reality which shall get + everything for himself, but which shall first take upon + himself and his customers the gratuitous maintenance of the + other's family. + +The first interference should be in education. In order that men may +be able to support themselves when they are grown, their strength must +be properly developed while they are young; and the state should +always see to this--not allowing their health to be broken by too +early labour, nor their powers to be wasted for want of knowledge. +Some questions connected with this matter are noticed farther on under +the head "Trial Schools:" one point I must notice here, that I believe +all youths of whatever rank, ought to learn some manual trade +thoroughly; for it is quite wonderful how much a man's views of life +are cleared by the attainment of the capacity of doing any one thing +well with his hands and arms. For a long time, what right life there +was in the upper classes of Europe depended in no small degree on the +necessity which each man was under of being able to fence; at this +day, the most useful things which boys learn at public schools, are, I +believe, riding, rowing, and cricketing. But it would be far better +that members of Parliament should be able to plough straight, and make +a horseshoe, than only to feather oars neatly or point their toes +prettily in stirrups. Then, in literary and scientific teaching, the +great point of economy is to give the discipline of it through +knowledge which will immediately bear on practical life. Our literary +work has long been economically useless to us because too much +concerned with dead languages; and our scientific work will yet, for +some time, be a good deal lost, because scientific men are too fond or +too vain of their systems, and waste the student's time in +endeavouring to give him large views, and make him perceive +interesting connections of facts; when there is not one student, no, +nor one man, in a thousand, who can feel the beauty of a system, or +even take it clearly into his head; but nearly all men can understand, +and most will be interested in, the facts which bear on daily life. +Botanists have discovered some wonderful connection between nettles +and figs, which a cowboy who will never see a ripe fig in his life +need not be at all troubled about; but it will be interesting to him +to know what effect nettles have on hay, and what taste they will give +to porridge; and it will give him nearly a new life if he can be got +but once, in a spring time, to look well at the beautiful circlet of +the white nettle blossom, and work out with his schoolmaster the +curves of its petals, and the way it is set on its central mast. So, +the principle of chemical equivalents, beautiful as it is, matters far +less to a peasant boy, and even to most sons of gentlemen, than their +knowing how to find whether the water is wholesome in the back-kitchen +cistern, or whether the seven-acre field wants sand or chalk. + +Having, then, directed the studies of our youth so as to make them +practically serviceable men at the time of their entrance into life, +that entrance should always be ready for them in cases where their +private circumstances present no opening. There ought to be government +establishments for every trade, in which all youths who desired it +should be received as apprentices on their leaving school; and men +thrown out of work received at all times. At these government +manufactories the discipline should be strict, and the wages steady, +not varying at all in proportion to the demand for the article, but +only in proportion to the price of food; the commodities produced +being laid up in store to meet sudden demands, and sudden fluctuations +in prices prevented:--that gradual and necessary fluctuation only +being allowed which is properly consequent on larger or more limited +supply of raw material and other natural causes. When there was a +visible tendency to produce a glut of any commodity, that tendency +should be checked by directing the youth at the government schools +into other trades; and the yearly surplus of commodities should be the +principal means of government provision for the poor. That provision +should be large, and not disgraceful to them. At present there are +very strange notions in the public mind respecting the receiving of +alms: most people are willing to take them in the form of a pension +from government, but unwilling to take them in the form of a pension +from their parishes. There may be some reason for this singular +prejudice, in the fact of the government pension being usually given +as a definite acknowledgment of some service done to the country;--but +the parish pension is, or ought to be, given precisely on the same +terms. A labourer serves his country with his spade, just as a man in +the middle ranks of life serves it with his sword, pen, or lancet: if +the service is less, and therefore the wages during health less, then +the reward, when health is broken, may be less, but not, therefore, +less honourable; and it ought to be quite as natural and +straightforward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from his +parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man in +higher rank to take his pension from his country, because he has +deserved well of his country. If there be any disgrace in coming to +the parish, because it may imply improvidence in early life, much more +is there disgrace in coming to the government: since improvidence is +far less justifiable in a highly educated than in an imperfectly +educated man; and far less justifiable in a high rank, where +extravagance must have been luxury, than in a low rank, where it may +only have been comfort. So that the real fact of the matter is, that +people will take alms delightedly, consisting of a carriage and +footmen, because those do not look like alms to the people in the +street; but they will not take alms consisting only of bread and water +and coals, because everybody would understand what those meant. Mind, +I do not want any one to refuse the carriage who ought to have it; but +neither do I want them to refuse the coals. I should indeed be sorry +if any change in our views on these subjects involved the least +lessening of self-dependence in the English mind: but the common +shrinking of men from the acceptance of public charity is not +self-dependence, but mere base and selfish pride. It is not that they +are unwilling to live at their neighbours' expense, but that they are +unwilling to confess they do: it is not dependence they wish to avoid, +but gratitude. They will take places in which they know there is +nothing to be done--they will borrow money they know they cannot +repay--they will carry on a losing business with other people's +capital--they will cheat the public in their shops, or sponge on their +friends at their houses; but to say plainly they are poor men, who +need the nation's help, and go into an almshouse--this they loftily +repudiate, and virtuously prefer being thieves to being paupers. + +I trust that these deceptive efforts of dishonest men to appear +independent, and the agonizing efforts of unfortunate men to remain +independent, may both be in some degree checked by a better +administration and understanding of laws respecting the poor. But the +ordinances for relief and the ordinances for labour must go together; +otherwise distress caused by misfortune will always be confounded, as +it is now, with distress caused by idleness, unthrift, and fraud. It +is only when the state watches and guides the middle life of men, that +it can, without disgrace to them, protect their old age, acknowledging +in that protection that they have done their duty, or at least some +portion of their duty, in better days. + +I know well how strange, fanciful, or impracticable these suggestions +will appear to most of the business men of this day; men who conceive +the proper state of the world to be simply that of a vast and +disorganized mob, scrambling each for what he can get, trampling down +its children and old men in the mire, and doing what work it finds +_must_ be done with any irregular squad of labourers it can bribe or +inveigle together, and afterwards scatter to starvation. A great deal +may, indeed, be done in this way by a nation strong-elbowed and +strong-hearted as we are--not easily frightened by pushing, nor +discouraged by falls. But it is still not the right way of doing +things for people who call themselves Christians. Every so named soul +of man claims from every other such soul, protection and education in +childhood--help or punishment in middle life--reward or relief, if +needed, in old age; all of these should be completely and unstintingly +given; and they can only be given by the organization of such a system +as I have described. + + +Note 3rd, p. 24.--"_Trial Schools._" + +It may be seriously questioned by the reader how much of painting +talent we really lose on our present system,[20] and how much we +should gain by the proposed trial schools. For it might be thought, +that as matters stand at present, we have more painters than we ought +to have, having so many bad ones, and that all youths who had true +painters' genius forced their way out of obscurity. + + [20] It will be observed that, in the lecture, it is _assumed_ + that works of art are national treasures; and that it is + desirable to withdraw all the hands capable of painting or + carving from other employments, in order that they may + produce this kind of wealth. I do not, in assuming this, + mean that works of art add to the monetary resources of a + nation, or form part of its wealth, in the vulgar sense. The + result of the sale of a picture in the country itself is + merely that a certain sum of money is transferred from the + hands of B. the purchaser, to those of A. the producer; the + sum ultimately to be distributed remaining the same, only A. + ultimately spending it instead of B., while the labour of A. + has been in the meantime withdrawn from productive channels; + he has painted a picture which nobody can live upon, or live + in, when he might have grown corn or built houses; when the + sale therefore is effected in the country itself, it does + not add to, but diminishes, the monetary resources of the + country, except only so far as it may appear probable, on + other grounds, that A. is likely to spend the sum he + receives for his picture more rationally and usefully than + B. would have spent it. If, indeed, the picture, or other + work of art, be sold in foreign countries, either the money + or the useful products of the foreign country being imported + in exchange for it, such sale adds to the monetary resources + of the selling, and diminishes those of the purchasing + nation. But sound political economy, strange as it may at + first appear to say so, has nothing whatever to do with + separations between national interests. Political economy + means the management of the affairs of _citizens_; and it + either regards exclusively the administration of the affairs + of one nation, or the administration of the affairs of the + world considered as one nation. So when a transaction + between individuals which enriches A., impoverishes B. in + precisely the same degree, the sound economist considers it + an unproductive transaction between the individuals; and if + a trade between two nations which enriches one, impoverishes + the other in the same degree, the sound eoonomist considers + it an unproductive trade between the nations. It is not a + general question of political economy, but only a particular + question of local expediency, whether an article in itself + valueless, may bear a value of exchange in transactions with + some other nation. The economist considers only the actual + value of the thing done or produced; and if he sees a + quantity of labour spent, for instance, by the Swiss, in + producing woodwork for sale to the English, he at once sets + the commercial impoverishment of the English purchaser + against the commercial enrichment of the Swiss seller; and + considers the whole transaction productive only so far as + the woodwork itself is a real addition to the wealth of the + world. For the arrangement of the laws of a nation so as to + procure the greatest advantages to itself, and leave the + smallest advantages to other nations, is not a part of the + science of political economy, but merely a broad application + of the science of fraud. Considered thus in the abstract, + pictures are not an _addition_ to the monetary wealth of the + world, except in the amount of pleasure or instruction to be + got out of them day by day: but there is a certain + protective effect on wealth exercised by works of high art + which must always be included in the estimate of their + value. Generally speaking, persons who decorate their houses + with pictures, will not spend so much money in papers, + carpets, curtains, or other expensive and perishable + luxuries as they would otherwise. Works of good art, like + books, exercise a conservative effect on the rooms they are + kept in; and the wall of the library or picture gallery + remains undisturbed, when those of other rooms are + re-papered or re-panelled. Of course, this effect is still + more definite when the picture is on the walls themselves, + either on canvass stretched into fixed shapes on their + panels, or in fresco; involving, of course, the preservation + of the building from all unnecessary and capricious + alteration. And generally speaking, the occupation of a + large number of hands in painting or sculpture in any nation + may be considered as tending to check the disposition to + indulge in perishable luxury. I do not, however, in my + assumption that works of art are treasures, take much into + consideration this collateral monetary result. I consider + them treasures, merely as permanent means of pleasure and + instruction; and having at other times tried to show the + several ways in which they can please and teach, assume here + that they are thus useful; and that it is desirable to make + as many painters as we can. + +This is not so. It is difficult to analyse the characters of mind +which cause youths to mistake their vocation, and to endeavour to +become artists, when they have no true artist's gift. But the fact is, +that multitudes of young men do this, and that by far the greater +number of living artists are men who have mistaken their vocation. The +peculiar circumstances of modern life, which exhibit art in almost +every form to the sight of the youths in our great cities, have a +natural tendency to fill their imaginations with borrowed ideas, and +their minds with imperfect science; the mere dislike of mechanical +employments, either felt to be irksome, or believed to be degrading, +urges numbers of young men to become painters, in the same temper in +which they would enlist or go to sea; others, the sons of engravers or +artists, taught the business of the art by their parents, and having +no gift for it themselves, follow it as the means of livelihood, in an +ignoble patience; or, if ambitious, seek to attract regard, or +distance rivalry, by fantastic, meretricious, or unprecedented +applications of their mechanical skill; while finally, many men +earnest in feeling, and conscientious in principle, mistake their +desire to be useful for a love of art, and their quickness of emotion +for its capacity, and pass their lives in painting moral and +instructive pictures, which might almost justify us in thinking nobody +could be a painter but a rogue. On the other hand, I believe that much +of the best artistical intellect is daily lost in other avocations. +Generally, the temper which would make an admirable artist is humble +and observant, capable of taking much interest in little things, and +of entertaining itself pleasantly in the dullest circumstances. +Suppose, added to these characters, a steady conscientiousness which +seeks to do its duty wherever it may be placed, and the power, denied +to few artistical minds, of ingenious invention in almost any +practical department of human skill, and it can hardly be doubted that +the very humility and conscientiousness which would have perfected the +painter, have in many instances prevented his becoming one; and that +in the quiet life of our steady craftsmen--sagacious manufacturers and +uncomplaining clerks--there may frequently be concealed more genius +than ever is raised to the direction of our public works, or to be the +mark of our public praises. + +It is indeed probable, that intense disposition for art will conquer +the most formidable obstacles, if the surrounding circumstances are +such as at all to present the idea of such conquest, to the mind; but +we have no ground for concluding that Giotto would ever have been more +than a shepherd, if Cimabue had not by chance found him drawing; or +that among the shepherds of the Apennines there were no other Giottos, +undiscovered by Cimabue. We are too much in the habit of considering +happy accidents as what are called "special Providences;" and thinking +that when any great work needs to be done, the man who is to do it +will certainly be pointed out by Providence, be he shepherd or +sea-boy; and prepared for his work by all kinds of minor providences, +in the best possible way. Whereas all the analogies of God's +operations in other matters prove the contrary of this; we find that +"of thousand seeds, He often brings but one to bear," often not one; +and the one seed which He appoints to bear is allowed to bear crude or +perfect fruit according to the dealings of the husbandman with it. And +there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any person accustomed to take +broad and logical views of the world's history, that its events are +ruled by Providence in precisely the same manner as its harvests; that +the seeds of good and evil are broadcast among men, just as the seeds +of thistles and fruits are; and that according to the force of our +industry, and wisdom of our husbandry, the ground will bring forth to +us figs or thistles. So that when it seems needed that a certain work +should be done for the world, and no man is there to do it, we have no +right to say that God did not wish it to be done, and therefore sent +no man able to do it. The probability (if I wrote my own convictions, +I should say certainty) is, that He sent many men, hundreds of men, +able to do it; and that we have rejected them, or crushed them; by our +previous folly of conduct or of institution, we have rendered it +impossible to distinguish, or impossible to reach them; and when the +need for them comes, and we suffer for the want of them, it is not +that God refuses to send us deliverers, and specially appoints all our +consequent sufferings; but that He has sent, and we have refused, the +deliverers; and the pain is then wrought out by His eternal law, as +surely as famine is wrought out by eternal law for a nation which +will neither plough nor sow. No less are we in error in supposing, as +we so frequently do, that if a man be found, he is sure to be in all +respects fitted for the work to be done, as the key is to the lock; +and that every accident which happened in the forging him, only +adapted him more truly to the wards. It is pitiful to hear historians +beguiling themselves and their readers, by tracing in the early +history of great men, the minor circumstances which fitted them for +the work they did, without ever taking notice of the other +circumstances which as assuredly unfitted them for it; so concluding +that miraculous interposition prepared them in all points for +everything and that they did all that could have been desired or hoped +for from them: whereas the certainty of the matter is that, throughout +their lives, they were thwarted and corrupted by some things as +certainly as they were helped and disciplined by others; and that, in +the kindliest and most reverent view which can justly be taken of +them, they were but poor mistaken creatures, struggling with a world +more profoundly mistaken than they;--assuredly sinned against, or +sinning in thousands of ways, and bringing out at last a maimed +result--not what they might or ought to have done, but all that could +be done against the world's resistance, and in spite of their own +sorrowful falsehood to themselves. + +And this being so, it is the practical duty of a wise nation, +first to withdraw, as far as may be, its youth from destructive +influences;--then to try its material as far as possible, and to lose +the use of none that is good. I do not mean by "withdrawing from +destructive influences" the keeping of youths out of trials; but the +keeping them out of the way of things purely and absolutely +mischievous. I do not mean that we should shade our green corn in all +heat, and shelter it in all frost, but only that we should dyke out +the inundation from it, and drive the fowls away from it. Let your +youth labour and suffer; but do not let it starve, nor steal, nor +blaspheme. + +It is not, of course, in my power here to enter into details of +schemes of education; and it will be long before the results of +experiments now in progress will give data for the solution of the +most difficult questions connected with the subject, of which the +principal one is the mode in which the chance of advancement in life +is to be extended to all, and yet made compatible with contentment in +the pursuit of lower avocations by those whose abilities do not +qualify them for the higher. But the general principle of trial +schools lies at the root of the matter--of schools, that is to say, in +which the knowledge offered and discipline enforced shall be all a +part of a great assay of the human soul, and in which the one shall be +increased, the other directed, as the tried heart and brain will best +bear, and no otherwise. One thing, however, I must say, that in this +trial I believe all emulation to be a false motive, and all giving of +prizes a false means. All that you can depend upon in a boy, as +significative of true power, likely to issue in good fruit, is his +will to work for the work's sake, not his desire to surpass his +schoolfellows; and the aim of the teaching you give him ought to be, +to prove to him and strengthen in him his own separate gift, not to +puff him into swollen rivalry with those who are everlastingly greater +than he: still less ought you to hang favours and ribands about the +neck of the creature who is the greatest, to make the rest envy him. +Try to make them love him and follow him, not struggle with him. + +There must, of course, be examination to ascertain and attest both +progress and relative capacity; but our aim should be to make the +students rather look upon it as a means of ascertaining their own true +positions and powers in the world, than as an arena in which to carry +away a present victory. I have not, perhaps, in the course of the +lecture, insisted enough on the nature of relative capacity and +individual character, as the roots of all real _value_ in Art. We are +too much in the habit, in these days, of acting as if Art worth a +price in the market were a commodity which people could be generally +taught to produce, and as if the _education_ of the artist, not his +_capacity_, gave the sterling value to his work. No impression can +possibly be more absurd or false. Whatever people can teach each other +to do, they will estimate, and ought to estimate, only as common +industry; nothing will ever fetch a high price but precisely that +which cannot be taught, and which nobody can do but the man from whom +it is purchased. No state of society, nor stage of knowledge, ever +does away with the natural pre-eminence of one man over another; and +it is that pre-eminence, and that only, which will give work high +value in the market, or which ought to do so. It is a bad sign of the +judgment, and bad omen for the progress, of a nation, if it supposes +itself to possess many artists of equal merit. Noble art is nothing +less than the expression of a great soul; and great souls are not +common things. If ever we confound their work with that of others, it +is not through liberality, but through blindness. + + +Note 4th, p. 24.--"_Public favour._" + +There is great difficulty in making any short or general statement of +the difference between great and ignoble minds in their behaviour to +the "public." It is by no means _universally_ the case that a mean +mind, as stated in the text, will bend itself to what you ask of it: +on the contrary, there is one kind of mind, the meanest of all, which +perpetually complains of the public, contemplates and proclaims itself +as a "genius," refuses all wholesome discipline or humble office, and +ends in miserable and revengeful ruin; also, the greatest minds are +marked by nothing more distinctly than an inconceivable humility, and +acceptance of work or instruction in any form, and from any quarter. +They will learn from everybody, and do anything that anybody asks of +them, so long as it involves only toil, or what other men would think +degradation. But the point of quarrel, nevertheless, assuredly rises +some day between the public and them, respecting some matter, not of +humiliation, but of Fact. Your great man always at last comes to see +something the public don't see. This something he will assuredly +persist in asserting, whether with tongue or pencil, to be as _he_ +sees it, not as _they_ see it; and all the world in a heap on the +other side will not get him to say otherwise. Then, if the world +objects to the saying, he may happen to get stoned or burnt for it, +but that does not in the least matter to him; if the world has no +particular objection to the saying, he may get leave to mutter it to +himself till he dies, and be merely taken for an idiot; that also +does not matter to him--mutter it he will, according to what he +perceives to be fact, and not at all according to the roaring of the +walls of Red sea on the right hand or left of him. Hence the quarrel, +sure at some time or other to be started between the public and him; +while your mean man, though he will spit and scratch spiritedly at the +public, while it does not attend to him, will bow to it for its clap +in any direction, and say anything when he has got its ear, which he +thinks will bring him another clap; and thus, as stated in the text, +he and it go on smoothly together. + +There are, however, times when the obstinacy of the mean man looks +very like the obstinacy of the great one; but if you look closely into +the matter, you will always see that the obstinacy of the first is in +the pronunciation of "I;" and of the second, in the pronunciation of +"It." + + +Note 5th, p. 38.--"_Invention of new wants._" + +It would have been impossible for political economists long to have +endured the error spoken of in the text,[21] had they not been +confused by an idea, in part well founded, that the energies and +refinements, as well as the riches of civilized life arose from +imaginary wants. It is quite true, that the savage who knows no needs +but those of food, shelter, and sleep, and after he has snared his +venison and patched the rents of his hut, passes the rest of his time +in animal repose, is in a lower state than the man who labours +incessantly that he may procure for himself the luxuries of +civilization; and true also, that the difference between one and +another nation in progressive power depends in great part on vain +desires; but these idle motives are merely to be considered as giving +exercise to the national body and mind; they are not sources of +wealth, except so far as they give the habits of industry and +acquisitiveness. If a boy is clumsy and lazy, we shall do good if we +can persuade him to carve cherrystones and fly kites; and this use of +his fingers and limbs may eventually be the cause of his becoming a +wealthy and happy man; but we must not therefore argue that +cherrystones are valuable property, or that kite-flying is a +profitable mode of passing time. In like manner, a nation always +wastes its time and labour _directly_, when it invents a new want of a +frivolous kind, and yet the invention of such a want may be the sign +of a healthy activity, and the labour undergone to satisfy the new +want may lead, _indirectly_, to useful discoveries or to noble arts; +so that a nation is not to be discouraged in its fancies when it is +either too weak or foolish to be moved to exertion by anything but +fancies, or has attended to its serious business first. If a nation +will not forge iron, but likes distilling lavender, by all means give +it lavender to distil; only do not let its economists suppose that +lavender is as profitable to it as oats, or that it helps poor people +to live, any more than the schoolboy's kite provides him his dinner. +Luxuries, whether national or personal, must be paid for by labour +withdrawn from useful things; and no nation has a right to indulge in +them until all its poor are comfortably housed and fed. + + [21] I have given the political economists too much credit in + saying this. Actually, while these sheets are passing + through the press, the blunt, broad, unmitigated fallacy is + enunciated, formally and precisely, by the Common Councilmen + of New York, in their report on the present commercial + crisis. Here is their collective opinion, published in the + _Times_ of November 23rd, 1857:--"Another erroneous idea is + that luxurious living, extravagant dressing, splendid + turn-outs and fine houses, are the cause of distress to a + nation. No more erroneous impression could exist. Every + extravagance that the man of 100,000 or 1,000,000 dollars + indulges in adds to the means, the support, the wealth of + ten or a hundred who had little or nothing else but their + labour, their intellect, or their taste. If a man of + 1,000,000 dollars spends principal and interest in ten + years, and finds himself beggared at the end of that time, + he has actually made a hundred who have catered to his + extravagance, employers or employed, so much richer by the + division of his wealth. He may be ruined, but the nation is + better off and richer, for one hundred minds and hands, with + 10,000 dollars apiece, are far more productive than one with + the whole." + + Yes, gentlemen of the Common Council! but what has been + doing in the time of the transfer? The spending of the + fortune has taken a certain number of years (suppose ten), + and during that time 1,000,000 dollars' worth of work has + been done by the people, who have been paid that sum for it. + Where is the product of that work? By your own statement, + wholly consumed; for the man for whom it has been done is + now a beggar. You have given, therefore, as a nation, + 1,000,000 dollars' worth of work, and ten years of time, and + you have produced, as ultimate result, one beggar! Excellent + economy, gentlemen! and sure to conduce, in due sequence, to + the production of _more_ than one beggar. Perhaps the matter + may be made clearer to you, however, by a more familiar + instance. If a schoolboy goes out in the morning with five + shillings in his pocket, and comes home at night penniless, + having spent his all in tarts; principal and interest are + gone, and fruiterer and baker are enriched. So far so good. + But suppose the schoolboy, instead, has bought a book and a + knife; principal and interest are gone, and bookseller and + cutler are enriched. But the schoolboy is enriched also, and + may help his schoolfellows next day with knife and book, + instead of lying in bed and incurring a debt to the doctor. + +The enervating influence of luxury, and its tendencies to increase +vice, are points which I keep entirely out of consideration in the +present essay; but, so far as they bear on any question discussed, +they merely furnish additional evidence on the side which I have +taken. Thus, in the present case, I assume that the luxuries of +civilized life are in possession harmless, and in acquirement, +serviceable as a motive for exertion; and even on these favourable +terms, we arrive at the conclusion that the nation ought not to +indulge in them except under severe limitations. Much less ought it to +indulge in them if the temptation consequent on their possession, or +fatality incident to their manufacture, more than counterbalances the +good done by the effort to obtain them. + + +Note 6th, p. 48.--"_Economy of Literature._" + +I have been much impressed lately by one of the results of the +quantity of our books; namely, the stern impossibility of getting +anything understood, that required patience to understand. I observe +always, in the case of my own writings, that if ever I state anything +which has cost me any trouble to ascertain, and which, therefore, will +probably require a minute or two of reflection from the reader before +it can be accepted,--that statement will not only be misunderstood, +but in all probability taken to mean something very nearly the reverse +of what it does mean. Now, whatever faults there may be in my modes of +expression, I know that the words I use will always be found, by +Johnson's dictionary, to bear, first of all, the sense I use them in; +and that the sentences, whether awkwardly turned or not, will, by the +ordinary rules of grammar, bear no other interpretation than that I +mean them to bear; so that the misunderstanding of them must result, +ultimately, from the mere fact that their matter sometimes requires a +little patience. And I see the same kind of misinterpretation put on +the words of other writers, whenever they require the same kind of +thought. + +I was at first a little despondent about this; but, on the whole, I +believe it will have a good effect upon our literature for some time +to come; and then, perhaps, the public may recover its patience again. +For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he +must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader +is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his +reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright +fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at +present more than any thing else. And though I often hear moral people +complaining of the bad effects of want of thought, for my part, it +seems to me that one of the worst diseases to which the human creature +is liable is its disease of thinking. If it would only just _look_[22] +at a thing instead of thinking what it must be like, or _do_ a thing, +instead of thinking it cannot be done, we should all get on far +better. + + [22] There can be no question, however, of the mischievous + tendency of the hurry of the present day, in the way people + undertake this very _looking_. I gave three years' close and + incessant labour to the examination of the chronology of the + architecture of Venice; two long winters being wholly spent + in the drawing of details on the spot: and yet I see + constantly that architects who pass three or four days in a + gondola going up and down the Grand Canal, think that their + first impressions are just as likely to be true as my + patiently wrought conclusions. Mr. Street, for instance, + glances hastily at the façade of the Ducal Palace--so hastily + that he does not even see what its pattern is, and misses the + alternation of red and black in the centres of its + squares--and yet he instantly ventures on an opinion on the + chronology of its capitals, which is one of the most + complicated and difficult subjects in the whole range of + Gothic archæology. It may, nevertheless, be ascertained with + very fair probability of correctness by any person who will + give a month's hard work to it, but it can be ascertained no + otherwise. + + +Note 7th, p. 84.--"_Pilots of the State._" + +While, however, undoubtedly, these responsibilities attach to every +person possessed of wealth, it is necessary both to avoid any +stringency of statement respecting the benevolent modes of spending +money, and to admit and approve so much liberty of spending it for +selfish pleasures as may distinctly make wealth a personal _reward_ +for toil, and secure in the minds of all men the right of property. +For although, without doubt, the purest pleasures it can procure are +not selfish, it is only as a means of personal gratification that it +will be desired by a large majority of workers; and it would be no +less false ethics than false policy to check their energy by any forms +of public opinion which bore hardly against the wanton expenditure of +honestly got wealth. It would be hard if a man who had passed the +greater part of his life at the desk or counter could not at last +innocently gratify a caprice; and all the best and most sacred ends of +almsgiving would be at once disappointed, if the idea of a moral claim +took the place of affectionate gratitude in the mind of the receiver. + +Some distinction is made by us naturally in this respect between +earned and inherited wealth; that which is inherited appearing to +involve the most definite responsibilities, especially when consisting +in revenues derived from the soil. The form of taxation which +constitutes rental of lands places annually a certain portion of the +national wealth in the hands of the nobles, or other proprietors of +the soil, under conditions peculiarly calculated to induce them to +give their best care to its efficient administration. The want of +instruction in even the simplest principles of commerce and economy, +which hitherto has disgraced our schools and universities, has indeed +been the cause of ruin or total inutility of life to multitudes of our +men of estate; but this deficiency in our public education cannot +exist much longer, and it appears to be highly advantageous for the +State that a certain number of persons distinguished by race should be +permitted to set examples of wise expenditure, whether in the +advancement of science, or in patronage of art and literature; only +they must see to it that they take their right standing more firmly +than they have done hitherto, for the position of a rich man in +relation to those around him is, in our present real life, and is also +contemplated generally by political economists as being, precisely the +reverse of what it ought to be. A rich man ought to be continually +examining how he may spend his money for the advantage of others: at +present, others are continually plotting how they may beguile him into +spending it apparently for his own. The aspect which he presents to +the eyes of the world is generally that of a person holding a bag of +money with a staunch grasp, and resolved to part with none of it +unless he is forced, and all the people about him are plotting how +they may force him; that is to say, how they may persuade him that he +wants this thing or that; or how they may produce things that he will +covet and buy. One man tries to persuade him that he wants perfumes; +another that he wants jewellery; another that he wants sugarplums; +another that he wants roses at Christmas. Anybody who can invent a new +want for him is supposed to be a benefactor to society: and thus the +energies of the poorer people about him are continually directed to +the production of covetable, instead of serviceable things; and the +rich man has the general aspect of a fool, plotted against by all the +world. Whereas the real aspect which he ought to have is that of a +person wiser than others, entrusted with the management of a larger +quantity of capital, which he administers for the profit of all, +directing each man to the labour which is most healthy for him, and +most serviceable for the community. + + +Note 8th, p. 84.--"_Silk and Purple._" + +In various places throughout these lectures I have had to allude to +the distinction between productive and unproductive labour, and +between true and false wealth. I shall here endeavour, as clearly as I +can, to explain the distinction I mean. + +Property may be divided generally into two kinds; that which produces +life, and that which produces the objects of life. That which produces +or maintains life consists of food, in so far as it is nourishing; of +furniture and clothing, in so far as they are protective or +cherishing; of fuel; and of all land, instruments, or materials, +necessary to produce food, houses, clothes and fuel. It is specially +and rightly called useful property. + +The property which produces the objects of life consists of all that +gives pleasure or suggests and preserves thought: of food, furniture, +and land, in so far as they are pleasing to the appetite or the eye, +of luxurious dress; and all other kinds of luxuries; of books, +pictures, and architecture. But the modes of connection of certain +minor forms of property with human labour render it desirable to +arrange them under more than these two heads. Property may therefore +be conveniently considered as of five kinds. + +1st. Property necessary to life, but not producible by labour, and +therefore belonging of right, in a due measure, to every human being +as soon as he is born, and morally unalienable. As, for instance, his +proper share of the atmosphere, without which he cannot breathe, and +of water, which he needs to quench his thirst. As much land as he +needs to feed from is also inalienable; but in well regulated +communities this quantity of land may often be represented by other +possessions, or its need supplied by wages and privileges. + +2. Property necessary to life, but only producible by labour, and of +which the possession is morally connected with labour, so that no +person capable of doing the work necessary for its production has a +right to it until he has done that work:--"he that will not work, +neither should he eat." It consists of simple food, clothing, and +habitation, with their seeds and materials, or instruments and +machinery, and animals used for necessary draught or locomotion, etc. +It is to be observed of this kind of property, that its increase +cannot usually be carried beyond a certain point, because it depends +not on labour only, but on things of which the supply is limited by +nature. The possible accumulation of corn depends on the quantity of +corn-growing land possessed or commercially accessible; and that of +steel, similarly, on the accessible quantity of coal and ironstone. It +follows from this natural limitation of supply that the accumulation +of property of this kind in large masses at one point, or in one +person's hands, commonly involves, more or less, the scarcity of it at +another point and in other persons' hands; so that the accidents or +energies which may enable one man to procure a great deal of it, may, +and in all likelihood will partially prevent other men procuring a +sufficiency of it, however willing they may be to work for it; +therefore, the modes of its accumulation and distribution need to be +in some degree regulated by law and by national treaties, in order to +secure justice to all men. + +Another point requiring notice respecting this sort of property is, +that no work can be wasted in producing it, provided only the kind of +it produced be preservable and distributable, since for every grain of +such commodities we produce we are rendering so much more life +possible on earth.[23] But though we are sure, thus, that we are +employing people well, we cannot be sure we might not have employed +them _better_; for it is possible to direct labour to the production +of life, until little or none is left for that of the objects of life, +and thus to increase population at the expense of civilization, +learning, and morality: on the other hand, it is just as possible--and +the error is one to which the world is, on the whole, more liable--to +direct labour to the objects of life till too little is left for life, +and thus to increase luxury or learning at the expense of population. +Right political economy holds its aim poised justly between the two +extremes, desiring neither to crowd its dominions with a race of +savages, nor to found courts and colleges in the midst of a desert. + + [23] This point has sometimes been disputed; for instance, + opening Mill's "Political Economy" the other day, I chanced + on a passage in which he says that a man who makes a coat, + if the person who wears the coat does nothing useful while + he wears it, has done no more good to society than the man + who has only raised a pineapple. But this is a fallacy + induced by endeavour after too much subtlety. None of us + have a right to say that the life of a man is of no use to + _him_, though it may be of no use to _us_; and the man who + made the coat, and thereby prolonged another man's life, has + done a gracious and useful work, whatever may come of the + life so prolonged. We may say to the wearer of the coat, + "You who are wearing coats, and doing nothing in them, are + at present wasting your own life and other people's;" but we + have no right to say that his existence, however wasted, is + wasted _away_. It may be just dragging itself on, in its + thin golden line, with nothing dependent upon it, to the + point where it is to strengthen into good chain cable, and + have thousands of other lives dependent on it. Meantime, the + simple fact respecting the coat-maker is, that he has given + so much life to the creature, the results of which he cannot + calculate; they may be--in all probability will be--infinite + results in some way. But the raiser of pines, who has only + given a pleasant taste in the mouth to some one, may see + with tolerable clearness to the end of the taste in the + mouth, and of all conceivable results therefrom. + +3. The third kind of property is that which conduces to bodily +pleasures and conveniences, without directly tending to sustain life; +perhaps sometimes indirectly tending to destroy it. All dainty (as +distinguished from nourishing) food, and means of producing it; all +scents not needed for health; substances valued only for their +appearance and rarity (as gold and jewels); flowers of difficult +culture; animals used for delight (as horses for racing), and such +like, form property of this class; to which the term "luxury, or +luxuries," ought exclusively to belong. + +Respecting which we have to note first, that all such property is of +doubtful advantage even to its possessor. Furniture tempting to +indolence, sweet odours, and luscious food, are more or less injurious +to health: while jewels, liveries, and other such common belongings of +wealthy people, certainly convey no pleasure to their owners +proportionate to their cost. + +Farther, such property, for the most part, perishes in the using. +Jewels form a great exception--but rich food, fine dresses, horses and +carriages, are consumed by the owner's use. It ought much oftener to +be brought to the notice of rich men what sums of interest of money +they are paying towards the close of their lives, for luxuries +consumed in the middle of them. It would be very interesting, for +instance, to know the exact sum which the money spent in London for +ices, at its desserts and balls, during the last twenty years, had it +been saved and put out at compound interest, would at this moment have +furnished for useful purposes. + +Also, in most cases, the enjoyment of such property is wholly selfish, +and limited to its possessor. Splendid dress and equipage, however, +when so arranged as to produce real beauty of effect, may often be +rather a generous than a selfish channel of expenditure. They will, +however, necessarily in such case involve some of the arts of design; +and therefore take their place in a higher category than that of +luxuries merely. + +4. The fourth kind of property is that which bestows intellectual or +emotional pleasure, consisting of land set apart for purposes of +delight more than for agriculture, of books, works of art, and objects +of natural history. + +It is, of course, impossible to fix an accurate limit between property +of the last class and of this class, since things which are a mere +luxury to one person are a means of intellectual occupation to +another. Flowers in a London ball-room are a luxury; in a botanical +garden, a delight of the intellect; and in their native fields, both; +while the most noble works of art are continually made material of +vulgar luxury or of criminal pride; but, when rightly used, property +of this fourth class is the only kind which deserves the name of +_real_ property; it is the only kind which a man can truly be said to +"possess." What a man eats, or drinks, or wears, so long as it is only +what is needful for life, can no more be thought of as his possession +than the air he breathes. The air is as needful to him as the food; +but we do not talk of a man's wealth of air; and what food or clothing +a man possesses more than he himself requires, must be for others to +use (and, to him, therefore, not a real property in itself, but only a +means of obtaining some real property in exchange for it). Whereas the +things that give intellectual or emotional enjoyment may be +accumulated and do not perish in using; but continually supply new +pleasures and new powers of giving pleasures to others. And these, +therefore, are the only things which can rightly be thought of as +giving "wealth" or "well being." Food conduces only to "being," but +these to "_well_ being." And there is not any broader general +distinction between lower and higher orders of men than rests on their +possession of this real property. The human race may be properly +divided by zoologists into "men who have gardens, libraries, or works +of art; and who have none;" and the former class will include all +noble persons, except only a few who make the world their garden or +museum; while the people who have not, or, which is the same thing, do +not care for gardens or libraries, but care for nothing but money or +luxuries, will include none but ignoble persons: only it is necessary +to understand that I mean by the term "garden" as much the +Carthusian's plot of ground fifteen feet square between his monastery +buttresses, as I do the grounds of Chatsworth or Kew; and I mean by +the term "art" as much the old sailor's print of the Arethusa bearing +up to engage the Belle Poule, as I do Raphael's "Disputa," and even +rather more; for when abundant, beautiful possessions of this kind are +almost always associated with vulgar luxury, and become then anything +but indicative of noble character in their possessors. The ideal of +human life is a union of Spartan simplicity of manners with Athenian +sensibility and imagination, but in actual results, we are continually +mistaking ignorance for simplicity, and sensuality for refinement. + +5. The fifth kind of property is representative property, consisting +of documents or money, or rather documents only, for money itself is +only a transferable document, current among societies of men, giving +claim, at sight, to some definite benefit or advantage, most commonly +to a certain share of real property existing in those societies. The +money is only genuine when the property it gives claim to is real, or +the advantages it gives claim to certain; otherwise, it is false +money, and may be considered as much "forged" when issued by a +government, or a bank, as when by an individual. Thus, if a dozen of +men, cast ashore on a desert island, pick up a number of stones, put a +red spot on each stone, and pass a law that every stone marked with a +red spot shall give claim to a peck of wheat;--so long as no wheat +exists, or can exist, on the island, the stones are not money. But the +moment as much wheat exists as shall render it possible for the +society always to give a peck for every spotted stone, the spotted +stones would become money, and might be exchanged by their possessors +for whatever other commodities they chose, to the value of the peck of +wheat which the stones represented. If more stones were issued than +the quantity of wheat could answer the demand of, the value of the +stone coinage would be depreciated, in proportion to its increase +above the quantity needed to answer it. + +Again, supposing a certain number of the men so cast ashore were set +aside by lot, or any other convention, to do the rougher labour +necessary for the whole society, they themselves being maintained by +the daily allotment of a certain quantity of food, clothing, etc. +Then, if it were agreed that the stones spotted with red should be +signs of a Government order for the labour of these men; and that any +person presenting a spotted stone at the office of the labourers, +should be entitled to a man's work for a week or a day, the red stones +would be money; and might--probably would--immediately pass current in +the island for as much food, or clothing, or iron, or any other +article as a man's work for the period secured by the stone was worth. +But if the Government issued so many spotted stones that it was +impossible for the body of men they employed to comply with the +orders; as, suppose, if they only employed twelve men, and issued +eighteen spotted stones daily, ordering a day's work each, then the +six extra stones would be forged or false money; and the effect of +this forgery would be the depreciation of the value of the whole +coinage by one-third, that being the period of shortcoming which +would, on the average, necessarily ensue in the execution of each +order. Much occasional work may be done in a state or society, by help +of an issue of false money (or false promises) by way of stimulants; +and the fruit of this work, if it comes into the promiser's hands, may +sometimes enable the false promises at last to be fulfilled: hence the +frequent issue of false money by governments and banks, and the not +unfrequent escapes from the natural and proper consequences of such +false issues, so as to cause a confused conception in most people's +minds of what money really is. I am not sure whether some quantity of +such false issue may not really be permissible in a nation, accurately +proportioned to the minimum average produce of the labour it excites; +but all such procedures are more or less unsound; and the notion of +unlimited issue of currency is simply one of the absurdest and most +monstrous that ever came into disjointed human wits. + +The use of objects of real or supposed value for currency, as gold, +jewellery, etc., is barbarous; and it always expresses either the +measure of the distrust in the society of its own government, or the +proportion of distrustful or barbarous nations with whom it has to +deal. A metal not easily corroded or imitated, is a desirable medium +of currency for the sake of cleanliness and convenience, but were it +possible to prevent forgery, the more worthless the metal itself, the +better. The use of worthless media, unrestrained by the use of +valuable media, has always hitherto involved, and is therefore +supposed to involve necessarily, unlimited, or at least improperly +extended, issue; but we might as well suppose that a man must +necessarily issue unlimited promises because his words cost nothing. +Intercourse with foreign nations must, indeed, for ages yet to come, +at the world's present rate of progress, be carried on by valuable +currencies; but such transactions are nothing more than forms of +barter. The gold used at present as a currency is not, in point of +fact, currency at all, but the real property[24] which the currency +gives claim to, stamped to measure its quantity, and mingling with the +real currency occasionally by barter. + + [24] Or rather, equivalent, to such real property, because + everybody has been accustomed to look upon it as valuable: + and therefore everybody is willing to give labour or goods + for it. But real property does ultimately consist only in + things that nourish body or mind; gold would be useless to + us if we could not get mutton or books for it. Ultimately + all commercial mistakes and embarrassments result from + people expecting to get goods without working for them, or + wasting them after they have got them. A nation which + labours, and takes care of the fruits of labour, would be + rich and happy; though there were no gold in the universe. A + nation which is idle, and wastes the produce of what work it + does, would be poor and miserable, though all its mountains + were of gold, and had glens filled with diamonds instead of + glacier. + +The evils necessarily resulting from the use of baseless currencies +have been terribly illustrated while these sheets have been passing +through the press; I have not had time to examine the various +conditions of dishonest or absurd trading which have led to the late +"panic" in America and England; this only I know, that no merchant +deserving the name ought to be more liable to "panic" than a soldier +should; for his name should never be on more paper than he can at any +instant meet the call of, happen what will. I do not say this without +feeling at the same time how difficult it is to mark, in existing +commerce, the just limits between the spirit of enterprise and of +speculation. Something of the same temper which makes the English +soldier do always all that is possible, and attempt more than is +possible, joins its influence with that of mere avarice in tempting +the English merchant into risks which he cannot justify, and efforts +which he cannot sustain; and the same passion for adventure which our +travellers gratify every summer on perilous snow wreaths, and +cloud-encompassed precipices, surrounds with a romantic fascination +the glittering of a hollow investment, and gilds the clouds that curl +round gulfs of ruin. Nay, a higher and a more serious feeling +frequently mingles in the motley temptation; and men apply themselves +to the task of growing rich, as to a labour of providential +appointment, from which they cannot pause without culpability, nor +retire without dishonour. Our large trading cities bear to me very +nearly the aspect of monastic establishments in which the roar of the +mill-wheel and the crane takes the place of other devotional music; +and in which the worship of Mammon or Moloch is conducted with a +tender reverence and an exact propriety; the merchant rising to his +Mammon matins with the self-denial of an anchorite, and expiating the +frivolities into which he may be beguiled, in the course of the day by +late attendance at Mammon vespers. But, with every allowance that can +be made for these conscientious and romantic persons, the fact remains +the same, that by far the greater number of the transactions which +lead to these times of commercial embarrassment may be ranged simply +under two great heads,--gambling and stealing; and both of these in +their most culpable form, namely, gambling with money which is not +ours, and stealing from those who trust us. I have sometimes thought a +day might come, when the nation would perceive that a well-educated +man who steals a hundred thousand pounds, involving the entire means +of subsistence of a hundred families, deserves, on the whole, as +severe a punishment as an ill-educated man who steals a purse from a +pocket, or a mug from a pantry. But without hoping for this excess of +clearsightedness, we may at least labour for a system of greater +honesty and kindness in the minor commerce of our daily life; since +the great dishonesty of the great buyers and sellers is nothing more +than the natural growth and outcome from the little dishonesty of the +little buyers and sellers. Every person who tries to buy an article +for less than its proper value, or who tries to sell it at more than +its proper value--every consumer who keeps a tradesman waiting for his +money, and every tradesman who bribes a consumer to extravagance by +credit, is helping forward, according to his own measure of power, a +system of baseless and dishonourable commerce, and forcing his country +down into poverty and shame. And people of moderate means and average +powers of mind would do far more real good by merely carrying out +stern principles of justice and honesty in common matters of trade, +than by the most ingenious schemes of extended philanthropy, or +vociferous declarations of theological doctrine. There are three +weighty matters of the law--justice, mercy, and truth; and of these +the Teacher puts truth last, because that cannot be known but by a +course of acts of justice and love. But men put, in all their efforts, +truth first, because they mean by it their own opinions; and thus, +while the world has many people who would suffer martyrdom in the +cause of what they call truth, it has few who will suffer even a +little inconvenience, in that of justice and mercy. + + + + +UNTO THIS LAST: + +FOUR ESSAYS ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. + + + "FRIEND, I DO THEE NO WRONG. DID'ST NOT THOU AGREE WITH ME + FOR A PENNY? TAKE THAT THINE IS, AND GO THY WAY. I WILL GIVE + UNTO THIS LAST EVEN AS UNTO THEE." + + "IF YE THINK GOOD, GIVE ME MY PRICE; AND IF NOT, FORBEAR. SO + THEY WEIGHED FOR MY PRICE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER." + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The four following essays were published eighteen months ago in the +_Cornhill Magazine_, and were reprobated in a violent manner, as far +as I could hear, by most of the readers they met with. + +Not a whit the less, I believe them to be the best, that is to say, +the truest, rightest-worded, and most serviceable things I have ever +written; and the last of them, having had especial pains spent on it, +is probably the best I shall ever write. + +"This," the reader may reply, "it might be, yet not therefore well +written." Which, in no mock humility, admitting, I yet rest satisfied +with the work, though with nothing else that I have done; and +purposing shortly to follow out the subjects opened in these papers, +as I may find leisure, I wish the introductory statements to be within +the reach of any one who may care to refer to them. So I republish the +essays as they appeared. One word only is changed, correcting the +estimate of a weight; and no word is added. + +Although, however, I find nothing to modify in these papers, it is a +matter of regret to me that the most startling of all the statements +in them--that respecting the necessity of the organization of labour, +with fixed wages,--should have found its way into the first essay; it +being quite one of the least important, though by no means the least +certain, of the positions to be defended. The real gist of these +papers, their central meaning and aim, is to give, as I believe for +the first time in plain English--it has often been incidentally given +in good Greek by Plato and Xenophon, and good Latin by Cicero and +Horace,--a logical definition of WEALTH: such definition being +absolutely needed for a basis of economical science. The most reputed +essay on that subject which has appeared in modern times, after +opening with the statement that "writers on political economy +profess to teach, or to investigate,[25] the nature of wealth," thus +follows up the declaration of its thesis--"Every one has a notion, +sufficiently correct for common purposes, of what is meant by +wealth." ... "It is no part of the design of this treatise to aim +at metaphysical nicety of definition."[26] + + [25] Which? for where investigation is necessary, teaching is + impossible. + + [26] "Principles of Political Economy." By J. S. Mill. + Preliminary remarks, p. 2. + +Metaphysical nicety, we assuredly do not need; but physical nicety, +and logical accuracy, with respect to a physical subject, we as +assuredly do. + +Suppose the subject of inquiry, instead of being House-law +(_Oikonomia_), had been Star-law (_Astronomia_), and that, ignoring +distinction between stars fixed and wandering, as here between wealth +radiant and wealth reflective, the writer had begun thus: "Every one +has a notion, sufficiently correct for common purposes, of what is +meant by stars. Metaphysical nicety in the definition of a star is not +the object of this treatise;"--the essay so opened might yet have been +far more true in its final statements, and a thousand-fold more +serviceable to the navigator, than any treatise on wealth, which +founds its conclusions on the popular conception of wealth, can ever +become to the economist. + + * * * * * + +It was, therefore, the first object of these following papers to give +an accurate and stable definition of wealth. Their second object was +to show that the acquisition of wealth was finally possible only under +certain moral conditions of society, of which quite the first was a +belief in the existence and even, for practical purposes, in the +attainability of honesty. + +Without venturing to pronounce--since on such a matter human judgment +is by no means conclusive--what is, or is not, the noblest of God's +works, we may yet admit so much of Pope's assertion as that an honest +man is among His best works presently visible, and, as things stand, a +somewhat rare one; but not an incredible or miraculous work; still +less an abnormal one. Honesty is not a disturbing force, which +deranges the orbits of economy; but a consistent and commanding force, +by obedience to which--and by no other obedience--those orbits can +continue clear of chaos. + +It is true, I have sometimes heard Pope condemned for the lowness, +instead of the height, of his standard:--"Honesty is indeed a +respectable virtue; but how much higher may men attain! Shall nothing +more be asked of us than that we be honest?" + +For the present, good friends, nothing. It seems that in our +aspirations to be more than that, we have to some extent lost sight of +the propriety of being so much as that. What else we may have lost +faith in, there shall be here no question; but assuredly we have lost +faith in common honesty, and in the working power of it. And this +faith, with the facts on which it may rest, it is quite our first +business to recover and keep: not only believing, but even by +experience assuring ourselves, that there are yet in the world men who +can be restrained from fraud otherwise than by the fear of losing +employment;[27] nay that it is even accurately in proportion to the +number of such men in any State, that the said State does or can +prolong its existence. + + [27] "The effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman + is not that of his corporation, but of his customers. It is + the fear of losing their employment which restrains his + frauds, and corrects his negligence" (_Wealth of Nations_, + Book I. chap. 10). + +To these two points, then, the following essays are mainly directed. +The subject of the organization of labour is only casually touched +upon; because, if we once can get a sufficient quantity of honesty in +our captains, the organization of labour is easy, and will develop +itself without quarrel or difficulty; but if we cannot get honesty in +our captains, the organization of labour is for evermore impossible. + +The several conditions of its possibility I purpose to examine at +length in the sequel. Yet, lest the reader should be alarmed by the +hints thrown out during the following investigation of first +principles, as if they were leading him into unexpectedly dangerous +ground, I will, for his better assurance, state at once the worst of +the political creed at which I wish him to arrive. + +1. First,--that there should be training schools for youth +established, at Government cost,[28] and under Government discipline, +over the whole country; that every child born in the country should, +at the parent's wish, be permitted (and, in certain cases, be under +penalty required) to pass through them; and that, in these schools, +the child should (with other minor pieces of knowledge hereafter to be +considered) imperatively be taught, with the best skill of teaching +that the country could produce, the following three things:-- + + (_a_) the laws of health, and the exercises enjoined by them; + (_b_) habits of gentleness and justice; and + (_c_) the calling by which he is to live. + + [28] It will probably be inquired by near-sighted persons, out of + what funds such schools could be supported. The expedient + modes of direct provision for them I will examine hereafter; + indirectly, they would be far more than self-supporting. The + economy in crime alone (quite one of the most costly + articles of luxury in the modern European market), which + such schools would induce, would suffice to support them ten + times over. Their economy of labour would be pure gain, and + that too large to be presently calculable. + +2. Secondly,--that, in connection with these training schools, there +should be established, also entirely under Government regulation, +manufactories and workshops, for the production and sale of every +necessary of life, and for the exercise of every useful art. And that, +interfering no whit with private enterprise, nor setting any +restraints or tax on private trade, but leaving both to do their best, +and beat the Government if they could,--there should, at these +Government manufactories and shops, be authoritatively good and +exemplary work done, and pure and true substance sold; so that a man +could be sure, if he chose to pay the Government price, that he got +for his money bread that was bread, ale that was ale, and work that +was work. + +3. Thirdly,--that any man, or woman, or boy, or girl, out of +employment, should be at once received at the nearest Government +school, and set to such work as it appeared, on trial, they were fit +for, at a fixed rate of wages determinable every year:--that, being +found incapable of work through ignorance, they should be taught, or +being found incapable of work through sickness, should be tended; but +that being found objecting to work, they should be set, under +compulsion of the strictest nature, to the more painful and degrading +forms of necessary toil, especially to that in mines and other places +of danger (such danger being, however, diminished to the utmost by +careful regulation and discipline) and the due wages of such work be +retained--cost of compulsion first abstracted--to be at the workman's +command, so soon as he has come to sounder mind respecting the laws of +employment. + +4. Lastly,--that for the old and destitute, comfort and home should be +provided; which provision, when misfortune had been by the working of +such a system sifted from guilt, would be honourable instead of +disgraceful to the receiver. For (I repeat this passage out of my +_Political Economy of Art_, to which the reader is referred for +farther detail[29]) "a labourer serves his country with his spade, +just as a man in the middle ranks of life serves it with sword, pen, +or lancet: if the service is less, and, therefore the wages during +health less, then the reward, when health is broken, may be less, but +not, therefore, less honourable; and it ought to be quite as natural +and straightforward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from +his parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man +in higher rank to take his pension from his country, because he has +deserved well of his country." + + [29] "The Political Economy of Art:" Addenda, p. 93. + +To which statement, I will only add, for conclusion, respecting the +discipline and pay of life and death, that, for both high and low, +Livy's last words touching Valerius Publicola, "_de publico est +elatus_,"[30] ought not to be a dishonourable close of epitaph. + + [30] "P. Valerius, omnium consensu princeps belli pacisque + artibus, anno post moritur; gloriâ ingenti, copiis + familiaribus adeo exiguis, ut funeri sumtus deesset: de + publico est elatus. Luxêre matronæ ut Brutum."--Lib. II. + c. xvi. + +These things, then, I believe, and am about, as I find power, to +explain and illustrate in their various bearings; following out also +what belongs to them of collateral inquiry. Here I state them only in +brief, to prevent the reader casting about in alarm for my ultimate +meaning; yet requesting him, for the present to remember, that in a +science dealing with so subtle elements as those of human nature, it +is only possible to answer for the final truth of principles, not for +the direct success of plans: and that in the best of these last, what +can be immediately accomplished is always questionable, and what can +be finally accomplished, inconceivable. + + _Denmark Hill, 10th May, 1862._ + + + + +ESSAY I. + +THE ROOTS OF HONOUR. + + +Among the delusions which at different periods have possessed +themselves of the minds of large masses of the human race, perhaps +the most curious--certainly the least creditable--is the modern +_soi-disant_ science of political economy, based on the idea that an +advantageous code of social action may be determined irrespectively of +the influence of social affection. + +Of course, as in the instances of alchemy, astrology, witchcraft, and +other such popular creeds, political economy has a plausible idea at +the root of it. "The social affections," says the economist, "are +accidental and disturbing elements in human nature; but avarice and +the desire of progress are constant elements. Let us eliminate the +inconstants, and, considering the human being merely as a covetous +machine, examine by what laws of labour, purchase, and sale, the +greatest accumulative result in wealth is obtainable. Those laws once +determined, it will be for each individual afterwards to introduce as +much of the disturbing affectionate element as he chooses, and to +determine for himself the result on the new conditions supposed." + +This would be a perfectly logical and successful method of analysis, +if the accidentals afterwards to be introduced were of the same nature +as the powers first examined. Supposing a body in motion to be +influenced by constant and inconstant forces, it is usually the +simplest way of examining its course to trace it first under the +persistent conditions, and afterwards introduce the causes of +variation. But the disturbing elements in the social problem are not +of the same nature as the constant ones; they alter the essence of +the creature under examination the moment they are added; they +operate, not mathematically, but chemically, introducing conditions +which render all our previous knowledge unavailable. We made learned +experiments upon pure nitrogen, and have convinced ourselves that it +is a very manageable gas: but behold! the thing which we have +practically to deal with is its chloride; and this, the moment we +touch it on our established principles, sends us and our apparatus +through the ceiling. + +Observe, I neither impugn nor doubt the conclusions of the science, if +its terms are accepted. I am simply uninterested in them, as I should +be in those of a science of gymnastics which assumed that men had no +skeletons. It might be shown, on that supposition, that it would be +advantageous to roll the students up into pellets, flatten them into +cakes, or stretch them into cables; and that when these results were +effected, the re-insertion of the skeleton would be attended with +various inconveniences to their constitution. The reasoning might be +admirable, the conclusions true, and the science deficient only in +applicability. Modern political economy stands on a precisely similar +basis. Assuming, not that the human being has no skeleton, but that it +is all skeleton, it founds an ossifiant theory of progress on this +negation of a soul; and having shown the utmost that may be made of +bones, and constructed a number of interesting geometrical figures +with death's-heads and humeri, successfully proves the inconvenience +of the reappearance of a soul among these corpuscular structures. I do +not deny the truth of this theory: I simply deny its applicability to +the present phase of the world. + +This inapplicability has been curiously manifested during the +embarrassment caused by the late strikes of our workmen. Here occurs +one of the simplest cases, in a pertinent and positive form, of the +first vital problem which political economy has to deal with (the +relation between employer and employed); and at a severe crisis, when +lives in multitudes, and wealth in masses, are at stake, the political +economists are helpless--practically mute; no demonstrable solution of +the difficulty can be given by them, such as may convince or calm the +opposing parties. Obstinately the masters take one view of the +matter; obstinately the operatives another; and no political science +can set them at one. + +It would be strange if it could, it being not by "science" of any kind +that men were ever intended to be set at one. Disputant after +disputant vainly strives to show that the interests of the masters +are, or are not, antagonistic to those of the men: none of the +pleaders ever seeming to remember that it does not absolutely or +always follow that the persons must be antagonistic because their +interests are. If there is only a crust of bread in the house, and +mother and children are starving, their interests are not the same. If +the mother eats it, the children want it; if the children eat it, the +mother must go hungry to her work. Yet it does not necessarily follow +that there will be "antagonism" between them, that they will fight for +the crust, and that the mother, being strongest, will get it, and eat +it. Neither, in any other case, whatever the relations of the persons +may be, can it be assumed for certain that, because their interests +are diverse, they must necessarily regard each other with hostility, +and use violence or cunning to obtain the advantage. + +Even if this were so, and it were as just as it is convenient to +consider men as actuated by no other moral influences than those which +affect rats or swine, the logical conditions of the question are still +indeterminable. It can never be shown generally either that the +interests of master and labourer are alike, or that they are opposed; +for, according to circumstances, they may be either. It is, indeed, +always the interest of both that the work should be rightly done, and +a just price obtained for it; but, in the division of profits, the +gain of the one may or may not be the loss of the other. It is not the +master's interest to pay wages so low as to leave the men sickly and +depressed, nor the workman's interest to be paid high wages if the +smallness of the master's profit hinders him from enlarging his +business, or conducting it in a safe and liberal way. A stoker ought +not to desire high pay if the company is too poor to keep the +engine-wheels in repair. + +And the varieties of circumstance which influence these reciprocal +interests are so endless, that all endeavour to deduce rules of action +from balance of expediency is in vain. And it is meant to be in vain. +For no human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be +guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice. He has +therefore rendered all endeavours to determine expediency futile for +evermore. No man ever knew or can know, what will be the ultimate +result to himself, or to others, of any given line of conduct. But +every man may know, and most of us do know, what is a just and unjust +act. And all of us may know also, that the consequences of justice +will be ultimately the best possible, both to others and ourselves, +though we can neither say what _is_ best, or how it is likely to come +to pass. + +I have said balances of justice, meaning, in the term justice, to +include affection,--such affection as one man _owes_ to another. All +right relations between master and operative, and all their best +interests, ultimately depend on these. + +We shall find the best and simplest illustration of the relations of +master and operative in the position of domestic servants. + +We will suppose that the master of a household desires only to get as +much work out of his servants as he can, at the rate of wages he +gives. He never allows them to be idle; feeds them as poorly and +lodges them as ill as they will endure, and in all things pushes his +requirements to the exact point beyond which he cannot go without +forcing the servant to leave him. In doing this, there is no violation +on his part of what is commonly called "justice." He agrees with the +domestic for his whole time and service, and takes them;--the limits +of hardship in treatment being fixed by the practice of other masters +in his neighbourhood; that is to say, by the current rate of wages for +domestic labour. If the servant can get a better place, he is free to +take one, and the master can only tell what is the real market value +of his labour, by requiring as much as he will give. + +This is the politico-economical view of the case, according to the +doctors of that science; who assert that by this procedure the +greatest average of work will be obtained from the servant, and +therefore, the greatest benefit to the community, and through the +community, by reversion, to the servant himself. + +That, however, is not so. It would be so if the servant were an +engine of which the motive power was steam, magnetism, gravitation, or +any other agent of calculable force. But he being, on the contrary, an +engine whose motive power is a Soul, the force of this very peculiar +agent, as an unknown quantity, enters into all the political +economist's equations, without his knowledge, and falsifies every one +of their results. The largest quantity of work will not be done by +this curious engine for pay, or under pressure, or by help of any kind +of fuel which may be supplied by the chaldron. It will be done only +when the motive force, that is to say, the will or spirit of the +creature, is brought to its greatest strength by its own proper fuel; +namely, by the affections. + +It may indeed happen, and does happen often, that if the master is a +man of sense and energy, a large quantity of material work may be done +under mechanical pressure, enforced by strong will and guided by wise +method; also it may happen, and does happen often, that if the master +is indolent and weak (however good-natured), a very small quantity of +work, and that bad, may be produced by the servant's undirected +strength, and contemptuous gratitude. But the universal law of the +matter is that, assuming any given quantity of energy and sense in +master and servant, the greatest material result obtainable by them +will be, not through antagonism to each other, but through affection +for each other; and that if the master, instead of endeavouring to get +as much work as possible from the servant, seeks rather to render his +appointed and necessary work beneficial to him, and to forward his +interests in all just and wholesome ways, the real amount of work +ultimately done, or of good rendered, by the person so cared for, will +indeed be the greatest possible. + +Observe, I say, "of good rendered," for a servant's work is not +necessarily or always the best thing he can give his master. But good +of all kinds, whether in material service, in protective watchfulness +of his master's interest and credit, or in joyful readiness to seize +unexpected and irregular occasions of help. + +Nor is this one whit less generally true because indulgence will be +frequently abused, and kindness met with ingratitude. For the servant +who, gently treated, is ungrateful, treated ungently, will be +revengeful; and the man who is dishonest to a liberal master will be +injurious to an unjust one. + +In any case, and with any person, this unselfish treatment will +produce the most effective return. Observe, I am here considering the +affections wholly as a motive power; not at all as things in +themselves desirable or noble, or in any other way abstractedly good. +I look at them simply as an anomalous force, rendering every one of +the ordinary political economist's calculations nugatory; while, even +if he desired to introduce this new element into his estimates, he has +no power of dealing with it; for the affections only become a true +motive power when they ignore every other motive and condition of +political economy. Treat the servant kindly, with the idea of turning +his gratitude to account, and you will get, as you deserve, no +gratitude, nor any value for your kindness; but treat him kindly +without any economical purpose, and all economical purposes will be +answered; in this, as in all other matters, whosoever will save his +life shall lose it, whoso loses it shall find it.[31] + + [31] The difference between the two modes of treatment, and + between their effective material results, may be seen very + accurately by a comparison of the relations of Esther and + Charlie in _Bleak House_, with those of Miss Brass and the + Marchioness in _Master Humphrey's Clock_. + + The essential value and truth of Dickens's writings have + been unwisely lost sight of by many thoughtful persons, + merely because he presents his truth with some colour of + caricature. Unwisely, because Dickens's caricature, though + often gross, is never mistaken. Allowing for his manner of + telling them, the things he tells us are always true. I wish + that he could think it right to limit his brilliant + exaggeration to works written only for public amusement; and + when he takes up a subject of high national importance, such + as that which he handled in _Hard Times_, that he would use + severer and more accurate analysis. The usefulness of that + work (to my mind, in several respects, the greatest he has + written) is with many persons seriously diminished because + Mr. Bounderby is a dramatic monster, instead of a + characteristic example of a worldly master; and Stephen + Blackpool a dramatic perfection, instead of a characteristic + example of an honest workman. But let us not lose the use of + Dickens's wit and insight, because he chooses to speak in a + circle of stage fire. He is entirely right in his main drift + and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, + but especially _Hard Times_, should be studied with close + and earnest care by persons interested in social questions. + They will find much that is partial, and, because partial, + apparently unjust; but if they examine all the evidence on + the other side, which Dickens seems to overlook, it will + appear, after all their trouble, that his view was the + finally right one, grossly and sharply told. + +The next clearest and simplest example of relation between master and +operative is that which exists between the commander of a regiment and +his men. + +Supposing the officer only desires to apply the rules of discipline so +as, with least trouble to himself, to make the regiment most +effective, he will not be able, by any rules, or administration of +rules, on this selfish principle, to develop the full strength of his +subordinates. If a man of sense and firmness, he may, as in the former +instance, produce a better result than would be obtained by the +irregular kindness of a weak officer; but let the sense and firmness +be the same in both cases, and assuredly the officer who has the most +direct personal relations with his men, the most care for their +interests, and the most value for their lives, will develop their +effective strength, through their affection for his own person, and +trust in his character, to a degree wholly unattainable by other +means. The law applies still more stringently as the numbers concerned +are larger; a charge may often be successful, though the men dislike +their officers; a battle has rarely been won, unless they loved their +general. + +Passing from these simple examples to the more complicated relations +existing between a manufacturer and his workmen, we are met first by +certain curious difficulties, resulting, apparently, from a harder and +colder state of moral elements. It is easy to imagine an enthusiastic +affection existing among soldiers for the colonel, not so easy to +imagine an enthusiastic affection among cotton-spinners for the +proprietor of the mill. A body of men associated for purposes of +robbery (as a Highland clan in ancient times) shall be animated by +perfect affection, and every member of it be ready to lay down his +life for the life of his chief. But a band of men associated for +purposes of legal production and accumulation is usually animated, it +appears, by no such emotions, and none of them are in anywise willing +to give his life for the life of his chief. Not only are we met by +this apparent anomaly, in moral matters, but by others connected with +it, in administration of system. For a servant or a soldier is +engaged at a definite rate of wages, for a definite period; but a +workman at a rate of wages variable according to the demand for +labour, and with the risk of being at any time thrown out of his +situation by chances of trade. Now, as, under these contingencies, no +action of the affections can take place, but only an explosive action +of _dis_affections, two points offer themselves for consideration in +the matter. + +The first--How far the rate of wages may be so regulated as not to +vary with the demand for labour. + +The second--How far it is possible that bodies of workmen may be +engaged and maintained at such fixed rate of wages (whatever the state +of trade may be), without enlarging or diminishing their number, so as +to give them permanent interest in the establishment with which they +are connected, like that of the domestic servants in an old family, or +an _esprit de corps_, like that of the soldiers in a crack regiment. + +The first question is, I say, how far it may be possible to fix the +rate of wages irrespectively of the demand for labour. + +Perhaps one of the most curious facts in the history of human error is +the denial by the common political economist of the possibility of +thus regulating wages; while, for all the important, and much of the +unimportant, labour on the earth, wages are already so regulated. + +We do not sell our prime-ministership by Dutch auction; nor, on +the decease of a bishop, whatever may be the general advantages of +simony, do we (yet) offer his diocese to the clergyman who will +take the episcopacy at the lowest contract. We (with exquisite +sagacity of political economy!) do indeed sell commissions, but not, +openly, generalships: sick, we do not inquire for a physician who +takes less than a guinea; litigious, we never think of reducing +six-and-eightpence to four-and-sixpence; caught in a shower, we do not +canvass the cabmen, to find one who values his driving at less than a +sixpence a mile. + +It is true that in all these cases there is, and in every conceivable +case there must be, ultimate reference to the presumed difficulty of +the work, or number of candidates for the office. If it were thought +that the labour necessary to make a good physician would be gone +through by a sufficient number of students with the prospect of only +half-guinea fees, public consent would soon withdraw the unnecessary +half-guinea. In this ultimate sense, the price of labour is indeed +always regulated by the demand for it; but so far as the practical and +immediate administration of the matter is regarded, the best labour +always has been, and is, as _all_ labour ought to be, paid by an +invariable standard. + +"What!" the reader, perhaps, answers amazedly: "pay good and bad +workmen alike?" + +Certainly. The difference between one prelate's sermons and his +successor's,--or between one physician's opinion and another's,--is +far greater, as respects the qualities of mind involved, and far more +important in result to you personally, than the difference between +good and bad laying of bricks (though that is greater than most people +suppose). Yet you pay with equal fee, contentedly, the good and bad +workmen upon your soul, and the good and bad workmen upon your body; +much more may you pay, contentedly, with equal fees, the good and bad +workmen upon your house. + +"Nay, but I choose my physician and (?) my clergyman, thus indicating +my sense of the quality of their work." By all means, also, choose +your bricklayer; that is the proper reward of the good workman, to be +"chosen." The natural and right system respecting all labour is, that +it should be paid at a fixed rate, but the good workman employed, and +the bad workmen unemployed. The false, unnatural, and destructive +system is, when the bad workman is allowed to offer his work at +half-price, and either take the place of the good, or force him by his +competition to work for an inadequate sum. + +This equality of wages, then, being the first object towards which we +have to discover the directest available road; the second is, as above +stated, that of maintaining constant numbers of workmen in employment, +whatever may be the accidental demand for the article they produce. + +I believe the sudden and extensive inequalities of demand which +necessarily arise in the mercantile operations of an active nation, +constitute the only essential difficulty which has to be overcome in a +just organization of labour. The subject opens into too many branches +to admit of being investigated in a paper of this kind; but the +following general facts bearing on it may be noted. + +The wages which enable any workman to live are necessarily higher, if +his work is liable to intermission, than if it is assured and +continuous; and however severe the struggle for work may become, the +general law will always hold, that men must get more daily pay if, on +the average, they can only calculate on work three days a week, than +they would require if they were sure of work six days a week. +Supposing that a man cannot live on less than a shilling a day, his +seven shillings he must get, either for three days' violent work, or +six days' deliberate work. The tendency of all modern mercantile +operations is to throw both wages and trade into the form of a +lottery, and to make the workman's pay depend on intermittent +exertion, and the principal's profit on dexterously used chance. + +In what partial degree, I repeat, this may be necessary, in +consequence of the activities of modern trade, I do not here +investigate; contenting myself with the fact, that in its fatallest +aspects it is assuredly unnecessary, and results merely from love of +gambling on the part of the masters, and from ignorance and sensuality +in the men. The masters cannot bear to let any opportunity of gain +escape them, and frantically rush at every gap and breach in the walls +of Fortune, raging to be rich, and affronting, with impatient +covetousness, every risk of ruin; while the men prefer three days of +violent labour, and three days of drunkenness, to six days of moderate +work and wise rest. There is no way in which a principal, who really +desires to help his workmen, may do it more effectually than by +checking these disorderly habits both in himself and them; keeping his +own business operations on a scale which will enable him to pursue +them securely, not yielding to temptations of precarious gain; and, at +the same time, leading his workmen into regular habits of labour and +life, either by inducing them rather to take low wages in the form of +a fixed salary, than high wages, subject to the chance of their being +thrown out of work; or, if this be impossible, by discouraging the +system of violent exertion for nominally high day wages, and leading +the men to take lower pay for more regular labour. + +In effecting any radical changes of this kind, doubtless there would +be great inconvenience and loss incurred by all the originators of +movement. That which can be done with perfect convenience and without +loss, is not always the thing that most needs to be done, or which we +are most imperatively required to do. + +I have already alluded to the difference hitherto existing between +regiments of men associated for purposes of violence, and for +purposes of manufacture; in that the former appear capable of +self-sacrifice--the latter, not; which singular fact is the real +reason of the general lowness of estimate in which the profession of +commerce is held, as compared with that of arms. Philosophically, it +does not, at first sight, appear reasonable (many writers have +endeavoured to prove it unreasonable) that a peaceable and rational +person, whose trade is buying and selling, should be held in less +honour than an unpeaceable and often irrational person, whose trade is +slaying. Nevertheless, the consent of mankind has always, in spite of +the philosophers, given precedence to the soldier. + +And this is right. + +For the soldier's trade, verily and essentially, is not slaying, but +being slain. This, without well knowing its own meaning, the world +honours it for. A bravo's trade is slaying; but the world has never +respected bravos more than merchants: the reason it honours the +soldier is, because he holds his life at the service of the State. +Reckless he may be--fond of pleasure or of adventure--all kinds of +bye-motives and mean impulses may have determined the choice of his +profession, and may affect (to all appearance exclusively) his daily +conduct in it; but our estimate of him is based on this ultimate +fact--of which we are well assured--that, put him in a fortress +breach, with all the pleasures of the world behind him, and only +death and his duty in front of him, he will keep his face to the +front; and he knows that this choice may be put to him at any moment, +and has beforehand taken his part--virtually takes such part +continually--does, in reality, die daily. + +Not less is the respect we pay to the lawyer and physician, founded +ultimately on their self-sacrifice. Whatever the learning or acuteness +of a great lawyer, our chief respect for him depends on our belief +that, set in a judge's seat, he will strive to judge justly, come of +it what may. Could we suppose that he would take bribes, and use his +acuteness and legal knowledge to give plausibility to iniquitous +decisions, no degree of intellect would win for him our respect. +Nothing will win it, short of our tacit conviction, that in all +important acts of his life justice is first with him; his own +interest, second. + +In the case of a physician, the ground of the honour we render him is +clearer still. Whatever his science, we should shrink from him in +horror if we found him regard his patients merely as subjects to +experiment upon; much more, if we found that, receiving bribes from +persons interested in their deaths, he was using his best skill to +give poison in the mask of medicine. + +Finally, the principle holds with utmost clearness as it respects +clergymen. No goodness of disposition will excuse want of science in a +physician, or of shrewdness in an advocate; but a clergyman, even +though his power of intellect be small, is respected on the presumed +ground of his unselfishness and serviceableness. + +Now there can be no question but that the tact, foresight, decision, +and other mental powers, required for the successful management of a +large mercantile concern, if not such as could be compared with those +of a great lawyer, general, or divine, would at least match the +general conditions of mind required in the subordinate officers of a +ship, or of a regiment, or in the curate of a country parish. If, +therefore, all the efficient members of the so-called liberal +professions are still, somehow, in public estimate of honour, +preferred before the head of a commercial firm, the reason must lie +deeper than in the measurement of their several powers of mind. + +And the essential reason for such preference will be found to lie in +the fact that the merchant is presumed to act always selfishly. His +work may be very necessary to the community; but the motive of it is +understood to be wholly personal. The merchant's first object in all +his dealings must be (the public believe) to get as much for himself, +and leave as little to his neighbour (or customer) as possible. +Enforcing this upon him, by political statute, as the necessary +principle of his action; recommending it to him on all occasions, and +themselves reciprocally adopting it; proclaiming vociferously, for law +of the universe, that a buyer's function is to cheapen, and a seller's +to cheat,--the public, nevertheless, involuntarily condemn the man of +commerce for his compliance with their own statement, and stamp him +for ever as belonging to an inferior grade of human personality. + +This they will find, eventually, they must give up doing. They must +not cease to condemn selfishness; but they will have to discover a +kind of commerce which is not exclusively selfish. Or, rather, they +will have to discover that there never was, or can be, any other kind +of commerce; that this which they have called commerce was not +commerce at all, but cozening; and that a true merchant differs as +much from a merchant according to laws of modern political economy, as +the hero of the _Excursion_ from Autolycus. They will find that +commerce is an occupation which gentlemen will every day see more need +to engage in, rather than in the businesses of talking to men, or +slaying them; that, in true commerce, as in true preaching, or true +fighting, it is necessary to admit the idea of occasional voluntary +loss; that sixpences have to be lost, as well as lives, under a sense +of duty; that the market may have its martyrdoms as well as the +pulpit; and trade its heroisms, as well as war. + +May have--in the final issue, must have--and only has not had yet, +because men of heroic temper have always been misguided in their youth +into other fields, not recognizing what is in our days, perhaps, the +most important of all fields; so that, while many a zealous person +loses his life in trying to teach the form of a gospel, very few will +lose a hundred pounds in showing the practice of one. + +The fact is, that people never have had clearly explained to them the +true functions of a merchant with respect to other people. I should +like the reader to be very clear about this. + +Five great intellectual professions, relating to daily necessities +of life, have hitherto existed--three exist necessarily, in every +civilized nation: + + The Soldier's profession is to _defend_ it. + + The Pastor's, to _teach_ it. + + The Physician's, to _keep it in health_. + + The Lawyer's, to _enforce justice_ in it. + + The Merchant's, _to provide_ for it. + + And the duty of all these men is, on due occasion, to _die_ for it. + +"On due occasion," namely:-- + + The Soldier, rather than leave his post in battle. + + The Physician, rather than leave his post in plague. + + The Pastor, rather than teach Falsehood. + + The Lawyer, rather than countenance Injustice. + + The Merchant--What is _his_ "due occasion" of death? It is the main + question for the merchant, as for all of us. For, truly, the man who + does not know when to die, does not know how to live. + +Observe, the merchant's function (or manufacturer's, for in the broad +sense in which it is here used the word must be understood to include +both) is to provide for the nation. It is no more his function to get +profit for himself out of that provision than it is a clergyman's +function to get his stipend. The stipend is a due and necessary +adjunct, but not the object, of his life, if he be a true clergyman, +any more than his fee (or _honorarium_) is the object of life to a +true physician. Neither is his fee the object of life to a true +merchant. All three, if true men, have a work to be done irrespective +of fee--to be done even at any cost, or for quite the contrary of fee; +the pastor's function being to teach, the physician's to heal, and the +merchant's, as I have said, to provide. That is to say, he has to +understand to their very root the qualities of the thing he deals in, +and the means of obtaining or producing it; and he has to apply all +his sagacity and energy to the producing or obtaining it in perfect +state, and distributing it at the cheapest possible price where it is +most needed. + +And because the production or obtaining of any commodity involves +necessarily the agency of many lives and hands, the merchant becomes +in the course of his business the master and governor of large masses +of men in a more direct, though less confessed way, than a military +officer or pastor; so that on him falls, in great part, the +responsibility for the kind of life they lead: and it becomes his +duty, not only to be always considering how to produce what he sells +in the purest and cheapest forms, but how to make the various +employments involved in the production, or transference of it, most +beneficial to the men employed. + +And as into these two functions, requiring for their right exercise +the highest intelligence, as well as patience, kindness, and tact, the +merchant is bound to put all his energy, so for their just discharge +he is bound, as soldier or physician is bound, to give up, if need be, +his life, in such way as it may be demanded of him. Two main points he +has in his providing function to maintain: first, his engagements +(faithfulness to engagements being the real root of all possibilities +in commerce); and, secondly, the perfectness and purity of the thing +provided; so that, rather than fail in any engagement, or consent to +any deterioration, adulteration, or unjust and exorbitant price of +that which he provides, he is bound to meet fearlessly any form of +distress, poverty, or labour, which may, through maintenance of these +points, come upon him. + +Again: in his office as governor of the men employed by him, the +merchant or manufacturer is invested with a distinctly paternal +authority and responsibility. In most cases, a youth entering a +commercial establishment is withdrawn altogether from home influence; +his master must become his father, else he has, for practical and +constant help, no father at hand: in all cases the master's authority, +together with the general tone and atmosphere of his business, and the +character of the men with whom the youth is compelled in the course of +it to associate, have more immediate and pressing weight than the home +influence, and will usually neutralize it either for good or evil; so +that the only means which the master has of doing justice to the men +employed by him is to ask himself sternly whether he is dealing with +such subordinate as he would with his own son, if compelled by +circumstances to take such a position. + +Supposing the captain of a frigate saw it right, or were by any chance +obliged, to place his own son in the position of a common sailor; as +he would then treat his son, he is bound always to treat every one of +the men under him. So, also; supposing the master of a manufactory +saw it right, or were by any chance obliged, to place his own son in +the position of an ordinary workman; as he would then treat his son, +he is bound always to treat every one of his men. This is the only +effective true, or practical RULE which can be given on this point of +political economy. + +And as the captain of a ship is bound to be the last man to leave his +ship in case of wreck, and to share his last crust with the sailors in +case of famine, so the manufacturer, in any commercial crisis or +distress, is bound to take the suffering of it with his men, and even +to take more of it for himself than he allows his men to feel; as a +father would in a famine, shipwreck, or battle, sacrifice himself for +his son. + +All which sounds very strange: the only real strangeness in the matter +being, nevertheless, that it should so sound. For all this is true, +and that not partially nor theoretically, but everlastingly and +practically: all other doctrine than this respecting matters political +being false in premises, absurd in deduction, and impossible in +practice, consistently with any progressive state of national life; +all the life which we now possess as a nation showing itself in the +resolute denial and scorn, by a few strong minds and faithful hearts, +of the economic principles taught to our multitudes, which principles, +so far as accepted, lead straight to national destruction. Respecting +the modes and forms of destruction to which they lead, and, on the +other hand, respecting the farther practical working of true polity, +I hope to reason further in a following paper. + + + + +ESSAY II. + +THE VEINS OF WEALTH. + + +The answer which would be made by any ordinary political economist to +the statements contained in the preceding paper, is in few words as +follows:-- + +"It is indeed true that certain advantages of a general nature may be +obtained by the development of social affections. But political +economists never professed, nor profess, to take advantages of a +general nature into consideration. Our science is simply the science +of getting rich. So far from being a fallacious or visionary one, it +is found by experience to be practically effective. Persons who follow +its precepts do actually become rich, and persons who disobey them +become poor. Every capitalist of Europe has acquired his fortune by +following the known laws of our science, and increases his capital +daily by an adherence to them. It is vain to bring forward tricks of +logic, against the force of accomplished facts. Every man of business +knows by experience how money is made, and how it is lost." + +Pardon me. Men of business do indeed know how they themselves made +their money, or how, on occasion, they lost it. Playing a +long-practised game, they are familiar with the chances of its cards, +and can rightly explain their losses and gains. But they neither know +who keeps the bank of the gambling-house, nor what other games may be +played with the same cards, nor what other losses and gains, far away +among the dark streets, are essentially, though invisibly, dependent +on theirs in the lighted rooms. They have learned a few, and only a +few, of the laws of mercantile economy; but not one of those of +political economy. + +Primarily, which is very notable and curious, I observe that men of +business rarely know the meaning of the word "rich." At least if they +know, they do not in their reasonings allow for the fact that it is a +relative word, implying its opposite "poor" as positively as the word +"north" implies its opposite "south." Men nearly always speak and +write as if riches were absolute, and it were possible, by following +certain scientific precepts, for everybody to be rich. Whereas riches +are a power like that of electricity, acting only through inequalities +or negations of itself. The force of the guinea you have in your +pocket depends wholly on the default of a guinea in your neighbour's +pocket. If he did not want it, it would be of no use to you; the +degree of power it possesses depends accurately upon the need or +desire he has for it,--and the art of making yourself rich, in the +ordinary mercantile economist's sense, is therefore equally and +necessarily the art of keeping your neighbour poor. + +I would not contend in this matter (and rarely in any matter), for the +acceptance of terms. But I wish the reader clearly and deeply to +understand the difference between the two economies, to which the +terms "Political" and "Mercantile" might not unadvisably be attached. + +Political economy (the economy of a State, or of citizens) consists +simply in the production, preservation, and distribution, at fittest +time and place, of useful or pleasurable things. The farmer who cuts +his hay at the right time; the shipwright who drives his bolts well +home in sound wood; the builder who lays good bricks in well-tempered +mortar; the housewife who takes care of her furniture in the parlour, +and guards against all waste in her kitchen; and the singer who +rightly disciplines, and never overstrains her voice: are all +political economists in the true and final sense; adding continually +to the riches and well-being of the nation to which they belong. + +But mercantile economy, the economy of "merces" or of "pay," signifies +the accumulation, in the hands of individuals, of legal, or moral +claim upon, or power over, the labour of others; every such claim +implying precisely as much poverty or debt on one side, as it implies +riches or right on the other. + +It does not, therefore, necessarily involve an addition to the actual +property, or well-being, of the State in which it exists. But since +this commercial wealth, or power over labour, is nearly always +convertible at once into real property, while real property is not +always convertible at once into power over labour, the idea of riches +among active men in civilized nations, generally refers to commercial +wealth; and in estimating their possessions, they rather calculate the +value of their horses and fields by the number of guineas they could +get for them, than the value of their guineas by the number of horses +and fields they could buy with them. + +There is, however, another reason for this habit of mind; namely, that +an accumulation of real property is of little use to its owner, +unless, together with it, he has commercial power over labour. Thus, +suppose any person to be put in possession of a large estate of +fruitful land, with rich beds of gold in its gravel, countless herds +of cattle in its pastures; houses, and gardens, and storehouses full +of useful stores; but suppose, after all, that he could get no +servants? In order that he may be able to have servants, some one in +his neighbourhood must be poor, and in want of his gold--or his corn. +Assume that no one is in want of either, and that no servants are to +be had. He must, therefore, bake his own bread, make his own clothes, +plough his own ground, and shepherd his own flocks. His gold will be +as useful to him as any other yellow pebbles on his estate. His stores +must rot, for he cannot consume them. He can eat no more than another +man could eat, and wear no more than another man could wear. He must +lead a life of severe and common labour to procure even ordinary +comforts; he will be ultimately unable to keep either houses in +repair, or fields in cultivation; and forced to content himself with a +poor man's portion of cottage and garden, in the midst of a desert of +waste land, trampled by wild cattle, and encumbered by ruins of +palaces, which he will hardly mock at himself by calling "his own." + +The most covetous of mankind would, with small exultation, I presume, +accept riches of this kind on these terms. What is really desired, +under the name of riches, is, essentially, power over men; in its +simplest sense, the power of obtaining for our own advantage the +labour of servant, tradesman, and artist; in wider sense, authority +of directing large masses of the nation to various ends (good, +trivial, or hurtful, according to the mind of the rich person). And +this power of wealth of course is greater or less in direct proportion +to the poverty of the men over whom it is exercised, and in inverse +proportion to the number of persons who are as rich as ourselves, and +who are ready to give the same price for an article of which the +supply is limited. If the musician is poor, he will sing for small +pay, as long as there is only one person who can pay him; but if there +be two or three, he will sing for the one who offers him most. And +thus the power of the riches of the patron (always imperfect and +doubtful, as we shall see presently, even when most authoritative) +depends first on the poverty of the artist, and then on the limitation +of the number of equally wealthy persons, who also wants seats at the +concert. So that, as above stated, the art of becoming "rich," in the +common sense, is not absolutely nor finally the art of accumulating +much money for ourselves, but also of contriving that our neighbours +shall have less. In accurate terms, it is "the art of establishing the +maximum inequality in our own favour." + +Now the establishment of such inequality cannot be shown in the +abstract to be either advantageous or disadvantageous to the body of +the nation. The rash and absurd assumption that such inequalities are +necessarily advantageous, lies at the root of most of the popular +fallacies on the subject of political economy. For the eternal and +inevitable law in this matter is, that the beneficialness of the +inequality depends, first, on the methods by which it was +accomplished, and, secondly, on the purposes to which it is applied. +Inequalities of wealth, unjustly established, have assuredly injured +the nation in which they exist during their establishment; and, +unjustly directed, injure it yet more during their existence. But +inequalities of wealth justly established, benefit the nation in the +course of their establishment; and, nobly used, aid it yet more by +their existence. That is to say, among every active and well-governed +people, the various strength of individuals, tested by full exertion +and specially applied to various need, issues in unequal, but +harmonious results, receiving reward or authority according to its +class and service;[32] while, in the inactive or ill-governed nation, +the gradations of decay and the victories of treason work out also +their own rugged system of subjection and success; and substitute, for +the melodious inequalities of concurrent power, the iniquitous +dominances and depressions of guilt and misfortune. + + [32] I have been naturally asked several times, with respect + to the sentence in the first of these papers, "the bad + workmen unemployed," "But what are you to do with your bad + unemployed workmen?" Well, it seems to me the question might + have occurred to you before. Your housemaid's place is + vacant--you give twenty pounds a year--two girls come for + it, one neatly dressed, the other dirtily; one with good + recommendations, the other with none. You do not, under + these circumstances, usually ask the dirty one if she will + come for fifteen pounds, or twelve; and, on her consenting, + take her instead of the well-recommended one. Still less do + you try to beat both down by making them bid against each + other, till you can hire both, one at twelve pounds a year, + and the other at eight. You simply take the one fittest for + the place, and send away the other, not perhaps concerning + yourself quite as much as you should with the question which + you now impatiently put to me, "What is to become of her?" + For all that I advise you to do, is to deal with workmen as + with servants; and verily the question is of weight: "Your + bad workman, idler, and rogue--what are you to do with him?" + + We will consider of this presently: remember that the + administration of a complete system of national commerce and + industry cannot be explained in full detail within the space + of twelve pages. Meantime, consider whether, there being + confessedly some difficulty in dealing with rogues and + idlers, it may not be advisable to produce as few of them as + possible. If you examine into the history of rogues, you + will find they are as truly manufactured articles as + anything else, and it is just because our present system of + political economy gives so large a stimulus to that + manufacture that you may know it to be a false one. We had + better seek for a system which will develop honest men, than + for one which will deal cunningly with vagabonds. Let us + reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed + in our prisons. + +Thus the circulation of wealth in a nation resembles that of the blood +in the natural body. There is one quickness of the current which comes +of cheerful emotion or wholesome exercise; and another which comes of +shame or of fever. There is a flush of the body which is full of +warmth and life; and another which will pass into putrefaction. + +The analogy will hold, down even to minute particulars. For as +diseased local determination of the blood involves depression of the +general health of the system, all morbid local action of riches will +be found ultimately to involve a weakening of the resources of the +body politic. + +The mode in which this is produced may be at once understood by +examining one or two instances of the development of wealth in the +simplest possible circumstances. + +Suppose two sailors cast away on an uninhabited coast, and obliged to +maintain themselves there by their own labour for a series of years. + +If they both kept their health, and worked steadily, and in amity with +each other, they might build themselves a convenient house, and in +time come to possess a certain quantity of cultivated land, together +with various stores laid up for future use. All these things would be +real riches or property; and, supposing the men both to have worked +equally hard, they would each have right to equal share or use of it. +Their political economy would consist merely in careful preservation +and just division of these possessions. Perhaps, however, after some +time one or other might be dissatisfied with the results of their +common farming; and they might in consequence agree to divide the land +they had brought under the spade into equal shares, so that each might +thenceforward work in his own field and live by it. Suppose that after +this arrangement had been made, one of them were to fall ill, and be +unable to work on his land at a critical time--say of sowing or +harvest. + +He would naturally ask the other to sow or reap for him. + +Then his companion might say, with perfect justice, "I will do this +additional work for you; but if I do it, you must promise to do as +much for me at another time. I will count how many hours I spend on +your ground, and you shall give me a written promise to work for the +same number of hours on mine, whenever I need your help, and you are +able to give it." + +Suppose the disabled man's sickness to continue, and that under +various circumstances, for several years, requiring the help of the +other, he on each occasion gave a written pledge to work, as soon as +he was able, at his companion's orders, for the same number of hours +which the other had given up to him. What will the positions of the +two men be when the invalid is able to resume work? + +Considered as a "Polis," or state, they will be poorer than they would +have been otherwise: poorer by the withdrawal of what the sick man's +labour would have produced in the interval. His friend may perhaps +have toiled with an energy quickened by the enlarged need, but in the +end his own land and property must have suffered by the withdrawal of +so much of his time and thought from them; and the united property of +the two men will be certainly less than it would have been if both had +remained in health and activity. + +But the relations in which they stand to each other are also widely +altered. The sick man has not only pledged his labour for some years, +but will probably have exhausted his own share of the accumulated +stores, and will be in consequence for some time dependent on the +other for food, which he can only "pay" or reward him for by yet more +deeply pledging his own labour. + +Supposing the written promises to be held entirely valid (among +civilized nations their validity is secured by legal measures[33]), +the person who had hitherto worked for both might now, if he chose, +rest altogether, and pass his time in idleness, not only forcing his +companion to redeem all the engagements he had already entered into, +but exacting from him pledges for further labour, to an arbitrary +amount, for what food he had to advance to him. + + [33] The disputes which exist respecting the real nature of money + arise more from the disputants examining its functions on + different sides, than from any real dissent in their + opinions. All money, properly so called, is an + acknowledgment of debt; but as such, it may either be + considered to represent the labour and property of the + creditor, or the idleness and penury of the debtor. The + intricacy of the question has been much increased by the + (hitherto necessary) use of marketable commodities, such as + gold, silver, salt, shells, etc., to give intrinsic value or + security to currency; but the final and best definition of + money is that it is a documentary promise ratified and + guaranteed by the nation to give or find a certain quantity + of labour on demand. A man's labour for a day is a better + standard of value than a measure of any produce, because no + produce ever maintains a consistent rate of productibility. + +There might not, from first to last, be the least illegality (in the +ordinary sense of the word) in the arrangement; but if a stranger +arrived on the coast at this advanced epoch of their political +economy, he would find one man commercially Rich; the other +commercially Poor. He would see, perhaps with no small surprise, one +passing his days in idleness; the other labouring for both, and living +sparely, in the hope of recovering his independence, at some distant +period. + +This is, of course, an example of one only out of many ways in which +inequality of possession may be established between different persons, +giving rise to the Mercantile forms of Riches and Poverty. In the +instance before us, one of the men might from the first have +deliberately chosen to be idle, and to put his life in pawn for +present ease; or he might have mismanaged his land, and been compelled +to have recourse to his neighbour for food and help, pledging his +future labour for it. But what I want the reader to note especially is +the fact, common to a large number of typical cases of this kind, that +the establishment of the mercantile wealth which consists in a claim +upon labour, signifies a political diminution of the real wealth which +consists in substantial possessions. + +Take another example, more consistent with the ordinary course of +affairs of trade. Suppose that three men, instead of two, formed the +little isolated republic, and found themselves obliged to separate in +order to farm different pieces of land at some distance from each +other along the coast; each estate furnishing a distinct kind of +produce, and each more or less in need of the material raised on the +other. Suppose that the third man, in order to save the time of all +three, undertakes simply to superintend the transference of +commodities from one farm to the other; on condition of receiving some +sufficiently remunerative share of every parcel of goods conveyed, or +of some other parcel received in exchange for it. + +If this carrier or messenger always brings to each estate, from the +other, what is chiefly wanted, at the right time, the operations of +the two farmers will go on prosperously, and the largest possible +result in produce, or wealth, will be attained by the little +community. But suppose no intercourse between the landowners is +possible, except through the travelling agent; and that, after a time, +this agent, watching the course of each man's agriculture, keeps back +the articles with which he has been entrusted until there comes a +period of extreme necessity for them, on one side or other, and then +exacts in exchange for them all that the distressed farmer can spare +of other kinds of produce; it is easy to see that by ingeniously +watching his opportunities, he might possess himself regularly of the +greater part of the superfluous produce of the two estates, and at +last, in some year of severest trial or scarcity, purchase both for +himself, and maintain the former proprietors thenceforward as his +labourers or servants. + +This would be a case of commercial wealth acquired on the exactest +principles of modern political economy. But more distinctly even than +in the former instance, it is manifest in this that the wealth of the +State, or of the three men considered as a society, is collectively +less than it would have been had the merchant been content with juster +profit. The operations of the two agriculturists have been cramped to +the utmost; and the continual limitations of the supply of things they +wanted at critical times, together with the failure of courage +consequent on the prolongation of a struggle for mere existence, +without any sense of permanent gain, must have seriously diminished +the effective results of their labour; and the stores finally +accumulated in the merchant's hands will not in anywise be of +equivalent value to those which, had his dealings been honest, would +have filled at once the granaries of the farmers and his own. + +The whole question, therefore, respecting not only the advantage, but +even the quantity, of national wealth, resolves itself finally into +one of abstract justice. It is impossible to conclude, of any given +mass of acquired wealth, merely by the fact of its existence, whether +it signifies good or evil to the nation in the midst of which it +exists. Its real value depends on the moral sign attached to it, just +as sternly as that of a mathematical quantity depends on the +algebraical sign attached to it. Any given accumulation of commercial +wealth may be indicative, on the one hand, of faithful industries, +progressive energies, and productive ingenuities; or, on the other, it +may be indicative of mortal luxury, merciless tyranny, ruinous +chicane. Some treasures are heavy with human tears, as an ill-stored +harvest with untimely rain; and some gold is brighter in sunshine than +it is in substance. + +And these are not, observe, merely moral or pathetic attributes of +riches, which the seeker of riches may, if he chooses, despise; they +are, literally and sternly, material attributes of riches, +depreciating or exalting, incalculably, the monetary signification of +the sum in question. One mass of money is the outcome of action which +has created,--another, of action which has annihilated,--ten times as +much in the gathering of it; such and such strong hands have been +paralysed, as if they had been numbed by nightshade: so many strong +men's courage broken, so many productive operations hindered; this and +the other false direction given to labour, and lying image of +prosperity set up, on Dura plains dug into seven-times-heated +furnaces. That which seems to be wealth may in verity be only the +gilded index of far-reaching ruin; a wrecker's handful of coin gleaned +from the beach to which he has beguiled an argosy; a camp-follower's +bundle of rags unwrapped from the breasts of goodly soldiers dead; the +purchase-pieces of potter's fields, wherein shall be buried together +the citizen and the stranger. + +And therefore, the idea that directions can be given for the gaining +of wealth, irrespectively of the consideration of its moral sources, +or that any general and technical law of purchase and gain can be set +down for national practice, is perhaps the most insolently futile of +all that ever beguiled men through their vices. So far as I know, +there is not in history record of anything so disgraceful to the human +intellect as the modern idea that the commercial text, "Buy in the +cheapest market and sell in the dearest," represents, or under any +circumstances could represent, an available principle of national +economy. Buy in the cheapest market?--yes; but what made your market +cheap? Charcoal may be cheap among your roof timbers after a fire, and +bricks may be cheap in your streets after an earthquake; but fire and +earthquake may not therefore be national benefits. Sell in the +dearest?--yes, truly; but what made your market dear? You sold your +bread well to-day; was it to a dying man who gave his last coin for +it, and will never need bread more, or to a rich man who to-morrow +will buy your farm over your head; or to a soldier on his way to +pillage the bank in which you have put your fortune? + +None of these things you can know. One thing only you can know, +namely, whether this dealing of yours is a just and faithful one, +which is all you need concern yourself about respecting it; sure thus +to have done your own part in bringing about ultimately in the world a +state of things which will not issue in pillage or in death. And thus +every question concerning these things merges itself ultimately in the +great question of justice, which, the ground being thus far cleared +for it, I will enter upon in the next paper, leaving only, in this, +three final points for the reader's consideration. + +It has been shown that the chief value and virtue of money consists in +its having power over human beings; that, without this power, large +material possessions are useless, and, to any person possessing such +power, comparatively unnecessary. But power over human beings is +attainable by other means than by money. As I said a few pages back, +the money power is always imperfect and doubtful; there are many +things which cannot be reached with it, others which cannot be +retained by it. Many joys may be given to men which cannot be bought +for gold, and many fidelities found in them which cannot be rewarded +with it. + +Trite enough,--the reader thinks. Yes: but it is not so trite,--I wish +it were,--that in this moral power, quite inscrutable and immeasurable +though it be, there is a monetary value just as real as that +represented by more ponderous currencies. A man's hand may be full of +invisible gold, and the wave of it, or the grasp, shall do more than +another's with a shower of bullion. This invisible gold, also, does +not necessarily diminish in spending. Political economists will do +well some day to take heed of it, though they cannot take measure. + +But farther. Since the essence of wealth consists in its authority +over men, if the apparent or nominal wealth fail in this power, it +fails in essence; in fact, ceases to be wealth at all. It does not +appear lately in England, that our authority over men is absolute. The +servants show some disposition to rush riotously upstairs, under an +impression that their wages are not regularly paid. We should augur +ill of any gentleman's property to whom this happened every other day +in his drawing-room. + +So also, the power of our wealth seems limited as respects the comfort +of the servants, no less than their quietude. The persons in the +kitchen appear to be ill-dressed, squalid, half-starved. One cannot +help imagining that the riches of the establishment must be of a very +theoretical and documentary character. + +Finally. Since the essence of wealth consists in power over men, will +it not follow that the nobler and the more in number the persons are +over whom it has power, the greater the wealth? Perhaps it may even +appear after some consideration, that the persons themselves _are_ the +wealth--that these pieces of gold with which we are in the habit of +guiding them, are, in fact, nothing more than a kind of Byzantine +harness or trappings, very glittering and beautiful in barbaric sight, +wherewith we bridle the creatures; but that if these same living +creatures could be guided without the fretting and jingling of the +byzants in their mouths and ears, they might themselves be more +valuable than their bridles. In fact, it may be discovered that the +true veins of wealth are purple--and not in Rock, but in +Flesh--perhaps even that the final outcome and consummation of all +wealth is in the producing as many as possible full-breathed, +bright-eyed, and happy-hearted human creatures. Our modern wealth, I +think, has rather a tendency the other way;--most political economists +appearing to consider multitudes of human creatures not conducive to +wealth, or at best conducive to it only by remaining in a dim-eyed and +narrow-chested state of being. + +Nevertheless, it is open, I repeat, to serious question, which I leave +to the reader's pondering, whether, among national manufactures, that +of Souls of a good quality may not at last turn out a quite leadingly +lucrative one? Nay, in some faraway and yet undreamt-of hour, I can +even imagine that England may cast all thoughts of possessive wealth +back to the barbaric nations among whom they first arose; and that, +while the sands of the Indus and adamant of Golconda may yet stiffen +the housings of the charger, and flash from the turban of the slave, +she, as a Christian mother, may at last attain to the virtues and the +treasures of a Heathen one, and be able to lead forth her Sons, +saying-- + + "These are MY Jewels." + + + + +ESSAY III. + +"QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM." + + +Some centuries before the Christian era, a Jew merchant, largely +engaged in business on the Gold Coast, and reported to have made one +of the largest fortunes of his time (held also in repute for much +practical sagacity), left among his ledgers some general maxims +concerning wealth, which have been preserved, strangely enough, even +to our own days. They were held in considerable respect by the most +active traders of the middle ages, especially by the Venetians, who +even went so far in their admiration as to place a statue of the old +Jew on the angle of one of their principal public buildings. Of late +years these writings have fallen into disrepute, being opposed in +every particular to the spirit of modern commerce. Nevertheless, I +shall reproduce a passage or two from them here, partly because they +may interest the reader by their novelty; and chiefly because they +will show him that it is possible for a very practical and acquisitive +tradesman to hold, through a not unsuccessful career, that principle +of distinction between well-gotten and ill-gotten wealth, which, +partially insisted on in my last paper, it must be our work more +completely to examine in this. + +He says, for instance, in one place: "The getting of treasures by a +lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death:" +adding in another, with the same meaning (he has a curious way of +doubling his sayings): "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but +justice delivers from death." Both these passages are notable for +their assertion of death as the only real issue and sum of attainment +by any unjust scheme of wealth. If we read, instead of "lying +tongue," "lying label, title, pretence, or advertisement," we shall +more clearly perceive the bearing of the words on modern business. The +seeking of death is a grand expression of the true course of men's +toil in such business. We usually speak as if death pursued us, and we +fled from him; but that is only so in rare instances. Ordinarily, he +masks himself--makes himself beautiful--all-glorious; not like the +King's daughter, all-glorious within, but outwardly: his clothing of +wrought gold. We pursue him frantically all our days, he flying or +hiding from us. Our crowning success at three-score and ten is utterly +and perfectly to seize, and hold him in his eternal integrity---robes, +ashes, and sting. + +Again: the merchant says, "He that oppresseth the poor to increase his +riches, shall surely come to want." And again, more strongly: "Rob not +the poor because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the +place of business. For God shall spoil the soul of those that spoiled +them." + +This "robbing the poor because he is poor" is especially the +mercantile form of theft, consisting in taking advantage of a man's +necessities in order to obtain his labour or property at a reduced +price. The ordinary highwayman's opposite form of robbery--of the +rich, because he is rich--does not appear to occur so often to the old +merchant's mind; probably because, being less profitable and more +dangerous than the robbery of the poor, it is rarely practised by +persons of discretion. + +But the two most remarkable passages in their deep general +significance are the following:-- + +"The rich and the poor have met. God is their maker." + +"The rich and the poor have met. God is their light." + +They "have met:" more literally, have stood in each other's way, +(_obviaverunt_). That is to say, as long as the world lasts, the +action and counteraction of wealth and poverty, the meeting, face to +face, of rich and poor, is just as appointed and necessary a law of +that world as the flow of stream to sea, or the interchange of power +among the electric clouds:--"God is their maker." But, also, this +action may be either gentle and just, or convulsive and destructive: +it may be by rage of devouring flood, or by lapse of serviceable +wave;--in blackness of thunderstroke, or continual force of vital +fire, soft, and shapeable into love-syllables from far away. And +which of these it shall be depends on both rich and poor knowing that +God is their light; that in the mystery of human life, there is no +other light than this by which they can see each other's faces, and +live;--light, which is called in another of the books among which the +merchant's maxims have been preserved, the "sun of justice,"[34] of +which it is promised that it shall rise at last with "healing" +(health-giving or helping, making whole or setting at one) in its +wings. For truly this healing is only possible by means of justice; no +love, no faith, no hope will do it; men will be unwisely fond--vainly +faithful, unless primarily they are just; and the mistake of the best +men through generation after generation, has been that great one of +thinking to help the poor by almsgiving, and by preaching of patience +or of hope, and by every other means, emollient or consolatory, except +the one thing which God orders for them, justice. But this justice, +with its accompanying holiness or helpfulness, being even by the best +men denied in its trial time, is by the mass of men hated wherever it +appears: so that, when the choice was one day fairly put to them, they +denied the Helpful One and the Just;[35] and desired a murderer, +sedition-raiser, and robber, to be granted to them;--the murderer +instead of the Lord of Life, the sedition-raiser instead of the Prince +of Peace, and the robber instead of the Just Judge of all the world. + + [34] More accurately, Sun of Justness; but, instead of the harsh + word "Justness," the old English "Righteousness" being + commonly employed, has, by getting confused with + "godliness," or attracting about it various vague and broken + meanings, prevented most persons from receiving the force of + the passages in which it occurs. The word "righteousness" + properly refers to the justice of rule, or right, as + distinguished from "equity," which refers to the justice of + balance. More broadly, Righteousness is King's justice; and + Equity, Judge's justice; the King guiding or ruling all, the + Judge dividing or discerning between opposites (therefore, + the double question, "Man, who made me a ruler--[Greek: + dikastês]--or a divider--[Greek: meristês]--over you?") + Thus, with respect to the Justice of Choice (selection, the + feebler and passive justice), we have from lego,--lex, + legal, loi, and loyal; and with respect to the Justice of + Rule (direction, the stronger and active justice), we have + from rego,--rex, regal, roi, and royal. + + [35] In another place written with the same meaning, "Just, and + having salvation." + +I have just spoken of the flowing of streams to the sea as a partial +image of the action of wealth. In one respect it is not a partial, but +a perfect image. The popular economist thinks himself wise in having +discovered that wealth, or the forms of property in general, must go +where they are required; that where demand is, supply must follow. He +farther declares that this course of demand and supply cannot be +forbidden by human laws. Precisely in the same sense, and with the +same certainty, the waters of the world go where they are required. +Where the land falls, the water flows. The course neither of clouds +nor rivers can be forbidden by human will. But the disposition and +administration of them can be altered by human forethought. Whether +the stream shall be a curse or a blessing, depends upon man's labour, +and administrating intelligence. For centuries after centuries, great +districts of the world, rich in soil, and favoured in climate, have +lain desert under the rage of their own rivers; not only desert, but +plague-struck. The stream which, rightly directed, would have flowed +in soft irrigation from field to field--would have purified the air, +given food to man and beast, and carried their burdens for them on its +bosom--now overwhelms the plain, and poisons the wind; its breath +pestilence, and its work famine. In like manner this wealth "goes +where it is required." No human laws can withstand its flow. They can +only guide it: but this, the leading trench and limiting mound can do +so thoroughly, that it shall become water of life--the riches of the +hand of wisdom;[36] or, on the contrary, by leaving it to its own +lawless flow, they may make it, what it has been too often, the last +and deadliest of national plagues: water of Marah--the water which +feeds the roots of all evil. + + [36] "Length of days in her right hand; in her left, riches + and honour." + +The necessity of these laws of distribution or restraint is curiously +overlooked in the ordinary political economist's definition of his own +"science." He calls it, shortly, the "science of getting rich." But +there are many sciences, as well as many arts, of getting rich. +Poisoning people of large estates was one employed largely in the +middle ages; adulteration of food of people of small estates is one +employed largely now. The ancient and honourable Highland method of +black mail; the more modern and less honourable system of obtaining +goods on credit, and the other variously improved methods of +appropriation--which, in major and minor scales of industry, down to +the most artistic pocket-picking, we owe to recent genius,--all come +under the general head of sciences, or arts, of getting rich. + +So that it is clear the popular economist, in calling his science the +science _par excellence_ of getting rich, must attach some peculiar +ideas of limitation to its character. I hope I do not misrepresent +him, by assuming that he means _his_ science to be the science of +"getting rich by legal or just means." In this definition, is the word +"just," or "legal," finally to stand? For it is possible among certain +nations, or under certain rulers, or by help of certain advocates, +that proceedings may be legal which are by no means just. If, +therefore, we leave at last only the word "just" in that place of our +definition, the insertion of this solitary and small word will make a +notable difference in the grammar of our science. For then it will +follow that, in order to grow rich scientifically we must grow rich +justly; and, therefore, know what is just; so that our economy will no +longer depend merely on prudence, but on jurisprudence--and that of +divine, not human law. Which prudence is indeed of no mean order, +holding itself, as it were, high in the air of heaven, and gazing for +ever on the light of the sun of justice; hence the souls which have +excelled in it are represented by Dante as stars forming in heaven for +ever the figure of the eye of an eagle: they having been in life the +discerners of light from darkness; or to the whole human race, as the +light of the body, which is the eye; while those souls which form the +wings of the bird (giving power and dominion to justice, "healing in +its wings") trace also in light the inscription in heaven: "DILIGITE +JUSTITIAM QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM." "Ye who judge the earth, give" (not, +observe, merely love, but) "diligent love to justice:" the love which +seeks diligently, that is to say, choosingly, and by preference to all +things else. Which judging or doing judgment in the earth is, +according to their capacity and position, required not of judges +only, nor of rulers only, but of all men:[37] a truth sorrowfully lost +sight of even by those who are ready enough to apply to themselves +passages in which Christian men are spoken of as called to be "saints" +(_i.e._, to helpful or healing functions); and "chosen to be kings" +(_i.e._, to knowing or directing functions); the true meaning of these +titles having been long lost through the pretences of unhelpful and +unable persons to saintly and kingly character; also through the once +popular idea that both the sanctity and royalty are to consist in +wearing long robes and high crowns, instead of in mercy and judgment; +whereas all true sanctity is saving power, as all true royalty is +ruling power; and injustice is part and parcel of the denial of such +power, which "makes men as the creeping things, as the fishes of the +sea, that have no ruler over them."[38] + + [37] I hear that several of our lawyers have been greatly + amused by the statement in the first of these papers that a + lawyer's function was to do justice. I did not intend it for + a jest; nevertheless it will be seen that in the above + passage neither the determination nor doing of justice are + contemplated as functions wholly peculiar to the lawyer. + Possibly, the more our standing armies, whether of soldiers, + pastors, or legislators (the generic term "pastor" including + all teachers, and the generic term "lawyer" including makers + as well as interpreters of law), can be superseded by the + force of national heroism, wisdom, and honesty, the better + it may be for the nation. + + [38] It being the privilege of the fishes, as it is of rats and + wolves, to live by the laws of demand and supply; but the + distinction of humanity, to live by those of right. + +Absolute justice is indeed no more attainable than absolute truth; but +the righteous man is distinguished from the unrighteous by his desire +and hope of justice, as the true man from the false by his desire and +hope of truth. And though absolute justice be unattainable, as much +justice as we need for all practical use is attainable by all those +who make it their aim. + +We have to examine, then, in the subject before us, what are the laws +of justice respecting payment of labour--no small part, these, of the +foundations of all jurisprudence. + +I reduced, in my last paper, the idea of money payment to its simplest +or radical terms. In those terms its nature, and the conditions of +justice respecting it, can be best ascertained. + +Money payment, as there stated, consists radically in a promise to +some person working for us, that for the time and labour he spends in +our service to-day we will give or procure equivalent time and labour +in his service at any future time when he may demand it.[39] + + [39] It might appear at first that the market price of labour + expressed such an exchange: but this is a fallacy, for the + market price is the momentary price of the kind of labour + required, but the just price is its equivalent of the + productive labour of mankind. This difference will be + analysed in its place. It must be noted also that I speak + here only of the exchangeable value of labour, not of that + of commodities. The exchangeable value of a commodity is + that of the labour required to produce it, multiplied + into the force of the demand for it. If the value of the + labour = _x_ and the force of demand = _y_, the exchangeable + value of the commodity is _xy_, in which if either _x_ = 0, + or _y_ = 0, _xy_ = 0. + +If we promise to give him less labour than he has given us, we +under-pay him. If we promise to give him more labour than he has given +us, we over-pay him. In practice, according to the laws of demand and +supply, when two men are ready to do the work, and only one man wants +to have it done, the two men under-bid each other for it; and the one +who gets it to do, is under-paid. But when two men want the work done, +and there is only one man ready to do it, the two men who want it done +over-bid each other, and the workman is over-paid. + +I will examine these two points of injustice in succession, but first +I wish the reader to clearly understand the central principle lying +between the two, of right or just payment. + +When we ask a service of any man, he may either give it us freely, or +demand payment for it. Respecting free gift of service, there is no +question at present, that being a matter of affection--not of traffic. +But if he demand payment for it, and we wish to treat him with +absolute equity, it is evident that this equity can only consist in +giving time for time, strength for strength, and skill for skill. If a +man works an hour for us, and we only promise to work half an hour for +him in return, we obtain an unjust advantage. If, on the contrary, we +promise to work an hour and a half for him in return, he has an unjust +advantage. The justice consists in absolute exchange; or, if there be +any respect to the stations of the parties, it will not be in favour +of the employer: there is certainly no equitable reason in a man's +being poor, that if he give me a pound of bread to-day, I should +return him less than a pound of bread to-morrow; or any equitable +reason in a man's being uneducated, that if he uses a certain quantity +of skill and knowledge in my service, I should use a less quantity of +skill and knowledge in his. Perhaps, ultimately, it may appear +desirable, or, to say the least, gracious, that I should give in +return somewhat more than I received. But at present, we are concerned +on the law of justice only, which is that of perfect and accurate +exchange;--one circumstance only interfering with the simplicity of +this radical idea of just payment--that inasmuch as labour (rightly +directed) is fruitful just as seed is, the fruit (or "interest" as it +is called) of the labour first given, or "advanced," ought to be taken +into account, and balanced by an additional quantity of labour in the +subsequent repayment. Supposing the repayment to take place at the end +of a year, or of any other given time, this calculation could be +approximately made; but as money (that is to say, cash) payment +involves no reference to time (it being optional with the person paid +to spend what he receives at once or after any number of years), we +can only assume, generally, that some slight advantage must in equity +be allowed to the person who advances the labour, so that the typical +form of bargain will be: If you give me an hour to-day, I will give +you an hour and five minutes on demand. If you give me a pound of +bread to-day, I will give you seventeen ounces on demand, and so on. +All that is necessary for the reader to note is, that the amount +returned is at least in equity not to be _less_ than the amount given. + +The abstract idea, then, of just or due wages, as respects the +labourer, is that they will consist in a sum of money which will at +any time procure for him at least as much labour as he has given, +rather more than less. And this equity or justice of payment is, +observe, wholly independent of any reference to the number of men who +are willing to do the work. I want a horseshoe for my horse. Twenty +smiths, or twenty thousand smiths, may be ready to forge it; their +number does not in one atom's weight affect the question of the +equitable payment of the one who _does_ forge it. It costs him a +quarter of an hour of his life, and so much skill and strength of arm +to make that horseshoe for me. Then at some future time I am bound in +equity to give a quarter of an hour, and some minutes more, of my life +(or of some other person's at my disposal), and also as much strength +of arm and skill, and a little more, in making or doing what the smith +may have need of. + +Such being the abstract theory of just remunerative payment, its +application is practically modified by the fact that the order for +labour, given in payment, is general, while the labour received is +special. The current coin or document is practically an order on the +nation for so much work of any kind; and this universal applicability +to immediate need renders it so much more valuable than special labour +can be, that an order for a less quantity of this general toil will +always be accepted as a just equivalent for a greater quantity of +special toil. Any given craftsman will always be willing to give an +hour of his own work in order to receive command over half an hour, or +even much less, of national work. This source of uncertainty, together +with the difficulty of determining the monetary value of skill,[40] +renders the ascertainment (even approximate) of the proper wages of +any given labour in terms of currency, matter of considerable +complexity. But they do not affect the principle of exchange. The +worth of the work may not be easily known; but it _has_ a worth, just +as fixed and real as the specific gravity of a substance, though such +specific gravity may not be easily ascertainable when the substance is +united with many others. Nor is there so much difficulty or chance in +determining it as in determining the ordinary maxima and minima of +vulgar political economy. There are few bargains in which the buyer +can ascertain with anything like precision that the seller would have +taken no less;--or the seller acquire more than a comfortable faith +that the purchaser would have given no more. This impossibility of +precise knowledge prevents neither from striving to attain the desired +point of greatest vexation and injury to the other, nor from accepting +it for a scientific principle that he is to buy for the least and sell +for the most possible, though what the real least or most may be he +cannot tell. In like manner, a just person lays it down for a +scientific principle that he is to pay a just price, and, without +being able precisely to ascertain the limits of such a price, will +nevertheless strive to attain the closest possible approximation to +them. A practically serviceable approximation he _can_ obtain. It is +easier to determine scientifically what a man ought to have for his +work, than what his necessities will compel him to take for it. His +necessities can only be ascertained by empirical, but his due by +analytical, investigation. In the one case, you try your answer to the +sum like a puzzled schoolboy--till you find one that fits; in the +other, you bring out your result within certain limits, by process of +calculation. + + [40] Under the term "skill" I mean to include the united force of + experience, intellect, and passion in their operation on + manual labour: and under the term "passion," to include the + entire range and agency of the moral feelings; from the + simple patience and gentleness of mind which will give + continuity and fineness to the touch, or enable one person + to work without fatigue, and with good effect, twice as long + as another, up to the qualities of character which render + science possible--(the retardation of science by envy is one + of the most tremendous losses in the economy of the present + century)--and to the incommunicable emotion and imagination + which are the first and mightiest sources of all value in + art. + + It is highly singular that political economists should not + yet have perceived, if not the moral, at least the + passionate element, to be an inextricable quantity in every + calculation. I cannot conceive, for instance, how it was + possible that Mr. Mill should have followed the true clue so + far as to write,--"No limit can be set to the + importance--even in a purely productive and material point + of view--of mere thought," without seeing that it was + logically necessary to add also, "and of mere feeling." And + this the more, because in his first definition of labour he + includes in the idea of it "all feelings of a disagreeable + kind connected with the employment of one's thoughts in a + particular occupation." True; but why not also, "feelings of + an agreeable kind?" It can hardly be supposed that the + feelings which retard labour are more essentially a part of + the labour than those which accelerate it. The first are + paid for as pain, the second as power. The workman is merely + indemnified for the first; but the second both produce a + part of the exchangeable value of the work, and materially + increase its actual quantity. + + "Fritz is with us. _He_ is worth fifty thousand men." Truly, + a large addition to the material force;--consisting, + however, be it observed, not more in operations carried on + in Fritz's head, than in operations carried on in his + armies' heart. "No limit can be set to the importance of + _mere_ thought." Perhaps not! Nay, suppose some day it + should turn out that "mere" thought was in itself a + recommendable object of production, and that all Material + production was only a step towards this more precious + Immaterial one? + +Supposing, then, the just wages of any quantity of given labour to +have been ascertained, let us examine the first results of just and +unjust payment, when in favour of the purchaser or employer; _i.e._, +when two men are ready to do the work, and only one wants to have it +done. + +The unjust purchaser forces the two to bid against each other till he +has reduced their demand to its lowest terms. Let us assume that the +lowest bidder offers to do the work at half its just price. + +The purchaser employs him, and does not employ the other. The first or +_apparent_ result, is, therefore, that one of the two men is left out +of employ, or to starvation, just as definitely as by the just +procedure of giving fair price to the best workman. The various +writers who endeavoured to invalidate the positions of my first paper +never saw this, and assumed that the unjust hirer employed _both_. He +employs both no more than the just hirer. The only difference (in the +outset) is that the just man pays sufficiently, the unjust man +insufficiently, for the labour of the single person employed. + +I say, in "the outset;" for this first or apparent difference is not +the actual difference. By the unjust procedure, half the proper price +of the work is left in the hands of the employer. This enables him to +hire another man at the same unjust rate on some other kind of work; +and the final result is that he has two men working for him at +half-price, and two are out of employ. + +By the just procedure, the whole price of the first piece of work goes +into the hands of the man who does it. No surplus being left in the +employer's hands, _he_ cannot hire another man for another piece of +labour. But by precisely so much as his power is diminished, the hired +workman's power is increased; that is to say, by the additional half +of the price he has received; which additional half _he_ has the power +of using to employ another man in _his_ service. I will suppose, for +the moment, the least favourable, though quite probable, case--that, +though justly treated himself, he yet will act unjustly to his +subordinate; and hire at half-price, if he can. The final result will +then be, that one man works for the employer, at just price; one for +the workman, at half-price; and two, as in the first case, are still +out of employ. These two, as I said before, are out of employ in +_both_ cases. The difference between the just and unjust procedure +does not lie in the number of men hired, but in the price paid to +them, and the _persons by whom_ it is paid. The essential difference, +that which I want the reader to see clearly, is, that in the unjust +case, two men work for one, the first hirer. In the just case, one man +works for the first hirer, one for the person hired, and so on, down +or up through the various grades of service; the influence being +carried forward by justice, and arrested by injustice. The universal +and constant action of justice in this matter is therefore to diminish +the power of wealth, in the hands of one individual, over masses of +men, and to distribute it through a chain of men. The actual power +exerted by the wealth is the same in both cases; but by injustice it +is put all into one man's hands, so that he directs at once and with +equal force the labour of a circle of men about him; by the just +procedure, he is permitted to touch the nearest only, through whom, +with diminished force, modified by new minds, the energy of the wealth +passes on to others, and so till it exhausts itself. + +The immediate operation of justice in this respect is, therefore, to +diminish the power of wealth, first in acquisition of luxury, and, +secondly, in exercise of moral influence. The employer cannot +concentrate so multitudinous labour on his own interests, nor can he +subdue so multitudinous mind to his own will. But the secondary +operation of justice is not less important. The insufficient payment +of the group of men working for one, places each under a maximum of +difficulty in rising above his position. The tendency of the system is +to check advancement. But the sufficient or just payment, distributed +through a descending series of offices or grades of labour,[41] gives +each subordinated person fair and sufficient means of rising in the +social scale, if he chooses to use them; and thus not only diminishes +the immediate power of wealth, but removes the worst disabilities of +poverty. + + [41] I am sorry to lose time by answering, however curtly, the + equivocations of the writers who sought to obscure the + instances given of regulated labour in the first of these + papers, by confusing kinds, ranks, and quantities of labour + with its qualities. I never said that a colonel should have + the same pay as a private, nor a bishop the same pay as a + curate. Neither did I say that more work ought to be paid as + less work (so that the curate of a parish of two thousand + souls should have no more than the curate of a parish of + five hundred). But I said that, so far as you employ it at + all, bad work should be paid no less than good work; as a + bad clergyman yet takes his tithes, a bad physician takes + his fee, and a bad lawyer his costs. And this, as will be + farther shown in the conclusion, I said, and say, partly + because the best work never was, nor ever will be, done for + money at all; but chiefly because, the moment people know + they have to pay the bad and good alike, they will try to + discern the one from the other, and not use the bad. A + sagacious writer in the _Scotsman_ asks me if I should like + any common scribbler to be paid by Messrs. Smith, Elder and + Co. [the original publishers of this work] as their good + authors are. I should, if they employed him--but would + seriously recommend them, for the scribbler's sake, as well + as their own, _not_ to employ him. The quantity of its money + which the country at present invests in scribbling is not, + in the outcome of it, economically spent; and even the + highly ingenious person to whom this question occurred, + might perhaps have been more beneficially employed than in + printing it. + +It is on this vital problem that the entire destiny of the labourer is +ultimately dependent. Many minor interests may sometimes appear to +interfere with it, but all branch from it. For instance, considerable +agitation is often caused in the minds of the lower classes when they +discover the share which they nominally, and to all appearance, +actually, pay out of their wages in taxation (I believe thirty-five or +forty per cent.). This sounds very grievous; but in reality the +labourer does not pay it, but his employer. If the workman had not to +pay it, his wages would be less by just that sum: competition would +still reduce them to the lowest rate at which life was possible. +Similarly the lower orders agitated for the repeal of the corn +laws,[42] thinking they would be better off if bread were cheaper; +never perceiving that as soon as bread was permanently cheaper, wages +would permanently fall in precisely that proportion. The corn laws +were rightly repealed; not, however, because they directly oppressed +the poor, but because they indirectly oppressed them in causing a +large quantity of their labour to be consumed unproductively. So also +unnecessary taxation oppresses them, through destruction of capital, +but the destiny of the poor depends primarily always on this one +question of dueness of wages. Their distress (irrespectively of that +caused by sloth, minor error, or crime) arises on the grand scale from +the two reacting forces of competition and oppression. There is not +yet, nor will yet for ages be, any real over-population in the world; +but a local over-population, or, more accurately, a degree of +population locally unmanageable under existing circumstances for want +of forethought and sufficient machinery, necessarily shows itself by +pressure of competition; and the taking advantage of this competition +by the purchaser to obtain their labour unjustly cheap, consummates at +once their suffering and his own; for in this (as I believe in every +other kind of slavery) the oppressor suffers at last more than the +oppressed, and those magnificent lines of Pope, even in all their +force, fall short of the truth-- + + "Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, + Each does but HATE HIS NEIGHBOUR AS HIMSELF: + Damned to the mines, an equal fate betides + The slave that digs it, and the slave that hides." + + [42] I have to acknowledge an interesting communication on the + subject of free trade from Paisley (for a short letter from + "A Well-wisher" at ----, my thanks are yet more due). But + the Scottish writer will, I fear, be disagreeably surprised + to hear, that I am, and always have been, an utterly + fearless and unscrupulous free trader. Seven years ago, + speaking of the various signs of infancy in the European + mind (_Stones of Venice_, vol. iii. p. 168), I wrote: "The + first principles of commerce were acknowledged by the + English parliament only a few months ago, in its free trade + measures, and are still so little understood by the million, + that _no nation dares to abolish its custom-houses_." + + It will be observed that I do not admit even the idea of + reciprocity. Let other nations, if they like, keep their + ports shut; every wise nation will throw its own open. It is + not the opening them, but a sudden, inconsiderate, and + blunderingly experimental manner of opening them, which does + harm. If you have been protecting a manufacture for a long + series of years, you must not take the protection off in a + moment, so as to throw every one of its operatives at once + out of employ, any more than you must take all its wrappings + off a feeble child at once in cold weather, though the + cumber of them may have been radically injuring its health. + Little by little, you must restore it to freedom and to air. + + Most people's minds are in curious confusion on the subject + of free trade, because they suppose it to imply enlarged + competition. On the contrary, free trade puts an end to all + competition. "Protection" (among various other mischievous + functions) endeavours to enable one country to compete with + another in the production of an article at a disadvantage. + When trade is entirely free, no country can be competed with + in the articles for the production of which it is naturally + calculated; nor can it compete with any other, in the + production of articles for which it is not naturally + calculated. Tuscany, for instance, cannot compete with + England in steel, nor England with Tuscany in oil. They must + exchange their steel and oil. Which exchange should be as + frank and free as honesty and the sea-winds can make it. + Competition, indeed, arises at first, and sharply, in order + to prove which is strongest in any given manufacture + possible to both: this point once ascertained, competition + is at an end. + +The collateral and reversionary operations of justice in this matter I +shall examine hereafter (it being needful first to define the nature +of value); proceeding then to consider within what practical terms a +juster system may be established; and ultimately the vexed question of +the destinies of the unemployed workmen.[43] Lest, however, the reader +should be alarmed at some of the issues to which our investigations +seem to be tending, as if in their bearing against the power of wealth +they had something in common with those of socialism, I wish him to +know, in accurate terms, one or two of the main points which I have in +view. + + [43] I should be glad if the reader would first clear the ground + for himself so far as to determine whether the difficulty + lies in getting the work or getting the pay for it. Does he + consider occupation itself to be an expensive luxury, + difficult of attainment, of which too little is to be found + in the world? or is it rather that, while in the enjoyment + even of the most athletic delight, men must nevertheless be + maintained, and this maintenance is not always forthcoming? + We must be clear on this head before going farther, as most + people are loosely in the habit of talking of the difficulty + of "finding employment." Is it employment that we want to + find, or support during employment? Is it idleness we wish + to put an end to, or hunger? We have to take up both + questions in succession, only not both at the same time. No + doubt that work _is_ a luxury, and a very great one. It is, + indeed, at once a luxury and a necessity; no man can retain + either health of mind or body without it. So profoundly do I + feel this, that, as will be seen in the sequel, one of the + principal objects I would recommend to benevolent and + practical persons, is to induce rich people to seek for a + larger quantity of this luxury than they at present possess. + Nevertheless, it appears by experience that even this + healthiest of pleasures may be indulged in to excess, and + that human beings are just as liable to surfeit of labour as + to surfeit of meat; so that, as on the one hand, it may be + charitable to provide, for some people, lighter dinner, and + more work,--for others, it may be equally expedient to + provide lighter work, and more dinner. + +Whether socialism has made more progress among the army and navy +(where payment is made on my principles), or among the manufacturing +operatives (who are paid on my opponents' principles), I leave it to +those opponents to ascertain and declare. Whatever their conclusions +may be, I think it necessary to answer for myself only this: that if +there be any one point insisted on throughout my works more frequently +than another, that one point is the impossibility of Equality. My +continual aim has been to show the eternal superiority of some men to +others, sometimes even of one man to all others; and to show also the +advisability of appointing such persons or person to guide, to lead, +or on occasion even to compel and subdue, their inferiors, according +to their own better knowledge and wiser will. My principles of +Political Economy were all involved in a single phrase spoken three +years ago at Manchester: "Soldiers of the Ploughshare as well as +Soldiers of the Sword:" and they were all summed in a single sentence +in the last volume of _Modern Painters_--"Government and co-operation +are in all things the Laws of Life; Anarchy and competition the Laws +of Death." + +And with respect to the mode in which these general principles affect +the secure possession of property, so far am I from invalidating such +security, that the whole gist of these papers will be found ultimately +to aim at an extension in its range; and whereas it has long been +known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the +rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no +right to the property of the poor. + +But that the working of the system which I have undertaken to develop +would in many ways shorten the apparent and direct, though not the +unseen and collateral, power, both of wealth, as the Lady of Pleasure, +and of capital, as the Lord of Toil, I do not deny: on the contrary, I +affirm it in all joyfulness; knowing that the attraction of riches is +already too strong, as their authority is already too weighty, for the +reason of mankind. I said in my last paper that nothing in history had +ever been so disgraceful to human intellect as the acceptance among us +of the common doctrines of political economy as a science. I have many +grounds for saying this, but one of the chief may be given in few +words. I know no previous instance in history of a nation's +establishing a systematic disobedience to the first principles of its +professed religion. The writings which we (verbally) esteem as divine, +not only denounce the love of money as the source of all evil, and as +an idolatry abhorred of the Deity, but declare mammon service to be +the accurate and irreconcileable opposite of God's service; and, +whenever they speak of riches absolute, and poverty absolute, declare +woe to the rich, and blessing to the poor. Whereupon we forthwith +investigate a science of becoming rich, as the shortest road to +national prosperity. + + "Tai Cristian dannerà l'Etiòpe, + Quando si partiranno i due collegi, + L'UNO IN ETERNO RICCO, E L'ALTRO INÒPE." + + + + +ESSAY IV. + +AD VALOREM. + + +In the last paper we saw that just payment of labour consisted in a +sum of money which would approximately obtain equivalent labour at a +future time: we have now to examine the means of obtaining such +equivalence. Which question involves the definition of Value, Wealth, +Price, and Produce. + +None of these terms are yet defined so as to be understood by the +public. But the last, Produce, which one might have thought the +clearest of all, is, in use, the most ambiguous; and the examination +of the kind of ambiguity attendant on its present employment will best +open the way to our work. + +In his Chapter on Capital,[44] Mr. J. S. Mill instances, as a +capitalist, a hardware manufacturer, who, having intended to spend a +certain portion of the proceeds of his business in buying plate and +jewels, changes his mind, and "pays it as wages to additional +workpeople." The effect is stated by Mr. Mill to be that "more food is +appropriated to the consumption of productive labourers." + + [44] Book I. chap. iv. s. 1. To save space, my future references + to Mr. Mill's work will be by numerals only, as in this + instance, I. iv. 1. Ed. in 2 vols. 8vo, Parker, 1848. + +Now I do not ask, though, had I written this paragraph, it would +surely have been asked of me, What is to become of the silversmiths? +If they are truly unproductive persons, we will acquiesce in their +extinction. And though in another part of the same passage, the +hardware merchant is supposed also to dispense with a number of +servants, whose "food is thus set free for productive purposes," I do +not inquire what will be the effect, painful or otherwise, upon the +servants, of this emancipation of their food. But I very seriously +inquire why ironware is produce, and silverware is not? That the +merchant consumes the one, and sells the other, certainly does not +constitute the difference, unless it can be shown (which, indeed, I +perceive it to be becoming daily more and more the aim of tradesmen to +show) that commodities are made to be sold, and not to be consumed. +The merchant is an agent of conveyance to the consumer in one case, +and is himself the consumer in the other:[45] but the labourers are in +either case equally productive, since they have produced goods to the +same value, if the hardware and the plate are both goods. + + [45] If Mr. Mill had wished to show the difference in result + between consumption and sale, he should have represented the + hardware merchant as consuming his own goods instead of + selling them; similarly, the silver merchant as consuming + his own goods instead of selling them. Had he done this, he + would have made his position clearer, though less tenable; + and perhaps this was the position he really intended to + take, tacitly involving his theory, elsewhere stated, and + shown in the sequel of this paper to be false, that demand + for commodities is not demand for labour. But by the most + diligent scrutiny of the paragraph now under examination, I + cannot determine whether it is a fallacy pure and simple, or + the half of one fallacy supported by the whole of a greater + one; so that I treat it here on the kinder assumption that + it is one fallacy only. + +And what distinction separates them? It is indeed possible that in the +"comparative estimate of the moralist," with which Mr. Mill says +political economy has nothing to do (III. i. 2), a steel fork might +appear a more substantial production than a silver one: we may grant +also that knives, no less than forks, are good produce; and scythes +and ploughshares serviceable articles. But, how of bayonets? Supposing +the hardware merchant to effect large sales of _these_, by help of the +"setting free" of the food of his servants and his silversmith,--is +he still employing productive labourers, or, in Mr. Mill's words, +labourers who increase "the stock of permanent means of enjoyment" +(I. iii. 4)? Or if, instead of bayonets, he supply bombs, will not the +absolute and final "enjoyment" of even these energetically productive +articles (each of which costs ten pounds[46]) be dependent on a proper +choice of time and place for their _enfantement_; choice, that is to +say, depending on those philosophical considerations with which +political economy has nothing to do?[47] + + [46] I take Mr. [afterwards Sir A.] Helps' estimate in his essay + on War. + + [47] Also when the wrought silver vases of Spain were dashed to + fragments by our custom-house officers, because bullion + might be imported free of duty, but not brains, was the axe + that broke them productive?--the artist who wrought them + unproductive? Or again. If the woodman's axe is productive, + is the executioner's? as also, if the hemp of a cable be + productive, does not the productiveness of hemp in a halter + depend on its moral more than on its material application? + +I should have regretted the need of pointing out inconsistency in any +portion of Mr. Mill's work, had not the value of his work proceeded +from its inconsistencies. He deserves honour among economists by +inadvertently disclaiming the principles which he states, and tacitly +introducing the moral considerations with which he declares his +science has no connection. Many of his chapters, are, therefore, true +and valuable; and the only conclusions of his which I have to dispute +are those which follow from his premises. + +Thus, the idea which lies at the root of the passage we have just been +examining, namely, that labour applied to produce luxuries will not +support so many persons as labour applied to produce useful articles, +is entirely true; but the instance given fails--and in four directions +of failure at once--because Mr. Mill has not defined the real meaning +of usefulness. The definition which he has given--"capacity to satisfy +a desire, or serve a purpose" (III. i. 2)--applies equally to the iron +and silver; while the true definition,--which he has not given, but +which nevertheless underlies the false verbal definition in his mind, +and comes out once or twice by accident (as in the words "any support +to life or strength" in I. i. 5)--applies to some articles of iron, +but not to others, and to some articles of silver, but not to others. +It applies to ploughs, but not to bayonets; and to forks, but not to +filigree.[48] + + [48] Filigree: that is to say, generally, ornament dependent + on complexity, not on art. + +The eliciting of the true definition will give us the reply to our +first question, "What is value?" respecting which, however, we must +first hear the popular statements. + +"The word 'value,' when used without adjunct, always means, in +political economy, value in exchange" (Mill, III. i. 3). So that, +if two ships cannot exchange their rudders, their rudders are, in +politico-economic language, of no value to either. + +But "the subject of political economy is wealth."--(Preliminary +remarks, page 1.) + +And wealth "consists of all useful and agreeable objects which possess +exchangeable value."--(Preliminary remarks, page 10.) + +It appears then, according to Mr. Mill, that usefulness and +agreeableness underlie the exchange value, and must be ascertained to +exist in the thing, before we can esteem it an object of wealth. + +Now, the economical usefulness of a thing depends not merely on its +own nature, but on the number of people who can and will use it. A +horse is useless, and therefore unsaleable, if no one can ride,--a +sword if no one can strike, and meat, if no one can eat. Thus every +material utility depends on its relative human capacity. + +Similarly: The agreeableness of a thing depends not merely on its own +likeableness, but on the number of people who can be got to like it. +The relative agreeableness, and therefore saleableness, of "a pot of +the smallest ale," and of "Adonis painted by a running brook," depends +virtually on the opinion of Demos, in the shape of Christopher Sly. +That is to say, the agreeableness of a thing depends on its relative +human disposition.[49] Therefore, political economy, being a science +of wealth, must be a science respecting human capacities and +dispositions. But moral considerations have nothing to do with +political economy (III. i. 2). Therefore, moral considerations have +nothing to do with human capacities and dispositions. + + [49] These statements sound crude in their brevity; but will + be found of the utmost importance when they are developed. + Thus, in the above instance, economists have never perceived + that disposition to buy is a wholly _moral_ element in + demand: that is to say, when you give a man half-a-crown, it + depends on his disposition whether he is rich or poor with + it--whether he will buy disease, ruin, and hatred, or buy + health, advancement, and domestic love. And thus the + agreeableness or exchange value of every offered commodity + depends on production, not merely of the commodity, but of + buyers of it; therefore on the education of buyers, and on + all the moral elements by which their disposition to buy + this, or that, is formed. I will illustrate and expand into + final consequences every one of these definitions in its + place: at present they can only be given with extremest + brevity; for in order to put the subject at once in a + connected form before the reader, I have thrown into one, + the opening definitions of four chapters; namely, of that on + Value ("Ad Valorem"); on Price ("Thirty Pieces"); on + Production ("Demeter"); and on Economy ("The Law of the + House"). + +I do not wholly like the look of this conclusion from Mr. Mill's +statements:--let us try Mr. Ricardo's. + +"Utility is not the measure of exchangeable value, though it is +absolutely essential to it."--(Chap. 1. sect. i.) Essential to what +degree, Mr. Ricardo? There may be greater and less degrees of utility. +Meat, for instance, may be so good as to be fit for any one to eat, or +so bad as to be fit for no one to eat. What is the exact degree of +goodness which is "essential" to its exchangeable value, but not "the +measure" of it? How good must the meat be, in order to possess any +exchangeable value; and how bad must it be--(I wish this were a +settled question in London markets)--in order to possess none? + +There appears to be some hitch, I think, in the working even of Mr. +Ricardo's principles; but let him take his own example. "Suppose that +in the early stages of society the bows and arrows of the hunter were +of equal value with the implements of the fisherman. Under such +circumstances the value of the deer, the produce of the hunter's day's +labour, would be _exactly_" (italics mine) "equal to the value of the +fish, the product of the fisherman's day's labour. The comparative +value of the fish and game would be _entirely_ regulated by the +quantity of labour realized in each." (Ricardo, chap. iii. On Value.) + +Indeed! Therefore, if the fisherman catches one sprat, and the +huntsman one deer, one sprat will be equal in value to one deer; but +if the fisherman catches no sprat, and the huntsman two deer, no sprat +will be equal in value to two deer? + +Nay; but--Mr. Ricardo's supporters may say--he means, on an +average;--if the average product of a day's work of fisher and hunter +be one fish and one deer, the one fish will always be equal in value +to the one deer. + +Might I inquire the species of fish. Whale? or whitebait?[50] + + [50] Perhaps it may be said, in farther support of Mr. Ricardo, + that he meant, "when the utility is constant or given, the + price varies as the quantity of labour." If he meant this, + he should have said it; but, had he meant it, he could have + hardly missed the necessary result, that utility would be + one measure of price (which he expressly denies it to be); + and that, to prove saleableness, he had to prove a given + quantity of utility, as well as a given quantity of labour: + to wit, in his own instance, that the deer and fish would + each feed the same number of men, for the same number of + days, with equal pleasure to their palates. The fact is, he + did not know what he meant himself. The general idea which + he had derived from commercial experience, without being + able to analyse it, was, that when the demand is constant, + the price varies as the quantity of labour required for + production; or,--using the formula I gave in last + paper--when _y_ is constant, _xy_ varies as _x_. But demand + never is, nor can be, ultimately constant, if _x_ varies + distinctly; for, as price rises, consumers fall away; and as + soon as there is a monopoly (and all scarcity is a form of + monopoly; so that every commodity is affected occasionally + by some colour of monopoly), _y_ becomes the most + influential condition of the price. Thus the price of a + painting depends less on its merit than on the interest + taken in it by the public; the price of singing less on the + labour of the singer than the number of persons who desire + to hear him; and the price of gold less on the scarcity + which affects it in common with cerium or iridium, than on + the sun-light colour and unalterable purity by which it + attracts the admiration and answers the trust of mankind. + + It must be kept in mind, however, that I use the word + "demand" in a somewhat different sense from economists + usually. They mean by it "the quantity of a thing sold." I + mean by it "the force of the buyer's capable intention to + buy." In good English, a person's "demand" signifies, not + what he gets, but what he asks for. + + Economists also do not notice that objects are not valued by + absolute bulk or weight, but by such bulk and weight as is + necessary to bring them into use. They say, for instance, + that water bears no price in the market. It is true that a + cupful does not, but a lake does; just as a handful of dust + does not, but an acre does. And were it possible to make + even the possession of the cupful or handful permanent + (_i.e._, to find a place for them), the earth and sea would + be bought up by handfuls and cupfuls. + +It would be waste of time to pursue these fallacies farther; we will +seek for a true definition. + +Much store has been set for centuries upon the use of our English +classical education. It were to be wished that our well-educated +merchants recalled to mind always this much of their Latin +schooling,--that the nominative of _valorem_ (a word already +sufficiently familiar to them) is _valor_; a word which, therefore, +ought to be familiar to them. _Valor_, from _valere_, to be well, or +strong ([Greek: hugiainô]);--strong, _in_ life (if a man), or valiant; +strong, _for_ life (if a thing), or valuable. To be "valuable," +therefore, is to "avail towards life." A truly valuable or availing +thing is that which leads to life with its whole strength. In +proportion as it does not lead to life, or as its strength is broken, +it is less valuable; in proportion as it leads away from life, it is +unvaluable or malignant. + +The value of a thing, therefore, is independent of opinion, and of +quantity. Think what you will of it, gain how much you may of it, the +value of the thing itself is neither greater nor less. For ever it +avails, or avails not; no estimate can raise, no disdain depress, the +power which it holds from the Maker of things and of men. + +The real science of political economy, which has yet to be +distinguished from the bastard science, as medicine from witchcraft, +and astronomy from astrology, is that which teaches nations to desire +and labour for the things that lead to life; and which teaches them to +scorn and destroy the things that lead to destruction. And if, in a +state of infancy, they suppose indifferent things, such as +excrescences of shellfish, and pieces of blue and red stone, to be +valuable, and spend large measure of the labour which ought to be +employed for the extension and ennobling of life, in diving or digging +for them, and cutting them into various shapes,--or if, in the same +state of infancy, they imagine precious and beneficent things, such as +air, light, and cleanliness, to be valueless,--or if, finally, they +imagine the conditions of their own existence, by which alone they can +truly possess or use anything, such, for instance, as peace, trust, +and love, to be prudently exchangeable, when the market offers, for +gold, iron, or excrescences of shells--the great and only science of +Political Economy teaches them, in all these cases, what is vanity, +and what substance; and how the service of Death, the Lord of Waste, +and of eternal emptiness, differs from the service of Wisdom, the Lady +of Saving, and of eternal fulness; she who has said, "I will cause +those that love me to inherit SUBSTANCE; and I will FILL their +treasures." + +The "Lady of Saving," in a profounder sense than that of the savings' +bank, though that is a good one: Madonna della Salute,--Lady of +Health--which, though commonly spoken of as if separate from wealth, +is indeed a part of wealth. This word, "wealth," it will be +remembered, is the next we have to define. + +"To be wealthy," says Mr. Mill, is "to have a large stock of useful +articles." + +I accept this definition. Only let us perfectly understand it. My +opponents often lament my not giving them enough logic: I fear I must +at present use a little more than they will like; but this business of +Political Economy is no light one, and we must allow no loose terms in +it. + +We have, therefore, to ascertain in the above definition, first, what +is the meaning of "having," or the nature of Possession. Then, what is +the meaning of "useful," or the nature of Utility. + +And first of possession. At the crossing of the transepts of Milan +Cathedral has lain, for three hundred years, the embalmed body of St. +Carlo Borromeo. It holds a golden crosier, and has a cross of emeralds +on its breast. Admitting the crosier and emeralds to be useful +articles, is the body to be considered as "having" them? Do they, in +the politico-economical sense of property, belong to it? If not, and +if we may, therefore, conclude generally that a dead body cannot +possess property, what degree and period of animation in the body will +render possession possible? + +As thus: lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the +passengers fastened a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold +in it, with which he was found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he +was sinking--had he the gold? or had the gold him?[51] + + [51] Compare George Herbert, _The Church Porch_, Stanza 28. + +And if, instead of sinking him in the sea by its weight, the gold had +struck him on the forehead, and thereby caused incurable +disease--suppose palsy or insanity,--would the gold in that case have +been more a "possession" than in the first? Without pressing the +inquiry up through instances of gradually increasing vital power over +the gold (which I will, however, give, if they are asked for), I +presume the reader will see that possession, or "having," is not an +absolute, but a gradated, power; and consists not only in the quantity +or nature of the thing possessed, but also (and in a greater degree) +in its suitableness to the person possessing it, and in his vital +power to use it. + +And our definition of Wealth, expanded, becomes: "The possession of +useful articles, _which we can use_." This is a very serious change. +For wealth, instead of depending merely on a "have," is thus seen to +depend on a "can." Gladiator's death, on a "habet"; but soldier's +victory, and state's salvation, on a "quo plurimum posset." (Liv. VII. +6.) And what we reasoned of only as accumulation of material, is seen +to demand also accumulation of capacity. + +So much for our verb. Next for our adjective. What is the meaning of +"useful?" + +The inquiry is closely connected with the last. For what is capable of +use in the hands of some persons, is capable, in the hands of others, +of the opposite of use, called commonly, "from-use," or "ab-use." And +it depends on the person, much more than on the article, whether its +usefulness or ab-usefulness will be the quality developed in it. Thus, +wine, which the Greeks, in their Bacchus, made, rightly, the type of +all passion, and which, when used, "cheereth god and man" (that is to +say, strengthens both the divine life, or reasoning power, and the +earthly, or carnal power, of man); yet, when abused, becomes +"Dionusos," hurtful especially to the divine part of man, or reason. +And again, the body itself, being equally liable to use and to abuse, +and, when rightly disciplined, serviceable to the State, both for war +and labour;--but when not disciplined, or abused, valueless to the +State, and capable only of continuing the private or single existence +of the individual (and that but feebly)--the Greeks called such a body +an "idiotic" or "private" body, from their word signifying a person +employed in no way directly useful to the State: whence, finally, our +"idiot," meaning a person entirely occupied with his own concerns. + +Hence, it follows, that if a thing is to be useful, it must be not +only of an availing nature, but in availing hands. Or, in accurate +terms, usefulness is value in the hands of the valiant; so that this +science of wealth being, as we have just seen, when regarded as the +science of Accumulation, accumulative of capacity as well as of +material,--when regarded as the science of Distribution, is +distribution not absolute, but discriminate; not of every thing to +every man, but of the right thing to the right man. A difficult +science, dependent on more than arithmetic. + +Wealth, therefore, is "THE POSSESSION OF THE VALUABLE BY THE VALIANT;" +and in considering it as a power existing in a nation, the two +elements, the value of the thing, and the valour of its possessor, +must be estimated together. Whence it appears that many of the persons +commonly considered wealthy, are in reality no more wealthy than the +locks of their own strong boxes are; they being inherently and +eternally incapable of wealth; and operating for the nation, in an +economical point of view, either as pools of dead water, and eddies in +a stream (which, so long as the stream flows, are useless, or serve +only to drown people, but may become of importance in a state of +stagnation, should the stream dry); or else, as dams in a river, of +which the ultimate service depends not on the dam, but the miller; or +else, as mere accidental stays and impediments, acting, not as wealth, +but (for we ought to have a correspondent term) as "illth," causing +various devastation and trouble around them in all directions; or +lastly, act not at all, but are merely animated conditions of delay +(no use being possible of anything they have until they are dead), in +which last condition they are nevertheless often useful _as_ delays, +and "impedimenta," if a nation is apt to move too fast. + +This being so, the difficulty of the true science of Political Economy +lies not merely in the need of developing manly character to deal with +material value, but in the fact, that while the manly character and +material value only form wealth by their conjunction, they have +nevertheless a mutually destructive operation on each other. For the +manly character is apt to ignore, or even cast away, the material +value:--whence that of Pope:-- + + "Sure, of qualities demanding praise + More go to ruin fortunes, than to raise." + +And on the other hand, the material value is apt to undermine the +manly character; so that it must be our work, in the issue, to examine +what evidence there is of the effect of wealth on the minds of its +possessors; also, what kind of person it is who usually sets himself +to obtain wealth, and succeeds in doing so; and whether the world owes +more gratitude to rich or to poor men, either for their moral +influence upon it, or for chief goods, discoveries, and practical +advancements. I may, however, anticipate future conclusions so far as +to state that in a community regulated only by laws of demand and +supply, but protected from open violence, the persons who become rich +are, generally speaking, industrious, resolute, proud, covetous, +prompt, methodical, sensible, unimaginative, insensitive, and +ignorant. The persons who remain poor are the entirely foolish, the +entirely wise,[52] the idle, the reckless, the humble, the thoughtful, +the dull, the imaginative, the sensitive, the well-informed, the +improvident, the irregularly and impulsively wicked, the clumsy knave, +the open thief, and the entirely merciful, just, and godly person. + + [52] "[Greek: ho Zeus dêpou penetai.]"--_Arist. Plut._ 582. It + would but weaken the grand words to lean on the preceding + ones:--"[Greek: hoti tou Ploutou parecho beltionas andras, + kai ten gnomen, kai ten idean.]" + +Thus far then of wealth. Next, we have to ascertain the nature of +PRICE; that is to say, of exchange value, and its expression by +currencies. + +Note first, of exchange, there can be no _profit_ in it. It is only in +labour there can be profit--that is to say a "making in advance," or +"making in favour of" (from proficio). In exchange, there is only +advantage, _i.e._, a bringing of vantage or power to the exchanging +persons. Thus, one man, by sowing and reaping, turns one measure of +corn into two measures. That is Profit. Another by digging and +forging, turns one spade into two spades. That is Profit. But the man +who has two measures of corn wants sometimes to dig; and the man who +has two spades wants sometimes to eat:--They exchange the gained grain +for the gained tool; and both are the better for the exchange; but +though there is much advantage in the transaction, there is no profit. +Nothing is constructed or produced. Only that which had been before +constructed is given to the person by whom it can be used. If labour +is necessary to effect the exchange, that labour is in reality +involved in the production, and, like all other labour, bears profit. +Whatever number of men are concerned in the manufacture, or in the +conveyance, have share in the profit; but neither the manufacture nor +the conveyance are the exchange, and in the exchange itself there is +no profit. + +There may, however, be acquisition, which is a very different thing. +If, in the exchange, one man is able to give what cost him little +labour for what has cost the other much, he "acquires" a certain +quantity of the produce of the other's labour. And precisely what he +acquires, the other loses. In mercantile language, the person who thus +acquires is commonly said to have "made a profit;" and I believe that +many of our merchants are seriously under the impression that it is +possible for everybody, somehow, to make a profit in this manner. +Whereas, by the unfortunate constitution of the world we live in, the +laws both of matter and motion have quite rigorously forbidden +universal acquisition of this kind. Profit, or material gain, is +attainable only by construction or by discovery; not by exchange. +Whenever material gain follows exchange, for every _plus_ there is a +precisely equal _minus_. + +Unhappily for the progress of the science of Political Economy, the +plus quantities, or--if I may be allowed to coin an awkward +plural--the pluses, make a very positive and venerable appearance in +the world, so that every one is eager to learn the science which +produces results so magnificent; whereas the minuses have, on the +other hand, a tendency to retire into back streets, and other places +of shade,--or even to get themselves wholly and finally put out of +sight in graves: which renders the algebra of this science peculiar, +and difficultly legible; a large number of its negative signs being +written by the account-keeper in a kind of red ink, which starvation +thins, and makes strangely pale, or even quite invisible ink, for the +present. + +The science of Exchange, or, as I hear it has been proposed to call +it, of "Catallactics," considered as one of gain, is, therefore, +simply nugatory; but considered as one of acquisition, it is a very +curious science, differing in its data and basis from every other +science known. Thus:--If I can exchange a needle with a savage for a +diamond, my power of doing so depends either on the savage's ignorance +of social arrangements in Europe, or on his want of power to take +advantage of them, by selling the diamond to any one else for more +needles. If, farther, I make the bargain as completely advantageous to +myself as possible, by giving to the savage a needle with no eye in it +(reaching, thus, a sufficiently satisfactory type of the perfect +operation of catallactic science), the advantage to me in the entire +transaction depends wholly upon the ignorance, powerlessness, or +heedlessness of the person dealt with. Do away with these, and +catallactic advantage becomes impossible. So far, therefore as the +science of exchange relates to the advantage of one of the exchanging +persons only, it is founded on the ignorance or incapacity of the +opposite person. Where these vanish, it also vanishes. It is therefore +a science founded on nescience, and an art founded on artlessness. But +all other sciences and arts, except this, have for their object the +doing away with their opposite nescience and artlessness. _This_ +science, alone of sciences, must, by all available means, promulgate +and prolong its opposite nescience; otherwise the science itself is +impossible. It is, therefore, peculiarly and alone, the science of +darkness; probably a bastard science--not by any means a _divina +scientia_, but one begotten of another father, that father who, +advising his children to turn stones into bread, is himself employed +in turning bread into stones, and who, if you ask a fish of him (fish +not being producible on his estate), can but give you a serpent. + +The general law, then, respecting just or economical exchange, is +simply this:--There must be advantage on both sides (or if only +advantage on one, at least no disadvantage on the other) to the +persons exchanging; and just payment for his time, intelligence, and +labour, to any intermediate person effecting the transaction (commonly +called a merchant): and whatever advantage there is on either side, +and whatever pay is given to the intermediate person, should be +thoroughly known to all concerned. All attempt at concealment implies +some practice of the opposite, or undivine science, founded on +nescience. Whence another saying of the Jew merchant's--"As a nail +between the stone joints, so doth sin stick fast between buying and +selling." Which peculiar riveting of stone and timber, in men's +dealing with each other, is again set forth in the house which was to +be destroyed--timber and stones together--when Zechariah's roll (more +probably "curved sword") flew over it: "the curse that goeth forth +over all the earth upon every one that stealeth and holdeth himself +guiltless," instantly followed by the vision of the Great +Measure;--the measure "of the injustice of them in all the earth" +([Greek: autê hê adikia autôn en pasê tê gê]), with the weight of +lead for its lid, and the woman, the spirit of wickedness, within +it;--that is to say, Wickedness hidden by Dulness, and formalized, +outwardly, into ponderously established cruelty. "It shall be set upon +its own base in the land on Babel."[53] + + [53] Zech. v. 11. See note on the passage, at pp. 191-2. + +I have hitherto carefully restricted myself, in speaking of exchange, +to the use of the term "advantage;" but that term includes two ideas: +the advantage, namely, of getting what we _need_, and that of getting +what we _wish for_. Three-fourths of the demands existing in the world +are romantic; founded on visions, idealisms, hopes, and affections; +and the regulation of the purse is, in its essence, regulation of the +imagination and the heart. Hence, the right discussion of the nature +of price is a very high metaphysical and psychical problem; sometimes +to be solved only in a passionate manner, as by David in his counting +the price of the water of the well by the gate of Bethlehem; but its +first conditions are the following:--The price of anything is the +quantity of labour given by the person desiring it, in order to obtain +possession of it. This price depends on four variable quantities. _A_. +The quantity of wish the purchaser has for the thing; opposed to +[Greek: a], the quantity of wish the seller has to keep it. _B_. The +quantity of labour the purchaser can afford, to obtain the thing; +opposed to [Greek: b], the quantity of labour the seller can afford, to +keep it. These quantities are operative only in excess; _i.e._, the +quantity of wish (_A_) means the quantity of wish for this thing, above +wish for other things; and the quantity of work (_B_) means the quantity +which can be spared to get this thing from the quantity needed to get +other things. + +Phenomena of price, therefore, are intensely complex, curious, and +interesting--too complex, however, to be examined yet; every one of +them, when traced far enough, showing itself at last as a part of the +bargain of the Poor of the Flock (or "flock of slaughter"), "If ye +think good, give ME my price, and if not, forbear"--Zech. xi. 12; but +as the price of everything is to be calculated finally in labour, it +is necessary to define the nature of that standard. + +Labour is the contest of the life of man with an opposite:--the term +"life" including his intellect, soul, and physical power, contending +with question, difficulty, trial, or material force. + +Labour is of a higher or lower order, as it includes more or fewer of +the elements of life: and labour of good quality, in any kind, +includes always as much intellect and feeling as will fully and +harmoniously regulate the physical force. + +In speaking of the value and price of labour, it is necessary always +to understand labour of a given rank and quality, as we should speak +of gold or silver of a given standard. Bad (that is, heartless, +inexperienced, or senseless) labour cannot be valued; it is like gold +of uncertain alloy, or flawed iron.[54] + + [54] Labour which is entirely good of its kind, that is to say, + effective, or efficient, the Greeks called "weighable," + or [Greek: axios], translated usually "worthy," and + because thus substantial and true, they called its price + [Greek: timê], the "honourable estimate" of it (honorarium): + this word being founded on their conception of true labour + as a divine thing, to be honoured with the kind of honour + given to the gods; whereas the price of false labour, or of + that which led away from life, was to be, not honour, but + vengeance; for which they reserved another word, attributing + the exaction of such price to a peculiar goddess called + Tisiphone, the "requiter (or quittance-taker) of death;" + a person versed in the highest branches of arithmetic, and + punctual in her habits; with whom accounts current have been + opened also in modern days. + +The quality and kind of labour being given, its value, like that of +all other valuable things, is invariable. But the quantity of it which +must be given for other things is variable: and in estimating this +variation, the price of other things must always be counted by the +quantity of labour; not the price of labour by the quantity of other +things. + +Thus, if we want to plant an apple sapling in rocky ground, it may +take two hours' work; in soft ground, perhaps only half an hour. Grant +the soil equally good for the tree in each case. Then the value of the +sapling planted by two hours' work is nowise greater than that of the +sapling planted in half an hour. One will bear no more fruit than the +other. Also, one half-hour of work is as valuable as another +half-hour; nevertheless the one sapling has cost four such pieces of +work, the other only one. Now the proper statement of this fact is, +not that the labour on the hard ground is cheaper than on the soft; +but that the tree is dearer. The exchange value may, or may not, +afterwards depend on this fact. If other people have plenty of soft +ground to plant in, they will take no cognizance of our two hours' +labour, in the price they will offer for the plant on the rock. And +if, through want of sufficient botanical science, we have planted an +upas-tree instead of an apple, the exchange value will be a negative +quantity; still less proportionate to the labour expended. + +What is commonly called cheapness of labour, signifies, therefore, in +reality, that many obstacles have to be overcome by it; so that much +labour is required to produce a small result. But this should never be +spoken of as cheapness of labour, but as dearness of the object +wrought for. It would be just as rational to say that walking was +cheap, because we had ten miles to walk home to our dinner, as that +labour was cheap, because we had to work ten hours to earn it. + +The last word which we have to define is "Production." + +I have hitherto spoken of all labour as profitable; because it is +impossible to consider under one head the quality or value of labour, +and its aim. But labour of the best quality may be various in aim. It +may be either constructive ("gathering," from con and struo), as +agriculture; nugatory, as jewel-cutting; or destructive ("scattering," +from de and struo), as war. It is not, however, always easy to prove +labour, apparently nugatory, to be actually so;[55] generally, the +formula holds good, "he that gathereth not, scattereth;" thus, the +jeweller's art is probably very harmful in its ministering to a clumsy +and inelegant pride. So that, finally, I believe nearly all labour may +be shortly divided into positive and negative labour: positive, that +which produces life; negative, that which produces death; the most +directly negative labour being murder, and the most directly positive, +the bearing and rearing of children: so that in the precise degree in +which murder is hateful, on the negative side of idleness, in that +exact degree child-rearing is admirable, on the positive side of +idleness. For which reason, and because of the honour that there is in +rearing[56] children, while the wife is said to be as the vine (for +cheering), the children are as the olive-branch, for praise; nor for +praise only, but for peace (because large families can only be reared +in times of peace): though since, in their spreading and voyaging in +various directions, they distribute strength, they are, to the home +strength, as arrows in the hand of the giant--striking here and there, +far away. + + [55] The most accurately nugatory labour is, perhaps, that of + which not enough is given to answer a purpose effectually, + and which, therefore, has all to be done over again. Also, + labour which fails of effect through non-cooperation. The + curé of a little village near Bellinzona, to whom I had + expressed wonder that the peasants allowed the Ticino to + flood their fields, told me that they would not join to + build an effectual embankment high up the valley, because + everybody said "that would help his neighbours as much as + himself." So every proprietor built a bit of low embankment + about his own field; and the Ticino, as soon as it had a + mind, swept away and swallowed all up together. + + [56] Observe, I say, "rearing," not "begetting." The praise is + in the seventh season, not in [Greek: sporêtos], nor in + [Greek: phytalia], but in [Greek: opôra]. It is strange + that men always praise enthusiastically any person who, + by a momentary exertion, saves a life; but praise very + hesitatingly a person who, by exertion and self-denial + prolonged through years, creates one. We give the crown "ob + civem servatum,"--why not "ob civem natum"? Born, I mean, to + the full, in soul as well as body. England has oak enough, I + think, for both chaplets. + +Labour being thus various in its result, the prosperity of any nation +is in exact proportion to the quantity of labour which it spends in +obtaining and employing means of life. Observe,--I say, obtaining and +employing; that is to say, not merely wisely producing, but wisely +distributing and consuming. Economists usually speak as if there were +no good in consumption absolute.[57] So far from this being so, +consumption absolute is the end, crown, and perfection of production; +and wise consumption is a far more difficult art than wise production. +Twenty people can gain money for one who can use it; and the vital +question, for individual and for nation, is, never "how much do they +make?" but "to what purpose do they spend?" + + [57] When Mr. Mill speaks of productive consumption, he only + means consumption which results in increase of capital, or + material wealth. See I. iii. 4, and I. iii. 5. + +The reader may, perhaps, have been surprised at the slight reference +I have hitherto made to "capital," and its functions. It is here the +place to define them. + +Capital signifies "head, or source, or root material"--it is material +by which some derivative or secondary good is produced. It is only +capital proper (caput vivum, not caput mortuum) when it is thus +producing something different from itself. It is a root, which does +not enter into vital function till it produces something else than a +root; namely, fruit. That fruit will in time again produce roots; and +so all living capital issues in reproduction of capital; but capital +which produces nothing but capital is only root producing root; bulb +issuing in bulb, never in tulip; seed issuing in seed, never in bread. +The Political Economy of Europe has hitherto devoted itself wholly to +the multiplication, or (less even) the aggregation, of bulbs. It never +saw, nor conceived such a thing as a tulip. Nay, boiled bulbs they +might have been--glass bulbs--Prince Rupert's drops, consummated in +powder (well, if it were glass-powder and not gunpowder), for any end +or meaning the economists had in defining the laws of aggregation. We +will try and get a clearer notion of them. + +The best and simplest general type of capital is a well-made +ploughshare. Now, if that ploughshare did nothing but beget other +ploughshares, in a polypous manner,--however the great cluster of +polypous plough might glitter in the sun, it would have lost its +function of capital. It becomes true capital only by another kind of +splendour,--when it is seen "splendescere sulco," to grow bright in +the furrow; rather with diminution of its substance, than addition, by +the noble friction. And the true home question, to every capitalist +and to every nation, is not, "how many ploughs have you?" but, "where +are your furrows?" not--"how quickly will this capital reproduce +itself?"--but, "what will it do during reproduction?" What substance +will it furnish, good for life? what work construct, protective of +life? if none, its own reproduction is useless--if worse than none +(for capital may destroy life as well as support it), its own +reproduction is worse than useless; it is merely an advance from +Tisiphone, on mortgage--not a profit by any means. + +Not a profit, as the ancients truly saw, and showed in the type of +Ixion;--for capital is the head, or fountain head, of wealth--the +"well-head" of wealth, as the clouds are the well-heads of rain: but +when clouds are without water, and only beget clouds, they issue in +wrath at last, instead of rain, and in lightning instead of harvest; +whence Ixion is said first to have invited his guests to a banquet, +and then made them fall into a pit filled with fire; which is the type +of the temptation of riches issuing in imprisoned torment,--torment in +a pit (as also Demas' silver mine), after which, to show the rage of +riches passing from lust of pleasure to lust of power, yet power not +truly understood, Ixion is said to have desired Juno, and instead, +embracing a cloud (or phantasm), to have begotten the Centaurs; the +power of mere wealth being, in itself, as the embrace of a +shadow,--comfortless (so also "Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth +after the east wind"; or "that which is not"--Prov. xxiii. 5; and +again Dante's Geryon, the type of avaricious fraud, as he flies, +gathers the _air_ up with retractile claws,--"l'aer a se +raccolse"[58]), but in its offspring, a mingling of the brutal with +the human nature: human in sagacity--using both intellect and arrow; +but brutal in its body and hoof, for consuming, and trampling down. +For which sin Ixion is at last bound upon a wheel--fiery and toothed, +and rolling perpetually in the air;--the type of human labour when +selfish and fruitless (kept far into the middle ages in their wheel of +fortune); the wheel which has in it no breath or spirit, but is +whirled by chance only; whereas of all true work the Ezekiel vision is +true, that the Spirit of the living creature is in the wheels, and +where the angels go, the wheels go by them; but move no otherwise. + + [58] So also in the vision of the women bearing the ephah, before + quoted, "the wind was in their wings," not wings "of a + stork," as in our version; but "_milvi_," of a kite, in the + Vulgate, or perhaps more accurately still in the Septuagint, + "hoopoe," a bird connected typically with the power of + riches by many traditions, of which that of its petition for + a crest of gold is perhaps the most interesting. The "Birds" + of Aristophanes, in which its part is principal, is full of + them; note especially the "fortification of the air with + baked bricks, like Babylon," l. 550; and, again, compare the + Plutus of Dante, who (to show the influence of riches in + destroying the reason) is the only one of the powers of the + Inferno who cannot speak intelligibly; and also the + cowardliest; he is not merely quelled or restrained, but + literally "collapses" at a word; the sudden and helpless + operation of mercantile panic being all told in the brief + metaphor, "as the sails, swollen with the wind, fall, when + the mast breaks." + +This being the real nature of capital, it follows that there are two +kinds of true production, always going on in an active State; one of +seed, and one of food; or production for the Ground, and for the +Mouth; both of which are by covetous persons thought to be production +only for the granary; whereas the function of the granary is but +intermediate and conservative, fulfilled in distribution; else it ends +in nothing but mildew, and nourishment of rats and worms. And since +production for the Ground is only useful with future hope of harvest, +all _essential_ production is for the Mouth; and is finally measured +by the mouth; hence, as I said above, consumption is the crown of +production; and the wealth of a nation is only to be estimated by what +it consumes. + +The want of any clear sight of this fact is the capital error, issuing +in rich interest and revenue of error among the political economists. +Their minds are continually set on money-gain, not on mouth-gain; and +they fall into every sort of net and snare, dazzled by the +coin-glitter as birds by the fowler's glass; or rather (for there is +not much else like birds in them) they are like children trying to +jump on the heads of their own shadows; the money-gain being only the +shadow of the true gain, which is humanity. + +The final object of political economy, therefore, is to get good +method of consumption, and great quantity of consumption: in other +words, to use everything, and to use it nobly; whether it be +substance, service, or service perfecting substance. The most curious +error in Mr. Mill's entire work (provided for him originally by +Ricardo) is his endeavour to distinguish between direct and indirect +service, and consequent assertion that a demand for commodities is not +demand for labour (I. v. 9, _et seq._). He distinguishes between +labourers employed to lay out pleasure grounds, and to manufacture +velvet; declaring that it makes material difference to the labouring +classes in which of these two ways a capitalist spends his money; +because the employment of the gardeners is a demand for labour, but +the purchase of velvet is not.[59] Error colossal as well as strange. +It will, indeed, make a difference to the labourer whether we bid him +swing his scythe in the spring winds, or drive the loom in +pestilential air; but, so far as his pocket is concerned, it makes to +him absolutely no difference whether we order him to make green +velvet, with seed and a scythe, or red velvet, with silk and scissors. +Neither does it anywise concern him whether, when the velvet is made, +we consume it by walking on it, or wearing it, so long as our +consumption of it is wholly selfish. But if our consumption is to be +in any wise unselfish, not only our mode of consuming the articles we +require interests him, but also the _kind_ of article we require with +a view to consumption. As thus (returning for a moment to Mr. Mill's +great hardware theory[60]): it matters, so far as the labourer's +immediate profit is concerned, not an iron filing whether I employ him +in growing a peach, or forging a bombshell; but my probable mode of +consumption of those articles matters seriously. Admit that it is to +be in both cases "unselfish," and the difference, to him, is final, +whether when his child is ill, I walk into his cottage and give it the +peach, or drop the shell down his chimney, and blow his roof off. + + [59] The value of raw material, which has, indeed, to be deducted + from the price of the labour, is not contemplated in the + passages referred to, Mr. Mill having fallen into the + mistake solely by pursuing the collateral results of the + payment of wages to middlemen. He says:--"The consumer does + not, with his own funds, pay the weaver for his day's work." + Pardon me; the consumer of the velvet pays the weaver with + his own funds as much as he pays the gardener. He pays, + probably, an intermediate ship-owner, velvet merchant, and + shopman; pays carriage money, shop rent, damage money, time + money, and care money; all these are above and beside the + velvet price (just as the wages of a head gardener would be + above the grass price); but the velvet is as much produced + by the consumer's capital, though he does not pay for it + till six months after production, as the grass is produced + by his capital, though he does not pay the man who mowed and + rolled it on Monday, till Saturday afternoon. I do not know + if Mr. Mill's conclusion--"the capital cannot be dispensed + with, the purchasers can"--has yet been reduced to practice + in the City on any large scale. + + [60] Which, observe, is the precise opposite of the one + under examination. The hardware theory required us to + discharge our gardeners and engage manufacturers; the velvet + theory requires us to discharge our manufacturers and engage + gardeners. + +The worst of it, for the peasant, is, that the capitalist's +consumption of the peach is apt to be selfish, and of the shell, +distributive;[61] but, in all cases, this is the broad and general +fact, that on due catallactic commercial principles, _somebody's_ roof +must go off in fulfilment of the bomb's destiny. You may grow for +your neighbour, at your liking, grapes or grapeshot; he will also, +catallactically, grow grapes or grapeshot for you, and you will each +reap what you have sown. + + [61] It is one very awful form of the operation of wealth in + Europe that it is entirely capitalists' wealth which + supports unjust wars. Just wars do not need so much money to + support them; for most of the men who wage such, wage them + gratis; but for an unjust war, men's bodies and souls have + both to be bought; and the best tools of war for them + besides; which makes such war costly to the maximum; not to + speak of the cost of base fear, and angry suspicion, between + nations which have not grace nor honesty enough in all their + multitudes to buy an hour's peace of mind with: as, at + present, France and England, purchasing of each other ten + millions sterling worth of consternation annually (a + remarkably light crop, half thorns and half aspen + leaves,--sown, reaped, and granaried by "the science" of the + modern political economist, teaching covetousness instead of + truth). And all unjust war being supportable, if not by + pillage of the enemy, only by loans from capitalists, these + loans are repaid by subsequent taxation of the people, who + appear to have no will in the matter, the capitalists' will + being the primary root of the war; but its real root is the + covetousness of the whole nation, rendering it incapable of + faith, frankness, or justice, and bringing about, therefore, + in due time, his own separate loss and punishment to each + person. + +It is, therefore, the manner and issue of consumption which are the +real tests of production. Production does not consist in things +laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable; and the +question for the nation is not how much labour it employs, but how +much life it produces. For as consumption is the end and aim of +production, so life is the end and aim of consumption. + +I left this question to the reader's thought two months ago, choosing +rather that he should work it out for himself than have it sharply +stated to him. But now, the ground being sufficiently broken (and the +details into which the several questions, here opened, must lead us, +being too complex for discussion in the pages of a periodical, so that +I must pursue them elsewhere), I desire, in closing the series of +introductory papers, to leave this one great fact clearly stated. +THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE. Life, including all its powers of love, +of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes +the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is +richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the +utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal and by +means of his possessions, over the lives of others. + +A strange political economy; the only one, nevertheless, that ever was +or can be: all political economy founded on self-interest[62] being +but the fulfilment of that which once brought schism into the Policy +of angels, and ruin into the Economy of Heaven. + + [62] "In all reasoning about prices, the proviso must be + understood, 'supposing all parties to take care of their + own interest.'"--Mill, III. i. 5. + +"The greatest number of human beings noble and happy." But is the +nobleness consistent with the number? Yes, not only consistent with +it, but essential to it. The maximum of life can only be reached by +the maximum of virtue. In this respect the law of human population +differs wholly from that of animal life. The multiplication of animals +is checked only by want of food, and by the hostility of races; the +population of the gnat is restrained by the hunger of the swallow, and +that of the swallow by the scarcity of gnats. Man, considered as an +animal, is indeed limited by the same laws: hunger, or plague, or war, +are the necessary and only restraints upon his increase,--effectual +restraints hitherto,--his principal study having been how most swiftly +to destroy himself, or ravage his dwelling-places, and his highest +skill directed to give range to the famine, seed to the plague, and +sway to the sword. But, considered as other than an animal, his +increase is not limited by these laws. It is limited only by the +limits of his courage and his love. Both of these _have_ their bounds; +and ought to have: his race has its bounds also; but these have not +yet been reached, nor will be reached for ages. + +In all the ranges of human thought I know none so melancholy as the +speculations of political economists on the population question. It is +proposed to better the condition of the labourer by giving him higher +wages. "Nay," says the economist, "if you raise his wages, he will +either drag people down to the same point of misery at which you found +him, or drink your wages away." He will. I know it. Who gave him this +will? Suppose it were your own son of whom you spoke, declaring to me +that you dared not take him into your firm, nor even give him his just +labourer's wages, because if you did, he would die of drunkenness, and +leave half a score of children to the parish. "Who gave your son these +dispositions?"--I should inquire. Has he them by inheritance or by +education? By one or other they _must_ come; and as in him, so also in +the poor. Either these poor are of a race essentially different from +ours, and unredeemable (which, however often implied, I have heard +none yet openly say), or else by such care as we have ourselves +received, we may make them continent and sober as ourselves--wise and +dispassionate as we are--models arduous of imitation. "But," it is +answered, "they cannot receive education." Why not? That is precisely +the point at issue. Charitable persons suppose the worst fault of the +rich is to refuse the people meat; and the people cry for their meat, +kept back by fraud, to the Lord of Multitudes.[63] Alas! it is not +meat of which the refusal is cruelest, or to which the claim is +validest. The life is more than the meat. The rich not only refuse +food to the poor; they refuse wisdom; they refuse virtue; they refuse +salvation. Ye sheep without shepherd, it is not the pasture that has +been shut from you, but the presence. Meat! perhaps your right to that +may be pleadable; but other rights have to be pleaded first. Claim +your crumbs from the table, if you will; but claim them as children, +not as dogs; claim your right to be fed, but claim more loudly your +right to be holy, perfect, and pure. + + [63] James v. 4. Observe, in these statements I am not taking + up, nor countenancing one whit, the common socialist idea of + division of property; division of property is its + destruction; and with it the destruction of all hope, all + industry, and all justice: it is simply chaos--a chaos + towards which the believers in modern political economy are + fast tending, and from which I am striving to save them. The + rich man does not keep back meat from the poor by retaining + his riches; but by basely using them. Riches are a form of + strength; and a strong man does not injure others by keeping + his strength, but by using it injuriously. The socialist, + seeing a strong man oppress a weak one, cries out--"Break + the strong man's arms"; but I say, "Teach him to use them to + better purpose." The fortitude and intelligence which + acquire riches are intended, by the Giver of both, not to + scatter, nor to give away, but to employ those riches in the + service of mankind; in other words, in the redemption of the + erring and aid of the weak--that is to say, there is first + to be the work to gain money; then the Sabbath of use for + it--the Sabbath, whose law is, not to lose life, but to + save. It is continually the fault or the folly of the poor + that they are poor, as it is usually a child's fault if it + falls into a pond, and a cripple's weakness that slips at a + crossing; nevertheless, most passers-by would pull the child + out, or help up the cripple. Put it at the worst, that all + the poor of the world are but disobedient children, or + careless cripples, and that all rich people are wise and + strong, and you will see at once that neither is the + socialist right in desiring to make everybody poor, + powerless, and foolish as he is himself, nor the rich man + right in leaving the children in the mire. + +Strange words to be used of working people: "What! holy; without any +long robes nor anointing oils; these rough-jacketed, rough-worded +persons set to nameless and dishonoured service? Perfect!--these, with +dim eyes and cramped limbs, and slowly wakening minds? Pure!--these, +with sensual desire and grovelling thought; foul of body, and coarse +of soul?" It may be so; nevertheless, such as they are, they are the +holiest, perfectest, purest persons the earth can at present show. +They may be what you have said; but if so, they yet are holier than +we, who have left them thus. + +But what can be done for them? Who can clothe--who teach--who restrain +their multitudes? What end can there be for them at last, but to +consume one another? + +I hope for another end, though not, indeed, from any of the three +remedies for over-population commonly suggested by economists. + +These three are, in brief--Colonization; Bringing in of waste lands; +or Discouragement of Marriage. + +The first and second of these expedients merely evade or delay the +question. It will, indeed, be long before the world has been all +colonized, and its deserts all brought under cultivation. But the +radical question is not how much habitable land is in the world, but +how many human beings ought to be maintained on a given space of +habitable land. + +Observe, I say, _ought_ to be, not how many _can_ be. Ricardo, with +his usual inaccuracy, defines what he calls the "natural rate of +wages" as "that which will maintain the labourer." Maintain him! yes; +but how?--the question was instantly thus asked of me by a working +girl, to whom I read the passage. I will amplify her question for her. +"Maintain him, how?" As, first, to what length of life? Out of a given +number of fed persons how many are to be old--how many young; that is +to say, will you arrange their maintenance so as to kill them +early--say at thirty or thirty-five on the average, including deaths +of weakly or ill-fed children?--or so as to enable them to live out a +natural life? You will feed a greater number, in the first case,[64] +by rapidity of succession; probably a happier number in the second: +which does Mr. Ricardo mean to be their natural state, and to which +state belongs the natural rate of wages? + + [64] The quantity of life is the same in both cases; but it + is differently allotted. + +Again: A piece of land which will only support ten idle, ignorant, and +improvident persons, will support thirty or forty intelligent and +industrious ones. Which of these is their natural state, and to which +of them belongs the natural rate of wages? + +Again: If a piece of land support forty persons in industrious +ignorance; and if, tired of this ignorance, they set apart ten of +their number to study the properties of cones, and the sizes of stars; +the labour of these ten, being withdrawn from the ground, must either +tend to the increase of food in some transitional manner, or the +persons set apart for sidereal and conic purposes must starve, or some +one else starve instead of them. What is, therefore, the natural rate +of wages of the scientific persons, and how does this rate relate to, +or measure, their reverted or transitional productiveness? + +Again: If the ground maintains, at first, forty labourers in a +peaceable and pious state of mind, but they become in a few years so +quarrelsome and impious that they have to set apart five, to meditate +upon and settle their disputes; ten, armed to the teeth with costly +instruments, to enforce the decisions; and five to remind everybody in +an eloquent manner of the existence of a God;--what will be the result +upon the general power of production, and what is the "natural rate of +wages" of the meditative, muscular, and oracular labourers? + +Leaving these questions to be discussed, or waived, at their pleasure, +by Mr. Ricardo's followers, I proceed to state the main facts bearing +on that probable future of the labouring classes which has been +partially glanced at by Mr. Mill. That chapter and the preceding one +differ from the common writing of political economists in admitting +some value in the aspect of nature, and expressing regret at the +probability of the destruction of natural scenery. But we may spare +our anxieties, on this head. Men can neither drink steam, nor eat +stone. The maximum of population on a given space of land implies also +the relative maximum of edible vegetable, whether for men or cattle; +it implies a maximum of pure air; and of pure water. Therefore: a +maximum of wood, to transmute the air, and of sloping ground, +protected by herbage from the extreme heat of the sun, to feed the +streams. All England may, if it so chooses, become one manufacturing +town; and Englishmen, sacrificing themselves to the good of general +humanity, may live diminished lives in the midst of noise, of +darkness, and of deadly exhalation. But the world cannot become a +factory, nor a mine. No amount of ingenuity will ever make iron +digestible by the million, nor substitute hydrogen for wine. Neither +the avarice nor the rage of men will ever feed them, and however the +apple of Sodom and the grape of Gomorrah may spread their table for a +time with dainties of ashes, and nectar of asps,--so long as men live +by bread, the far away valleys must laugh as they are covered with the +gold of God, and the shouts of His happy multitudes ring round the +winepress and the well. + +Nor need our more sentimental economists fear the too wide spread of +the formalities of a mechanical agriculture. The presence of a wise +population implies the search for felicity as well as for food; nor +can any population reach its maximum but through that wisdom which +"rejoices" in the habitable parts of the earth. The desert has its +appointed place and work; the eternal engine, whose beam is the +earth's axle, whose beat is its year, and whose breath is its ocean, +will still divide imperiously to their desert kingdoms, bound with +unfurrowable rock, and swept by unarrested sand, their powers of frost +and fire: but the zones and lands between, habitable, will be +loveliest in habitation. The desire of the heart is also the light of +the eyes. No scene is continually and untiringly loved, but one rich +by joyful human labour; smooth in field; fair in garden; full in +orchard; trim, sweet, and frequent in homestead; ringing with voices +of vivid existence. No air is sweet that is silent; it is only sweet +when full of low currents of under sound--triplets of birds, and +murmur and chirp of insects, and deep-toned words of men, and wayward +trebles of childhood. As the art of life is learned, it will be found +at last that all lovely things are also necessary:--the wild flower by +the wayside, as well as the tended corn; and the wild birds and +creatures of the forest, as well as the tended cattle; because man +doth not live by bread only, but also by the desert manna; by every +wondrous word and unknowable work of God. Happy, in that he knew them +not, nor did his fathers know; and that round about him reaches yet +into the infinite, the amazement of his existence. + +Note, finally, that all effectual advancement towards this true +felicity of the human race must be by individual, not public effort. +Certain general measures may aid, certain revised laws guide, such +advancement; but the measure and law which have first to be determined +are those of each man's home. We continually hear it recommended by +sagacious people to complaining neighbours (usually less well placed +in the world than themselves), that they should "remain content in the +station in which Providence has placed them." There are perhaps some +circumstances of life in which Providence has no intention that people +_should_ be content. Nevertheless, the maxim is on the whole a good +one; but it is peculiarly for home use. That your neighbour should, or +should not, remain content with _his_ position, is not your business; +but it is very much your business to remain content with your own. +What is chiefly needed in England at the present day is to show the +quantity of pleasure that may be obtained by a consistent, +well-administered competence, modest, confessed, and laborious. We +need examples of people who, leaving Heaven to decide whether they are +to rise in the world, decide for themselves that they will be happy in +it, and have resolved to seek--not greater wealth, but simpler +pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity; making the first of +possessions, self-possession; and honouring themselves in the harmless +pride and calm pursuits of peace. + +Of which lowly peace it is written that "justice and peace have +kissed each other;" and that the fruit of justice is "sown in +peace of them that make peace"; not "peace-makers" in the common +understanding--reconcilers of quarrels; (though that function also +follows on the greater one;) but peace-Creators; Givers of Calm. Which +you cannot give, unless you first gain; nor is this gain one which +will follow assuredly on any course of business, commonly so called. +No form of gain is less probable, business being (as is shown in +the language of all nations--[Greek: pôlein] from [Greek: pelô], +[Greek: prasis] from [Greek: peraô], venire, vendre, and venal, from +venio, etc.) essentially restless--and probably contentious;--having a +raven-like mind to the motion to and fro, as to the carrion food; +whereas the olive-feeding and bearing birds look for rest for their +feet: thus it is said of Wisdom that she "hath builded her house, and +hewn out her seven pillars;" and even when, though apt to wait long at +the doorposts, she has to leave her house and go abroad, her paths are +peace also. + +For us, at all events, her work must begin at the entry of the doors: +all true economy is "Law of the house." Strive to make that law +strict, simple, generous: waste nothing, and grudge nothing. Care in +nowise to make more of money, but care to make much of it; remembering +always the great, palpable, inevitable fact--the rule and root of all +economy--that what one person has, another cannot have; and that every +atom of substance, of whatever kind, used or consumed, is so much +human life spent; which, if it issue in the saving present life, or +gaining more, is well spent, but if not, is either so much life +prevented, or so much slain. In all buying, consider, first, what +condition of existence you cause in the producers of what you buy; +secondly, whether the sum you have paid is just to the producer, and +in due proportion lodged in his hands;[65] thirdly, to how much clear +use, for food, knowledge, or joy, this that you have bought can be +put; and fourthly, to whom and in what way it can be most speedily and +serviceably distributed: in all dealings whatsoever insisting on +entire openness and stern fulfilment; and in all doings, on perfection +and loveliness of accomplishment; especially on fineness and purity of +all marketable commodity: watching at the same time for all ways of +gaining, or teaching, powers of simple pleasure; and of showing "hoson +en asphodelph geg honeiar"--the sum of enjoyment depending not on the +quantity of things tasted, but on the vivacity and patience of taste. + + [65] The proper offices of middlemen, namely, overseers (or + authoritative workmen), conveyancers (merchants, sailors, + retail dealers, etc.), and order-takers (persons employed to + receive directions from the consumer), must, of course, be + examined before I can enter farther into the question of + just payment of the first producer. But I have not spoken + of them in these introductory papers, because the evils + attendant on the abuse of such intermediate functions result + not from any alleged principle of modern political economy, + but from private carelessness or iniquity. + +And if, on due and honest thought over these things, it seems that the +kind of existence to which men are now summoned by every plea of pity +and claim of right, may, for some time at least, not be a luxurious +one:--consider whether, even, supposing it guiltless, luxury would be +desired by any of us, if we saw clearly at our sides the suffering +which accompanies it in the world. Luxury is indeed possible in the +future--innocent and exquisite: luxury for all, and by the help of +all; but luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the +cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat +blindfold. Raise the veil boldly; face the light; and if, as yet, the +light of the eye can only be through tears, and the light of the body +through sackcloth, go thou forth weeping, bearing precious seed, until +the time come, and the kingdom, when Christ's gift of bread, and +bequest of peace shall be Unto this last as unto thee; and when, for +earth's severed multitudes of the wicked and the weary, there shall be +holier reconciliation than that of the narrow home, and calm economy, +where the Wicked cease--not from trouble, but from troubling--and the +Weary are at rest. + + + + +ESSAYS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY: + +CONTRIBUTED TO "FRASER'S MAGAZINE" IN 1862 AND 1863, BEING A SEQUEL TO +PAPERS WHICH APPEARED IN THE "CORNHILL MAGAZINE," UNDER THE TITLE OF +"UNTO THIS LAST." + + + + +I. + +MAINTENANCE OF LIFE; WEALTH, MONEY, AND RICHES. + + +As domestic economy regulates the acts and habits of a household, +political economy regulates those of a society or State, with +reference to its maintenance. + +Political economy is neither an art nor a science,[66] but a system of +conduct and legislature, founded on the sciences, directing the arts, +and impossible, except under certain conditions of moral culture. + +By the "maintenance" of a State is to be understood the support of its +population in healthy and happy life; and the increase of their +numbers, so far as that increase is consistent with their happiness. +It is not the object of political economy to increase the numbers of a +nation at the cost of common health or comfort; nor to increase +indefinitely the comfort of individuals, by sacrifice of surrounding +lives, or possibilities of life. + + [66] The science which in modern days had been called Political + Economy is in reality nothing more than the investigation of + the phenomena of commercial operations. It has no connexion + with political economy, as understood and treated of by the + great thinkers of past ages; and as long as it is allowed + to pass under the same name, every word written by those + thinkers--and chiefly the words of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, + and Bacon--must be either misunderstood or misapplied. The + reader must not, therefore, be surprised at the care and + insistence with which I have retained the literal and earliest + sense of all important terms used in these papers; for a word + is usually well made at the time it is first wanted; its + youngest meaning has in it the full strength of its youth; + subsequent senses are commonly warped or weakened; and as a + misused word always is liable to involve an obscured thought, + and all careful thinkers, either on this or any other subject, + are sure to have used their words accurately, the first + condition, in order to be able to avail ourselves of their + sayings at all, is a firm definition of terms. + +The assumption which lies at the root of nearly all erroneous +reasoning on political economy--namely, that its object is to +accumulate money or exchangeable property--may be shown in few words +to be without foundation. For no economist would admit national +economy to be legitimate which proposed to itself only the building of +a pyramid of gold. He would declare the gold to be wasted, were it to +remain in the monumental form, and would say it ought to be employed. +But to what end? Either it must be used only to gain more gold, and +build a larger pyramid, or to some purpose other than the gaining of +gold. And this other purpose, however at first apprehended, will be +found to resolve itself finally into the service of man--that is to +say, the extension, defence, or comfort of his life. The golden +pyramid may perhaps be providently built, perhaps improvidently; but, +at all events, the wisdom or folly of the accumulation can only be +determined by our having first clearly stated the aim of all economy, +namely, the extension of life. + +If the accumulation of money, or of exchangeable property, were a +certain means of extending existence, it would be useless, in +discussing economical questions, to fix our attention upon the more +distant object--life--instead of the immediate one--money. But it is +not so. Money may sometimes be accumulated at the cost of life, or by +limitations of it; that is to say, either by hastening the deaths of +men, or preventing their births. It is therefore necessary to keep +clearly in view the ultimate object of economy, and to determine the +expediency of minor operations with reference to that ulterior end. It +has been just stated that the object of political economy is the +continuance not only of life, but of healthy and happy life. But all +true happiness is both a consequence and cause of life; it is a sign +of its vigour, and means of its continuance. All true suffering is in +like manner a consequence and cause of death. I shall therefore, in +future, use the word "Life" singly: but let it be understood to +include in its signification the happiness and power of the entire +human nature, body and soul. + +That human nature, as its Creator made it, and maintains it wherever +His laws are observed, is entirely harmonious. No physical error can +be more profound, no moral error more dangerous than that involved in +the monkish doctrine of the opposition of body to soul. No soul can be +perfect in an imperfect body; no body perfect without perfect soul. +Every right action and true thought sets the seal of its beauty on +person and face; every wrong action and foul thought its seal of +distortion; and the various aspects of humanity might be read as +plainly as a printed history, were it not that the impressions are so +complex that it must always in some cases--and, in the present state +of our knowledge, in all cases--be impossible to decipher them +completely. Nevertheless, the face of a consistently just, and of a +consistently unjust person, may always be rightly discerned at a +glance; and if the qualities are continued by descent through a +generation or two, there arises a complete distinction of race. Both +moral and physical qualities are communicated by descent, far more +than they can be developed by education (though both may be destroyed +for want of education), and there is as yet no ascertained limit to +the nobleness of person and mind which the human creature may attain, +by persevering observance of the laws of God respecting its birth and +training. We must therefore yet farther define the aim of political +economy to be "the multiplication of human life at the highest +standard." It might at first seem questionable whether we should +endeavour to maintain a small number of persons of the highest type of +beauty and intelligence, or a larger number of an inferior class. But +I shall be able to show in the sequel, that the way to maintain the +largest number is first to aim at the highest standard. Determine the +noblest type of man, and aim simply at maintaining the largest +possible number of persons of that class, and it will be found that +the largest possible number of every healthy subordinate class must +necessarily be produced also. + +The perfect type of manhood, as just stated, involves the perfections +(whatever we may hereafter determine these to be) of his body, +affections, and intelligence. The material things, therefore, +which it is the object of political economy to produce and use +(or accumulate for use), are things which serve either to sustain +and comfort the body, or exercise rightly the affections and form the +intelligence.[67] Whatever truly serves either of these purposes is +"useful" to man, wholesome, healthful, helpful, or holy. By seeking +such things, man prolongs and increases his life upon the earth. + + [67] It may be observed, in anticipation of some of our future + results, that while some conditions of the affections are + aimed at by the economist as final, others are necessary to + him as his own instruments: as he obtains them in greater or + less degree his own farther work becomes more or less + possible. Such, for instance, are the fortifying virtues, + which the wisest men of all time have, with more or less + distinctness, arranged under the general heads of Prudence, + or Discretion (the spirit which discerns and adopts + rightly); Justice (the spirit which rules and divides + rightly); Fortitude (the spirit which persists and endures + rightly); and Temperance (the spirit which stops and refuses + rightly); or in shorter terms still, the virtues which teach + how to consist, assist, persist, and desist. These outermost + virtues are not only the means of protecting and prolonging + life itself, but they are the chief guards or sources of the + material means of life, and are the visible governing powers + and princes of economy. Thus (reserving detailed statements + for the sequel) precisely according to the number of just + men in a nation, is their power of avoiding either intestine + or foreign war. All disputes may be peaceably settled, if a + sufficient number of persons have been trained to submit to + the principles of justice. The necessity for war is in + direct ratio to the number of unjust persons who are + incapable of determining a quarrel but by violence. Whether + the injustice take the form of the desire of dominion, or of + refusal to submit to it, or of lust of territory, or lust of + money, or of mere irregular passion and wanton will, the + result is economically the same;--loss of the quantity of + power and life consumed in repressing the injustice, as well + as of that requiring to be repressed, added to the material + and moral destruction caused by the fact of war. The early + civil wars of England, and the existing war in America, are + curious examples--these under monarchical, this under + republican institutions--of the results of the want of + education of large masses of nations in principles of + justice. This latter war, especially, may perhaps at least + serve for some visible, or if that be impossible (for the + Greeks told us that Plutus was blind, as Dante that he was + speechless), some feelable proof that true political economy + is an ethical, and by no means a commercial business. The + Americans imagined themselves to know somewhat of + money-making; bowed low before their Dollar, expecting + Divine help from it; more than potent--even omnipotent. Yet + all the while this apparently tangible, was indeed an + imaginary Deity;--and had they shown the substance of him to + any true economist, or even true mineralogist, they would + have been told, long years ago,--"Alas, gentlemen, this that + you are gaining is not gold,--not a particle of it. It is + yellow, and glittering, and like enough to the real + metal,--but see--it is brittle, cat-gold, 'iron firestone.' + Out of this, heap it as high as you will, you will get so + much steel and brimstone--nothing else; and in a year or + two, when (had you known a little of right economy) you + might have had quiet roof-trees over your heads, and a fair + account at your banker's, you shall instead have to sleep + a-field, under red tapestries, costliest, yet comfortless; + and at your banker's find deficit at compound interest." But + the mere dread or distrust resulting from the want of inner + virtues of Faith and Charity among nations, is often no less + costly than war itself. The fear which France and England + have of each other costs each nation about fifteen millions + sterling annually, besides various paralyses of commerce; + that sum being spent in the manufacture of means of + destruction instead of means of production. There is no more + reason in the nature of things that France and England + should be hostile to each other than that England and + Scotland should be, or Lancashire and Yorkshire; and the + reciprocal terrors of the opposite sides of the English + Channel are neither more necessary, more economical, nor + more virtuous than the old riding and reiving on opposite + flanks of the Cheviots, or than England's own weaving for + herself of crowns of thorn from the stems of her Red and + White Roses. + +On the other hand, whatever does not serve either of these +purposes,--much more whatever counteracts them,--is in like manner +useless to man, unwholesome, unhelpful, or unholy; and by seeking such +things man shortens and diminishes his life upon the earth. And +neither with respect to things useful or useless can man's estimate of +them alter their nature. Certain substances being good for his food, +and others noxious to him, what he thinks or wishes respecting them +can neither change their nature, nor prevent their power. If he eats +corn, he will live; if nightshade, he will die. If he produce or make +good and beautiful things, they will "recreate" him (note the +solemnity and weight of the word); if bad and ugly things, they will +"corrupt" or break in pieces--that is, in the exact degree of their +power, kill him. For every hour of labour, however enthusiastic or +well intended, which he spends for that which is not bread, so much +possibility of life is lost to him. His fancies, likings, beliefs, +however brilliant, eager, or obstinate, are of no avail if they are +set on a false object. Of all that he has laboured for, the eternal +law of heaven and earth measures out to him for reward, to the utmost +atom, that part which he ought to have laboured for, and withdraws +from him (or enforces on him, it may be) inexorably that part which he +ought not to have laboured for. The dust and chaff are all, to the +last speck, winnowed away, and on his summer threshing-floor stands +his heap of corn; little or much, not according to his labour, but to +his discretion. No "commercial arrangements," no painting of surfaces +nor alloying of substances, will avail him a pennyweight. Nature asks +of him calmly and inevitably, What have you found, or formed--the +right thing or the wrong? By the right thing you shall live; by the +wrong you shall die. + +To thoughtless persons it seems otherwise. The world looks to them as +if they could cozen it out of some ways and means of life. But they +cannot cozen IT; they can only cozen their neighbours. The world is +not to be cheated of a grain; not so much as a breath of its air can +be drawn surreptitiously. For every piece of wise work done, so much +life is granted; for every piece of foolish work, nothing; for every +piece of wicked work, so much death. This is as sure as the courses of +day and night. But when the means of life are once produced, men, by +their various struggles and industries of accumulation or exchange, +may variously gather, waste, restrain, or distribute them; +necessitating, in proportion to the waste or restraint, accurately so +much more death. The rate and range of additional death is measured by +the rate and range of waste, and is inevitable;--the only question +(determined mostly by fraud in peace, and force in war) is, Who is to +die, and how? + +Such being the everlasting law of human existence, the essential work +of the political economist is to determine what are in reality useful +and life-giving things, and by what degrees and kinds of labour they +are attainable and distributable. This investigation divides itself +under three great heads--first, of Wealth; secondly, of Money; and +thirdly, of Riches. + +These terms are often used as synonymous, but they signify entirely +different things. "Wealth," consists of things in themselves valuable; +"Money," of documentary claims to the possession of such things; and +"Riches" is a relative term, expressing the magnitude of the +possessions of one person or society as compared with those of other +persons or societies. + +The study of Wealth is a province of natural science:--it deals with +the essential properties of things. + +The study of Money is a province of commercial science:--it deals with +conditions of engagement and exchange. + +The study of Riches is a province of moral science:--it deals with the +due relations of men to each other in regard of material possessions; +and with the just laws of their association for purposes of labour. + +I shall in this paper shortly sketch out the range of subjects which +will come before us as we follow these three branches of inquiry. + + +SECTION I.--WEALTH. + +Wealth, it has been said, consists of things essentially valuable. We +now, therefore, need a definition of "value." + +Value signifies the strength or "availing" of anything towards the +sustaining of life, and is always twofold; that is to say, primarily, +INTRINSIC, and, secondarily, EFFECTUAL. + +The reader must, by anticipation, be warned against confusing value +with cost, or with price. Value is the life-giving power of anything; +cost, the quantity of labour required to produce it; price, the +quantity of labour which its possessor will take in exchange for it. +Cost and price are commercial conditions, to be studied under the head +of Money. + +Intrinsic value is the absolute power of anything to support life. A +sheaf of wheat of given quality and weight has in it a measurable +power of sustaining the substance of the body; a cubic foot of pure +air, a fixed power of sustaining its warmth; and a cluster of flowers +of given beauty, a fixed power of enlivening or animating the senses +and heart. + +It does not in the least affect the intrinsic value of the wheat, the +air, or the flowers, that men refuse or despise them. Used or not, +their own power is in them, and that particular power is in nothing +else. + +But in order that this value of theirs may become effectual, a certain +state is necessary in the recipient of it. The digesting, the +breathing, and perceiving functions must be perfect in the human +creature before the food, air, or flowers can become their full value +to it. The production of effectual value, therefore, always involves +two needs; first, the production of a thing essentially useful; then +the production of the capacity to use it. Where the intrinsic value +and acceptant capacity come together there is EFFECTUAL value, or +wealth. Where there is either no intrinsic value, or no acceptant +capacity, there is no effectual value; that is to say, no wealth. A +horse is no wealth to us if we cannot ride, nor a picture if we cannot +see, nor can any noble thing be wealth, except to a noble person. As +the aptness of the user increases, the effectual value of the thing +used increases; and in its entirety can co-exist only with perfect +skill of use, or harmony of nature. The effectual value of a given +quantity of any commodity existing in the world at any moment is +therefore a mathematical function of the capacity existing in the +human race to enjoy it. Let its intrinsic value be represented by _x_, +and the recipient faculty by _y_; its effectual value is _x y_, in +which the sum varies as either co-efficient varies, is increased by +either's increase,[68] and cancelled by either's absence. + + [68] With this somewhat strange and ungeometrical limitation, + however, which, here expressed for the moment in the + briefest terms, we must afterwards trace in detail--that _x + y_ may be indefinitely increased by the increase of _y_ + only; but not by the increase of _x_, unless _y_ increases + also in a fixed proportion. + +Valuable material things may be conveniently referred to five heads:-- + +1. Land, with an associated air, water, and organisms. + +2. Houses, furniture, and instruments. + +3. Stored or prepared food and medicine, and articles of bodily +luxury, including clothing. + +4. Books. + +5. Works of art. + +We shall enter into separate inquiry as to the conditions of value +under each of these heads. The following sketch of the entire subject +may be useful for future reference:-- + +1. Land. Its value is twofold-- + + A. As producing food and mechanical power. + B. As an object of sight and thought, producing intellectual power. + +A. Its value, as a means of producing food and mechanical power, +varies with its form (as mountain or plain), with its substance (in +soil or mineral contents), and with its climate. All these conditions +of intrinsic value, in order to give effectual value, must be known +and complied with by the men who have to deal with it; but at any +given time, or place, the intrinsic value is fixed; such and such a +piece of land, with its associated lakes and seas, rightly treated +in surface and substance, can produce precisely so much food +and power, and no more. Its surface treatment (agriculture) and +substance treatment (practical geology and chemistry), are the +first roots of economical science. By surface treatment, however, I +mean more than agriculture as commonly understood; I mean land +and sea culture;--dominion over both the fixed and the flowing +fields;--perfect acquaintance with the laws of climate, and of +vegetable and animal growth in the given tracts of earth or ocean, and +of their relations regulating especially the production of those +articles of food which, being in each particular spot producible in +the highest perfection, will bring the best price in commercial +exchanges. + +B. The second element of value in land is its beauty, united with such +conditions of space and form as are necessary for exercise, or +pleasant to the eye, associated with vital organism. + +Land of the highest value in these respects is that lying in temperate +climates, and boldly varied in form; removed from unhealthy or +dangerous influences (as of miasm or volcano); and capable of +sustaining a rich fauna and flora. Such land, carefully tended by the +hand of man, so far as to remove from it unsightlinesses and evidences +of decay; guarded from violence, and inhabited, under man's +affectionate protection, by every kind of living creature that can +occupy it in peace, forms the most precious "property" that human +beings can possess. + +The determination of the degree in which these two elements of value +can be united in land, or in which either element must, or should, in +particular cases, be sacrificed to the other, forms the most important +branch of economical inquiry respecting preferences of things. + +2. Buildings, furniture, and instruments. + +The value of buildings consists--A, in permanent strength, with +convenience of form, of size, and of position; so as to render +employment peaceful, social intercourse easy, temperature and air +healthy. The advisable or possible magnitude of cities and mode of +their distribution in squares, streets, courts, etc., the relative +value of sites of land, and the modes of structure which are +healthiest and most permanent, have to be studied under this head. + +B. The value of buildings consists, secondarily, in historical +association and architectural beauty, of which we have to examine the +influence on manners and life. + +The value of instruments consists-- + +A. In their power of shortening labour, or otherwise accomplishing (as +ships) what human strength unaided could not. The kinds of work which +are severally best accomplished by hand or by machine;--the effect of +machinery in gathering and multiplying population, and its influence +on the minds and bodies of such population; together with the +conceivable uses of machinery on a colossal scale in accomplishing +mighty and useful works, hitherto unthought of, such as the deepening +of large river channels;--changing the surface of mountainous +districts;--irrigating tracts of desert in the torrid zone;--breaking +up, and thus rendering capable of quicker fusion edges of ice in the +northern and southern Arctic seas, etc., so rendering parts of the +earth habitable which hitherto have not been so, are to be studied +under this head. + +B. The value of instruments is, secondarily, in their aid to abstract +sciences. The degree in which the multiplication of such instruments +should be encouraged, so as to make them, if large, easy of access to +numbers (as costly telescopes), or so cheap as that they might, in a +serviceable form, become a common part of the furniture of households, +is to be considered under this head. + +3. Food, medicine, and articles of luxury. Under this head we shall +have to examine the possible methods of obtaining pure and nourishing +food in such security and equality of supply as to avoid both waste +and famine; then the economy of medicine and just range of sanitary +law; finally, the economy of luxury, partly an aesthetic and partly an +ethical question. + +4. Books. The value of these consists-- + +A. In their power of preserving and communicating the knowledge of +facts. + +B. In their power of exciting vital or noble emotion and intellectual +action. They have also their corresponding negative powers of +disguising and effacing the memory of facts, and killing the noble +emotions, or exciting base ones. Under these two heads we have to +consider the economical and educational value, positive and negative, +of literature;--the means of producing and educating good authors, and +the means and advisability of rendering good books generally +accessible, and directing the reader's choice to them. + +5. Works of art. The value of these is of the same nature as that of +books, but the laws of their production and possible modes of +distribution are very different, and require separate examination. + + +SECTION II.--MONEY. + +Under this head, we shall have to examine the laws of currency and +exchange; of which I will note here the first principles. + +Money has been inaccurately spoken of as merely a means of +circulation. It is, on the contrary, an expression of right. It is not +wealth, being the sign[69] of the relative quantities of it, to which, +at a given time, persons or societies are entitled. + + [69] Always, and necessarily, an imperfect sign; but capable + of approximate accuracy if rightly ordered. + +If all the money in the world, notes and gold, were destroyed in an +instant, it would leave the world neither richer nor poorer than it +was. But it would leave the individual inhabitants of it in different +relations. + +Money is, therefore, correspondent in its nature to the title-deed of +an estate. Though the deed be burned, the estate still exists, but the +right to it has become disputable. + +The worth of money remains unchanged, as long as the proportion of the +quantity of existing money to the quantity of existing wealth, or +available labour which it professes to represent, remains unchanged. + +If the wealth increases, but not the money, the worth of the money +increases; if the money increases, but not the wealth, the worth of +the money diminishes. + +Money, therefore, cannot be arbitrarily multiplied, any more than +title-deeds can. So long as the existing wealth or available labour is +not fully represented by the currency, the currency may be increased +without diminution of the assigned worth of its pieces. But when the +existing wealth, or available labour, is once fully represented, every +piece of money thrown into circulation diminishes the worth of every +other existing piece, in the proportion it bears to the number of +them, provided the new piece be received with equal credit; if not, +the depreciation of worth takes place exclusively in the new piece, +according to the inferiority of its credit. + +When, however, new money, composed of some substance of supposed +intrinsic value (as of gold), is brought into the market, or when new +notes are issued which are supposed to be deserving of credit, the +desire to obtain money will, under certain circumstances, stimulate +industry; an additional quantity of wealth is immediately produced, +and if this be in proportion to the new claims advanced, the value of +the existing currency is undepreciated. If the stimulus given be so +great as to produce more goods than are proportioned to the additional +coinage, the worth of the existing currency will be raised. + +Arbitrary control and issues of currency affect the production of +wealth, by acting on the hopes and fears of men; and are, under +certain circumstances, wise. But the issue of additional currency to +meet the exigencies of immediate expense, is merely one of the +disguised forms of borrowing or taxing. + +It is, however, in the present low state of economical knowledge, +often possible for Governments to venture on an issue of currency, +when they could not venture on an additional loan or tax, because the +real operation of such issue is not understood by the people, and the +pressure of it is irregularly distributed, and with an unperceived +gradation. Finally, the use of substances of intrinsic value as the +materials of a currency, is a barbarism;--a remnant of the conditions +of barter, which alone can render commerce possible among savage +nations. It is, however, still necessary, partly as a mechanical check +on arbitrary issues; partly as a means of exchanges with foreign +nations. In proportion to the extension of civilization, and increase +of trustworthiness in Governments, it will cease. So long as it +exists, the phenomena of the cost and price of the articles used for +currency, are mingled with those of currency itself, in an almost +inextricable manner; and the worth of money in the market is affected +by multitudinous accidental circumstances, which have been traced, +with more or less success, by writers on commercial operations; but +with these variations the true political economist has no more to do +than an engineer fortifying a harbour of refuge against Atlantic tide, +has to concern himself with the cries or quarrels of children who dig +pools with their fingers for its ebbing currents among the sand. + + +SECTION III.--RICHES. + +According to the various industry, capacity, good fortune, and desires +of men, they obtain greater or smaller share of, and claim upon, the +wealth of the world. + +The inequalities between these shares, always in some degree just and +necessary, may be either restrained by law (or circumstance) within +certain limits; or may increase indefinitely. + +Where no moral or legal restraint is put upon the exercise of the will +and intellect of the stronger, shrewder, or more covetous men, these +differences become ultimately enormous. But as soon as they become so +distinct in their extremes as that, on one side, there shall be +manifest redundance of possession, and on the other manifest pressure +of need,--the terms "riches" and "poverty" are used to express the +opposite states; being contrary only in the manner of the terms +"warmth" and "cold"; which neither of them imply an actual degree, but +only a relation to other degrees, of temperature. + +Respecting riches, the economist has to inquire, first, into the +advisable modes of their collection; secondly, into the advisable +modes of their administration. Respecting the collection of national +riches, he has to inquire, first, whether he is justified in calling +the nation rich; if the quantity of money it possesses relatively to +that possessed by other nations be large, irrespectively of the manner +of its distribution. Or does the mode of distribution in any wise +affect the nature of the riches? Thus, if the king alone be +rich--suppose Croesus or Mausolus--are the Lydians and Carians +therefore a rich nation? Or if one or two slave-masters be rich, and +the nation be otherwise composed of slaves, is it to be called a rich +nation? For if not, and the ideas of a certain mode of distribution +or operation in the riches, and of a certain degree of freedom in the +people, enter into our idea of riches as attributed to a people, we +shall have to define the degree of fluency or circulative character +which is essential to their vitality; and the degree of independence +of action required in their possessors. Questions which look as if +they would take time in answering. And farther. Since there are two +modes in which the inequality, which is indeed the condition and +constituent of riches, may be established--namely, by increase of +possession on the one side, and by decrease of it on the other--we +have to inquire, with respect to any given state of riches, precisely +in what manner the correlative poverty was produced; that is to say, +whether by being surpassed only, or being depressed, what are the +advantages, or the contrary, conceivable in the depression. For +instance, it being one of the commonest advantages of being rich to +entertain a number of servants, we have to inquire, on the one side, +what economical process produced the poverty of the persons who serve +him; and what advantage each (on his own side) derives from the +result. + +These being the main questions touching the collection of riches, the +next, or last, part of the inquiry is into their administration. + +They have in the main three great economical powers which require +separate examination: namely, the powers of selection, direction, and +provision. + +A. Their power of SELECTION relates to things of which the supply is +limited (as the supply of best things is always). When it becomes +matter of question to whom such things are to belong, the richest +person has necessarily the first choice, unless some arbitrary mode of +distribution be otherwise determined upon. The business of the +economist is to show how this choice may be a Wise one. + +B. Their power of DIRECTION arises out of the necessary relation of +rich men to poor, which ultimately, in one way or another, involves +the direction of, or authority over, the labour of the poor; and this +nearly as much over their mental as their bodily labour. The business +of the economist is to show how this direction may be a Just one. + +C. Their power of PROVISION or "preparatory sight" (for pro-accumulation +is by no means necessarily pro-vision), is dependent upon their +redundance; which may of course by active persons be made available +in preparation for future work or future profit; in which function +riches have generally received the name of capital; that is to say, of +head- or source-material. The business of the economist is to show how +this provision may be a Distant one. + +The examination of these three functions of riches will embrace every +final problem of political economy;--and, above, or before all, this +curious and vital problem,--whether, since the wholesome action of +riches in these three functions will depend (it appears) on the +Wisdom, Justice, and Far-sightedness of the holders; and it is by no +means to be assumed that persons primarily rich, must therefore be +just and wise,--it may not be ultimately possible so, or somewhat so, +to arrange matters, as that persons primarily just and wise, should +therefore be rich. + +Such being the general plan of the inquiry before us, I shall not +limit myself to any consecutive following of it, having hardly any +good hope of being able to complete so laborious a work as it must +prove to me; but from time to time, as I have leisure, shall endeavour +to carry forward this part or that, as may be immediately possible; +indicating always with accuracy the place which the particular essay +will or should take in the completed system. + + + + +II. + +NATURE OF WEALTH, VARIATIONS OF VALUE, THE NATIONAL STORE, NATURE OF +LABOUR, VALUE AND PRICE, THE CURRENCY. + + +The last paper having consisted of little more than definition of +terms, I purpose, in this, to expand and illustrate the given +definitions, so as to avoid confusion in their use when we enter into +the detail of our subject. + +The view which has been taken of the nature of wealth, namely, that it +consists in an intrinsic value developed by a vital power, is directly +opposed to two nearly universal conceptions of wealth. In the +assertion that value is primarily intrinsic, it opposes the idea that +anything which is an object of desire to numbers, and is limited in +quantity, may be called, or virtually become, wealth. And in the +assertion that value is secondarily dependent upon power in the +possessor, it opposes the idea that wealth consists of things +exchangeable at rated prices. Before going farther, we will make these +two positions clearer. + + +First. All wealth is intrinsic, and is not constituted by the judgment +of men. This is easily seen in the case of things affecting the body; +we know that no force of fantasy will make stones nourishing, or +poison innocent; but it is less apparent in things affecting the mind. +We are easily--perhaps willingly--misled by the appearance of +beneficial results obtained by industries addressed wholly to the +gratification of fanciful desire; and apt to suppose that whatever is +widely coveted, dearly bought, and pleasurable in possession, must be +included in our definition of wealth. It is the more difficult to quit +ourselves of this error because many things which are true wealth in +moderate use, yet become false wealth in immoderate; and many things +are mixed of good and evil,--as, mostly, books and works of art,--out +of which one person will get the good, and another the evil; so that +it seems as if there were no fixed good or evil in the things +themselves, but only in the view taken, and use made of them. But that +is not so. The evil and good are fixed in essence and in proportion. +They are separable by instinct and judgment, but not interchangeable; +and in things in which evil depends upon excess, the point of excess, +though indefinable, is fixed; and the power of the thing is on the +hither side for good, and on the farther side for evil. And in all +cases this power is inherent, not dependent on opinion or choice. Our +thoughts of things neither make, nor mar their eternal force; +nor--which is the most serious point for future consideration--can +they prevent the effect of it upon ourselves. + +Therefore, the object of special analysis of wealth into which we have +presently to enter will be not so much to enumerate what is +serviceable, as to distinguish what is destructive; and to show that +it is inevitably destructive; that to receive pleasure from an evil +thing is not to escape from, or alter the evil of it, but to be +altered by it; that is, to suffer from it to the utmost, having our +own nature, in that degree, made evil also. And it will be shown +farther that, through whatever length of time or subtleties of +connexion the harm is accomplished (being also less or more according +to the fineness and worth of the humanity on which it is wrought), +still, nothing but harm ever comes of a bad thing. + +So that, finally, wealth is not the accidental object of a morbid +desire, but the constant object of a legitimate one.[70] By the fury +of ignorance, and fitfulness of caprice, large interests may be +continually attached to things unserviceable or hurtful; if their +nature could be altered by our passions, the science of Political +Economy would be but as the weighing of clouds, and the portioning out +of shadows. But of ignorance there is no science; and of caprice no +law. Their disturbing forces interfere with the operations of economy, +but have nothing in common with them; the calm arbiter of national +destiny regards only essential power for good in all it accumulates, +and alike disdains the wanderings of imagination and the thirsts of +disease. + + [70] Few passages of the Book which at least some part of the + nations at present most advanced in civilization accept as + an expression of final truth, have been more distorted than + those bearing on Idolatry. For the idolatry there denounced + is neither sculpture, nor veneration of sculpture. It is + simply the substitution of an "Eidolon," phantasm, or + imagination of Good, for that which is real and enduring; + from the Highest Living Good, which gives life, to the + lowest material good which ministers to it. The Creator, and + the things created, which He is said to have "seen good" in + creating, are in this their eternal goodness always called + Helpful or Holy: and the sweep and range of idolatry extend + to the rejection of all or any of these, "calling evil good, + or good evil,--putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for + bitter," so betraying the first of all Loyalties, to the + fixed Law of life, and with resolute opposite loyalty + serving our own imagination of good, which is the law, not + of the dwelling, but of the Grave (otherwise called the law + of error; or "mark missing," which we translate law of + "Sin"), these "two masters," between whose services we have + to choose, being otherwise distinguished as God and + "Mammon," which Mammon, though we narrowly take it as the + power of money only, is in truth the great evil spirit of + false and fond desire, or "Covetousness, which is Idolatry." + So that Iconoclasm--image or likeness-breaking--is easy; but + an idol cannot be broken--it must be forsaken, and this is + not so easy, either in resolution or persuasion. For men may + readily be convinced of the weakness of an image, but not of + the emptiness of a phantasm. + +Secondly. The assertion that wealth is not only intrinsic, but +dependent, in order to become effectual, on a given degree of vital +power in its possessor, is opposed to another popular view of +wealth;--namely, that though it may always be constituted by caprice, +it is, when so constituted, a substantial thing, of which given +quantities may be counted as existing here, or there, and exchangeable +at rated prices. + +In this view there are three errors. The first and chief is the +overlooking the fact that all exchangeableness of commodity, or +effective demand for it, depends on the sum of capacity for its use +existing, here or elsewhere. The book we cannot read, or picture we +take no delight in, may indeed be called part of our wealth, in so far +as we have power of exchanging either for something we like better. +But our power of effecting such exchange, and yet more, of effecting +it to advantage, depends absolutely on the number of accessible +persons who can understand the book, or enjoy the painting, and who +will dispute the possession of them. Thus the actual worth of either, +even to us, depends no less on their essential goodness than on the +capacity consisting somewhere for the perception of it; and it is vain +in any completed system of production to think of obtaining one +without the other. So that, though the great political economist knows +that co-existence of capacity for use with temporary possession cannot +be always secured, the final fact, on which he bases all action and +administration, is that, in the whole nation, or group of nations, he +has to deal with, for every grain of intrinsic value produced he must +with exactest chemistry produce its twin grain of governing capacity, +or in the degrees of his failure he has no wealth. Nature's challenge +to us is in earnest, as the Assyrian's mock, "I will give you two +thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them." +Bavieca's paces are brave, if the Cid backs him; but woe to us, if we +take the dust of capacity, wearing the armour of it, for capacity +itself, for so all procession, however goodly in the show of it, is to +the tomb. + +The second error in this popular view of wealth is that, in estimating +property which we cannot use as wealth, because it is exchangeable, we +in reality confuse wealth with money. The land we have no skill to +cultivate, the book which is sealed to us, or dress which is +superfluous, may indeed be exchangeable, but as such are nothing more +than a cumbrous form of bank-note, of doubtful and slow +convertibility. As long as we retain possession of them, we merely +keep our bank-notes in the shape of gravel or clay, of book leaves, or +of embroidered tissue. Circumstances may perhaps render such forms the +safest, or a certain complacency may attach to the exhibition of +them;--into both these advantages we shall inquire afterwards; I wish +the reader only to observe here, that exchangeable property which we +cannot use is, to us personally, merely one of the forms of money, not +of wealth. + +The third error in the popular view is the confusion of guardianship +with possession; the real state of men of property being, too commonly +that of curators, not possessors of wealth. For a man's power of Use, +Administration, Ostentation, Destruction, or Bequest; and possession +is in use only, which for each man is sternly limited; so that such +things, and so much of them, are well for him, or Wealth; and more of +them, or any other things, are ill for him, or Illth. Plunged to the +lips in Orinoco, he shall drink to his thirst measure,--more, at his +peril; with a thousand oxen on his lands, he shall eat to his hunger +measure,--more, at his peril. He cannot live in two houses at once; a +few bales of silk or wool will suffice for the fabric of all the +clothes he can ever wear, and a few books will probably hold all the +furniture good for his brain.[71] Beyond these, in the best of us but +narrow, capacities, we have but the power of administering, or if for +harm, mal-administering, wealth (that is to say, distributing, +lending, or increasing it);--of exhibiting it (as in magnificence of +retinue or furniture), of destroying, or, finally, of bequeathing it. +And with multitudes of rich men, administration degenerates into +curatorship; they merely hold their property in charge, as Trustees, +for the benefit of some person or persons to whom it is to be +delivered upon their death; and the position, explained in clear +terms, would hardly seem a covetable one. What would be the probable +decision of a youth on his entrance into life, to whom the career +hoped for him was proposed in terms such as these: "You must work +unremittingly, and with your utmost intelligence, during all your +available years; you will thus accumulate wealth to a large amount; +but you must touch none of it, beyond what is needful for your +support. Whatever sums you may gain beyond those required for your +decent and moderate maintenance shall be properly taken care of, and +on your death-bed you shall have the power of determining to whom they +shall belong, or to what purposes be applied?" + + [71] I reserve, until the completion and collection of these + papers, any support by the authority of other writers of the + statements made in them; were, indeed, such authorities + wisely sought for and shown, there would be no occasion for + my writing at all. Even in the scattered passages referring + to this subject in three books of Carlyle's:--"Sartor + Resartus"; "Past and Present"; and the "Latter-Day + Pamphlets"; all has been said that needs to be said, and far + better than I shall ever say it again. But the habit of the + public mind at the present is to require everything to be + uttered diffusely, loudly, and seven times over, before it + will listen; and it has exclaimed against these papers of + mine, as if they contained things daring and new, when there + is not one assertion in them of which the truth has not been + for ages known to the wisest, and proclaimed by the most + eloquent of men. It will be a far greater pleasure to me + hereafter, to collect their words than add to mine; Horace's + clear rendering of the substance of the preceding passages + in the text may be found room for at once:-- + + Si quis emat citharas, emptas comportet in unum, + Nec studio citharae, nec Musae deditus ulli; + Si scalpra et formas, non sutor; nautica vela, + Aversus mercaturis: delirus et amens + Undique dicatur merito. Quî discrepat istis, + Qui nummos aurumque recondit, nescius uti + Compositis, metuensque velut contingere sacrum? + + With which it is perhaps desirable also to give Xenophon's + statement, it being clearer than any English one can be, + owing to the power of the general Greek term for wealth, + "useable things":-- + + [Greek: Tauta ara onta, tô men epistamenô chrêsthai + autôn hekastois chrêmata esti, tô de mê epistamenô, + ou chrêmata; hôsper ge auloi tô men epistamenô axiôs + logou aulein chrêmata eisi, tô de mê epistamenô ouden + mallon ê achrêstoi lithoi, ei mê apsdidoito ge autous. + * * * Mê pôloumenoi men gar ou chrêmata eisin hoi auloi; + (ouden gar chrêsimoi eisi) pôloumenoi de chrêmata; + Pros tauta d' ho Sôkratês eipen, ên epistêtai ge pôlein. + Ei de pôloin hau pros touton hos mê epistêtai chrêsthai, + oude pôloumenoi eisi chrêmata.] + +The labour of life, under such conditions, would probably be neither +zealous nor cheerful; yet the only difference between this position +and that of the ordinary capitalist is the power which the latter +delights in supposing himself to possess, and which is attributed to +him by others, of spending his money at any moment. This pleasure, +taken in the imagination of power to part with that which we have no +intention of parting with, is one of the most curious though commonest +forms of Eidolon, or Phantasm of Wealth. But the political economist +has nothing to do with this idealism, and looks only to the practical +issue of it,--namely, that the holder of wealth, in such temper, +may be regarded simply as a mechanical means of collection; +or as a money-chest with a slit in it,[72] set in the public +thoroughfare;--chest of which only Death has the key, and probably +Chance the distribution of contents. In his function of lender (which, +however, is one of administration, not use, as far as he is himself +concerned), the capitalist takes, indeed, a more interesting aspect; +but even in that function, his relations with the state are apt to +degenerate into a mechanism for the convenient contraction of debt;--a +function the more mischievous, because a nation invariably appeases +its conscience with respect to an unjustifiable expense by meeting it +with borrowed funds,--expresses its repentance of a foolish piece of +business by letting its tradesmen wait for their money,--and always +leaves its descendants to pay for the work which will be of the least +service to them.[73] + + [72] The orifice being not merely of a receptant, but of a + suctional character. Among the types of human virtue and + vice presented grotesquely by the lower animals, perhaps + none is more curiously definite that that of avarice in the + Cephalopod, a creature which has a purse for a body; a + hawk's beak for a mouth; suckers for feet and hands; and + whose house is its own skeleton. + + [73] It would be well if a somewhat dogged conviction could + be enforced on nations as on individuals, that, with few + exceptions, what they cannot at present pay for, they should + not at present have. + +Quit of these three sources of misconception, the reader will have +little farther difficulty in apprehending the real nature of Effectual +value. He may, however, at first not without surprise, perceive the +consequences involved in the acceptance of our definition. For if the +actual existence of wealth be dependent on the power of its possessor, +it follows that the sum of wealth held by the nation, instead of being +constant or calculable, varies hourly, nay, momentarily, with the +number and character of its holders; and that in changing hands, it +changes in quantity. And farther, since the worth of the currency is +proportioned to the sum of material wealth which it represents, if the +sum of the wealth changes, the worth of the currency changes. And thus +both the sum of the property, and power of the currency, of the State, +vary momentarily, as the character and number of the holders. And not +only so, but a different rate and manner of variation is caused by the +character of the holders of different kinds of wealth. The transitions +of value caused by the character of the holders of land differ in mode +from those caused by character in holders of works of art; and these +again from those caused by character in holders of machinery or other +working capital. But we cannot examine these special phenomena of any +kind of wealth until we have a clear idea of the way in which true +currency expresses them; and of the resulting modes in which the cost +and price of any article are related to its value. To obtain this we +must approach the subject in its first elements. + +Let us suppose a national store of wealth, real or imaginary (that is +to say, composed of material things either useful, or believed to be +so), presided over by a Government,[74] and that every workman, having +produced any article involving labour in its production, and for which +he has no immediate use, brings it to add to this store, receiving, +from the Government, in exchange an order either for the return of the +thing itself, or of its equivalent in other things,[75] such as he may +choose out of the store at any time when he needs them. Now, supposing +that the labourer speedily uses this general order, or, in common +language, "spends the money," he has neither changed the circumstances +of the nation nor his own, except in so far as he may have produced +useful and consumed useless articles, or vice versa. But if he does +not use, or uses in part only, the order he receives, and lays aside +some portion of it; and thus every day bringing his contribution to +the national store, lays by some percentage of the order received in +exchange for it, he increases the national wealth daily by as much as +he does not use of the received order, and to the same amount +accumulates a monetary claim on the Government. It is of course always +in his power, as it is his legal right, to bring forward this +accumulation of claim, and at once to consume, to destroy, or +distribute, the sum of his wealth. Supposing he never does so, but +dies, leaving his claim to others, he has enriched the State during +his life by the quantity of wealth over which that claim extends, or +has, in other words, rendered so much additional life possible in the +State, of which additional life he bequeaths the immediate possibility +to those whom he invests with his claim, he would distribute this +possibility of life among the nation at large. + + [74] The reader is to include here in the idea of "Government," + any branch of the Executive, or even any body of private + persons, entrusted with the practical management of public + interests unconnected directly with their own personal ones. + In theoretical discussions of legislative interference + with political economy, it is usually and of course + unnecessarily, assumed that Government must be always of + that form and force in which we have been accustomed to see + it;--that its abuses can never be less, nor its wisdom + greater, nor its powers more numerous. But, practically, the + custom in most civilized countries is, for every man to + deprecate the interference of Government as long as things + tell for his personal advantage, and to call for it when + they cease to do so. The request of the Manchester + Economists to be supplied with cotton by the Government (the + system of supply and demand having, for the time, fallen + sorrowfully short of the expectations of scientific persons + from it), is an interesting case in point. It were to be + wished that less wide and bitter suffering (suffering, too, + of the innocent) had been needed to force the nation, or + some part of it, to ask itself why a body of men, already + confessedly capable of managing matters both military and + divine, should not be permitted, or even requested at need + to provide in some wise for sustenance as well as for + defence, and secure, if it might be (and it might, I think, + even the rather be), purity of bodily ailment, as well as of + religious conviction? Why, having made many roads for the + passage of armies, they may not make a few for the + conveyance of food; and after organizing, with applause, + various schemes of spiritual instruction for the Public, + organize, moreover, some methods of bodily nourishment for + them? Or is the soul so much less trustworthy in its + instincts than the stomach, that legislation is necessary + for the one, but inconvenient to the other? + + There is a strange fallacy running at this time through all + talk about free trade. It is continually assumed that every + kind of Government interference takes away liberty of trade. + Whereas liberty is lost only when interference hinders, not + when it helps. You do not take away a man's freedom by + showing him his road--nor by making it smoother for him (not + that it is always desirable to do so, but it may be); nor + even by fencing it for him, if there is an open ditch at the + side of it. The real mode in which protection interferes + with liberty, and the real evil of it, is not in its + "protecting" one person, but in its hindering another; a + form of interference which invariably does most mischief to + the person it is intended to serve, which the Northern + Americans are about discomfortably to discover, unless they + think better of it. There is also a ludicrous confusion in + many persons' minds between protection and encouragement; + they differ materially. "Protection" is saying to + the commercial schoolboy, "Nobody shall hit you." + "Encouragement," is saying to him, "That's the way to + hit." + + [75] The question of equivalence (namely, how much wine a man + is to receive in return for so much corn, or how much coal + in return for so much iron) is a quite separate one, which + we will examine presently. For the time let it be assumed + that this equivalence has been determined, and that the + Government order in exchange for a fixed weight of any + article (called, suppose, _a_), is either for the return of + that weight of the article itself, or of another fixed + weight of the article _b_, or another of the article _c_, + and so on. + +We hitherto consider the Government itself as simply a conservative +power, taking charge of the wealth entrusted to it. + +But a Government may be far other than a conservative power. It may be +on the one hand constructive, on the other destructive. + +If a constructive, or improving power, using all the wealth entrusted +to it to the best advantage, the nation is enriched in root and branch +at once, and the Government is enabled for every order presented, to +return a quantity of wealth greater than the order was written for, +according to the fructification obtained in the interim.[76] + + [76] The reader must be warned in advance that the conditions + here supposed have nothing to do with the "interest" of + money commonly so called. + +This ability may be either concealed, in which case the currency does +not completely represent the wealth of the country, or it may be +manifested by the continual payment of the excess of value on each +order, in which case there is (irrespectively, observe, of collateral +results afterwards to be examined) a perpetual rise in the worth of +the currency, that is to say, a fall in the price of all articles +represented by it. + +But if the Government be destructive, or a consuming power, it becomes +unable to return the value received on the presentation of the order. + +This inability may either (A), be concealed by meeting demands to the +full, until it issue in bankruptcy, or in some form of national +debt;--or (B), it may be concealed during oscillatory movements +between destructiveness and productiveness, which result on the whole +in stability;--or (C), it may be manifested by the consistent return +of less than value received on each presented order, in which case +there is a consistent fall in the worth of the currency, or rise in +the price of the things represented by it. + +Now, if for this conception of a central Government, we substitute +that of another body of persons occupied in industrial pursuits, of +whom each adds in his private capacity to the common store: so that +the store itself, instead of remaining a public property of +ascertainable quantity, for the guardianship of which a body of public +men are responsible, becomes disseminated private property, each man +giving in exchange for any article received from another, a general +order for its equivalent in whatever other article the claimant may +desire (such general order being payable by any member of the society +in whose possession the demanded article may be found), we at once +obtain an approximation to the actual condition of a civilized +mercantile community from which approximation we might easily proceed +into still completer analysis. I purpose, however, to arrive at every +result by the gradual expansion of the simpler conception; but I wish +the reader to observe, in the meantime, that both the social +conditions thus supposed (and I will by anticipation say also all +possible social conditions) agree in two great points; namely, in the +primal importance of the supposed national store or stock, and in its +destructibility or improvability by the holders of it. + +I. Observe that in both conditions, that of central +Government-holding, and diffused private-holding, the quantity of +stock is of the same national moment. In the one case, indeed, its +amount may be known by examination of the persons to whom it is +confided; in the other it cannot be known but by exposing the private +affairs of every individual. But, known or unknown, its significance +is the same under each condition. The riches of the nation consist in +the abundance, and their wealth depends on the nature of this store. + +II. In the second place, both conditions (and all other possible ones) +agree in the destructibility or improvability of the store by its +holders. Whether in private hands, or under Government charge, the +national store may be daily consumed, or daily enlarged, by its +possessors; and while the currency remains apparently unaltered, the +property it represents may diminish or increase. + +The first question, then, which we have to put under our simple +conception of central Government, namely, "What store has it?" is one +of equal importance, whatever may be the constitution of the State; +while the second question--namely, "Who are the holders of the +store?"--involves the discussion of the constitution of the State +itself. + +The first inquiry resolves itself into three heads: + + 1. What is the nature of the store? + 2. What is its quantity in relation to the population? + 3. What is its quantity in relation to the currency? + +The second inquiry, into two: + + 1. Who are the Holders of the store, and in what proportions? + 2. Who are the Claimants of the store (that is to say, the holders + of the currency), and in what proportions? + +We will examine the range of the first three questions in the present +paper; of the two following, in the sequel. + +Question First. What is the nature of the store? Has the nation +hitherto worked for and gathered the right thing or the wrong? On that +issue rest the possibilities of its life. + +For example, let us imagine a society, of no great extent, occupied in +procuring and laying up store of corn, wine, wool, silk, and other +such preservable materials of food and clothing; and that it has a +currency representing them. Imagine farther, that on days of +festivity, the society, discovering itself to derive satisfaction from +pyrotechnics, gradually turns its attention more and more to the +manufacture of gunpowder; so that an increasing number of labourers, +giving what time they can spare to this branch of industry, bring +increasing quantities of combustibles into the store, and use the +general orders received in exchange to obtain such wine, wool, or corn +as they may have need of. The currency remains the same, and +represents precisely the same amount of material in the store, and of +labour spent in producing it. But the corn and wine gradually vanish, +and in their place, as gradually, appear sulphur and saltpetre; till +at last, the labourers who have consumed corn and supplied nitre, +presenting on a festal morning some of their currency to obtain +materials for the feast, discover that no amount of currency will +command anything Festive, except Fire. The supply of rockets is +unlimited, but that of food limited in a quite final manner; and the +whole currency in the hands of the society represents an infinite +power of detonation, but none of existence. + +The statement, caricatured as it may seem, is only exaggerated in +assuming the persistence of the folly to extremity, unchecked, as in +reality it would be, by the gradual rise in price of food. But it +falls short of the actual facts of human life in expression of the +depth and intensity of the folly itself. For a great part (the reader +would not believe how great until he saw the statistics in detail) of +the most earnest and ingenious industry of the world is spent in +producing munitions of war; gathering that is to say the materials, +not of festive, but of consuming fire; filling its stores with all +power of the instruments of pain, and all affluence of the ministries +of death. It was no true Trionfo della Morte which men have seen and +feared (sometimes scarcely feared) so long;--wherein he brought them +rest from their labours. We see and share another and higher form of +his triumph now. Task-master instead of Releaser, he rules the dust of +the arena no less than of the tomb; and, content once in the grave +whither man went, to make his works cease and his devices to +vanish,--now, in the busy city and on the serviceable sea, makes his +work to increase, and his devices to multiply. + +To this doubled loss, or negative power of labour, spent in producing +means of destruction, we have to add in our estimate of the +consequences of human folly, whatever more insidious waste of toil +there is in the production of unnecessary luxury. Such and such an +occupation (it is said) supports so many labourers, because so many +obtain wages in following it; but it is never considered that unless +there be a supporting power in the product of the occupation, the +wages given to one man are merely withdrawn from another. We cannot +say of any trade that it maintains such and such a number of persons, +unless we know how and where the money, now spent in the purchase of +its produce, would have been spent, if that produce had not been +manufactured. The purchasing funds truly support a number of people in +making This; but (probably) leave unsupported an equal number who are +making, or could have made That. The manufacturers of small watches +thrive in Geneva;--it is well;--but where would the money spent on +small watches have gone, had there been no small watches to buy? + +If the so frequently uttered aphorism of mercantile economy--"labour +is limited by capital"--were true, this question would be a definite +one. But it is untrue; and that widely. Out of a given quantity of +wages, more or less labour is to be had, according to the quantity of +will with which we can inspire the workman; and the true limit of +labour is only in the limit of this moral stimulus of the will, and +the bodily power. In an ultimate, but entirely practical sense, labour +is limited by capital, as it is by matter--that is to say, where there +is no material, there can be no work--but in the practical sense, +labour is limited only by the great original capital[77] of Head, +Heart, and Hand. Even in the most artificial relations of commerce, it +is to capital as fire to fuel: out of so much fuel you shall have so +much fire--not in proportion to the mass of combustibles, but to the +force of wind that fans and water that quenches; and the appliance of +both. And labour is furthered, as conflagration is, not so much by +added fuel, as by admitted air. + + [77] The aphorism, being hurried English for "labour is limited + by want of capital," involves also awkward English in its + denial, which cannot be helped. + +For which reasons, I had to insert, above, the qualifying "probably"; +for it can never be said positively that the purchase money, or wages +fund of any trade is withdrawn from some other trade. The object +itself may be the stimulus of the production of the money which buys +it; that is to say, the work by which the purchaser obtained the means +of buying it would not have been done by him, unless he had wanted +that particular thing. And the production of any article not +intrinsically (nor in the process of manufacture) injurious, is +useful, if the desire of it causes productive labour in other +directions. + +In the national store, therefore, the presence of things intrinsically +valueless does not imply an entirely correlative absence of things +valuable. We cannot be certain that all the labour spent on vanity has +been diverted from reality, and that for every bad thing produced, a +precious thing has been lost. In great measure, the vain things +represent the results of roused indolence; they have been carved, as +toys, in extra time; and, if they had not been made, nothing else +would have been made. Even to munitions of war this principle applies; +they partly represent the work of men who, if they had not made +spears, would never have made pruning-hooks, and who are incapable of +any activities but those of contest. + +Thus, then, finally, the nature of the store has to be considered +under two main lights, the one, that of its immediate and actual +utility; the other, that of the past national character which it +signifies by its production, and future character which it must +develop by its uses. And the issue of this investigation will be to +show us that Economy does not depend merely on principles of "demand +and supply," but primarily on what is demanded, and what is supplied. + +Question Second. What is the quantity of the store in relation to the +population? It follows from what has been already stated that the +accurate form in which this question has to be put is--"What quantity +of each article composing the store exists in proportion to the real +need for it by the population?" But we shall for the time assume, in +order to keep all our terms at the simplest, that the store is wholly +composed of useful articles, and accurately proportioned to the +several needs of them. + +Now it does not follow, because the store is large in proportion to +the number of people, that the people must be in comfort, nor because +it is small, that they must be in distress. An active and economical +race always produces more than it requires, and lives (if it is +permitted to do so) in competence on the produce of its daily labour. +The quantity of its store, great or small, is therefore in many +respects indifferent to it, and cannot be inferred by its aspect. +Similarly an inactive and wasteful population, which cannot live by +its daily labour, but is dependent, partly or wholly, on consumption +of its store, may be (by various difficulties hereafter to be +examined, in realization of getting at such store) retained in a state +of abject distress, though its possessions may be immense. But the +results always involved in the magnitude of store are, the commercial +power of the nation, its security, and its mental character. Its +commercial power, in that according to the quantity of its store, may +be the extent of its dealings; its security, in that according to the +quantity of its store are its means of sudden exertion or sustained +endurance; and its character, in that certain conditions of +civilization cannot be attained without permanent and continually +accumulating store, of great intrinsic value, and of peculiar nature. + +Now, seeing that these three advantages arise from largeness of store +in proportion to population, the question arises immediately, "Given +the store--is the nation enriched by diminution of its numbers? Are a +successful national speculation and a pestilence, economically the +same thing?" + +This is in part a sophistical question; such as it would be to ask +whether a man was richer when struck by disease which must limit his +life within a predicable period than he was when in health. He is +enabled to enlarge his current expenses, and has for all purposes a +larger sum at his immediate disposal (for, given the fortune, the +shorter the life the larger the annuity); yet no man considers himself +richer because he is condemned by his physician. The logical reply is +that, since Wealth is by definition only the means of life, a nation +cannot be enriched by its own mortality. Or in shorter words, the life +is more than the meat; and existence itself more wealth than the means +of existence. Whence, of two nations who have equal store, the more +numerous is to be considered the richer, provided the type of the +inhabitant be as high (for, though the relative bulk of their store be +less, its relative efficiency, or the amount of effectual wealth, +must be greater). But if the type of the population be deteriorated by +increase of its numbers, we have evidence of poverty in its worst +influence; and then, to determine whether the nation in its total may +still be justifiably esteemed rich, we must set or weigh the number of +the poor against that of the rich. + +To effect which piece of scalework, it is of course necessary to +determine, first, who are poor and who are rich; nor this only, but +also how poor and how rich they are! Which will prove a curious +thermometrical investigation; for we shall have to do for gold and for +silver what we have done for quicksilver--determine, namely, their +freezing-point, their zero, their temperate and fever-heat points; +finally, their vaporescent point, at which riches, sometimes +explosively, as lately in America, "make to themselves wings";--and +correspondently the number of degrees below zero at which poverty, +ceasing to brace with any wholesome cold, burns to the bone. + +For the performance of these operations, in the strictest sense +scientific, we will first look to the existing so-called "science" of +Political Economy; we will ask it to define for us the comparatively +and superlatively rich, and the comparatively and superlatively poor; +and on its own terms--if any terms it can pronounce--examine, in our +prosperous England, how many rich and how many poor people there are; +and whether the quantity and intensity of the poverty is indeed so +overbalanced by the quantity and intensity of wealth, that we may +permit ourselves a luxurious blindness to it, and call ourselves, +complacently, a rich country. And if we find no clear definition in +the existing science, we will endeavour for ourselves to fix the true +degrees of the Plutonic scale, and to apply them. + +Question Third. What is the quantity of the store in relation to the +Currency? We have seen that the real worth of the currency, so far as +dependent on its relation to the magnitude of the store, may vary +within certain limits, without affecting its worth in exchange. The +diminution or increase of the represented wealth may be unperceived, +and the currency may be taken either for more or less than it is +truly worth. Usually, it is taken for more; and its power in exchange, +or credit-power, is thus increased (or retained) up to a given strain +upon its relation to existing wealth. This credit-power is of chief +importance in the thoughts, because most sharply present to the +experience, of a mercantile community; but the conditions of its +stability[78] and all other relations of the currency to the material +store are entirely simple in principle, if not in action. Far other +than simple are the relations of the currency to that "available +labour" which by our definition (p. 219) it also represents. For this +relation is involved not only with that of the magnitude of the store +to the number, but with that of the magnitude of the store to the +mind, of the population. Its proportion to their number, and the +resulting worth of currency, are calculable; but its proportion to +their will for labour is not. The worth of the piece of money which +claims a given quantity of the store, is, in exchange, less or greater +according to the facility of obtaining the same quantity of the same +thing without having recourse to the store. In other words, it depends +on the immediate Cost and Price of the thing. We must now, therefore, +complete the definition of these terms. + + [78] These are nearly all briefly represented by the image used + for the force of money by Dante, of mast and sail,-- + + "Quali dal vento be gonfiate vele + Caggiono avvolte, poi chè l'alber fiacca + Tal cadde a terra la fiera crudele." + + The image may be followed out, like all of Dante's, into as + close detail as the reader chooses. Thus the stress of the + sail must be proportioned to the strength of mast, and it is + only in unforeseen danger that a skilful seaman ever carries + all the canvas his spars will bear: states of mercantile + languor are like the flap of the sail in a calm,--of + mercantile precaution, like taking in reefs; and the + mercantile ruin is instant on the breaking of the mast. + +All cost and price are counted in Labour. We must know first, +therefore, what is to be counted as Labour. + +I have already defined labour to be the Contest of the life of man +with an opposite.[79] Literally, it is the quantity of "Lapse," loss, +or failure of human life caused by any effort. It is usually confused +with effort itself, or the application of power (opera); but there is +much effort which is merely a mode of recreation, or of pleasure. The +most beautiful actions of the human body and the highest results of +the human intelligence, are conditions, or achievements, of quite +unlaborious, nay, of recreative, effort. But labour is the suffering +in effort. It is the negative quantity, or quantity of de-feat which +has to be counted against every Feat, and of de-fect which has to be +counted against every Fact, or Deed of men. In brief, it is "that +quantity of our toils which we die in." + + [79] That is to say, its only price is its return. Compare + "Unto This Last," p. 162 and what follows. + +We might, therefore, à priori, conjecture (as we shall ultimately +find) that it cannot be bought, nor sold. Everything else is bought +and sold for Labour, but labour itself cannot be bought nor sold for +anything, being priceless.[80] The idea that it is a commodity to be +bought or sold, is the alpha and omega of Politico-Economic fallacy. + + [80] The object of Political Economy is not to buy, nor to sell + labour,--but to spare it. Every attempt to buy or sell it + is, in the outcome, ineffectual;--so far as successful, it + is not sale, but Betrayal; and the purchase money is a part + of that typical thirty pieces which bought, first the + greatest of labours, and afterwards the burial field of the + Stranger; for this purchase-money, being in its very + smallness or vileness the exactly measured opposite of + "vilis annona amicorum," makes all men strangers to each + other. + +This being the nature of labour, the "Cost" of anything is the +quantity of labour necessary to obtain it;--the quantity for which, or +at which, it "stands" (constat). It is literally the "Constancy" of +the thing;--you shall win it--move it--come at it--for no less than +this. + +Cost is measured and measurable only in "labor," not in "opera."[81] +It does not matter how much power a thing needs to produce it; it +matters only how much distress. Generally the more power it requires, +the less the distress; so that the noblest works of man cost less than +the meanest. + + [81] Cicero's distinction, "sordidi quæstus, quorum operæ, non + quorum artes emuntur," admirable in principle, is inaccurate + in expression, because Cicero did not practically know how + much operative dexterity is necessary in all the higher + arts; but the cost of this dexterity is incalculable. Be + it great or small, the "cost" of the mere authority and + perfectness of touch in a hammerstroke of Donatello's, or a + pencil touch of Correggio's, is inestimable by any ordinary + arithmetic. (The best masters themselves usually estimate it + at sums varying from two to three or four shillings a day, + with wine or soup extra.) + +True labour, or spending of life, is either of the body, in fatigue +or pain, of the temper or heart (as in perseverance of search for +things,--patience in waiting for them,--fortitude or degradation in +suffering for them, and the like), or of the intellect. All these +kinds of labour are supposed to be included in the general term, and +the quantity of labour is then expressed by the time it lasts. So that +a unit of labour is "an hour's work" or a day's work, as we may +determine.[82] + + [82] Only observe, as some labour is more destructive of life + than other labour, the hour or day of the more destructive + toil is supposed to include proportionate rest. Though men + do not, or cannot, usually take such rest, except in death. + +Cost, like value, is both intrinsic and effectual. Intrinsic cost is +that of getting the thing in the right way; effectual cost is that of +getting the thing in the way we set about it. But intrinsic cannot be +made a subject of analytical investigation, being only partially +discoverable, and that by long experience. Effectual cost is all that +the political economist can deal with; that is to say, the cost of the +thing under existing circumstances and by known processes. + +Cost (irrespectively of any question of demand or supply) varies with +the quantity of the thing wanted, and with the number of persons who +work for it. It is easy to get a little of some things, but difficult +to get much; it is impossible to get some things with few hands, but +easy to get them with many. + +The cost and value of things, however difficult to determine +accurately, are thus both dependent on ascertainable physical +circumstances.[83] + + [83] There is, therefore, observe, no such thing as cheapness + (in the common use of that term), without some error or + injustice. A thing is said to be cheap, not because it is + common, but because it is supposed to be sold under its + worth. Everything has its proper and true worth at any given + time, in relation to everything else; and at that worth + should be bought and sold. If sold under it, it is cheap to + the buyer by exactly so much as the seller loses, and no + more. Putrid meat, at twopence a pound, is not "cheaper" + than wholesome meat at sevenpence a pound; it is probably + much dearer; but if, by watching your opportunity, you can + get the wholesome meat for sixpence a pound, it is cheaper + to you by a penny, which you have gained, and the seller has + lost. The present rage for cheapness is either, therefore, + simply and literally, a rage for badness of all commodities, + or it is an attempt to find persons whose necessities will + force them to let you have more than you should for your + money. It is quite easy to produce such persons, and in + large numbers; for the more distress there is in a nation, + the more cheapness of this sort you can obtain, and your + boasted cheapness is thus merely a measure of the extent of + your national distress. + + There is, indeed, a condition of apparent cheapness, which + we confuse, in practice and in reasoning, with the other; + namely, the real reduction in cost of articles by right + application of labour. But in this case the article is only + cheap with reference to its former price, the so-called + cheapness is only our expression for the sensation of + contrast between its former and existing prices. So soon as + the new methods of producing the article are established, it + ceases to be esteemed either cheap or dear, at the new + price, as at the old one, and is felt to be cheap only when + accident enables it to be purchased beneath this new value. + And it is to no advantage to produce the article more + easily, except as it enables you to multiply your + population. Cheapness of this kind is merely the discovery + that more men can be maintained on the same ground; and the + question, how many you will maintain in proportion to your + means, remains exactly in the same terms that it did before. + + A form of immediate cheapness results, however, in many + cases, without distress, from the labour of a population + where food is redundant, or where the labour by which the + food is produced leaves much idle time on their hands, which + may be applied to the production of "cheap" articles. + + All such phenomena indicate to the political economist + places where the labour is unbalanced. In the first case, + the just balance is to be effected by taking labourers from + the spot where the pressure exists, and sending them to that + where food is redundant. In the second, the cheapness is a + local accident, advantageous to the local purchaser, + disadvantageous to the local producer. It is one of the + first duties of commerce to extend the market and thus give + the local producer his full advantage. + + Cheapness caused by natural accidents of harvest, weather, + etc., is always counterbalanced, in due time, by natural + scarcity similarly caused. It is the part of wise + Government, and healthy commerce, so to provide in times and + places of plenty for times and places of dearth, as that + there shall never be waste, nor famine. + + Cheapness caused by gluts of the market is merely a disease + of clumsy and wanton commerce. + +But their price is dependent on the human will. + +Such and such a thing is demonstrably good for so much. And it may +demonstrably be bad for so much. + +But it remains questionable, and in all manner of ways questionable, +whether I choose to give so much.[84] + + [84] Price has already been defined (pp. 214, 215) to be the + quantity of labour which the possessor of a thing is willing + to take for it. It is best to consider the price to be that + fixed by the possessor, because the possessor has absolute + power of refusing sale, while the purchaser has no absolute + power of compelling it; but the effectual or market price is + that at which their estimates coincide. + +This choice is always a relative one. It is a choice to give a price +for this, rather than for that;--a resolution to have the thing, if +getting it does not involve the loss of a better thing. Price depends, +therefore, not only on the cost of the commodity itself, but on its +relation to the cost of every other attainable thing. + +Farther. The power of choice is also a relative one. It depends not +merely on our own estimate of the thing, but on everybody else's +estimate; therefore on the number and force of the will of the +concurrent buyers, and on the existing quantity of the thing in +proportion to that number and force. + +Hence the price of anything depends on four variables.[85] + + 1. Its cost. + 2. Its attainable quantity at that cost. + 3. The number and power of the persons who want it. + 4. The estimate they have formed of its desirableness. + +(Its value only affects its price so far as it is contemplated in this +estimate; perhaps, therefore, not at all.) + + [85] The two first of these variables are included in the _x_, + and the two last in the _y_, of the formula given at p. 162 + of "Unto This Last," and the four are the radical conditions + which regulate the price of things on first production; in + their price in exchange, the third and fourth of these + divide each into two others, forming the Four which are + stated at p. 186 of "Unto This Last." + +Now, in order to show the manner in which price is expressed in terms +of a currency, we must assume these four quantities to be known, and +the "estimate of desirableness," commonly called the Demand, to be +certain. We will take the number of persons at the lowest. Let A and B +be two labourers who "demand," that is to say, have resolved to labour +for, two articles, _a_ and _b_. Their demand for these articles (if +the reader likes better, he may say their need) is to be absolute, +existence depending on the getting these two things. Suppose, for +instance, that they are bread and fuel in a cold country, and let _a_ +represent the least quantity of bread, and _b_ the least quantity of +fuel, which will support a man's life for a day. Let _a_ be producible +by an hour's labour but _b_ only by two hours' labour; then the cost +of _a_ is one hour, and of _b_ two (cost, by our definition, being +expressible in terms of time). If, therefore, each man worked both for +his corn and fuel, each would have to work three hours a day. But they +divide the labour for its greater ease.[86] Then if A works three +hours, he produces 3_a_, which is one _a_ more than both the men want. +And if B works three hours, he produces only 1-1/2_b_, or half of _b_ +less than both want. But if A works three hours and B six, A has 3_a_, +and B has 3_b_, a maintenance in the right proportion for both for a +day and a half; so that each might take a half a day's rest. But as B +has worked double time, the whole of this day's rest belongs in equity +to him. Therefore, the just exchange should be, A, giving two _a_ for +one _b_, has one _a_ and one _b_;--maintenance for a day. B, giving +one _b_ for two _a_, has two _a_ and two _b_;--maintenance for two +days. + + [86] This "greater ease" ought to be allowed for by a diminution + in the times of the divided work; but as the proportion of + times would remain the same, I do not introduce this + unnecessary complexity into the calculation. + +But B cannot rest on the second day, or A would be left without the +article which B produces. Nor is there any means of making the +exchange just, unless a third labourer is called in. Then one workman, +A, produces _a_, and two, B and C, produce _b_;--A, working three +hours, has three _a_;--B, three hours, 1-1/2_b_;--C, three hours, +1-1/2_b_. B and C each give half of _b_ for _a_, and all have their +equal daily maintenance for equal daily work. + +To carry the example a single step farther, let three articles, _a_, +_b_, and _c_, be needed. + +Let _a_ need one hour's work, _b_ two, and _c_ four; then the day's +work must be seven hours, and one man in a day's work can make 7_a_, +or 3-1/2_b_, or 1-3/4_c_. Therefore one A works for _a_, producing +7_a_; two B's work for _b_, producing 7_b_; four C's work for _c_, +producing 7_c_. + +A has six _a_ to spare, and gives two _a_ for one _b_, and four _a_ +for one _c_. Each B has 2-1/2_b_ to spare, and gives 1/2_b_ for one +_a_, and two _b_ for one _c_. Each C has 3/4 of _c_ to spare, and +gives 1/2_c_ for one _b_, and 1/4 of _c_ for one _a_. And all have +their day's maintenance. + +Generally, therefore, it follows that, if the demand is constant,[87] +the relative prices of things are as their costs, or as the quantities +of labour involved in production. + + [87] Compare "Unto This Last," p. 177, et seq. + +Then, in order to express their prices in terms of a currency, we +have only to put the currency into the form of orders for a certain +quantity of any given article (with us it is in the form of orders for +gold), and all quantities of other articles are priced by the relation +they bear to the article which the currency claims. + +But the worth of the currency itself is not in the slightest degree +founded more on the worth of the article for which the gold is +exchangeable. It is just as accurate to say, "So many pounds are worth +an acre of land," as "An acre of land is worth so many pounds." The +worth of gold, of land, of houses, and of food, and of all other +things, depends at any moment on the existing quantities and relative +demands for all and each; and a change in the worth of, or demand for, +any one, involves an instantaneously correspondent change in the +worth, and demand for, all the rest--a change as inevitable and as +accurately balanced (though often in its process as untraceable) as +the change in volume of the outflowing river from some vast lake, +caused by change in the volume of the inflowing streams, though no eye +can trace, no instrument detect motion either on its surface, or in +the depth. + +Thus, then, the real working power or worth of the currency is founded +on the entire sum of the relative estimates formed by the population +of its possessions; a change in this estimate in any direction (and +therefore every change in the national character), instantly alters +the value of money, in its second great function of commanding labour. +But we must always carefully and sternly distinguish between this +worth of currency, dependent on the conceived or appreciated value of +what it represents, and the worth of it, dependent on the existence of +what it represents. A currency is true or false, in proportion to the +security with which it gives claim to the possession of land, house, +horse, or picture; but a currency is strong or weak, worth much or +worth little, in proportion to the degree of estimate in which the +nation holds the house, horse, or picture which is claimed. Thus the +power of the English currency has been, till of late, largely based on +the national estimate of horses and of wine: so that a man might +always give any price to furnish choicely his stable, or his cellar, +and receive public approval therefor: but if he gave the same sum to +furnish his library, he was called mad, or a Bibliomaniac. And +although he might lose his fortune by his horses, and his health or +life by his cellar, and rarely lost either by his books, he was yet +never called a Hippomaniac nor an Oinomaniac; but only Bibliomaniac, +because the current worth of money was understood to be legitimately +founded on cattle and wine, but not on literature. The prices lately +given at sales for pictures and MSS. indicate some tendency to change +in the national character in this respect, so that the worth of the +currency may even come in time to rest, in an acknowledged manner, +somewhat on the state and keeping of the Bedford missal, as well as on +the health of Caractacus or Blink Bonny; and old pictures be +considered property, no less than old port. They might have been so +before now, but it is more difficult to choose the one than the other. + +Now, observe, all these sources of variation in the power of the +currency exist wholly irrespective of the influences of vice, +indolence, and improvidence. We have hitherto supposed, throughout the +analysis, every professing labourer to labour honestly, heartily, and +in harmony with his fellows. We have now to bring farther into the +calculation the effects of relative industry, honour, and forethought, +and thus to follow out the bearings of our second inquiry: Who are the +holders of the Store and Currency, and in what proportions? + +This, however, we must reserve for our next paper,--noticing here +only that, however distinct the several branches of the subject are, +radically, they are so interwoven in their issues that we cannot +rightly treat any one, till we have taken cognisance of all. Thus the +quantity of the currency in proportion to number of population is +materially influenced by the number of the holders in proportion to +the non-holders; and this again by the number of holders of goods. For +as, by definition, the currency is a claim to goods which are not +possessed, its quantity indicates the number of claimants in +proportion to the number of holders; and the force and complexity of +claim. For if the claims be not complex, currency as a means of +exchange may be very small in quantity. A sells some corn to B, +receiving a promise from B to pay in cattle, which A then hands over +to C, to get some wine. C in due time claims the cattle from B; and B +takes back his promise. These exchanges have, or might have been, all +effected with a single coin or promise; and the proportion of the +currency to the store would in such circumstances indicate only the +circulating vitality of it--that is to say, the quantity and +convenient divisibility of that part of the store which the habits of +the nation keep in circulation. If a cattle-breeder is content to +live with his household chiefly on meat and milk, and does not want +rich furniture, or jewels, or books,--if a wine- and corn-grower +maintains himself and his men chiefly on grapes and bread;--if the +wives and daughters of families weave and spin the clothing of the +household, and the nation, as a whole, remains content with the +produce of its own soil and the work of its own hands, it has little +occasion for circulating media. It pledges and promises little and +seldom; exchanges only so far as exchange is necessary for life. The +store belongs to the people in whose hands it is found, and money is +little needed either as an expression of right, or practical means of +division and exchange. + +But in proportion as the habits of the nation become complex and +fantastic (and they may be both, without therefore being civilized), +its circulating medium must increase in proportion to its store. If +everyone wants a little of everything,--if food must be of many kinds, +and dress of many fashions,--if multitudes live by work which, +ministering to fancy, has its pay measured by fancy, so that large +prices will be given by one person for what is valueless to +another,--if there are great inequalities of knowledge, causing great +inequalities of estimate,--and finally, and worst of all, if the +currency itself, from its largeness, and the power which the +possession of it implies, becomes the sole object of desire with large +numbers of the nation, so that the holding of it is disputed among +them as the main object of life:--in each and all these cases, the +currency enlarges in proportion to the store, and, as a means of +exchange and division, as a bond of right, and as an expression of +passion, plays a more and more important part in the nation's +dealings, character, and life. + +Against which part, when, as a bond of Right, it becomes too +conspicuous and too burdensome, the popular voice is apt to be raised +in a violent and irrational manner, leading to revolution instead of +remedy. Whereas all possibility of Economy depends on the clear +assertion and maintenance of this bond of right, however burdensome. +The first necessity of all economical government is to secure the +unquestioned and unquestionable working of the great law of +Property--that a man who works for a thing shall be allowed to get it, +keep it, and consume it, in peace; and that he who does not eat his +cake to-day, shall be seen, without grudging, to have his cake +to-morrow. This, I say, is the first point to be secured by social +law; without this, no political advance, nay, no political existence, +is in any sort possible. Whatever evil, luxury, iniquity, may seem to +result from it, this is nevertheless the first of all Equities; and to +the enforcement of this, by law and by police-truncheon, the nation +must always primarily set its mind--that the cupboard door may have a +firm lock to it, and no man's dinner be carried off by the mob, on its +way home from the baker's. Which, thus fearlessly asserting, we shall +endeavour in the next paper to consider how far it may be practicable +for the mob itself, also, in due breadth of dish, to have dinners to +carry home. + + + + +III. + +THE CURRENCY-HOLDERS AND STORE-HOLDERS. THE DISEASE OF DESIRE. + + +It will be seen by reference to the last paper that our present task +is to examine the relation of holders of store to holders of currency; +and of both to those who hold neither. In order to do this, we must +determine on which side we are to place substances such as gold, +commonly known as bases of currency. By aid of previous definitions +the reader will now be able to understand closer statements than have +yet been possible. + +The currency of any country consists of every document acknowledging +debt which is transferable in the country. + +This transferableness depends upon its intelligibility and credit. Its +intelligibility depends chiefly on the difficulty of forging anything +like it;--its credit much on national character, but ultimately always +on the existence of substantial means of meeting its demand. + +As the degrees of transferableness are variable (some documents +passing only in certain places, and others passing, if at all, for +less than their inscribed value), both the mass and, so to speak, +fluidity, of the currency, are variable. True or perfect currency +flows freely, like a pure stream; it becomes sluggish or stagnant in +proportion to the quantity of less transferable matter which mixes +with it, adding to its bulk, but diminishing its purity. Substances of +intrinsic value, such as gold, mingle also with the currency, and +increase, while they modify, its power; these are carried by it as +stones are carried by a torrent, sometimes momentarily impeding, +sometimes concentrating its force, but not affecting its purity. +These substances of intrinsic value may be also stamped or signed so +as to become acknowledgments of debt, and then become, so far as they +operate independently of their intrinsic value, part of the real +currency. + +Deferring consideration of minor forms of currency, consisting of +documents bearing private signature, we will examine the principle of +legally authorized or national currency. + +This, in its perfect condition, is a form of public acknowledgment of +debt, so regulated and divided that any person presenting a commodity +of tried worth in the public market, shall, if he please, receive in +exchange for it a document giving him claim for the return of its +equivalent, (1) in any place, (2) at any time, and (3) in any kind. + +When currency is quite healthy and vital, the persons entrusted with +its management are always able to give on demand either-- + +A. The assigning document for the assigned quantity of goods. Or, + +B. The assigned quantity of goods for the assigning document. + +If they cannot give document for goods, the national exchange is at +fault. + +If they cannot give goods for document, the national credit is at +fault. + +The nature and power of the document are therefore to be examined +under the three relations which it bears to Place, Time, and Kind. + +1. It gives claim to the return of equivalent wealth in any Place. Its +use in this function is to save carriage, so that parting with a +bushel of corn in London, we may receive an order for a bushel of corn +for the Antipodes, or elsewhere. To be perfect in this use, the +substance of currency must be to the maximum portable, credible, and +intelligible. Its non-acceptance or discredit results always from some +form of ignorance or dishonour: so far as such interruptions rise out +of differences in denomination, there is no ground for their +continuance among civilized nations. It may be convenient in one +country to use chiefly copper for coinage, in another silver, and in +another gold,--reckoning accordingly in centimes, francs, or sequins; +but that a French franc should be different in weight from an English +shilling, and an Austrian zwanziger vary in weight and alloy from +both, is wanton loss of commercial power. + +2. It gives claim to the return of equivalent wealth at any Time. In +this second use, currency is the exponent of accumulation: it renders +the laying up of store at the command of individuals unlimitedly +possible;--whereas, but for its intervention, all gathering would be +confined within certain limits by the bulk of poverty, or by its +decay, or the difficulty of its guardianship. "I will pull down my +barns and build greater" cannot be a daily saying; and all material +investment is enlargement of care. The national currency transfers the +guardianship of the store to many; and preserves to the original +producer the right of re-entering on its possession at any future +period. + +3. It gives claim (practical, though not legal) to the return of +equivalent wealth in any Kind. It is a transferable right, not merely +to this or that, but to anything; and its power in this function is +proportioned to the range of choice. If you give a child an apple or a +toy, you give him a determinate pleasure, but if you give him a penny, +an indeterminate one, proportioned to the range of selection offered +by the shops in the village. The power of the world's currency is +similarly in proportion to the openness of the world's fair, and +commonly enhanced by the brilliancy of external aspect, rather than +solidity of its wares. + +We have said that the currency consists of orders for equivalent +goods. If equivalent, their quality must be guaranteed. The kinds of +goods chosen for specific claim must, therefore, be capable of test, +while, also, that a store may be kept in hand to meet the call of the +currency, smallness of bulk, with great relative value, is desirable; +and indestructibility, over at least a certain period, essential. + +Such indestructibility and facility of being tested are united in +gold; its intrinsic value is great, and its imaginary value is +greater; so that, partly through indolence, partly through necessity +and want of organization, most nations have agreed to take gold for +the only basis of their currencies;--with this grave disadvantage, +that its portability enabling the metal to become an active part of +the medium of exchange, the stream of the currency itself becomes +opaque with gold--half currency and half commodity, in unison of +functions which partly neutralize, partly enhance each other's force. + +They partly neutralize, since in so far as the gold is commodity, it +is bad currency, because liable to sale; and in so far as it is +currency, it is bad commodity, because its exchange value interferes +with its practical use. Especially its employment in the higher +branches of the arts becomes unsafe on account of its liability to be +melted down for exchange. + +Again. They partly enhance, since in so far as the gold has +acknowledged intrinsic value, it is good currency, because everywhere +acceptable; and in so far as it has legal exchangeable value, its +worth as a commodity is increased. We want no gold in the form of dust +or crystal; but we seek for it coined because in that form it will pay +baker and butcher. And this worth in exchange not only absorbs a large +quantity in that use,[88] but greatly increases the effect on the +imagination of the quantity used in the arts. Thus, in brief, the +force of the functions is increased, but their precision blunted, by +their unison. + + [88] The waste of labour in obtaining the gold, though it cannot + be estimated by help of any existing data, may be understood + in its bearing on entire economy by supposing it limited to + transactions between two persons. If two farmers in + Australia have been exchanging corn and cattle with each + other for years, keeping their accounts of reciprocal debt + in any simple way, the sum of the possessions of either + would not be diminished, though the part of it which was + lent or borrowed were only reckoned by marks on a stone, or + notches on a tree; and the one counted himself accordingly, + so many scratches, or so many notches, better than the + other. But it would soon be seriously diminished if, + discovering gold in their fields, each resolved only to + accept golden counters for a reckoning; and accordingly, + whenever he wanted a sack of corn or a cow, was obliged to + go and wash sand for a week before he could get the means of + giving a receipt for them. + +These inconveniences, however, attach to gold as a basis of currency +on account of its portability and preciousness. But a far greater +inconvenience attaches to it as the only legal basis of currency. +Imagine gold to be only attainable in masses weighing several pounds +each, and its value, like that of a malachite or marble, proportioned +to its largeness of bulk;--it could not then get itself confused with +the currency in daily use, but it might still remain as its basis; and +this second inconvenience would still affect it, namely, that its +significance as an expression of debt, varies, as that of every other +article would, with the popular estimate of its desirableness, and +with the quantity offered in the market. My power of obtaining other +goods for gold depends always on the strength of public passion for +gold, and on the limitation of its quantity, so that when either of +two things happen--that the world esteems gold less, or finds it more +easily,--my right of claim is in that degree effaced; and it has been +even gravely maintained that a discovery of a mountain of gold would +cancel the National Debt; in other words, that men may be paid for +what costs much in what costs nothing. Now, if it is true that there +is little chance of sudden convulsion in this respect, the world will +not rapidly increase in wisdom so as to despise gold, and perhaps may +even desire it more eagerly the more easily it is obtained; +nevertheless the right of debt ought not to rest on a basis of +imagination; nor should the frame of a national currency vibrate with +every miser's panic and every merchant's imprudence. + +There are two methods of avoiding this insecurity, which would have +been fallen upon long ago if, instead of calculating the conditions of +the supply of gold, men had only considered how the world might live +and manage its affairs without gold at all.[89] One is to base the +currency on substances of truer intrinsic value; the other, to base it +on several substances instead of one. If I can only claim gold, the +discovery of a continent of cornfields need not trouble me. If, +however, I wish to exchange my bread for other things, a good harvest +will for the time limit my power in this respect; but if I can claim +either bread, iron, or silk at pleasure, the standard of value has +three feet instead of one, and will be proportionally firm. Thus, +ultimately the steadiness of currency depends upon the breadth of its +base; but the difficulty of organization increasing with this breadth, +the discovery of the condition at once safest and most convenient[90] +can only be by long analysis which must for the present be deferred. +Gold or silver[91] may always be retained in limited use, as a luxury +of coinage and questionless standard, of one weight and alloy among +nations, varying only in the die. The purity of coinage when metallic, +is closely indicative of the honesty of the system of revenue, and +even of the general dignity of the State.[92] + + [89] It is difficult to estimate the curious futility of + discussions such as that which lately occupied a section of + the British Association, on the absorption of gold, while no + one can produce even the simplest of the data necessary for + the inquiry. To take the first occurring one,--What means + have we of ascertaining the weight of gold employed this + year in the toilettes of the women of Europe (not to + speak of Asia); and, supposing it known, what means of + conjecturing the weight by which, next year, their fancies, + and the changes of style among their jewellers, will + diminish or increase it? + + [90] See, in Pope's epistle to Lord Bathurst, his sketch of the + difficulties and uses of a currency literally "pecuniary"-- + + "His Grace will game--to White's a bull he led," etc. + + [91] Perhaps both; perhaps silver only. It may be found + expedient ultimately to leave gold free for use in the arts. + As a means of reckoning, the standard might be, and in some + cases has already been, entirely ideal.--See Mill's + "Political Economy," book iii., chap. 7, at beginning. + + [92] The purity of the drachma and sequin were not without + significance of the state of intellect, art, and policy, + both in Athens and Venice;--a fact first impressed upon + me ten years ago, when, in daguerreotypes of Venetian + architecture, I found no purchasable gold pure enough + to gild them with, but that of the old Venetian sequin. + +Whatever the article or articles may be which the national currency +promises to pay, a premium on that article indicates bankruptcy of the +Government in that proportion, the division of the assets being +restrained only by the remaining confidence of the holders of notes in +the return of prosperity to the firm. Incontrovertible currencies, +those of forced acceptance, or of unlimited issue, are merely various +modes of disguising taxation, and delaying its pressure, until it is +too late to interfere with its causes. To do away with the possibility +of such disguise would have been among the first results of a true +economical science, had any such existed; but there have been too many +motives for the concealment, so long as it could by any artifices be +maintained, to permit hitherto even the founding of such a science. + +And, indeed, it is only through evil conduct, wilfully persisted in, +that there is any embarrassment either in the theory or the working of +currency. No exchequer is ever embarrassed, nor is any financial +question difficult of solution, when people keep their practice +honest, and their heads cool. But when Governments lose all office of +pilotage, protection, scrutiny, and witness; and live only in +magnificence of proclaimed larceny, effulgent mendacity, and polished +mendicity; or when the people choosing Speculation (the S usual +redundant in the spelling) instead of Toil, pursue no dishonesty with +chastisement, that each may with impunity take his dishonest turn; and +enlarge their lust of wealth through ignorance of its use, making +their harlot of the dust, and setting Earth, the Mother, at the mercy +of Earth, the Destroyer, so that she has to seek in hell the children +she left playing in the meadows,--there are no tricks of financial +terminology that will save them; all signature and mintage do but +magnify the ruin they retard; and even the riches that remain, +stagnant or current, change only from the slime of Avernus to the sand +of Phlegethon;--quicksand at the embouchure;--land fluently +recommended by recent auctioneers as "eligible for building leases." + +Finally, then, the power of true currency is fourfold. + +1. Credit power. Its worth in exchange, dependent on public opinion of +the stability and honesty of the issuer. + +2. Real worth. Supposing the gold, or whatever else the currency +expressly promises, to be required from the issuer, for all his notes; +and that the call cannot be met in full. Then the actual worth of the +document (whatever its credit power) would be, and its actual worth at +any moment is to be defined as being, what the division of the assets +of the issuer, and his subsequent will work, would produce for it. + +3. The exchange power of its base. Granting that we can get five +pounds in gold for our note, it remains a question how much of other +things we can get for five pounds in gold. The more of other things +exist, and the less gold, the greater this power. + +4. The power over labour, exercised by the given quantity of the base, +or of the things to be got for it. The question in this case is, how +much work, and (question of questions) whose work, is to be had for +the food which five pounds will buy. This depends on the number of the +population; on their gifts, and on their dispositions, with which, +down to their slightest humours and up to their strongest impulses, +the power of the currency varies; and in this last of its ranges,--the +range of passion, price, or praise (converso in pretium Deo), is at +once least, and greatest. + +Such being the main conditions of national currency, we proceed to +examine those of the total currency, under the broad definition, +"transferable acknowledgment of debt";[93] among the many forms of +which there are in effect only two, distinctly opposed; namely, the +acknowledgments of debts which will be paid, and of debts which will +not. Documents, whether in whole or part, of bad debt, being to those +of good debt as bad money to bullion, we put for the present these +forms of imposture aside (as in analysing a metal we should wash it +clear of dross), and then range, in their exact quantities, the true +currency of the country on one side, and the store or property of the +country on the other. We place gold, and all such substances, on the +side of documents, as far as they operate by signature;--on the side +of store as far as they operate by value. Then the currency represents +the quantity of debt in the country, and the store the quantity of its +possession. The ownership of all the property is divided between the +holders of currency and holders of store, and whatever the claiming +value of the currency is at any moment, that value is to be deducted +from the riches of the store-holders, the deduction being practically +made in the payment of rent for houses and lands, of interest on +stock, and in other ways to be hereafter examined. + + [93] Under which term, observe, we include all documents of debt + which, being honest, might be transferable, though they + practically are not transferred; while we exclude all + documents which are in reality worthless, though in fact + transferred temporarily as bad money is. The document of + honest debt, not transferred, is merely to paper currency as + gold withdrawn from circulation is to that of bullion. Much + confusion has crept into the reasoning on this subject from + the idea that withdrawal from circulation is a definable + state, whereas it is a gradated state, and indefinable. The + sovereign in my pocket is withdrawn from circulation as long + as I choose to keep it there. It is no otherwise withdrawn + if I bury it, nor even if I choose to make it, and others, + into a golden cup, and drink out of them; since a rise in + the price of the wine, or of other things, may at any time + cause me to melt the cup and throw it back into currency; + and the bullion operates on the prices of the things in the + market as directly, though not as forcibly, while it is in + the form of a cup, as it does in the form of a sovereign. No + calculation can be founded on my humour in any ease. If I + like to handle rouleaus, and therefore keep a quantity of + gold, to play with, in the form of jointed basaltic columns, + it is all one in its effect on the market as if I kept it in + the form of twisted filigree, or steadily amicus lamnæ, beat + the narrow gold pieces into broad ones, and dined off them. + The probability is greater that I break the rouleau than + that I melt the plate; but the increased probability is not + calculable. Thus, documents are only withdrawn from the + currency when cancelled, and bullion when it is so + effectually lost as that the probability of finding it is no + greater than that of finding new gold in the mine. + +At present I wish only to note the broad relations of the two great +classes--the currency-holders and store-holders.[94] Of course they +are partly united, most monied men having possessions of land or other +goods; but they are separate in their nature and functions. The +currency-holders as a class regulate the demand for labour, and the +store-holders the laws of it; the currency-holders determine what +shall be produced, and the store-holders the conditions of its +production. Farther, as true currency represents by definition debts +which will be paid, it represents either the debtor's wealth, or his +ability and willingness; that is to say, either wealth existing in his +hands transferred to him by the creditor, or wealth which, as he is at +some time surely to return it, he is either increasing, or, if +diminishing, has the will and strength to reproduce. A sound currency, +therefore, as by its increase it represents enlarging debt, represents +also enlarging means; but in this curious way, that a certain quantity +of it marks the deficiency of the wealth of the country from what it +would have been if that currency had not existed.[95] In this respect +it is like the detritus of a mountain; assume that it lies at a fixed +angle, and the more the detritus, the larger must be the mountain; but +it would have been larger still, had there been none. + + [94] They are (up to the amount of the currency) simply creditors + and debtors--the commercial types of the two great sects of + humanity which those words describe; for debt and credit are + of course merely the mercantile forms of the words "duty" + and "creed," which give the central ideas: only it is more + accurate to say "faith" than "creed," because creed has been + applied carelessly to mere forms of words. Duty properly + signifies whatever in substance or act one person owes to + another, and faith the other's trust in his rendering it. + The French "devoir" and "foi" are fuller and clearer words + than ours; for, faith being the passive of fact, foi comes + straight through fides from fio; and the French keep the + group of words formed from the infinitive--fieri, "se fier," + "se défier," "défiance," and the grand following "défi." Our + English "affiance," "defiance," "confidence," "diffidence," + retain accurate meanings; but our "faithful" has become + obscure, from being used for "faithworthy," as well as "full + of faith." "His name that sat on him was called Faithful and + True." + + Trust is the passive of true saying, as faith is the passive + of due doing; and the right learning of these etymologies, + which are in the strictest sense only to be learned "by + heart," is of considerably more importance to the youth of a + nation than its reading and ciphering. + + [95] For example, suppose an active peasant, having got his + ground into good order and built himself a comfortable + house, finding still time on his hands, sees one of his + neighbours little able to work, and ill lodged, and offers + to build him also a house, and to put his land in order, on + condition of receiving for a given period rent for the + building and tithe of the fruits. The offer is accepted, and + a document given promissory of rent and tithe. This note is + money. It can only be good money if the man who has incurred + the debt so far recovers his strength as to be able to take + advantage of the help he has received, and meet the demand + of the note; if he lets his house fall to ruin, and his + field to waste, his promissory note will soon be valueless: + but the existence of the note at all is a consequence of his + not having worked so stoutly as the other. Let him gain as + much as to be able to pay back the entire debt; the note is + cancelled and we have two rich store-holders and no + currency. + +Finally, though, as above stated, every man possessing money has +usually also some property beyond what is necessary for his immediate +wants, and men possessing property usually also hold currency beyond +what is necessary for their immediate exchanges, it mainly determines +the class to which they belong, whether in their eyes the money is an +adjunct of the property, or the property of the money. In the first +case, the holder's pleasure is in his possessions, and in his money +subordinately, as the means of bettering or adding to them. In the +second, his pleasure is in his money, and in his possessions only as +representing it. In the first case, the money is as an atmosphere +surrounding the wealth, rising from it and raining back upon it; but +in the second, it is a deluge, with the wealth floating, and for the +most part perishing in it. The shortest distinction between the men is +that the one wishes always to buy and the other to sell. + +Such being the great relations of the classes, their several +characters are of the highest importance to the nation; for on the +character of the store-holders depends the preservation, display, and +serviceableness of its wealth;--on that of the currency-holders its +nature, and in great part its distribution; and on both its +production. + +The store-holders are either constructive, or neutral, or destructive; +and in subsequent papers we shall, with respect to every kind of +wealth, examine the relative power of the store-holder for its +improvement or destruction; and we shall then find it to be of +incomparably greater importance to the nation in whose hands the thing +is put, than how much of it is got; and that the character of the +holders may be conjectured by the quality of the store, for such and +such a thing; nor only asks for it, but if to be bettered, betters it: +so that possession and possessor reciprocally act on each other +through the entire sum of national possession. The base nation asking +for base things sinks daily to deeper vileness of nature and of use; +while the noble nation, asking for noble things, rises daily into +diviner eminence in both; the tendency to degradation being surely +marked by [Greek: ataxia], carelessness as to the hands in which +things are put, competition for the acquisition of them, +disorderliness in accumulation, inaccuracy in reckoning, and bluntness +in conception as to the entire nature of possession. + +Now, the currency-holders always increase in number and influence in +proportion to the bluntness of nature and clumsiness of the +store-holders; for the less use people can make of things the more +they tire of them, and want to change them for something else, and +all frequency of change increases the quantity and power of currency; +while the large currency-holder himself is essentially a person who +never has been able to make up his mind as to what he will have, and +proceeds, therefore, in vague collection and aggregation, with more +and more infuriate passion, urged by complacency in progress, and +pride in conquest. + +While, however, there is this obscurity in the nature of possession of +currency, there is a charm in the absoluteness of it, which is to some +people very enticing. In the enjoyment of real property others must +partly share. The groom has some enjoyment of the stud, and the +gardener of the garden; but the money is, or seems shut up; it is +wholly enviable. No one else can have part in any complacencies +arising from it. + +The power of arithmetical comparison is also a great thing to +unimaginative people. They know always they are so much better than +they were, in money; so much better than others, in money; wit cannot +be so compared, nor character. My neighbour cannot be convinced I am +wiser than he is, but he can that I am worth so much more; and the +universality of the conviction is no less flattering than its +clearness. Only a few can understand, none measure, superiorities in +other things; but everybody can understand money, and count it. + +Now, these various temptations to accumulation would be politically +harmless, if what was vainly accumulated had any fair chance of being +wisely spent. For as accumulation cannot go on for ever, but must some +day end in its reverse--if this reverse were indeed a beneficial +distribution and use, as irrigation from reservoir, the fever of +gathering, though perilous to the gatherer, might be serviceable to +the community. But it constantly happens (so constantly, that it may +be stated as a political law having few exceptions), that what is +unreasonably gathered is also unreasonably spent by the persons into +whose hands it finally falls. Very frequently it is spent in war, or +else in stupefying luxury, twice hurtful, both in being indulged by +the rich and witnessed by the poor. So that the _mal tener_ and _mal +dare_ are as correlative as complementary colours; and the circulation +of wealth, which ought to be soft, steady, strong, far-sweeping, and +full of warmth, like the Gulf Stream, being narrowed into an eddy, and +concentrated on a point, changes into the alternate suction and +surrender of Charybdis. Which is, indeed, I doubt not, the true +meaning of that marvellous fable, "infinite," as Bacon said of it, +"in matter of meditation."[96] + + [96] It is a strange habit of wise humanity to speak in enigmas + only, so that the highest truths and usefullest laws must be + hunted for through whole picture-galleries of dreams, which + to the vulgar seem dreams only. Thus Homer, the Greek + tragedians, Plato, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Goethe, + have hidden all that is chiefly serviceable in their work, + and in all the various literature they absorbed and + re-embodied, under types which have rendered it quite + useless to the multitude. What is worse, the two primal + declarers of moral discovery, Homer and Plato, are partly at + issue; for Plato's logical power quenched his imagination, + and he became incapable of understanding the purely + imaginative element either in poetry or painting; he + therefore somewhat overrates the pure discipline of + passionate art in song and music, and misses that of + meditative art. There is, however, a deeper reason for his + distrust of Homer. His love of justice, and reverently + religious nature made him dread as death, every form of + fallacy; but chiefly, fallacy respecting the world to come + (his own myths being only symbolic exponents of a rational + hope). We shall perhaps now every day discover more clearly + how right Plato was in this, and feel ourselves more and + more wonderstruck that men such as Homer and Dante (and, in + an inferior sphere, Milton), not to speak of the great + sculptors and painters of every age, have permitted + themselves, though full of all nobleness and wisdom, to coin + idle imaginations of the mysteries of eternity, and mould + the faiths of the families of the earth by the courses of + their own vague and visionary arts: while the indisputable + truths respecting human life and duty, respecting which they + all have but one voice, lie hidden behind these veils of + phantasy, unsought and often unsuspected. I will gather + carefully, out of Dante and Homer, what of this kind bears + on our subject, in its due place; the first broad intention + of their symbols may be sketched at once. The rewards of a + worthy use of riches, subordinate to other ends, are shown + by Dante in the fifth and sixth orbs of Paradise; for the + punishment of their unworthy use, three places are assigned; + one for the avaricious and prodigal whose souls are lost + ("Hell": Canto 7); one for the avaricious and prodigal whose + souls are capable of purification ("Purgatory": Canto 19); + and one for the usurers, of whom none can be redeemed + ("Hell": Canto 17). The first group, the largest in all hell + (gente piu che altrove troppa), meet in contrary currents, + as the waves of Charybdis, casting weights at each other + from opposite sides. This weariness of contention is the + chief element of their torture; so marked by the beautiful + lines, beginning, Or puoi, figliuol, etc. (but the usurers, + who made their money inactively, sit on the sand, equally + without rest, however, "Di qua, di la soccorrien," etc.). + For it is not avarice but contention for riches, leading to + this double misuse of them, which, in Dante's sight, is the + unredeemable sin. The place of its punishment is guarded by + Plutus, "the great enemy," and "la fièra crudele," a spirit + quite different from the Greek Plutus, who, though old and + blind, is not cruel, and is curable, so as to become + far-sighted ([Greek: hou typhlos all' oxy blepôn]--Plato's + epithets in first book of the Laws). Still more does this + Dantesque type differ from the resplendent Plutus of Goethe + in the second part of "Faust," who is the personified power + of wealth for good or evil; not the passion for wealth; and + again from the Plutus of Spenser, who is the passion of mere + aggregation. Dante's Plutus is specially and definitely the + spirit of Contention and Competition, or Evil Commerce; and + because, as I showed in my last paper, this kind of commerce + "makes all men strangers," his speech is unintelligible, and + no single soul of all those ruined by him has recognizable + features. + + (La sconescente vita-- + Ad ogni conoscenza or li fa bruni). + + On the other hand, the redeemable sins of avarice and + prodigality are, in Dante's sight, those which are without + deliberate or calculated operation. The lust, or lavishness, + of riches can be purged, so long as there has been no + servile consistency of dispute and competition for them. The + sin is spoken of as that of degradation by the love of + earth; it is purified by deeper humiliation--the souls crawl + on their bellies; their chant, "my soul cleaveth unto the + dust." But the spirits here condemned are all recognizable, + and even the worst examples of the thirst for gold, which + they are compelled to tell the histories of during the + night, are of men swept by the passion of avarice into + violent crime, but not sold to its steady work. The precept + given to each of these spirits for its deliverance is--Turn + thine eyes to the lucre (lure) which the Eternal King rolls + with the mighty wheels: otherwise, the wheels of the + "Greater Fortune," of which the constellation is ascending + when Dante's dream begins. Compare George Herbert,-- + + "Lift up thy head; + Take stars for money; stars, not to be told + By any art, yet to be purchased." + + And Plato's notable sentence in the third book of + "Polity":--"Tell them they have divine gold and silver in + their souls for ever; that they need no money stamped of + men--neither may they otherwise than impiously mingle the + gathering of the divine with the mortal treasure, for + through that which the law of the multitude has coined, + endless crimes have been done and suffered; but in theirs is + neither pollution nor sorrow." At the entrance of this place + of punishment an evil spirit is seen by Dante, quite other + than the "Gran Nemico." The great enemy is obeyed knowingly + and willingly; but this spirit--feminine--and called a + Siren--is the "Deceitfulness of riches," [Greek: apatê + ploutou] of the gospels, winning obedience by guile. This is + the Idol of Riches, made doubly phantasmal by Dante's seeing + her in a dream. She is lovely to look upon, and enchants by + her sweet singing, but her womb is loathsome. Now, Dante + does not call her one of the Sirens carelessly, any more + than he speaks of Charybdis carelessly, and though he had + only got at the meaning of the Homeric fable through + Virgil's obscure tradition of it, the clue he has given us + is quite enough. Bacon's interpretation, "the Sirens, or + pleasures," which has become universal since his time, is + opposed alike to Plato's meaning and Homer's. The Sirens are + not pleasures, but Desires: in the Odyssey they are the + phantoms of vain desire; but in Plato's vision of Destiny, + phantoms of constant Desire; singing each a different note + on the circles of the distaff of Necessity, but forming one + harmony, to which the three great Fates put words. Dante, + however, adopted the Homeric conception of them, which was + that they were demons of the Imagination, not carnal (desire + of the eyes; not lust of the flesh); therefore said to be + daughters of the Muses. Yet not of the muses, heavenly or + historical, but of the muse of pleasure; and they are at + first winged, because even vain hope excites and helps when + first formed; but afterwards, contending for the possession + of the imagination with the muses themselves, they are + deprived of their wings, and thus we are to distinguish the + Siren power from the Power of Circe, who is no daughter of + the muses, but of the strong elements, Sun and Sea; her + power is that of frank and full vital pleasure, which, if + governed and watched, nourishes men; but, unwatched, and + having no "moly," bitterness or delay mixed with it, turns + men into beasts, but does not slay them, leaves them, on the + contrary, power of revival. She is herself indeed an + Enchantress;--pure Animal life; transforming--or + degrading--but always wonderful (she puts the stores on + board the ship invisibly, and is gone again, like a ghost); + even the wild beasts rejoice and are softened around her + cave; to men, she gives no rich feast, nothing but pure and + right nourishment,--Pramnian wine, cheese and flour; that is + corn, milk, and wine, the three great sustainers of life--it + is their own fault if these make swine of them; and swine + are chosen merely as the type of consumption; as Plato's + [Greek: huôn polis] in the second book of the "Polity," and + perhaps chosen by Homer with a deeper knowledge of the + likeness of nourishment, and internal form of body. "Et quel + est, s'il vous plaît, cet audacieux animal qui se permet + d'être bâti au dedans comme une jolie petite fille?" + + "Hélas! chère enfant, j'ai honte de le nommer, et il ne + foudra pas m'en vouloir. C'est ... c'est le cochon. Ce n'est + pas précisément flatteur pour vous; mais nous en sommes tous + là, et si cela vous contrarie par trop, il faut aller vous + plaindre au bon Dieu qui a voulu que les choses fussent + arrangées ainsï: seulement le cochon, qui ne pense qu' à + manger, a l'estomac bien plus vaste que nous, et c'est + toujours une consolation." ("Histoire d'une Bouchée de + Pain," Lettre ix.) But the deadly Sirens are all things + opposed to the Circean power. They promise pleasure, but + never give it. They nourish in no wise; but slay by slow + death. And whereas they corrupt the heart and the head, + instead of merely betraying the senses, there is no recovery + from their power; they do not tear nor snatch, like Scylla, + but the men who have listened to them are poisoned, and + waste away. Note that the Sirens' field is covered, not + merely with the bones, but with the skins of those who have + been consumed there. They address themselves, in the part of + the song which Homer gives, not to the passions of Ulysses, + but to his vanity, and the only man who ever came within + hearing of them, and escaped untempted, was Orpheus, who + silenced the vain imaginations by singing the praises of the + gods. + + It is, then, one of these Sirens whom Dante takes as the + phantasm or deceitfulness of riches; but note further, that + she says it was her song that deceived Ulysses. Look back to + Dante's account of Ulysses' death, and we find it was not + the love of money, but pride of knowledge, that betrayed + him; whence we get the clue to Dante's complete meaning: + that the souls whose love of wealth is pardonable have been + first deceived into pursuit of it by a dream of its higher + uses, or by ambition. His Siren is therefore the Philotimé + of Spenser, daughter of Mammon-- + + "Whom all that folk with such contention + Do flock about, my deare, my daughter is-- + Honour and dignitie from her alone + Derived are." + + By comparing Spenser's entire account of this Philotimé with + Dante's of the Wealth-Siren, we shall get at the full + meaning of both poets; but that of Homer lies hidden much + more deeply. For his Sirens are indefinite, and they are + desires of any evil thing; power of wealth is not specially + indicated by him, until, escaping the harmonious danger of + imagination, Ulysses has to choose between two practical + ways of life, indicated by the two rocks of Scylla and + Charybdis. The monsters that haunt them are quite distinct + from the rocks themselves, which, having many other + subordinate significations, are in the main Labour and + Idleness, or getting and spending; each with its attendant + monster, or betraying demon. The rock of gaining has its + summit in the clouds, invisible and not to be climbed; that + of spending is low, but marked by the cursed fig-tree, which + has leaves but no fruit. We know the type elsewhere; and + there is a curious lateral allusion to it by Dante when + Jacopo di Sant' Andrea, who had ruined himself by profusion + and committed suicide, scatters the leaves of the bush of + Lotto degli Agli, endeavouring to hide himself among them. + We shall hereafter examine the type completely; here I will + only give an approximate rendering of Homer's words, which + have been obscured more by translation than even by + tradition-- + + "They are overhanging rocks. The great waves of blue water + break round them; and the blessed Gods call them the + Wanderers. + + "By one of them no winged thing can pass--not even the wild + doves that bring ambrosia to their father Jove--but the + smooth rock seizes its sacrifice of them." (Not even + ambrosia to be had without Labour. The word is peculiar--as + a part of anything offered for sacrifice; especially used of + heave-offering.) "It reaches the wide heaven with its top, + and a dark-blue cloud rests on it, and never passes; neither + does the clear sky hold it in summer nor in harvest. Nor can + any man climb it--not if he had twenty feet and hands, for + it is smooth as though it were hewn. + + "And in the midst of it is a cave which is turned the way of + hell. And therein dwells Scylla, whining for prey: her cry, + indeed, is no louder than that of a newly-born whelp: but + she herself is an awful thing--nor can any creature see her + face and be glad; no, though it were a god that rose against + her. For she has twelve feet, all fore-feet, and six necks, + and terrible heads on them; and each has three rows of + teeth, full of black death. + + "But the opposite rock is lower than this, though but a + bow-shot distant; and upon it there is a great fig-tree, + full of leaves; and under it the terrible Charybdis sucks it + down, and thrice casts it up again; be not thou there when + she sucks down, for Neptune himself could not save thee." + + The reader will find the meaning of these types gradually + elicited as we proceed. + +This disease of desire having especial relation to the great art of +Exchange, or Commerce, we must, in order to complete our code of first +principles, shortly state the nature and limits of that art. + +As the currency conveys right of choice out of many things in exchange +for one, so Commerce is the agency by which the power of choice is +obtained; and countries producing only timber can obtain for their +timber silk and gold; or, naturally producing only jewels and +frankincense, can obtain for them cattle and corn. In this function +commerce is of more importance to a country in proportion to the +limitations of its products and the restlessness of its +fancy;--generally of greater importance towards Northern latitudes. + +Commerce is necessary, however, not only to exchange local products, +but local skill. Labour requiring the agency of fire can only be given +abundantly in cold countries; labour requiring suppleness of body and +sensitiveness of touch only in warm ones; labour involving accurate +vivacity of thought only in temperate ones; while peculiar imaginative +actions are produced by extremes of heat and cold, and of light and +darkness. The production of great art is limited to climates warm +enough to admit of repose in the open air, and cool enough to render +such repose delightful. Minor variations in modes of skill distinguish +every locality. The labour which at any place is easiest, is in that +place cheapest; and it becomes often desirable that products raised in +one country should be wrought in another. Hence have arisen +discussions on "International values," which will be one day +remembered as highly curious exercises of the human mind. For it will +be discovered, in due course of tide and time, that international +value is regulated just as inter-provincial or inter-parishional value +is. Coals and hops are exchanged between Northumberland and Kent on +absolutely the same principles as iron and wine between Lancashire and +Spain. The greater breadth of an arm of the sea increases the cost, +but does not modify the principle of exchange; and a bargain written +in two languages will have no other economical results than a bargain +written in one. The distances of nations are measured not by seas, but +by ignorances; and their divisions determined, not by dialects, but by +enmities. + +Of course, a system of international values may always be constructed +if we assume a relation of moral law to physical geography; as, for +instance, that it is right to cheat across a river, though not across +a road; or across a lake, though not across a river; or over a +mountain, though not across a lake, etc.:--again, a system of such +values may be constructed by assuming similar relations of taxation to +physical geography; as, for instance, that an article should be taxed +in crossing a river, but not in crossing a road; or in being carried +over a mountain, but not over a ferry, etc.: such positions are indeed +not easily maintained when once put in logical form; but one law of +international value is maintainable in any form; namely, that the +farther your neighbour lives from you, and the less he understands +you, the more you are bound to be true in your dealings with him; +because your power over him is greater in proportion to his ignorance, +and his remedy more difficult in proportion to his distance. + +I have just said the breadth of sea increases the cost of exchange. +Exchange or commerce, as such, is always costly; the sum of the value +of the goods being diminished by the cost of their conveyance, and by +the maintenance of the persons employed in it. So that it is only when +there is advantage to both producers (in getting the one thing for the +other), greater than the loss in conveyance, that the exchange is +expedient. And it is only justly conducted when the porters kept by +the producers (commonly called merchants) look only for pay, and not +for profit. For in just commerce there are but three parties--the two +persons or societies exchanging and the agent or agents of exchange: +the value of the things to be exchanged is known by both the +exchangers, and each receives equivalent value, neither gaining nor +losing (for whatever one gains the other loses). The intermediate +agent is paid an equal and known percentage by both, partly for labour +in conveyance, partly for care, knowledge, and risk; every attempt at +concealment of the amount of the pay indicates either effort on the +part of the agent to obtain exorbitant percentage, or effort on the +part of the exchangers to refuse him a just one. But for the most part +it is the first, namely, the effort on the part of the merchant to +obtain larger profit (so called) by buying cheap and selling dear. +Some part, indeed, of this larger gain is deserved, and might be +openly demanded, because it is the reward of the merchant's knowledge, +and foresight of probable necessity; but the greater part of such gain +is unjust; and unjust in this most fatal way, that it depends first on +keeping the exchangers ignorant of the exchange value of the articles, +and secondly, on taking advantage of the buyer's need and the seller's +poverty. It is, therefore, one of the essential, and quite the most +fatal, forms of usury; for usury means merely taking an exorbitant sum +for the use of anything, and it is no matter whether the exorbitance +is on loan or exchange, in rent or in price--the essence of the usury +being that it is obtained by advantage of opportunity or necessity, +and not as due reward for labour. All the great thinkers, therefore, +have held it to be unnatural and impious, in so far as it feeds on +the distress of others, or their folly.[97] Nevertheless attempts to +repress it by law (in other words, to regulate prices by law so far as +their variations depend on iniquity, and not on nature) must for ever +be ineffective; though Plato, Bacon, and the First Napoleon--all three +of them men who knew somewhat more of humanity than the "British +merchant" usually does--tried their hands at it, and have left some +(probably) good moderative forms of law, which we will examine in +their place. But the only final check upon it must be radical +purifying of the national character, for being, as Bacon calls it, +"concessum propter duritiem cordis," it is to be done away with by +touching the heart only; not, however, without medicinal law--as in +the case of the other permission, "propter duritiem." But in this, +more than in anything (though much in all, and though in this he would +not himself allow of their application, for his own laws against usury +are sharp enough), Plato's words are true in the fourth book of the +"Polity," that neither drugs, nor charms, nor burnings, will touch a +deep-lying political sore, any more than a deep bodily one; but only +right and utter change of constitution; and that "they do but lose +their labour who think that by any tricks of law they can get the +better of these mischiefs of intercourse, and see not that they hew at +a Hydra." + + [97] Hence Dante's companionship of Cahors, Inf., canto xi., + supported by the view taken of the matter throughout the + middle ages, in common with the Greeks. + +And indeed this Hydra seems so unslayable, and sin sticks so fast +between the joinings of the stones of buying and selling, that "to +trade" in things, or literally "cross-give" them, has warped itself, +by the instinct of nations, into their worst word for fraud; for, +because in trade there cannot but be trust, and it seems also that +there cannot but also be injury in answer to it, what is merely fraud +between enemies becomes treachery among friends: and "trader," +"traditor," and "traitor" are but the same word. For which simplicity +of language there is more reason than at first appears; for as in true +commerce there is no "profit," so in true commerce there is no "sale." +The idea of sale is that of an interchange between enemies +respectively endeavouring to get the better of one another; but +commerce is an exchange between friends; and there is no desire but +that it should be just, any more than there would be between members +of the same family. The moment there is a bargain over the pottage, +the family relation is dissolved;--typically "the days of mourning for +my father are at hand." Whereupon follows the resolve "then will I +slay my brother." + +This inhumanity of mercenary commerce is the more notable because it +is a fulfilment of the law that the corruption of the best is the +worst. For as, taking the body natural for symbol of the body politic, +the governing and forming powers may be likened to the brain and the +labouring to the limbs, the mercantile, presiding over circulation and +communication of things in changed utilities is symbolized by the +heart; which, if it harden, all is lost. And this is the ultimate +lesson which the leader of English intellect meant for us (a lesson, +indeed, not all his own, but part of the old wisdom of humanity), in +the tale of the "Merchant of Venice"; in which the true and incorrupt +merchant,--kind and free, beyond every other Shakespearian conception +of men,--is opposed to the corrupted merchant, or usurer; the lesson +being deepened by the expression of the strange hatred which the +corrupted merchant bears to the pure one, mixed with intense scorn-- + +"This is the fool that lent out money gratis; look to him, jailor," +(as to lunatic no less than criminal); the enmity, observe, having its +symbolism literally carried out by being aimed straight at the heart, +and finally foiled by a literal appeal to the great moral law that +flesh and blood cannot be weighed, enforced by "Portia" ("Portion"), +the type of divine Fortune,[98] found, not in gold, nor in silver, but +in lead, that is to say, in endurance and patience, not in splendour; +and finally taught by her lips also, declaring, instead of the law and +quality of "merces," the greater law and quality of mercy, which is +not strained, but drops as the rain, blessing him that gives and him +that takes. And observe that this "mercy" is not the mean +"Misericordia," but the mighty "Gratia," answered by Gratitude +(observe Shylock's leaning on the, to him detestable, word gratis, and +compare the relation of Grace to Equity given in the second chapter of +the second book of the "Memorabilia"); that is to say, it is the +gracious or loving, instead of the strained, or competing manner, of +doing things, answered, not only with "merces" or pay, but with +"merci," or thanks. And this is indeed the meaning of the great +benediction, "Grace, mercy, and peace," for there can be no peace +without grace (not even by help of rifled cannon),[99] nor even +without triplicity of graciousness, for the Greeks, who began with but +one Grace, had to open their scheme into three before they had done. + + [98] Shakespeare would certainly never have chosen this name had + he been forced to retain the Roman spelling. Like Perdita, + "lost lady," or "Cordelia," "heart-lady," Portia is + "fortune-lady." The two great relative groups of words, + Fortune, fero, and fors--Portio, porto, and pars (with the + lateral branch, op-portune, im-portune, opportunity, etc.), + are of deep and intrinsic significance; their various senses + of bringing, abstracting, and sustaining, being all + centralized by the wheel (which bears and moves at once), or + still better, the ball (spera) of Fortune,--"Volve sua + spera, e beata si gode:" the motive power of this wheel + distinguishing its goddess from the fixed majesty of + Necessitas with her iron nails; or [Greek: anankê], with + her pillar of fire and iridescent orbits, fixed at the + centre. Portus and porta, and gate in its connexion with + gain, form another interesting branch group; and Mors, the + concentration of delaying, is always to be remembered with + Fors, the concentration of bringing and bearing, passing on + into Fortis and Fortitude. + + [99] Out of whose mouths, indeed, no peace was ever promulgated, + but only equipoise of panic, highly tremulous on the edge in + changes in the wind. + +With the usual tendency of long-repeated thought to take the surface +for the deep, we have conceived their goddesses as if they only gave +loveliness to gesture; whereas their true function is to give +graciousness to deed, the other loveliness arising naturally out of +that. In which function Charis becomes Charitas[100] and has a name and +praise even greater than that of Faith or truth, for these may be +maintained sullenly and proudly; but Charis[101] is in her countenance +always gladdening (Aglaia), and in her service instant and humble; and +the true wife of Vulcan, or Labour. And it is not until her sincerity +of function is lost, and her mere beauty contemplated, instead of her +patience, that she is born again of the foam flake, and becomes +Aphrodité; then only capable of joining herself to War and to the +enmities of men, instead of to Labour and their services. Therefore +the fable of Mars and Venus is, chosen by Homer, picturing himself as +Demodocus, to sing at the games in the Court of Alcinous. Phæacia is +the Homeric island of Atlantis; an image of noble and wise government, +concealed, how slightly! merely by the change of a short vowel for a +long one in the name of its queen; yet misunderstood by all later +writers, even by Horace in his "pinguis, Phæaxque," etc. That fable +expresses the perpetual error of men, thinking that grace and dignity +can only be reached by the soldier, and never by the artizan; so that +commerce and the useful arts have had the honour and beauty taken +away, and only the Fraud[102] and Pain left to them, with the lucre. +Which is, indeed, one great reason of the continual blundering about +the offices of government with respect to commerce. The higher classes +are ashamed to deal with it; and though ready enough to fight for (or +occasionally against) the people,--to preach to them,--or judge them, +will not break bread for them; the refined upper servant who has +willingly looked after the burnishing of the armoury and ordering of +the library, not liking to set foot into the larder. + + [100] The reader must not think that any care can be misspent + in tracing the connexion and power of the words which we + have to use in the sequel. Not only does all soundness of + reasoning depend on the work thus done in the outset, but + we may sometimes gain more by insistence on the expression + of a truth, than by much wordless thinking about it; for + to strive to express it clearly is often to detect it + thoroughly; and education, even as regards thought, nearly + sums itself in making men economise their words, and + understand them. Nor is it possible to estimate the harm + that has been done, in matters of higher speculation and + conduct, by loose verbiage, though we may guess at it by + observing the dislike which people show to having anything + about their religion said to them in simple words, because + then they understand it. Thus congregations meet weekly to + invoke the influence of a Spirit of Life and Truth; yet if + any part of that character were intelligibly expressed to + them by the formulas of the service, they would be offended. + Suppose, for instance, in the closing benediction, the + clergyman were to give its vital significance to the word + "Holy," and were to say, "the Fellowship of the Helpful and + Honest Ghost be with you, and remain with you always," what + would be the horror of many, first, at the irreverence of so + intelligible an expression, and, secondly, at the + discomfortable entry of the suspicion that (while throughout + the commercial dealings of the week they had denied the + propriety of Help, and possibility of Honesty) the Person + whose company they had been asking to be blessed with could + have no fellowship with knaves. + + [101] As Charis becomes Charitas [see next page], the word "Cher," + or "Dear," passes from Shylock's sense of it (to buy cheap + and sell dear) into Antonio's sense of it: emphasized with + the final i in tender "Cheri," and hushed to English + calmness in our noble "Cherish." + + [102] While I have traced the finer and higher laws of this matter + for those whom they concern, I have also to note the + material law--vulgarly expressed in the proverb, "Honesty is + the best policy." That proverb is indeed wholly inapplicable + to matters of private interest. It is not true that honesty, + as far as material gain is concerned, profits individuals. A + clever and cruel knave will, in a mixed society, always be + richer than an honest person can be. But Honesty is the best + "policy," if policy means practice of State. For fraud gains + nothing in a State. It only enables the knaves in it to live + at the expense of honest people; while there is for every + act of fraud, however small, a loss of wealth to the + community. Whatever the fraudulent person gains, some other + person loses, as fraud produces nothing; and there is, + besides, the loss of the time and thought spent in + accomplishing the fraud; and of the strength otherwise + obtainable by mutual help (not to speak of the fevers of + anxiety and jealousy in the blood, which are a heavy + physical loss, as I will show in due time). Practically, + when the nation is deeply corrupt, cheat answers to cheat, + every one is in turn imposed upon, and there is to the body + politic the dead loss of ingenuity, together with the + incalculable mischief of the injury to each defrauded + person, producing collateral effect unexpectedly. My + neighbour sells me bad meat: I sell him in return flawed + iron. We neither of us get one atom of pecuniary advantage + on the whole transaction, but we both suffer unexpected + inconvenience;--my men get scurvy, and his cattle-truck runs + off the rails. + +Farther still. As Charis becomes Charitas on the one side, she +becomes--better still--Chara, Joy, on the other; or rather this is her +very mother's milk and the beauty of her childhood; for God brings no +enduring Love, nor any other good, out of pain, nor out of contention; +but out of joy and harmony.[103] And in this sense, human and divine, +music and gladness, and the measures of both, come into her name; and +Cher becomes full-vowelled Cheer, and Cheerful; and Chara, +companioned, opens into Choir and Choral. + + [103] "[Greek: ta men houn alla zôa ouk echein aisthêsin tôn + en tais kinêsesi taxeôn oude ataxiôn, hoi dê rhuthmos + onoma kai harmonia hêmin de ous eipomen tous theous] + [Apollo, the Muses, and Bacchus--the grave Bacchus, that + is---ruling the choir of age; or Bacchus restraining; + 'sæva _tene_, cum Berecyntio cornu, tympana,' etc.] + [Greek: sunchoreutas dedosthai, toutous einai kai tous + dedôkotas tên enruthmon te kai henarmonion aisthêsin + meth' êdonês ... chorous te ônomakenai para tês charas + emphyton unoma.]"--"Laws," book ii. + +And lastly. As Grace passes into Freedom of action, Charis becomes +Eleutheria, or liberality; a form of liberty quite curiously and +intensely different from the thing usually understood by "Liberty" +in modern language; indeed, much more like what some people would +call slavery; for a Greek always understood, primarily, by liberty, +deliverance from the law of his own passions (or from what the +Christian writers call bondage of corruption), and this a complete +liberty: not having to resist the passion, but making it fawn upon, +and follow him--(this may be again partly the meaning of the fawning +beasts about the Circean cave; so, again, George Herbert-- + + Correct thy passion's spite; + Then may the beasts draw thee to happy light)-- + +not being merely safe from the Siren, but also unbound from the mast. +And it is only in such generosity that any man becomes capable of so +governing others as to take true part in any system of national +economy. Nor is there any other eternal distinction between the upper +and lower classes than this form of liberty, Eleutheria, or benignity, +in the one, and its opposite of slavery, Douleia, or malignity, in the +other; the separation of these two orders of men, and the firm +government of the lower by the higher, being the first conditions of +possible wealth and economy in any state,--the Gods giving it no +greater gift than the power to discern its freemen, and "malignum +spernere vulgus." + +The examination of this form of Charis must, therefore, lead us into +the discussion of the principles of government in general, and +especially of that of the poor by the rich, discovering how the +Graciousness joined with the Greatness, or Love with Majestas, is the +true Dei Gratia, or Divine Right, of every form and manner of King; +_i.e._, specifically, of the thrones, dominations, princedoms, +virtues, and powers of the earth;--of the thrones, stable, or +"ruling," literally right-doing powers ("rex eris, recte si facies:") +of the dominations, lordly, edifying, dominant, and harmonious powers; +chiefly domestic, over the "built thing," domus, or house; and +inherently twofold, Dominus and Domina; Lord and Lady: of the +Princedoms, pre-eminent, incipient, creative, and demonstrative +powers; thus poetic and mercantile, in the "princeps carmen deduxisse" +and the merchant-prince: of the Virtues or Courages; militant, +guiding, or Ducal powers; and finally of the Strengths and Forces +pure; magistral powers, of the more over the less, and the forceful +and free over the weak and servile elements of life. + +Subject enough for the next paper involving "economical" principles of +some importance, of which, for theme, here is a sentence, which I do +not care to translate, for it would sound harsh in English, though, +truly, it is one of the tenderest ever uttered by man; which may be +meditated over, or rather through, in the meanwhile, by any one who +will take the pains:-- + + [Greek: Arh oun, hôsper hippos tô anepistêmoni men encheirounti + de chrêsthai zêmia estin, houtô kai adelphos hotan tis autô mê + epistamenos encheirê chrêsthai, zêmia esti?] + + + + +IV. + +LAWS AND GOVERNMENTS: LABOUR AND RICHES. + + +It remains, in order to complete the series of our definitions, that +we examine the general conditions of government, and fix the sense in +which we are to use, in future, the terms applied to them. + +The government of a state consists in its customs, laws, and councils, +and their enforcements. + + +I.--CUSTOMS. + +As one person primarily differs from another by fineness of nature, +and secondarily, by fineness of training, so also, a polite nation +differs from a savage one, first by the refinement of its nature, and +secondly by the delicacy of its customs. + +In the completeness, or accomplishment of custom, which is the +nation's self-government, there are three stages--first, fineness in +method of doing or of being;--called the manner or moral of acts: +secondly, firmness in holding such method after adoption, so that +it shall become a habit in the character: _i.e._, a constant "having" +or "behaving"; and, lastly, practice, or ethical power in performance +and endurance, which is the skill following on habit, and the ease +reached by frequency of right doing. + +The sensibility of the nation is indicated by the fineness of its +customs; its courage, patience, and temperance by its persistence in +them. + +By sensibility I mean its natural perception of beauty, fitness, and +rightness; or of what is lovely, decent, and just: faculties +dependent much on race, and the primal signs of fine breeding in man; +but cultivable also by education, and necessary perishing without it. +True education has, indeed, no other function than the development of +these faculties, and of the relative will. It has been the great error +of modern intelligence to mistake science for education. You do not +educate a man by telling him what he knew not, but by making him what +he was not. + +And making him what he will remain for ever: for no wash of weeds will +bring back the faded purple. And in that dyeing there are two +processes--first, the cleansing and wringing out, which is the baptism +with water; and then the infusing of the blue and scarlet colours, +gentleness and justice, which is the baptism with fire. + +The customs and manners of a sensitive and highly-trained race are +always vital: that is to say, they are orderly manifestations of +intense life (like the habitual action of the fingers of a musician). +The customs and manners of a vile and rude race, on the contrary, +are conditions of decay: they are not, properly speaking, habits, +but incrustations; not restraints, or forms, of life; but +gangrenes;--noisome, and the beginnings of death. And generally, so +far as custom attaches itself to indolence instead of action, and to +prejudice instead of perception, it takes this deadly character, so +that thus + + "Custom hangs upon us with a weight + Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life." + +This power and depth are, however, just what give value to custom, +when it works with life, instead of against it. + +The high ethical training, of a nation being threefold, of body, +heart, and practice (compare the statement in the preface to "Unto +This Last"), involves exquisiteness in all its perceptions of +circumstance,--all its occupations of thought. It implies perfect +Grace, Pitifulness, and Peace; it is irreconcilably inconsistent with +filthy or mechanical employments,--with the desire of money,--and with +mental states of anxiety, jealousy, and indifference to pain. The +present insensibility of the upper classes of Europe to the aspects of +suffering, uncleanness, and crime, binds them not only into one +responsibility with the sin, but into one dishonour with the foulness, +which rot at their thresholds. The crimes daily recorded in the police +courts of London and Paris (and much more those which are unrecorded) +are a disgrace to the whole body politic;[104] they are, as in the +body natural, stains of disease on a face of delicate skin, making the +delicacy itself frightful. Similarly, the filth and poverty permitted +or ignored in the midst of us are as dishonourable to the whole social +body, as in the body natural it is to wash the face, but leave the +hands and feet foul. Christ's way is the only true one: begin at the +feet; the face will take care of itself. Yet, since necessarily, in +the frame of a nation, nothing but the head can be of gold, and the +feet, for the work they have to do, must be part of iron, part of +clay;--foul or mechanical work is always reduced by a noble race to +the minimum in quantity; and, even then, performed and endured, not +without sense of degradation, as a fine temper is wounded by the sight +of the lower offices of the body. The highest conditions of human +society reached hitherto, have cast such work to slaves;--supposing +slavery of a politically defined kind to be done away with, mechanical +and foul employment must in all highly-organized states take the +aspect either of punishment or probation. All criminals should at once +be set to the most dangerous and painful forms of it, especially to +work in mines and at furnaces,[105] so as to relieve the innocent +population as far as possible: of merely rough (not mechanical) manual +labour, especially agricultural, a large portion should be done by the +upper classes;--bodily health, and sufficient contrast and repose for +the mental functions, being unattainable without it; what necessarily +inferior labour remains to be done, as especially in manufactures, +should, and always will, when the relations of society are reverent +and harmonious, fall to the lot of those who, for the time, are fit +for nothing better. For as, whatever the perfectness of the +educational system, there must remain infinite differences between the +natures and capacities of men; and these differing natures are +generally rangeable under the two qualities of lordly (or tending +towards rule, construction, and harmony) and servile (or tending +towards misrule, destruction, and discord); and, since the lordly part +is only in a state of profitableness while ruling, and the servile +only in a state of redeemableness while serving, the whole health of +the state depends on the manifest separation of these two elements of +its mind: for, if the servile part be not separated and rendered +visible in service, it mixes with and corrupts the entire body of the +state; and if the lordly part be not distinguished, and set to rule, +it is crushed and lost, being turned to no account, so that the rarest +qualities of the nation are all given to it in vain.[106] The +effecting of which distinction is the first object, as we shall see +presently, of national councils. + + [104] "The ordinary brute, who flourishes in the very centre + of ornate life, tells us of unknown depths on the verge of + which we totter, being bound to thank our stars every day we + live that there is not a general outbreak and a revolt from + the yoke of civilization."--_Times_ leader, Dec. 25th, 1862. + Admitting that our stars are to be thanked for our safety, + whom are we to thank for the danger? + + [105] Our politicians, even the best of them, regard only the + distress caused by the failure of mechanical labour. The + degradation caused by its excess is a far more serious + subject of thought, and of future fear. I shall examine this + part of our subject at length hereafter. There can hardly be + any doubt, at present, cast on the truth of the above + passages, as all the great thinkers are unanimous on the + matter. Plato's words are terrific in their scorn and pity + whenever he touches on the mechanical arts. He calls the men + employed in them not even human,--but partially and + diminutively human, "[Greek: anthrôpiskoi]," and opposes + such work to noble occupations, not merely as prison is + opposed to freedom, but as a convict's dishonoured prison is + to the temple (escape from them being like that of a + criminal to the sanctuary), and the destruction caused by + them being of soul no less than body.--Rep., vi. 9. Compare + "Laws," v. 11. Xenophon dwells on the evil of occupations at + the furnace (root of [Greek: banausos]), and especially their + "[Greek: ascholia], want of leisure"--Econ. i. 4. (Modern + England, with all its pride of education, has lost that + first sense of the word "school," and till it recover that + it will find no other rightly.) His word for the harm to the + soul is to "break" it, as we say of the heart.--Econ. i. 6. + And herein also is the root of the scorn, otherwise + apparently most strange and cruel, with which Homer, Dante, + and Shakespeare always speak of the populace; for it is + entirely true that in great states the lower orders are low + by nature as well as by task, being precisely that part of + the commonwealth which has been thrust down for its + coarseness or unworthiness (by coarseness I mean especially + insensibility and irreverence; the "profane" of Horace); and + when this ceases to be so, and the corruption and the + profanity are in the higher instead of the lower orders, + there arises, first, helpless confusion; then, if the lower + classes deserve power, ensues swift revolution, and they get + it: but if neither the populace nor their rulers deserve it, + there follows mere darkness and dissolution, till, out of + the putrid elements, some new capacity of order rises, like + grass on a grave; if not, there is no more hope, nor shadow + of turning, for that nation. Atropos has her way with it. + + So that the law of national health is like that of a great + lake or sea, in perfect but slow circulation, letting the + dregs fall continually to the lowest place, and the clear + water rise; yet so as that there shall be no neglect of the + lower orders, but perfect supervision and sympathy, so that + if one member suffer, all members shall suffer with it. + + [106] "[Greek: oligês, kai allôs gignomenês.]" The bitter + sentence never was so true as at this day. + + +II.--LAWS. + +These are the definitions and bonds of custom, or, of what the nation +desires should become custom. + +Law is either archic[107] (of direction), meristic (of division), or +critic (of judgment). Archic law is that of appointment and precept: +it defines what is and is not to be done. Meristic law is that of +balance and distribution: it defines what is and is not to be +possessed. Critic law is that of discernment and award: it defines +what is and is not to be suffered. + + [107] Thetic, or Thesmic, would perhaps be a better term than + Archic; but liable to be confused with some which we shall + want relating to Theoria. The administrators of the three + great divisions of law are severally Archons, Merists, and + Dicasts. The Archons are the true princes, or beginners of + things; or leaders (as of an orchestra); the Merists are + properly the Domini, or Lords (law-words) of houses and + nations; the Dicasts properly the judges, and that with + Olympian justice, which reaches to heaven and hell. The + violation of archic law is [Greek: hamartia] (error) + [Greek: ponêria] (failure), [Greek: plêmmeleia] (discord). + The violation of meristic law is [Greek: anomia] (iniquity). + The violation of critic law is [Greek: adikia] (injury). + Iniquity is central generic term; for all law is _fatal_; it + is the division to men of their fate; as the fold of their + pasture, it is [Greek: nomos]; as the assigning of their + portion, [Greek: moira]. + +If we choose to class the laws of precept and distribution under the +general head of "statutes," all law is simply either of statute or +judgment; that is, first, the establishment of ordinance, and, +secondly, the assignment of the reward or penalty due to its +observance or violation. + +To some extent these two forms of law must be associated, and, with +every ordinance, the penalty of disobedience to it be also determined. +But since the degrees and guilt of disobedience vary, the +determination of due reward and punishment must be modified by +discernment of special fact, which is peculiarly the office of the +judge, as distinguished from that of the lawgiver and lawsustainer, or +king; not but that the two offices are always theoretically and, in +early stages, or limited numbers, of society, are often practically, +united in the same person or persons. + +Also, it is necessary to keep clearly in view the distinction between +these two kinds of law, because the possible range of law is wider in +proportion to their separation. There are many points of conduct +respecting which the nation may wisely express its will by a written +precept or resolve; yet not enforce it by penalty; and the expedient +degree of penalty is always quite a separate consideration from the +expedience of the statute, for the statute may often be better +enforced by mercy than severity, and is also easier in bearing, and +less likely to be abrogated. Farther, laws of precept have reference +especially to youth, and concern themselves with training; but laws of +judgment to manhood, and concern themselves with remedy and reward. +There is a highly curious feeling in the English mind against +educational law; we think no man's liberty should be interfered with +till he has done irrevocable wrong; whereas it is then just too late +for the only gracious and kingly interference, which is to hinder him +from doing it. Make your educational laws strict, and your criminal +ones may be gentle; but, leave youth its liberty, and you will have to +dig dungeons for age. And it is good for a man that he wear the yoke +in his youth; for the yoke of youth, if you know how to hold it, may +be of silken thread; and there is sweet chime of silver bells at that +bridle rein; but, for the captivity of age, you must forge the iron +fetter, and cast the passing bell. + +Since no law can be in a final or true sense established, but by right +(all unjust laws involving the ultimate necessity of their own +abrogation), the law-sustaining power in so far as it is Royal, or +"right doing";--in so far, that is, as it rules, not mis-rules, and +orders, not dis-orders, the things submitted to it. Throned on this +rock of justice, the kingly power becomes established and +establishing, "[Greek: theios]," or divine, and, therefore, it is +literally true that no ruler can err, so long as he is a ruler, or +[Greek: archôn oudeis hamartanei tote hotan archôn ê] (perverted by +careless thought, which has cost the world somewhat, into "the king +can do no wrong"). Which is a divine right of kings indeed, and quite +unassailable, so long as the terms of it are "God and my Right," and +not "Satan and my Wrong," which is apt, in some coinages, to appear on +the reverse of the die, under a good lens. + +Meristic law, or that of tenure of property, first determines what +every individual possesses by right, and secures it to him; and what +he possesses by wrong, and deprives him of it. But it has a far higher +provisory function: it determines what every man should possess, and +puts it within his reach on due conditions; and what he should not +possess, and puts this out of his reach conclusively. + +Every article of human wealth has certain conditions attached to its +merited possession, which, when they are unobserved, possession +becomes rapine. The object of meristic law is not only to secure every +man his rightful share (the share, that is, which he has worked for, +produced, or received by gift from a rightful owner), but to enforce +the due conditions of possession, as far as law may conveniently +reach; for instance, that land shall not be wantonly allowed to run to +waste, that streams shall not be poisoned by the persons through whose +properties they pass, nor air be rendered unwholesome beyond given +limits. Laws of this kind exist already in rudimentary degree, but +needing large development; the just laws respecting the possession of +works of art have not hitherto been so much as conceived, and the +daily loss of national wealth, and of its use, in this respect, is +quite incalculable.[108] While, finally, in certain conditions of a +nation's progress, laws limiting accumulation of property may be found +expedient. + + [108] These laws need revision quite as much respecting property + in national as in private hands. For instance: the public + are under a vague impression, that because they have paid + for the contents of the British Museum, every one has an + equal right to see and to handle them. But the public have + similarly paid for the contents of Woolwich Arsenal; yet do + not expect free access to it, or handling of its contents. + The British Museum is neither a free circulating library, + nor a free school; it is a place for the safe preservation, + and exhibition on due occasion, of unique books, unique + objects of natural history, and unique works of art; its + books can no more be used by everybody than its coins can be + handled, or its statues cast. Free libraries there ought to + be in every quarter of London, with large and complete + reading-rooms attached; so also free educational + institutions should be open in every quarter of London, all + day long and till late at night, well lighted, well + catalogued, and rich in contents both of art and natural + history. But neither the British Museum nor National Gallery + are schools; they are treasuries; and both should be + severely restricted in access and in use. Unless some order + is taken, and that soon, in the MSS. department of the + Museum (Sir Frederic Madden was complaining of this to me + only the other day), the best MSS. in the collection will be + destroyed, irretrievably, by the careless and continual + handling to which they are now subjected. + +Critic law determines questions of injury, and assigns due rewards and +punishments to conduct.[109] + + [109] Two curious economical questions arise laterally with + respect to this branch of law, namely, the cost of crime and + the cost of judgment. The cost of crime is endured by + nations ignorantly, not being clearly stated in their + budgets; the cost of judgment patiently (provided only it + can be had pure for the money), because the science, or + perhaps we ought rather to say the art, of law, is felt to + found a noble profession, and discipline; so that civilized + nations are usually glad that a number of persons should be + supported by funds devoted to disputation and analysis. But + it has not yet been calculated what the practical value + might have been, in other directions, of the intelligence + now occupied in deciding, through courses of years, what + might have been decided as justly, had the date of judgment + been fixed, in as many hours. Imagine one half of the funds + which any great nation devotes to dispute by law, applied to + the determination of physical questions in medicine, + agriculture, and theoretic science; and calculate the + probable results within the next ten years. + + I say nothing yet, of the more deadly, more lamentable loss, + involved in the use of purchased instead of personal + justice,--[Greek: epaktô par' allôn--aporia' oikeiôn]. + +Therefore, in order to true analysis of it, we must understand the +real meaning of this word "injury." + +We commonly understand by it any kind of harm done by one man to +another; but we do not define the idea of harm; sometimes we limit it +to the harm which the sufferer is conscious of, whereas much the worst +injuries are those he is unconscious of; and, at other times, we limit +the idea to violence, or restraint, whereas much the worse forms of +injury are to be accomplished by carelessness, and the withdrawal of +restraint. + +"Injury" is, then, simply the refusal, or violation of any man's right +or claim upon his fellows: which claim, much talked of in modern +times, under the term "right," is mainly resolvable into two branches: +a man's claim not to be hindered from doing what he should; and his +claim to be hindered from doing what he should not; these two forms of +hindrance being intensified by reward, or help and fortune, or Fors on +one side, and punishment, impediment, and even final arrest, or Mors, +on the other. + +Now, in order to a man's obtaining these two rights, it is clearly +needful that the worth of him should be approximately known; as well +as the want of worth, which has, unhappily, been usually the principal +subject of study for critic law, careful hitherto only to mark degrees +of de-merit, instead of merit;--assigning, indeed, to the deficiencies +(not always, alas! even to these) just fine, diminution, or (with the +broad vowels) damnation; but to the efficiencies, on the other side, +which are by much the more interesting, as well as the only profitable +part of its subject, assigning in any clear way neither measurement +nor aid. + +Now, it is in this higher and perfect function of critic law, enabling +as well as disabling, that it becomes truly kingly or basilican, +instead of Draconic (what Providence gave the great, old, wrathful +legislator his name?); that is, it becomes the law of man and of life, +instead of the law of the worm and of death--both of these laws being +set in everlasting poise one against another, and the enforcement of +both being the eternal function of the lawgiver, and true claim of +every living soul: such claim being indeed as straight and earnest to +be mercifully hindered, and even, if need be, abolished, when longer +existence means only deeper destruction, as to be mercifully helped +and recreated when longer existence and new creation mean nobler life. +So that what we vulgarly term reward and punishment will be found to +resolve themselves mainly into help and hindrance, and these again +will issue naturally from true recognition of deserving, and the just +reverence and just wrath which follow instinctively on such +recognition. + +I say "follow," but in reality they are the recognition. Reverence is +but the perceiving of the thing in its entire truth: truth reverted is +truth revered (vereor and veritas having clearly the same root), so +that Goethe is for once, and for a wonder, wrong in that part of the +noble scheme of education in "Wilhelm Meister," in which he says that +reverence is not innate, and must be taught. Reverence is as +instinctive as anger;--both of them instant on true vision: it is +sight and understanding that we have to teach, and these are +reverence. Make a man perceive worth, and in its reflection he sees +his own relative unworth, and worships thereupon inevitably, not with +stiff courtesy, but rejoicingly, passionately, and, best of all, +restfully: for the inner capacity of awe and love is infinite in man; +and when his eyes are once opened to the sight of beauty and honour, +it is with him as with a lover, who, falling at his mistress's feet, +would cast himself through the earth, if it might be, to fall lower, +and find a deeper and humbler place. And the common insolences and +petulances of the people, and their talk of equality, are not +irreverence in them in the least, but mere blindness, stupefaction, +and fog in the brains,[110] which pass away in the degree that they +are raised and purified: the first sign of which raising is, that they +gain some power of discerning, and some patience in submitting to +their true counsellors and governors; the modes of such discernment +forming the real "constitution" of the state, and not the titles or +offices of the discerned person; for it is no matter, save in degree +of mischief, to what office a man is appointed, if he cannot fulfil +it. And this brings us to the third division of our subject. + + [110] Compare Chaucer's "villany" (clownishness). + + "Full foul and chorlishe seemed she, + And eke villanous for to be, + And little coulde of norture + To worship any creature." + + +III.--GOVERNMENT BY COUNCIL. + +This is the determination, by living authority, of the national +conduct to be observed under existing circumstances; and the +modification or enlargement, abrogation or enforcement, of the code of +national law according to present needs or purposes. This government +is necessarily always by Council, for though the authority of it may +be vested in one person, that person cannot form any opinion on a +matter of public interest but by (voluntarily or involuntarily) +submitting himself to the influence of others. + +This government is always twofold--visible and invisible. + +The visible government is that which nominally carries on the national +business; determines its foreign relations, raises taxes, levies +soldiers, fights battles, or directs that they be fought, and +otherwise becomes the exponent of the national fortune. The invisible +government is that exercised by all energetic and intelligent men, +each in his sphere, regulating the inner will and secret ways of the +people, essentially forming its character, and preparing its fate. +Visible governments are the toys of some nations, the diseases of +others, the harness of some, the burdens of the more, the necessity of +all. Sometimes their career is quite distinct from that of the people, +and to write it, as the national history, is as if one should number +the accidents which befall a man's weapons and wardrobe, and call the +list his biography. Nevertheless a truly noble and wise nation +necessarily has a noble and wise visible government, for its wisdom +issues in that conclusively. "Not out of the oak, nor out of the rock, +but out of the temper of man, is his polity:" where the temper +inclines, it inclines as Samson by his pillar, and draws all down with +it. + +Visible governments are, in their agencies, capable of three pure +forms, and of no more than three. + +They are either monarchies, where the authority is vested in one +person; oligarchies, when it is vested in a minority; or democracies, +when vested in a majority. + +But these three forms are not only, in practice, variously limited and +combined, but capable of infinite difference in character and use, +receiving specific names according to their variations; which names, +being nowise agreed upon, nor consistently used, either in thought or +writing, no man can at present tell, in speaking of any kind of +government, whether he is understood, nor in hearing whether he +understands. Thus we usually call a just government by one person a +monarchy, and an unjust or cruel one, a tyranny; this might be +reasonable if it had reference to the divinity of true government; but +to limit the term "oligarchy" to government by a few rich people, and +to call government by a few wise or noble people "aristocracies," is +evidently absurd, unless it were proved that rich people never could +be wise, or noble people rich; and farther absurd because there are +other distinctions in character, as well as riches or wisdom (greater +purity of race, or strength of purpose, for instance), which may give +the power of government to the few. So that if we had to give names to +every group or kind of minority, we should have verbiage enough. But +there is one right name--"oligarchy." + +So also the terms "republic" and "democracy" are confused, especially +in modern use; and both of them are liable to every sort of +misconception. A republic means, properly, a polity in which the +state, with its all, is at every man's service, and every man, with +his all, at the state's service (people are apt to lose sight of the +last condition); but its government may nevertheless be oligarchic +(consular, or decemviral, for instance), or monarchic (dictatorial). +But a democracy means a state in which the government rests directly +with the majority of the citizens. And both these conditions have been +judged only by such accidents and aspects of them as each of us has +had experience of; and sometimes both have been confused with anarchy, +as it is the fashion at present to talk of the "failure of republican +institutions in America," when there has never yet been in America any +such thing as an institution; neither any such thing as a res-publica, +but only a multitudinous res-privata; every man for himself. It is not +republicanism which fails now in America; it is your model science of +political economy, brought to its perfect practice. There you may see +competition, and the "law of demand and supply" (especially in paper), +in beautiful and unhindered operation.[111] Lust of wealth, and trust +in it; vulgar faith in magnitude and multitude, instead of nobleness; +besides that faith natural to backwoodsmen,--"lucum ligna,"--perpetual +self-contemplation, issuing in passionate vanity: total ignorance of +the finer and higher arts, and of all that they teach and bestow;[112] +and the discontent of energetic minds unoccupied, frantic with hope of +uncomprehended change, and progress they know not whither;[113] these +are the things that they have "failed" with in America; and yet not +altogether failed--it is not collapse, but collision; the greatest +railroad accident on record, with fire caught from the furnace, and +Catiline's quenching "non aquá, sed ruinâ." But I see not, in any of +our talk of them, justice enough done to their erratic strength of +purpose, nor any estimate taken of the strength of endurance of +domestic sorrow in what their women and children suppose a righteous +cause. And out of that endurance and suffering, its own fruit will be +born with time; and Carlyle's prophecy of them (June, 1850), as it has +now come true in the first clause, will in the last. + + America too will find that caucuses, division-lists, + stump-oratory and speeches to Buncombe will _not_ carry men + to the immortal gods; that the Washington Congress, and + constitutional battle of Kilkenny cats is, there as here, + naught for such objects; quite incompetent for such; and, in + fine, that said sublime constitutional arrangement will + require to be (with terrible throes, and travail such as few + expect yet) remodelled, abridged, extended, suppressed; torn + asunder, put together again;--not without heroic labour, and + effort quite other than that of the Stump-Orator and the + Revival Preacher, one day! + + [111] "Supply-and-demand,--alas! For what noble work was there + ever any audible 'demand' in that poor sense?" ("Past and + Present"). Nay, the demand is not loud even for ignoble + work. See "Average earnings of Betty Taylor," in _Times_, of + 4th February, of this year [1863]: "Worked from Monday + morning at 8 a.m., to Friday night at 5.30 p.m., for 1_s._ + 5-1/2_d._"--Laissez faire. + + [112] See Bacon's note in the "Advancement of Learning," on + "didicisse fideliter artes" (but indeed the accent had need + be upon "fideliter"). "It taketh away vain admiration of + anything, which is the root of all weakness: for all things + are admired either because they are new, or because they are + great," etc. + + [113] Ames, by report of Waldo Emerson, expressed the popular + security wisely, saying, "that a monarchy is a merchantman, + which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and + go to the bottom; whilst a republic is a raft, which would + never sink, but then your feet are always in the water." + Yes, and when the four winds (your only pilots) steer + competitively from the four corners, [Greek: hôs d' hot' + opôrinos Boreês phoreêsin akanthas], perhaps the wiser + mariner may wish for keel and wheel again. + +Understand, then, once for all, that no form of government, provided +it be a government at all, is, as such, either to be condemned or +praised, or contested for in anywise but by fools. But all forms of +government are good just so far as they attain this one vital +necessity of policy--that the wise and kind, few or many, shall govern +the unwise and unkind; and they are evil so far as they miss of this +or reverse it. Nor does the form in any case signify one whit, but its +firmness and adaptation to the need; for if there be many foolish +persons in a state, and few wise, then it is good that the few govern; +and if there be many wise and few foolish, then it is good that many +govern; and if many be wise, yet one wiser, then it is good that one +should govern; and so on. Thus, we may have "the ants' republic, and +the realm of bees," both good in their kind; one for groping, and the +other for building; and nobler still, for flying, the Ducal monarchy +of those + + "Intelligent of seasons, that set forth + The aery caravan, high over seas." + +Nor need we want examples, among the inferior creatures, of +dissoluteness, as well as resoluteness in, government. I once saw +democracy finely illustrated by the beetles of North Switzerland, who, +by universal suffrage, and elytric acclamation, one May twilight, +carried it that they would fly over the Lake of Zug; and flew short, +to the great disfigurement of the Lake of Zug--[Greek: Kantharou +limên]--over some leagues square, and to the close of the Cockchafer +democracy for that year. The old fable of the frogs and the stork +finely touches one form of tyranny; but truth will touch it more +nearly than fable, for tyranny is not complete when it is only over +the idle, but when it is over the laborious and the blind. This +description of pelicans and climbing perch which I find quoted in one +of our popular natural histories, out of Sir Emerson Tennent's +"Ceylon," comes as near as may be to the true image of the thing:-- + + Heavy rains came on, and as we stood on the high ground, we + observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging + himself; our people went towards him, and raised a cry of + "Fish! fish!" We hurried down, and found numbers of fish + struggling upward through the grass, in the rills formed by + the trickling of the rain. There was scarcely water to cover + them, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up the bank, + on which our followers collected about two baskets of them. + They were forcing their way up the knoll, and had they not + been interrupted, first by the pelican, and afterwards by + ourselves, they would in a few minutes have gained the + highest point, and descended on the other side into a pool + which formed another portion of the tank. In going this + distance, however, they must have used muscular exertion + enough to have taken them half a mile on level ground; for + at these places all the cattle and wild animals of the + neighbourhood had latterly come to drink, so that the + surface was everywhere indented with footmarks, in addition + to the cracks in the surrounding baked mud, into which the + fish tumbled in their progress. In those holes which were + deep, and the sides perpendicular, they remained to die, and + were carried off by kites and crows. + +But whether governments be bad or good, one general disadvantage seems +to attach to them in modern times--that they are all costly. This, +however, is not essentially the fault of the governments. If nations +choose to play at war, they will always find their governments willing +to lead the game, and soon coming under that term of Aristophanes, +"[Greek: kapêloi aspidôn]," shield-sellers. And when ([Greek: pêm' +epipêmati]) the shields take the form of iron ships, with apparatus +"for defence against liquid fire"--as I see by latest accounts they +are now arranging the decks in English dockyards,--they become costly +biers enough for the grey convoy of chief-mourner waves, wreathed with +funereal foam, to bear back the dead upon; the massy shoulders of +those corpse-bearers being intended for quite other work, and to bear +the living, if we would let them. + +Nor have we the least right to complain of our governments being +expensive so long as we set the government to do precisely the work +which brings no return. If our present doctrines of political economy +be just, let us trust them to the utmost; take that war business out +of the government's hands, and test therein the principles of supply +and demand. Let our future sieges of Sebastopol be done by +contract--no capture, no pay--(I am prepared to admit that things +might go better so); and let us sell the commands of our prospective +battles, with our vicarages, to the lowest bidder; so may we have +cheap victories and divinity. On the other hand, if we have so much +suspicion of our science that we dare not trust it on military or +spiritual business, it would be but reasonable to try whether some +authoritative handling may not prosper in matters utilitarian. If we +were to set our governments to do useful things instead of +mischievous, possibly even the apparatus might in time come to be less +costly! The machine, applied to the building of the house, might +perhaps pay, when it seems not to pay, applied to pulling it down. If +we made in our dockyards ships to carry timber and coals, instead of +cannon, and with provision for brightening of domestic solid culinary +fire, instead of for the averting of hostile liquid fire, it might +have some effect on the taxes? Or if the iron bottoms were to bring us +home nothing better than ivory and peacocks, instead of martial glory, +we might at least have gayer suppers, and doors of the right material +for dreams after them. Or suppose that we tried the experiment on land +instead of water carriage; already the government, not unapproved, +carries letters and parcels for us; larger packages may in time +follow:--parcels;--even general merchandise? Why not, at last, +ourselves? Had the money spent in local mistakes and vain private +litigation, on the railroads of England, been laid out, instead, under +proper government restraint, on really useful railroad work, and had +no absurd expense been incurred in ornamenting stations, we might +already have had,--what ultimately will be found we must +have,--quadruple rails, two for passengers, and two for traffic, on +every great line; and we might have been carried in swift safety, and +watched and warded by well-paid pointsmen, for half the present fares. +"[Greek: hô Dêmidion, horas ta lagô' ha soi pherô]?" Suppose it should +turn out, finally, that a true government set to true work, instead of +being a costly engine, was a paying one? that your government, rightly +organized, instead of itself subsisting by an income tax, would +produce its subjects some subsistence in the shape of an income +dividend!--police and judges duly paid besides, only with less work +than the state at present provides for them. + +A true government set to true work!--Not easily imagined, still less +obtained, but not beyond human hope or ingenuity. Only you will have +to alter your election systems somewhat, first. Not by universal +suffrage, nor by votes purchasable with beer, is such government to be +had. That is to say, not by universal equal suffrage. Every man +upwards of twenty, who had been convicted of no legal crime, should +have his say in this matter; but afterwards a louder voice, as he +grows older, and approves himself wiser. If he has one vote at twenty, +he should have two at thirty, four at forty, and ten at fifty. For +every one vote which he has with an income of a hundred a year, he +should have ten with an income of a thousand (provided you first see +to it that wealth is, as nature intended it to be, the reward of +sagacity and industry,--not of good luck in a scramble or a lottery.) +For every one vote which he had as subordinate in any business, he +should have two when he became a master; and every office and +authority nationally bestowed, inferring trustworthiness and +intellect, should have its known proportional number of votes attached +to it. But into the detail and working of a true system in these +matters we cannot now enter; we are concerned as yet with definitions +only, and statements of first principles, which will be established +now sufficiently for our purposes when we have examined the nature of +that form of government last on the list in the previous paper,--the +purely "Magistral," exciting at present its full share of public +notice, under its ambiguous title of "slavery." + +I have not, however, been able to ascertain in definite terms, from +the declaimers against slavery, what they understand by it. If they +mean only the imprisonment or compulsion being in many cases highly +expedient, slavery, so defined, would be no evil in itself, but only +in its abuse; that is, when men are slaves, who should not be, or +masters, who should not be, or under conditions which should not be. +It is not, for instance, a necessary condition of slavery, nor a +desirable one, that parents should be separated from children, or +husbands from wives; but the institution of war, against which people +declaim with less violence, effects such separations--not unfrequently +in a higher permanent manner. To press a sailor, seize a white youth +by conscription for a soldier, or carry off a black one for a +labourer, may all be right, or all wrong, according to needs and +circumstances. It is wrong to scourge a man unnecessarily. So it is to +shoot him. Both must be done on occasion; and it is better and kinder +to flog a man to his work, than to leave him idle till he robs, and +flog him afterwards. The essential thing for all creatures is to be +made to do right; how they are made to do it--by pleasant promises, or +hard necessities, pathetic oratory, or the whip, is comparatively +immaterial. To be deceived is perhaps as incompatible with human +dignity as to be whipped, and I suspect the last instrument to be not +the worst, for the help of many individuals. The Jewish nation throve +under it, in the hand of a monarch reputed not unwise; it is only the +change of whip for scorpion which is expedient, and yet that change is +as likely to come to pass on the side of licence as of law; for the +true scorpion whips are those of the nation's pleasant vices, which +are to it as St. John's locusts--crown on the head, ravin in the +mouth, and sting in the tail. If it will not bear the rule of Athena +and her brother, who shepherd without smiting ([Greek: ou plêgê +nemontes]), Athena at last calls no more in the corners of the +streets; and then follows the rule of Tisiphone, who smites without +shepherding. + +If, however, slavery, instead of absolute compulsion, is meant the +purchase, by money, of the right of compulsion, such purchase is +necessarily made whenever a portion of any territory is transferred, +for money, from one monarch to another: which has happened frequently +enough in history, without its being supposed that the inhabitants of +the districts so transferred became their slaves. In this, as in the +former case, the dispute seems about the fashion of the thing rather +than the fact of it. There are two rocks in mid-sea, on each of which, +neglected equally by instructive and commercial powers, a handful of +inhabitants live as they may. Two merchants bid for the two +properties, but not in the same terms. One bids for the people, buys +them, and sets them to work, under pain of scourge; the other bids for +the rock, buys it, and throws the inhabitants into the sea. The former +is the American, the latter the English method, of slavery; much is to +be said for, and something against, both, which I hope to say in due +time and place. + +If, however, slavery mean not merely the purchase of the right of +compulsion, but the purchase of the body and soul of the creature +itself for money, it is not, I think, among the black races that +purchases of this kind are most extensively made, or that separate +souls of a fine make fetch the highest price. This branch of the +inquiry we shall have occasion also to follow out at some length; for +in the worst instance of the "[Greek: Biôn prasis]" we are apt to get +only Pyrrhon's answer--[Greek: ti phês?--epriamên se? Adêlon]. + +The fact is that slavery is not a political institution at all, but an +inherent, natural, and eternal inheritance of a large portion of the +human race--to whom the more you give of their own will, the more +slaves they will make themselves. In common parlance, we idly confuse +captivity with slavery, and are always thinking of the difference +between pine-trunks and cowslip bells, or between carrying wood and +clothes-stealing, instead of noting the far more serious differences +between Ariel and Caliban, and the means by which practically that +difference may be brought about.[114] + + [114] The passage of Plato, referred to in note p. 280, in its + context, respecting the slave who, well dressed and washed, + aspires to the hand of his master's daughter, corresponds + curiously to the attack of Caliban on Prospero's cell, and + there is an undercurrent of meaning throughout, in the + "Tempest" as well as in the "Merchant of Venice"; referring + in this case to government, as in that to commerce. Miranda + ("the wonderful," so addressed first by Ferdinand, "Oh, you + wonder!") corresponds to Homer's Arete: Ariel and Caliban + are respectively the spirits of freedom and mechanical + labour. Prospero ("for hope"), a true governor, opposed to + Sycorax, the mother of slavery, her name, "Swine-raven," + indicating at once brutality and deathfulness; hence the + line--"As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed, with raven's + feather,"--etc. For all dreams of Shakespeare, as those of + true and strong men must be, are "[Greek: phantasmata theia, + kai skiai tôn ontôn]," phantasms of God, and shadows of + things that are. We hardly tell our children, willingly, a + fable with no purport in it; yet we think God sends His best + messengers only to say fairy tales to us, all fondness and + emptiness. The "Tempest" is just like a grotesque in a rich + missal, "clasped where paynims pray." Ariel is the spirit of + true liberty, in early stages of human society oppressed by + ignorance and wild tyranny; venting groans as fast as + mill-wheels strike; in shipwreck of states, fearful; so that + "all but mariners plunge in the brine, and quit the vessel, + then all afire with me," yet having in itself the will and + sweetness of truest peace, whence that is especially called + "Ariel's" song, "Come unto these yellow sands"--(fenceless, + and countless--changing with the sweep of the sea--"vaga + arena." Compare Horace's opposition of the sea-sand to the + dust of the grave: "numero carentis"--"exigui;" and again + compare "animo rotundum percurrisse" with "put a girdle + round the earth")--"and then take hands: court'sied when you + have, and kiss'd,--the wild waves whist:" (mind it is + "courtesia," not "curtsey") and read "quiet" for "whist" if + you want the full sense. Then may you indeed foot it featly, + and sweet spirits bear the burden for you--with watch in the + night, and call in early morning. The power of liberty in + elemental transformation follows--"Full fathom five thy + father lies, of his bones are coral made." Then, giving rest + after labour, it "fetches dew from the still-vex'd + Bermoothes, and, with a charm joined to their suffered + labour, leaves men asleep." Snatching away the feast of the + cruel, it seems to them as a harpy, followed by the utterly + vile, who cannot see it in any shape, but to whom it is the + picture of nobody, it still gives shrill harmony to their + false and mocking catch, "Thought is free," but leads them + into briars and foul places, and at last hollas the hounds + upon them. Minister of fate against the great criminal, it + joins itself with the "incensed seas and shores"--the sword + that layeth at it cannot hold, and may, "with bemocked-at + stabs as soon kill the still-closing waters, as diminish one + dowle that's in my plume." As the guide and aid of true + love, it is always called by Prospero "fine" (the French + "fine"--not the English), or "delicate"--another long note + would be needed to explain all the meaning in this word. + Lastly, its work done, and war, it resolves itself to the + elements. The intense significance of the last song, "Where + the bee sucks," I will examine in its due place. The types + of slavery in Caliban are more palpable, and need not be + dwelt on now: though I will notice them also, severally, in + their proper places;--the heart of his slavery is in his + worship: "That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor." + But, in illustration of the sense in which the Latin + "benignus" and "malignus," are to be coupled with Eleutheria + and Douleia, not that Caliban's torment is always the + physical reflection of his own nature--"cramps" and + "side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up"--"thou shalt be + pinched as thick as honeycomb:" the whole nature of slavery + being one cramp and cretinous contraction. Fancy this of + Ariel! You may fetter him, but yet set no mark on him; you + may put him to hard work and far journey, but you cannot + give him a cramp. + + Of Shakespeare's names I will afterwards speak at more + length: they are curiously--often barbarously--mixed out of + various traditions and languages. Three of the clearest in + meaning have been already noticed. Desdemona, "[Greek: + dysdaimonia]," "miserable fortune," is also plain enough. + Othello is, I believe, "the careful"; all the calamity of + the tragedy arising from the single flaw and error in his + magnificently collected strength. Ophelia, + "serviceableness," the true lost wife of Hamlet, is marked + as having a Greek name by that last word of her, where her + gentle preciousness is opposed to the uselessness of the + churlish clergy--"A ministering angel shall my sister be + when thou liest howling." Hamlet is, I believe, connected in + some way with "homely," the entire event of the tragedy + turning on betrayal of home duty. Hermione ([Greek: herma]), + "pillar-like" ([Greek: hê eidos eche chrysês Aphroditês]). + Titania ([Greek: titênê]), "the queen;" Benedict and + Beatrice, "blessed and blessing;" Valentine and Proteus, + enduring (or strong) (valens) and changeful. Iago and + Iachimo have evidently the same root--probably the Spanish + Iago, Jacob, "the supplanter." Leonatus, and other such + names are interpreted, or played with, in the plays + themselves. For the interpretation of Sycorax, and reference + to her raven's feather, I am indebted to Mr. John R. Wise. + +I should dwell, even in these prefatory papers, at somewhat more +length on this matter, had not all I would say, been said (already in +vain) by Carlyle, in the first of the "Latter-Day Pamphlets," which I +commend to the reader's gravest reading: together with that as much +neglected, and still more immediately needed, on model prisons, and +with the great chapter on "Permanence" (fifth of the last section of +"Past and Present"), which sums, what is known, and foreshadows,--or +rather fore-lights, all that is to be learned, of National Discipline. +I have only here farther to examine the nature of one world-wide and +everlasting form of slavery, wholesome in use, deadly in abuse--the +service of the rich by the poor. + +As in all previous discussions of our subject, we must study this +relation in its simplest elements in order to reach its first +principles. The simplest state of it is, then, this:[115] a wise and +provident person works much, consumes little, and lays by store; an +improvident person works little, consumes all the produce, and lays by +no store. Accident interrupts the daily work, or renders it less +productive; the idle person must then starve, or be supported by the +provident one,--who, having him thus at his mercy, may either refuse +to maintain him altogether, or, which will evidently be more to his +own interest, say to him, "I will maintain you, indeed, but you shall +now work hard, instead of indolently, and instead of being allowed to +lay by what you save, as you might have done, had you remained +independent, I will take all the surplus. You would not lay it up +yourself; it is wholly your own fault that has thrown you into my +power, and I will force you to work, or starve; yet you shall have no +profit, only your daily bread." This mode of treatment has now become +so universal that it is supposed the only natural--nay, the only +possible one; and the market wages are calmly defined by economists as +"the sum which will maintain the labourer." + + [115] In the present general examination I concede so much to + ordinary economists as to ignore all innocent poverty. I + assume poverty to be always criminal; the conceivable + exceptions we will examine afterwards. + +The power of the provident person to do this is only checked by the +correlative power of some neighbour of similarly frugal habits, who +says to the labourer--"I will give you a little more than my provident +friend:--come and work for me." The power of the provident over the +improvident depends thus primarily on their relative numbers; +secondarily, on the modes of agreement of the adverse parties with +each other. The level of wages is a variable function of the number of +provident and idle persons in the world, of the enmity between them as +classes, and of the agreement between those of the same class. It +depends, from beginning to end, on moral conditions. + +Supposing the rich to be entirely selfish, it is always for their +interest that the poor should be as numerous as they can employ and +restrain. For, granting the entire population no larger than the +ground can easily maintain,--that the classes are stringently +divided,--and that there is sense or strength of hand enough with the +rich to secure obedience; then, if nine-tenths of a nation are poor, +the remaining tenth have the service of nine persons each;[116] but, +if eight-tenths are poor, only of four each; if seven-tenths are poor, +of two and a third each; but, practically if the rich strive always to +obtain more power over the poor, instead of to raise them,--and if, on +the other hand, the poor become continually more vicious and numerous, +through neglect and oppression--though the range of the power of the +rich increases, its tenure becomes less secure; until, at last, the +measure of iniquity being full, revolution, civil war, or the +subjection of the state to a healthier or stronger one, closes the +moral corruption and industrial disease. + + [116] I say nothing yet of the quality of the servants, which, + nevertheless, is the gist of the business. Will you have + Paul Veronese to paint your ceiling, or the plumber from + over the way? Both will work for the same money; Paul, if + anything, a little cheaper of the two, if you keep him in + good humour; only you have to discern him first, which will + need eyes. + +It is rare, however, that things come to this extremity. Kind persons +among the rich, and wise among the poor, modify the connexion of the +classes: the efforts made to raise and relieve on the one side, and +the success and honest toil on the other, bind and blend the orders of +society into the confused tissue of half-felt obligation, +sullenly-rendered obedience, and variously-directed, or mis-directed, +toil, which form the warp of daily life. But this great law rules all +the wild design of the weaving; that success (while society is guided +by laws of competition) signifies always so much victory over your +neighbour as to obtain the direction of his work, and to take the +profits of it. This is the real source of all great riches. No man can +become largely rich by his personal toil.[117] The work of his own +hands, wisely directed, will indeed always maintain himself and his +family, and make fitting provision for his age. But it is only by the +discovery of some method of taxing the labour of others that he can +become opulent. Every increase of his capital enables him to extend +this taxation more widely; that is, to invest larger funds in the +maintenance of his labourers--to direct, accordingly, vaster and yet +vaster masses of labour; and to appropriate its profits. There is much +confusion of idea on the subject of this appropriation. It is, of +course, the interest of the employer to disguise it from the persons +employed; and for his own comfort and complacency he often desires no +less to disguise it from himself. And it is matter of much doubt with +me, how far the foolish arguments used habitually on this subject are +indeed the honest expressions of foolish convictions,--or rather (as I +am sometimes forced to conclude from the irritation with which they +are advanced) are resolutely dishonest, wilful sophisms, arranged so +as to mask to the last moment the real state of economy, and future +duties of men. By taking a simple example, and working it thoroughly +out, the subject may be rescued from all but determined misconception. + + [117] By his heart he may; but only when its produce, or the + sight or hearing of it, becomes a subject of dispute, so as + to enable the artist to tax the labour of multitudes highly, + in exchange for his own. + +Let us imagine a society of peasants, living on a river-shore, exposed +to destructive inundation at somewhat extended intervals; and that +each peasant possesses of this good, but imperilled ground, more than +he needs to cultivate for immediate subsistence. We will assume +farther (and with too great probability of justice) that the greater +part of them indolently keep in tillage just as much land as supplies +them with daily food;--that they leave their children idle and +untaught; and take no precautions against the rise of the stream. But +one of them (we will say only one, for the sake of greater clearness) +cultivates carefully all the ground of his estate; makes his children +work hard and healthily; uses his spare time and theirs in building a +rampart against the river; and at the end of some years has in his +storehouses large reserves of food and clothing, and in his stables a +well-tended breed of cattle. + +The torrent rises at last--sweeps away the harvests and many of the +cottages of the careless peasantry, and leaves them destitute. They +naturally come for help to the provident one, whose fields are +unwasted and whose granaries are full. He has the right to refuse it +them; no one disputes his right. But he will probably not refuse it; +it is not his interest to do so, even were he entirely selfish and +cruel. The only question with him will be on what terms his aid is to +be granted. + +Clearly not on terms of mere charity. To maintain his neighbours in +idleness would be his ruin and theirs. He will require work from them +in exchange for their maintenance; and whether in kindness or cruelty, +all the work they can give. Not now the three or four hours they were +wont to spend on their own land, but the eight or ten hours they ought +to have spent. But how will he apply this labour? The men are now his +slaves--nothing less. On pain of starvation, he can force them to work +in the manner and to the end he chooses. And it is by his wisdom in +this choice that the worthiness of his mastership is proved, or its +unworthiness. Evidently he must first set them to bank out the water +in some temporary way, and to get their ground cleansed and resown; +else, in any case, their continued maintenance will be impossible. +That done, and while he has still to feed them, suppose he makes them +raise a secure rampart for their own ground against all future flood, +and rebuild their houses in safer places, with the best material they +can find; being allowed time out of their working hours to fetch such +material from a distance. And for the food and clothing advanced, he +takes security in land that as much shall be returned at a convenient +period. + +At the end of a few years, we may conceive this security redeemed, and +the debt paid. The prudent peasant has sustained no loss; but is no +richer than he was, and has had all his trouble for nothing. But he +has enriched his neighbours materially; bettered their houses, secured +their land, and rendered them, in worldly matters, equal to himself. +In all true and final sense, he has been throughout their lord and +king. + +We will next trace his probable line of conduct, presuming his object +to be exclusively the increase of his own fortune. After roughly +recovering and cleansing the ground, he allows the ruined peasantry +only to build huts upon it, such as he thinks protective enough from +the weather to keep them in working health. The rest of their time he +occupies first in pulling down and rebuilding on a magnificent scale +his own house, and in adding large dependencies to it. This done, he +follows the example of the first great Hebrew financier, and in +exchange for his continued supply of corn, buys as much of his +neighbours! land, as he thinks he can superintend the management of; +and makes the former owners securely embank and protect the ceded +portion. By this arrangement he leaves to a certain number of the +peasantry only as much ground as will just maintain them in their +existing numbers: as the population increases, he takes the extra +hands, who cannot be maintained on the narrow estates, for his own +servants; employs some to cultivate the ground he has bought, giving +them of its produce merely enough for subsistence; with the surplus, +which, under his energetic and careful superintendence, will be large, +he supports a train of servants for state, and a body of workmen, whom +he educates in ornamental arts. He now can splendidly decorate his +house, lay out its grounds magnificently, and richly supply his table, +and that of his household and retinue. And thus, without any abuse of +right, we should find established all the phenomena of poverty and +riches, which (it is supposed necessarily) accompany modern +civilization. In one part of the district, we should have unhealthy +land, miserable dwellings and half-starved poor; in another, a +well-ordered estate, well-fed servants, and refined conditions of +highly-educated and luxurious life. + +I have put the two cases in simplicity, and to some extremity. But +though in more complex and qualified operation, all the relations of +society are but the expansion of these two typical sequences of +conduct and result. I do not say, observe, that the first procedure is +entirely right; still less, that the second is wholly wrong. Servants +and artists, and splendour of habitation and retinue, have all their +use, propriety and office. I only wish the reader to understand +clearly what they cost; that the condition of having them is the +subjection to you of a certain number of imprudent or unfortunate +persons (or, it may be, more fortunate than their master), over whose +destinies you exercise a boundless control. "Riches" mean eternally +and essentially this; and may heaven send at last a time when those +words of our best-reputed economist shall be true, and we shall indeed +"all know what it is to be rich;" that is to be slave-master over +farthest earth, and over all ways and thoughts of men. Every operative +you employ is your true servant: distant or near, subject to your +immediate orders, or ministering to your widely-communicated +caprice--for the pay he stipulates, or the price he tempts,--all are +alike under this great dominion of the gold. The milliner who makes +the dress is as much a servant (more so, in that she uses more +intelligence in the service) as the maid who puts it on; the carpenter +who smoothes the door, as the footman who opens it; the tradesmen who +supply the table, as the labourers and sailors who supply the +tradesmen. Why speak of these lower services? Painters and singers +(whether of note or rhyme), jesters and story-tellers, moralists, +historians, priests--so far as these, in any degree, paint, or sing, +or tell their tale, or charm their charm, or "perform" their rite, for +pay, in so far they are all slaves; abject utterly, if the service be +for pay only; abject less and less in proportion to the degrees of +love and wisdom which enter into their duty, or can enter into it, +according as their function is to do the bidding and the work of a +man;--or to amuse, tempt, and deceive a child. + +There may be thus, and, to a certain extent, there always is, a +government of the rich by the poor, as of the poor by the rich; but +the latter is the prevailing and necessary one, and it consists, +observe, of two distinct functions,--the collection of the profits of +labour from those who would have misused them, and the administration +of those profits for the service either of the same person in future, +or of others; or, as is more frequently the case in modern times, for +the service of the collector himself. + +The examination of these various modes of collection and use of riches +will form the third branch of our future inquiries; but the key to the +whole subject lies in the clear understanding of the difference +between selfish and unselfish expenditure. It is not easy, by any +course of reasoning, to enforce this on the generally unwilling +hearer; yet the definition of unselfish expenditure is brief and +simple. It is expenditure which if you are a capitalist, does not pay +you, but pays somebody else; and if you are a consumer, does not +please you, but pleases somebody else. Take one special instance, in +further illustration of the general type given above. I did not invent +that type, but spoke of a real river, and of real peasantry, the +languid and sickly race which inhabits, or haunts--for they are often +more like spectres than living men--the thorny desolation on the banks +of the Arve. Some years ago, a society formed at Geneva offered to +embank the river, for the ground which would have been recovered by +the operation; but the offer was refused by the (then Sardinian) +government. The capitalists saw that this expenditure would have +"paid," if the ground saved from the river was to be theirs. But if +when the offer that had this aspect of profit was refused, they had +nevertheless persisted in the plan and, merely taking security for the +return of their outlay, lent the funds for the work, and thus saved a +whole race of human souls from perishing in a pestiferous fen (as, I +presume, some among them would, at personal risk, have dragged any one +drowning creature out of the current of the stream, and not expected +payment therefor), such expenditure would have precisely corresponded +to the use of his power made, in the first instance, by our supposed +richest peasant--it would have been the king's, of grace, instead of +the usurer's, for gain. + +"Impossible, absurd, Utopian!" exclaim nine-tenths of the few readers +whom these words may find. No, good reader, this is not Utopian: but I +will tell you what would have seemed, if we had not seen it, Utopian +on the side of evil instead of good: that ever men should have come to +value their money so much more than their lives, that if you call upon +them to become soldiers, and take chance of bullet, for their pride's +sake, they will do it gaily, without thinking twice; but if you ask +them for their country's sake to spend a hundred pounds without +security of getting back a hundred-and-five[118] they will laugh in +your face. + + [118] I have not hitherto touched on the subject of interest of + money; it is too complex; and must be reserved for its + proper place in the body of the work. (I should be glad if a + writer, who sent me some valuable notes on this subject, and + asked me to return a letter which I still keep at his + service, would send me his address.) The definition of + interest (apart from compensation for risk) is, "the + exponent of the comfort of accomplished labour, separated + from its power;" the power being what is lent: and the + French economists who have maintained the entire illegality + of interest are wrong; yet by no means so curiously or + wildly wrong as the English and French ones opposed to them, + whose opinions have been collected by Dr. Whewell at page 41 + of his Lectures; it never seeming to occur to the mind of + the compiler any more than to the writers whom he quotes, + that it is quite possible, and even (according to Jewish + proverb) prudent, for men to hoard, as ants and mice do, for + use, not usury; and lay by something for winter nights, in + the expectation of rather sharing than lending the + scrapings. My Savoyard squirrels would pass a pleasant time + of it under the snow-laden pine-branches, if they always + declined to economize because no one would pay them interest + on nuts. + +Not but that also this game of life-giving-and-taking is, in the end, +somewhat more costly than other forms of play might be. Rifle practice +is, indeed, a not unhealthy pastime, and a feather on the top of the +head is a pleasing appendage; but while learning the stops and +fingering of the sweet instrument, does no one ever calculate the cost +of an overture? What melody does Tityrus meditate on his tenderly +spiral pipe? The leaden seed of it, broad cast, true conical "Dents de +Lion" seed--needing leas allowance for the wind than is usual with +that kind of herb--what crop are you likely to have of it? Suppose, +instead of this volunteer marching and countermarching, you were to do +a little volunteer ploughing and counterploughing? It is more +difficult to do it straight: the dust of the earth, so disturbed, is +more grateful than for merely rhythmic footsteps. Golden cups, also, +given for good ploughing would be more suitable in colour (ruby glass, +for the wine which "giveth his colour" on the ground, as well as in +the cup, might be fitter for the rifle prize in the ladies' hands); +or, conceive a little volunteer exercise with the spade, other than +such as is needed for moat and breastwork, or even for the burial of +the fruit of the leaden avena-seed, subject to the shrill Lemures' +criticism-- + +"Wer hat das Haus so schlecht gebaut?" + +If you were to embank Lincolnshire now,--more stoutly against the sea? +or strip the peat of Solway, or plant Plinlimmon moors with +larch--then, in due hour of year, some amateur reaping and threshing? + +"Nay, we reap and thresh by steam in these advanced days." + +I know it, my wise and economical friends. The stout arms God gave +you to win your bread by, you would fain shoot your neighbours--and +God's sweet singers--with;[119] then you invoke the friends to your +farm-service, and-- + + "When young and old come forth to play + On a sulphurous holiday, + Tell how the darling goblin sweat + (His feast of cinders duly set), + And belching night, where breathed the morn. + His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn + That ten day-labourers could not end." + +But we will press the example closer. On a green knoll above that +plain of the Arve, between Cluses and Bonneville, there was, in the +year 1860, a cottage, inhabited by a well-doing family--man and wife, +three children, and the grandmother. I call it a cottage but, in +truth, it was a large chimney on the ground, wide at the bottom (so +that the family might live round the fire), with one broken window in +it, and an unclosing door. The family, I say, was "well-doing," at +least, it was hopeful and cheerful; the wife healthy, the children, +for Savoyards, pretty and active, but the husband threatened with +decline, from exposure under the cliffs of the Mont Vergi by day, and +to draughts between every plank of his chimney in the frosty nights. +"Why could he not plaster the chinks?" asks the practical reader. For +the same reason that your child cannot wash its face and hands till +you have washed them many a day for it, and will not wash them when it +can, till you force it. + + [119] Compare Chaucer's feeling respecting birds (from Canace's + falcon, to the nightingale, singing "Domine labia "--to the + Lord of Love) with the usual modern British sentiments on + this subject. Or even Cowley's:-- + + "What prince's choir of music can excel + That which within this shade does dwell. + To which we nothing pay, or give, + They, like all other poets, live + Without reward, or thanks for their obliging pains! + 'Tis well if they became not prey." + + Yes; it is better than well; particularly since the seed + sown by the wayside has been protected by the peculiar + appropriation of part of the church rates in our country + parishes. See the remonstrance from a "Country Parson," in + the _Times_ of June 4th (or 5th; the letter is dated June + 3rd, 1862):--"I have heard at a vestry meeting a good deal + of higgling over a few shillings' outlay in cleaning the + church; but I have never heard any dissatisfaction expressed + on account of the part of the rate which is invested in + fifty or 100 dozens of birds' heads." + +I passed this cottage often in my walks, had its window and door +mended, sometimes mended also a little the meal of sour bread and +broth, and generally got kind greeting and smile from the face of +young or old; which greeting, this year, narrowed itself into the +half-recognizing stare of the elder child and the old woman's tears; +for the father and mother were both dead,--one of sickness, the other +of sorrow. It happened that I passed not alone, but with a companion, +a practised English joiner, who, while these people were dying of +cold, had been employed from six in the morning to six of the evening +for two months, in fitting the panels without nails, of a single door +in a large house in London. Three days of his work taken, at the right +time, from the oak panels, and applied to the larch timbers, would +have saved these Savoyards' lives. He would have been maintained +equally (I suppose him equally paid for his work by the owner of the +greater house, only the work not consumed selfishly on his own walls;) +and the two peasants, and eventually, probably their children, saved. + +There are, therefore, let me finally enforce and leave with the reader +this broad conclusion,--three things to be considered in employing any +poor person. It is not enough to give him employment. You must employ +him first to produce useful things; secondly, of the several (suppose +equally useful) things he can equally well produce, you must set him +to make that which will cause him to lead the healthiest life; lastly, +of the things produced, it remains a question of wisdom and conscience +how much you are to take yourself, and how much to leave to others. A +large quantity, remember, unless you destroy it, must always be so +left at one time or another; the only questions you have to decide +are, not what you will give, and what you will keep, but when, and +how, and to whom, you will give. The natural law of human life is, of +course, that in youth a man shall labour and lay by store for his old +age, and when age comes, should use what he has laid by, gradually +slackening his toil, and allowing himself more frank use of his store, +taking care always to leave himself as much as will surely suffice for +him beyond any possible length of life. What he has gained, or by +tranquil and unanxious toil, continues to gain, more than is enough +for his own need, he ought so to administer, while he yet lives, as to +see the good of it again beginning in other hands; for thus he has +himself the greatest sum of pleasure from it, and faithfully uses his +sagacity in its control. Whereas most men, it appears, dislike the +sight of their fortunes going out into service again, and say to +themselves,--"I can indeed nowise prevent this money from falling at +last into the hands of others, nor hinder the good of it, such as it +is, from becoming theirs, not mine; but at least let a merciful death +save me from being a witness of their satisfaction; and may God so far +be gracious to me as to let no good come of any of this money of mine +before my eyes." Supposing this feeling unconquerable, the safest way +of rationally indulging it would be for the capitalist at once to +spend all his fortune on himself, which might actually, in many cases, +be quite the rightest as well as the pleasantest thing to do, if he +had just tastes and worthy passions. But, whether for himself only, or +through the hands and for the sake of others also, the law of wise +life is, that the maker of the money should also be the spender of it, +and spend it, approximately, all, before he dies; so that his true +ambition as an economist should be, to die, not as rich, but as poor, +as possible, calculating the ebb tide of possession in true and calm +proportion to the ebb tide of life. Which law, checking the wing of +accumulative desire in the mid-volley,[120] and leading to peace of +possession and fulness of fruition in old age, is also wholesome in +that by the freedom of gift, together with present help and counsel, +it at once endears and dignifies age in the sight of youth, which then +no longer strips the bodies of the dead, but receives the grace of the +living. Its chief use would (or will be, for men are indeed capable of +attaining to this much use for their reason), that some temperance and +measure will be put to the acquisitiveness of commerce.[121] For as +things stand, a man holds it his duty to be temperate in his food, and +of his body, but for no duty to be temperate in his riches, and of his +mind. He sees that he ought not to waste his youth and his flesh for +luxury; but he will waste his age, and his soul, for money, and think +it no wrong, nor the delirium tremens of the intellect any evil. But +the law of life is, that a man should fix the sum he desires to make +annually, as the food he desires to eat daily; and stay when he has +reached the limit, refusing increase of business, and leaving it to +others, so obtaining due freedom of time for better thoughts. How the +gluttony of business is punished, a bill of health for the principals +of the richest city houses, issued annually, would show in a +sufficiently impressive manner. + + [120] [Greek: kai penian hêgoumenous heinai mê to tên ousian + elattô poiein, alla to tên aplêstian pleiô.]--"Laws," v. 8. + + Read the context and compare. "He who spends for all that is + noble, and gains by nothing but what is just, will hardly be + notably wealthy, or distressfully poor."--"Laws," v. 42. + + [121] The fury of modern trade arises chiefly out of the + possibility of making sudden fortune by largeness of + transaction, and accident of discovery or contrivance. + I have no doubt that the final interest of every nation + is to check the action of these commercial lotteries. But + speculation absolute, unconnected with commercial effort, is + an unmitigated evil in a state, and the root of countless + evils beside. + +I know, of course, that these statements will be received by the +modern merchant, as an active Border rider of the sixteenth century +would have heard of its being proper for men of the Marches to get +their living by the spade instead of the spur. But my business is only +to state veracities and necessities; I neither look for the acceptance +of the one, nor promise anything for the nearness of the other. Near +or distant, the day will assuredly come when the merchants of a state +shall be its true "ministers of exchange," its porters, in the double +sense of carriers and gate-keepers, bringing all lands into frank and +faithful communication, and knowing for their master of guild, Hermes +the herald, instead of Mercury the gain-guarder. + +And now, finally, for immediate rule to whom it concerns. + +The distress of any population means that they need food, houseroom, +clothes, and fuel. You can never, therefore, be wrong in employing any +labourer to produce food, houseroom, clothes, or fuel: but you are +always wrong if you employ him to produce nothing (for then some other +labourer must be worked double time to feed him); and you are +generally wrong, at present, if you employ him (unless he can do +nothing else) to produce works of art, or luxuries; because modern art +is mostly on a false basis, and modern luxury is criminally great.[122] + + [122] It is especially necessary that the reader should keep his + mind fixed on the methods of consumption and destruction, as + the true sources of national poverty. Men are apt to watch + rather the exchanges in a state than its damages; but the + exchanges are only of importance so far as they bring about + these last. A large number of the purchases made by the + richer classes are mere forms of interchange of unused + property, wholly without effect on national prosperity. It + matters nothing to the state, whether if a china pipkin be + rated as worth a hundred pounds, A has the pipkin, and B the + pounds, or A the pounds and B the pipkin. But if the pipkin + is pretty, and A or B breaks it, there is national loss; not + otherwise. So again, when the loss has really taken place, + no shifting of the shoulders that bear it will do away with + the fact of it. There is an intensely ludicrous notion in + the public mind respecting the abolishment of debt by + denying it. When a debt is denied, the lender loses instead + of the borrower, that is all; the loss is precisely, + accurately, everlastingly the same. The Americans borrow + money to spend in blowing up their own houses. They deny + their debt; by one third already, gold being at fifty + premium; and will probably deny it wholly. That merely means + that the holders of the notes are to be the losers instead + of the issuers. The quantity of loss is precisely equal, and + irrevocable; it is the quantity of human industry spent in + explosion, plus the quantity of goods exploded. Honour only + decides who shall pay the sum lost, not whether it is to be + paid or not. Paid it must be and to the uttermost farthing. + +The way to produce more food is mainly to bring in fresh ground, and +increase facilities of carriage;--to break rock, exchange earth, drain +the moist, and water the dry, to mend roads, and build harbours of +refuge. Taxation thus spent will annihilate taxation, but spent in +war, it annihilates revenue. + +The way to produce houseroom is to apply your force first to the +humbler dwellings. When your bricklayers are out of employ, do not +build splendid new streets, but better the old ones: send your +paviours and slaters to the poorest villages, and see that your poor +are healthily lodged before you try your hand on stately architecture. +You will find its stateliness rise better under the trowel afterwards; +and we do not yet build so well as that we need hasten to display our +skill to future ages. Had the labour which has decorated the Houses of +Parliament filled, instead, rents in walls and roofs throughout the +county of Middlesex; and our deputies met to talk within massive walls +that would have needed no stucco for five hundred years,--the +decoration might have been better afterwards, and the talk now. And +touching even our highly conscientious church building, it may be well +to remember that in the best days of church plans, their masons called +themselves "logeurs du bon Dieu;" and that since, according to the +most trusted reports, God spends a good deal of His time in cottages +as well as in churches, He might perhaps like to be a little better +lodged there also. + +The way to get more clothes is,--not necessarily, to get more cotton. +There were words written twenty years ago which would have saved many +of us some shivering had they been minded in time. Shall we read them? + +"The Continental people, it would seem, are 'importing our machinery, +beginning to spin cotton and manufacture for themselves, to cut us out +of this market and then out of that!' Sad news indeed; but +irremediable;--by no means. The saddest news is, that we should find +our National Existence, as I sometimes hear it said, depend on selling +manufactured cotton at a farthing an ell cheaper than any other +People. A most narrow stand for a great Nation to base itself on! A +stand which, with all the Corn-Law Abrogations conceivable, I do not +think will be capable of enduring. + +"My friends, suppose we quitted that stand; suppose we came honestly +down from it and said: 'This is our minimum cotton-prices. We care +not, for the present, to make cotton any cheaper. Do you, if it seem +so blessed to you, make cotton cheaper. Fill your lungs with +cotton-fuzz, your hearts with copperas-fumes, with rage and mutiny; +become ye the general gnomes of Europe, slaves of the lamp!' I admire +a Nation which fancies it will die if it do not undersell all other +Nations, to the end of the world. Brothers, we will cease to +_under_sell them; we will be content to _equal_-sell them; to be happy +selling equally with them! I do not see the use of underselling them. +Cotton-cloth is already two-pence a yard or lower; and yet bare backs +were never more numerous among us. Let inventive men cease to spend +their existence incessantly contriving how cotton can be made cheaper; +and try to invent, a little, how cotton at its present cheapness could +be somewhat justlier divided among us. Let inventive men consider, +Whether the Secret of this Universe, and of Man's Life there, does, +after all, as we rashly fancy it, consist in making money?... With a +Hell which means--'Failing to make money,' I do not think there is any +Heaven possible that would suit one well; nor so much as an Earth that +can be habitable long! In brief, all this Mammon-Gospel of +Supply-and-demand, Competition, Laissez-faire, and Devil take the +hindmost" (foremost, is it not, rather, Mr. Carlyle?) "begins to be +one of the shabbiest Gospels ever preached." (In the matter of +clothes, decidedly.) The way to produce more fuel is first to make +your coal mines safer, by sinking more shafts; then set all your +convicts to work in them, and if, as is to be hoped, you succeed in +diminishing the supply of that sort of labourer, consider what means +there may be, first of growing forest where its growth will improve +climate; then of splintering the forests which now make continents of +fruitful land pathless and poisonous, into faggots for fire;--so +gaining at once dominion sunwards and icewards. Your steam power has +been given you (you will find eventually) for work such as that; and +not for excursion trains, to give the labourer a moment's breath, at +the peril of his breath for ever, from amidst the cities which you +have crushed into masses of corruption. When you know how to build +cities, and how to rule them, you will be able to breathe in their +streets, and the "excursion" will be the afternoon's walk or game in +the fields round them. Long ago, Claudian's peasant of Verona knew, +and we must yet learn, in his fashion, the difference between via and +vita. But nothing of this work will pay. + +No; no more than it pays to dust your rooms or wash your doorsteps. It +will pay; not at first in currency, but in that which is the end and +the source of currency,--in life (and in currency richly afterwards). +It will pay in that which is more than life,--in "God's first +creature, which was light," whose true price has not yet been +reckoned in any currency, and yet into the image of which all wealth, +one way or other, must be cast. For your riches must either as the +lightning, which, + + "begot but in a cloud, + Though shining bright, and speaking loud, + Whilst it begins, concludes its violent race, + And, where it gilds, it wounds the place;" + +or else as the lightning of the sacred sign, which shines from one +part of the heaven to the other. There is no other choice; you must +either take dust for deity, spectre for possession, fettered dream for +life, and for epitaph, this reversed verse of the great Hebrew hymn of +economy (Psalm cxii.):--"He hath gathered together, he hath stripped +the poor, his iniquity remaineth for ever." Or else, having the sun +for justice to shine on you, and the sincere substance of good in your +possession, and the pure law and liberty of life within you, leave men +to write this better legend over your grave: "He hath dispersed +abroad. He hath given to the poor. His righteousness remaineth for +ever." + + * * * * * + + The present paper completes the definitions necessary for + future service. The next in order will be the first chapter + of the body of the work. + + These introductory essays are as yet in imperfect form; I + suffer them to appear, though they were not intended for + immediate publication, for the sake of such chance service + as may be found in them. + + [Here the author indicated certain corrections, which have + been carried out in this edition. He then went on to say + that the note on Charis (p. 274) required a word or two in + further illustration, as follows:--] + + The derivation of words is like that of rivers: there is one + real source, usually small, unlikely, and difficult to find, + far up among the hills; then, as the word flows on and comes + into service, it takes in the force of other words from + other sources, and becomes itself quite another word--even + more than one word, after the junction--a word as it were of + many waters, sometimes both sweet and bitter. Thus the whole + force of our English "charity" depends on the guttural in + "Charis" getting confused with the "c" of the Latin "carus;" + thenceforward throughout the middle ages, the two ideas + ran on together, and both got confused with St. Paul's + [Greek: agapê], which expresses a different idea in all + sorts of ways; our "charity," having not only brought in the + entirely foreign sense of almsgiving, but lost the essential + sense of contentment, and lost much more in getting too far + away from the "charis," of the final Gospel benedictions. + For truly it is fine Christianity we have come to, which + professing to expect the perpetual grace of its Founder, + has not itself grace enough to save it from overreaching + its friends in sixpenny bargains; and which, supplicating + evening and morning the forgiveness of its own debts, goes + forth in the daytime to take its fellow-servants by the + throat, saying--not "Pay me that thou owest," but "Pay me + that thou owest me not." + + Not but that we sometimes wear Ophelia's rue with a + difference, and call it, "Herb o' grace o' Sundays," taking + consolation out of the offertory with--"Look, what he layeth + out, it shall be paid him again." Comfortable words, indeed, + and good to set against the old royalty of Largesse-- + + "Whose moste joie was, I wis, + When that she gave, and said, 'Have this.'" + + Again: the first root of the word faith being far away + in----(compare my note on this force of it in "Modern + Painters," vol. v., p. 255), the Latins, as proved by + Cicero's derivation of the word, got their "facio," also + involved in the idea; and so the word, and the world with + it, gradually lose themselves in an arachnoid web of + disputation concerning faith and works, no one ever taking + the pains to limit the meaning of the term: which in + earliest Scriptural use is as nearly as possible our English + "obedience." Then the Latin "fides," a quite different word, + alternately active and passive in different uses, runs into + "foi;" "facere," through "ficare," into "fier," at the end + of words; and "fidere," into "fier" absolute; and out of + this endless reticulation of thought and word rise still + more finely reticulated theories concerning salvation by + faith--the things which the populace expected to be saved + from, being indeed carved for them in a very graphic manner + in their cathedral porches, but the things they were + expected to believe being carved for them not so clearly. + + Lastly I debated with myself whether to make the note on + Homer longer by examining the typical meaning of the + shipwreck of Ulysses, and his escape from Charybdis by help + of her fig-tree; but as I should have had to go on to the + lovely myth of Leucothea's veil, and did not care to spoil + this by a hurried account of it, I left it for future + examination; and three days after the paper was published, + observed that the reviewers, with their usual useful + ingenuity, were endeavouring to throw the whole subject back + into confusion by dwelling on the single (as they imagined) + oversight. I omitted also a note on the sense of the word + [Greek: lygron], with respect to the pharmacy of Circe, and + herb-fields of Helen (compare its use in Odyssey, xvii. 473, + etc.), which would further have illustrated the nature of + the Circean power. But, not to be led too far into the + subtleness of these myths, respecting them all I have but + this to say: Even in very simple parables, it is not always + easy to attach indisputable meaning to every part of them. I + recollect some years ago, throwing an assembly of learned + persons who had met to delight themselves with + interpretations of the parable of the prodigal son + (interpretations which had up to that moment gone very + smoothly) into high indignation, by inadvertently asking who + the prodigal son was, and what was to be learned by his + example. The leading divine of the company (still one of our + great popular preachers) at last explained to me that the + unprodigal son was a lay figure, put in for dramatic effect, + to make the story prettier, and that no note was to be taken + of him. Without, however, admitting that Homer put in the + last escape of Ulysses merely to make his story prettier, + this is nevertheless true of all Greek myths, that they have + many opposite lights and shades: they are as changeful as + opal and, like opal, usually have one colour by reflected, + and another by transmitted, light. But they are true jewels + for all that, and full of noble enchantment for those who + can use them; for those who cannot, I am content to repeat + the words I wrote four years ago, in the appendix to the + "Two Paths"-- + + "The entire purpose of a great thinker may be difficult to + fathom, and we may be over and over again more or less + mistaken in guessing at his meaning; but the real, profound, + nay, quite bottomless and unredeemable mistake, is the + fool's thought, that he had no meaning." + + +LONDON: WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +1. Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). + +2. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved from the middle of the +paragraph to the closest paragraph break. + +3. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version +these letters have been replaced with transliterations. For example, +[Greek: b] represents greek letter beta. + +4. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original. + +5. Mixed fractions are indicated with a hyphen and forward slash. For +example, 3-1/2 indicates three and a half. + +6. Obvious misprints and punctuation errors have been silently corrected +in this text version. + +7. 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