CIVILIZATION AS ACCUMULATED FORCE. 605 



we imply only a new direction given to forces already active. But 

 man is also a consumer of the wealth he acquires and of his own pow- 

 ers. In order, therefore, that he may accumulate, production must be 

 in excess of consumption. Every act we perform involves an expendi- 

 ture of muscular or intellectual energy ; and the same is true with 

 regard to the implements we employ for our work. If, however, by 

 such expenditure we render available for human uses what before was 

 unserviceable, and if this acquisition is of greater value than the outlay, 

 there is a clear profit for humanity. Yet this gain has no value as a 

 civilizing element, except in so far as it puts man in the way of making 

 new products, whether by augmenting the power of his organs or 

 faculties, by putting in his hands a new implement, by leading to some 

 useful discovery, or by affecting favorably political relations, which in 

 turn react upon production and upon progress in general. 



This excess of production over consumption is not the only source 

 of power. There is another which is of equal importance, and that 

 is the perfecting of organization, whether among the forces which 

 make up the individual, the society, or the race. Here, again, there is 

 no creation, but only utilization of force. This organic adaptation 

 diminishes friction, and permits the utilization of forces which else 

 would be wasted. Organization, furthermore, brings together like 

 capacities, and enables them to combine their strength, and thus forces 

 which separately would be weak, being united, produce gi-eat results. 

 In thus grouping together like forces, the first step is to detach them 

 from those which are dissimilar, and consequently a perfect organiza- 

 tion leads to the separation of faculties, the localization of functions, 

 and the division of labor. We now proceed to confirm our inductions 

 by particular applications of them to actual facts. And, first, we will 

 consider those elements of civilization which are extrinsic to man. 

 We can more easily understand the world around us than the interior 

 phenomena of the mind, and the study of these external phenomena 

 will furnish us with many analogies to guide us in the study of the 

 more recondite internal phenomena. 



II. 



The word capital is employed to denote the sum of external forces 

 accumulated by man, and which he can use for new productions. We 

 do not, however, agree with certain contemporaneous economists who 

 say that capital is only labor accumulated. This definition, though 

 plausible, is inexact, and besides it involves a dangerous confusion of 

 ideas, and has supplied the socialists with a portion of their arguments 

 against capital, civilization, and political economy itself. 



No doubt capital is an accumulation, but not an accumulation of 

 labor ; it is not even the product of labor. Though Proudhon (" Ma- 

 nuel du Speculateur ") defines capital to be "labor accumulated," he 

 contradicts himself a few lines farther on, when he says, " The first 



