THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION: 159 



by the conclusions we draw on this point, is obvious. If a na- 

 tion is modified en masse by transmission of the effects pro- 

 duced on the natures of its members by those modes of daily 

 activity which its institutions and circumstances involve ; then 

 we must infer that such institutions and circumstances mould its 

 members far more rapidly and comprehensively than they can 

 do if the sole cause of adaptation to them is the more frequent 

 survival of individuals who happen to have varied in favorable 

 ways. 



" I will add only that, considering the width and depth of 

 the effects which acceptance of one or other of these hypotheses 

 must have on our views of Life, Mind, Morals, and Politics, the 

 question — Which of them is true ? demands, beyond all other 

 questions whatever, the attention of scientific men." — Nineteenth 

 Century. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION. 



By H. G. S. noble. 



IN seeking the explanation of highly complex phenomena, 

 many simple and entirely inadequate causes are apt to be as- 

 signed by men who have become absorbed in them to the exclu- 

 sion of other factors ; and an ultimate comprehension of the 

 problem is usually reached when some wide generalization, 

 including many single causes, is found. 



Thus^ to account for the recurring waves of commercial 

 depression to which the modern world is a prey, the bimetallist, 

 the protectionist, the free-trader, and other specialists, urge 

 their pet theories as individually sufficient ; while in some far- 

 reaching chain of influences, of which these are but necessary 

 links, is probably to be found the complete cause. What fol- 

 lows is as much of an attempt as so brief a space will permit to 

 find for these phenomena a generalization of this kind. 



Life, or in more general terms the persistence of any organic 

 aggregate, depends upon adaptation to surrounding circum- 

 stances. In the animal creation this adaptation is of two funda- 

 mental descriptions : first, the development of structures for the 

 assimilation of nutriment ; and, secondly, the development of 

 structures for the obtainment of nutriment in competition with 

 other organisms. 



In the physical struggle, which grew more intense with the 

 multiplication of organic forms, this second mode of adaptation 

 reached its culmination in man. Indirectly, through the use of 

 a more developed brain, the human being so employed the forces 

 of Nature as to overcome the teeth and claws and brawn of his 



