628 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION P. 



fish than he wants : it is sufficient if he catches what he does 

 want quickly, and so have all the rest of the day (not to 

 speak of his idle evenings round the fire), wherein by simple 

 diligence, without any abstinence, he can accumulate posses- 

 sions to an indefinite extent. 



If we take the case, not of an Indian who lives by fishing, 

 but of an African who lives by cultivation, the Heedlessness 

 (so to speak) of abstinence comes out still more clearly. For 

 while the Indian's supply depends mainly on what he catches 

 from day to day, the African's depends upon a series of 

 operations conducted at a particular season. His supplies 

 consist of his crop, and his crop all comes in together in a 

 lump. Those, then, will have abundance, and will be able, 

 without practising any abstinence, to live comfortably on that 

 abundance, who have put in a sufiiciency of ground, and 

 those will be badly oft' and have to go on short commons 

 who have put in an insufficiency. 



Abstinence will count for very little either way. Those 

 who have put in enough crop will be able to live luxuriously 

 and even wastefully to some extent, and yet have plenty 

 over, while those who have not put in enough will run short, 

 and will hardly be able to put by for the future, even though 

 they stint themselves exceedingly. It is all a matter of 

 doing enough work at the right time. 



But since his food consists of his crop, there will be two 

 long periods, between seed time and harvest, and between 

 harvest and preparation time, in which the African will have 

 plenty of spare time on his hands wherein to produce all 

 kinds of manufactured articles, nearly the whole of which 

 will be of a more or less durable character, and which there 

 is no temptation to consume except by ordinary wear, and 

 which, therefore, will accumulate. 



So far, following the example of the economists, we have 

 confined our illustrations to savage life because the working 

 of natural processes can be best seen when reduced to their 

 simplest elements, and because it is amongst savages that the 

 foundations of accumulation must have been laid, for without 

 some accumulations they could not have emerged from the 

 savage state. 



If we turn to the other end of the social scale — to the 

 millionaire capitalist — it is clear that no self-denying abstinence 

 is required on his part to permit a gradually accumulating 

 mass to grow up from his yearly income, and, as a matter of 

 fact, he very rarely does practise any such abstinence ; and 



