140 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



power of the earth, and benefits future generations as much 

 as it does ourselves. 



On the other hand, all those articles of consumption 

 which are in any way essential to the comfort and well- 

 being of the community, and which are, either absolutely 

 or practically, limited in quantity and incapable of being 

 reproduced in any period of time commensurate with the 

 length of human life, are in a totally different category. 

 They must be considered to be held by us in trust for the 

 community, and for succeeding generations. They should 

 be jealously guarded from all waste or unnecessary ex- 

 penditure, and it should be considered (as it will certainly 

 come to be regarded) as a positive crime against posterity 

 to expend them lavishly for the sole purpose of increasing 

 our own wealth, luxury, or commercial importance. Under 

 this head we must class all mineral products which are 

 extensively used in domestic economy, the arts or manu- 

 factures, and which are in any way essential to the health 

 or well-being of the community, and more especially those 

 which from their bulk, weight, and extensive use could not 

 be imported from distant regions without a very serious 

 addition to their cost, such as is pre-eminently the case 

 with coal and iron. 



Now, it will be seen that we have here to deal with a 

 case quite as extreme in reality as those supposititious cases 

 with which we commenced this inquiry. For coal and 

 iron are almost as much necessaries of life to the large 

 population of this country as are abundance of water and 

 a fertile soil ; but there is this difference, that the water 

 might be restored to its legitimate use, and the soil might 

 be renewed by a sufficient period of vegetable growth ; 

 whereas coal burned, and iron oxydized, are absolutely 

 lost to mankind, and we have no knowledge of any restora- 

 tive processes except after the lapse of periods so vast that 

 they cannot enter into our calculations. It may be 

 replied, that the quantity existing on the globe is vast 

 enough for the necessities of mankind for any periods we 

 need calculate on ; but even if this be so (of which we are 

 by no means certain), it may none the less be shown that 

 numerous and wide-spread evils result from our present 



