494 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



It makes entire abstraction of every other human passion or 

 motive ; except those which may he regarded as perpetually 

 antagonizing principles to the desire of wealth, namely, aver 

 sion to labour, and desire of the present enjoyment of costly 

 indulgences. These it takes, to a certain extent, into its cal 

 culations, because these do not merely, like our other desires, 

 occasionally conflict with the pursuit of wealth, but accom 

 pany it always as a drag or impediment, and are therefore 

 inseparably mixed up in the consideration of it. Political 

 Economy considers mankind as occupied solely in acquiring 

 and consuming wealth; and aims at showing what is the 

 course of action into which mankind, living in a state of 

 society, would be impelled, if that motive, except in the degree 

 in which it is checked by the two perpetual counter- motives 

 above adverted to, were absolute ruler of all their actions. 

 Under the influence of this desire, it shows mankind accumu 

 lating wealth, and employing that wealth in the production of 

 other wealth ; sanctioning by mutual agreement the institu 

 tion of property ; establishing laws to prevent individuals from 

 encroaching upon the property of others by force or fraud ; 

 adopting various contrivances for increasing the productive 

 ness of their labour ; settling the division of the produce by 

 agreement, under the influence of competition (competition 

 itself being governed by certain laws, which laws are therefore 

 the ultimate regulators of , the division of the produce); and 

 employing certain expedients (as money, credit, &c.) to facili 

 tate the distribution. All these operations, though many of 

 . them are really the result of a plurality of motives, are consi 

 dered by political economy as flowing solely from the desire 

 of wealth. The science then proceeds to investigate the laws 

 which govern these several operations, under the supposition 

 that man is a being who is determined, by the necessity of his 

 nature, to prefer a greater portion of wealth to a smaller, in 

 all cases, without any other exception than that constituted 

 by the two counter-motives already specified. Not that any 

 political economist was ever so absurd as to suppose that man 

 kind are really thus constituted, but because this is the mode 

 in which science must necessarily proceed. When an effect 



