OP SOCIETY. 



555 



manner be subjected to such treatment reminds us of 

 the mathematical calculations in Herbart's Psychology. 

 It has been maintained that what is good both in 

 Herbart's Psychology and in Thiinen's Economics could 

 probably have been arrived at without the abstract 

 and frequently repellent formalism of their principal 

 works. 1 In addition to making this general use of 

 the mathematical method, Thunen has immortalised 

 himself by attempting to give an algebraical formula 

 for what he terms the "natural wages of labour." 



In order to arrive at this he eliminates one factor, that 

 of rent, by moving the supposed farm in his isolated 

 state to such a distance from the market, which is 

 situated in the centre, that the carriage of the produce 

 would be equal to the rent of land situated in the im- 



1 A similar criticism has been 

 levelled by Ingram against two 

 writers, both of much originality. 

 The first is Augustin Cournot 

 (mentioned already, supra, vol. iii. 

 p. 385 n.), "who with competent 

 knowledge of both subjects, en- 

 deavoured to apply mathematics 

 to the treatment of economic 

 questions. His treatise entitled 

 ' Recherches sur les Principes 

 Mathematiques de la Theorie des 

 Richesses ' was published in 1838. 

 . . . Notwithstanding Cournot's 

 just reputation as a writer on 

 mathematics, the ' Recherches ' 

 made little impression. . . . His 

 pages abound in symbols repre- 

 senting unknown functions, the 

 form of the function being left to 

 be ascertained by observation of 

 facts. . . . Cournot published in 

 1863, with the title 'Principea de 

 la Theorie des Richesses,' a work 

 of great ability," in which "the 

 mathematical method is aban- 

 doned. . . . The author admits 



that the public has always shown 

 a repugnance to the use of mathe- 

 matical symbols in economic dis- 

 cussion, and ... he acknowledges 

 that a grave danger attends their 

 use. . . . His practical conclusion 

 is that mathematical processes 

 should be employed only with 

 great precaution, or even not 

 employed at all, if the public judg- 

 ment is against them, for this 

 judgment, he says, has its secret 

 reasons almost always more sure 

 than those which determine the 

 opinions of individuals" (loc. cit., 

 p. 180). The other writer is W. 

 Stanley Jevous (1835-1882). " The 

 application of mathematics in the 

 higher sense to economics must 

 necessarily fail, and we do not 

 think that it succeeded in Jevons' 

 hands . . . and the expectation 

 of being able by means of it to 

 subject economic doctrine to a 

 mathematical method will be found 

 illusory " (p. 233). 



