PHYSICAL METHOD. 571 



and desire of the present enjoyment of costly indul- 

 gences. These it takes, to a certain extent, into its 

 calculations, because these do not merely, like our 

 other desires, occasionally conflict with the pursuit of 

 wealth, but accompany it always as a drag or impe- 

 diment, and are therefore inseparably mixed up in the 

 consideration of it. Political Economy considers man- 

 kind 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 accumulating wealth, and 

 employing that wealth in the production of other 

 wealth; sanctioning by mutual agreement the institu- 

 tion ^of property; establishing laws to prevent indi- 

 viduals from encroaching upon the property of others 

 by force or fraud; adopting various contrivances for 

 increasing the productiveness 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 facilitate the distribution. All these operations, 

 though many of them are really the result of a plu- 

 rality of motives, are considered 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 neces- 

 sity of his nature, to prefer a greater portion of wealth 

 to a smaller, in all cases, without any other exception 



