PHYSICAL METHOD. 575 



nature fluctuating or progressive, and enunciate with 

 as little qualification as if they were universal and 

 absolute truths, propositions which are perhaps ap- 

 plicable to no state of society except the particular 

 one in which the writer happened to live;" this does 

 not take away the value of the propositions, consi- J 

 dered with reference to the state of society from 

 which they were drawn. And even as applicable to 

 other states of society, " it must not be supposed 

 that the science is so incomplete and unsatisfactory as 

 this might seem to prove. Though many of its con- 

 clusions are only locally true, its method of investi- l 

 gation is applicable universally; and as he who has 

 solved a certain number of algebraic equations, can 

 without difficulty solve all others of the same kind, 

 so he who knows the political economy of England, 

 or even of Yorkshire, knows that of all nations, actual 

 or possible, provided he have good sense enough not v/ 

 to expect the same conclusion to issue from varying 

 premisses." Whoever is thoroughly master of the 

 laws which, under free competition, determine the 

 rent, profits, and wages, received by landlords, capi- 

 talists, and labourers in a state of society in which the 

 three classes are completely separate, will have no 

 difficulty in determining the very different laws which 

 regulate the distribution of the produce among the 

 classes interested in it, in any of the states of culti- 

 vation and landed property set forth in the foregoing 

 extract*. 



4. I would not here undertake to decide what 

 other hypothetical or abstract sciences, similar to 



* The quotations in this paragraph arc from a paper written 

 by the author, and published in a periodical in 1834. 



