132 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



ourselves, are slaves of Istar ; but if somebody is 

 to be starved, the modern world has no Oracle of 

 Delphi to which the nations can appeal for an 

 indication of the victim. It is open to us to try 

 our fortune ; and, if we avoid impending fate, 

 there will be a certain ground for believing that 

 we are the right people to escape. Securus judicat 

 orhis. 



To this end, it is well to look into the necessary 

 conditions of our salvation by works. They are 

 two, one plain to all the world and hardly needing 

 insistence ; the other seemingly not so plain, since 

 too often it has been theoretically and practically 

 left out of sight. The obvious condition is that 

 our produce shall be better than that of others. 

 There is only one reason why our goods should be 

 preferred to those of our rivals — our customers must 

 find them better at the price. That means that 

 we must use more knowledge, skill, and industry 

 in producing them, without a proportionate increase 

 in the cost of production ; and, as the price of 

 labour constitutes a large element in that cost, 

 the rate of wages must be restricted within certain 

 limits. It is perfectly true that cheap production 

 and cheap labour are by no means synonymous ; 

 but it is also true that wages cannot increase 

 beyond a certain proportion without destroying 

 cheapness. Cheapness, then, with, as part and 

 parcel of cheapness, a moderate price of labour, 

 is essential to our success as competitors in the 

 markets of the world. 



The second condition is really quite as plainly 

 indispensable as the first, if one thinks seriously 

 about the matter. It is social stability. Society 

 is stable when the wants of its members obtain 

 as much satisfaction as, life being what it is, 

 common sense and experience show may be reason- 

 ably expected. Mankind, in general, care very 

 little for forms of government or ideal considerations 

 of any sort ; and nothing really stirs the great 



