566 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



which emanate from the industrial, or productive, operations of man- 

 kind ; and from those of their acts through which the distribution of 

 the products of those industrial operations takes place, in so far as not 

 effected by force, or modified by voluntary gift. By reasoning from 

 that one law of human nature, and from the principal outward circum- 

 stances (whether universal or confined to particular states of society) 

 which operate upon the human mind through that law, we may be 

 enabled to explain and predict this portion of the phenomena of soci- 

 ety, so far as they depend upon that class of circumstances only ; over- 

 looking the influence of any other of the circumstances of society; and 

 therefore neither tracing back the circumstances which we do take into 

 account, to their possible origin in some other facts in the social state, 

 nor making allowance for the manner in which any of those other 

 circumstances may interfere with, and counteract or modify, the effect 

 of the former. A science is thus constructed, which has received the 

 name of Political Economy. 



The motive which suggests the separation of this portion of the 

 social phenomena from the rest, and the creation of a distinct science 

 relating to them, is — that they do mainly depend, at least in the first 

 j:esort, upon one class of circumstances only ; and that even when 

 other circumstances interfere, the ascertainment of the effect due to 

 the one class of circumstances alone, is a suflRciently intricate and 

 difficult business to make it expedient to perform it once for all, and 

 then allow for the effect of the modifying circumstances ; especially as 

 certain fixed combinations of the former are apt to recur often, in con- 

 junction with ever-varying circumstances of the latter class. 



Political Economy, as I have said on another occasion, concerns 

 itself only with "such of the phenomena of the social state as take 

 place in consequence of the pursuit of wealth. It makes entire abstrac- 

 tion of every other human passion or motive; except those which may 

 be regarded as perpetually antagonizing principles to the desire of 

 wealth, namely, aversion to labor, 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, occa- 

 sionally conflict with the pursuit of wealth, but accompany it always 

 as a drag or impediment, and are therefore inseparably mixed up in 

 the consideration of it. Political Economy considers mankind as oc- 

 cupied 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 ad- 

 verted 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 institution of property ; establishing laws to prevent 

 individuals from encroaching upon the property of others by force or 

 fraud ; adopting various contrivances for increasing the productiveness 

 of their labor ; settling the division of the produce by agi'eement, under 

 the influence of competition (competition itself being governed by cer- 

 tain 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 plurality of motives, arc coi> 



