December 10, 1886.J 



SCIEN^CE. 



551 



dise. One beheld and died. One beheld and lost 

 his senses. One destroyed the young plants. 

 One only entered in peace and came out in 

 peace." Many are the mystic and cabalistic in- 

 terpretations which have been given of this say- 

 ing ; and if for ' Paradise ' we read the ' world of 

 knowledge,' each of you can no doubt best in- 

 terpret the parable for himself. Speaking to a 

 body of scientific men, each of whom has, I hope, 

 also certain unscientific beliefs, desires, hopes, and 

 longings, I will only say, ' Be strong and of a good 

 courage.' As scientific men, let us try to increase 

 and diffuse knowledge ; as men and citizens, let us 

 try to be useful ; and, in each capacity, let us do 

 the work that comes to us honestly and thorough- 

 ly, and fear not the unknown future. 



When we examine that wonderful series of 

 wave-marks which we call the spectrum, we find, 

 as we go downwards, that the vibrations become 

 slower, the dark bands wider, until at last we 

 reach a point where there seems to be no more 

 movement ; the blackness is continuous, the ray 

 seems dead. Yet within this year Langley has 

 found that a very long way lower down the pulsa- 

 tions again appear, and form, as it were, another 

 spectrum ; they never really ceased, but only 

 changed in rhythm, requiring new apparatus or 

 new senses to appreciate them. And it may 

 well be that our human life is only the lower 

 spectrum, and that beyond and above the broad 

 black band which we call death there are other 

 modes of impulses, — another spectrum which 

 registers the ceaseless beats of waves from the 

 great central fountain of force, the heart of the 

 universe, in modes of existence of which we can 

 but dimly dream. 



CLARK'S PHILOSOPHY OF WEALTH. 



' A REMARKABLE book ! ' Such is my involun- 

 tary exclamation as I finish reading Professor 

 Clark's book, ' The philosophy of wealth.' In 

 reviewing it I suffer in several ways under an 

 ' embarrassment of riches.' There are so many 

 excellent features of the work that it is difficult 

 to select one or two for treatment, and there are 

 so many passages in my copy marked for quo- 

 tation that they would occupy far more space 

 than can be given to the entire review. It seems, 

 under the circumstances, best to abandon any 

 idea of an exhaustive treatment of this admirable 

 book, and simply attempt to notice a few of its 

 characteristics in the hope that many may be 

 induced to confer a benefit on themselves by 

 its perusal. 



The philosophy of wealth. By J. B. Clabk. Boston, 

 Ginn, 1886. 12". 



' The philosophy of wealth ' is a treatment of 

 fundamental principles in economics, in which 

 every page is luminous with clear analysis and 

 profound thought. Yet the entire work is most 

 practical, and should attract the attention of all 

 interested in the problems of the day ; for nothing 

 is more needed at the present time than deeper 

 knowledge. People lose themselves in a maze of 

 stock-phrases, and continue to move in the same 

 weary circle because they fail to grasp primary 

 principles. 



Professor Clark very properly lays emphasis on 

 this point in his first chapter. He says, " If ob- 

 scurity still hangs over principles, the clear appre- 

 hension of which is essential to all reasoning on 

 the subject, the removal of it, besides having an 

 incalculable value in itself, will afford a welcome 

 supplement to directly practical work. It will 

 shed light on the pressing social questions of the 

 day. In the present state of the public mind, for 

 example, financial heresies and strange teachings 

 concerning the rights of property find a ready 

 circulation ; and if these false doctrines connect 

 themselves, even remotely, with fundamental 

 errors of political economy, then the assault upon 

 the practical fallacies can never be quite success- 

 ful until the underlying errors be exposed and 

 corrected. Questions on the solution of which 

 the general prosperity depends cannot be solved 

 without the clear apprehension of correct prin- 

 ciples." 



The scope of the work may most readily be 

 gathered from the titles of the chapters, which 

 are the following : Wealth ; Labor and its relation 

 to wealth ; The basis of economic law ; The ele- 

 ments of social service ; The theory of value ; 

 The law of demand and supply ; The law of dis- 

 tribution ; Wages as affected by combinations ; 

 The ethics of trade ; The principles of co-opera- 

 tion : Non-competitive economics ; The economic 

 function of the church. 



One of the best examples of clear analysis of 

 economic phenomena is found in the discussion of 

 utilities. There is first a distinction between abso- 

 lute and effective utility, which explains satisfac- 

 torily the apparent contradiction, found in old 

 treatises, between high value in use and low value 

 in exchange. Water is said to be useful, for 

 example, but to have no value. The logical am- 

 biguity lies in this : when we say water is more 

 useful than diamonds, we think of water in the 

 abstract ; when we say water has no value, we 

 think of a definite concrete amount of water, a 

 glassful for example. But that has also very little 

 use. If my glass is upset, I do not grieve : I have 

 no special attachment to that j)articular concrete 

 water, and I get some more without difficulty. 



