will be within the reach of all who will labor to procure them.

Poverty, destitution, actual want for those that can and will labor need not, should not, exist. Every man's wages should be sufficient to provide for himself, and "those that are of his own household."

CHAPTER V.

OF POPULATION IN RELATION TO WEALTH.

The emergence from savagery to civilization-Tendency of savage life downwards-Civilization or education upwards-Numbers necessary to the use of the forces of nature-Origin and use of capital-Capital represents only labor-The first effect of an improvement-The second effect-The ways in which density of population affects wealth-(1) Division of laborSaving of capital-Increase of knowledge of materials-Increased skill and dexterity-Adaptation of natural abilities— Saving the time of others-Division of labor implies co-opera-tion-Limits to the division of labor—(11) Saving in the cost of exchanges-Saving in labor and travel-Saving in the cost of roads-Saving in teams, etc.-The saving by living in villages -(III) Increased stimulus to production—(IV) Articles come to have new values-(v) Increase in the proportion of agricultural population-Modifying considerations-Waste in relation to the increase of wealth-Unproductive capital-Moral influence of having the producer and the consumer near together.

It is customary in the discussions of Political Economy, to consider man as having begun his career on earth in the lowest state of savagery, and as

having gradually grown up to the present state of civilization. This assumption with regard to his civilized condition may be all wrong, and in fact, I believe it is so. But we are obliged, nevertheless, to contemplate society as either advancing or retrograding. And for the most part, we have to consider it as beginning at a very low state, and advancing up towards a higher and better one.

79.

The emergence from savagery to civilization.

Suppose then, a savage population on some island, or in some river-basin, surrounded by mountains, or deserts, or other nearly impassable barriers; they would soon increase in numbers, until the territory they inhabit would no longer support them as savages. One of two things-emigration being left out of the account-must occur. Either (1) they must resort to infanticide, to the killing of the old and the infirm, and very likely cannibalism—or (2). they must go to work, domesticate the useful animals and cultivate the soil.

80. Tendency of savage life downwards.

And the alternative is one of tremendous importance. It is one of the turning points, one of the places where the ways divide off, and lead to the

most widely different and most important results. If they are indolent and brutal enough to take the one course—the first named-they become more and more brutalized by the habits to which that course leads them. It deadens the domestic affections, and aggravates all the baser, lower and more brutal passions. It is the beginning of an education downwards towards something that is lower than mere brute beasts can ever become. It is the savagery of natural history and of fact, as we find it now in some of the darkest corners of the earth, and in abodes of the most degraded men in some of our large cities. Thus, not the manly, heroic, noble creature which constitutes the savage of the poets and romancers, but rather something "having" as has been said, "nothing of humanity but the form," is the result of this course.

81. Civilization an education upwards.

But if a man loves his wife and children, his father and mother, an invalid sister, or a disabled brother, well enough to go to work and endure the hardships of toil and privation himself, rather than that they should suffer and want, he has taken the step that develops all of nobleness and manhood that is in him, and leads to all of civilization, enlightenment and culture, of which his nature is

capable.

Now begins self-control and the development of strength, the subordination of the lower, animal appetites to the higher affections. The institution of property, the idea of law, a sense of duty and moral obligation, all follow from the one first step in this direction. And as the lowest savagery cannot be found or attained, except in a dense population under degrading influences, so, on the other hand, the highest civilization cannot be reached except where the population is somewhat dense.

82. Numbers necessary to the use of the forces of

nature.

We have seen that wealth is the product of labor guiding the forces of nature bestowed on the things of nature. The labor is performed by man, and men are divided primarily with reference to this labor, into three classes-producers, manufacturers, and traders. Each of these classes however must be still farther divided, in order to secure any very great efficiency, and may be subdivided many times, with increase of efficiency at each step, for the production of value.

This subdivision requires not only some considerable numbers, but also both division of labor and exchange between the different laborers of the different classes.