monopolies of trade, being, that the virulence of the latter is much greater than is that of the former. The conqueror-seeking political power—is sometimes moved by a desire to improve the condition of his fellow-men; but the trader, in pursuit of power, is animated by no other idea than that of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest-cheapening merchandise in the one, even at the cost of starving the producers, and increasing his price in the other, even at the cost of starving the consumers. Both profit by whatever tends to diminution in the power of voluntary association, and consequent decline of comThe soldier forbids the holding of meetings among his subjects. The slave-owner interdicts his people from assembling together, except at such times, and in such places, as meet his approbation. The shipmaster rejoices when the men of England separate from each other, and transport themselves by hundreds of thousands to Canada and Australia, because it enhances freights; and the trader rejoices because the more widely men are scattered, the more they need the service of the middle-man, and the richer and more powerful does he become at their expense.

merce.

§ 6. Closely connected with the movements of the trader, and next in the order of development, come the labors given to effecting changes of place. In the early periods, these are almost altogether limited to changing the places of men who are held as slaves, as we see now to be the case in many parts of Africa; and to some extent in our Southern States. By degrees, however, the camel-driver, the wagoner, and the sailor, appear upon. the scene a highly important portion of society, because of the great quantity of muscular effort required for moving a little merchandise. Here, again, we see that the earliest in development is that which makes least demand for knowledge. To the wagoner, it is indifferent what it is he carries, whether cotton, rum, or prayer-books; and to the sailor, it is immaterial whether he carries gunpowder to the African, or clothing to the people of the Sandwich Islands — provided he is satisfied with the price paid for the work of transportation. With the growth of wealth and population, and consequent increase in the power of association, the necessity for transportation declines, while the facilities for effecting changes of place as steadily increase. The turnpike

road, and the railroad, replace in quick succession the Indian path, as the ship and the steamer replace the canoe; and with every step in this direction, there is a diminution in the proportion of society required to be so employed, accompanied by an increase in the proportion of the muscular and mental powers that may be given to the work of increasing the quantity of things susceptible of being carried.

§ 7. Next in the order of development come mechanical and chemical changes of matter in form, more concrete and special, and requiring a much higher degree of knowledge.

A branch torn from a tree sufficed Cain for the murder of his brother Abel; but he would have required to understand the nature of the material to be used for making a knife, before he could have converted it into a bow, or the trunk from which it had been torn, into a canoe. The skin may be torn from a deer and used for a garment; but it requires some knowledge to enable the poor savage of the West to convert it into a moccasin. The stone may be used as a weapon of offence, but it requires some acquaintance with the properties of matter to discover that it contains iron, and still further knowledge to be enabled to convert iron into swords and spades.

With that knowledge comes man's power over matter or, in other words, his wealth; and with every increase of power, he is more and more enabled to live in connection with his fellow-men -associating with them for the establishment, or maintenance, of their rights of person and of property. Motion becomes more continuous, with steady increase of its rapidity; and with every such increase society tends to take upon itself a more natural and consistent form the proportion of those who live by appropriation steadily declining, with corresponding increase in the proportion of those who live by the exertion of their physical and intellectual faculties. Right tends, therefore, to triumph over might, with diminution in the proportion of the labors of the community required for self-defence, and corresponding increase in the proportion that may be given to the work of obtaining power over the forces of nature; and with every step in this direction the feeling of the responsibility which attends the exercise of power tends steadily to increase.

§ 8. Following the above in order of development, come the labors given to effecting vital changes in the forms of matter, and attended with an augmentation of the quantity of things susceptible of being converted, transported, sold, or bought.

The labors of the miller make no change in the quantity of food to be eaten, nor do those of the spinner increase the quantity of cotton to be worn; but to those of the farmer we are indebted for an increase in the quantity of corn and of wool.

Man

The exercise of that power is limited to the earth alone. fashions and exchanges, but he cannot, with all his science, fashion the elements by which he is surrounded, into a grain of corn, or a lock of wool. A part of his labor being given to the fashioning of the great machine itself, produces changes that are permanent: the drain, once cut, remaining a drain; and the limestone, once reduced to lime, not again becoming limestone. Passing into the food of man and animals, it ever after takes its part in the same round with the clay with which it has been combined. The iron rusting, gradually passes into the soil, to take its part with the clay and the lime. That portion of man's labor gives him wages while preparing the machine for greater future production; but that which he expends in fashioning and exchanging the products of the machine produces temporary results, and gives him wages alone. Whatever tends to diminish the proportion of labor required for fashioning and exchanging, tends to augment the proportion that may be given to increasing the quantity of things that may be changed again in form, and to developing the powers of the earth; and thus, while increasing the present return to labor, preparing for further increase.

The first poor cultivator obtains for his year's wages a hundred bushels, the pounding of which between stones requires much labor; and yet is most imperfectly done. Had he a mill in the neighborhood, he would have better flour; and he would have almost his whole time to bestow upon his land. He pulls up his grain. Had he a scythe, he would have more time for the preparation of the machine of production. He loses his axe, and it requires many days of travel to enable him to obtain another. His machine loses the time and the manure, both of which would have been saved had the axe-maker been at hand.

The real advantage derived from the mill and the scythe, and from the proximity of the axe-maker, consists simply in economizing time, and enabling him to devote his labor more continuously to the improvement of the great machine of production; and such is the case with all the machinery of preparation and exchange. The plough enabling him to do as much in one day as with a spade he could do in many, the time thus gained may be applied to drainage. The steam-engine draining as much as without it would require thousands of days of labor, he has now more leisure to marl, or lime, his land. The more he can extract from his machine the greater is its value-everything he takes being, by the very act of taking it, changed in form to fit it for further production. The machine, therefore, improves by use, whereas spades, and ploughs, and steam-engines, and all other instruments used by man, are but the various forms into which he fashions parts of the great original machine, to disappear in the act of being used; as much so as food, though not quite so rapidly. The earth is the great labor savings' bank, and the value to man of all other things, is in the direct ratio of their tendency to aid him in increasing his deposits in that only bank whose dividends are constantly increasing, while its capital is perpetually augmenting. That it may continue for ever so to do, all that it asks is, that motion may be maintained by returning to it the refuse of its produce the manure; and that such may be the case, it is required that the consumer and the producer take their places by each other. That done, every change that is effected becomes permanent, and tends to facilitate other and greater changes. The whole business of the farmer consisting in making and improving soils, the earth rewards him for his kindness by giving him more and more food the more attention he bestows upon her.

The great pursuit of man is agriculture. It is the science that requires the greatest amount and variety of knowledge, and therefore is it that it is everywhere latest in development. It is only now, indeed, that it is becoming a science; and it is doing so by aid of geological, chemical, and physiological knowledge, the most of which is, itself, but the result of the labors of the present day. It is later, too, because most exposed to interference from soldiers, traders, and others engaged in the work of appropria

tion. The warrior feels himself safe within the walls of his cas tle; the trader, the shoemaker, the tailor, the maker of swords and battle-axes, shut themselves up within the town; and that town is itself always placed on the highest land of the neighborhood, with a view to the security of its occupants as may be seen in the early ones of Greece and India, Italy and France. The agricultural laborer, on the contrary, being forced to labor without the city walls, his property is ravaged on every occasion of difference between the trading community of which he forms a part, and those to which he is a neighbor. On every such occasion, motion is intermitted, and he is forced to seek protection for himself and his family within the city walls-a proceeding involving daily intermission of effort by reason of the distance between the scene of his daily labor and his place of refuge. The more the power of man over nature, the greater is the power of association for the general security, and the greater the tendency towards the maintenance of peace—and then it is that wealth tends to increase with daily augmenting force.

§ 9. Last in the order of development comes commerce. Every act of association being an act of commerce, the latter tends, necessarily, to increase as, with the growth of power over nature, men are enabled to obtain larger supplies of food from constantly diminishing surfaces. While cultivating the poor soils alone, and forced to remain distant from each other, the power to maintain commerce scarcely exists, as we see to be now the case in Russia, Portugal, Brazil, and Mexico; but then it is that the power of the soldier, the trader, and of others who live by appropriation, is the greatest. With the progress of population and wealth, men find themselves enabled to cultivate the rich soils of the earth; and now they have more leisure for the improvement of their minds, and for the construction of machinery required for obtaining increase of power. This, in turn, enables them to improve their modes of cultivation, while diversity of employment brings with it the power of association and the development of individuality, with greater feeling of responsibility, and greater power of progress; and thus it is that each helps, while being helped by, the others. The greater the commerce, the less is the necessity for the trader's services the less is the proportion required to pay