2 6. Power for evil, when wrongly directed, exists, everywhere, in the ratio 27. British system looks to diminishing the tax of transportation for the British people, but increasing it for the other nations of the world.... 28. Enormous power acquired by it, for the taxation of other communities. 412 409 21. Errors of the British system obvious to Adam Smith. His caution to his countrymen, in regard to the dangers necessarily incident to an exclu- sive dependence upon trade ................................................ 33. Growth of pauperism, under the British system, coincident with in- crease in the power of man to direct the natural forces....... 8 5. Equally injurious to the British people, and to those of other countries.. 421 26. By destroying among other people the power to sell their labor, it de- stroys competition for the purchase of British labor. Teaching, that to en- able capital to obtain a fair remuneration, labor must be kept down, it tends Approximation in the prices of raw materials and finished commodities, the one essential characteristic of civilization. British system looks to the prevention of that approximation. Its tendency towards reduction of other 29. Tends to increase the proportions of the various societies engaged in trade and transportation. That increase an evidence of declining civiliza- 21. Stoppage of the circulation a necessary consequence of the predomi- 43 .... 28. Diminution in the power of self-direction, in the people and the com- 29. Every measure tending to produce stoppage of the societary motion 23. Phenomena of society, as presented in the histories of Greece, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Portugal, and the British colonies......... 25. Laws of nature act always in the same direction. Oscillating motion of the theory of population, presented for consideration by Mr. Mal- 26. Inevitable tendency of the Ricardo-Malthusian doctrine, that of making slavery the ultimate condition of the laborer....................... PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. CHAPTER I. OF SCIENCE AND ITS METHODS. § 1. THE first man, when he had day after day, even for a single week, witnessed the rising and setting of the sun, and had seen that the former had invariably been accompanied by the presence of light, while the latter had as invariably been followed by its absence, had acquired the first rude elements of positive knowledge, or science. The cause-the sun's rising-being given, it would have been beyond his power to conceive that the effect should not follow. With further observation he learned to remark that at certain seasons of the year the luminary appeared to traverse particular portions of the heavens, and that then it was always warm, and the trees put forth leaves to be followed by fruit ; whereas, at others, it appeared to occupy other portions of the heavens, and then the fruit disappeared and the leaves fell, as a prelude to the winter's cold. Here was a further addition to his stock of knowledge, and, with it came foresight, and a feeling of the necessity for action. If he would live during the season of cold, he could do so only by preparing for it during the season of heat, a principle as thoroughly understood by the wandering Esquimaux of the shores of the Arctic Ocean, as by the most enlightened and eminent philosopher of Europe or America. Earliest among the ideas of such a man would be those of space, quantity, and form. The sun was obviously very remote, while of the trees some were distant and others were close at hand. The moon was single, while the stars were countless. The tree was tall, while the shrub was short. The hills were high, and tending towards a point, while the plains were low and flat. We have: |