next instant, having taken upon itself a higher form the wheat,

the cabbage, and the pork having become MAN, the being made in the likeness of his Creator, and capable of directing the forces of nature for the accomplishment of his purposes. The community thus becomes from hour to hour more wealthy than before: provided, always, that the capital, thus reproduced, be so directed that its consumption shall be in itself an act of reproduction. The power of man to change the forms of matter, so as to fit it to serve his purposes, greatly exceeds the demands of the animal man for food and clothing; and all the difference between the quantity of things consumed and the quantity produced, is so much added to the wealth of the community itself. Each of its individuals is, therefore, capable of adding largely to the general stock-replacing the quantity of food and clothing withdrawn by a larger quantity reproduced; and whether he shall do so, or not, is dependent altogether upon the existence of a demand for the services he is prepared to render. Where such demand exists, communities increase rapidly in wealth and power; but, where it does not, they decline as rapidly in both.

Among savages-the steady and regular demand for human effort being a thing unknown- the reproduction is small; and hence it is, that in that stage of society the disease of over-population so much exists. As numbers increase as wealth is accumulated. as men are more and more enabled to combine their efforts as commerce grows each and every man is more and more enabled to produce something to be given to other men, in exchange for the efforts he desires that they should make; and thus from day to day the demand for mental and physical effort becomes more continuous-with constantly augmenting power to furnish to the common stock a return exceeding in amount the capital that had been consumed.

Commerce, association, and society, being, as the reader has already seen, but different modes of expressing the same idea and all the power of man to control the forces of nature being consequent on the existence of the power of association and combination it follows, necessarily, that the more perfect the commerce, the more rapid will be the circulation; the more instant will be the demand for human force; the greater will be the returns to labor; and the larger will be the proportion borne by

the things produced to the things consumed. To the economy of power it is due that associated men so rapidly accumulate capital, by means of which they obtain increased command over the great natural forces, and are enabled to march steadily onward from triumph to triumph-each successive one being greater than that which had preceded it. Their pace is a constantly accelerated one; whereas, that of the savage, daily more and more obliged to waste his capital, is a constantly retarded one; and therefore it is, that while the former become from day to day more and more masters over nature and over themselves, the latter finds himself becoming constantly, more and more the slave of nature and of his fellow-men.

§ 2. As the bow, the knife, and the canoe have been called to the settler's aid, he has found, with each in succession, a diminution in the proportion of his labor required to be given to the search for the food voluntarily yielded by nature, and an increase in that which may be given to preparing the land around his house, with a view to compelling it to yield the supplies required. for his support. Scratching the earth with his indifferent machinery, he obtains small supplies of grain; but, small as they as yet are, their effect is that of greatly diminishing the necessity for effecting changes in the place of matter, and greatly increasing the time which may be given to production. In time, the force of running water, and that of the wind, are subdued to his serviceenabling him to give a constantly increased proportion of his own time and mind to the development of the various treasures of the earth bringing to light the materials for the machinery that he needs, or preparing the soil for the effectuation of those vital changes in the form of matter required for increasing the quantity of food, and of the raw material of clothing. The greater the quantity that can be obtained from any given surface, the greater will be the number of persons that can live together—the greater must be the power of association and combination-the more rapid must be the circulation the greater must be the development of individuality—the more instantly must the demand for physical and mental effort follow the consumption of the capital it represents the greater must be the proportion of that effort that can be given to developing the latent utilities of matter-and

the greater must be the tendency to the creation of local centres of activity, neutralizing the attractions of the political or trading capital. The earth being the great reservoir of power, the progress of man towards wealth and freedom, or poverty and slavery, is in the direct ratio of the increase or decrease of the proportion of his time and mind that can be given towards utilizing the forces that there exist latent, and waiting only his call to employ themselves in his service.

The motion of the isolated man is, as has been shown, the backward and forward one of the knife, or of the axe, employed in cutting and splitting wood. That of the man in a perfect. state of society — where each and every individual finds some one willing and able to compensate him for the exertion of his physical and mental faculties is similar to the continuous motion of the circular saw, by help of which as much work is done by a basketful of coal, yielded to half an hour's labor, as could, with the first rude knife, have been done by thousands of men. The quantity of power at the command of man, increases with every step in the direction of this latter point; and as with each there is a diminution in the quantity required for changing wool into cloth, or corn into bread, it follows, necessarily, that a larger proportion of the increased quantity is set free, to be applied to making additions to the supply of corn and wool. Hence it is that the supply of food and clothing at his command becomes, as employments are more diversified, far greater and more regular than it had been, when all were engaged in the effort to obtain food by following the chase, or by scratching the surface of the earth.

Admitting, however, that the powers of each individual remained entirely unchanged, and that the effect of increased facility of combination was to be found only in the economy resulting from increase of commerce, the following table would exhibit the changes thus effected :

§ 3. "Where food is regularly supplied," says Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, "a single farm will show more of cattle than a whole country of forests can show of buffaloes." So is it with man. Where food is regularly supplied, a single county will support a larger population than could have been supported by a whole kingdom, when its occupants were dependent upon the simple act of appropriation for their supplies; and the greater the numbers, the more perfect becomes the economy of labor, and the more rapid the increase of capital. The greater is then the tendency towards subjecting to cultivation the richer soils, with further increase in the supplies of food; and towards developing the mineral treasures of the earth, by help of which further to increase the power of man over the numerous and powerful forces of nature.

The savage, as we see, wastes nearly all his powers. The isolated settler wastes a large portion, as is seen in every slightlypeopled country. In the mountains of Thibet-there being no demand for labor — lamasaries, or monasteries, abound, filled with idle men, who live at the cost of others. So was it throughout Europe in the Middle Ages; and so is it now in Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Africa, and India, where almost all are engaged in the same pursuit; where there is no development of the individual faculties; and where, consequently, there is little commerce. Labor-power is, of all commodities, the most difficult to be transferred, and the most perishable; for, if not put at once to use, it is lost for ever.*

4. The proportions of waste and employed labor, as has above been shown, change with the growth of numbers, and the

*

*

*

"With respect to the transfer of labor, the assumption that labor flows easily from the less profitable to the more profitable employments, so as to produce something like an equilibrium of wages for equal kinds of effort and sacrifice, must evidently be taken with a large allowance for such differences, even in agricultural wages." "The wide divergence between the scientific postulate and the stubborn fact is still more fully brought home to us by a map in Mr. Caird's new book on Agriculture, in which England appears actually separated by a line into the regions of high and low wages, with an average difference between them of 37 per cent. In other words, masses of the population have been long festering in misery in the south, at some six or seven shillings of weekly earnings, while others have been at the same time obtaining nearly half as much again at the north, at the same kinds of employments."-LALOR: Money and Morals, p. 117.

society itself tends gradually to assume a form corresponding with that described in the last chapter; as is shown in the following table, representing its division at several successive periods :

།ཎྜ

100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

The proportion and quantity of the first steadily diminish. That this must be so, will be obvious to all who study the passage of man from the pursuits of the chase to the employments of civilized life and from the carriage of loads on the backs of men, to their transportation by help of the railroad car and its locomotive.

The proportion borne by the second to the total quantity of applied labor, is a diminishing one; and that this must necessarily be the case, will be obvious to those who remark how small is, in civilized society, the proportion borne by soldiers, fishermen, hunters, and others engaged in similar pursuits; and how large is the amount of business transacted by a single trader in a thickly-settled community, compared with that performed by half a dozen shopkeepers in small and scattered settlements. That the quantity increases as the proportion diminishes, will be clear to all who mark how numerous and distinct become the divisions into which, with the growth of society, trade resolves itself, with a view more perfectly to satisfy the wants of man-always increasing in number, and in intensity, with the increase of power for their gratification. So, too, with the third. The single steam-mill grinds as much grain as could be pounded into flour by thousands of hands armed with stones alone; and the cotton-mill does the work of thousands of spindles and hand-looms; but the quantity of muscular and intellectual effort given to the conversion of grain into flour, and cotton into cloth, increases as, with increase in the quantity of