The essays are finely written, full of subtle analy-
sis and truthful illustration.
sis and truthful illustration.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v21 to v25 - Rab to Tur
Where is thy bold ambition?
To what base use hast placed thy ancient fame?
Is't cast aside like to some foolish toy
Ronelva-
[He approaches.
Hast thou returned
From some new expedition. Is thy brow
Covered with laurels, and thy stores
Replete with plunder? Do I hear the shouts,
Th' applause of the Litwanians, hailing thee
As conqueror? Returnest thou from Zmudie,
From Dwina's shores triumphant? Has the Russian Bear
Trembled before thy sword? Does Halicz fear
Thy angry frown? Speak! with a mother's tears
I'll hail the conqueror.
No longer worth the hoarding? Shame upon
Thy craven spirit! Canst thou live without
That glorious food, which e'en a peasant craves,
Holding it worthless as thy mother's love,
And thy brave father's faith?
Nay, mother, nay!
Dismiss these foolish fancies from thy brain.
Behold! my jeweled brow is bent before thee.
Oh, bless thy son!
Thou vile apostate! Thou
Dare ask for approbation? Thou! -I curse thee!
## p. 13513 (#327) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13513
Mindowe-
Ronelva
Mindowe
Sorrow and hate pursue thy faltering steps.
Still may thy foes prove victors; subjects false;
Thy drink be venom, and thy joy be woe.
Thy mind filled with remorse, still mayst thou live,
Seeking for death, but wooing it in vain,—
A foul, detested, blasted renegade.
――――
I have bestowed to earth a viper; but
From thee shall vipers spring, who like their sire
Shall traitors be unto their native land,
Heidenric
And eager plunge them into ruin's stream!
Depart! and bear thy mother's curse!
Mindowe [speaking as though awe-stricken] -
Heard ye that curse?
Heidenric-
-
My mother-
Call me not mother, viper!
I do disclaim thee;- thee and all thy seed!
[Exit Ronelva, leaning on Troinace.
-
What are the frantic words
Of a revengeful woman? Empty air-
A mother's curse! It carries pestilence,
Blight, misery, and sorrow in its train.
No matter! It is, as the legate says,
But "empty air. »
[To Heidenric]— What message do you bear?
Thus to the great Litwanian king, Pope Innocent
(Fourth of the name who've worn the papal crown)
Sends greeting: Thou whose power extends
From farthest Baltic to the shores of Crim,
Go on and prosper. Though unto thy creed
He thinks thy heart is true, still would he prove -
[Mindowe starts, and exclaims "Ha! "]
Send thou to him as neighboring monarchs do
An annual tribute. So he'll bless thy arms
That ere another year elapses Russ' shall yield,
And Halicz fall before thy conquering sword.
Mindowe Thanks to the Pope. I'll profit by his leave;
I'll throw my troops in Muscovy, and scourge
The hordes of Halicz, move in every place
Like an avenging brand, and say The Pope
Hath given me power. But, hark ye! legate,
What needs so great a priest as he of Rome
Mother,
―――――
## p. 13514 (#328) ##########################################
13514
JULIUS SLOWACKI
With my red gold to buy him corn and oil?
Explain! I do not understand the riddle.
Heidenric-He merely asks it as a pledge of friendship,
But nothing more. The proudest kings of Europe
Yield him such tribute.
Mindowe
Heidenric-
A gift-
A precious relic of most potent virtue.
Thou'st heard of St. Sebastian? holy man!
He died a martyr. This which brought him death
Is sent unto thee by his Holiness
[Presents a rusty spear-head. ]
Mindowe - Fie on such relics! I could give thy Pope
A thousand such! This dagger by my side
Had hung from childhood. It has drunk the blood
Of many a foe that vexed my wrath; and oft
Among them there were men, and holy men,
As holy, sir, as e'er was St. Sebastian.
Heidenric-Peace, thou blasphemer!
Mindowe [angrily]-
How! dost thou wish thy head
To stand in safety on thy shoulders?
What means this insolence, sir legate?
Think'st thou that I shall kneel, and bow, and fawn,
And put thy master's iron yoke upon me?
They act not freely whom the fetters bind,
And none shall forge such galling chains for me!
There's not one more Mindowe in the world,
Nor is your Pope a crowned Litwanian king.
Heidenric-I speak but as the representative
Of power supreme o'er earthly monarchs.
Mindowe Thou doest well to shelter thus thyself
Under the shield of thy legation. Hast
Aught more to utter of thy master's words,
Aught more to give?
I have a gift to make
Unto thy queen.
The queen hath lain, sir prince,
In cold corruption for a twelvemonth back.
What means this mockery?
Heidenric
Tribute! -base priest!
Whene'er thy master asks for tribute, this-
[Striking his sword. ]
Is my reply. What hast thou there?
Mindowe —
—
## p. 13515 (#329) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13515
Heidenric-
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
-
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
Aldona -
It was not known unto his Holiness.
The forests of Litwania are so dark
They shut her doings from her neighbor's ken.
If then the queen be dead, who shall receive
This goodly gift?
My mother
If I may judge
By what I heard e'en now, she'd not accept
Our offering.
Mindowe
Then give the gorgeous gaw
To Lawski's widow-she who soon will be
My crownèd queen.
Summon her hither, page.
Heidenric [aside] -
--
Pardon, my lord!
Mindowe [to Lawski]-
Attendants, take from hence these costly gifts,
And give them in the royal treasurer's care. -
[Exit Attendants.
Enter Aldona
Here comes my spotless pearl, the fair Aldona,
The choicest flower of the Litwanian vales.
Address thy speech to her.
Beauteous maid,
Accept these golden flowers from Tiber's banks,
Where they have grown, nursed by the beams of faith.
Nor deem them less in value that they are
By the brighter lustre of thine eyes eclipsed.
These costly jewels and the glare of gold,
Albeit they suit not my mourning weeds,
May serve as dying ornaments. As such
I will accept them.
Ay! I warrant me.
Like to most women, she accepts the gift,
Nor farther questions. Gold is always-gold.
[Motions to Lawski to approach Aldona. He does so, tremblingly. ]
Thou tremblest, Teuton!
[Exit Page.
[Lawski raises his visor as he approaches Aldona. She recognizes his feat-
ures, shrieks, and falls. Exit Lawski. ]
Without there!
Help there she swoons!
――――――
## p. 13516 (#330) ##########################################
13516
JULIUS SLOWACKI
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
Enter Attendants
Lutuver
Bear her hence. Pursue that knight.
[Exit Attendants with Aldona.
To Heidenric] - What means this mystery?
He said that he had vowed whilst in our train
For certain time to keep his visor down.
He's taciturn. This with his saddened air,
Together with the rose upon his helm,
The emblem of the factious house of York,
Bespeaks him English to my thought, at least.
Mindowe - Think ye such poor devices can deceive?
Lutuver-
-
I know not, sire.
――――
He is a spy ·
a base, deceitful spy.
Begone! for by my father's sepulchre
I see a dagger in my path. Begone!
I did so, sire,
But 'f all the group I least suspected him
Of treasonable practices. He's silent,
For no one understands his language here;
He keeps aloof from men, because he's sad;
He's sad, because he's poor: so ends that knight.
Mindowe [not heeding him]-
I tell thee that my very soul's pulse throbbed,
And my heart cast with quicker flow my blood,
When that young knight approached Aldona.
Now, by the gods, I do believe 'tis he-
The banished Lawski-here to dog my steps:
What thinkest thou, Lutuver?
[Exit Heidenric and Herman.
Approach, Lutuver. Didst thou see that knight
Who left so suddenly?
[Muses. ]
Slay him, sire!
If it be he, he's taken from my path;
If not-to slay a Teuton is no crime.
Mindowe Thou counselest zealously. But still, thy words
Fall not upon an ear which thinks them good.
I tell thee that this Lawski is my bane,
A living poison rankling 'fore mine eyes.
Men prate about the virtues of the man:
And if a timorous leaning to the right,
From fear to follow where the wrong directs,
Be virtue, then is he a paragon.
No wonder we are deadly foes. To me
## p. 13517 (#331) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13517
The brightness which is shed o'er all his deeds,
When placed in contact with my smothered hate,
Seems as the splendor of the noonday sun
Glancing upon some idol's horrid form,
Making its rude appearance ruder still.
One word of mine, Lutuver, might destroy
This abject snail, who crawling near my hope
Hath scared it off. But I would have him live,
And when he meets his adorable wife,--
When in th' excess of 'raptured happiness
Each fibre fills with plenitude of joy,
And naught of bliss is left to hope for, then
At fair Aldona's feet shall he expire,
And the full heart just beating 'gainst her own
Shall yield its living current for revenge.
And she-his wife-to whom I knelt in vain,
Who oft has said she courted my dislike,
And wished I'd hate her,- she shall have her wish.
[Exeunt Mindowe and Lutuver, as the curtain falls.
-
――――――――
I AM SO SAD, O GOD!
From Poets and Poetry of Poland. Copyright 1881, by Paul Soboleski
AM SO sad, O God! Thou hast before me
I
Spread a bright rainbow in the western skies,
But thou hast quenched in darkness cold and stormy
The brighter stars tha rise;
Clear grows the heaven 'neath thy transforming rod:
Still I am sad, O God!
Like empty ears of grain, with heads erected,
Have I delighted stood amid the crowd,
My face the while to stranger eyes reflected
The calm of summer's cloud;
But thou dost know the ways that I have trod,
And why I grieve, O God!
I am like to a weary infant fretting
Whene'er its mother leaves it for a while:
And grieving watch the sun, whose light in setting
Throws back a parting smile;
Though it will bathe anew the morning sod,
Still I am sad, O God!
## p. 13518 (#332) ##########################################
13518
JULIUS SLOWACKI
To-day o'er the wide waste of ocean sweeping,
Hundreds of miles away from shore or rock,
I saw the cranes fly on, together keeping
In one unbroken flock;
Their feet with soil from Poland's hills were shod,
And I was sad, O God!
Often by strangers' tombs I've lingered weary,
Since, grown a stranger to my native ways,
I walk a pilgrim through a desert dreary,
Lit but by lightning's blaze,
Knowing not where shall fall the burial clod
Upon my bier, O God!
Some time hereafter will my bones lie whitened,
Somewhere on strangers' soil, I know not where:
I envy those whose dying hours are lightened,
Fanned by their native air;
But flowers of some strange land will spring and nod
Above my grave, O God!
When, but a guileless child at home, they bade me
To pray each day for home restored, I found
My bark was steering-how the thought dismayed me—
The whole wide world around!
Those prayers unanswered, wearily I plod
Through rugged ways, O God!
Upon the rainbow, whose resplendent rafter
Thy angels rear above us in the sky,
Others will look a hundred years hereafter,
And pass away as I;
Exiled and hopeless 'neath thy chastening rod,
And sad as I, O God!
## p. 13519 (#333) ##########################################
13519
ADAM SMITH
(1723-1790)
BY RICHARD T. ELY
SPEAK of Adam Smith as the author of The Wealth of
Nations' brings before us at once his chief claim to a
place among the immortals in literature. The significance
of this work is so overwhelming that it casts into a dark shadow all
that he wrote in addition to this masterpiece. His other writings are
chiefly valued in so far as they may throw additional light upon the
doctrines of this one book. Few books in
the world's history have exerted a greater
influence on the course of human affairs;
and on account of this one work, Adam
Smith's name is familiar to all well-educated
persons in every civilized land.
Rarely does a man occupy so prominent
a position in human thought, whose person-
ality is so vague and elusive. He is gen-
erally so described that the impression is
produced of a dull and uninteresting man.
Quite the opposite must have been the
case, however; for even the few incidents
recorded of his life are sufficient to show
us, when we think about it, that he must
have been a delightful friend and companion. Adam Smith is gener-
ally associated in the popular mind with weighty disquisitions on free
trade, on labor, on value, and other economic topics; but his life was
by no means devoid of romantic touches.
ADAM SMITH
Adam Smith was born of respectable parents-his father being
a well-connected lawyer- at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on June 5th, 1723.
His father had died three months before his birth; but he was
brought up and well educated by his mother, to whom he was most
devotedly attached. It is said, indeed, that he never recovered from
his mother's death, which took place when he was sixty years of age.
After attending a school in his native town, he was sent to the
University of Glasgow at the age of fourteen; and three years later,
obtaining an "exhibition," - or, as we say in the United States, a
scholarship, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he remained
## p. 13520 (#334) ##########################################
13520
ADAM SMITH
for more than six years. In 1748 he moved to Edinburgh, and deliv-
ered public lectures on rhetoric and belles-lettres. Three years later
he was appointed professor of logic in Glasgow University, and four
years later he exchanged his professorship for that of moral philoso-
phy. In 1763 he resigned his professorship, and traveled for three
years on the Continent of Europe as tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch.
From 1766 to 1776 he lived in retirement, engaged in the prepara-
tion of his great work, 'The Wealth of Nations,' which appeared in
the latter year and very soon made him famous. During the years
1776 to 1778 he lived in London, mingling with the best literary
society of the time. The year last named witnessed his return to
his native Scotland, where he chose Edinburgh as his home for the
rest of his life. Three years before his death, which occurred in
1790, he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and
was highly gratified by the honor conferred upon him.
Adam Smith was a bachelor; but we are told by Dugald Stewart,
his biographer, that he had once been warmly attached to a beautiful
and accomplished young lady. It is not known why it was that their
union was never consummated: neither one ever married. Dugald
Stewart saw the lady after the death of Adam Smith, when she was
upwards of eighty; and he stated that she "still retained evident
traces of her former beauty. The power of her understanding and
the gayety of her temper seemed to have suffered nothing from the
hand of time. "
Adam Smith was not a voluminous writer, and some of the MSS.
which he did compose were destroyed by his order. His works, how-
ever, show a wide range of thought and study. One brief treatise of
some note is entitled 'A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages. '
Three essays deal with the Principles which Lead and Direct Philo-
sophical Inquiries as Illustrated' - first, by the History of Ancient
Astronomy; second, by the History of Ancient Physics'; third, by
'Ancient Logic and Metaphysics. ' Other essays are on 'The Imi-
tative Arts'; 'Music,' 'Dancing,' 'Poetry'; 'The External Senses';
'English and Italian Verses. '
(
A few words must be devoted to the Theory of Moral Senti-
ments' before hastening on to the 'Wealth of Nations. ' The former
is an ambitious work, and one which in itself has considerable merit.
Moreover, it is significant because it is part of a large treatise on
moral philosophy which Smith planned. This treatise was to have
embraced four parts: first, 'Natural Theology'; second, 'Ethics';
third, 'Jurisprudence'; fourth, Police, Revenue, and Arms. ' The sec-
ond part is The Moral Sentiments'; and in the Wealth of Nations'
he presented the fourth part, as he himself tells us. Unfortunately,
he has not given the world the first and third parts, which however
## p. 13521 (#335) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13521
were embraced in his lectures to his students while he was professor
of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments,' it has been maintained, would
have achieved renown for its author, and a place for him in liter-
ature, had it been presented to the world simply as a collection of
essays on the topics with which it deals; viz. , the Propriety and
Impropriety of Actions,' their 'Merit and Demerit,' 'Virtue,' 'Just-
ice, Duty,' etc.
The essays are finely written, full of subtle analy-
sis and truthful illustration. The book is least significant, however,
as philosophy; because it lacks any profound examination of the
foundation upon which the author's views rest.
The guiding principle of the 'Moral Sentiments' is sympathy,
or fellow feeling; not merely pity or compassion, but feeling with
our fellows in their joys as well as sorrows. This sympathy is
distinguished from self-love, and it is described as something given
to man by nature. This idea is brought out by the opening words,
which are these: "How selfish soever man may be supposed, there
is evidently some principle in his nature which interests him in
the fortune of others, and renders their happiness necessary to him;
though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. "
The full title of Adam Smith's great work, ordinarily given as
simply the Wealth of Nations,' is 'An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations. ' The date of the appearance of
this book - viz. , 1776— is a significant one, for it recalls the Declara-
tion of Independence. Both of them were the outcome of the same
political and social philosophy; both of them were protests against
ancient wrongs and abuses.
The 'Wealth of Nations' appeared when the industrial revolution
was fairly under way; inventions and discoveries had begun their
transformation of industrial society. Old forms and methods were no
longer sufficient for the growing, expanding life of this "springtime
of the nations"; these springtimes of the nations recur at intervals,
and a great deal of rubbish has to be cleared away to make room for
new life. Adam Smith's work was largely negative. One biographer
of him, Mr. R. B. Haldane, speaks of him as "one of the greatest
vanquishers of error on record. " He regarded himself as the advo-
cate of a system of natural liberty: "nature" and "liberty" are two
perpetually recurring words; they must be associated, to understand.
the economic philosophy of the Wealth of Nations. ' One of the
assumptions underlying this book is that of a beneficent order of
nature lying back of all human institutions. The cry of the age was
"back to nature. " Rousseau gave loud utterance to this watchword,
and it was echoed and re-echoed by the writers and thinkers of
the eighteenth century, both great and small. Nature, it was held,
XXIII-846
## p. 13522 (#336) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13522
has done all things well; everything proceeding from the hands of
nature is good: what is evil in the world is man's artificial product;
before man interfered with nature there was the "golden age," and
to this "golden age" we must somehow get back. We must break
away from human contrivances, and seek for the order prescribed
by nature. Consequently we have perpetually recurring demand for
natural rights, natural liberty, natural law.
Nature has implanted in man self-interest, and the operation of
self-interest in the individual man is socially beneficent. Nature has
so ordered things that each man in seeking his own welfare will
best promote the welfare of his fellows. We must simply leave
nature alone, and give fair play to natural forces to bring about the
largest production of wealth. The causes of the wealth of nations
must be sought in the manifold actions of self-interest of individu-
als. The Wealth of Nations,' then, is a protest against restraints
and restrictions; it is directed against what was held to be the over-
government, but what subsequent history has shown to be rather
the unwise and unjust government, of that period. Careful exam-
ination of modern nations, especially as revealed in their financial
expenditures, shows that as modern nations have progressed, the act-
ivities of government have undergone immense expansion, but have
changed their direction and have altered their methods; their spirit
and purpose are different.
The abuses against which Adam Smith chiefly protested were
restrictions upon the freedom of trade, and the exclusive privileges
of ancient guilds and corporations, and laws directed against labor.
He was in principle a free-trader. His anti-monopoly views, however,
are equally pronounced.
It is important to notice one thing in connection with Adam
Smith's protest against labor laws; and that is, that he had in mind
laws aimed to control labor in the interest of the employer, and not
laws like our modern labor laws, the purpose of which is to protect
and advance the interests of labor. He said, indeed, in one place,
that if any labor law should chance to be in the interest of labor, it
was sure to be a just law. This ought not to be forgotten in com-
paring his spirit with that of modern writers who protest against
labor legislation. He was warmly humanitarian, and his ruling pas-
sion was to benefit mankind. On his death-bed he expressed regret
that he had been able to do so little.
Adam Smith was far from being a mere doctrinaire. He had the
practical disposition of the Scotchman, and was a close observer of
life. Common-sense, then, was one of his chief characteristics; and
he never hesitated to make exceptions to general principles when this
was required by concrete conditions. Free trade, for example, was
## p. 13523 (#337) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13523
a good thing; but he at once recognized that changes in tariff poli-
cies must be made with due regard to existing interests which had
grown up under a different policy. Private action in the sphere of
education was in accord with his philosophy; yet he could say that
under certain circumstances it might be wise for the government to
foster education, especially in a country with democratic institutions.
Even in so brief a sketch as this, a word must be said about
Adam Smith's position with respect to labor. He opens the 'Wealth
of Nations' with the statement that "The annual labor of every
nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessa-
ries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes. " One school
of writers, the Mercantilists, had held that the main thing in the
advancement of the wealth of nations was foreign trade. A later
school, valued highly by Smith,- viz. , the Physiocrats,- had main-
tained that in the rent of land must be sought the causes of the
increase of wealth. It is doubtless as a protest against both these
schools that Adam Smith states that the original fund of wealth is
labor. He wants to make labor central and pivotal. Rodbertus, the
German socialist, has claimed that his socialism consists simply in an
elaboration of Adam Smith's doctrine of labor; but this is undoubt-
edly going too far.
All the economists before the time of Adam Smith must be re-
garded as his predecessors; all the economists who have lived since
Adam Smith have carried on his work: and his position in econom-
ics is therefore somewhat like that of Darwin in natural science. There
are many schools among modern economists, but their work all stands
in some relation to that large work of this "old master. "
The centenary of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations' was cele-
brated in 1876; and it was at that time stated that no other work
had enjoyed the honor of a centennial commemoration. Statesmen in
all nations have been influenced by it. Buckle, with his customary
exaggeration, makes this statement: "Well may it be said of Adam
Smith, and that too without fear of contradiction, that this solitary
Scotchman has, by the publication of one single work, contributed
more to the happiness of man than has been effected by the united
abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has pre-
sented an authentic account. " Even the more careful Bagehot used
these words: "The life of nearly every one in England - perhaps of
every one-is different and better in consequence of it. No other
form of political philosophy has ever had one thousandth part of the
influence on us. "
Richard
даву
## p. 13524 (#338) ##########################################
13524
ADAM SMITH
THE PRUDENT MAN
From the Theory of Moral Sentiments›
THE
HE prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to
understand whatever he professes to understand, and not
merely to persuade other people that he understands it;
and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are
always perfectly genuine. He neither endeavors to impose upon
you by the cunning devices of an artful impostor, nor by the
arrogant airs of an assuming pedant, nor by the confident asser-
tions of a superficial and impudent pretender: he is not osten-
tatious even of the abilities which he really possesses. His
conversation is simple and modest; and he is averse to all the
quackish arts by which other people so frequently thrust them-
selves into public notice and reputation. For reputation in his
profession he is naturally disposed to rely a good deal upon the
solidity of his knowledge and abilities: and he does not always
think of cultivating the favor of those little clubs and cabals,
who, in the superior arts and sciences, so often erect themselves
into the supreme judges of merit; and who make it their busi-
ness to celebrate the talents and virtues of one another, and to
decry whatever can come into competition with them. If he ever
connects himself with any society of this kind, it is merely in
self-defense; not with a view to impose upon the public, but to
hinder the public from being imposed upon, to his disadvantage,
by the clamors, the whispers, or the intrigues, either of that par-
ticular society or of some other of the same kind.
The prudent man is always sincere; and feels horror at the
very thought of exposing himself to the disgrace which attends
upon the detection of falsehood. But though always sincere, he
is not always frank and open; and though he never tells anything
but the truth, he does not always think himself bound, when not
properly called upon, to tell the whole truth. As he is cautious
in his actions, so he is reserved in his speech; and never rashly
or unnecessarily obtrudes his opinion concerning either things or
persons.
The prudent man, though not always distinguished by the
most exquisite sensibility, is always very capable of friendship.
But his friendship is not that ardent and passionate but too often
transitory affection, which appears so delicious to the generosity
of youth and inexperience. It is a sedate but steady and faith-
ful attachment to a few well-tried and well-chosen companions;
## p. 13525 (#339) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13525
in the choice of whom he is guided not by the giddy admiration
of shining accomplishments, but by the sober esteem of modesty,
discretion, and good conduct. But though capable of friendship,
he is not always much disposed to general sociality. He rarely
frequents, and more rarely figures in, those convivial societies.
which are distinguished for the jollity and gayety of their con-
versation. Their way of life might too often interfere with the
regularity of his temperance, might interrupt the steadiness of
his industry, or break in upon the strictness of his frugality.
But though his conversation may not always be very sprightly
or diverting, it is always perfectly inoffensive. He hates the
thought of being guilty of any petulance or rudeness; he never
assumes impertinently over anybody, and upon all common occas-
ions is willing to place himself rather below than above his
equals. Both in his conduct and conversation he is an exact
observer of decency; and respects, with an almost religious scru-
pulosity, all the established decorums and ceremonials of society.
And in this respect he sets a much better example than has fre-
quently been done by men of much more splendid talents and
virtues, who in all ages-from that of Socrates and Aristip-
pus down to that of Dr. Swift and Voltaire, and from that of
Philip and Alexander the Great down to that of the great Czar
Peter of Moscovy-have too often distinguished themselves by
the most improper and even insolent contempt of all the ordi-
nary decorums of life and conversation, and who have thereby
set the most pernicious example to those who wish to resemble
them, and who too often content themselves with imitating their
follies without even attempting to attain their perfections.
In the steadiness of his industry and frugality, in his steadily
sacrificing the ease and enjoyment of the present moment for the
probable expectation of the still greater ease and enjoyment of a
more distant but more lasting period of time, the prudent man
is always both supported and rewarded by the entire approbation
of the impartial spectator, and of the representative of the
impartial spectator,- the man within the breast. The impartial
spectator does not feel himself worn out by the present labor
of those whose conduct he surveys; nor does he feel himself
solicited by the importunate calls of their present appetites. To
him their present, and what is likely to be their future, situation
are very nearly the same; he sees them nearly at the same dis-
tance, and is affected by them very nearly in the same manner:
he knows, however, that to the persons principally concerned.
## p. 13526 (#340) ##########################################
13526
ADAM SMITH
.
they are very far from being the same, and that they naturally
affect them in a very different manner. He cannot therefore
but approve, and even applaud, that proper exertion of self-
command which enables them to act as if their present and their
future situation affected them nearly in the same manner in
which they affect him.
The man who lives within his income is naturally contented
with his situation, which by continual though small accumulations
is growing better and better every day. He is enabled gradually
to relax, both in the rigor of his parsimony and in the sever-
ity of his application; and he feels with double satisfaction this
gradual increase of ease and enjoyment, from having felt before
the hardship which attended the want of them. He has no
anxiety to change so comfortable a situation; and does not go
in quest of new enterprises and adventures, which might endan-
ger, but could not well increase, the secure tranquillity which he
actually enjoys. If he enters into any new projects or enter-
prises, they are likely to be well concerted and well prepared.
He can never be hurried or driven into them by any necessity,
but has always time and leisure to deliberate soberly and coolly
concerning what are likely to be their consequences.
The prudent man is not willing to subject himself to any
responsibility which his duty does not impose upon him. He is
not a bustler in business where he has no concern; is not a
meddler in other people's affairs; is not a professed counselor
or adviser, who obtrudes his advice where nobody is asking it;
he confines himself, as much as his duty will permit, to his own
affairs, and has no taste for that foolish importance which many
people wish to derive from appearing to have some influence in
the management of those of other people; he is averse to enter
into any party disputes, hates faction, and is not always very
forward to listen to the voice even of noble and great ambition.
When distinctly called upon, he will not decline the service of
his country; but he will not cabal in order to force himself into
it, and would be much better pleased that the public business
were well managed by some other person, than that he himself
should have the trouble, and incur the responsibility, of mana-
ging it. In the bottom of his heart he would prefer the undis-
turbed enjoyment of secure tranquillity, not only to all the vain
splendor of successful ambition, but to the real and solid glory
of performing the greatest and most magnanimous actions.
## p. 13527 (#341) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13527
OF THE WAGES OF LABOR
From the Wealth of Nations'
THE
HE produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or
wages of labor.
In that original state of things, which precedes both the
appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole
produce of labor belongs to the laborer. He has neither landlord
nor master to share with him.
Had this state continued, the wages of labor would have aug-
mented with all those improvements in its productive powers, to
which the division of labor gives occasion. All things would grad-
ually have become cheaper. They would have been produced by
a smaller quantity of labor; and as the commodities produced by
equal quantities of labor would naturally in this state of things
be exchanged for one another, they would have been purchased
likewise with the produce of a smaller quantity.
But though all things would have become cheaper in real-
ity, in appearance many things might have become dearer than
before, or have been exchanged for a greater quantity of other
goods. Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of
employments the productive powers of labor had been improved
to tenfold, or that a day's labor could produce ten times the
quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a par-
ticular employment they had been improved only to double, or
that a day's labor could produce only twice the quantity of work
which it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day's
labor in the greater part of employments, for that of a day's labor
in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in
them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any
particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight for example,
- would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality,
however, it would be twice as cheap. Though it required five.
times the quantity of other goods to produce it, it would require
only half the quantity of labor either to purchase or to produce.
it. The acquisition, therefore, would be twice as easy as before.
But this original state of things, in which the laborer enjoyed
the whole produce of his own labor, could not last beyond the
first introduction of the appropriation of land and the accumula-
tion of stock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most
considerable improvements were made in the productive powers
―
## p. 13528 (#342) ##########################################
13528
ADAM SMITH
of labor, and it would be to no purpose to trace further what
might have been its effects upon the recompense or wages of
labor.
As soon
as land becomes private property, the landlord de-
mands a share of almost all the produce which the laborer can
either raise, or collect from it. His rent makes the first deduc-
tion from the produce of the labor which is employed upon land.
It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has
wherewithal to maintain himself till he reaps the harvest. His
maintenance is generally advanced to him from the stock of a
master, the farmer who employs him, and who would have no
interest to employ him unless he was to share in the produce of
his labor, or unless his stock was to be replaced to him with a
profit. This profit makes a second deduction from the produce
of the labor which is employed upon land.
The produce of almost all other labor is liable to the like
deduction of profit. In all arts and manufactures the greater
part of the workmen stand in need of a master to advance them
the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenances
till it be completed. He shares in the produce of their labor,
or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which it is
bestowed; and in this consists his profit.
It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent work-
man has stock sufficient both to purchase the materials of his
work, and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both
master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his own
labor, or the whole value which it adds to the materials upon
which it is bestowed. It includes what are usually two distinct
revenues belonging to two distinct persons,- the profits of stock,
and the wages of labor.
Such cases, however, are not very frequent, and in every
part of Europe, twenty workmen serve under a master for one
that is independent; and the wages of labor are everywhere un-
derstood to be, what they usually are when the laborer is one.
person, and the owner of the stock which employs him another.
What are the common wages of labor, depends everywhere
upon the contract usually made between those two parties, whose
interests are by no means the same. The workmen desire to
get as much, the masters to give as little, as possible. The
former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in
order to lower, the wages of labor.
## p. 13529 (#343) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13529
It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of these two par-
ties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the
dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms.
The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more
easily; and the law, besides, authorizes or at least does not pro-
hibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. *
We have no acts of Parliament against combining to lower the
price of work; but many against combining to raise it. In all
such disputes the masters can hold out much longer. A land-
lord, a farmer, a master manufacturer or merchant, though they
did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or
two upon the stocks which they have already acquired. Many
workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month,
and scarce any a year, without employment. In the long run the
workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to
him; but the necessity is not so immediate.
We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of
masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever
imagines upon this account that masters rarely combine, is as
ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always
and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform, com-
bination not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate.
To violate this combination is everywhere a most unpopular ac-
tion, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbors and
equals. We seldom indeed hear of this combination, because it
is the usual, and one may say, the natural state of things, which
nobody ever hears of. Masters, too, sometimes enter into particu-
lar combinations to sink the wages of labor even below this rate.
These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy
till the moment of execution; and when the workmen yield, as
they sometimes do, without resistance, though severely felt by
them they are never heard of by other people. Such combina-
tions, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive
combination of the workmen; who sometimes, too, without any
provocation of this kind, combine of their own accord to raise
the price of their labor. Their usual pretenses are, sometimes the
high price of provisions, sometimes the great profit which their
masters make by their work. But whether their combinations be
offensive or defensive, they are always abundantly heard of. In
*Repealed in 1824.
## p. 13530 (#344) ##########################################
13530
ADAM SMITH
order to bring the point to a speedy decision, they have always
recourse to the loudest clamor, and sometimes to the most shock-
ing violence and outrage. They are desperate; and act with the
folly and extravagance of desperate men, who must either starve
or frighten their masters into an immediate compliance with their
demands. The masters upon these occasions are just as clamor-
ous upon the other side; and never cease to call aloud for the
assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of
those laws which have been enacted with so much severity
against the combinations of servants, laborers, and journeymen.
The workmen, accordingly, very seldom derive any advantage
from the violence of those tumultuous combinations, which, partly
from the interposition of the civil magistrate, partly from the
superior steadiness of the masters, partly from the necessity
which the greater part of the workmen are under of submitting,
for the sake of present subsistence, generally end in nothing but
the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders.
HOME INDUSTRIES
OF RESTRAINTS UPON THE IMPORTATION FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES
OF SUCH GOODS AS CAN BE PRODUCED AT HOME
From the Wealth of Nations'
HE general industry of the society can never exceed what the
capital of the society can employ. As the number of work-
men that can be kept in employment by any particular per-
son must bear a certain proportion to his capital, so the number
of those that can be continually employed by all the members of
a great society must bear a certain proportion to the whole capi-
tal of that society, and can never exceed that proportion. No
regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of industry in
any society beyond what its capital can maintain. It can only
divert a part of it into a direction into which it might not other-
wise have gone; and it is by no means certain that this artificial
direction is likely to be more advantageous to the society than
that into which it would have gone of its own accord.
Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the
most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can com-
mand. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of society,
## p. 13531 (#345) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13531
which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage,
naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employ-
ment which is most advantageous to the society.
I. Every individual endeavors to employ his capital as near
home as he can, and consequently as much as he can in the sup-
port of domestic industry; provided always that he can thereby
obtain the ordinary, or not a great deal less than the ordinary,
profits of stock.
Thus, upon equal or nearly equal profits, every wholesale
merchant naturally prefers the home trade to the foreign trade
of consumption, and the foreign trade of consumption to the car-
rying trade. In the home trade his capital is never so long out
of his sight as it frequently is in the foreign trade of consump-
tion. He can know better the character and situation of the
person whom he trusts; and if he should happen to be deceived,
he knows better the laws of the country from which he must
seek redress. In the carrying trade, the capital of the merchant
is, as it were, divided between two foreign countries; and no part
of it is ever necessarily brought home, or placed under his own.
immediate view and command.
II. Every individual who employs his capital in the support
of domestic industry, necessarily endeavors so to direct that in-
dustry that its produce may be of the greatest possible value.
The produce of industry is what it adds to the subject or
materials upon which it is employed. In proportion as the value
of this produce is great or small, so will likewise be the profits
of the employer. But it is only for the sake of profit that any
man employs a capital in the support of industry; and he will
always, therefore, endeavor to employ it in the support of that
industry of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest
value, or to exchange for the greatest quantity either of money
or of other goods.
But the annual revenue of every society is always precisely
equal to the exchangeable value of the whole annual produce
of its industry, or rather is precisely the same thing with that
exchangeable value. As every individual, therefore, endeavors
as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of
domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce
may be of the greatest value, every individual necessarily labors to
render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He
generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest
## p. 13532 (#346) ##########################################
13532
ADAM SMITH
nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the
support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only
his own security; and by directing that industry in such a man-
ner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only
his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by
an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his
intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was
no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently pro-
motes that of the society more effectually than when he really
intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by
those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affecta-
tion, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few
words need be employed in dissuading them from it.
What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can
employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest
value, every individual, it is evident, can, in this local situation,
judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for
him. The statesman who should attempt to direct private peo-
ple in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would
not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but
assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to
no single person, but to no council or senate whatever; and which
would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who
had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exer-
cise it.
To give the monopoly of the home market to the produce
of domestic industry, in any particular art or manufacture, is in
some measure to direct private people in what manner they
ought to employ their capitals; and must in almost all cases be
either a useless or a hurtful regulation. If the produce of do-
mestic can be brought there as cheap as that of foreign industry,
the regulation is evidently useless. If it cannot, it must gener-
ally be hurtful. It is the maxim of every prudent master of a
family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him
more to make than to buy. The tailor does not attempt to make
his own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker
does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a tailor.
The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the other, but
employs those different artificers. All of them find it for their
interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they
have some advantage over their neighbors; and to purchase with
## p. 13533 (#347) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13533
a part of its produce or what is the same thing, with the price
of a part of it-whatever else they have occasion for.
What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can
scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country
can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can
make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce
of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some
advantage. The general industry of the country, being always
in proportion to the capital which employs it, will not thereby be
diminished, no more than that of the above-mentioned artificers;
but only left to find out the way in which it can be employed
with the greatest advantage. It is certainly not employed to
the greatest advantage when it is thus directed towards an object
which it can buy cheaper than it can make.
To what base use hast placed thy ancient fame?
Is't cast aside like to some foolish toy
Ronelva-
[He approaches.
Hast thou returned
From some new expedition. Is thy brow
Covered with laurels, and thy stores
Replete with plunder? Do I hear the shouts,
Th' applause of the Litwanians, hailing thee
As conqueror? Returnest thou from Zmudie,
From Dwina's shores triumphant? Has the Russian Bear
Trembled before thy sword? Does Halicz fear
Thy angry frown? Speak! with a mother's tears
I'll hail the conqueror.
No longer worth the hoarding? Shame upon
Thy craven spirit! Canst thou live without
That glorious food, which e'en a peasant craves,
Holding it worthless as thy mother's love,
And thy brave father's faith?
Nay, mother, nay!
Dismiss these foolish fancies from thy brain.
Behold! my jeweled brow is bent before thee.
Oh, bless thy son!
Thou vile apostate! Thou
Dare ask for approbation? Thou! -I curse thee!
## p. 13513 (#327) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13513
Mindowe-
Ronelva
Mindowe
Sorrow and hate pursue thy faltering steps.
Still may thy foes prove victors; subjects false;
Thy drink be venom, and thy joy be woe.
Thy mind filled with remorse, still mayst thou live,
Seeking for death, but wooing it in vain,—
A foul, detested, blasted renegade.
――――
I have bestowed to earth a viper; but
From thee shall vipers spring, who like their sire
Shall traitors be unto their native land,
Heidenric
And eager plunge them into ruin's stream!
Depart! and bear thy mother's curse!
Mindowe [speaking as though awe-stricken] -
Heard ye that curse?
Heidenric-
-
My mother-
Call me not mother, viper!
I do disclaim thee;- thee and all thy seed!
[Exit Ronelva, leaning on Troinace.
-
What are the frantic words
Of a revengeful woman? Empty air-
A mother's curse! It carries pestilence,
Blight, misery, and sorrow in its train.
No matter! It is, as the legate says,
But "empty air. »
[To Heidenric]— What message do you bear?
Thus to the great Litwanian king, Pope Innocent
(Fourth of the name who've worn the papal crown)
Sends greeting: Thou whose power extends
From farthest Baltic to the shores of Crim,
Go on and prosper. Though unto thy creed
He thinks thy heart is true, still would he prove -
[Mindowe starts, and exclaims "Ha! "]
Send thou to him as neighboring monarchs do
An annual tribute. So he'll bless thy arms
That ere another year elapses Russ' shall yield,
And Halicz fall before thy conquering sword.
Mindowe Thanks to the Pope. I'll profit by his leave;
I'll throw my troops in Muscovy, and scourge
The hordes of Halicz, move in every place
Like an avenging brand, and say The Pope
Hath given me power. But, hark ye! legate,
What needs so great a priest as he of Rome
Mother,
―――――
## p. 13514 (#328) ##########################################
13514
JULIUS SLOWACKI
With my red gold to buy him corn and oil?
Explain! I do not understand the riddle.
Heidenric-He merely asks it as a pledge of friendship,
But nothing more. The proudest kings of Europe
Yield him such tribute.
Mindowe
Heidenric-
A gift-
A precious relic of most potent virtue.
Thou'st heard of St. Sebastian? holy man!
He died a martyr. This which brought him death
Is sent unto thee by his Holiness
[Presents a rusty spear-head. ]
Mindowe - Fie on such relics! I could give thy Pope
A thousand such! This dagger by my side
Had hung from childhood. It has drunk the blood
Of many a foe that vexed my wrath; and oft
Among them there were men, and holy men,
As holy, sir, as e'er was St. Sebastian.
Heidenric-Peace, thou blasphemer!
Mindowe [angrily]-
How! dost thou wish thy head
To stand in safety on thy shoulders?
What means this insolence, sir legate?
Think'st thou that I shall kneel, and bow, and fawn,
And put thy master's iron yoke upon me?
They act not freely whom the fetters bind,
And none shall forge such galling chains for me!
There's not one more Mindowe in the world,
Nor is your Pope a crowned Litwanian king.
Heidenric-I speak but as the representative
Of power supreme o'er earthly monarchs.
Mindowe Thou doest well to shelter thus thyself
Under the shield of thy legation. Hast
Aught more to utter of thy master's words,
Aught more to give?
I have a gift to make
Unto thy queen.
The queen hath lain, sir prince,
In cold corruption for a twelvemonth back.
What means this mockery?
Heidenric
Tribute! -base priest!
Whene'er thy master asks for tribute, this-
[Striking his sword. ]
Is my reply. What hast thou there?
Mindowe —
—
## p. 13515 (#329) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13515
Heidenric-
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
-
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
Aldona -
It was not known unto his Holiness.
The forests of Litwania are so dark
They shut her doings from her neighbor's ken.
If then the queen be dead, who shall receive
This goodly gift?
My mother
If I may judge
By what I heard e'en now, she'd not accept
Our offering.
Mindowe
Then give the gorgeous gaw
To Lawski's widow-she who soon will be
My crownèd queen.
Summon her hither, page.
Heidenric [aside] -
--
Pardon, my lord!
Mindowe [to Lawski]-
Attendants, take from hence these costly gifts,
And give them in the royal treasurer's care. -
[Exit Attendants.
Enter Aldona
Here comes my spotless pearl, the fair Aldona,
The choicest flower of the Litwanian vales.
Address thy speech to her.
Beauteous maid,
Accept these golden flowers from Tiber's banks,
Where they have grown, nursed by the beams of faith.
Nor deem them less in value that they are
By the brighter lustre of thine eyes eclipsed.
These costly jewels and the glare of gold,
Albeit they suit not my mourning weeds,
May serve as dying ornaments. As such
I will accept them.
Ay! I warrant me.
Like to most women, she accepts the gift,
Nor farther questions. Gold is always-gold.
[Motions to Lawski to approach Aldona. He does so, tremblingly. ]
Thou tremblest, Teuton!
[Exit Page.
[Lawski raises his visor as he approaches Aldona. She recognizes his feat-
ures, shrieks, and falls. Exit Lawski. ]
Without there!
Help there she swoons!
――――――
## p. 13516 (#330) ##########################################
13516
JULIUS SLOWACKI
Mindowe-
Heidenric-
Enter Attendants
Lutuver
Bear her hence. Pursue that knight.
[Exit Attendants with Aldona.
To Heidenric] - What means this mystery?
He said that he had vowed whilst in our train
For certain time to keep his visor down.
He's taciturn. This with his saddened air,
Together with the rose upon his helm,
The emblem of the factious house of York,
Bespeaks him English to my thought, at least.
Mindowe - Think ye such poor devices can deceive?
Lutuver-
-
I know not, sire.
――――
He is a spy ·
a base, deceitful spy.
Begone! for by my father's sepulchre
I see a dagger in my path. Begone!
I did so, sire,
But 'f all the group I least suspected him
Of treasonable practices. He's silent,
For no one understands his language here;
He keeps aloof from men, because he's sad;
He's sad, because he's poor: so ends that knight.
Mindowe [not heeding him]-
I tell thee that my very soul's pulse throbbed,
And my heart cast with quicker flow my blood,
When that young knight approached Aldona.
Now, by the gods, I do believe 'tis he-
The banished Lawski-here to dog my steps:
What thinkest thou, Lutuver?
[Exit Heidenric and Herman.
Approach, Lutuver. Didst thou see that knight
Who left so suddenly?
[Muses. ]
Slay him, sire!
If it be he, he's taken from my path;
If not-to slay a Teuton is no crime.
Mindowe Thou counselest zealously. But still, thy words
Fall not upon an ear which thinks them good.
I tell thee that this Lawski is my bane,
A living poison rankling 'fore mine eyes.
Men prate about the virtues of the man:
And if a timorous leaning to the right,
From fear to follow where the wrong directs,
Be virtue, then is he a paragon.
No wonder we are deadly foes. To me
## p. 13517 (#331) ##########################################
JULIUS SLOWACKI
13517
The brightness which is shed o'er all his deeds,
When placed in contact with my smothered hate,
Seems as the splendor of the noonday sun
Glancing upon some idol's horrid form,
Making its rude appearance ruder still.
One word of mine, Lutuver, might destroy
This abject snail, who crawling near my hope
Hath scared it off. But I would have him live,
And when he meets his adorable wife,--
When in th' excess of 'raptured happiness
Each fibre fills with plenitude of joy,
And naught of bliss is left to hope for, then
At fair Aldona's feet shall he expire,
And the full heart just beating 'gainst her own
Shall yield its living current for revenge.
And she-his wife-to whom I knelt in vain,
Who oft has said she courted my dislike,
And wished I'd hate her,- she shall have her wish.
[Exeunt Mindowe and Lutuver, as the curtain falls.
-
――――――――
I AM SO SAD, O GOD!
From Poets and Poetry of Poland. Copyright 1881, by Paul Soboleski
AM SO sad, O God! Thou hast before me
I
Spread a bright rainbow in the western skies,
But thou hast quenched in darkness cold and stormy
The brighter stars tha rise;
Clear grows the heaven 'neath thy transforming rod:
Still I am sad, O God!
Like empty ears of grain, with heads erected,
Have I delighted stood amid the crowd,
My face the while to stranger eyes reflected
The calm of summer's cloud;
But thou dost know the ways that I have trod,
And why I grieve, O God!
I am like to a weary infant fretting
Whene'er its mother leaves it for a while:
And grieving watch the sun, whose light in setting
Throws back a parting smile;
Though it will bathe anew the morning sod,
Still I am sad, O God!
## p. 13518 (#332) ##########################################
13518
JULIUS SLOWACKI
To-day o'er the wide waste of ocean sweeping,
Hundreds of miles away from shore or rock,
I saw the cranes fly on, together keeping
In one unbroken flock;
Their feet with soil from Poland's hills were shod,
And I was sad, O God!
Often by strangers' tombs I've lingered weary,
Since, grown a stranger to my native ways,
I walk a pilgrim through a desert dreary,
Lit but by lightning's blaze,
Knowing not where shall fall the burial clod
Upon my bier, O God!
Some time hereafter will my bones lie whitened,
Somewhere on strangers' soil, I know not where:
I envy those whose dying hours are lightened,
Fanned by their native air;
But flowers of some strange land will spring and nod
Above my grave, O God!
When, but a guileless child at home, they bade me
To pray each day for home restored, I found
My bark was steering-how the thought dismayed me—
The whole wide world around!
Those prayers unanswered, wearily I plod
Through rugged ways, O God!
Upon the rainbow, whose resplendent rafter
Thy angels rear above us in the sky,
Others will look a hundred years hereafter,
And pass away as I;
Exiled and hopeless 'neath thy chastening rod,
And sad as I, O God!
## p. 13519 (#333) ##########################################
13519
ADAM SMITH
(1723-1790)
BY RICHARD T. ELY
SPEAK of Adam Smith as the author of The Wealth of
Nations' brings before us at once his chief claim to a
place among the immortals in literature. The significance
of this work is so overwhelming that it casts into a dark shadow all
that he wrote in addition to this masterpiece. His other writings are
chiefly valued in so far as they may throw additional light upon the
doctrines of this one book. Few books in
the world's history have exerted a greater
influence on the course of human affairs;
and on account of this one work, Adam
Smith's name is familiar to all well-educated
persons in every civilized land.
Rarely does a man occupy so prominent
a position in human thought, whose person-
ality is so vague and elusive. He is gen-
erally so described that the impression is
produced of a dull and uninteresting man.
Quite the opposite must have been the
case, however; for even the few incidents
recorded of his life are sufficient to show
us, when we think about it, that he must
have been a delightful friend and companion. Adam Smith is gener-
ally associated in the popular mind with weighty disquisitions on free
trade, on labor, on value, and other economic topics; but his life was
by no means devoid of romantic touches.
ADAM SMITH
Adam Smith was born of respectable parents-his father being
a well-connected lawyer- at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on June 5th, 1723.
His father had died three months before his birth; but he was
brought up and well educated by his mother, to whom he was most
devotedly attached. It is said, indeed, that he never recovered from
his mother's death, which took place when he was sixty years of age.
After attending a school in his native town, he was sent to the
University of Glasgow at the age of fourteen; and three years later,
obtaining an "exhibition," - or, as we say in the United States, a
scholarship, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he remained
## p. 13520 (#334) ##########################################
13520
ADAM SMITH
for more than six years. In 1748 he moved to Edinburgh, and deliv-
ered public lectures on rhetoric and belles-lettres. Three years later
he was appointed professor of logic in Glasgow University, and four
years later he exchanged his professorship for that of moral philoso-
phy. In 1763 he resigned his professorship, and traveled for three
years on the Continent of Europe as tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch.
From 1766 to 1776 he lived in retirement, engaged in the prepara-
tion of his great work, 'The Wealth of Nations,' which appeared in
the latter year and very soon made him famous. During the years
1776 to 1778 he lived in London, mingling with the best literary
society of the time. The year last named witnessed his return to
his native Scotland, where he chose Edinburgh as his home for the
rest of his life. Three years before his death, which occurred in
1790, he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and
was highly gratified by the honor conferred upon him.
Adam Smith was a bachelor; but we are told by Dugald Stewart,
his biographer, that he had once been warmly attached to a beautiful
and accomplished young lady. It is not known why it was that their
union was never consummated: neither one ever married. Dugald
Stewart saw the lady after the death of Adam Smith, when she was
upwards of eighty; and he stated that she "still retained evident
traces of her former beauty. The power of her understanding and
the gayety of her temper seemed to have suffered nothing from the
hand of time. "
Adam Smith was not a voluminous writer, and some of the MSS.
which he did compose were destroyed by his order. His works, how-
ever, show a wide range of thought and study. One brief treatise of
some note is entitled 'A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages. '
Three essays deal with the Principles which Lead and Direct Philo-
sophical Inquiries as Illustrated' - first, by the History of Ancient
Astronomy; second, by the History of Ancient Physics'; third, by
'Ancient Logic and Metaphysics. ' Other essays are on 'The Imi-
tative Arts'; 'Music,' 'Dancing,' 'Poetry'; 'The External Senses';
'English and Italian Verses. '
(
A few words must be devoted to the Theory of Moral Senti-
ments' before hastening on to the 'Wealth of Nations. ' The former
is an ambitious work, and one which in itself has considerable merit.
Moreover, it is significant because it is part of a large treatise on
moral philosophy which Smith planned. This treatise was to have
embraced four parts: first, 'Natural Theology'; second, 'Ethics';
third, 'Jurisprudence'; fourth, Police, Revenue, and Arms. ' The sec-
ond part is The Moral Sentiments'; and in the Wealth of Nations'
he presented the fourth part, as he himself tells us. Unfortunately,
he has not given the world the first and third parts, which however
## p. 13521 (#335) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13521
were embraced in his lectures to his students while he was professor
of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments,' it has been maintained, would
have achieved renown for its author, and a place for him in liter-
ature, had it been presented to the world simply as a collection of
essays on the topics with which it deals; viz. , the Propriety and
Impropriety of Actions,' their 'Merit and Demerit,' 'Virtue,' 'Just-
ice, Duty,' etc.
The essays are finely written, full of subtle analy-
sis and truthful illustration. The book is least significant, however,
as philosophy; because it lacks any profound examination of the
foundation upon which the author's views rest.
The guiding principle of the 'Moral Sentiments' is sympathy,
or fellow feeling; not merely pity or compassion, but feeling with
our fellows in their joys as well as sorrows. This sympathy is
distinguished from self-love, and it is described as something given
to man by nature. This idea is brought out by the opening words,
which are these: "How selfish soever man may be supposed, there
is evidently some principle in his nature which interests him in
the fortune of others, and renders their happiness necessary to him;
though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. "
The full title of Adam Smith's great work, ordinarily given as
simply the Wealth of Nations,' is 'An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations. ' The date of the appearance of
this book - viz. , 1776— is a significant one, for it recalls the Declara-
tion of Independence. Both of them were the outcome of the same
political and social philosophy; both of them were protests against
ancient wrongs and abuses.
The 'Wealth of Nations' appeared when the industrial revolution
was fairly under way; inventions and discoveries had begun their
transformation of industrial society. Old forms and methods were no
longer sufficient for the growing, expanding life of this "springtime
of the nations"; these springtimes of the nations recur at intervals,
and a great deal of rubbish has to be cleared away to make room for
new life. Adam Smith's work was largely negative. One biographer
of him, Mr. R. B. Haldane, speaks of him as "one of the greatest
vanquishers of error on record. " He regarded himself as the advo-
cate of a system of natural liberty: "nature" and "liberty" are two
perpetually recurring words; they must be associated, to understand.
the economic philosophy of the Wealth of Nations. ' One of the
assumptions underlying this book is that of a beneficent order of
nature lying back of all human institutions. The cry of the age was
"back to nature. " Rousseau gave loud utterance to this watchword,
and it was echoed and re-echoed by the writers and thinkers of
the eighteenth century, both great and small. Nature, it was held,
XXIII-846
## p. 13522 (#336) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13522
has done all things well; everything proceeding from the hands of
nature is good: what is evil in the world is man's artificial product;
before man interfered with nature there was the "golden age," and
to this "golden age" we must somehow get back. We must break
away from human contrivances, and seek for the order prescribed
by nature. Consequently we have perpetually recurring demand for
natural rights, natural liberty, natural law.
Nature has implanted in man self-interest, and the operation of
self-interest in the individual man is socially beneficent. Nature has
so ordered things that each man in seeking his own welfare will
best promote the welfare of his fellows. We must simply leave
nature alone, and give fair play to natural forces to bring about the
largest production of wealth. The causes of the wealth of nations
must be sought in the manifold actions of self-interest of individu-
als. The Wealth of Nations,' then, is a protest against restraints
and restrictions; it is directed against what was held to be the over-
government, but what subsequent history has shown to be rather
the unwise and unjust government, of that period. Careful exam-
ination of modern nations, especially as revealed in their financial
expenditures, shows that as modern nations have progressed, the act-
ivities of government have undergone immense expansion, but have
changed their direction and have altered their methods; their spirit
and purpose are different.
The abuses against which Adam Smith chiefly protested were
restrictions upon the freedom of trade, and the exclusive privileges
of ancient guilds and corporations, and laws directed against labor.
He was in principle a free-trader. His anti-monopoly views, however,
are equally pronounced.
It is important to notice one thing in connection with Adam
Smith's protest against labor laws; and that is, that he had in mind
laws aimed to control labor in the interest of the employer, and not
laws like our modern labor laws, the purpose of which is to protect
and advance the interests of labor. He said, indeed, in one place,
that if any labor law should chance to be in the interest of labor, it
was sure to be a just law. This ought not to be forgotten in com-
paring his spirit with that of modern writers who protest against
labor legislation. He was warmly humanitarian, and his ruling pas-
sion was to benefit mankind. On his death-bed he expressed regret
that he had been able to do so little.
Adam Smith was far from being a mere doctrinaire. He had the
practical disposition of the Scotchman, and was a close observer of
life. Common-sense, then, was one of his chief characteristics; and
he never hesitated to make exceptions to general principles when this
was required by concrete conditions. Free trade, for example, was
## p. 13523 (#337) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13523
a good thing; but he at once recognized that changes in tariff poli-
cies must be made with due regard to existing interests which had
grown up under a different policy. Private action in the sphere of
education was in accord with his philosophy; yet he could say that
under certain circumstances it might be wise for the government to
foster education, especially in a country with democratic institutions.
Even in so brief a sketch as this, a word must be said about
Adam Smith's position with respect to labor. He opens the 'Wealth
of Nations' with the statement that "The annual labor of every
nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessa-
ries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes. " One school
of writers, the Mercantilists, had held that the main thing in the
advancement of the wealth of nations was foreign trade. A later
school, valued highly by Smith,- viz. , the Physiocrats,- had main-
tained that in the rent of land must be sought the causes of the
increase of wealth. It is doubtless as a protest against both these
schools that Adam Smith states that the original fund of wealth is
labor. He wants to make labor central and pivotal. Rodbertus, the
German socialist, has claimed that his socialism consists simply in an
elaboration of Adam Smith's doctrine of labor; but this is undoubt-
edly going too far.
All the economists before the time of Adam Smith must be re-
garded as his predecessors; all the economists who have lived since
Adam Smith have carried on his work: and his position in econom-
ics is therefore somewhat like that of Darwin in natural science. There
are many schools among modern economists, but their work all stands
in some relation to that large work of this "old master. "
The centenary of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations' was cele-
brated in 1876; and it was at that time stated that no other work
had enjoyed the honor of a centennial commemoration. Statesmen in
all nations have been influenced by it. Buckle, with his customary
exaggeration, makes this statement: "Well may it be said of Adam
Smith, and that too without fear of contradiction, that this solitary
Scotchman has, by the publication of one single work, contributed
more to the happiness of man than has been effected by the united
abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has pre-
sented an authentic account. " Even the more careful Bagehot used
these words: "The life of nearly every one in England - perhaps of
every one-is different and better in consequence of it. No other
form of political philosophy has ever had one thousandth part of the
influence on us. "
Richard
даву
## p. 13524 (#338) ##########################################
13524
ADAM SMITH
THE PRUDENT MAN
From the Theory of Moral Sentiments›
THE
HE prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to
understand whatever he professes to understand, and not
merely to persuade other people that he understands it;
and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are
always perfectly genuine. He neither endeavors to impose upon
you by the cunning devices of an artful impostor, nor by the
arrogant airs of an assuming pedant, nor by the confident asser-
tions of a superficial and impudent pretender: he is not osten-
tatious even of the abilities which he really possesses. His
conversation is simple and modest; and he is averse to all the
quackish arts by which other people so frequently thrust them-
selves into public notice and reputation. For reputation in his
profession he is naturally disposed to rely a good deal upon the
solidity of his knowledge and abilities: and he does not always
think of cultivating the favor of those little clubs and cabals,
who, in the superior arts and sciences, so often erect themselves
into the supreme judges of merit; and who make it their busi-
ness to celebrate the talents and virtues of one another, and to
decry whatever can come into competition with them. If he ever
connects himself with any society of this kind, it is merely in
self-defense; not with a view to impose upon the public, but to
hinder the public from being imposed upon, to his disadvantage,
by the clamors, the whispers, or the intrigues, either of that par-
ticular society or of some other of the same kind.
The prudent man is always sincere; and feels horror at the
very thought of exposing himself to the disgrace which attends
upon the detection of falsehood. But though always sincere, he
is not always frank and open; and though he never tells anything
but the truth, he does not always think himself bound, when not
properly called upon, to tell the whole truth. As he is cautious
in his actions, so he is reserved in his speech; and never rashly
or unnecessarily obtrudes his opinion concerning either things or
persons.
The prudent man, though not always distinguished by the
most exquisite sensibility, is always very capable of friendship.
But his friendship is not that ardent and passionate but too often
transitory affection, which appears so delicious to the generosity
of youth and inexperience. It is a sedate but steady and faith-
ful attachment to a few well-tried and well-chosen companions;
## p. 13525 (#339) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13525
in the choice of whom he is guided not by the giddy admiration
of shining accomplishments, but by the sober esteem of modesty,
discretion, and good conduct. But though capable of friendship,
he is not always much disposed to general sociality. He rarely
frequents, and more rarely figures in, those convivial societies.
which are distinguished for the jollity and gayety of their con-
versation. Their way of life might too often interfere with the
regularity of his temperance, might interrupt the steadiness of
his industry, or break in upon the strictness of his frugality.
But though his conversation may not always be very sprightly
or diverting, it is always perfectly inoffensive. He hates the
thought of being guilty of any petulance or rudeness; he never
assumes impertinently over anybody, and upon all common occas-
ions is willing to place himself rather below than above his
equals. Both in his conduct and conversation he is an exact
observer of decency; and respects, with an almost religious scru-
pulosity, all the established decorums and ceremonials of society.
And in this respect he sets a much better example than has fre-
quently been done by men of much more splendid talents and
virtues, who in all ages-from that of Socrates and Aristip-
pus down to that of Dr. Swift and Voltaire, and from that of
Philip and Alexander the Great down to that of the great Czar
Peter of Moscovy-have too often distinguished themselves by
the most improper and even insolent contempt of all the ordi-
nary decorums of life and conversation, and who have thereby
set the most pernicious example to those who wish to resemble
them, and who too often content themselves with imitating their
follies without even attempting to attain their perfections.
In the steadiness of his industry and frugality, in his steadily
sacrificing the ease and enjoyment of the present moment for the
probable expectation of the still greater ease and enjoyment of a
more distant but more lasting period of time, the prudent man
is always both supported and rewarded by the entire approbation
of the impartial spectator, and of the representative of the
impartial spectator,- the man within the breast. The impartial
spectator does not feel himself worn out by the present labor
of those whose conduct he surveys; nor does he feel himself
solicited by the importunate calls of their present appetites. To
him their present, and what is likely to be their future, situation
are very nearly the same; he sees them nearly at the same dis-
tance, and is affected by them very nearly in the same manner:
he knows, however, that to the persons principally concerned.
## p. 13526 (#340) ##########################################
13526
ADAM SMITH
.
they are very far from being the same, and that they naturally
affect them in a very different manner. He cannot therefore
but approve, and even applaud, that proper exertion of self-
command which enables them to act as if their present and their
future situation affected them nearly in the same manner in
which they affect him.
The man who lives within his income is naturally contented
with his situation, which by continual though small accumulations
is growing better and better every day. He is enabled gradually
to relax, both in the rigor of his parsimony and in the sever-
ity of his application; and he feels with double satisfaction this
gradual increase of ease and enjoyment, from having felt before
the hardship which attended the want of them. He has no
anxiety to change so comfortable a situation; and does not go
in quest of new enterprises and adventures, which might endan-
ger, but could not well increase, the secure tranquillity which he
actually enjoys. If he enters into any new projects or enter-
prises, they are likely to be well concerted and well prepared.
He can never be hurried or driven into them by any necessity,
but has always time and leisure to deliberate soberly and coolly
concerning what are likely to be their consequences.
The prudent man is not willing to subject himself to any
responsibility which his duty does not impose upon him. He is
not a bustler in business where he has no concern; is not a
meddler in other people's affairs; is not a professed counselor
or adviser, who obtrudes his advice where nobody is asking it;
he confines himself, as much as his duty will permit, to his own
affairs, and has no taste for that foolish importance which many
people wish to derive from appearing to have some influence in
the management of those of other people; he is averse to enter
into any party disputes, hates faction, and is not always very
forward to listen to the voice even of noble and great ambition.
When distinctly called upon, he will not decline the service of
his country; but he will not cabal in order to force himself into
it, and would be much better pleased that the public business
were well managed by some other person, than that he himself
should have the trouble, and incur the responsibility, of mana-
ging it. In the bottom of his heart he would prefer the undis-
turbed enjoyment of secure tranquillity, not only to all the vain
splendor of successful ambition, but to the real and solid glory
of performing the greatest and most magnanimous actions.
## p. 13527 (#341) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13527
OF THE WAGES OF LABOR
From the Wealth of Nations'
THE
HE produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or
wages of labor.
In that original state of things, which precedes both the
appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole
produce of labor belongs to the laborer. He has neither landlord
nor master to share with him.
Had this state continued, the wages of labor would have aug-
mented with all those improvements in its productive powers, to
which the division of labor gives occasion. All things would grad-
ually have become cheaper. They would have been produced by
a smaller quantity of labor; and as the commodities produced by
equal quantities of labor would naturally in this state of things
be exchanged for one another, they would have been purchased
likewise with the produce of a smaller quantity.
But though all things would have become cheaper in real-
ity, in appearance many things might have become dearer than
before, or have been exchanged for a greater quantity of other
goods. Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of
employments the productive powers of labor had been improved
to tenfold, or that a day's labor could produce ten times the
quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a par-
ticular employment they had been improved only to double, or
that a day's labor could produce only twice the quantity of work
which it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day's
labor in the greater part of employments, for that of a day's labor
in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in
them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any
particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight for example,
- would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality,
however, it would be twice as cheap. Though it required five.
times the quantity of other goods to produce it, it would require
only half the quantity of labor either to purchase or to produce.
it. The acquisition, therefore, would be twice as easy as before.
But this original state of things, in which the laborer enjoyed
the whole produce of his own labor, could not last beyond the
first introduction of the appropriation of land and the accumula-
tion of stock. It was at an end, therefore, long before the most
considerable improvements were made in the productive powers
―
## p. 13528 (#342) ##########################################
13528
ADAM SMITH
of labor, and it would be to no purpose to trace further what
might have been its effects upon the recompense or wages of
labor.
As soon
as land becomes private property, the landlord de-
mands a share of almost all the produce which the laborer can
either raise, or collect from it. His rent makes the first deduc-
tion from the produce of the labor which is employed upon land.
It seldom happens that the person who tills the ground has
wherewithal to maintain himself till he reaps the harvest. His
maintenance is generally advanced to him from the stock of a
master, the farmer who employs him, and who would have no
interest to employ him unless he was to share in the produce of
his labor, or unless his stock was to be replaced to him with a
profit. This profit makes a second deduction from the produce
of the labor which is employed upon land.
The produce of almost all other labor is liable to the like
deduction of profit. In all arts and manufactures the greater
part of the workmen stand in need of a master to advance them
the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenances
till it be completed. He shares in the produce of their labor,
or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which it is
bestowed; and in this consists his profit.
It sometimes happens, indeed, that a single independent work-
man has stock sufficient both to purchase the materials of his
work, and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both
master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his own
labor, or the whole value which it adds to the materials upon
which it is bestowed. It includes what are usually two distinct
revenues belonging to two distinct persons,- the profits of stock,
and the wages of labor.
Such cases, however, are not very frequent, and in every
part of Europe, twenty workmen serve under a master for one
that is independent; and the wages of labor are everywhere un-
derstood to be, what they usually are when the laborer is one.
person, and the owner of the stock which employs him another.
What are the common wages of labor, depends everywhere
upon the contract usually made between those two parties, whose
interests are by no means the same. The workmen desire to
get as much, the masters to give as little, as possible. The
former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in
order to lower, the wages of labor.
## p. 13529 (#343) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13529
It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of these two par-
ties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the
dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms.
The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more
easily; and the law, besides, authorizes or at least does not pro-
hibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. *
We have no acts of Parliament against combining to lower the
price of work; but many against combining to raise it. In all
such disputes the masters can hold out much longer. A land-
lord, a farmer, a master manufacturer or merchant, though they
did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or
two upon the stocks which they have already acquired. Many
workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month,
and scarce any a year, without employment. In the long run the
workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to
him; but the necessity is not so immediate.
We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of
masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever
imagines upon this account that masters rarely combine, is as
ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always
and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform, com-
bination not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate.
To violate this combination is everywhere a most unpopular ac-
tion, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbors and
equals. We seldom indeed hear of this combination, because it
is the usual, and one may say, the natural state of things, which
nobody ever hears of. Masters, too, sometimes enter into particu-
lar combinations to sink the wages of labor even below this rate.
These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy
till the moment of execution; and when the workmen yield, as
they sometimes do, without resistance, though severely felt by
them they are never heard of by other people. Such combina-
tions, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive
combination of the workmen; who sometimes, too, without any
provocation of this kind, combine of their own accord to raise
the price of their labor. Their usual pretenses are, sometimes the
high price of provisions, sometimes the great profit which their
masters make by their work. But whether their combinations be
offensive or defensive, they are always abundantly heard of. In
*Repealed in 1824.
## p. 13530 (#344) ##########################################
13530
ADAM SMITH
order to bring the point to a speedy decision, they have always
recourse to the loudest clamor, and sometimes to the most shock-
ing violence and outrage. They are desperate; and act with the
folly and extravagance of desperate men, who must either starve
or frighten their masters into an immediate compliance with their
demands. The masters upon these occasions are just as clamor-
ous upon the other side; and never cease to call aloud for the
assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of
those laws which have been enacted with so much severity
against the combinations of servants, laborers, and journeymen.
The workmen, accordingly, very seldom derive any advantage
from the violence of those tumultuous combinations, which, partly
from the interposition of the civil magistrate, partly from the
superior steadiness of the masters, partly from the necessity
which the greater part of the workmen are under of submitting,
for the sake of present subsistence, generally end in nothing but
the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders.
HOME INDUSTRIES
OF RESTRAINTS UPON THE IMPORTATION FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES
OF SUCH GOODS AS CAN BE PRODUCED AT HOME
From the Wealth of Nations'
HE general industry of the society can never exceed what the
capital of the society can employ. As the number of work-
men that can be kept in employment by any particular per-
son must bear a certain proportion to his capital, so the number
of those that can be continually employed by all the members of
a great society must bear a certain proportion to the whole capi-
tal of that society, and can never exceed that proportion. No
regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of industry in
any society beyond what its capital can maintain. It can only
divert a part of it into a direction into which it might not other-
wise have gone; and it is by no means certain that this artificial
direction is likely to be more advantageous to the society than
that into which it would have gone of its own accord.
Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the
most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can com-
mand. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of society,
## p. 13531 (#345) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13531
which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage,
naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employ-
ment which is most advantageous to the society.
I. Every individual endeavors to employ his capital as near
home as he can, and consequently as much as he can in the sup-
port of domestic industry; provided always that he can thereby
obtain the ordinary, or not a great deal less than the ordinary,
profits of stock.
Thus, upon equal or nearly equal profits, every wholesale
merchant naturally prefers the home trade to the foreign trade
of consumption, and the foreign trade of consumption to the car-
rying trade. In the home trade his capital is never so long out
of his sight as it frequently is in the foreign trade of consump-
tion. He can know better the character and situation of the
person whom he trusts; and if he should happen to be deceived,
he knows better the laws of the country from which he must
seek redress. In the carrying trade, the capital of the merchant
is, as it were, divided between two foreign countries; and no part
of it is ever necessarily brought home, or placed under his own.
immediate view and command.
II. Every individual who employs his capital in the support
of domestic industry, necessarily endeavors so to direct that in-
dustry that its produce may be of the greatest possible value.
The produce of industry is what it adds to the subject or
materials upon which it is employed. In proportion as the value
of this produce is great or small, so will likewise be the profits
of the employer. But it is only for the sake of profit that any
man employs a capital in the support of industry; and he will
always, therefore, endeavor to employ it in the support of that
industry of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest
value, or to exchange for the greatest quantity either of money
or of other goods.
But the annual revenue of every society is always precisely
equal to the exchangeable value of the whole annual produce
of its industry, or rather is precisely the same thing with that
exchangeable value. As every individual, therefore, endeavors
as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of
domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce
may be of the greatest value, every individual necessarily labors to
render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He
generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest
## p. 13532 (#346) ##########################################
13532
ADAM SMITH
nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the
support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only
his own security; and by directing that industry in such a man-
ner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only
his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by
an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his
intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was
no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently pro-
motes that of the society more effectually than when he really
intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by
those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affecta-
tion, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few
words need be employed in dissuading them from it.
What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can
employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest
value, every individual, it is evident, can, in this local situation,
judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for
him. The statesman who should attempt to direct private peo-
ple in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would
not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but
assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to
no single person, but to no council or senate whatever; and which
would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who
had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exer-
cise it.
To give the monopoly of the home market to the produce
of domestic industry, in any particular art or manufacture, is in
some measure to direct private people in what manner they
ought to employ their capitals; and must in almost all cases be
either a useless or a hurtful regulation. If the produce of do-
mestic can be brought there as cheap as that of foreign industry,
the regulation is evidently useless. If it cannot, it must gener-
ally be hurtful. It is the maxim of every prudent master of a
family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him
more to make than to buy. The tailor does not attempt to make
his own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker
does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a tailor.
The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the other, but
employs those different artificers. All of them find it for their
interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they
have some advantage over their neighbors; and to purchase with
## p. 13533 (#347) ##########################################
ADAM SMITH
13533
a part of its produce or what is the same thing, with the price
of a part of it-whatever else they have occasion for.
What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can
scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country
can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can
make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce
of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some
advantage. The general industry of the country, being always
in proportion to the capital which employs it, will not thereby be
diminished, no more than that of the above-mentioned artificers;
but only left to find out the way in which it can be employed
with the greatest advantage. It is certainly not employed to
the greatest advantage when it is thus directed towards an object
which it can buy cheaper than it can make.
