No More Learning

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. The value of its
annual produce is certainly more or less diminished, when it is
thus turned away from producing commodities evidently of more
value than the commodity which it is directed to produce. Accord-
ing to the supposition, that commodity could be purchased from
foreign countries cheaper than it can be made at home. It could
therefore have been purchased with a part only of the commodi-
ties, or what is the same thing, with a part only of the price of
the commodities, which the industry employed by an equal capi-
tal would have produced at home had it been left to follow its
natural course. The industry of the country, therefore, is thus
turned away from a more to a less advantageous employment;
and the changeable value of its annual produce, instead of being
increased according to the intention of the lawgiver, must neces-
sarily be diminished, by every such regulation.
By means of such regulations, indeed, a particular manufacture
may sometimes be acquired sooner than it could have been other-
wise, and after a certain time may be made at home as cheap or
cheaper than in the foreign country. But though the industry of
the society may be thus carried with advantage into a particular
channel sooner than it could have been otherwise, it will by no
means follow that the sum total, either of its industry or of its
revenue, can ever be augmented by any such regulation. The
industry of the society can augment only in proportion as its
capital augments, and its capital can augment only in propor-
tion to what can be gradually saved out of its revenue. But the
immediate effect of every such regulation is to diminish its rev-
enue; and what diminishes its revenue is certainly not very likely


## p. 13534 (#348) ##########################################

13534
ADAM SMITH
to augment its capital faster than it would have augmented of its
own accord, had both their capital and their industry been left to
find out their natural employments.
Though for want of such regulations the society should never
acquire the proposed manufacture, it would not upon that ac-
count necessarily be the poorer in any one period of its duration.
In every period of its duration its whole capital and industry
might still have been employed, though upon different objects, in
the manner that was most advantageous at the time.
In every
period its revenue might have been the greatest which its capi-
tal could afford; and both capital and revenue might have been
augmented with the greatest possible rapidity.
The natural advantages which one country has over another
in producing particular commodities are sometimes so great that
it is acknowledged by all the world to be in vain to struggle
with them. By means of glasses, hot-beds, and hot-walls, very
good grapes can be raised in Scotland, and very good wine too
can be made of them, at about thirty times the expense for
which at least equally good can be brought from foreign coun-
tries. Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation
of all foreign wines merely to encourage the making of claret
and burgundy in Scotland? But if there would be a manifest
absurdity in turning towards any employment thirty times
more of the capital and industry of the country than would be
necessary to purchase from foreign countries an equal quantity
of the commodities wanted, there must be an absurdity, though
not altogether so glaring, yet exactly of the same kind, in turn-
ing towards any such employment a thirtieth, or even a three-
hundredth part more of either. Whether the advantages which
one country has over another be natural or acquired is in this
respect of no consequence. As long as the one country has
those advantages and the other wants them, it will always be
more advantageous for the latter rather to buy of the former
than to make. It is an acquired advantage only which one arti-
ficer has over his neighbor who exercises another trade; and yet
they both find it more advantageous to buy of one another than
to make what does not belong to their particular trades.


## p. 13535 (#349) ##########################################

ADAM SMITH
OF MILITARY AND GENERAL EDUCATION
From the Wealth of Nations>
13535
HAT in the progress of improvement the practice of military
exercises, unless government takes proper pains to sup-
port it, goes gradually to decay,- and together with it, the
martial spirit of the great body of the people, the example
of modern Europe sufficiently demonstrates. But the security
of every society must always depend, more or less, upon the
martial spirit of the great body of the people. In the present
times, indeed, the martial spirit alone, and unsupported by a well-
disciplined standing army, would not perhaps be sufficient for
the defense and security of any society. But where every citizen
had the spirit of a soldier, a smaller standing army would surely
be requisite. That spirit, besides, would necessarily diminish very
much the dangers to liberty, whether real or imaginary, which
are commonly apprehended from a standing army. As it would
very much facilitate the operations of that army against a foreign
invader, so it would obstruct them as much if unfortunately they
should ever be directed against the constitution of the State.
The ancient institutions of Greece and Rome seem to have
been much more effectual for maintaining the martial spirit of the
great body of the people, than the establishment of what are called
the militias of modern times. They were much more simple.
When they were once established, they executed themselves, and
it required little or no attention from government to maintain
them in the most perfect vigor. Whereas to maintain, even in
tolerable execution, the complex regulations of any modern mili-
tia, requires the continual and painful attention of government,
without which they are constantly falling into total neglect and
disuse. The influence, besides, of the ancient institutions was
much more universal. By means of them the whole body of the
people was completely instructed in the use of arms. Whereas
it is but a very small part of them who can ever be so instructed
by the regulations of any modern militia, except perhaps that of
Switzerland. But a coward-a man incapable of defending or
of revenging himself-evidently wants one of the most essential
parts of the character of a man. He is as much mutilated and
deformed in his mind as another is in his body, who is either
deprived of some of its most essential members or has lost the
use of them. He is evidently the more wretched and miserable
―


## p. 13536 (#350) ##########################################

13536
ADAM SMITH
of the two; because happiness and misery, which reside altogether
in the mind, must necessarily depend more upon the healthful or
unhealthful, the mutilated or entire state of the mind, than upon
that of the body. Even though the martial spirit of the people
were of no use towards the defense of the society, yet to pre-
vent that sort of mental mutilation, deformity, and wretchedness,
which cowardice necessarily involves in it, from spreading them-
selves through the great body of the people, would still deserve
the most serious attention of government, in the same manner as
it would deserve its most serious attention to prevent a leprosy,
or any other loathsome and offensive disease though neither
mortal nor dangerous, from spreading itself among them; though
perhaps no other public good might result from such attention
besides the prevention of so great a public evil.
The same thing may be said of the gross ignorance and stu-
pidity which, in a civilized society, seem so frequently to benumb
the understandings of all the inferior ranks of people. A man
without the proper use of the intellectual faculties of a man is,
if possible, more contemptible than even a coward; and seems to
be mutilated and deformed in a still more essential part of the
character of human nature. Though the State was to derive no
advantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people, it
would still deserve its attention that they should not be altogether
uninstructed. The State, however, derives no inconsiderable ad-
vantage from their instruction. The more they are instructed,
the less liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm and super-
stition which, among ignorant nations, frequently occasion the
most dreadful disorders. An instructed and intelligent people,
besides, are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant
and stupid one. They feel themselves, each individually, more
respectable, and more likely to obtain the respect of their lawful
superiors; and they are therefore more disposed to respect those
superiors. They are more disposed to examine, and more capable
of seeing through, the interested complaints of faction and sedi-
tion; and they are upon that account less apt to be misled into
any wanton or unnecessary opposition to the measures of govern-
ment. In free countries, where the safety of government depends
very much upon the favorable judgment which the people may
form of its conduct, it must surely be of the highest importance
that they should not be disposed to judge rashly or capriciously
concerning it.


## p. 13537 (#351) ##########################################

13537
GOLDWIN SMITH
(1823-)
HE liberal movement in the politics and religious thought of
the present day is adequately represented by the intellec-
tual career of Goldwin Smith. Throughout his long life he
has been in the van of what he considers the progressive forces of
the time. His conception of progress, as primarily a moral process,
pervades the entire body of his writings whether he is dealing with
the Canadian question, with the question of Home Rule, with the
condition of the colonies, or with the tem-
per of the Establishment. So convinced is
he that the workings of the moral order
exceed in strength all other forms of power,
that he measures the importance and dura-
tion of various social and political institu-
tions by the degree of their conformance to
this order. In consequence he sees disinte-
gration where others see permanence; and
degeneration where others look for growth.
The charge of being of a negative and de-
structive spirit has been frequently brought
against him: he claims, however, by the
tacit testimony of his books on politics and
history, the privilege of a prophet, who can
foresee reformation only through the intervening spaces of disorder
and decay.

GOLDWIN SMITH
The fundamental principle underlying his judgments of contem-
porary affairs is contained in his early lectures on the 'Study of
History. ' He applies the principle of historical development - the
progress of mankind through the efforts of individuals-to present-
day matters. To understand his conception of history is to under-
stand to a degree his position towards the events of his time.
"That the human race is in a real sense one; that its efforts are com-
mon and tend in some measure to a joint result; that its several members may
stand in the eye of their Maker, not only as individual agents, but as con-
tributors to this joint result,-is a doctrine which our reason perhaps finds
something to support, and which our hearts readily accept. It unites us not
only in sympathy, but in real interest, with the generations that are to come
XXIII-847


## p. 13538 (#352) ##########################################

13538
GOLDWIN SMITH
after us, as well as with those that are gone before us; it makes each genera-
tion, each man, a partaker in the wealth of all: it encourages us to sow a har-
vest which we shall reap, not with our own hands indeed, but by the hands of
those that come after us; it at once represses selfish ambition, and stimulates
the desire of earning the gratitude of our kind; it strengthens all social and
regulates all personal desires; it limits-and by limiting sustains-effort,
and calms the passionate craving to grasp political perfection or final truth; it
fills up the fragment, gives fruitfulness to effort apparently wasted, and covers
present failure with ultimate success; it turns the death of States, as of men,
into incidents of one vast life; and quenches the melancholy which flows from
the ruins of the past,- that past into which we too are sinking, just when
great things seem about to come. "
It is this dispassionate spirit of world-citizenship, this ability to
"look before and after," which has led Goldwin Smith to attach him-
self permanently to no party, to hold fast by no creed, political or
religious. His manner of life has fostered this cosmopolitanism of
thought and feeling. He is by birth an Englishman. He was born at
Reading, Berkshire, August 13th, 1823; was educated at Eton, and at
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was graduated with high honors
in 1845; subsequently he was chosen Fellow and tutor of University
College. In 1847 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1850,
and again in 1854, he served as secretary to the Royal Commission
of University Reform. From 1858 to 1866 he was a member of the
Education Commission, whose labors resulted in the Education Bill of
1870. At the same period he was Regius Professor of Modern History
at Oxford. He had devoted himself early in his career to the study
of contemporary politics. In 1861 he published 'Irish History and
Irish Character,' in which he endeavored to explain the events of
Ireland's history by the temperament of her sons. In the same year
he published the 'Foundation of the American Colonies,' and two
years later The Morality of the Emancipation Proclamation. ' He had
made a most careful investigation of the causes leading to the Civil
War; he understood the situation better perhaps than any one else in
England. His support of the North was strong and persistent; during
the period of the War, his letters to the Daily News went far to hold
a clear picture of the situation before English readers. As was usual
with him, he understood the importance of the moral question under-
lying the political; he foresaw the triumph of the Union, because it
was in the stream of the tendency towards righteousness. In 1865
appeared his 'England and America,' and in 1866 The Civil War in
America. In 1866 he published also his 'Lectures on the Study of
History. ' These are of great value, not alone for their princely style:
they exhibit a clearness of insight into social and political problems,
and into the laws of historical development, not surpassed by any
other modern historian. Goldwin Smith assumes that history cannot


## p. 13539 (#353) ##########################################

GOLDWIN SMITH
13539
be studied as a whole until the moral unity of the race is thoroughly,
felt. He disclaims the theory of the positive school, that history
is governed by necessary laws, and can therefore come under the
domain of physical science; disclaims it on the ground that the moral
element in it renders it just beyond the calculations of science. It
is made up of the actions of men, and must be read in the light of
moral rather than material laws. It thus becomes the highest of all
studies. - the study of man's struggles upward from the beast to
the god. In another lecture on 'Some Supposed Consequences of the
Doctrine of Historical Progress,' he endeavors to show that Christian-
ity as a moral power has been ever on the side of civilization and
advancement: where it has conflicted with progress, its dogmatic, not
its moral quality has been in the ascendency.
(
In 1868 Professor Smith accepted the chair of English History in
Cornell University; in 1869 he published Relations between Eng-
land and America,' and a Short History of England. ' In 1871 he
removed to Toronto, where he was made a member of the senate of
Toronto University. From 1872 until 1874 he edited the Canadian
Monthly; he was then for a time the editor of the Bystander, a politi-
cal weekly. Afte the discontinuance of this paper, he edited the
Week until 1881.
In 1879 he published 'Political Destiny of Canada,' and in 1891
'Canada and the Canadian Question. ' He advocates the annexation
of Canada to the United States. He bases his arguments for annexa-
tion upon what he believes is inevitable in the course of national
development, the union of the English-speaking races on the North-
American continent. He is moreover a disbeliever in England's impe-
rialism: he does not favor the colonial system, being of opinion that
the greatness of a nation does not depend upon the extent of the
territory controlled by it; he believes, moreover, that England must
lose her colonies, as they grow in strength and in individuality.
In 1880 he published a 'Life of Cowper. ' It is not equal to
his 'Life of Jane Austen'; perhaps because he was more in sympathy
with the novelist's common-sense and impersonal outlook upon life,
than with the hypersensitive spirit of the gentle poet. In 1881
appeared Lectures and Essays'; in 1882 Conduct of England to
Ireland'; in 1883 False Hopes, or Fallacies, Socialistic and Semi-
Socialistic'; and in 1884 A Trip to England. In 1894 he published
'Essays on Questions of the Day. ' The first of these, on 'Social
and Industrial Revolutions,' throws sudden vivid light on many
old problems: it exposes the underlying weakness of socialism, com-
munism, anarchism, and other forms of socialistic tendency, but it
does not lay the blame entirely on one class or the other. The osten-
tatious rich, he maintains, belong to the dangerous class as truly as
-


## p. 13540 (#354) ##########################################

GOLDWIN SMITH
13540
the bomb-thrower. Throughout all his arguments can be traced his
belief in the orderly progress of events; his recognition of the fact
that "equality" is the most Utopian word in the language, of the
truth that reformation is a growth, not a revolution.
In his latest book, 'Guesses at the Riddle of Existence,' he touches
on some of the great religious problems of the day,- touches on
them merely as one who cannot afford to linger long over what can
after all, as he believes, be solved only in the domain of the moral
nature, not of the intellectual life. His faith, like the faith of many
of his contemporaries, would express itself in conduct rather than
in the subtleties of creed. For that reason he is drawn to the con-
templation of Christ as being in very truth the Light of the moral
world.
Of Goldwin Smith's position in the domain of literature it is diffi
cult to speak with justice. He is less a man of letters than a man
of affairs; yet, as a writer of sinewy English prose he is not surpassed
among his contemporaries. He handles words like delicate instru-
ments which may assist to the birth or may deal death. For this
reason, if for no other, he is a formidable adversary, a trustworthy
champion. His English is the English of the scholar, whose taste
and character have been formed by contact with the world as well
as with Homer, Lucretius, and Virgil. His culture as a poet is shown
in some admirable versions of Horace. Of the reasonableness of his
opinions in religion and politics, future generations alone can judge
with fairness. He is thoroughly representative at least of a transi-
tional age in the political and religious development of the modern
world.
JOHN PYM
From Three English Statesmen ›
P
Yм had been second only to Sir John Eliot as a leader of
the patriot party in the reign of James. He was one of the
twelve deputies of the Commons when James cried, with
insight as well as spleen, "Set twal chairs: here be twal kings.
coming. " He had stood among the foremost of those "evil-
tempered spirits" who protested that the liberties of Parliament
were not the favors of the Crown, but the birthright of English-
men; and who for so doing were imprisoned without law. He
had resolved, as he said, that he would rather suffer for speaking
the truth, than the truth should suffer for want of his speaking.
His greatness had increased in the struggle against Charles I.


## p. 13541 (#355) ##########################################

GOLDWIN SMITH
13541
He had been one of the chief managers of the impeachment of
Buckingham; and for that service to public justice he had again
suffered a glorious imprisonment. He had accused Manwaring;
he had raised a voice of power against the Romanizing intrigues
of Laud. In those days he and Strafford were dear friends,
and fellow-soldiers in the same cause. But when the death of
Buckingham left the place of First Minister vacant, Strafford
sought an interview with Pym at Greenwich; and when they met,
began to talk against dangerous courses, and to hint at advan-
tageous overtures to be made by the court. . Pym cut him short:
"You need not use all this art to tell me that you have a mind
to leave us. But remember what I tell you,-you are going to
be undone. And remember also that though you leave us, I will
never leave you while your head is upon your shoulders! " Such
at least was the story current in the succeeding age, of the last
interview between the Great Champion of Freedom and the
Great Apostate.
Pym was a Somersetshire gentleman of good family; and it
was from good families-such families at least as do not pro-
duce Jacobins - that most of the leaders of this revolution sprang.
I note it, not to claim for principle the patronage of birth and
wealth, but to show how strong that principle must have been
which could thus move birth and wealth away from their natural
bias. It is still true, not in the ascetic but in the moral sense,
that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
heaven; and when we see rich men entering into the kingdom.
of heaven, hazarding the enjoyment of wealth for the sake of
principle, we may know that it is no common age. Oxford was
the place of Pym's education; and there he was distinguished not
only by solid acquirements, but by elegant accomplishments, so
that an Oxford poet calls him the favorite of Apollo. High cult-
ure is now rather in disgrace in some quarters; and not without
a color of reason, as unbracing the sinews of action, and destroy-
ing sympathy with the people. Nevertheless, the universities
produced the great statesmen and the great warriors of the Com-
monwealth. If the Oxford of Pym, of Hampden, and of Blake,
the Oxford of Wycliffe, the Oxford where in still earlier times.
those principles were nursed which gave us the Great Charter and
the House of Commons- if this Oxford, I say, now seems by her
political bearing to dishonor learning, and by an ignoble choice
does a wrong to the nation which Lancashire is called upon to


## p. 13542 (#356) ##########################################

GOLDWIN SMITH
13542
redress, believe me, it is not the university which thus offends,
but a power alien to the university and alien to learning, to
which the university is, and unless you rescue her, will continue
to be, a slave.
It is another point of difference between the English and the
French revolutions, that the leaders of the English Revolution
were as a rule good husbands and fathers, in whom domestic
affection was the root of public virtue. Pym, after being for
some time in public life, married, and after his marriage lived
six years in retirement; a part of training as necessary as action
to the depth of character and the power of sustained thought
which are the elements of greatness. At the end of the six years
his wife died, and he took no other wife but his country.
There were many elements in the patriot party, united at first,
afterward severed from each other by the fierce winnowing-fan
of the struggle, and marking by their successive ascendency the
changing phases of the Revolution: Constitutional Monarchists,
aristocratic Republicans, Republicans thorough-going, Protestant
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and in the abyss be-
neath them all the Anabaptists, the Fifth Monarchy men, and the
Levelers. Pym was a friend of constitutional monarchy in poli-
tics, a Protestant Episcopalian in religion; against a despot, but
for a king; against the tyranny and political power of the bish-
ops, but satisfied with that form of church government. He was
no fanatic and no ascetic. He was genial, social, even convivial.
His enemies held him up to the hatred of the sectaries as a man
of pleasure. As the statesman and orator of the less extreme
party, and of the first period of the Revolution, he is the Eng-
lish counterpart of Mirabeau, so far as a Christian patriot can
be the counterpart of a Voltairean debauchee.
Nor is he altogether unlike Mirabeau in the style of his
eloquence; our better appreciation of which, as well as our bet-
ter knowledge of Pym and of this the heroic age of our history
in general, we owe to the patriotic and truly noble diligence of
Mr. John Forster, from whose researches no small portion of my
materials for this lecture is derived. Pym's speeches of course
are seventeenth-century speeches: stately in diction, somewhat
like homilies in their divisions, full of learning, full of Script-
ure (which then, be it remembered, was a fresh spring of new
thought); full of philosophic passages which might have come
from the pen of Hooker or of Bacon. But they sometimes strike
-


## p. 13543 (#357) ##########################################

GOLDWIN SMITH
13543
the great strokes for which Mirabeau was famous. Buckingham
had pleaded, to the charge of enriching himself by the sale of
honors and offices, that so far from having enriched himself he
was £100,000 in debt. "If this be true," replied Pym, "how can
we hope to satisfy his immense prodigality; if false, how can
we hope to satisfy his covetousness? " In the debate on the Peti-
tion of Right, when Secretary Cooke desired in the name of the
King to know whether they would take the King's word for the
observance of their liberties or not, "there was silence for a
good space": none liking to reject the King's word, all knowing
what that word was worth. The silence was broken by Pym,
who rose and said, "We have his Majesty's coronation oath to
maintain the laws of England: what need we then to take his
word? " And the secretary desperately pressing his point, and
asking what foreigners would think if the people of England
refused to trust their King's word, Pym rejoined, "Truly, Mr.
Secretary, I am of the same opinion that I was, that the King's
oath is as powerful as his word. " In the same debate the court-
iers prayed the House to leave entire his Majesty's sovereign
power: a Stuart phrase, meaning the power of the king, when
he deemed it expedient, to break the law. "I am not able,"
was Pym's reply, "to speak to this question. I know not what
it is. All our petition is for the laws of England; and this
power seems to be another power distinct from the power of the
law. I know how to add sovereign to the King's person, but not
to his power.
We cannot leave to him a sovereign power, for
we never were possessed of it. "
The English Revolution was a revolution of principle, but of
principle couched in precedent. What the philosophic salon was
to the French leaders of opinion, that the historical and anti-
quarian library of Sir Robert Cotton was to the English. And
of the group of illustrious men who gathered in that library,
none had been a deeper student of its treasures than Pym. His
speeches and State papers are the proof.
SO
When the Parliament had met, Pym was the first to rise.
We know his appearance from his portrait: a portly form, which
a court waiting-woman called that of an OX; a forehead
high that lampooners compared it to a shuttle; the dress of a
gentleman of the time,- for not to the cavaliers alone belonged
that picturesque costume and those pointed beards which fur-
nish the real explanation of the fact that all women are Tories.


## p. 13544 (#358) ##########################################

13544
GOLDWIN SMITH
Into the expectant and wavering, though ardent, minds of the
inexperienced assembly he poured, with the authority of a veteran
chief, a speech which at once fixed their thoughts, and possessed
them with their mission. It was a broad, complete, and earnest,
though undeclamatory, statement of the abuses which they had
come to reform. For reform, though for root-and-branch reform,
not for revolution, the Short Parliament came; and Charles might
even now have made his peace with his people. But Charles did
not yet see the truth: the truth could never pierce through the
divinity that hedged round the king. The Commons insisted that
redress of grievances should go before supply. In a moment
of madness, or what is the same thing, of compliance with the
counsels of Laud, Charles dissolved the Parliament, imprisoned
several of its members, and published his reasons in a proclama-
tion full of despotic doctrine. The friends of the Crown were
sad, its enemies very joyful. Now, to the eye of history, begins
to rise that scaffold before Whitehall.
Once more Charles and Strafford tried their desperate arms
against the Scotch; and once more their soldiers refused to fight.
Pym and Hampden, meanwhile, sure of the issue, were preparing
their party and the nation for the decisive struggle. Their head-
quarters were at Pym's house, in Gray's Inn Lane; but meetings
were held also at the houses of leaders in the country, especially
for correspondence with the Scotch, with whom these patriot
traitors were undoubtedly in league. A private press was actively
at work. Pym was not only the orator of his party, but its soul
and centre; he knew how not only to propagate his opinions with
words of power, but to organize the means of victory. And now
Charles, in extremity, turned to the Middle Ages for one expedi-
ent more, and called a Great Council of Peers, according to Plan-
tagenet precedents, at York.