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Untitled Article
at a lawyer ' s desk , or a merchant's counter , or mount a pulpit , or dispose of his services in any way without learning what was expected of him , or preparing himself to fulfil his contract . He would not pocket his salary , and accept any advantages that hig position afforded him , while he trusted to haphazard or to daily routine to teach him what he must do or how he must do it . No
honest man would thus engage himself , even if he were born to his office and were subject to no controlling power . Neither will an honest man accept the benefits of the social contract without learning how to fulfil his share of it . It is not enough for a member of society , any more than for a merchant's clerk , to be upright and industrious ^ and amiable , and generally intelligent . More is wanted in both . They must be skilful as well as laborious , and
their skill must be appropriate to their office . The clerk must have studied the principles and mastered the details of his trade , or he does not deserve his salary ; and the member of society must have informed himself how he may best serve the community before he can fairly appropriate the benefits of living in a comma * Hity . His general intelligence is not enough if it does not guard him against particular errors in the discharge of his function ;
i . e ., a merchant ' s good education will not nullify his support of a monopoly . His uprightness is not enough if it does not preserve him from unconsciously encouraging fraud in others ; t # e . 9 a representative ' s honest zeal will not justify an ill-grounded party measure . His benevolence is not enough if it operates to increase misery ; i . e ., a kind-hearted man ' s almsgiving will not make the
growth of pauperism a good thing . Thus every honest man who writes himself a member oJF society must understand political economy . He who is philanthropic as well as honest lies under a double obligation , inasmuch as he knows it to be in his power to help to drive those above him and to lead those below him to a similar recognition of the duty common to them all .
It is not till we see how deeply the laws of social duty and social happiness are involved in this science that we become aware bow important it ought to be in the eyes of the philanthropist . We are not among those who mix up moral questions with political economy , as if they were not only connected but identical . We do not speak of demand and supply and heavenly-minded ness in the same breath , or bring exchangeable value into immediate connexion with filial piety ; but we think that this study partakes much more of the nature of a moral than a mathematical science ,
and are quite certain that it modifies , or ought to modify , our moral philosophy more extensively than any other influence whatsoever . Political economy treats of the sources and acquisition of wealth , of its distribution ^ md consumption , —including under the term wealth whatever material objects conduce to the support , comfort , and enjoyment of man . There is no question that a great proportion of national crime is generated by
Untitled Article
Oh the Dulif of Studying YoMlcal Economy ? $ f
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 27, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/27/
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