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FIRST LESSONS 
 
 IN 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 FOR TITE USE OF 
 
 SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. 
 BY jottsr McVtfcttAH, ft. t>. 
 
 "Professor of Political Economy, Columbia College, N, York, 
 SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORIt: 
 
 SAXTON AND MILES, 
 
 ICHOOL BOOK PUBLISHERS, 
 2 05 Broadway. 
 
 1846. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, m the year 1835, 
 by John McVicear, D. D., in the office of the clerk of the 
 Southern District of New-York. 
 
M313 
 
 CONTENTS. y^4( 
 
 Lesson. Page. 
 
 1. Money, 11 
 
 2. Exchanges, .... 14 
 
 3. Commerce, . • • • 20 
 
 4. Merchant, 26 
 
 5. Manufacturer, 35 
 
 6. Farmer, 38 
 
 7. Lawyer, Physician and Clergy- 
 
 man, 51 
 
 8. Land, 58 
 
 9. Rich and poor, 62 
 
 10. Productive and Unproductive, .. 68 
 
 11. Value, 74 
 
 12. Price, 80 
 
 13. Cheap, 86 
 
 14. Government, 90 
 
 15. Education, 97 
 
 16. The Poor, 102 
 
 17. Lotteries, 107 
 
 18. How to make money, • 112 
 
 19. How to use money, 114 
 
 M508369 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This work is one of the happiest efforts, for the young 
 mind, that the present age has produced. The principles 
 of this great science are here brought out, clearly, forci- 
 bly, and with all the simplicity of childhood. Says the 
 learned author in the preface :— " The first principles of 
 political economy are truisms, which a child may under- 
 stand ; and which children should, therefore, be taught." 
 How eloquently and satisfactorily has the author proved 
 his assertion in the little work before us ! Here, those great 
 and fixed principles, open, simple and beautiful in them- 
 selves, but which frequently puzzle the unread legislator, 
 are brought down to the comprehension and the language 
 of the child ! Truly, the most learned men are the most 
 simple men. How much knowledge does it require to be 
 plain, and pure, and simple ! Well did a great philosopher 
 once say: "I need all my learning when I talk to a 
 child." Profound remark ! Would that more thought so, 
 who are aiding the operations of the infant mind ! 
 
 The work is intended, either as a text book, to be com- 
 mitted to memory by the children in the common school, 
 or to be read by them in class, used as a reading class- 
 book. The school that will introduce this litte work will 
 elevate its character at once. What inquiries — what com- 
 parisons — what closeness of observation — what reasoning 
 —what enlargement of thought — what vigor and power 
 of mind, will this work excite in the vouth of this country. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The first principles of Political Econo- 
 my are truisms which a child may under- 
 stand, and which children should therefore 
 be taught. In the last century they were 
 among the speculations of the learned ; 
 they have now become the heritage of the 
 nursery ; and the only difficulty in teach- 
 ing them in after life arises from a suspicion 
 excited by their very simplicity. 
 
 2. They are so obvious, that men are 
 apt to think, if true, they would not have 
 then, for the first time, to learn them. 
 That this stumbling-block may be removed 
 from the path of the next generation, w T e 
 must now incorporate these truths into the 
 studies of children, in order that they may 
 become, as it were, 'part and parcel of 
 their minds.' 
 
O PREFACE. 
 
 3. From such a course, we have rea- 
 son to believe, would flow many and great 
 advantages. Men in high and responsible 
 stations would then no longer be found 
 engaged in learning principles, when they 
 should be occupied in applying them, nor 
 in discussing theories, when they should be 
 directing practice. 
 
 4. To see statesmen, as we now do, dis- 
 puting about the laws of currency when 
 called upon to regulate it, is an absurdity 
 as great as to see engineers upon the field 
 of battle commencing their labors by a dis- 
 pute as to the principles of the law of pro- 
 jectiles. 
 
 5. In either case it is a discussion foreign 
 to their business, and originating in a cul- 
 pable ignorance of what they should before 
 have learned. To question the principles 
 of science is always the part of ignorance. 
 The true diffiulty in Political Economy, 
 and it no doubt is a great one, lies in the 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 modification which peculiar circumstances 
 produce upon the results of general laws. 
 
 6. This is the true field of practical in- 
 quiry — not principles — they are fixed and 
 uniform. In economical as in all other 
 sciences, theories have power to mislead 
 only so long as the principles of the science 
 continue unsettled. 
 
 7. So soon as men cease to dispute 
 about the grounds upon which they set 
 out, then, and not before, do they take up 
 questions in the plain light of fact and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 8. With a view to do his share toward 
 forwarding this good work, which, as aca- 
 demic teacher of the science, he feels him- 
 self by duty called upon to do, the Author 
 proposes to prepare a series of text books 
 on these subjects, in a manner suited to the 
 varied ages and capacity of those for whose 
 instruction they are intended, being 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 9. 1 . First Lessons in Political Economy, 
 
 for primary and Common Schools. 
 
 2. Outlines of Political Economy, for 
 higher Schools and Academies. 
 
 3. Lectures on Political Economy , for 
 the use of elder Students in Colle- 
 ges. 
 
 10. Such a scheme as this, though it had 
 been long before his mind, and materials 
 for it partly prepared, might yet, he is well 
 aware, have slumbered on much longer, 
 had not a recent work of Whately, enti- 
 tled " Easy Lessons on Money Matters," 
 recalled it to his mind, together with a 
 conviction of the expediency of no longer 
 delaying what is evidently in our country 
 so greatly needed. 
 
 1 1. For if universal suffrage make eve- 
 ry man a legislator, universal education 
 must fit him for the task. To employ his 
 power wisely and well, he must at any rate 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 not be ignorant in those matters in which 
 legislation is concerned. 
 
 12. For Number I. in the series, a re- 
 publication of Whately was first thought 
 of, with questions annexed ; but this idea 
 was soon abandoned, from the inapplica- 
 bility of the work to the circumstances and 
 needs of our country. 
 
 1 3. The Author has therefore proceed- 
 ed to give his own views, and in his own 
 way, in reference to the wants of his fel- 
 low-citizens ; retaining, however, the first 
 lesson, or that on " Money," as given by 
 Whately, in order that an humble imitator 
 of his method may not seem to claim a 
 merit of originality to which he is not en- 
 titled. 
 
 CclvrnhJa College, 
 
FIRST LESSONS 
 
 IN 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 LESSON I. 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 1. " What a useful thing is money! If 
 there were no such thing as money, we 
 should be much at a loss to get any thing 
 we might want. The shoemaker, for in- 
 stance, who might want bread, and meat, 
 and beer, for his family, would have no- 
 thing to give in exchange but shoes. He 
 must go to the baker and offer him a pair 
 of shoes for as much bread as they were 
 worth ; and he must do the same thing if 
 he went to the butcher for meat, or to the 
 brewer for beer. 
 
l£ MONEY* 
 
 2. But the baker might happen not to 
 want shoes just then, though he might 
 want a hat. Then the shoemaker must 
 find out some hatter who wanted shoes, 
 and get a hat from him, and the exchange 
 the hat with the baker for bread. 
 
 3. All this would be very troublesome. 
 But by the use of money this trouble is sa- 
 ved. Any one who has money may get 
 for it just what he may chance to want. 
 The baker is always willing to part with 
 his bread for money, because he knows 
 that he may exchange that for shoes, or 
 for a hat, or for firing, or any thing that he 
 is in want of. What time and trouble it 
 must have cost r?ien to exchange one thing 
 for another before money was in use ! 
 
 4. We ought to be thankful for all the 
 good things which Providence gives us, 
 and to be careful to make a right use of 
 them. The best use of wealth, and what 
 gives most delight to a true Christian, is 
 
MONEY. 13 
 
 to relieve good people when they are in 
 want. 
 
 5. For this purpose, money is of the 
 greatest use for a poor man may chance 
 to be in w 7 ant of something which I may 
 not have to spare. But if I give him mo- 
 ney he can get just w T hat he wants for 
 that, w r hether bread, or clothes, or coals, 
 or books. 
 
 6. When there was a great famine in 
 Judea, in the time of the Apostle Paul, the 
 Greek Christians thought fit to relieve 
 • the poor saints (that is, Christians,) that 
 were in Judea.' But it would have been 
 a great trouble to send corn to such a dis- 
 tance ; and besides, they themselves might 
 not have had corn to spare. But they 
 made a collection o f money, w r hich takes 
 little room ; and Paul carried it to Judea ; 
 and with this money the poor people could 
 buy corn, wherever it was to be had." — 
 Whately* 
 
14 EXCHANGES. 
 
 Questions on Lesson I. 
 Supposing there were no money, what 
 
 should we have to do when we wanted 
 
 to buy any thing ? 
 How does money save us time and trouble ? 
 What is the best use of money ? 
 Give an instance of its convenience from 
 
 Scripture. 
 
 LESSON II. 
 
 EXCHANGES. 
 
 1. " But why should not each man make 
 what he wants for himself, without going 
 to his neighbor's to buy it ? 
 
 Go into the shoemaker's shop, and ask 
 him why he does not make tables and 
 chairs for himself, and hats, and coats, and 
 every thing he wants. He will tell you 
 that he must have a complete set of join- 
 er's tools to make one chair properly ; the 
 
EXCHANGES. 15 
 
 same tools as would serve to make hun- 
 dreds of chairs. And if he were also to 
 make the tools himself, and the nails, he 
 would want a smith's forge, and anvil and 
 hammer. 
 
 2. And after all, it would cost him great 
 labor to make very clumsy tools and chairs, 
 because he has not been used to that kind 
 of work. It w r ould be less trouble to him 
 to make shoes that would sell for as much 
 as would buy a dozen chairs, than to make 
 one chair himself. To the joiner, again, it 
 would be as great a loss to attempt making 
 shoes for himself. And so it is with the 
 tailor, the hatter, and all other trades. It 
 is best for all, that each should work in his 
 own way, and supply his neighbors, while 
 they supply him. 
 
 3. But there are some rude nations who 
 have very little of this kind of exchange. 
 Each man among them builds himself a ca- 
 bin, and makes clothes for himself, and a 
 canoe to go a-fishing in, and fishing-rod and 
 
16 EXCHANGES. 
 
 hooks, and lines, and also darts and bows 
 and arrows for hunting, besides tilling a lit- 
 tle bit of land. Such people are all of them 
 much worse off than the poor among us. 
 
 4. Their clothing is nothing but coarse 
 mats or raw hides ; their cabins are no bet- 
 ter than pig-sties ; their canoes are only 
 hollow trees, or baskets made of bark ; and 
 all their tools are clumsy. Where every 
 man does every thing for himself, every 
 thing is badly done ; and a few hundreds 
 of these savages will be half-starved in a 
 country that would maintain as many 
 thousands of us in much greater comfort." 
 — Whately. 
 
 5. The reason is, that with us one man 
 works principally at one thing, and thus 
 becomes skilful, so that he can do more in 
 the same time. If the shoemaker was to 
 work half his time as a hatter, and the hat- 
 ter as a shoemaker, there would be fewer 
 hats and few T er shoes made than before, 
 and besides that, not so good. 
 
EXCHANGES. 17 
 
 6. In changing from one work to the 
 other they would lose some time in looking 
 for their tools, and getting things into or- 
 der ; and after they began to work, some 
 more time would be lost before they could 
 "get their hand in," as it is termed, so as 
 to work to advantage. 
 
 7. Now, what is true of the shoemaker 
 and the hatter, is equally true of all other 
 trades. If their employments were mixed 
 up, less would be made of every article ; 
 and thus every one would necessarily be 
 poorer, because there would be less to bo 
 divided among them. 
 
 8. There is another reason. People 
 would be less industrious: they would 
 not only work to less advantage, but they 
 w 7 ould work less steadily. This may be 
 easily seen by comparing a country black- 
 smith, for instance, who has a great many 
 different things to attend to, with one in 
 the city, who works only at one 
 
 9. In proportion as men confine their 
 
18 EXCHANGES. 
 
 attention to one operation, they become 
 more industrious, that is, they work more 
 steadily ; and more skilful, so that they do 
 more in the same time ; and lastly, more 
 ingenious in finding out inventions to save 
 time and trouble. 
 
 10. As an instance of this I would men- 
 tion that it was a little boy who many years 
 ago made one of the greatest improvements 
 in the steam engine; for having nothing to 
 do but to open and shut a valve at a par- 
 ticular motion of the engine, he observed 
 that by tying two strings to particular parts 
 of the machine, it would open and shut it- 
 self: he did so ; and thus all further trou- 
 ble was saved. 
 
 11. In our back country it is necessary 
 for a settler to turn his hand to a great 
 many things ; but in the cities and older 
 parts of our country it is more profitable 
 for a workman to keep at one employment, 
 and get what he wants from others by giv 
 ing what he makes better than they can, 
 
I 
 
 QUESTIONS ON LESSON II. 19 
 
 in exchange for what they make better 
 than he. 
 
 Questions on Lesson II. 
 
 Why should not each man make what he 
 wants for himself? 
 
 What is the better course, and why ? 
 
 What is best for all, and why ? 
 
 How is it among rude nations ? 
 
 What is the consequence ? 
 
 What are the advantages of a man devot- 
 ing himself to one thing ? What does he 
 gain ? 
 
 How does he acquire skill ? 
 
 How does he save time ? Giv« an illustra- 
 tion. 
 
 What else does it lead to? Give an in- 
 stance. 
 
 What is the case with our back settle- 
 ments? 
 
 Is this necessity an advantage or disadvan- 
 tage? 
 
2X) COMMERCE. 
 
 LESSON HI. 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 1. If the shoemaker were to exchange 
 with the hatter, and get a hat in return for 
 shoes, they are said to barter, or, as boys 
 say, to swop. If they exchange their arti- 
 cles for money, this is called buying and 
 selling. And when these exchanges take 
 place between nations, or distant parts of 
 the same country, it is then called trade or 
 commerce. 
 
 2. The benefits of commerce are very 
 great, as you may easily see wherever you 
 go: the country grows rich by trading 
 with the cities, and cities grow rich by tra- 
 ding with foreign countries. The reason 
 is very plain. Different countries, and 
 even distant parts of the same country, 
 have different productions. One has a hot 
 climate, and raises sugar, but cannot raise 
 wheat, which grows only in a temperate 
 climate like ours. 
 
CGJK15IERCE. 21 
 
 3. Without commerce, the one would 
 have no sugar and the other no wheat, 
 but commerce gives them both. The West 
 Indies and some of our own southern states 
 raise more sugar than they want for their 
 use, while we raise more wheat than we 
 want for ours. 
 
 4. Now if this surplus could not be ex- 
 changed it would be useless, and after a 
 time men would cease to produce it, be- 
 cause it would be throwing away their la- 
 bor : they had rather be idle than work for 
 nothing ; — idle, therefore, they would be : 
 they would soon become indolent like the 
 Indians, who raise only as much as they 
 want for themselves, and like other sava- 
 ges have nothing more than what their 
 own land and labor produce. 
 
 5. This w T ould be the fatal consequence 
 of having no commerce. But this melan 
 choly scene is changed so soon as com- 
 merce begins. The wheat, which was be- 
 fore without value, because it was more 
 
22 COMMERCE. 
 
 than he could eat, now goes to feed other 
 people in those countries where they have 
 no wheat ; while they send us the sugar, 
 which, being more than what they want, 
 was also without value to them ; and thus 
 both are richer by getting what they want 
 in return for what they do not want. 
 
 6. Some children may think that it would 
 be with nations, when they exchange, as 
 with them when they swop. One or other 
 must have the better of the bargain, and 
 what one gains the other must lose. As, 
 for instance, when two boys exchange 
 knives or pencils, if one gets the better, 
 the other gets the worst one. 
 
 7. But that is not the case with nations, 
 and that for this reason, — nations do not 
 exchange the same articles, but different 
 ones ; such as sugar and wheat as between 
 us and the West Indies; or as we send 
 cotton to England, and she sends us in re- 
 turn, cloth, and knives, and scissors, and 
 such articles 
 
COMMERCE. 23 
 
 8. Another difference is, that nations 
 never exchange all they have of an arti- 
 cle : they keep what they want, and send 
 away only what is over. Thus we never 
 exchange all our wheat for sugar or cloth, 
 — that would be a bad bargain; but we 
 sell or exchange only what we could not 
 eat, even if we were to keep it. 
 
 9. Commerce between nations, then, is 
 like swopping between boys, only when 
 each has more than he wants of that which 
 he exchanges away. As suppose two 
 boys, one of whom has two knives and the 
 other two silver pencils. One of each is 
 useless. 
 
 10. Now an exchange is better for both ; 
 for each will then have a knife and each a 
 pencil, and thus their means of amusement 
 are doubled. So is it with nations: and 
 as we carry on trade with a great many 
 nations, so you must suppose a great ma- 
 ny boys, each of them with as many arti- 
 cles, but all of the same kind. 
 
24 QUESTIONS ON LESSON III. 
 
 11. One has all knives, another, all pen* 
 cil cases; a third, all pocket-books; and 
 so on. Now, without exchange, it would 
 be all the same, as to use, as if there were 
 but one article of each kind ; but by ex- 
 change, each boy gets one of each, and so 
 all are richer and none poorer. 
 
 12. In this way it is that we have our 
 tea and sugar, and oranges and raisins, and 
 whatever else woidd not grow with us, or 
 is not not made in our country. 
 
 Questions on Lesson III. 
 
 What do you mean by barter ? What by 
 buying and selling? What by com- 
 merce ? 
 
 What are the advantages of commerce ? 
 
 What would be the condition of countries 
 without commerce ? 
 
 How is it that both countries can gain in 
 exchanging ? 
 
 How is it when two boys swop knives? 
 Can both gain ? 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON III* 25 
 
 What is the difference between exchang- 
 ing between boys and between nations ? 
 
 Do nations exchange articles of the same 
 or different kinds? Give an example. 
 
 Do they exchange all that they have of an 
 article, or only what they do not want ? 
 Give an example. 
 
 Do they exchange with one nation only, 
 or with many? How would you illus- 
 trate the extent and advantages of com- 
 merce ? 
 
 Explain now in what manner we get our 
 tea and sugar, and such things as we do 
 not raise or make ? 
 
2G th« mkrchaxt. 
 
 LESSON IV. 
 
 THE MERCHANT. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 1. Of what use is the merchant? He does 
 not produce any thing which did not exist 
 before, as the farmer does when he plants 
 one bushel of corn and gets a hundred; 
 nor does he make any thing more useful, 
 as the manufacturer does when he spins 
 wool and turns it into cloth. The mer- 
 chant dose nothing but buy cheap and sell 
 dear, and keep the profit to himself. But 
 this is not so. 
 
 2. The merchant produces just as much 
 as the farmer or the manufacturer ; for, as 
 the farmer puts his corn into the ground, 
 and thus turns it, after some months, into 
 more corn ; and as the manufacturer puts 
 his wool into his carding, and spinning, and 
 weaving machines, and turns it into cloth ; 
 so also the merchant puts his wheat or 
 cotton into a ship, and after some months 
 
 
THE MERCHANT. 27 
 
 takes out of the same ship the cloth or tea 
 or sugar which in foreign countries he has 
 bought with it. 
 
 3. It is the same thing to the country as 
 if he had manufactured them by the labor 
 of his sailors, or as if they had grown on 
 the ship's deck. The w T heat or cotton is 
 gone, and the tea or sugar is there in its 
 place ; just as with the farmer, the seed is 
 gone, and the crop is come in its place ; or 
 with the manufacturer, the wool is gone, 
 and the cloth appears in its place. 
 
 4. The only question w r e need ask is, 
 Has he got, in the place of that which is 
 gone, what will buy more corn or more 
 cotton than he took, besides paying all the 
 expenses : if he has, then he is richer, and 
 the country is richer. 
 
 5. The merchant, therefore, who sits in 
 his counting-house and works only with his 
 pen in writing letters abroad, is as valua- 
 ble to the country as the man who works 
 with his hands : the only difference is, the 
 
28 THE MERCHANT. 
 
 farmer produces that which grows in the 
 country, and the merchant produces that 
 which does not grow in the country. 
 
 6. He plants corn in his ship, and in a 
 few weeks gathers a crop of oranges ; or 
 he sows raw cotton, and in a few months 
 it is turned into knives and plates, and 
 boxs of tea, or bags of coffee. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 1. If you ask how can we know that 
 what the merchant brings back is worth 
 more than what he took? I would ask 
 you in turn, whose loss it would be if he 
 did not ? Would it not be his own ? Cer- 
 tainly it would. 
 
 2. If, then, a merchant continues to 
 make these exchanges, it shows that they 
 are profitable to himself, and if to himself 
 then to the nation ; for the nation has part- 
 ed with what he sent, and got back what 
 he brought in return. It is evident, there- 
 fore, that the trading of merchants with fo 
 
THE MERCHANT. 29 
 
 reign countries will always regulate itself 
 
 3. The government need not say to 
 him, You may trade here, for this is a good 
 trade, and you shall not trade there, for 
 that is a bad trade; since the merchant 
 knows much better than any one else can 
 tell him, what is profitable and what is un- 
 profitable ; and the moment any trade be- 
 comes unprofitable he will want no one to 
 advise or direct him not to pursue it, any 
 more than the farmer w r ants government 
 to order him where to sow or not sow his 
 grain, and to forbid him scattering it upon 
 the sand or the rock, because it will bring 
 him no crop. 
 
 4. At the best, the interference of the 
 government would be unnecessary ; for if 
 they knew r all about the farm and the soil 
 and the weather, as well as the farmer, 
 and were as w T atchful for his interest as he 
 is himself, they would only decide as he 
 does, and then their directions would be 
 needless ; but the danger is, they will not 
 
30 THE MERCHANT. 
 
 know so well all about the farm and its 
 various fields as he does, and it is certain 
 they cannot feel so anxious for his interest 
 as he is himself. 
 
 5. It is evident, therefore, that govern- 
 ment is not at good a judge as the farmer, 
 and if it forces him to cultivate his farm 
 otherwise than his own judgment and in- 
 terest direct, it will be worse for the farm- 
 er and worse for the country. He will 
 make less profit, and the country will have 
 less grain to eat or to sell. 
 
 6. Now all this applies exactly to the 
 case of the merchant. The wide ocean is 
 his farm, and he ploughs it in one direction 
 or in another, and sows it with cotton or 
 wheat, or whatever else he thinks best, 
 just as the farmer takes up one field or 
 another, and the result is the same ; left 
 to his own judgment, he will get the great- 
 est returns, for no one can be so careful of 
 his interest as himself. 
 
 7. If government will not let him trade 
 
THE MERCHANT. 31 
 
 as he pleases, he makes less than ne other- 
 wise would do, and the nation gets less tea 
 and coffee and other things in return for 
 the products of its labor which he sends 
 abroad. 
 
 8. To forbid trade among nations, is, 
 therefore, a very unwise thing ; but it is 
 also a very wicked thing, for it is contrary 
 to the will of God. For w T hat other rea- 
 son, do you suppose, has he given to dif- 
 ferent countries such different soils and cli- 
 mate and productions, but that they should 
 freely exchange with each other, and thus 
 all be happier and more comfortable? 
 
 9. Why has he made great rivers4o flow 
 through large countries ? And why has he 
 separated continents by seas and oceans, 
 but that they might be able by means of 
 ships to carry and exchange the produce 
 of distant places and countries ? 
 
 10. If it were all land between this and 
 the West Indies, nobody but the richest 
 people could use sugar, for it would cost 
 
32 THE MERCHANT. 
 
 as many dollars a pound as it now does 
 cents ; while tea would be still dearer, for 
 it would take many thousand horses and 
 men more than two years to drag over 
 land from China, what we now get from 
 there in a few ships manned by a few hun- 
 dred sailors in a few months. 
 
 11. Such is the blessing of seas and 
 oceans, and such no doubt was the inten- 
 tion of our Heavenly Father, in forming 
 our earth out of land and water ; not to 
 separate nations, as some think, and make 
 them strangers and enemies to each other, 
 but to unite them like brothers — to make 
 them mutually useful, by each exchanging 
 its own productions for those of others, 
 and thus to make all happier, by giving 
 them more enjoyments and more comforts 
 than they could otherwise have had. 
 
 12. It follows, therefore, that merchants 
 and commerce should be left as free as pos- 
 sible, not for the benefit of merchants, but 
 for the common good of all 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON IV. 33 
 
 Questions on Lesson IV. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 What iV the objection often made to the 
 merchant ? Is it true . 
 
 Does the merchant produce any thing ? — 
 What? How? 
 
 Compare him with the farmer; with the 
 manufacturer. 
 
 What is the only question of importance? 
 
 Does the merchant make money for him- 
 self, or for the country, or for both ? 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 How can you tell that the merchant brings 
 
 back more than he takes away. 
 Will trade regulate itself? How do you 
 
 know ? 
 Would it not be better for government to 
 
 direct him? Why not? 
 Compare the merchant with the farmer in 
 
 this respect. 
 
 3 
 
34 QUESTIONS ON LESSON IV. 
 
 When would the interference of govern 
 ment be needless ? When hurtful ? 
 
 What would be the consequence of direct- 
 ing the farmer ? the merchant ? 
 
 Is it wicked as well as unwise to forbid 
 trading with other nations ? 
 
 Why is it unwise ? Why is it wicked ? 
 
 How do you know God intended nations 
 to trade ? 
 
 Are oceans and seas a proof of it ? How 
 are they a proof? 
 
 What would be the consequence if there 
 were no seas ? 
 
 Give an example. 
 
 What is the consequence of all nations 
 trading together ? 
 
 Do merchants make profit only for them- 
 selves ? 
 
THE MANUFACTURER. 35 
 
 LESSON V. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURER. 
 
 1. What is the use of a rude lump of 
 iron? Certainly very little. You might 
 use it as you would a heavy stone ; you 
 might make a weight of it, perhaps, and 
 that would be all ; but let the same lump 
 of iron go into the hands of the blacksmith, 
 and come back in the shape of an axe or 
 a spade, or into the hands of the cutler, 
 and be made into knives and scissors and 
 carpenter's tools, and then ask yourself 
 what use it is of? 
 
 2. Without the manufacturer of iron, 
 there could be no more instruments made 
 to work with ; and if no more ploughs and 
 spades and axes and tools were to be made, 
 as soon as those we have w T ere worn out, 
 the consequence would be, that three- 
 fourths of all the inhabitants of such un- 
 happy country would be starved, and the 
 
36 THE MANUFACTURER* 
 
 remainder be reduced, after a little while* 
 to the condition of savages. 
 
 3. So much for the value of the black- 
 smith. Again, what is the value of a bag 
 of wool or cotton ? Very little. It might 
 answer for a pillow, but not much more ; 
 but give it to the manufacturer, and see 
 what use he brings out of it, when he has • 
 turned it into those woollen and cotton 
 cloths, out of which all our clothing and 
 covering is made. 
 
 4. Without the manufacturer, then, we 
 should perish with cold. What too is the 
 value of the stiff clay, which makes our 
 roads so bad in wet weather, sticking to 
 our shoes or to the wheels of the carriage, 
 so that we can hardly get through it ? Most 
 boys would likely say it is of no value. 
 
 5. But give it to the manufacturer of 
 pottery, and see what he brings out of it ; 
 the bricks with which we build our houses 
 or chimneys; the plates we eat off; the 
 pitchers and mugs we drink out of; and 
 
THE MANUFACTURER. 37 
 
 every thing else made of what we term 
 china, or crockery, or stone ware. 
 
 6. All this we owe to that stiff clay 
 which at first was thought to be of no va- 
 lue. So true it is that God hath made 
 u all things good," and " nothing in vain ;" 
 and hath given to man reason and skill to 
 find out their uses, and hands to work 
 them to suit his convenience. Look, too, 
 at the manufacturer in wood. 
 
 7. Of what use to man is w r ood while 
 growing in the tree? except for shade, 
 none. He cannot even cut it down for fire- 
 wood without the manufacturer to give 
 him the axe. He canot saw it into boards 
 without the mill; and when all that is 
 done, it must still be worked up into use, 
 and he who turns it into a house is a ma- 
 nufacturer, and so is he who makes of it 
 chairs and tables, and w r agons, and ships. 
 
 8. Without manufacturers, therefore, it 
 is evident we should be no better than sa- 
 vages. We should have neither houses, nor 
 
38 QUESTIONS ON LESSON V. 
 
 clothes, nor comforts* From the earth we 
 get only what is called the raw material, 
 such as grain, or wood, or iron, or clay. 
 
 9. It is the manufacturer who makes it 
 into what we want : he turns the grain in- 
 to bread, the wood into tables and chairs, 
 the iron into knives and tools, and the clay 
 into cups, and plates, and pitchers. You 
 see, then 7 what condition we should be in 
 without the manufacturer. 
 
 Questions on Lesson V* 
 What is the use of a lump of iron ? 
 What does the manufacturer make of it ? 
 
 Enumerate all you can that is made of 
 
 iron. 
 What would be the consequence if there 
 
 were no manufacturer of iron ? 
 What would become of society? Why? 
 What is the use of raw wool or cotton ? 
 What does the manufacturer make of it ? 
 
 Enumerate all the articles made of wool 
 
 — of cotton. 
 
THE FARMER. 39 
 
 What is the value of clay ? 
 
 What does the manufacturer make of it? 
 
 Enumerate all the articles made of clay. 
 Do you see in this any proof of the wisdom 
 
 of God ? 
 What is the use of wood when growing? 
 What does the manufacturer make of it ? 
 
 Enumerate all the articles made of wood. 
 What should we be without manufactures? 
 What does the earth furnish us with? — 
 
 Enumerate the raw materials. 
 
 LESSON VI. 
 
 THE FARMER. 
 PART I. 
 
 L Without the labor of the farmer, we 
 should have no bread and no meat, except 
 such wild animals as we might be able to 
 catch or kill ; we should have no cotton, 
 
40 THE FARMER. 
 
 or flax, or wool ; nothing to be clothed in 
 but the skins of wild beasts : that is, wa 
 should be again like savages, wandering 
 about the woods, few in number, and 
 wretched in condition, and always ready 
 to starve for want of food. 
 
 2. The occupation of the farmer must, 
 therefore, have been the first that men en- 
 gaged in. There were farmers in the world 
 before there were manufacturers or mer- 
 chants. Men must have had food to eat, 
 and some to spare, before they could find 
 time either to build houses or weave cloth ; 
 and they must have had more than they 
 wanted at home, before they could ex- 
 change with others in the way of trade. 
 
 3. The farmer is, therefore, to be honor- 
 ed as being the earliest of all professions, 
 and the most necessary to the support of 
 society. It is also the healthiest, and per- 
 haps the happiest. 
 
 4. Those who live in the country have 
 few cares, and many innocent pleasures, 
 
THE FARMER. 41 
 
 and may be said to have God always be- 
 fore their eyes, in all the wonders of crea- 
 tion around them. They are safer, too : if 
 they do not make fortunes like the mer- 
 chant, neither do they like him fail and be- 
 come bankrupt. 
 
 5. The last thing we could do without is 
 bread ; therefore farming is to be esteemed 
 as just said, the most necessary of all occu- 
 pations ; but it is not therefore the only ne- 
 cessary one, for in a climate like ours, w r e 
 should soon perish, even though we had 
 food enough, without clothes to cover us, 
 and houses to shelter us; but clothes and 
 houses come not from the farmer, but from 
 the labor of spinners, and weavers, and 
 carpenters, and masons, and brick-makers, 
 and blacksmiths, and many more, all of 
 whom are " manufacturers." 
 
 6. Manufacturers, therefore, are as ne- 
 cessary to society as farmers. But some 
 may say, Could we not do without mer- 
 chants? Let us see. Without the mer 
 
42 THE FARMER. 
 
 chant we would be able to live, but then 
 we would be deprived of many of the com- 
 forts we now enjoy; for there would be 
 neither tea, nor coffee, nor sugar, nor wine, 
 nor any spice or pepper, nor raisins, nor 
 oranges, nor any thing else which does not 
 grow in our own country. 
 
 7. But you may say, Many of these 
 things might be made to grow with us. It 
 is true, some might, with great care and 
 pains ; but then they would be a great deal 
 dearer, and by no means so good. Oran- 
 ges, for instance, could be raised here, but 
 they would not be half so sweet as those 
 from the Havana, nor would they pay the 
 expense of raising them, even if they were 
 sold for ten times as much; and so of 
 other things. 
 
 8. Now who w r ould be the sufferer by 
 this change ? Not the rich, for they could 
 still afford to buy them, but the poor who 
 could not. If there were no commerce, 
 tk before, it is the poor who would lose 
 
THE FARMER. 43 
 
 the most; many of their comforts and al! 
 their luxuries. 
 
 9. Ncr would this be all ; most of the 
 medicines used by us come from abroad, 
 as the Peruvian bark, which comes from 
 South America, for the cure of fever and 
 ague, and ipecacuanha, for relieving the 
 stomach, and quicksilver from the Spanish 
 mines, out of which are made the most 
 powerful medicines, for the cure of bilious 
 fevers, and aloes for diseases of the liver, 
 and opium to relieve pain ; so that we owe 
 to commerce also a greal deal of the relief 
 which doctors are able to give in sickness. 
 
 10. Nor shall we be able without com- 
 merce to have even the manufactures 
 which we carry on within ourselves ; be- 
 cause some of the materials used in almost 
 all of them come from abroad. At present, 
 for instance, we have gun-powder manu- 
 factured here, but that would stop if there 
 were no commerce, for want of salt-petre, 
 without which it could not be made, and 
 which comes from the East Indies. 
 
44 THE FARMER. 
 
 11. At present, we have looking-glasses 
 of our own manufacture, but we could have 
 no more for want of mercury to silver them 
 with. Our cloths could not be dyed with 
 the bright colors they now are, for want of 
 logwood and indigo, and cochineal, which 
 come from the West Indies and South 
 America, and very badly died any color at 
 all, for want of alum and other mordaunts, 
 as they are called, for fixing the color, and 
 most of which come from abroad. 
 
 12. But let us take a more familiar in- 
 stance, and see how much inconvenience 
 we should suffer for want of commerce. 
 Most persons now carry in their pocket a 
 silver pencil with leads, and a piece of In- 
 dia rubber to rub out marks, and use them 
 frequently every day. 
 
 13. Now, without commerce we should 
 have none of these. The silver comes from 
 Mexico or Peru, the lead comes from Eng- 
 land, and the India rubber from South 
 America. In the city of New- York alone 
 
THE FARMER. 45 
 
 we may calculate there are at least 50,000 
 persons who use lead pencils and India 
 rubber. 
 
 14. Now, supposing each to have a use 
 for them on an average ten times a day ; 
 there are then half a million of occasions 
 every day,and that in one city only, and in 
 one single article only, in which the want 
 of commerce w T ould be felt ; producing loss 
 of time, waste of paper, and general incon- 
 venience, by the necessity of using some 
 less perfect and convenient means of writ- 
 ing or rubbing it out. 
 
 15. If a similar calculation could be 
 made with regard to every article of com- 
 merce, and every individual in the w r hole 
 country, this book would be too small far 
 the sum to be put dow T n. 
 
 Questions on Lesson VI. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 What would be our condition without the 
 farmer ? 
 
4C TUE FARMER. 
 
 How do you prove it to be the earliest oc- 
 cupation? 
 
 What other advantages has it? 
 
 Is it the only necessary occupation ? Why 
 not? 
 
 Show that the manufacturer is necessary. 
 
 Could we do without merchants? What 
 would be our condition ? 
 
 Show the result in the common luxuries of 
 life ; in medicine ; in manufactures. 
 
 Give an example to show the inconve- 
 niences we should labor under. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 1. But again, without trade what would 
 become of those people who are now sup- 
 ported by commerce? Merchants and 
 their clerks, you may say, might become 
 farmers and manufacturers. We will exa- 
 mine that directly ; but you must remem- 
 ber in the meantime that these are not all. 
 If there were no merchants in our cities, 
 there would be no necessity of any shop- 
 
THE FARMER. 47 
 
 keepers in our towns and villages, so that 
 they, too, must be added. 
 
 2. Again, if there were no commerce, 
 there would be no ships, and consequent- 
 ly no need of sailors to navigate them, or 
 shipwrights, carpenters and blacksmiths to 
 build them ; or duck manufacturers, sail- 
 makers, rope-makers, and a hundred other 
 classes of workmen, to furnish and com- 
 plete them. All these, therefore, must al- 
 so go to farming and manufacturing. 
 
 3. You may judge how much labor 
 would be thus thrown out of employment, 
 by considering that one of our fine packet 
 ships of which New- York has at least 100, 
 costs about $40,000; that is 40,000 days' 
 work for each, or four millions in all ; so 
 that all these would soon have to go to 
 trades or farming. 
 
 4. Now let us see what support they 
 could get in their new occupation. What 
 trade shall they go to ? There are already 
 nats enough, and shoes enough, and cloths 
 
48 THE FARMER. 
 
 enough ; there would be, therefore, no one 
 to buy these articles if they made them, 
 for there are to be no merchants in the 
 country or city to take, as is now done by 
 them, whatever is not wanted at home, 
 and send it abroad to exchange for what 
 we cannot get or make here. 
 
 5. Instead, therefore, of there being 
 room for the new-comers in manufactures, 
 many of those already employed would 
 have to quit and go to forming too. 
 
 6. Let us see now how all this multi- 
 tude would fare in farming; they might 
 not starve, it is true, because there is plen- 
 ty of good land in our country, and they 
 could eat what they raise ; but how would 
 they get what they did not raise? Who 
 would buy their corn, or wheat, or cattle ? 
 Nobody wants it. 
 
 7. Our county already raises more than 
 we can eat, for we now send abroad every 
 year vegetable food to the value of near 
 nine millions of dollars. 
 
THE FARMER. 49 
 
 8. All that quantity would now stay at 
 home, and because there would be no 
 merchants, both that together with what 
 is raised by the new farmers, would be ut- 
 terly without value ; nobody wants it, and 
 therefore nobody would buy it. 
 
 9. What is to be done in such a case? 
 Why, evidently to send it abroad, and ex- 
 change it for something that is wanted ; 
 that is, we must come back again to the 
 merchants, and traders, and ships, which 
 we proposed to do without ; and then all 
 the other trades dependent upon them will 
 return to their old occupations, and things 
 will come back again to their former con- 
 dition. 
 
 10. The conclusion, then, to which we 
 arrive, is this : all kinds of honest industry 
 are equally profitable to the country, and 
 
 » equally necessary. 
 
 11. The merchant is as necessary as the 
 manufacturer, and the manufacturer as the 
 farmer ; and how many there should be of 
 
 4 
 
50 QUESTIONS ON LESSON VI. 
 
 each class must be left to the interest of 
 individuals. Each one will choose for him- 
 self that business in which he can make 
 the most profit ; and if each one chooses 
 right, then the whole is right. 
 
 Questions on Lesson VL 
 
 PART II. 
 
 If there were no commerce, what would 
 become of the people now supported by 
 it? 
 
 What classes would it throw out of em- 
 ployment ? 
 
 Could they go to manufactures ? Why not ? 
 
 Could they go to farming ? Why not ? 
 
 Show that there would be too many farm- 
 ers already. 
 
 What would this bring us back to ? How ? 
 
 What conclusion follows from this reason- 
 ing? 
 
 How do you know that it will be best for 
 all? 
 
THE LAWYER. 51 
 
 LESSON VII. 
 
 THE LAWYER, PHYSICIAN AND CLERGY- 
 MAN. 
 
 PART I. 
 THE LAWYER. 
 
 1. What should we do without the law- 
 yer? Some may think much better than 
 before, because he only spends the time 
 and money of those people who consult 
 him, all which might be better employed 
 industriously at home: he adds nothing, 
 as they say, to the food, or clothes, or com- 
 forts of society ; so that it is evident socie- 
 ty would be just as rich without him as 
 with him; all the money he gets comes 
 from his clients, so that the only question is, 
 whether it shall be in their pocket or in his. 
 
 2. Such persons call the lawyer, there- 
 fore, an unproductive laborer. The farmer, 
 the manufacturer, and the merchant they 
 call, on the contrary, productive laborers. 
 But let us try whether this be so. I think, 
 
52 THE LAWYER. 
 
 on the contrary, you will see that a good 
 lawyer increases the food and comforts of 
 society, just as much as the farmer or a 
 manufacturer. 
 
 3. I would ask you, then, Is not he a 
 productive laborer who builds a fence or a 
 stone wall around a field, in order that the 
 crop may not be destroyed? Though he 
 does not sow the seed, yet without him it 
 would not grow to be worth any thing; 
 for it would be trampled down and destroy- 
 ed before it was half grown. 
 
 4. Does not the labor of the fence-maker 
 or the stone-wall builder, then, make corn 
 to grow, as well as that of him who ploughs 
 or plants it? It surely does; for without 
 him there would be less corn and grain 
 than there is with him. Now, with the 
 lawyer the case is the same ? he is to all 
 the productions of society, exactly of the 
 same use as the stone-wall builder is to the 
 crop of the farmer. 
 
 5. He builds, it may be said, a wall and 
 
THE LAWYER. 53 
 
 fence about them, so that no one shall steal 
 or destroy them ; and indeed without him 
 neither walls nor bolts would be of much 
 value ; for if there were no lawyers there 
 would be no law, and if no law, then fen- 
 ces would be broken down as soon as 
 built, and doors broken through in spite of 
 locks and bolts, so long as any thing could 
 be gained by robbery ; and this would go 
 on till there was nothing to steal, which 
 would soon be the case, for nobody would 
 work if all had a right to rob him, and so 
 all would become poor and wretched alike, 
 and all for the want of law and lawyers. 
 
 6. The lawyer, therefore, (we mean an 
 honest and good one,) though he does not 
 work directly in raising wheat or weaving 
 cloth, yet indirectly he does as much as 
 those who plough or weave. He is, there- 
 fore, to be called an indirect 'productive la- 
 borer* 
 
 ;9 
 
54 QUESTIONS ON LESSON VII. 
 
 
 Questions on Lesson VI L 
 
 PART I. 
 
 What opinion do some have of the value 
 
 of the lawyer? 
 What do they term him? 
 What is meant by an unproductive laborer ? 
 Is that opinion correct? What may we 
 
 compare him to ? 
 How is a stone-w r all builder a productive 
 
 laborer ? 
 How is a lawyer so ? What would be the 
 
 result if there were no lawyers? 
 What is he to be termed ? 
 
 PART II. 
 THE PHYSICIAN AND CLERGYMAN. 
 
 1. Some think we would do better with- 
 out doctors ; and if you mean bad ones, 
 such as have neither skill nor education, it 
 is very true. But a good physician is as 
 productive a laborer as any in society : he 
 
THE PHYSICIAN AND CLERGYMAN. 55 
 
 raises corn, and weaves cloth, and works 
 a ship, just as much as the farmer, the ma- 
 nufacturerer, and the sailor. 
 
 2. It is true, he does all this not with his 
 own hands, but with the hands of those 
 whom his skill has cured, in order that they 
 may work. But what difference does it 
 make to society who does the work, pro- 
 vided it is done ? 
 
 3. If there is more work done when 
 there are doctors in the land to set broken 
 bones and cure fevers, than there would 
 be without them, then are doctors produc- 
 tive laborers, and they may justly be said 
 to do all that work which without them 
 would not be done. 
 
 4. I do not ask you of what use is the 
 clergyman, for you know well that he 
 teaches you the w r ay of salvation. With- 
 out clergymen, therefore, to teach and ex- 
 plain the word of God, Christians would 
 by degrees become as ignorant and wicked 
 as the Heathen now are. 
 
56 THE PHYSICIAN AND CLERGYMAN. 
 
 5. Nor would this be all : if there were 
 no clergymen to preach to men their duty, 
 men would be less honest and less diligent 
 and less sober ; there would be more thiev- 
 ing and idleness and drunkenness in a coun- 
 try ; and if so, there would be less work 
 done, and even that less well done : there 
 would be less food to eat, and clothes to 
 wear, and houses to live in, 
 
 6. Now if all this would be the case, as 
 it plainly would, who, I would ask, are 
 they that prevent this effect taking place ? 
 Whoever they are, they certainly are pro- 
 ductive laborers. Now it is through the 
 labors of Christian teachers that these evils 
 are prevented. So that we conclude that 
 the clergy are helpers to do the work of 
 the country ; and that some of it would 
 not be done but for their teaching. 
 
 7. Thus a drunken workman can do as 
 little work as though he were in a fever. 
 To cure him of his drunkenness, then, is 
 at least as great a blessing to society as to 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON VII. 57 
 
 restore him to health. In both cases, the 
 work he is enabled to do must be attribut- 
 ed to him who cures him. 
 
 8. But this is not the greatest use of the 
 Christian clergyman: he teaches us how 
 to be happy after this life, and to have true 
 comfort when we come to die, — when the 
 riches of this w T orld shall be of no more 
 value to us than the dirt we now tread on. 
 But this is something better than Political 
 Economy. 
 
 Questions on Lesson VII. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Is the physician a productive laborer ? 
 
 Does he increase the products of the coun- 
 try? How? 
 
 Is the Christian clergyman a productive la- 
 borer ? 
 
 Does he help to grow corn, and make 
 cloth, &c? 
 
 Show how he does so. 
 
 Is that the only use he is of? 
 
53 LAND. 
 
 LESSON VIII. 
 
 LAND. 
 
 1. How comes it that some have land ] 
 and others none? Is it right that it should \ 
 be so ? Would it not be much better that 
 land should be equally divided, so that no 
 one should be rich enough to be idle, or so 
 poor as not to have enough for himself and 
 children; so that there should be no idle- 
 ness and no beggars throughout our coun- 
 try? 
 
 2. No doubt all this would be a very 
 good thing, if it could be managed ; for 
 God gave the earth for a habitation for all 
 men. He never intended that some should 
 have so much as to make them idle and 
 luxurious, nor that any should be so des- 
 titute as to have neither bread to eat nor 
 clothes to covei Jiem. But the question 
 is, How can it be managed ? 
 
 3. A trial would show that, in endea- 
 voring to make men equal in their proper- 
 
LAND. 59 
 
 ty in land, we should do them a hundred 
 times more harm than good ; we should 
 only make the rich to be poor, and make 
 the poor a great deal worse off than at 
 present, by taking away from the rich the 
 means of employing and feeding them. 
 
 4. Let us try it and see what would come 
 of it. Suppose you make an equal division 
 of land this year. How will it be next ? 
 The industrious will be by that time able 
 and ready to buy the shares of the lazy 
 and extravagant, who, on their part, will 
 be equally ready to sell them; and thus 
 the distinction of rich and poor in land will 
 immediately grow up again. 
 
 5. But suppose, in order to prevent this, 
 that by law men are not permitted to buy 
 or sell their land. What will now be the 
 consequence? Why evidently this. The 
 industrious and saving w T ill cease to work 
 and save, because they cannot do what 
 they wish with their profits ; and thus all 
 will become lazy and careless and waste- 
 
60 LAND. 
 
 ful, so that much fewer inhabitants will be 
 supported. 
 
 G. This is the case with our Northern 
 Indians, and is one great cause why they 
 do not improve. All the land belongs to 
 the tribe at large, so that no individual In- 
 dian can have any land of his own. On 
 this account he will not ditch it or fence it 
 as it ought to be, or build good houses or 
 or barns upon it, because he does not know 
 how soon it will be taken from him, and 
 all his labor given to benefit others. 
 
 7. Now the same would be the case with 
 the whites if they too could not make the 
 land their own : they would care only for 
 the next crop, and thus wear out and ruin 
 their lands, instead of improving them, as 
 farmers now do. There is but one way to 
 keep all equal, and that is, to forbid all 
 property at all in land. 
 
 8. But what would then be the result ? 
 Who would work the land if any body had 
 a right to the crop? Certainly no one 
 
LAND. 61 
 
 And even what grew naturally would in 
 that case never be left to come to perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 9. Just as we see with fruit trees stand- 
 ing in a public road ; the fruit never hangs 
 to ripen ; for each one says, " If I do not 
 take it the next comer will, and then I 
 shall lose it altogether." So would it be in 
 this case with all that the earth produced ? 
 go that nine-tenths of the inhabitants would 
 be starved for want of food. 
 
 10. We conclude, therefore, two things ; 
 1st, that land must become property, and 
 belong to individuals, in order that it many 
 be cultivated and the crops preserved; 
 and, 2dly, that they must be left free to 
 purchase and accumulate as much land 
 as they will, in order that they may be re- 
 warded for their industry and saving ; for 
 it is only by their industry and saving that 
 others are fed. 
 
 
62 RICH AND POOR. 
 
 Questions on Lesson VIII. 
 
 Does it seem as if it would be better that 
 all men were equally rich? 
 
 [s this possible? What would be the re- 
 sult? 
 
 Show that it would be so. 
 
 Suppose land equally divided, would it 
 continue so ? Why not ? 
 
 Suppose you prevent all purchase and sale 
 — what then ? 
 
 Describe the condition of our Northern In- 
 dians. 
 
 Suppose all lands were common, w 
 would be the result ? 
 
 To what conclusions do we then come ? 
 
 LESSON IX. 
 
 RICH AND POOR. 
 
 1. But though land cannot be left com- 
 mon, would it not be better that money 
 
RICH AND POOR. 6$ 
 
 should be more equally divided? that all 
 should have enough to be comfortable, and 
 no one so much as to make him proud and 
 idle? Now to be proud and idle are cer- 
 tainly very bad things, very sinful and ve- 
 ry foolish ; but still, to make men poor by 
 taking away the fruits of their own indus- 
 try, or what their parents have left them, 
 I am afraid, would not prevent it. 
 
 2. Thus we see in Spain, where the peo- 
 ple are all poor, they are yet very proud, 
 and very idle ; so much so, that rather than 
 work at any trade, they are content to live 
 in the most wretched and filthy manner of 
 any people in Europe. 
 
 3. Our North American Indians also 
 have the same character; they are very 
 proud, very lazy, and very poor. So that 
 w T e are not likely to cure these faults 
 among ourselves by preventing people 
 from growing rich. The best cure for pride 
 is to look in our own hearts, and see how 
 little we have to be proud of; and the true 
 
64 RICH AND POOR. 
 
 remedy for indolence is to remember that 
 riches, and all else we have, are talents for 
 which we must render an account. 
 
 4. On the contrary, you would by the 
 former way make all men idle; for the 
 motive to industry is the independence and 
 wealth which result from it. If, then, you 
 take away their wealth as soon as they ac- 
 quire it, or make them share it as they go 
 along with those who are less industrious 
 or less saving, you take away at the same 
 time all motive to be industrious or saving 
 for the future. 
 
 5. When men find that with all their la- 
 bor and pains they are no better off than 
 their lazy and thoughtless neighbors, they 
 will soon learn to be like them, for that is 
 the natural inclination of every one ; and 
 thus all industry will cease beyond what is 
 necessary for the immediate wants of na- 
 ture. 
 
 6. There will be no accumulation — no 
 capital, as it is termeJ — out of which wa- 
 
RICH AND POOR. 65 
 
 ges are to be paid, ships constructed, and 
 houses built, and all other great works car- 
 ried on. Every man would have to work 
 for himself; all would live as the poor now 
 do, from hand to mouth, without any thing 
 laid up for the future — without any provi- 
 sion for sickness or old age. 
 
 7. Such would be the necessary conse- 
 quences of making the rich divide their 
 fortunes with the poor, and such we see 
 to be the state of things in countries where 
 property is insecure, so that men cannot 
 depend upon keeping what they make ; as 
 in Turkey, for instance, and in most parts 
 of Asia and Africa, w 7 here men are afraid 
 to appear rich, for fear of being robbed of 
 it by their tyrannical rulers. 
 
 8. Now, if we are better off than they, 
 we owe it mainly to the security of pro- 
 perty ; it being with us regarded as a sa- 
 cred right that every man shall enjoy un- 
 molested the fruits of his labor. 
 
 9. But, besides all this, most persons 
 
66 RICH AND POOR. 
 
 have a very false notion of the effect of di- 
 viding large fortunes: as for instance, if 
 from an income of fifteen thousand dollars 
 a year ten thousand were annually taken 
 and divided among ten poor families, they 
 think that thus ten poor families would be 
 made comfortable, and the only loss would 
 be to the one rich man, of some of the lux- 
 uries he is now enabled to purchase. 
 
 10. But this is not so; for, though he 
 expended it himself, every dollar of his in- 
 come went to the support of the laborers 
 of the country in some way or other. With 
 the greater part of it he was either carry- 
 ing on manufactories, or farming, or bring- 
 ing goods from abroad, or else he was lend- 
 ing it to others who did so ; and even that 
 which he expended upon his own gratifi- 
 cation, in furniture, carriages, pictures, or 
 any other way, all equally went to the sup- 
 port of the laboring poor of the country. 
 
 11. And even the foreign luxuries in 
 which he indulged had to be purchased 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON IX. 67 
 
 with something raised or made at home, so 
 that even the money paid for oranges or 
 foreign sweetmeats, came at last into the 
 pockets of those who were working at 
 home. 
 
 12. All, in truth, that the rich man con- 
 sumed was his food and clothing ; all else 
 went to feed and clothe others ; nor could 
 he help it except by locking it up. And so 
 it would be after his income was divided. 
 There would be no more food or clothing 
 in the country than before, and no more 
 laborers supported. 
 
 13. The only difference would be, that 
 it would change hands without any actual 
 benefit to the country, and at the expense 
 of great injustice to the individual from 
 whom it was taken, and still greater inju- 
 ry to society. 
 
 Questions on Lesson IX. 
 
 Would it cure pride and idleness, to divide 
 
 the wealth of the rich with the poor? 
 
68 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 Give any instances which prove it would 
 
 not. 
 Would it, on the contrary, increase idle- 
 ness ? 
 Show what would be the effect of it. 
 What makes us better off than the people 
 
 of Turkey, and most countries in Asia 
 
 and Africa ? 
 What would be the effect of dividing a rich 
 
 man's income among the poor ? 
 Does the rich man consume all his income ? 
 
 Who does ? 
 How much does he consume ? What would 
 
 be the only effect of the division ? 
 
 LESSON X. 
 
 PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE EXPEN- 
 DITURE. 
 
 I. Is it the same thing to society what a 
 rich man does with his money ? One, for 
 instance, locks it up in his iron chest, or 
 buries it as misers used to do, for fear of 
 
EXPENDITURE. 69 
 
 being robbed of it. Another spends it on 
 himself or his family, in horses and carria- 
 ges, fine furniture, expensive wines, and 
 many servants. A third lives moderately, 
 and employs his money in farming, or ma- 
 nufacturing, or commerce, or lends it to 
 those who do so, receiving interest for its 
 use. 
 
 2. Now, of these three, which is making 
 the best use of his money ? Certainly the 
 last: the first does not use it at all ; so that 
 his money is of no more value either to 
 himself or others than if it was so much 
 dirt or stones, and so long as he keeps it 
 locked up he is keeping the means of em- 
 ployment and support from the laboring 
 poor. 
 
 3. But he is punished for it; such a 
 course makes the owner of it miserable ; 
 hence it is that he is always termed " mi- 
 ser," that is, a miserable or wretched per- 
 son, which indeed he well deserves to be, 
 who is so hard-hearted toward others. The 
 
70 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 Christian precept is, " To do good and to 
 distribute forget not." " If riches increase 
 set not your heart upon them." 
 
 4. The one, again, who spends it in ex- 
 travagant living, supports, it is true, the 
 laborers who supply him with his luxuries ; 
 and it may be supports as many as he could 
 in any other way ; as, for instance, whether 
 a man lay out $1000 in building a green- 
 house for his amusement, or a mill for pro- 
 fit, makes no difference in the number of 
 the laboring poor to whom it has given 
 bread, and it would be the same thing if it 
 were an expensive carriage he had order- 
 ed, or even luxuries brought from other 
 countries, because the foreign article must 
 be bought with something raised at home, 
 which something, whatever it be, whether 
 grain or cotton, would not have been pur- 
 chased if the rich man had not wanted his 
 foreign luxury. 
 
 5. The first expenditure is, therefore, 
 equal in supporting the labor of the coun- 
 
EXPENDITURE. 71 
 
 try. But how is it the next year? The 
 money laid out in the green-house or the 
 carriage brings nothing back to the owner 
 but pleasure ; it does not give him the 
 means of supporting the labor a second 
 time ; to be sure the green-house wants a 
 gardener to tend it, and a carriage needs a 
 coachman, but the money to pay them 
 must come from elsewhere; the green- 
 house does not support the gardener, nor 
 the carriage the coachman ; laying out mo- 
 ney, therefore, in this way, makes a man 
 poorer instead of richer, and as it brings 
 nothing back to support the laborer after 
 the work is once done, it is termed unpro- 
 ductive expenditure. 
 
 6. But now look at the money laid out 
 on the mill : it not pnly supported the la- 
 borers who built it, but also the laborers 
 who work it, and that for ever afterward, 
 at least as long as it lasts ; and when it is 
 worn out, it will be found not only that the 
 money it has cost has all been paid back, 
 
72 EXPENDITURE* 
 
 but that it has every year paid a profit to 
 the owner, all of which has gone to sup- 
 port more labor. 
 
 7. When money is laid out in this way, 
 provided it is done prudently, it is never 
 lost, but goes on every year to support 
 more and more labor; this, therefore, is 
 called productive expenditure, because mo- 
 ney thus expended produces a demand for 
 more labor, and thus society is benefitted 
 and enriched. 
 
 8. It would be wrong, however, to sup- 
 pose that therefore it would be best for so- 
 ciety that no money should be spent but to 
 make profit, for there are many things bet- 
 ter than money, such as health and know- 
 ledge and doing good according to our abi- 
 lity, and a cheerful enjoyment of the bles- 
 sings of life ; besides, if every one laid out 
 money only for profit, people would buy 
 only what was necessary for life, and then 
 almost all commerce and manufactures 
 would cease, and thus half the laborers in 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON X. 73 
 
 the world be starved for want of employ- 
 ment. 
 
 9. Another destructive consequence 
 would follow, if there were no luxuries ; 
 men would not value wealth, for what 
 could it purchase? and, therefore, they 
 would not work for it; and thus as we 
 saw before, industry and economy w r ould 
 cease, and society go back to the savage 
 state. The only rule, therefore, for ex- 
 penditure is prudence, that is in proportion 
 to our means, and moderation, or the Chris- 
 tian's rule, that of "using the world with- 
 out abusing it." 
 
 Questions on Lesson X. 
 Is it the same thing to society in what way 
 
 a man spends his income ? 
 In what three ways may a man dispose of 
 
 his money ? 
 What is the effect of locking it up ? Why 
 
 is such a man called a miser ? 
 What is the second course ? What is the 
 
74 OF VALUE. 
 
 third course ? Does it make any differ- 
 ence in the amount of immediate labor 
 it supports? 
 
 Does it in the final amount ? Show that it 
 does so. 
 
 What are these modes of expenditure call- 
 ed ? Why so ? 
 
 Should therefore no money be laid out but 
 with a view to profit ? 
 
 What would result from every one going 
 on this rule ? 
 
 What then is the true rule for a man's ex- 
 penditure ? 
 
 LESSON XI. 
 
 OF VALUE. 
 
 1. Why is it that a pound of iron is worth 
 less than a pound of silver, and a pound of 
 silver than one of gold ? If you think of 
 the uses to which we put them, the pound 
 of iron would seem to be w T orth a great 
 deal more than either of them, or even 
 
OF VALUE. 75 
 
 than both together; for out of the iron we 
 make knives, scissors, axes, saws, spades, 
 and ploughs ; while of the silver, we only 
 make a few spoons and such like articles, 
 and of gold scarce any thing of use ; and 
 yet, after all, one pound of gold is worth 
 sixteen pounds of silver, and one pound of 
 silver is worth eight hundred pounds of 
 iron. 
 
 2. Now what can be the cause of this 
 difference? It cannot be their compara- 
 tive usefulness ; for, as we see, iron is a 
 thousand times more useful than either. 
 We could live very well without either sil- 
 ver or gold, but without iron we should be 
 reduced at once to the state of savages. 
 
 3. We could raise nothing except what 
 we could scratch with a stick ; we could 
 manufacture nothing except what we could 
 do with our fingers, and perhaps a stone- 
 hatchet or a piece of sharp bone ; and we 
 could carry nothing except upon our backs : 
 for we see all this to be the condition of 
 
76 OF VALUE. 
 
 every people that have no iron : as for in- 
 stance, the tribes in some parts of Africa, 
 and the newly discovered islands in the 
 South Sea. 
 
 4. Perhaps it is because gold and silver 
 is scarcer with us than iron, that they are of 
 more value, and there is some truth in this ; 
 for we know very well, that when wheat 
 or corn or any other article is scarce, then 
 it is also dear ; and when it is plenty, then 
 it is also cheap. As, for instance, in the 
 countries just mentioned, where there is 
 little or no iron, a few nails, or a piece of 
 iron hoop, will exchange for what appears 
 to us a hundred times more valuable. 
 
 5. But this is not enough to explain the 
 difficulty, for then would a bushel of wheat 
 be cheaper than one of buckwheat, since 
 there is certainly much more of it raised ; 
 and gold watches would be cheaper than 
 brass ones, for there are many more made. 
 
 6. But as this is not so, we see that 
 there must be some cause besides scarcity 
 
OP VALUE. 77 
 
 or plenty which regulates the value of any 
 thing. Now, if you think a moment, you 
 will see what this is. It is the labor which 
 a thing costs to make it. 
 
 7. If it were easier to raise a hundred 
 bushels of wheat than a hundred bushels of 
 buckwheat, then buckwheat would be the 
 higher price. If a pound of gold could be 
 got with less labor than a pound of silver, 
 then it would be of less value ; but this is 
 not so. 
 
 8. To get a pound of pure gold, costs 
 about sixteen times as much labor and ex- 
 pense as to get a pound of pure silver ; and 
 therefore it is that a pound of gold will buy 
 sixteen pounds of silver, or thereabouts. 
 
 9. But you must not think either that it 
 is the labor which gives the value. If a 
 thing were of no use or beauty, no labor 
 could give it value : no man would desire 
 it, and therefore no man would give any 
 thing for it. But if a thing be of use or 
 beauty, then men desire it and with to have 
 
78 OF VALUE. 
 
 it, and are willing to give their work for 
 it ; and how much work they must give for 
 it, depends upon the labor that is necessa- 
 ry to procure it. 
 
 10. If it costs nothing to get it, they will 
 give nothing for it, no matter how useful 
 or agreeable it may be, as air and daylight 
 and water ; but if these things had to be 
 got with labor, as good water often is, then 
 it acquire^ a value, and that value depends 
 upon the labor of procuring it. 
 
 11. Therefore it is, that although in use 
 a pound of iron is a thousand times more 
 valuable than a pound of silver, yet when 
 you come to exchange them, you can then 
 get near a thousand pounds of iron for one 
 of silver, because you are exchanging work. 
 
 12. To one living on a desert island, eve- 
 ry thing would have a value according 
 to its actual use, as Robinson Crusoe va- 
 lued every old nail he could find about the 
 wreck, but threw away the gold ; but when 
 one lives in society, the value of a thing is 
 
QUESTIONS OX LEvSSON XI. 79 
 
 determined not by the use, but by the pow- 
 er of exchange, and that depends on what 
 it costs to get it. 
 
 13. This, then, is the rule of value in 
 every thing that men make. It is measur- 
 ed by the labor it costs to make or get in. 
 But in such desirable things as nature fur- 
 nishes, and which man cannot make, such 
 as diamonds or pearls, in such the value 
 depends upon their scarcity alone : thus a 
 diamond is of the same value, whether a 
 man pick up one by accident, or spend a 
 month in digging and searching. 
 
 Questions on Lesson XL 
 What is the relative value of gold, silw 
 
 and iron ? 
 Which is the most useful? Is that the 
 
 cause of value ? 
 To what condition should we be reduced 
 
 without iron ? 
 Is scarcity the cause of value ? Show that 
 
 it is not. 
 
80 OF PRICE. 
 
 What is it ? Prove it. 
 
 Does labor give the value? What, then, 
 does it do ? 
 
 Why is a thing desired ? How much will 
 be given for it ? 
 
 Is value of a thing the same on a desert isl- 
 and and in society? 
 
 What determines value in the first case? 
 — in the second. 
 
 What measures value in what man makes ? 
 
 What measures value in what nature fur- 
 nishes ? 
 
 LESSON XII. 
 
 OF PRICE. 
 
 1. We have seen what gives value in 
 exchanging most things of use, one with 
 another, that is, what it costs to get them. 
 If it take an Indian two days in general to 
 trap a beaver, and but one to take a deer, 
 one beaver will be said to be worth two 
 deer, and they will exchange in that pro- 
 portion. 
 
OF PRICE. 81 
 
 2. If a boy can make six arrows in the 
 same time that it would take him to make 
 one bow ; then, in exchanging them, one 
 bow or six arrows w r ould be considered as 
 of the same value. But the question is, 
 would they always exchange at that rate ? 
 
 3. Suppose the Indians were near starv- 
 ing, w 7 ould they not give more for the deer 
 than for the beaver ? Would not the price 
 of deer rise above its natural value, and 
 that of beaver fall ? It certainly would. 
 
 4. If a boy had broken his bow, his ar- 
 rows being thus useless, he would be wil- 
 ling to offer more for a bow than he would 
 for six arrows ; and if most other of his 
 companions were in the same situation, 
 there would be an immediate demand 
 among them for bows. Now see what 
 would be the result. 
 
 5. There not being bows enough for all, 
 each, in his anxiety to secure one, would 
 offer a little more than his companion, until 
 perhaps a bow would purchase as much 
 
 6 
 
82 OP PRICE. 
 
 as ten or twelve arrows. How far this 
 would go, would depend upon the desire 
 each had to possess a bow. 
 
 6. If it was a mere amusement, it would 
 probably soon stop, and the boys who had 
 not bows would turn to other plays. But 
 if we suppose the boys were dependent up- 
 on their bows for food, as some tribes of 
 savages are, then there w r ould be no limit 
 to the price to which bow r s might rise, oth- 
 er than the time necessary to manufacture 
 new r ones. 
 
 7. Up to that time, the old bows would 
 sell for a price far above their natural va- 
 lue ; how much higher, would depend up- 
 on two things — their scarcity and their ne- 
 cessity. The fewer the bows, and the 
 greater the number of purchasers, the 
 higher would be the price. 
 
 8. So also, by the necessity of having a 
 bow to satisfy some real want, and not be- 
 ing able to find a substitute for them. But 
 when the new bows began to come to mar- 
 
of price. oa 
 
 ket all this would be changed. Now the 
 owners of the old bows, who had refused 
 to sell them for a still higher price, wait- 
 ing, would find they had over-shot their 
 mark. 
 
 9. The price of bows would begin to 
 fall ; every day there would be more sellers 
 of bows, and consequently fewer purcha- 
 sers from anyone holder of them. The sell- 
 ers would then begin to be anxious to sell ; 
 they would consequently under-bid one 
 another, and offer their bows cheaper and 
 cheaper, until by degrees the price would 
 fall to its natural amount, and a bow be 
 again worth no more than six arrows. 
 
 10. Nor would it stop here : the former 
 high price of bows would have set so many 
 to make them, that more would be made 
 than wanted. The sellers of them, there- 
 fore, would soon begin to tempt purchas- 
 ers by offering the article at a price lower 
 than they could be made ; and the price 
 would continue to fall until that excess 
 
84 OP PRICE. 
 
 was purchased ; ancl then again the price 
 would come up to its natural price. 
 
 1 1. Now this is the course of all prices : 
 every thing in the community that is made 
 for sale goes occasionally through these 
 changes. A scant supply arises from some 
 natural or accidental cause : a bad season 
 makes a short crop of grain or cotton, or a 
 war stops the importation of foreign goods, 
 or through a mistaken calculation there is 
 less made at home or imported from abroad 
 of any article than the country wants. 
 
 12. This produces a scarcity — scarcity 
 raises price — high price makes great profit 
 — great profit leads the merchant, the ma- 
 nufacturer or the farmer, to order or make 
 or raise more of the article. The high price 
 continues till the increased quantity comes 
 to market ; as that comes the price falls ; 
 and as more comes than is wanted, the 
 price will fall as far below the natural 
 price, in all probability, as it had risen 
 above it. 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XII* 85 
 
 Questions on Lesson XII. 
 
 What regulates the value of things in ex- 
 change ? Give an instance. 
 
 Do things always actually exchange in this 
 ratio ? 
 
 What would alter this ratio ? State an in- 
 stance. 
 
 How far would the price rise ? 
 
 What two considerations limit it? 
 
 What would bring the price down again ? 
 
 What is the effect of quantity upon sellers 
 of an article ? 
 
 How low w r ould the price fall ? 
 
 At what point has it a tendency to stop ? 
 
 What do you mean by natural price ? 
 
 Is this common to all prices ; 
 
 Through what changes do they run? 
 
86 CHEAP. 
 
 LESSON XIII. 
 
 CHEAP. 
 
 1. Things are called cheap when they 
 cost but little money ; thus a pair of shoes 
 that costs a dollar is said to be cheaper than 
 a pair for which you must give a dollar 
 and a half; and most people think they are 
 economical when they buy the former. But 
 this is not so certain. Low price and 
 cheapness are not always the same thing. 
 
 2. The low price of the first shoes may 
 arise, and probably does, from the work or 
 material being poor : either the leather is 
 bad, and therefore sold to the shoemaker 
 at half price, or but half tanned, or the 
 thread is rotten : or if the materials are 
 good, the work may be poor — unskilfully 
 cut, or poorly sewed; and therefore the 
 price is low in proportion. 
 
 3. Now is such a pair of shoes cheap ! 
 Certainly not. Cheapness in its true sense 
 means getting much for your money. So 
 
CHEAP. 8T 
 
 that if the second pair of shoes will last 
 twice as long as the first, they are certain- 
 ly the cheapest, and the true economist 
 would buy them in preference. 
 
 4. Three rules should be remembered : 
 1st. Good materials are cheaper than poor 
 materials; 2d. Good work is cheaper than 
 poor work ; that is, the work of appren- 
 tices is dearer than that of skilful work- 
 men; 3d. The dearest of all is where good 
 work is put upon poor materials, or poor 
 work upon good materials. 
 
 5. Every one wishes to make their mo- 
 ney go as far as possible, but it is astonish- 
 ing how many make mistakes ; some per- 
 sons think every thing cheap that is low 
 priced, and therefore every thing they have 
 about themselves and their houses and 
 farms, is poor and ill made, and continual- 
 ly getting out of order. 
 
 6. Such people, instead of being wise 
 and economical, as they think themselves, 
 are on the contrary very foolish and very 
 
88 CHEAP 
 
 extravagant ; not only they miss the com- 
 fort of having things good and lasting about 
 them, but the continual call for fixing and 
 mending makes in the end these low priced 
 articles to be very high priced. 
 
 7. There are others, again, who, while 
 they take care to have things good, will 
 not go to the expense of hiring good work- 
 men or servants to use them : thus they 
 have good horses and a poor driver, a good 
 plough and a bad ploughman, a good farm 
 and an unskilful farmer, good furniture 
 and houshold articles, and an ignorant, 
 careless servant, who spoils and breaks 
 twice as much as is saved by their low wa- 
 ges. All such people are very poor eco- 
 nomists. 
 
 8. Look at the result of these different 
 kinds of economy in building a house, for 
 instance : one buys the cheapest materials 
 he can find — half-burnt brick, unseasoned 
 timber, and rough boards, and takes be- 
 sides the mason and carpenter w r ho will 
 
CHEAP. 89 
 
 work for the lowest wages. The result 
 is, that he has a house which, in the course 
 of a few years, is ready to tumble down. 
 
 9. Another, who is somewhat wiser, 
 chooses his mason and carpenter for their 
 skill and character; he will not pay his 
 money for poor work, but still he lets them 
 lay out that work upon inferior materials ; 
 he puts in green timber from the woods, or 
 buys half-seasoned stuff upon the score of 
 economy ; the consequence here too is, 
 that he lias a house that looks well with 
 its good work for a year or two ; then the 
 timber begins to shrink, the walls begin to 
 crack, the ceilings to crumble or fall, and 
 every moulding starts from its place. 
 
 10. The true economist, on the other 
 hand, builds according to his means, but 
 then he builds well; he will not have a big 
 house, perhaps, but he has a good one; 
 good materials, good workmen, and as he 
 adds great care when he has got it, it lasts 
 a long time, and wants little or no repair. 
 
90 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Questions on Lesson XIII. 
 
 W hat is generally meant by cheap ? Is this 
 true ? 
 
 Explain the difference between low price 
 and cheapness. 
 
 Give the true principles of purchasing. 
 
 What is the first form of bad economy ? 
 
 What is the second ? What is true econo- 
 my? 
 
 Illustrate, in building a house, the conse- 
 quences of a false economy. 
 
 LESSON XIV. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1. People pay taxes in order to support 
 government. Now most persons think this 
 money is taken from them without any 
 thing coming back for it. What they lay 
 out themselves they get, as they say, their 
 
GOVERNMENT. 91 
 
 money's worth ; but what the tax-gather- 
 er takes from them, they think they get 
 nothing for. But this is not so. 
 
 2. What goes to the support of govern- 
 ment is money well laid out, and brings 
 back to the people ten times as much as it 
 takes from them ; for it secures peace and 
 order and good laws, without which no 
 man's property would be safe, or hi& per- 
 son secure for a single day. Even a bad 
 government, therefore, is much better than 
 no government at all, and a good govern- 
 ment is beyond all value. 
 
 3. It cannot be bought at too high a price. 
 Still, however, as in every thing else we 
 buy, the less it costs the better, provided 
 we get what we want, that is, in this case, 
 
 PROTECTION ABROAD AND SECURITY AT 
 HOME, GOOD LAWS, AND A FAITHFUL FUL- 
 FILMENT OF THEM. 
 
 4. Let us now see how we are to get a 
 truly cheap government. We have already 
 seen in the last chapter, that things are not 
 
92 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 therefore cheap because they cost little 
 money ; for we must look not only to what 
 we lay out, but to what we get back, so 
 that the highest priced article may yet of- 
 ten be the cheapest in the end. 
 
 5. Now the same rule of judging what 
 is cheap or dear applies to government^ 
 where we buy the time and services of 
 those whom we elect to public office ; in 
 all these, from the President and Gover- 
 nor down to a constable or collector of 
 taxes, it is their time and services for 
 which we bargain in the duties of the of- 
 fice to which they are elected. 
 
 6. What we want here, as in other ca- 
 ses, are good materials and good workman- 
 ship : that is to say, we want — 
 
 First, Honesty and integrity of charac- 
 ter, in order that they may always intend 
 what is right. This is the good material. 
 
 7. Second, Knowledge and judgment and 
 skill in the particular business to which 
 they are appointed, in order they may al- 
 
GOVERNMENT. 93 
 
 ways be able to choose what is right and 
 best for the country. This is the good 
 workmanship. 
 
 8. If we fail to get these, or either of 
 them, we buy a dear article ; for such men 
 are like the half-made shoes of which we 
 spoke, they are not good for what they are 
 wanted; or rather, in truth, they are 
 much worse ; for in buying poor shoes we 
 get something for our money, but in getting 
 ignorant or dishonest men to rule over us, 
 we are buying only our own injury ; it is 
 just as if we were to pay a doctor to give 
 us poison, or a farmer to sow our fields 
 with Canada thistles. 
 
 9. Hence we see, too, why different of- 
 ficers of government should be paid diffe- 
 rent salaries : every office does not want 
 the same degree of knowledge and talent. 
 The rule is, the salary of every office 
 should be just high enough to pay for the 
 services of such a man as the office wants, 
 and no more ; thus we pay the judges of 
 
94 GOVERNMENT, 
 
 one court $1000 a year, and of a higher 
 $3000 ; because in the latter we want grea- 
 ter learning in the law, and longer experi- 
 ence. 
 
 10. Now suppose, in order to save mo- 
 ney, we w T ere to pay the last also only 
 $1000, what would be the result? There 
 certainly would be no want of judges even 
 at that price ; for all lawyers who are un- 
 able to make more than that by their prac- 
 tice would be willing to take it, while those 
 whose legal learning and talent enabled 
 them to make $3000 would not take it. 
 
 11. The consequence of reducing the 
 salary w r ould therefore be to get a poorer 
 article : justice would not be so well admi- 
 nistered, people would not have the same 
 security for their persons and their proper- 
 ty ; and in this way the country would lose 
 a thousand times as much as it saved in 
 the judges' salary. 
 
 12. In selecting, therefore, a member to 
 Congress, or the Legislature, we should 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XIV. 95 
 
 remember that we are paying for his ser- 
 vices; that is, we buy for the time his 
 knowledge, and his judgment, and his ho- 
 nesty; but if he has little knowledge, and 
 a poor judgment, and above all, if he want 
 honesty and sound principles, it is evident 
 that we have committed a great blunder — 
 we have made the same mistake as if we 
 had bought an axe with a flaw in it, or a 
 knife without any steel, or paid the price 
 of clean wheat for what was full of smut 
 or chaff. 
 
 13. Wise and good laws, the article we 
 want, must come from wise and good men ; 
 therefore, such only are cheap legislators ; 
 all else are dear and extravagant, defraud- 
 ing the people's time, wasting the people's 
 money, sometimes by dishonesty, and al- 
 ways by ignorance of what legislators 
 ought to know and understand. 
 
 ■*&* 
 
 Questions on Lesson XIV. 
 Why do people pay taxes ? 
 
96 QUESTIONS ON LESSON XIV. 
 
 Do they get any thing in return? What? 
 
 When v do you call it cheap ? 
 
 What is it we want from it? 
 
 How r are we to get a cheap government? 
 
 What do we buy in all officers of govern- 
 ment? 
 
 What should w r e demand in them ? 
 
 Suppose we do not get them. What is the 
 result ? 
 
 W 7 hy should salaries be different in amount? 
 
 Give an example. 
 
 What would be the effect of reducing the 
 higher ? 
 
 How would the country be a sufferer? 
 
 Does this apply also to the Legislature; 
 that is, to those who make the laws? 
 
 What do we there want ? What is the re- 
 sult of not getting it ? 
 
 Who are the only cheap law-makers? 
 
 Why are all others a dear purchase to the 
 country ? 
 
ON EDUCATION. 81 
 
 LESSON XV. 
 
 ON EDUCATION. 
 
 1. How is a nation to grow rich and pow- 
 erful? Every one will answer, By cultiva- 
 ting and making productive what nature 
 has given them. So long as their lands re- 
 main uncultivated, no matter how rich by 
 nature, they are still no source of wealth ; 
 but when they bestow labor upon them, and 
 begin to plough and sow the fertile earth, 
 they then become a source of profit. 
 
 2. Now is it not precisely the same case 
 with the natural powers of mind? So long 
 as they remain uncultivated, are they not 
 valueless ? Nature gives, it is true, to the 
 mind talent, but she does not give learning 
 or skill ; just as she gives to the soil ferti- 
 lity, but not wheat or corn. In both cases 
 the labor of man must make them produc- 
 tive. 
 
 3. Now, this labor applied to the mind, 
 
 7 
 
98 ON EDUCATION. 
 
 is what we call education, a word derived 
 from the Latin, w 7 hich means the educing 
 or bringing forth the hidden powers of that 
 to which it is applied. In the same sense 
 also we use the word cultivation : we say, 
 " cultivate the mind," just as we say " cul- 
 tivate the soil." 
 
 4. From all this we conclude that a na- 
 tion has two natural sources of wealth : 
 one, the soil of the nation, and the other 
 the mind of the nation. So long as these 
 remain uncultivated, they add little or no- 
 thing to wealth or power. 
 
 5. Agriculture makes the one produc- 
 tive, education the other. Brought under 
 cultivation, the soil brings forth wheat and 
 corn and good grass, while the weeds and 
 briars and poisonous plants are all rooted 
 out; so mind brought under cultivation, 
 brings forth skill and learning, and sound 
 knowledge and good principles ; while ig- 
 norance, and prejudice, and bad passions, 
 and evil habits, which are the weeds and 
 
ON EDUCATION. 99 
 
 briars and poisonous plants of the mind, 
 are rooted out and destroyed. 
 
 6. An ignorant man, therefore, adds lit- 
 tle or nothing to the wealth of the country, 
 an educated man adds a great deal ; an ig- 
 norant man is worth little in the market, 
 his wages are low because he has got no 
 knowledge or skill to sell. Thus in a wool- 
 len factory a skilful workman may get $10 
 or $15 a week, while an unskilled work- 
 man must be content with $2 or $3. 
 
 7. In a store or counting-house, one clerk 
 gets $1000 salary, because he understands 
 book-keeping or the value of goods, while 
 another, who is ignorant, gets nothing but 
 his board. In those countries where the 
 unchristian practice still prevails of buying 
 and selling their fellow men, a slave who 
 has skill as a mason or a carpenter, will 
 sell for five or six times as much as a com- 
 mon hand who can do nothing b.ut labor. 
 
 8. We see this difference, too, when we 
 look at nations. Thus China has ten times 
 
100 ON EDUCATION. 
 
 as many inhabitants as England, but Eng- 
 land has a hundred times as much skill; 
 therefore England is the more powerful of 
 the two, and frightens the government of 
 China by a single ship of war. 
 
 9. Thus, too, among the nations of Eu- 
 rope, Prussia is more powerful and pros- 
 perous than any other of the same size on 
 the continent, because all her people are 
 educated, and that education is a Christian 
 one, making them moral and industrious, 
 as well as skilful. 
 
 1 0. If, then, the education of the people 
 be necessary to the prosperity of the na- 
 tion, it is the duty of the government or 
 nation to provide for it : that is, to see that 
 no child grow up in ignorance or vice, be- 
 cause that is wasting the productive capi- 
 tal of the country. 
 
 11. This education, too, should be a 
 Christian education, in order that children 
 when they grow up should be honest, faith- 
 ful and temperate ; for if a man be a liar 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XV. 101 
 
 or a drunkard, his knowledge and skill is 
 worth little to the country, because he will 
 be neither trusted nor employed. 
 
 12. None know the value of education 
 but those who have received it ; it is there- 
 fore the duty of every child who has been 
 well educated himself, to use his influence 
 when he grows up to extend it to others, 
 and if he be a legislator to make it nation- 
 al and universal in his country. 
 
 Questions on Lesson XV. 
 
 How is a nation to grow rich? 
 
 What does nature give ? What must man 
 do? 
 
 Show that the same rule applies to mind 
 and to land. \ 
 
 What is the meaning of the word educa- 
 tion? cultivation? 
 
 Show the similarity between education and 
 agriculture. 
 
 
10* THE POOR. 
 
 Cofc*, ire the value of an educated and lg- 
 
 noi mt man. 
 State their wages; in manufactures; in 
 
 con? werce ; when sold as slaves. 
 Comparo educated and ignorant nations: 
 
 England, China, Prussia. 
 Why is education the duty of government ? 
 Why should that education be Christian ? 
 What is the duty of every educated child ? 
 
 LESSON XVI. 
 
 THE POOR. 
 
 1. How shall we help the poor? Every 
 good hear* asks this question when we see 
 any one waiting those comforts which God 
 has given us. We pity them, and feel that 
 we can in no other way show our own 
 thankfulness than in helping and assisting 
 others. Now, this is right. 
 
 2. God has put pity in our hearts for that 
 very purpose, and our blessed Saviour says 
 
THE POOR. 103 
 
 that he will remember all the good we do 
 to the poor Were, as if done to himself. 
 This is a great encouragement to us in all 
 our deeds of mercy, and should support us 
 in every sacrifice we make of our own 
 pleasure for the comfort of others. 
 
 3. But how shall w r e help the poor ? and 
 who are the poor that stand in need of our 
 help? In the first place, it is not every 
 one that is poor that wants our help. If 
 he be virtuous, industrious and economical, 
 the poor man is probably as happy as the 
 richest man in the country, and almost as 
 independent; for he wants only health, 
 which God alone can give him, and the 
 means of work, which in our country are 
 not often wanting to any man who wishes 
 it. 
 
 4. Help, therefore, is wanted only by 
 paupers, that is, by those who cannot sup- 
 port themselves. Many kind people think 
 we are to give to all who ask ; but what 
 would be the consequence ? Would we not 
 
104 THE POOR. 
 
 tempt people to become beggars? For in- 
 stance, if a rich man in the country were 
 to say, " I will give two shillings a day to 
 every one who cannot maintain himself," 
 would he be doing any good, do you think, 
 to his neighborhood ? 
 
 5. Would it not make many paupers 
 who before were only poor ? Before that, 
 they maintained themselves, because they 
 had no one to look to, and no man will 
 starve if he can help it; they therefore 
 worked hard, and were very saving both 
 of time and mone£ ; now they say, " Oh, 
 no matter ! if I don't work I'll go and get 
 my two shillings." 
 
 6. The first effect of this would be to 
 make them lazy, the next extravagant, and 
 last vicious ; and thus an industrious, hap- 
 py and virtuous neighborhood, might in a 
 short time be converted into an idle, 
 wretched and vicious one; and all from 
 charity misapplied. 
 
 7 Now, supposing the law y instead of a 
 
THE POOR. 105 
 
 rich man, was to make such a provision * 
 and give every man that pleased a right to 
 get his share, what difference would there 
 be in the result ? Certainly none. 
 
 8. Yet this is clone, partly in our own 
 country, and still more in some others, by 
 what we call foor laws. In England, far 
 instance, this system of relief has caused 
 probably ten times as much poverty and 
 suffering in the country, as would have 
 otherwise existed. 
 
 9. A law to relieve the poor should there- 
 fore be confined to the aged, the sick and 
 infirm ; for these will not be increased in 
 number by the offer of relief ; though even 
 here the law is apt to do harm, by lessen- 
 ing the dependence in age and sickness of 
 parents and children upon each other, and 
 by a natural consequence lessening their 
 love and affection. 
 
 10. All other cases of suffering should be 
 left to private benevolence, for these rea- 
 sons : first, the same money will go farther 
 
106 QUESTIONS ON LESSON XVI. 
 
 in giving relief in the hands of individuals 
 than in those of poor-masters ; secondly, 
 as the poor have no right to claim it from 
 individuals, it will not produce the evil 
 which poor laws do, of lessening their in- 
 dustry and economy, and care for the fu- 
 ture ; and thirdly, this method of relieving 
 distress binds together the rich and poor, 
 and makes those who have the means bet- 
 ter Christians, by leading them to follow 
 their Saviour's blessed example of " going 
 about doing good." 
 
 Questions on Lesson XVI. 
 What makes us anxious to help the poor? 
 What encouragement have we to devote 
 
 ourselves to it ? ] 
 Who are the poor that want our help ? — 
 
 Do all? Why not? 
 Who then want it ? What do you mean by 
 
 paupers ? 
 What would be the result of giving to all 
 
 who ask 
 
LOTTERIES. 107 
 
 Suppose a rich man to do so. What then ? 
 How would it increase poverty ? 
 Suppose the law were to do it. What then r 
 What do you mean by poor laws ? 
 What is their result? Give an instance. 
 To what should a poor law be confined ? 
 What evil attends it even then ? 
 What becomes of other cases? 
 Show that the same evils do not follow. 
 What further benefit results ? 
 
 LESSON XVII. 
 
 LOTTERIES. 
 
 1. Many persons are fond of trying their 
 luck in lotteries., and if they miss drawing 
 a prize, lay the blame on their having 
 made choice of a wrong ticket, or not hav- 
 ing bought more. Now all this is very 
 childish. They should blame their folly 
 for having bought any at all. 
 
IDS LOTTERIES. 
 
 2. One ticket is as good, or rather as 
 bad, as another ; since, whatever one they 
 choose, they pay for it more than it is 
 worth ; and the more they buy of them, 
 the greater is their chance of loss ; until 
 at length, when they have bought all, it 
 comes to a certainty that they must lose. 
 
 3. It is a scheme of chances intended to be 
 unfair to those who buy the tickets. This 
 is very clear to every one who knows w T hat 
 a lottery is. Thus, when a lottery is au- 
 thorized by government, it is a scheme in 
 order to raise money from the people. 
 
 4. In order to do this, the government 
 must pay back less money than they re- 
 ceive ; that is, the people pay more for the 
 tickets than they get back in prizes, and 
 the difference is the 'profit of those for 
 whose benefit the lotterj^ is made. 
 
 5. Or, in other words, a lottery is always 
 a tax, which people in their ignorance and 
 folly are willing to pay, and one therefore 
 which no good government will ever lay 
 
LOTTERIES. 109 
 
 upon its citizens ; for, instead of being pla 
 ced upon the rich and the knowing, it is 
 raised from the poor and the ignorant — 
 from those who do not know that they are 
 giving more for their chance of a prize 
 than it is worth. 
 
 6. For these reasons, out new constitu- 
 tion in the State of New- York forbids all 
 lotteries, as unjust, and oppressive to the 
 poor and ignorant, ruinous to their habits 
 of industry and economy, and leading to all 
 kinds of gaming, and swindling and cheat- 
 ing. But although the law forbids them, 
 it is not easy to prevent them.1 
 
 7. Tickets are sold from other states, or 
 lotteries are made and drawn secretly; 
 and still more commonly, are raffles, as 
 such lotteries are called, made for the sale 
 of some ornament or article of value. The 
 only true remedy against ail this is the in- 
 struction of the people, that they may see 
 they are cheated by them; that is, they 
 
110 LOTTERIES. 
 
 cheat themselves, by giving more for a 
 chance than it is worth. 
 
 8. For instance, when any thing is sold 
 by a lottery or raffle, it is for the purpose 
 of getting twice as much for it, we will 
 suppose from twenty people, as any one 
 is willing to give. Now, no one will 
 cheat himself for the whole, 6y giving 
 twice as much for it as it is worth ; but 
 each one will cheat himself precisely in the 
 same degree in his particular share, and 
 give twice as much for it, or for his chance, 
 (which is just the same thing) as it is worth. 
 
 9. No man, therefore, w r ho understands 
 his own interest will ever purchase a ticket 
 in a lottery or in a raffle. It is but another 
 name for gaming, and all gambling-tables 
 are got up upon the same principle, so as 
 to cheat every one of their money who 
 plays at them. 
 
 10. But these all cheat people besides 
 of what is worth much more than money, 
 their time and industry and good habits, 
 
QUESTIONS ON LESSON XVII. Ill 
 
 making them idle, lazy and vicious, look 
 ing to chance and not to industry for ma- 
 king money, and teaching them to ruin oth- 
 ers after having ruined themselves. 
 
 Questions on Lesson XVII. 
 
 What mistake do people make about pri- 
 zes in a lottery ? 
 
 What is the true explanation ? 
 
 Explain a lottery authorized by govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Whence comes the profit ? Is this a tax ? 
 How so ? 
 
 Why should government prohibit lotteries? 
 
 Does ours do it ? 
 
 What is the only true remedy against them ? 
 
 Why is a raffle unfair? Show how the 
 purchasers cheat themselves. 
 
 Are gaming-tables on the same principles? 
 
 What do they cheat men of? 
 
112 HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 
 
 LESSON XVIII. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 
 
 1. Do you complain that you have no- 
 thing to begin with? "Tom," you say, 
 "has a farm, and Harry has one thousand 
 dollars, but I have nothing." I say to you, 
 Look at your hands and tell me what they 
 are worth. Would you take one thousand 
 dollars for them, or for the use of them 
 through your life ? 
 
 2. If you can make half a dollar a day 
 with them, it would be a bad bargain, for 
 that sum is the interest of more than two 
 thousand dollars ; so that, if you are indus- 
 trious and Harry is lazy, you are more 
 than twice as rich as he is ; and when you 
 can do man's work, and make a dollar a 
 d a y> y ou are f° ur times as rich, and are 
 fairly worth four thousand dollars. Money 
 and land, therefore, is not the only capital 
 with which a young man can begin the 
 world. 
 
HOW TO MAKE MONEY. 113 
 
 3. If he has good health and is industri- 
 ous, even the poorest boy in our country 
 has something to trade upon ; and if he be 
 besides well educated, and have skill in 
 jiny kind of work, and add to this moral 
 habits and religious principles, so that his 
 employers may trust him and place confi- 
 dence in him, he may then be said to set 
 out in life with a handsome capital, and 
 certainly has a good chance of becoming 
 independent and respectable, and perhaps 
 rich, as any man in the country. " Every 
 man is the maker of his own fortune." 
 All depends upon setting out on .the right 
 principles, and they are these :-r- 
 
 4. First, Be industrious — time and skill 
 are your capital. 
 
 Second, Be saving — whatever it be, live 
 within your income. 
 
 Thirds Be prudent — buy not what you 
 can do without. 
 
 Fourth, Be resolute — let your econo- 
 my be always of to-day, not to-morrow. 
 8 
 
114 HOW TO USE MONEY. 
 
 Fifth) Be contented and thankful — a 
 cheerful spirit makes labor light, and sleep 
 sweet, and all around happy , all which is 
 much better than being only rich* 
 
 LESSON XIX. 
 
 HOW TO USE MONEY. 
 
 1. Does money make a man happy. 
 Certainly not, unless he knows how to use 
 it. On the contrary, every body calls a 
 man a miser, that is, a miserable man, who 
 is always heaping up money, and never 
 using it ; and so he is, for he has no enjoy- 
 ment of it himself, and does no good with 
 it to others, and his bags of gold no more 
 make him happy than they do the poor ass 
 that carries them. 
 
 2. But riches honestly acquired do make 
 us happier if we know how to use them; 
 and that every little boy may know what 
 the value of that wealth is which this little 
 
HOW TO USE MONEY. 115 
 
 book is intended to teach him to make, we 
 will finish it by telling him the " uses of 
 money." 
 
 3. First, "To provide," as St. Paul 
 *says, "for our own household." It cer- 
 tainly makes us happy to be the means of 
 making comfortable those whom we love 
 and who love us. 
 
 Second, To relieve the poor and the sick 
 and the wretched. This makes us happy, 
 for it makes us like our blessed Saviour. 
 
 4. Third, To aid in supporting schools, 
 and instructing the ignorant, and making 
 all mankind good and happy. 
 
 5. Fourth, The last use of money is, to 
 teach us not to think money worth too 
 much. Our blessed Saviour says, Cl Man's 
 life" — that is his happiness — " consisteth 
 not in the multitude of things that he pos- 
 sesseth." Now this every rich man finds by 
 experience ; he finds that all wealth is va- 
 nity, which does not make him " rich in 
 good works," and "wise unto salvation." 
 

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