-NRLF 
 
 in 
 
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 L35 
 
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 THE ROBERT E. COWAN COLLECTION 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CHUFORNIR 
 
 nv 
 
 C. P. HUNTINGTON 
 
 JUNE. 1897. 
 
 Accession No :pffpj$ 
 
NEW PUBLICATION. A BOOK FOR TEACHERS. 
 
 SWETT'S SCHOOL ELOCUTION 
 
 By JOHN SWETT. 
 
 Principal of San Francisco High and Normal School ; < x-State Supt. 
 
 of Public Instruction, State of California ; Author of 
 
 " Method of Teaching ;" and a co-Editor of 
 
 BANCROFT'S HEADERS. 
 
 A Manual of Vocal Training for Use in High Schools, 
 Normal Schools and Academies. 
 
 We call the special attention of High School Teachers and 
 Private Teachers to this fresh, original and practical book. 
 All other teachers who desire to study the best modern 
 methods of training in reading and elocution are invited to 
 examine it. 
 
 STRIKING FEATURES. 
 
 The salient points of this book are : 
 
 1st. — It can be used by teachers not specialists in elocu- 
 tion. 
 
 2d. — It is simple, clear and concise. 
 
 3d. — The drill exercises ars numerous, original and useful. 
 
 4th. — The selectious for declamations ana select readings 
 are of the highest order of literary and elocutionary merit. 
 
 5th. — It is kept within the comprehension of average high 
 school pupils. 
 
 6th. — It is a solid, practical bock, without hobbies or 
 eccentricities. 
 
 Retail Price, - - $1.50 
 
 Note to Teachers. — We will mail single copies of this book 
 to teachers for examination for $1.00. 
 
 A. L. BANCROFT & CO,, Publishers, 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 FOR USE IN 
 
 SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. 
 
 MONTAGUE R. LEVERSON, Dr. Ph., M. A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF " COPYRIGHT AND PATENTS, OB PROPERTY IN THOUGHT,' 
 
 "THE RATIONAL SYSTEM OF LEGAL, PROCEDURE," "COMMON 
 
 SENSE, OR FIRST STEPS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY," 
 
 "THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION," 
 
 " NATIONAL SCHOOLS," ETC. 
 
 San Francisco : 
 
 A. L. BANCROFT & COMFANY. 
 
 1885. 
 

 Entered according to Act oT Congress, in the year 1885, by 
 
 Montague R. Leverson, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In " Common Sense, or First Steps in Political 
 Economy," the author evolved the virtues of 
 industry, skill, economy, honesty, and general 
 trustworthiness, from an objective examination 
 of man in society, ancTproved them essential to 
 human well-being and the happiness of the in- 
 dividual. On this basis of moral science was 
 established the structure of political economy 
 which he presented in that work in a form 
 adapted to the understanding of the young. 
 
 That political, or, as it is better termed, social, 
 economy should be not merely connected with 
 but actually founded upon moral science, will 
 no doubt surprise those who have studied eco- 
 nomic science only from the text-books ordinarily 
 used in our colleges, or from the elaborate works 
 of the masters of the science. 
 
 Mr. William Ellis was the first to show the 
 intimate dependence of economic upon moral 
 science, and he relieved the former from the char- 
 acter of "the dismal science," which had been 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 imposed upon it by writers of influence who had 
 failed to understand it. So far from being a dis- 
 mal science, in the hands of Mr. William Ellis 
 and of his disciples children of even less than 
 ten years became interested in its study. 
 
 A want universally felt by educators, as ex- 
 « isting in our American school system, has been 
 a means of imparting moral instruction to its 
 pupils. The moral science, which forms the real 
 basis of economic science, seems to the author *to 
 be calculated to supply this want, and he has 
 prepared the Primer of Morals as a text-book 
 for the teaching of morals to the young. 
 
 It is believed that there is not any book in 
 existence which attempts to supply the vacancy 
 in our system everywhere recognized to exist, 
 consequently this Primer has no competitor to 
 displace, no jealous rivalry to overcome; supply- 
 ing a universally felt want, its utility he hopes 
 will be as extensive as the Union. 
 
 Its use in the lower grades of grammar schools 
 should be exclusively as a teachers' manual. Its 
 lessons should be imparted by the Socratic 
 method of teaching, and, to aid the teacher in 
 this task, an unusually large number of ques- 
 tions have been placed at the end of each chapter. 
 The earnest teacher will not content himself with 
 these, but will frame many more ; for, "line upon 
 line, precept upon precept, here a little and there 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 a little," all teaching, and that of morals in par- 
 ticular, must be impressed upon the young from 
 innumerable points of view, and illustrated with 
 reiterated instances. 
 
 In all except the lower grades, the Primer can, 
 it is believed, be profitably placed in the hands of 
 the children for study. This belief is founded 
 on the fact that, to the author's knowledge, many 
 children of eleven years of age and upwards have 
 voluntarily taken up and studied " Common 
 Sense, or First Steps in Political Economy." 
 The Primer is believed to be both easier to be 
 understood, and more attractive in many respects, 
 than is that work. 
 
 That it may prove useful, and tend to advance 
 the progress and happiness of his fellow-citizens, 
 is the desire of 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. p AGE 
 
 Comforts Surrounding Children in the United 
 States — How Procured— History of a Stock- 
 ing—Idea and Name of Wealth — Importance 
 of the Correct Use of Words to Express 
 
 Ideas, 9 
 
 Review Questions, - - - - - - - 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Some Necessaries not Produced by Labor and not 
 Included in the Term "Wealth" — Earth, Air, 
 Water, when They are not and when They 
 are Wealth — Production, What It is — Labor 
 Creates Nothing — It Changes the Position of 
 Matter — We Live ox the Products of Past 
 Labor— Ideas of Economy, Skill, and Knowl- 
 edge Evolved, and Names Given, - - - 17 
 
 Review Questions, 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Division of Labor — Increased Efficiency Resulting 
 from— Co-operation— Household Labors— Train- 
 ing of the Young — Special Fitness of Women 
 for Certain Labors, ... - 33 
 
 Review Questions, 39 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. page 
 
 Interchange — Necessity of Considering and Satis- 
 fying the Wants of Others, - - - - 41 
 Review Questions, 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Protection to Life and Property — Honesty — Small 
 Efficiency of Governments — Conscience the 
 Most Efficient Police — Effects of Dishonesty 
 — Demoralizing Influence of Successful Dis- 
 honesty, - 45 
 
 Review Questions, 52 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Young not Possessed of Wealth — Their Wants 
 Supplied — Sale and Purchase of Labor— Sell- 
 ers of Labor and not the Wealth Possessors 
 Have the Enjoyment of the Portion of the 
 Latter's Wealth Employed in Production- 
 Wages — Capital — Interest — Average Wages 
 Determined by Productiveness — Individual 
 Wages; how Determined, 55 
 
 Review Questions, 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Profit — Its Uncertainty — Analysis of Profit — 
 
 Rates, how Determined, - -72 
 
 Review Questions, - 78 
 
 Conclusion, 79 
 
 Review Questions, - 83 
 
Primer of Morals. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Comforts Surrounding Children in the United States 
 — How Procured— History of a Stocking— Idea 
 and Name of Wealth — Importance of the Correct 
 Use of Words to Express Ideas. 
 
 1. The Comforts of Children in the United 
 States. — The children of this favored land 
 rise every morning from a comfortable bed 
 to find ready to their hands clothes to put 
 on, soap, towel, water (often brought from 
 a great distance), combs, and brushes, all 
 for their comfort and cleanliness. 
 
 Having washed and dressed, they help, 
 if old enough and in good health, in kin- 
 dling the fires and sweeping and cleaning 
 the rooms and furniture ; they brush their 
 
10 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 boots and shoes, and help to make ready 
 the breakfast for the family. 
 
 Having breakfasted, they gather their 
 books together and go to school. There 
 they find a school-room, generally well 
 warmed, supplied with fresh, pure air, and 
 fitted with desks, maps, charts, slates, and 
 many other things to add to their comfort, 
 or to help them in gaining knowledge, 
 while a kind and earnest teacher is waiting 
 to help them in the hard places, and make 
 their lessons plain and easy. 
 
 The school session over, the children re- 
 turn home to a loving father and mother, 
 who are happy when their children are 
 happy, and are always ready to try to save 
 them from trouble or harm. 
 
 At home they again find food ready for 
 them, and after learning a few easy lessons 
 for the morrow, and spending some time 
 in playing with dolls, or balls, bats, tops, 
 or skates, they bathe in a tub of water, 
 hot or cold, as may be best for their health 
 and cleanliness, and go to bed without any 
 fear lest any one of the comforts enjoyed to- 
 day should be wanting to them on the 
 morrow. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 11 
 
 2. Children have become so used to all 
 these comforts and enjoyments, that they 
 do not think how much time has been 
 spent, and how much labor done, not only 
 by their parents, but by many other per- 
 sons also, in order to get these things for 
 them, and they give little thought to the 
 difficulties which had to be overcome to 
 bring many of the things they use from 
 different parts of the world. 
 
 3. Let us take up one of the articles in 
 common use among children, say a pair 
 of woolen stockings, and trace its history 
 from its beginning until it is brought to 
 them for use. Let us also see what kind of 
 men and women they must be by whom 
 the stocking is produced and supplied to 
 the children. 
 
 4. History of a Stocking. — The wool of 
 which the stocking is woven was grown 
 on sheep, raised with much care and labor, 
 perhaps in California, Oregon, New Mexico, 
 Texas, Colorado, Iowa or Ohio, or pos- 
 sibly in Australia or the Cape of Q-ood 
 Hope. Sheared in due season, it has been 
 transported in cars drawn by locomotives, 
 
12 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 or carried in ships (the building of all of 
 which had occupied many men for many 
 months) to the ports of New York, Boston, 
 or Liverpool; where depots, piers, docks, 
 and warehouses have been laboriously con- 
 structed for the reception of the cars and 
 ships, and for the storage of the wool until 
 the manufacturer is ready to use it. 
 
 5. To the manufacturer the wool is car- 
 ried over a road which crosses broad and 
 deep rivers, spans valleys, bores through 
 mountains, and cost in building the labor 
 of many times more men for many times 
 more months than did the building of the 
 ship. 
 
 6. Having now reached the factory, the 
 changes the wool has to undergo to fit it 
 as a covering for the feet may be said to 
 commence. 
 
 7. First it is picked and cleaned, then 
 carded in a machine which has been pro- 
 duced by great labor on the part of many 
 laborers, driven by an engine, also the prod- 
 uct of much labor and skill, while fuel has 
 been dug out of the earth or cut down from 
 forests, and laboriously transported to the 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 13 
 
 engine, in order that this latter may drive 
 the carding machine. 
 
 8. The wool is then spun on a spinning 
 machine, driven by an engine which is fed 
 by fuel, all the products of great labor and 
 skill. 
 
 9. The wool is now converted into a 
 thread, to which the name of "yarn" is 
 given, and this yarn is next dyed, and then 
 woven on a loom or knitted into a stock- 
 ing. 
 
 " 10. The stocking is now transported to 
 the warehouse of the wholesale dealer, 
 and by him distributed over the country 
 among the storekeepers, so that they may 
 have at hand a supply to meet the demand 
 of the parents of the children by whom the 
 stockings are to be worn. 
 
 11. In a like manner may be traced the 
 history of all other articles of clothing: 
 pants, shirts, drawers, dresses, jackets, 
 boots, shoes, and hats. 
 
 12. So, too, all articles of food — milk, 
 bread, meat, tea, coffee, sugar, spices, and 
 condiments — may in a like manner be 
 traced from the commencement of the 
 
14 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 labor of their production until they appear 
 upon the table. 
 
 13. Products of Labor. — It will be seen 
 that none of them can be produced ex- 
 cept by the expenditure of great amounts of 
 labor. 
 
 Houses for shelter, school-houses as 
 places of instruction, factories for the man- 
 ufacture of tools, machinery, clothing, and 
 furniture, granaries and warehouses for 
 storage, roads and railroads, canals, cars, 
 and ships, for the distribution of commod- 
 ities among manufacturers, traders, and 
 consumers, as well as the stores in which 
 they are kept until needed to be eaten, 
 worn, or used, all cost great labor for their 
 construction and maintenance. 
 
 All these things above enumerated, and 
 many besides, which we call the necessa- 
 ries and comforts of life, are produced by 
 labor, and can only be so produced. 
 
 14. Wealth. — We have now acquired an 
 important thought; viz., that the necessa- 
 ries and comforts of life are produced by 
 labor, and to the things thus produced the 
 name of "wealth" has been given. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 15 
 
 15. It is essential to the right under- 
 standing of any subject that the learner 
 should have a clear and definite idea of 
 the meaning of the language employed in 
 its discussion. 
 
 16. This necessity is nowhere greater 
 than in the study of the conditions of 
 human well-being; let it therefore be re- 
 membered, that by the term "wealth" is 
 meant the necessaries and comforts of life 
 produced by labor, and that to the things 
 included in the expression "the necessa- 
 ries and comforts of life produced by la- 
 bor/' the name "wealth," and no other, 
 will be applied. 
 
 17. We shall find by and by that wealth 
 exists under different conditions, or is ap- 
 plied to various uses; we shall hereafter 
 analyze wealth, i. e., divide it into its com- 
 ponent parts; and we shall give a special 
 name to any portion of wealth of which we " 
 may need to speak, without including any 
 other. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. 
 
 Name some of the comforts enjoyed by children in the 
 United States. Have you given much thought to the labor 
 
 If OF THE 
 
 fi TTTsTTTrTTX3C!TT-«\7- 
 
16 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 required to be performed to supply you with those com- 
 forts ? If not, why not ? 
 
 4-12. 
 Give the history of a woolen stocking, of a cotton shirt, 
 of a stove, of a locomotive, of a plow, of a loaf of bread, 
 of a loom, of a sewing machine, of a cup of cocoa, coffee, 
 or tea, etc. 
 
 12-13. 
 
 What is a plow? A spinning machine? A carding 
 machine ? A spade ? A pair of scissors ? A sewing ma- 
 chine ? What do men plow ? What do men dig ? When 
 do men plow rather than dig, and when do they dig 
 rather than plow? What do men spin? Card? Weave? 
 What, with what, how, and why do men plow, dig, spin, 
 card, weave, quarry, build, mine, forge, bake, boil, brew, 
 cut, sew, fit, wash, write, print, and publish ? 
 
 14. 
 
 What name is given to include all the necessaries and 
 comforts of life produced by labor? Define wealth. 
 
 Note. — This first chapter is a very important one, and 
 too much pains cannot be bestowed upon its elucidation 
 until the pupils have thoroughly mastered it. The younger 
 the pupils the more objectively and fully the subjects 
 referred to should be treated. Models or drawings of 
 the industrial implements spoken of, and of any others 
 which may suggest themselves to the teacher, should be 
 procured or made, and the interest of the pupils awakened 
 and kept alive by presenting in new and varied aspects 
 the objects common to their every-day life. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Some Necessaries not Produced by Labor and not 
 Included in the Term "Wealth" — Earth, Air, 
 Water, when They are not and when They are 
 Wealth— Production, What It is— Labor Creates 
 Nothing— It Changes the Position op Matter— 
 We Live on the Products op Past Labor— Ideas 
 op Economy, Skill, and Knowledge Evolved, and 
 Names Given. 
 
 18. Some Necessaries not Wealth. — We 
 have seen that most of the necessaries and 
 comforts of life are produced by labor, to 
 these the name of " wealth " has been ap- 
 plied; but there are some necessaries which 
 are not produced by labor; such are the 
 earth, air, and water. 
 
 19. But although the earth, air, and 
 water, in their natural places and condi- 
 tions, do not come within our definition of 
 wealth (for, though necessaries of life, they 
 are not produced by labor), there are cir- 
 
18 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 cumstances under which they come within 
 our definition. 
 
 20. In coal mines, in the diving-bell, in 
 the driving of tunnels, fresh air is supplied 
 to the miner, to the diver, and to the exca- 
 vator at the cost of considerable labor, and 
 the cost of supplying it in these cases 
 enters largely into the cost of producing 
 the coal, building the pier, dock, or bridge, 
 and in cutting the tunnel. 
 
 The water we need for drinking, cleans- 
 ing, cooking, or other purposes is generally 
 brought with no little labor to the place 
 where it is used. 
 
 The earth must be cultivated and im- 
 proved before it will give its fruits in 
 abundance. In all these cases, air, water, 
 and earth are wealth, because they are pro- 
 duced in the place where or in the condi- 
 tion in which they are required by labor. 
 
 21. The justice of including these within 
 our definition will become manifest when 
 we examine a little closely what man's 
 labor really does towards the production 
 of food, clothing, fuel, shelter, and other 
 articles of use or enjoyment. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 19 
 
 22. What Labor Does. — Labor * creates 
 nothing. It can only change the relative 
 positions of particles of matter. 
 
 In plowing, man breaks up the soil and 
 exposes it to the action of the air. To 
 manure it, he transports matter containing 
 fertilizing particles from a place where 
 these particles are in excess, and spreads 
 the matter upon his field where they are 
 deficient. He sows the seed; that is, he 
 deposits another form of matter in the 
 ground thus improved, and if he has 
 plowed and manured his field and selected 
 and sown the seed with due regard to cli- 
 mate, soil, and nature' of the plant, and 
 continues diligently to weed, and where 
 necessary to irrigate, his land, he has rea- 
 son, from past experience, to expect to 
 garner a bounteous harvest. 
 
 The corn, wheat, or other grain which 
 is the product of the labor of the farmer 
 is ground into meal or floury salt, water, 
 and yeast are mixed with it, the whole is 
 kneaded thoroughly together, and the mix- 
 ture is then baked in an oven; no new or 
 additional element or atom of matter is 
 
20 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 brought into existence, but by a change in 
 the relative positions of particles of matter 
 a combination is produced to which the 
 name " bread" is given; and which, in this 
 new form, is well adapted to satisfy man's 
 needs. 
 
 In the process of spinning, weaving, 
 knitting, dyeing, cutting and fitting, build- 
 ing, mining, and forging, nothing is cre- 
 ated; the positions of particles of matter 
 are shifted, and this is all. 
 
 23. When this new arrangement of mat- 
 ter tends to satisfy some want, a commod- 
 ity is produced by labor; and this com- 
 modity therefore belongs to that class of 
 things to which the general name " wealth" 
 has been given. 
 
 24. The Character of the People by Whom 
 Existing Wealth has been Produced. — The 
 people by whom the wealth we now find in 
 existence was produced must, we see, have 
 been a hard-working people. The old, the 
 infirm, and young children are incapable 
 of labor. Their means of subsistence must 
 be provided for them by those who can and 
 do labor. The smaller the number of those 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 21 
 
 who live upon the labor of others, the 
 greater will be the amount of the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life produced for 
 the enjoyment of all. So also will the 
 means for such enjoyment increase with 
 the ability and willingness of those who 
 do labor. 
 
 25. This ability and willingness can be 
 acquired by the young by earnest attention 
 to their school duties, and by cheerfully as- 
 sisting their parents in household or other 
 tasks adapted to their strength. 
 
 26. Industry. — To those who labor cheer- 
 fully and continuously in the production 
 of wealth, or in fitting themselves to be- 
 come producers, the term "industrious" 
 is applied, and the quality they possess 
 is termed " industry." 
 
 27. The quality of industry must have 
 belonged in a high degree to the men and 
 women of the past, since we now enjoy so 
 much wealth which they had accumulated 
 and provided for our use. Children who 
 think of this will readily learn to love and 
 practice industry, in order that, when they 
 shall be grown up to be men and women 
 
22 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 and take part in the business of produc- 
 tion, they may cheerfully, willingly, and 
 continuously labor to replace the stores 
 consumed by them in infancy and child- 
 hood, to provide for their then present and 
 future wants, as well as to bear their share 
 of the burden of supporting those who 
 shall have succeeded to their places in the 
 ranks of non- workers. 
 
 28. In passing in review the manner in 
 which are produced some of the commod- 
 ities in common use, the question must 
 have suggested itself to the mind of the 
 thoughtful pupil, What were men living 
 upon while digging and plowing, sowing 
 and reaping, rearing cattle, building, spin- 
 ning, baking, and the like ? 
 
 29. We Live on the Products of Past 
 Labor. — The wealth which man's labor is 
 engaged in producing cannot be employed 
 to satisfy his present needs, the results 
 of that labor do not exist in the present, 
 but are expected to exist at some future 
 time. Evidently, then, man lives on the 
 products of his labor in the past, the sav- 
 ing of which for future consumption was 
 a necessity soon forced upon his notice. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 23 
 
 30. In nothing is the contrast more dis- 
 tinctly marked between the savage and the 
 civilized man than in the forethought which 
 renders it part of the present enjoyment of 
 the latter to provide for the future wants of 
 himself and family. Thus, the very act of 
 abstaining from the complete gratification 
 of his and their present needs, in order that 
 their future wants may be supplied, forms 
 a part of the happiness of the civilized 
 man; while nothing could cause him greater 
 mental suffering than to be compelled to 
 consume all his present store, with the 
 prospect of being unable to obtain a future 
 supply. 
 
 31. The savage, on the contrary, cannot 
 be induced to abstain from wasting what 
 he cannot immediately enjoy, however ter- 
 rible may have been the sufferings of him- 
 self and family through past wastefulness. 
 
 32. Saving. — The necessity of saving will 
 be, perhaps, more vividly realized by the 
 young by noting the following facts: 
 
 33. In most countries there is but one 
 principal harvest in the year; but man's 
 need for food occurs three or four times 
 
24 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 every day, neither Sundays nor holidays 
 being excepted. How, then, can he make 
 one harvest gratify the cravings of three 
 times three hundred and sixty -five appe- 
 tites, but by saving? But further, harvests 
 sometimes fail, or are late or deficient, and 
 the abundance of one year must therefore 
 be stored up to supply the failure, late- 
 ness, or deficiency of the next. Savages 
 are incapable of looking so far forward into 
 the future, and hence their tribes are being 
 continually decimated by famine, and its 
 sure successors, pestilence and disease. 
 
 34. It is impossible fully to appreciate 
 the very large amount of saving from the 
 products of past labor which must have 
 been practiced by those who have lived 
 before us in order that we might procure 
 merely the common things in use in the 
 abundance in which we have them. 
 
 35. Among other things, it is to be ob- 
 served that the aqueducts which bring 
 water to our houses; the ships, docks, 
 piers, canals, railroads, wagons, and steam- 
 cars employed in the transportation of 
 commodities; the machinery employed in 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 25 
 
 the conversion of raw products into arti- 
 cles of utility — could never have had exist- 
 ence but for such saving. Their very cost 
 measures, and is measured by, the quantity 
 of saving from the products of labor con- 
 sumed in their construction. 
 
 36. Economy. — The name "economy" is 
 applied to the quality of saving, and this 
 quality we now see must have largely pre- 
 vailed among parents, in order that the 
 children of to-day might enjoy the large 
 supply of comfort provided for them. 
 
 37. High among the industrial virtues 
 must the quality of economy be ranked, 
 and its prevalence must be classed as one 
 of the most important conditions of human 
 well-being. 
 
 38. The habit of saving once acquired, 
 its practice becomes part of the enjoyment 
 of the present; and when youth shall be 
 generally taught to perceive its importance, 
 a vast increase in the well-being of future 
 generations may be confidently predicted. 
 
 39. The industry and economy we have 
 seen practiced in the past, and which it is 
 desirable should to a yet greater degree be 
 
26 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 practiced in the future, would have availed 
 little to produce an abundance of wealth, 
 if man's faculties were incapable of im- 
 provement, or if the ease with which he 
 performs his labor and the character of 
 its results were not increased and improved 
 by each repetition ; or if he were unable to 
 store up and record his observations for 
 future use. 
 
 When children begin to play at ball, they 
 can neither throw the ball far, nor in the 
 direction they desire, nor catch it when it 
 is thrown to them; but by practice they 
 soon become able to throw the ball a long 
 distance, pitch it to the precise place to 
 which they wish it to go, and catch it when 
 thrown to them; they acquire skill in play- 
 ing ball. 
 
 40. When children begin to learn to write, 
 they find it very difficult to hold a pen or 
 pencil in the proper position, and still more 
 difficult to form figures and letters; but by 
 great practice, they acquire the power of 
 holding the pen or pencil properly, and of 
 making neat and correct figures and letters; 
 they acquire skill in writing. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 27 
 
 Wlien they begin to learn to add or to 
 subtract, they find great difficulty in add- 
 ing one and one, one and two, two and 
 two, two and three, etc., but by frequent 
 practice they get to be able to add rapidly 
 and correctly hundreds and thousands; still 
 more difficult do they at first find it to mul- 
 tiply two by three or three by four, but by 
 practice they become able to tell what is 
 seven times nine, nine times thirteen, or 
 even seventeen times nineteen, almost as 
 rapidly as the questions can be asked; and 
 they become skilled in computing. 
 
 When, somewhat older, they go into the 
 workshop, they at first do not know how 
 to handle the tools of the trade they are 
 about to learn, and spoil and waste much 
 material, besides often spoiling the tools, 
 and sometimes doing themselves injury; 
 by paying attention to the workman who 
 is set to teach them, by watching the way 
 he works and trying to imitate him, they 
 soon learn how to use their tools, to work 
 without wasting material or spoiling their 
 tools, and become skillful in their use; they 
 perform their work with ease, and the 
 
28 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 result of their labor is an addition to the 
 value and usefulness of the object on "which 
 it is bestowed. 
 
 The faculty of performing any given labor 
 with ease, of making easily an addition to 
 the value or utility of the object on which 
 the labor is bestowed, is termed "skill." 
 
 41. Knowledge. — To have or possess, stored 
 up in the mind ready for use, observations 
 of past facts, and the records of past ex- 
 perience, is termed " knowledge." 
 
 42. Skill and knowledge are also needed 
 to observe and record facts, and a knowl- 
 edge of those facts and of their mutual 
 relations is needed to discover the laws of 
 their modes of action. From observations 
 of these facts and modes of action, the prin- 
 ciple of the rotation of crops, the nature, 
 qualities, and application of manures, the 
 effects of steam and electricity, were dis- 
 covered and subjected to man's purposes. 
 
 43. Skill is needed to manufacture the 
 tools and implements in daily, even those 
 in household use, as well as the more com- 
 plex machinery employed in manufacturing 
 them. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 29 
 
 44. The tools once produced, skill is re- 
 quired in their use. The bow and arrow, 
 and the rifle, are equally useless in the 
 hands of a man who has no skill to use 
 them. The civilized man armed with a 
 rifle, which he did not know how to use, 
 would be no match for the savage armed 
 with bow and arrow, who had practiced 
 shooting at a mark. 
 
 45. Industry , economy, knowledge, and skill 
 are now seen to be essential to the produc- 
 tion of any considerable quantity of the 
 necessaries and comforts of life. Their 
 prevalence is a condition of human well- 
 being. On the degree in which they prevail 
 will, in a great measure, depend the happi- 
 ness of every community. The progress 
 and future happiness of every people must 
 depend on the care with which these quali- 
 ties are sought to be imparted to the young. 
 With what earnestness, then, should not the 
 boys and girls, for whose improvement in 
 these qualities efforts are being made by 
 their parents and teachers, strive to attain 
 knowledge, and to acquire habits of in- 
 dustry, economy, and skill! 
 
30 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 18> 
 
 Are all the necessaries of life wealth? If not, name 
 those which are not. 
 
 19-21. 
 
 Are earth, water, or air ever wealth ? If they are, state 
 when and where. 
 
 22. 
 
 What does labor create ? What does labor do ? Illus- 
 trate your answer. 
 
 23. 
 What is a commodity? 
 
 24. 
 What kind of people produced tne wealth we find now 
 in existence ? Do all persons labor ? What relation exists 
 between the proportion of the non-workers to the workers, 
 and the amount of wealth produced? 
 
 25. 
 
 How may the young become able and willing to labor ? 
 
 26-27. 
 
 What name is given to those who labor cheerfully and 
 continuously? Define industry. Was industry a quality 
 of those who have lived before us? Prove your answer. 
 Should children love industry, and why? 
 
 28-29. 
 
 What do we live upon while tilling the ground and 
 sowing the seed ? What did the men who produced what 
 we are now consuming live upon while laboring to pro- 
 duce? 
 
Of thb 
 PRIMER OF MORALS. ^2l 
 
 30-31. 
 
 Explain the chief distinction between the savage and 
 civilized man. 
 
 33-35. 
 
 How many principal harvests are there in a year 
 in most countries? How many appetites have you each 
 day? How many in the year? How shall one harvest be 
 made to satisfy 3x365, or 1,095, appetites? Are harvests 
 always abundant?. How can the abundance of one harvest 
 be made to supply the scarcity of another? If the prin- 
 cipal food of a people cannot be saved from one year to 
 another, could any provision be made against scarcity, and 
 how? What kind of people are they likely to be who rely 
 mainly on one perishable article for food? Would they 
 be likely to make such provision as is necessary? and if not, 
 why not? Contrast corn, wheat, rye, or rice, with potatoes, 
 and state what kind of people would be likely to use corn, 
 wheat, rye, or rice, as their staple article of food, and what 
 kind of people would rely upon potatoes, and give your 
 reasons in each case. What do aqueducts, ships, docks, 
 piers, canals, railroads, etc., teach us with regard to saving 
 in the past ; and how does their cost measure the amount 
 of savings from products of past labor consumed in their 
 construction? 
 
 36-38. 
 
 What name is given to the quality of saving? Is saving 
 necessary in the future, and why? Does saving cause pres- 
 ent enjoyment, and how ? 
 
 39-44. 
 
 What is skill? How is skill to be acquired? How do 
 children acquire skill in ball-playing? In reading, writing, 
 and computing? In the use of tools? Do they waste 
 materials and spoil tools when they first go into the work- 
 
32 PRIMER OF MORALS, 
 
 shop? Do they always do so? and if not, why not? What 
 is knowledge? Are skill and knowledge desirable, and 
 why? 
 
 45. 
 Name and define afresh the four conditions of human 
 well-being examined in this chapter. 
 
 Note. — Although many of the answers to questions 
 numbered 33 to 35 are not directly furnished in the text, 
 the deductions are so easy that the teacher will find no 
 difficulty in leading his class to find out for themselves the 
 truth on the matters referred to by the Socratic process of 
 leading the pupil by questions from one truth to another 
 less obvious than the first. He will at the same time be 
 training his pupils to think, and to think logically. Many 
 more questions on those sections and on sections 36 to 45 
 will suggest themselves to the earnest teacher. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Division of Labor— Increased Efficiency Resulting 
 from Co-operation — Household Labors — Training 
 of the Young — Special Fitness of Women for Cer- 
 tain Labors. 
 
 46. Division of Labor. — In the early 
 stages of society, whatever object is desired 
 by any of its members is produced directly 
 by himself; that is to say (violence and 
 fraud excepted), by the direction of his own 
 labor to the immediate production of the 
 object desired. But the -time of the work- 
 man is greatly taken up and his attention 
 distracted by going from one kind of labor 
 to another, and little skill can under such 
 conditions be acquired in any. It soon 
 came to be perceived that by each laborer 
 applying himself to one class of production 
 exclusively, the total product would be very 
 much increased; and each laborer can so 
 apply himself without anxiety or hesitation, 
 
 3 
 
34 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 when, seeing others do likewise, lie knows 
 he can readily procure the other things he 
 needs by exchanging for them the direct 
 products of his own labor. 
 
 The canoe of the savage, built by the un- 
 assisted labor of himself and family, has 
 to be made in intervals between hunting 
 and fishing; but when society has so far 
 advanced that one portion of its members 
 will find sufficient food for the rest, where- 
 by these others are enabled to devote them- 
 selves exclusively to the building of ships, 
 the rude canoe becomes improved into the 
 sailing vessel with masts and sails, and the 
 sailing vessel in her turn yields to that tri- 
 umph of human skill and ingenuity, the 
 steamship, or ship propelled by steam. 
 What wonderful skill is expended in the 
 construction of an ocean steamer! How 
 marvelously the ship-builder co-operates 
 with the farmer in the production of grain \ 
 with the tailor in the production of clothes, 
 and with the potter and cutler in the pro- 
 duction of their wares ! 
 
 The separation of the occupations of men, 
 so that each laborer applies himself exclu- 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 35 
 
 sively to one kind of labor, is termed 
 "division of labor." 
 
 47. Besulting Increase in Efficiency of 
 Labor. — But for it, the acquirement of the 
 knowledge and skill needed for the inven- 
 tion and construction of the steam-engine, 
 of telegraphs, nay, even of comfortable 
 dwellings or clothes, would have been 
 impossible. 
 
 The addition made, by the adoption of 
 the division of labor to the productiveness 
 of man's labor, is doubtless greatest in those 
 industrial occupations which have for their 
 object to supply the more pressing needs 
 of the community; but its advantages can 
 perhaps be more vividly realized by observ- 
 ing the process of the manufacture of some 
 more trifling kind, such as the illustration 
 given by Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of 
 Nations." 
 
 "A workman," says Adam Smith, "not 
 educated to the trade [pin-making] will 
 with difficulty make a dozen pins a day; 
 but not only is pin-making a special busi- 
 ness, it is also divided into branches, each 
 of which is a trade by itself. One man 
 
36 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 draws the wire, a second straightens it, a 
 third cuts, and a fourth points it; a fifth 
 grinds the tops to receive the head, while 
 the making of the head is divided into 
 several trades; another workman puts on 
 the head; and to whiten the pins, and 
 even to place or stick them on papers, is 
 each a separate trade." 
 
 The manufactory examined by Adam 
 Smith is described by him as having been 
 very poor, employing but ten hands, and 
 furnished with indifferent machinery, and 
 yet they could turn out twelve pounds of 
 pins per day. Four thousand medium- 
 sized pins go to the pound, making forty- 
 eight thousand pins as the day's work of 
 ten men, whose united product, unaided by 
 division of labor and co-operation, would 
 not exceed one hundred and twenty pins 
 a day! 
 
 By the improved machinery of the pres- 
 ent day — results of the still greater division 
 of labor and more intimate and trustwor- 
 thy co-operation now in use — the same 
 number of men can now turn out over one 
 million of pins a day. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 37 
 
 48. In other arts and manufactures the 
 results of the division of labor are not less 
 striking. 
 
 Pin-makers, spinners, weavers, tailors, 
 shoe-makers, architects, lawyers, builders 
 and engineers, printers and book-binders, 
 and farmers, all co-operate to provide whole- 
 some and palatable food, comfortable cloth- 
 ing, and abundant fuel and shelter for all. 
 
 Each co-operates with every other in- 
 dustrial worker; and the lessons of econ- 
 omy taught in the last chapter receive 
 additional enforcement from the observa- 
 tion of the fact that all these laborers are 
 living, while they labor, on the products of 
 past labor. How enormous, then, must 
 have been the amount of saving which 
 has been going on in the past, and which 
 is essential in the present and for the 
 future ! 
 
 There is one class of labor to which it is 
 desirable to devote some attention, because 
 its importance and position in the economy 
 of industrial life are frequently overlooked. 
 
 49. Household Labors. — The household 
 labors, generally performed by women, are 
 
3S PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 no whit less honorable, essential, or pro- 
 ductive than any labor performed by men. 
 If these labors were not performed for 
 the men, they would have to do them for 
 themselves, and, from want of experience, 
 they would neither be done so well nor so 
 quickly as they are now. 
 
 The labors too, now performed by men 
 would be constantly interrupted, and con- 
 sequently, be less skillfully performed and 
 their labor be less productive than at 
 present. 
 
 Hence domestic workers, whether men 
 or women, co-operate in the building of 
 bridges, railroads, ships, and in short, in 
 the production of all commodities what- 
 ever. 
 
 50. Nature has specially pointed out the 
 training of the young as a kind of labor 
 which can be best performed by women; 
 their special fitness for this labor, requir- 
 ing as it does their constant presence in 
 the home, has without doubt been the 
 cause that, even in civilized communities, 
 the performance of the chief portion of 
 domestic labor continues to fall to their lot. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 39 
 
 51. In our country this special fitness of 
 women to train the young has received a 
 further development. 
 
 52. The high and noble vocation of the 
 teaeher is among us chiefly filled by women. 
 They carry into the school the qualities 
 and faculties which especially adapt that 
 sex for the training of the young; and they 
 are undoubtedly better able to understand 
 the wants and feelings of children than men, 
 who are less sympathetic in their natures. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 46. 
 
 What is division of labor? How does the division of 
 labor lead to the substitution of the sailing vessel for the 
 canoe, of the steam-vessel for one propelled by the wind, 
 and to other improvements ? How do the ship-builder and 
 sailor co-operate with the farmer of Kansas in the produc- 
 tion of bread in London? 
 
 47. 
 
 Show how the division of labor affects its efficiency. 
 Give Adam Smith's illustration of the advantages of the 
 division of labor. 
 
 48. 
 
 Does the carpenter co-operate with the farmer to pro- 
 duce grain, and howT Does the tailor co-operate with the 
 potter to produce earthenware, and how? Give various 
 
40 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 instances of the co-operation of one kind of workman with 
 another. 
 
 49. 
 Do those engaged in household labors co-operate to pro- 
 duce grain, ships, bridges, railroads, etc., and how? 
 
 50. 
 
 What has tended to throw household labors chiefly into 
 the hands of women in this country ? 
 
 51. 
 
 For what other vocation do women seem to be specially 
 adapted, and whyf 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Interchange— Necessity op Considering and Satis- 
 fying the Wants op Others. 
 
 53. Interchange. — The adoption of the 
 divison of labor throws a new duty on the 
 laborer. He has no longer to consider 
 what he himself needs in order to supply 
 his wants, but he must ascertain what 
 things are most desired by other producers. 
 
 54. Having ascertained this, he knows 
 that other producers will be as anxious to 
 exchange their products for his as he will 
 be to acquire theirs, and he can devote his 
 whole skill and energy to the production 
 of his one commodity. 
 
 55. The quantity of the commodities he 
 needs, which he will be able to procure 
 (skill, industry, and economy being sup- 
 posed equal), will be proportioned to the 
 judgment he has exercised in supplying 
 the wants of others. 
 
42 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 56. Harmony of Industries, — The beauti- 
 ful harmony of industries which here comes 
 into view deserves our especial considera- 
 tion. 
 
 A man's own happiness is his only mo- 
 tive to action, that is to say, the gratifica- 
 tion of some one or more of his faculties 
 is what induces him to act. Even when 
 moved to action by sympathy for others, 
 as, for instance, for members of his own 
 family, it is still to gratify his own sym- 
 pathetic organs or faculties that he acts, 
 as these organs would be pained did he 
 not do so. He balances (unconsciously 
 in most cases) the pain of the labor he 
 gives himself to do good to those dear to 
 him, against the pain he would suffer if he 
 failed to do so, and finding the latter would 
 be greater than the former, gratifies him- 
 self by performing the act which is to 
 make another happy. This is a fact, nay, 
 a truism, which folly and ignorance may 
 deplore, but which knowledge observes to 
 be as much a part of man's nature, and 
 as necessary to the preservation of the 
 species, as are his appetites. It is true 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 43 
 
 that the account thus stated by each man 
 in his own mind is stated unconsciously, 
 or, as it is termed, automatically, and from 
 this it has been often overlooked, and 
 sometimes denied, by persons of little 
 thought. 
 
 57. But if man were not guided by the 
 desire for his own happiness to gratify his 
 own desires, if each man's actions were 
 dictated by what he conceived to be the 
 wants of another, instead of his eating 
 when hungry and laboring to avoid starva- 
 tion, endeavoring to avoid being frozen by 
 cold or burned by fire, he would perish 
 for want of food, or from cold or fire, 
 through his disregard of his own wants, 
 while awaiting the provision or salvation 
 to be provided him by another, and the 
 entire human race would soon disappear 
 from the earth. 
 
 58. The desire we have to procure for 
 ourselves and those dear to us as large a 
 supply as possible of the necessaries and 
 comforts of life can be gratified only by 
 supplying the wants of others, thus blend- 
 ing in a common bond the interests of all, 
 
44 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 and making the welfare of each industrial 
 worker identical with that of the commu- 
 nity in which he labors. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 53. 
 
 What new duty is thrown upon the laborer by division 
 of labor? 
 
 55. 
 
 On what will depend the quantity of commodities he 
 will be able to procure ? 
 
 56-8. 
 
 Does this bring into view any and what harmony of 
 industries ? Explain the consequences which would follow 
 if man were so constituted as to seek the happiness of 
 others without regard to his own. How is care for him- 
 self made useful to others? 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Protection to Life and Property — Honesty — Small 
 Efficiency of Governments — Conscience the Most 
 Efficient Police — Effects of Dishonesty — Demor- 
 alizing Influence of Successful Dishonesty. 
 
 59. Protection. — We have seen that the 
 means of subsistence and of enjoyment 
 can only be procured by labor, and that 
 industry, knowledge, skill, and economy 
 are essential to their production and pres- 
 ervation. But man devotes himself to 
 labor to satisfy his needs, and having pro- 
 duced, he must be permitted to enjoy; 
 otherwise he would soon grow tired of his 
 useless toil, and, production ceasing, the 
 world would be filled with misery. Famine 
 and pestilence would soon sweep from the 
 earth a race which failed to insure to in- 
 dustry the property in that which it had 
 acquired by labor. 
 
46 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 60. To secure to the laborer the enjoy- 
 ment of what he has produced by his labor 
 is, then, one of the earliest efforts of society 
 emerging from barbarism. Protection to 
 property must he secured, or the induce- 
 ment to labor is diminished, and that to 
 save and husband is destroyed. But be- 
 yond perceiving the necessity of establish- 
 ing security for property, man has yet 
 made little progress ; the most civilized 
 societies are yet groping in doubt and 
 uncertainty as to the means best adapted 
 for the attainment of this end. 
 
 61. Honesty. — "Were all men so organized, 
 and so taught and trained in youth, that to 
 seek to obtain possession of the products 
 of another's labor save in exchange for that 
 of their own should be revolting to their own 
 minds, the difficulty would cease to exist. 
 
 62. Unhappily, some there are who, from 
 defective training or organization, seek 
 to obtain the products of labor by other 
 means than working and saving, viz., by 
 violence or fraud ; and from their efforts it 
 is greatly to be desired that the workers 
 should be protected. 
 
PMMntt OF MORALS. 47 
 
 With this object in view, governments 
 have been established, police and courts of 
 justice have been organized, and for the 
 support of those serving in these offices, 
 taxes are levied and collected. 
 
 63. But taxes can be gotten only from 
 the earnings of the industrious and saving, 
 and even if the functions of police and 
 magistrates were performed to perfection? 
 the reward and consequent inducement to 
 the industrious and saving to labor and to 
 save must be diminished by the amount 
 taken from them in taxes to pay the labors 
 of magistrates and police. 
 
 64. Unhappily, we are here met by a still 
 graver difficulty; not only are the func- 
 tions ascribed to police and magistrates not 
 performed to perfection, but in the most 
 advanced societies yet established, the sys- 
 tem of laws and of justice are so imperfect 
 that it is a grave question whether the 
 benefits secured by magistrates and police 
 are adequate to the cost of maintainirg 
 them. 
 
 65. Conscience the Most Effective Police. — 
 Whatever means may, as civilization pro- 
 
48 PRIMER OF MORALS 
 
 gresses, be finally accepted as best adapted 
 to afford security for property, one thing 
 at least is clear : the larger the number of 
 those who adopt violence or fraud as a 
 means to procure wealth, the larger needs 
 to be the force employed to resist them, 
 and the greater the risk of finding the pro- 
 tective force invaded by the presence, in 
 its own bosom, of the violent or fraudu- 
 lent. No police can he so efficient as that 
 which the well-trained citizen carries always 
 with him — his own conscience. 
 
 Hence the only means which can be re- 
 lied on as certain to add to the security of 
 property are individual character and self- 
 control, to be secured only by good teach- 
 ing and training in youth. 
 
 The quality of holding in respect the 
 property of others, of adhering constantly 
 to truth, and of faithfully performing every 
 trust confided to us, is termed " honesty." 
 
 66. Although the necessity for honesty 
 has been evolved in our investigation, pos- 
 teriorly in scientific order to industry, skill, 
 and economy, none of the last-named quali- 
 ties can flourish in the absence of respect 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 49 
 
 for property; while as the natural instinct 
 of man is to take what he desires, until he 
 learns the evil consequences of so doing, 
 the exercise of this quality of honesty 
 needs to be earliest taught. It needs train- 
 ing and experience for youth to learn the 
 many forms under which honesty should 
 be exercised, until it grows into a habit of 
 mind, a part of his nature, a permanent 
 quality of character. 
 
 The advantages derivable from the di- 
 vision of labor would be wholly lost to us 
 in the absence of trustworthiness and truth- 
 fulness. Some amount of these qualities is 
 absolutely indispensable for the adoption 
 of the division of labor at all; its full bene- 
 fits can never be realized while falsehood, 
 or any species of fraud or untrustworthi- 
 ness, prevails among us. 
 
 67. It is not alone by diminishing the 
 inducement to labor and economy that 
 society is injured by the practices of the 
 dishonest. In all civilized countries, while 
 the industrious and saving are consuming, 
 they are, as we have seen, replacing, not 
 only what they consume, but what is con- 
 
 4 
 
50 PRIMER OF MORALS 
 
 sumed by the sick, the maimed, the dis- 
 honest, and the incapable; and, in addition, 
 are increasing the store of wealth of the 
 community year by year. 
 
 The dishonest, the rogues, the cheats and 
 thieves who plague society, also consume, 
 and that without replacing what they con- 
 sume; they also frequently destroy as 
 much as they enjoy. 
 
 68. If society submitted without resist- 
 ance to the depredations of the dishonest, 
 it would fall back into misery and bar- 
 barism, so that there would be little left 
 for the thieves to steal; it is therefore best, 
 even for the subsistence of the thief him- 
 self, that his efforts should be resisted, and 
 himself restrained from his evil ways. 
 
 69. But while endeavoring to secure the 
 rights of property, we must be careful not 
 to exaggerate the capabilities of the best of 
 governments. Government can strive to 
 provide security for wealth, but it cannot 
 create it. 
 
 70. Wealth is the product of industry, 
 skill, knowledge, and economy. In so far 
 as governments succeed in affording se- 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 51 
 
 curity for life, liberty, and property, in so 
 far it promotes these virtues ; but the fun- 
 damental qualities of civilized man can be 
 secured only by good teaching and training 
 in youth, the most important part whereof 
 is the home influence of the parents. If, 
 then, the parents possess these virtues, we 
 may hope to see them reproduced in a yet 
 greater degree in their children ; and as the 
 seeds of these qualities must be sown in 
 infancy, it is in infancy we must begin the 
 training to make good parents. 
 
 71. Demoralizing Influence on the Wit- 
 nesses of Dishonest Examples. — Besides the 
 direct discouragement to industry occa- 
 sioned by dishonesty, it has yet another 
 influence which, though indirect, is far 
 more pernicious than its direct influence. 
 This indirect influence consists in the de- 
 moralization which it occasions in the minds 
 of those who perceive crime enjoying that 
 success which should only be the reward 
 of industry, skill, and trustworthiness. 
 
 72. Let us carefully guard ourselves 
 against yielding approval or respect in 
 any form to wrong-doing, no matter how 
 
52 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 successful or powerful it may be, but let 
 it receive at all times our unqualified scorn, 
 and a hatred proportioned to its success. 
 
 This hatred which we should entertain 
 towards successful wrong-doing is not to 
 be mistaken for or confounded with hatred 
 of the wrong-doer. Hatred should never 
 be felt against any person. It is our duty 
 to oppose the wrong-doer with all our 
 strength, but we should do so without 
 hatred of the man; and so soon as the 
 wrong-doer is deprived of the power of 
 doing wrong, we should pity him, and seek 
 to put him on the road to do right in the 
 future. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 59. 
 
 Why does man labor? What would be the result of 
 depriving him of what he had labored to produce? 
 61. 
 How may protection to property be certainly and per- 
 fectly secured? 
 
 62. 
 
 Why are taxes raised? 
 
 63. 
 
 Out of what are taxes paid? What effect has the paying 
 of taxes on the inducement to labor and save ? 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 53 
 
 64. 
 
 What further difficulty exists in the way of affording 
 protection to property ? 
 
 65. 
 
 What is the most efficient police ? Are there any means 
 which can be relied on as certain to add to the security of 
 property ? And if so, what are they ? Define honesty. 
 
 66. 
 
 Contrast the order of the scientific evolution of honesty 
 as a condition of human well-being, with its proper place 
 in teaching and training, and give reasons for the place you 
 assign to it. 
 
 67-8. 
 
 How i3 society further injured by dishonesty? What 
 would be the consequences of allowing thieves to steal? 
 
 69. 
 
 What is the limit to the power of the best of governments 
 in regard to wealth ? 
 
 70. 
 When should people begin to be fitted to become good 
 parents ? 
 
 71. 
 Name some indirect consequences to society from dis- 
 honesty. 
 
 Note. — The teacher should not quit this chapter with- 
 out giving his pupils numerous illustrations both of honesty 
 and dishonesty. The importance of truthfulness, the hap- 
 piness existing in a community in which it prevails, the 
 discomfort which attends its violation both in the case of 
 individuals and of society, using illustrations to bring home 
 
54 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 to the conscience of every child the nature of true honor 
 contrasted with its sham, should be minutely dwelt upon 
 and profusely illustrated. The care taken of the property 
 of others, both public and private, as, for instance, of the 
 school furniture, etc., will gauge pretty accurately the moral 
 status of the scholars. The demoralization produced by 
 examples of dishonesty, especially when successful, should 
 also be pointed out. The consequences produced by national 
 dishonesty in the transfer of capital from the country where 
 the dishonesty prevails, or the hindering its flow to such a 
 country from others, should only be lightly touched upon 
 with very young pupils, but should be dwelt upon with older 
 students. In the lessons upon this chapter efforts should be 
 made to correct the prevailing tendency to the worship of 
 success, and illustrations of its baneful effects should be 
 drawn from contemporary history. Napoleon III. of France, 
 and William M. Tweed of New York, with their respective 
 confederates in crime, and the subserviency to them of so many 
 men of their times, will furnish apt illustrations. The 
 foundation may also be laid for future correct judgment as 
 to the proper objects of penal law and of punishment, into 
 which revenge should never be allowed to enter in the least 
 degree. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Young not Possessed of Wealth— Their Wants 
 Supplied— Sale and Purchase of Labor — Sellers 
 of Labor, and not the Wealth Possessors, havf 
 the Enjoyment of the Portion of the Latter's 
 Wealth Employed in Production — Wages — Capi- 
 tal — Interest — Ayerage Wages Determined b? 
 Productiyeness— Individual Wages; how Deter- 
 mined. 
 
 73. As a rule, the young are not pos- 
 sessed of wealth; yet their wants are regu- 
 larly supplied. Some parents, it is true, 
 owing in most cases to defective teaching 
 and training in their youth, are not so 
 able or willing as others to supply their 
 children's needs. By giving the young 
 such education as shall render them self- 
 supporting, and shall hinder them from 
 undertaking the parental duties until they 
 have made provision for the maintenance 
 of a family, the number of incapable or 
 
56 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 unwilling parents will be diminished in the 
 future. Children whose misfortune it is to 
 be neglected by their parents generally 
 suffer through life the consequences of 
 such neglect, though their sufferings are 
 often mitigated in childhood by the charity 
 of society or of individuals. 
 
 74. But though the wealth possessors 
 may be willing to part with a portion of 
 their wealth for the relief of destitute chil- 
 dren, as also of incapable or disabled adults, 
 they are not willing to give of their wealth 
 to adults who are neither incapable nor 
 disabled, except in return for some ser- 
 vices rendered or to be rendered by the 
 latter. 
 
 75. Sale and Purchase of Labor. — Hap- 
 pily, a means exists by which they who 
 have no wealth saved up for their imme- 
 diate wants can induce the wealth pos- 
 sessors to part cheerfully with theirs. The 
 former can sell their labor to the latter; 
 L e.j give the wealth possessors the right to 
 the future product of their present labor, 
 in exchange for the present wealth of which 
 they stand in need. This can be done be- 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 57 
 
 cause most of the wealth possessors are 
 anxious to increase their wealth. 
 
 76. How the Wealtliless have the Enjoy- 
 ment of the Wealth of its Possessors. — The 
 wealth possessors might choose to retain 
 their wealth for their own consumption. 
 In parting with it to laborers, they allow 
 the latter to consume it in their stead. 
 
 The laborers, then, and not the wealth 
 possessors, have the enjoyment of the wealth 
 the latter employ in the purchase of labor, 
 and the wealth possessors cheerfully part 
 with their wealth in the hope that the prod- 
 ucts of the labor they purchase will replace 
 the wealth they have bestowed upon the 
 laborer, with an increase thereto. 
 
 77. Whatever be the form of wealth which 
 it is intended shall be produced, land is 
 necessary for its production, and where, as 
 is the case among most people, their laws 
 permit individuals to appropriate the land, 
 the individuals so favored can generally 
 exact tribute of a portion of the product 
 of labor in payment for permission to use 
 the land appropriated. The same is true of 
 all natural agents by whose aid wealth can 
 
58 PRIMER OF MORAL*. 
 
 be produced which the law permits to be 
 appropriated by individuals, where the sup- 
 ply of such agent is limited in quanity. 
 
 78. The products of labor can be largely 
 increased by the use of tools, machines, 
 engines, buildings, roads, and other prod- 
 ucts of past labor which have been saved 
 and are applied to that purpose. Should 
 the owner of these things receive any share 
 of the produce as a reward for the use 
 thereof? or should there be restored to him 
 only the same quantity? 
 
 If the owner of those articles, instead of 
 employing them to aid labor in production, 
 had exchanged them for cattle at the end 
 of any given time (say one year), he would, 
 in the ordinary course of nature, have had 
 his original stock of cattle, plus an increase. 
 If he had exchanged them for seed and 
 sustenance for himself while engaged in 
 tilling the ground, he would, in most cases, 
 have had returned to him the same quantity 
 of seed and sustenance, plus an increase; 
 so, as the produce of labor is increased by 
 the use of his tools, machines, etc., he is 
 entitled to have his tools and machines 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 59 
 
 returned intact, plus a part of the increased 
 return obtained through their use. 
 
 We thus see that the total product of 
 labor is divided into four portions, whereof 
 one part goes to the laborer, one part to 
 the owner of aids to industry or of wealth 
 employed in production, one part to him to 
 whom the law has given the right to appro- 
 priate the land or other natural agent of 
 production, and one part to the govern- 
 ment under the name of " taxes." 
 
 79. To enable the government to afford, 
 or at least to attempt to afford, that secu- 
 rity and protection which we have seen to 
 be desirable for the well-being and progress 
 of society, a portion of the product of labor 
 must be taken for the support of the numer- 
 ous persons it employs for that purpose, 
 and for the purchase or manufacture of 
 machinery, ships, arms, and implements of 
 war; the portion thus taken by the govern- 
 ment is called " taxes." 
 
 As taxes must come out of the product 
 of labor, the share which the laborer gets 
 must be diminished by their imposition, 
 hence it is clearly to the interest of the 
 
60 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 laborer that taxes shall be as light as pos- 
 sible, consistent with the furnishing of pro- 
 tection to life and property by the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 80. Wages. — A name, " wages," is given 
 to the share of the laborer to distinguish it 
 from the share of the land-owner and that 
 of the owner of the wealth employed in 
 production, and we will henceforth use that 
 name, meaning by "wages" the share of 
 the product of the labor employed in pro- 
 duction, which goes to the laborer as the 
 reward of his labor. 
 
 81. Capital. — It is also desirable to give 
 a separate name to that part of wealth 
 which is employed in producing more 
 wealth, including in that idea not only 
 what is actually employed at any given 
 moment of time, but also the "whole of a 
 man's stock of wealth which he expects to 
 afford him a revenue,"* and to this the 
 term "capital n is applied, and the owners of 
 capital are termed "capitalists." The share 
 of the products of labor which the capitalist 
 
 * Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations," Book II., Chap. I. 
 
PRIM/SR OF MORALS. 61 
 
 receives for the aid to production rendered 
 by his capital is called " interest." The 
 capitalist is said also to earn " profit." An 
 analysis of profit will be hereafter made. 
 
 82. The share of the product of labor 
 which goes to the appropriator of the land 
 is termed "rent." The word "rent" is used 
 in ordinary discourse to include much more 
 than this; as, for instance, the payment 
 made for the use of a house and the land 
 on which it is built, the payment made for 
 the use of a farm with its buildings and 
 improvements, etc.; but such payments are 
 compounded of rent properly so called, of 
 interest upon the capital employed in build- 
 ing and improving, and of compensation 
 for risk. Wherever in this work the term 
 "rent" is used, the meaning will be limited 
 to that share of the product of labor which 
 goes to the owner of land or other natural 
 agent, for permission to apply labor upon 
 it, exclusive of the payment made for the 
 use of buildings and other improvements 
 and for risk. 
 
 83. It was . truly said by Adam Smith 
 that "the produce of labor constitutes the 
 
 OF THE 
 
62 PRIMER OF MORA LS. 
 
 natural recompense or wages of labor"; 
 but most laborers are unable or unwilling 
 to wait till the product of their labor has 
 acquired a form in which it can supply the 
 present needs of the laborer and of his 
 family, and they generally desire to sell 
 their labor or to transfer their right to the 
 product of their labor for an order on the 
 stock of wealth possessed by any member 
 of society who may be willing to sell some- 
 thing which the laborer needs to buy. 
 
 84. The purchaser of the right to the 
 product of labor takes upon himself the 
 entire risk of failure of crops, fall in prices, 
 and the like, for which he must be com- 
 pensated by such a share of the product as 
 will on the average not only repay what he 
 has paid, but also insure him against loss 
 from such failure. In all cases the pur- 
 chaser of labor desires to secure the greatest 
 amount of future products in return for his 
 present outlay; hence he will seek for the 
 industrious and skillful laborer in pref- 
 erence to the slothful or ignorant, the 
 honest to the dishonest, the careful, trust- 
 worthy, and sober to the careless, un- 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 63 
 
 punctual, and drunken. The unhappy 
 beings who are subject to the infirmities 
 of dishonesty, idleness, ignorance, careless- 
 ness, or drunkenness, either will get no em- 
 ployment, or, at best, must sell their labor 
 at a lower rate than their better-disposed 
 and better-trained comrades, because the 
 capitalist can only afford to purchase the 
 labor of the former at a rate of wages such 
 as shall enable him to employ more than 
 ordinarily efficient foremen to prevent or 
 correct the mischiefs which the misconduct 
 of the ill-trained laborers might otherwise 
 occasion. 
 
 He must also himself be compensated 
 for the additional anxiety and labor the 
 employment of such workmen causes him 
 as well as the risk incurred, amounting 
 to an actual percentage of loss, which the 
 diligence of himself and superintendents 
 will fail to avert. 
 
 85. The application of these principles 
 to daily life is not difficult. Clearly, they 
 who do more work must, when paid by the 
 piece, receive more wages; when paid by 
 the day, those who work the greater num- 
 
64 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 ber of days will receive more in a year than 
 they who work fewer. The former, be- 
 coming known as reliable and punctual 
 workmen, and year by year acquiring 
 greater skill in consequence of uninter- 
 mitted labor, gain a character which causes 
 them to be sought after by capitalists, and 
 so insure to themselves more constant em- 
 ployment or a higher rate of wages, and 
 generally both combined. 
 
 86. Although the operation of these na- 
 tural laws may be accompanied with suf- 
 fering to the less fortunate laborers, it 
 nevertheless works to their advantage, and 
 particularly so to the young. Placed under 
 the watchful eyes of trustworthy over- 
 lookers, opportunity is given them to ac- 
 quire that skill and industry in which they 
 are deficient, while the difference between 
 their wages and that of the better con- 
 ducted workmen affords them an induce- 
 ment to grow out of bad habits into good 
 ones. 
 
 87. How Wages may be Increased. — Im- 
 provement, then, in the conduct of laborers 
 is the most powerful means by which the 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 65 
 
 productiveness of labor, and consequently its 
 remuneration, can be increased. 
 
 88. Wages Proportioned to Conduct — We 
 thus perceive that, other things being 
 equal, the wages earned by individual 
 laborers is proportioned to their conduct, fur- 
 nishing another instance of that harmony 
 of nature whose action, when uninterrupted 
 by man's ignorance, tends to encourage and 
 develop those qualities which most con- 
 duce to human well-being. 
 
 89. Some statistics of labor, its remuner- 
 ation and results, published by Mr. Brassey, 
 one of the most extensive payers of wages, 
 in many parts of the world, furnish evi- 
 dence of the truth of this law. 
 
 In " Work and Wages Practically Illus- 
 trated," the author shows that notwith- 
 standing the great and striking diversities 
 in the rates of wages in different com- 
 munities, the cost of a given amount of the 
 products of labor produced in any country 
 is nearly alike, whether it be produced 
 there by native or by foreign labor. As a 
 result, Mr. Brassey found that in Italy, 
 Moldavia, or in India, any piece of engi- 
 
66 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 neering work could be constructed as 
 cheaply by English as by native laborers 
 — that is to say, that notwithstanding the 
 higher rates of wages paid to British labor- 
 ers, the greater efficiency of their labor 
 rendered it equally profitable to employ 
 them as to employ the natives. 
 
 90. The necessary dependence of wages 
 upon the productiveness of labor has been 
 also demonstrated by Mr. Henry George, 
 in his remarkable work, " Progress and 
 Poverty," with a wealth of demonstra- 
 tion that leaves nothing further to be 
 said. 
 
 It is well also to notice the fact to which 
 Mr. Greorge calls attention, that in countries 
 where wages are high, profits are generally 
 large, and where wages are low, profits are 
 small. 
 
 Since, then, as seen above, inferior laborers 
 have to provide subsistence for themselves 
 and those dependent upon them out of 
 their wages no less than the more efficient 
 laborer, it is obvious how greatly an 
 increase in the efficiency of the laborers 
 must promote their well-being. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 67 
 
 91. Circumstances Affecting Wages in 
 Different Trades. — There are yet other con- 
 siderations which affect the rates of wages 
 of different occupations. Some trades are 
 easy, others severe, some healthful, others 
 unhealthful, some safe, others dangerous, 
 some constant, others intermittent, some 
 attractive, and others repulsive. The pref- 
 erence which all laborers will give to the 
 easy, healthful, safe, constant, and attractive 
 labor can only be overcome by the offer 
 of higher wages in the severe, unhealthful, 
 dangerous, intermittent, or repulsive. 
 
 92. In this favored country there are 
 few trades in which diligence and economy 
 will not secure a comfortable living to the 
 workman, and at the least a tolerable com- 
 petence for old age; hence the choice of 
 employment to which one about to com- 
 mence his industrial career should be 
 directed may generally be safely left to be 
 determined by his tastes and inclinations. 
 
 " But the selection of an employer is of 
 great importance, and not more so on ac- 
 count of the influence of the employer him- 
 self than of the workmen he employs; for 
 
68 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 as these will be probably for years the 
 companion of the new-comer, the selection 
 of an employer who endeavors to employ 
 the best workmen should be the first 
 thought of the parent or guardian whose 
 child or ward is about entering on his 
 industrial career. 
 
 " Should circumstances arise whereby a 
 good workman happens to be thrown into 
 the employment of a bad employer, the 
 latter is not bound to stay beyond the term 
 of service contracted for, and his leaving 
 will be wise, provided he has a reasonable 
 prospect of bettering his condition. This 
 he may be enabled to do either by being 
 invited by other employers, or by seeking 
 them, or he may resolve to employ himself. 
 
 "To be invited by other employers, he 
 must have established a reputation for use- 
 fulness ; to be successful in seeking better 
 employment, he must be able to offer evi- 
 dence of work previously performed; while 
 to employ himself he must have acquired 
 the qualifications necessary for the success- 
 ful administration of capital, and must have 
 saved from his past earnings the capital 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 69 
 
 necessary for the subsistence of himself 
 and the workmen he employs until the 
 product of that labor can be realized in 
 the market."* 
 
 It is thus clear that the workmen who 
 suffer from insufficiency of wages should 
 look to their own deficiency in one or more 
 of the industrial virtues as the cause, and 
 to the correction of such defects as the 
 efficient means for attaining good wages. 
 
 93. Especially is this true in countries so 
 happily situated as our own. However un- 
 satisfactory may be the present condition 
 of any working man, a short period of pro- 
 bation and labor under the guidance of a 
 skilled farmer will suffice for him to acquire 
 the knowledge and skill necessary for suc- 
 cessfully farming a few acres of the unoc- 
 cupied fertile land of this continent, and he 
 can then betake himself to a calling where 
 the return for his labor and capital will, 
 if combined with thrift, soon place him in 
 a position of secure and permanent well- 
 being. 
 
 * Ellis's "Phenomena of Social Life." 
 
70 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 75. 
 
 How may the wealthless obtain a share of wealth to 
 supply their immediate wants? 
 
 76. 
 
 Who have the enjoyment of the wealth employed in the 
 purchase of the right to the future product of labor? 
 
 78. 
 
 Can the productiveness of labor be increased, and how ? 
 
 79. 
 
 What is the name given to the share of the product of 
 labor taken by the government? What is the laborers inter- 
 est with regard to the amount taken by government from the 
 product of labor? Among whom is the product of labor 
 divided ? 
 
 80. 
 Define wages. 
 
 81. 
 Define capital. 
 
 82. 
 
 Define rent. Give its proper meaning, and state the mean- 
 ing in which it is often used. 
 
 83. 
 
 Who was Adam Smith ? What did he call the natural 
 recompense or wages of labor ? 
 
 84. 
 
 What kind of laborers will the purchaser of labor seek, 
 and why ? 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 71 
 
 85. 
 
 Among individual sellers of labor, who will get the best 
 
 wages, and why ? 
 
 86. 
 
 Does the getting of high wages by the best laborers work 
 
 any injury to inferior laborers ? Give the reasons for your 
 
 answer. 
 
 87. 
 
 What aie the best means for increasing wages t 
 
 88. 
 
 To what is wages proportioned ? 
 
 89. 
 
 What has been found to be the fact as to the effective- 
 ness of labor and its reward with regard to the employment 
 of different races of laborers ? 
 
 91. 
 
 Name some of the circumstances affecting the wages paid 
 
 in different trades. _ _ 
 
 92. 
 
 What should determine in this country the selection of a 
 
 trade and of an employer, in the case of young persons about 
 
 to learn a trade ? How may a good workman free himself 
 
 from a bad employer? To what should workmen look as the 
 
 cause of insufficiency in their wages ? and how should they 
 
 set about obtaining good wages ? 
 
 93. 
 
 What conditions exist in the United States more favor- 
 able to the happiness of the workingman than in other 
 countries? Can an industrious man in the United States do 
 anything to secure his permanent well-being which his fellow- 
 workmen in other countries cannot do? 
 
 Note. — The attention of the teacher is called to the ex- 
 tended use of the word * * conduct " in sections 87 and 88, as 
 including the results of physical, mental, and moral qualifi- 
 cations. 
 
72 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Profit — Its Uncertainty — Analysis of Profit — 
 Rates how Determined. 
 
 94. Profit — The owner of wealth is in- 
 duced to employ his wealth as capital, in 
 the hope of thereby procuring an increase 
 to his stock. 
 
 The laborer, when he takes some of the 
 savings of his past labor and exchanges it, 
 say for a spade, is a capitalist to that ex- 
 tent, and makes the conversion in the 
 expectation that he will thereby be able to 
 earn more in the future; that the spade 
 will add to the productiveness of his future 
 labor. The farmer who purchases a plow, 
 a harrow, a reaping or thrashing machine, 
 expects that the wealth thus applied to the 
 purpose of production will, before the im- 
 plement be worn out, be returned to him, 
 with an increase. The purchaser of labor 
 expects that the products of the labor, the 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 73 
 
 right to which he has purchased, will re- 
 place to him the wealth paid for it, with 
 an increase. The increase thus expected 
 by the capitalist, whether upon his outlay 
 for a spade, buildings, machinery, or wages, 
 is, wJim realized, termed "profit"; it is the 
 hope of profit which induces the owner of 
 wealth to employ it in production. But 
 this hope may not be realized. The wages 
 of the laborer are in hand and certain, but 
 the profit of the employer is in the future 
 and uncertain. Crops sometimes fail, cat- 
 tle may perish, fires destroy, or mistakes 
 may sweep away the whole or a great part 
 of the anticipated product of the labor for 
 which present wealth has been expended. 
 The average of profit must therefore be 
 sufficient to counterbalance these risks, or 
 wealth will cease to be converted into cap- 
 ital. It must also give to the capitalist, 
 as administrator, a remuneration equal to 
 what he could earn by selling his labor. 
 
 95. Analysis of Profit. — Profit, then, may 
 be resolved into three elements: 
 
 1. Remuneration for the skill and labor 
 of the capitalist as administrator; 
 
74 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 2. Benmneration for the risk of loss he 
 incurs as owner of the capital, or insur- 
 ance; 
 
 3. Eemuneration for the use of his cap- 
 ital, to which last the name of " interest " 
 has been applied. 
 
 96. If, now, any particular calling offered, 
 to those engaged in it, a larger profit, in 
 proportion to the skill and labor necessary 
 for its prosecution, to its attractiveness, 
 and to the risks attending it, than other 
 callings, other capitalists would seek to 
 embark their capital in it, or those engaged 
 in it would continually increase their cap- 
 ital, until the rate of profit were reduced 
 to something approaching uniformity. 
 
 97. Qualifications of a Capitalist — The 
 most important qualification for a success- 
 ful capitalist will be a combination of 
 economy with an administrative capacity, 
 such as shall enable him to direct the labor 
 he purchases so as to yield the largest 
 profit; to select the most efficient laborers, 
 and attract them to his service by offering 
 them the largest wages. 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 75 
 
 98. Of the profit he makes through his 
 judicious direction of the labor he has pur- 
 chased, his economy teaches him to save 
 all he can, so that he may be able to earn 
 a further profit, by adding it to his former 
 capital, and employing the total as capital, 
 by fresh purchases of labor. Punctual and 
 trustworthy in fulfilling his own engage- 
 ments, he possesses judgment to intrust 
 only to punctual and trustworthy custom- 
 ers and agents the wealth he administers. 
 He who possesses less discrimination of 
 character, either in the selection of laborers 
 and the wages he pays, or in the direction 
 he gives to their labor, or in the choice 
 of his customers and agents, or is himself 
 wanting in economy or trustworthiness, 
 receives a smaller return upon the labor 
 he directs, or is less saving of it when 
 obtained. By such a man the inducement 
 to employ wealth as capital is diminished, 
 and if his incapacity as an administrator 
 of capital is so great as to cause the loss 
 of the capital he administers, he causes an 
 industrial disturbance whereby laborers are 
 apt to be deprived of the opportunity to sell 
 
76 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 their labor — :u other words, laborers are 
 thrown out of employment. Thus again 
 loss to the capitalist tends to impose loss 
 and suffering on the laborer, and while it 
 is the interest of the employer to render 
 his work as attractive as possible to the 
 employed, it is the interest of the latter 
 to make his labor as productive as possible 
 to his employer as the surest means of ex- 
 tending the market for the one commodity 
 he seeks to sell — his labor. 
 
 99. "When to this consideration is added 
 the strengthening of those good habits in 
 the laborer, on which we have seen his 
 wages so much depends, as well as the 
 earning of a character for possessing them, 
 the importance to the laborer of render- 
 ing his labor as productive as possible 
 cannot be overestimated. Hence the in- 
 terests of the capitalist and of the laborer 
 are coincident. 
 
 100. We sometimes hear capital spoken 
 of as the enemy of labor. "We now see that 
 it is its best friend. Capital in the hands 
 of the capitalist is far more useful to 
 the laborer than to its owner. The latter 
 
PRIMER Oir MORALS. 77 
 
 enjoys the possible and probable, but by 
 no means certain, profit in the future, the 
 laborers have the present use of the entire 
 capital employed in the purchase of labor; 
 while to the owner his capital is of use 
 only as a provision against future need, 
 to the laborer it furnishes the means of 
 present subsistence, without which, he and 
 those dear to him might perish for want. 
 101. In our analysis of profits, section 
 95, we said that it consists : 
 
 1. Of remuneration for the skill and 
 labor of the capitalist as administrator, 
 i. e., of wages, and its amount is therefore 
 governed by the same principles as those 
 which determine the rates of wages gen- 
 erally; 
 
 2. Of remuneration for the risk of loss, 
 an element which is very small among 
 those who sell their labor, and has there- 
 fore very little effect upon wages; and ; 
 
 3. Of remuneration for the use of his 
 capital, that is, interest. 
 
 This last represents the reward which 
 those whose labor produced the capital 
 would receive through the natural increase, 
 
78 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 had they not preferred to dispose of their 
 rights thereto for present enjoyment; and 
 other things equal, the amount of interest 
 must, like wages, vary with the productive- 
 ness of labor. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 94. 
 
 What induces the owner of wealth to employ it as capital? 
 What is profit? When is a laborer also a capitalist? la 
 profit certain ? Prove your answer. 
 
 95. 
 
 Analyze profit. 
 
 96. 
 
 What is the tendency of the rate of profit in different 
 trades ? 
 
 97. 
 
 Name some of the qualifications of a successful capitalist. 
 
 98. 
 
 Who, if any one, is benefited besides the capitalist by the 
 profit he realizes ? Prove your answer. 
 
 99. 
 
 Are the interests of the capitalist and the laborer antag- 
 onistic or coincident? Prove your answer. 
 
 100. 
 
 What is labor*s best friend, and why ? 
 
 101. 
 
 How is the remuneration for the skill of the capitalist as 
 administrator determined ? With what does the average rate 
 of interest vary, leaving risk of loss out of consideration J 
 
OP TRB 
 
 "CTNIVEHSIT' 
 PRIMER OF MORALS, 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 102. As the prudent merchant at stated 
 intervals takes stock of his possessions, so 
 let us now sum up what the preceding les- 
 sons have taught us. 
 
 103. We have learned that the success 
 and happiness of each individual depends 
 upon his own efforts and conduct, and that 
 he should look upon each instance of fail- 
 ure on his part as a consequence of some 
 error in judgment or conduct of his own. 
 Happy, indeed, for him that this is so. His 
 own conduct he will be able to control in 
 the future, and so prevent a recurrence of 
 like failure. Were failure or success de- 
 pendent, not on one's own conduct, but 
 upon that of others, miserable, indeed, 
 would be the lot of man. 
 
 104. Happily, the harmonies of social life 
 render individual success dependent on the 
 
80 PRIM El! OF MORALS. 
 
 services rendered by the individual to so- 
 ciety at the same time that they leave him 
 master of his own future. Occasional, and 
 sometimes dazzling, instances are met with 
 of success which has seemed to violate the 
 laws of conduct we have evolved. Occa- 
 sionally we find crime meeting not merely 
 with temporary success, but crowned with 
 a false glory, calculated to tempt the weak 
 and to subvert all notions of right and 
 wrong. Occasionally, too, we find instances 
 of heroism and virtue overwhelmed with 
 misfortune. 
 
 But these instances of criminal success, 
 or of good men suffering unmerited misfor- 
 tune, need have no effect to weaken our 
 confidence in the rules of conduct herein 
 established. The causes of such success or 
 of such misfortnne will always be easily 
 discovered in the ignorance or lack of hon- 
 esty prevailing among the people in whose 
 midst they occur. 
 
 In our own country, when we trace the 
 career of these vicious men, we find their 
 successes, even the most dazzling, to be but 
 ephemeral, 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 81 
 
 Pursuing their evil courses the more per- 
 sistently for their success, sooner or later 
 detection and punishment fall upon them; 
 while the continual dread of detection has, 
 of itself, been a heavy punishment from 
 which they could never set themselves free. 
 
 105. It will now be a useful exercise to 
 try and determine some rule or canon by 
 which to recognize good and evil, some 
 measure by which to determine the charac- 
 ter of all human acts and conduct. Such a 
 rule can readily be determined by a refer- 
 ence to what has been already learned. 
 
 106. Why did we find it to be a good 
 thing that men should be honest and truth- 
 ful? Why industrious, saving, skillful, 
 sober, obliging, and well-mannered? It 
 was because these qualities were found to 
 promote the happiness of all, and partic- 
 ularly of the individual practicing these 
 virtues. 
 
 For the opposite reason, we learned it 
 would be evil for men to be idle, to lie, 
 to steal, to cheat, to use false weights and 
 measures, to violate engagements, to live 
 beyond one's means, or even up to them. 
 
82 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 107. We found it to be good conduct 
 to sell one's labor, and having sold it, to 
 render it as productive as possible to the 
 purchaser. Good, also, to purchase labor, 
 and having purchased it, to direct it to 
 the best advantage, and punctually to pay 
 the price of its hire. We found it to be 
 good conduct to administer capital success- 
 fully, to provide good teaching and train- 
 ing for the young, and exceedingly bad 
 conduct to neglect to make such provision. 
 
 108. So far as we are able to judge from 
 the accounts given us in books of history, 
 the condition of the world into which the 
 children of to-day have been born is far 
 to be preferred to what that condition was 
 five hundred, two hundred, or even fifty 
 years ago. 
 
 The buildings, roads, docks, canals, har- 
 bors, ships, and telegraphs, which minister 
 so wonderfully to our comforts, are the 
 results of a large prevalence of the con- 
 duct we have called good. By like con- 
 duct, these and additional comforts will be 
 preserved and secured for future enjoy- 
 ment; while bad conduct injures and de- 
 
PRIMER OF MORALS. 83 
 
 stroys wJiat exists, and hinders the pro- 
 duction of more. 
 
 109. We can now see clearly the rule or 
 canon by which to determine the character 
 of conduct, and what is good and evil. 
 That is good which on a balance of all its 
 consequences tends to promote human hap- 
 piness; and that is evil which on a like 
 consideration is found to tend to diminish 
 it; and the goodness or badness of con- 
 duct must be tested by its tendency to 
 produce consequences favorable or unfa- 
 vorable to human happiness. 
 
 REVIEW QUESTIONS. 
 
 103. 
 
 What are the lessons chiefly taught in the foregoing 
 pages? On what do success and happiness or failure and 
 discomfort mainly depend? Is it well or not that such 
 should be the case, and why? 
 
 104. 
 
 What should we think of cases in which success seems 
 to violate the laws of conduct we have evolved ? 
 
 105. 
 
 Why did we agree that it was a good thing to be 
 honest? Truthful? Industrious? Saving? Skillful? Sober? 
 Obliging? And why is it bad to be the reverse of these? 
 
84 PRIMER OF MORALS. 
 
 107, 
 
 What is exceedingly bad conduct on the part of elders 
 to the young? 
 
 108. 
 
 Have we any means of comparing the condition of 
 children to-day with that of children in past times? What 
 are those means ? and what do they' teach us ? Of what 
 kind of conduct are the buildings, roads, docks, canals, 
 and the like, now in existence, the results? 
 
 109. 
 
 Give a rule for determining the character of conduct. 
 
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 Swinton's English Literature, - 2.00 
 
 Jones Brothers' Publications, 
 
 Retail. 
 
 Milne's First Lessons, - - $0.30 
 
 Milne's Elementary Arithmetic, - .50 
 
 Milne's Practical Arithmetic, - .70 
 
 Milne's Algebra, - - - - 1.00 
 
 Pvidpath's History of the United States, 1.00 
 
 Forbriger's Drawing Tablets, No. 1, - - .15 
 
 Forbriger's Drawing Tablets, Nos. 2 and 3, .20 
 
 Forbriger's Drawing Tablets, Xos. 5, C> and 7, .30 
 
 Smith's Music Reader, - . .50 
 
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 721 Market Street, 
 
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YA 07723 
 
 
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