You are told that capital tyrannises over labour.  I do not deny that each one endeavours to draw the greatest possible advantage from his situation; but, in this sense, he realises only that which is possible.  Now, it is never more possible for capitals to tyrannise over labour, than when they are scarce; for then it is they who make the law—­it is they who regulate the rate of sale.  Never is this tyranny more impossible to them, than when they are abundant; for, in that case, it is labour which has the command.

Away, then, with the jealousies of classes, ill-will, unfounded hatreds, unjust suspicions.  These depraved passions injure those who nourish them in their hearts.  This is no declamatory morality; it is a chain of causes and effects, which is capable of being rigorously, mathematically demonstrated.  It is not the less sublime, in that it satisfies the intellect as well as the feelings.

I shall sum up this whole dissertation with these words:—­Workmen, labourers, “proletaires,” destitute and suffering classes, will you improve your condition?  You will not succeed by strife, insurrection, hatred, and error.  But there are three things which cannot perfect the entire community, without extending these benefits to yourselves; these things are—­peace, liberty, and security.

That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen

In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects.  Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause—­it is seen.  The others unfold in succession—­they are not seen:  it is well for us if they are foreseen.  Between a good and a bad economist this constitutes the whole difference—­the one takes account of the visible effect; the other takes account both of the effects which are seen and also of those which it is necessary to foresee.  Now this difference is enormous, for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favourable, the ultimate consequences are fatal, and the converse.  Hence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.

In fact, it is the same in the science of health, arts, and in that of morals.  If often happens, that the sweeter the first fruit of a habit is, the more bitter are the consequences.  Take, for example, debauchery, idleness, prodigality.  When, therefore, a man, absorbed in the effect which is seen, has not yet learned to discern those which are not seen, he gives way to fatal habits, not only by inclination, but by calculation.