n gentleman's account of his childhood and of his
domestic life possesses no charm for them; and even men of education
would sometimes start to be reminded that his "_noctes coenaeque Deum!_"
meant supping with his merry slaves on beans and bacon. Will you allow
me, on this general question of liberty and slavery, to refer your
correspondents to a paper of mine touching closely upon it, the leader
in the _Art-Journal_ for July last? and to ask them also to meditate a
little over the two beautiful epitaphs on Epictetus and Zosima, quoted
in the last paper of the _Idler_?

"I, Epictetus, was a slave; and sick in body, and wretched
in poverty; and beloved by the gods."

"Zosima, who while she lived was a slave only in her body,
has now found deliverance for that also."

How might we, over many an "independent" Englishman, reverse this last
legend, and write--

"This man, who while he lived was free only in his body, has
now found captivity for that also."

I will not pass without notice--for it bears also on wide
interests--your correspondent's question, how my principles differ from
the ordinary economist's view of supply and demand. Simply in that the
economy I have taught, in opposition to the popular view, is the science
which not merely ascertains the relations of existing demand and supply,
but determines what _ought_ to be demanded and what _can_ be supplied. A
child demands the moon, and, the supply not being in this case equal to
the demand, is wisely accommodated with a rattle; a footpad demands your
purse, and is supplied according to the less or more rational economy of
the State, with that or a halter; a foolish nation, not able to get into
its head that free trade does indeed mean the removal of taxation from
its imports, but not of supervision from them, demands unlimited foreign
beef, and is supplied with the cattle murrain and the like. There may be
all manner of demands, all manner of supplies. The true political
economist regulates these; the false political economist leaves them to
be regulated by (not Divine) Providence. For, indeed, the largest final
demand anywhere reported of, is that of hell; and the supply of it (by
the broad gauge line) would be very nearly equal to the demand at this
day, unless there were here and there a swineherd or two who could keep
his pigs out of sight of the lake.

Thus in this business of servants everything depends on what sort of
s