which
they cannot be separated. With regard to the unusual exertions made by
the labouring classes in periods of dearness, which produce the fall of
wages noticed in the evidence, they are most meritorious in the
individuals, and certainly favour the growth of capital. But no man of
humanity could wish to see them constant and unremitted. They are most
admirable as a temporary relief; but if they were constantly in action,
effects of a similar kind would result from them, as from the population
of a country being pushed to the very extreme limits of its food. There
would be no resources in a scarcity. I own I do not see, with pleasure,
the great extension of the practice of task work. To work really hard
during twelve or fourteen hours in the day, for any length of time, is
too much for a human being. Some intervals of ease are necessary to
health and happiness: and the occasional abuse of such intervals is no
valid argument against their use.]

[Footnote 18: I have hinted before, in a note, that profits may, without
impropriety, be called a surplus. But, whether surplus or not, they are
the most important source of wealth, as they are, beyond all question,
the main source of accumulation.]

[Footnote 19: Adam Smith notices the bad effects of high profits on the
habits of the capitalist. They may perhaps sometimes occasion
extravagance; but generally, I should say, that extravagant habits were
a more frequent cause of a scarcity of capital and high profits, than
high profits of extravagant habits.]

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