economy
presented its processes as final, and denied to philosophy and religion
the use of their direct and proper means of elevating humanity. Look at
the concurrent action of morality, properly so called, and of political
economy--the one inveighing against spoliation by an exposure of its
moral ugliness, the other bringing it into discredit in our judgment, by
showing its evil consequences. Concede that the triumph of the religious
moralist, when realized, is more beautiful, more consoling and more
radical; at the same time it is not easy to deny that the triumph of
economical science is more facile and more certain.

In a few lines, more valuable than many volumes, J.B. Say has already
remarked that there are two ways of removing the disorder introduced by
hypocrisy into an honorable family; to reform Tartuffe, or sharpen the
wits of Orgon. Moliere, that great painter of human life, seems
constantly to have had in view the second process as the more efficient.

Such is the case on the world's stage. Tell me what Caesar did, and I
will tell you what were the Romans of his day.

Tell me what modern diplomacy has accomplished, and I will describe the
moral condition of the nations.

We should not pay two milliards of taxes if we did not appoint those who
consume them to vote them.

We should not have so much trouble, difficulty and expense with the
African question if we were as well convinced that two and two make four
in political economy as in arithmetic.

M. Guizot would never have had occasion to say: "France is rich enough
to pay for her glory," if France had never conceived a false idea of
glory.

The same statesman never would have said: "_Liberty is too precious for
France to traffic in it_," if France had well understood that _liberty_
and a _large budget_ are incompatible.

Let religious morality then, if it can, touch the heart of the
Tartuffes, the Caesars, the conquerors of Algeria, the sinecurists, the
monopolists, etc. The mission of political economy is to enlighten their
dupes. Of these two processes, which is the more efficient aid to social
progress? I believe it is the second. I believe that humanity cannot
escape the necessity of first learning a _defensive morality_. I have
read, observed, and made diligent inquiry, and have been unable to find
any abuse, practiced to any considerable extent, that has perished by
voluntary renunciation on the part of those who profited by it. On the
co