outine than man, I reply
that this inconvenience is compensated by the fact that she is on the
whole more inclined to enthusiasm, and to be led by noble masculine
natures, who have the sense of the ideal, than by others (vide Chapter
V). Her great perseverance and courage are also inestimable qualities
for social work which aims at true progress.

=Necessity and Desire.=--In the work which I have already quoted,
Schwiedland points out the need for distinguishing between necessity
and desire, in political economy. In practice it is no doubt difficult
to always make an exact distinction between necessity and luxury. What
our ancestors considered as luxuries we now regard as necessities. Man
knows no limits in his desires; he is insatiable in his passion for
pleasure and change. Certain socialists, especially anarchists, make a
great mistake in proclaiming the right of man to satisfy all his
desires. This is a proclamation of corruption and degeneration. As it
is just to exact the right to satisfaction of the natural wants of
each, so is it unjust to sanction every desire and every appetite.

It is a question of distinguishing between good and useful wants and
evil desires. All wants which promote a healthy life, all instincts
which lead to social work, are good. All desires, which damage the
health and life of the individual or injure the rights and welfare of
society, are bad, and are the procreators of luxury, excessive
concupiscence, and often corruption. Between these two extremes there
are desires which are more or less indifferent, for example, that of
possessing objects of beauty.

Certain objects of human desire are harmful in themselves, such as the
use of alcoholic liquor and narcotics. Others are only harmful when
pushed to excess, such as good living, sexual pleasures, personal
adornment, etc. Among the things desired by man, sexual pleasure plays
a great part. Thus, when a pasha or a sultan provides himself with a
large number of women, this excess is harmful from the social point of
view, as it injures the rights of others. I have sufficiently dwelt on
this fact elsewhere. I wish only to indicate here, with Schwiedland,
how necessary it is to fix the limits between necessities and desires
from the point of view of political economy, however relative and
subjective these limits may be.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] "Le forme primitive nella evoluzione economia."

[12] "Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Wirtschaft