Introductory Lectures on Political Economy: Delivered at Oxford, in Easter Term, 1831 |
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Common terms and phrases
advancement advantage amount ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN Aristotle arts attention called Catallactics causes character Cholesbury circumstances civilized common-sense conduct consequently course cultivation degree division of labour Economy Edinburgh Review effect employ employment England evil exchange exist experience fact favourable Goodwin Sands greater House of Lords human important improvement increase individuals inquiry instance Ireland Irish kind knowledge land landlords lay Tithe least Lecture less Mandans mankind means measure ment merely mind moral national wealth nature never nexion object observed occupy out-door relief parish perhaps persons Political Political-Economy poor Poor-Law population possess present principles probably produce proportion proposed Providence question racter reason religion remarked rent respect result RICHARD WHATELY rience savage Scripture sense society speaking subsistence supply supposed tend tendency thing thought tical tion Tithes tribes truth uncon vidual virtue whole wisdom workhouse writers
Popular passages
Page 182 - The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects too are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.
Page 43 - It is the great fallacy of Dr. Mandeville's book to represent every passion as wholly vicious, which is so in any degree, and in any direction.
Page 182 - His dexterity at his own particular trade seems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expence of his intellectual, social, and martial virtues. But in every improved and civilized society this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to prevent it.
Page 87 - Some, indeed, of the articles consumed might be stored up in reserve for a considerable time ; but many, including most articles of animal food and many of vegetable, are of the most perishable nature. As a deficient...
Page 232 - By a ( tendency' towards a certain result is sometimes meant, ' the existence of a cause which, if operating unimpeded, would produce that result.' In this sense it may be said with truth, that the earth, or any other body moving round a centre, has a tendency to fly off at a tangent ; i.
Page 35 - Christian duty to do good to our fellow-creatures, both in their spiritual and in their temporal concerns ; and if so, it must be also a duty to study to the best of our ability to understand in what their good consists, and how it is to be promoted. To represent therefore any branch of such study as inconsistent with Christianity is to make Christianity inconsistent with itself. He who should acknowledge himself bound to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and visit the sick...
Page 219 - ... read of is, the counteracting causes ; especially the wars which have been raging from time to time, to the destruction of capital, and the hindrance of improvement. Now, if a ship had performed a voyage of eight hundred leagues, and the register of it contained an account chiefly of the contrary winds and currents, and made little mention of favourable gales, we might well be at a loss to understand how she reached her destination ; and might even be led into the mistake of supposing that the...
Page 98 - That we have no reason to believe that any community ever did^ or ever can emerge, unassisted by external helps, from a state of utter barbarism, into anything that can be called civilization...
Page 91 - ... they in reality perform. They are merely occupied in gaining a fair livelihood. And in the pursuit of this object, without any comprehensive wisdom, or any need of it, they cooperate, unknowingly, in conducting a system which, we may safely say, no human wisdom directed to that end could have conducted so well : — the system by which this enormous population is fed from day to day.
Page 184 - Their parents can scarce afford to maintain them even in infancy. As soon as they are able to work, they must apply to some trade by which they can earn subsistence.