nomy does not pretend that
its conclusions are applicable. But there are also certain departments
of human affairs, in which the acquisition of wealth is the main and
acknowledged end. It is only of these that Political Economy takes
notice. The manner in which it necessarily proceeds is that of treating
the main and acknowledged end as if it were the sole end; which, of all
hypotheses equally simple, is the nearest to the truth. The political
economist inquires, what are the actions which would be produced by this
desire, if, within the departments in question, it were unimpeded by any
other. In this way a nearer approximation is obtained than would
otherwise be practicable, to the real order of human affairs in those
departments. This approximation is then to be corrected by making proper
allowance for the effects of any impulses of a different description,
which can be shown to interfere with the result in any particular case.
Only in a few of the most striking cases (such as the important one of
the principle of population) are these corrections interpolated into the
expositions of Political Economy itself; the strictness of purely
scientific arrangement being thereby somewhat departed from, for the
sake of practical utility. So far as it is known, or may be presumed,
that the conduct of mankind in the pursuit of wealth is under the
collateral influence of any other of the properties of our nature than
the desire of obtaining the greatest quantity of wealth with the least
labour and self-denial, the conclusions of Political Economy will so far
fail of being applicable to the explanation or prediction of real
events, until they are modified by a correct allowance for the degree of
influence exercised by the other cause.

Political Economy, then, may be defined as follows; and the definition
seems to be complete:--

"The science which traces the laws of such of the phenomena of society
as arise from the combined operations of mankind for the production of
wealth, in so far as those phenomena are not modified by the pursuit of
any other object."

But while this is a correct definition of Political Economy as a portion
of the field of science, the didactic writer on the subject will
naturally combine in his exposition, with the truths of the pure
science, as many of the practical modifications as will, in his
estimation, be most conducive to the usefulness of his work.

* * * * *

Th