and the
public generally, they proceed to condemn the science of wealth.

But these complainers misunderstand the purpose of a science like
political economy. They do not see that in learning we must do one thing
at a time. We cannot learn the social sciences all at the same time. No
one objects to astronomy that it treats only of the stars, or to
mathematics that it treats only of numbers and quantities. It would be a
very curious Science Primer which should treat of astronomy, geology,
chemistry, physics, physiology, &c., all at once. There must be many
physical sciences, and there must be also many social sciences, and each
of these sciences must treat of its own proper subject, and not of
things in general.

#2. Mistakes about Political Economy.# A great many mistakes are made
about the science we are going to consider by people who ought to know
better. These mistakes often arise from people thinking that they
understand all about political economy without studying it. No ordinary
person of sense ventures to contradict a chemist about chemistry, or an
astronomer about eclipses, or even a geologist about rocks and fossils.
But everybody has his opinion one way or another about bad trade, or the
effect of high wages, or the harm of being underbid by cheap labour, or
any one of hundreds of questions of social importance. It does not occur
to such people that these matters are really more difficult to
understand than chemistry, or astronomy, or geology, and that a lifetime
of study is not sufficient to enable us to speak confidently about
them. Yet, they who have never studied political economy at all, are
usually the most confident.

The fact is that, just as physical science was formerly hated, so now
there is a kind of ignorant dislike and impatience of political economy.
People wish to follow their own impulses and prejudices, and are vexed
when told that they are doing just what will have the opposite effect to
that which they intend. Take the case of #so-called charity#. There are
many good-hearted people who think that it is virtuous to give alms to
poor people who ask for them, without considering the effect produced
upon the people. They see the pleasure of the beggar on getting the
alms, but they do not see the after effects, namely, that beggars become
more numerous than before. Much of the poverty and crime which now exist
have been caused by mistaken charity in past times, which has caused a
large part