k and products.--Motives for leaving them
under personal control.--Extent of the private domain.
--Individuals might voluntarily extend it.--What is left
becomes the domain of the State.--Obligatory functions of
the State.--Optional functions of the State.

Let us now take into consideration, no longer the direct, but the
indirect interest of all. Instead of considering individuals let us
concern ourselves with their works. Let us regard human society as a
material and spiritual workshop, whose perfection consists in making
it as productive, economical, and as well furnished and managed as
possible. Even with this secondary and subordinate aim, the domain of
the State is scarcely to be less restricted: very few new functions are
to be attributed to it; nearly all the rest will be better fulfilled by
independent persons, or by natural or voluntary associations.--

Let us consider the man who works for his own benefit, the farmer,
the manufacturer, the merchant, and observe how attentive he is to his
business. This is because his interest and pride are involved. One side
his welfare and that of those around him is at stake, his capital, his
reputation, his social position and advancement; on the other side,
are poverty, ruin, social degradation, dependence, bankruptcy and the
alms-house. In the presence of this alternative he keeps close watch and
becomes industrious; he thinks of his business even when abed or at his
meals; he studies it, not from a distance, speculatively, in a general
way, but on the spot, practically, in detail, in all its bearings and
relationships, constantly calculating difficulties and resources, with
such sharp insight and special information that for any other person
to try to solve the daily problem which he solves, would be impossible,
because nobody could possess or estimate as he can the precise elements
which constitute it.--Compare with this unique devotion and these
peculiar qualifications the ordinary capacity and listless regularity of
a senior public official, even when expert and honest. He is sure of his
salary, provided he does his duty tolerably well, and this he does when
he is occupied during official hours. Let his papers be correct, in
conformity with regulations and custom, and nothing more is asked
of him; he need not tax his brain beyond that. If he conceives any
economical measure, or any improvement of his branch of the service, not
he, but the public,