t an _ethical_ quality, viz., by extolling it as the road to virtue and
happiness, whatever Scripture and holy men may say to the contrary.

He begins by predicting of Political Economy, that in the course of a very
few years, "it will rank in public estimation among the first of _moral_
sciences in interest and in utility." Then he explains most lucidly its
objects and duties, considered as "the science which teaches in what
wealth consists, by what agents it is produced, and according to what laws
it is distributed, and what are the institutions and customs by which
production may be facilitated and distribution regulated, so as to give
the largest possible amount of wealth to each individual." And he dwells
upon the interest which attaches to the inquiry, "whether England has run
her full career of wealth and improvement, but stands safe where she is,
or whether to remain stationary is impossible." After this he notices a
certain objection, which I shall set before you in his own words, as they
will furnish me with the illustration I propose.

This objection, he says, is, that, "as the pursuit of wealth is one of the
humblest of human occupations, far inferior to the pursuit of virtue, or
of knowledge, or even of reputation, and as the possession of wealth is
not necessarily joined,--perhaps it will be said, is not conducive,--to
happiness, a science, of which the only subject is wealth, cannot claim to
rank as the first, or nearly the first, of moral sciences."(9) Certainly,
to an enthusiast in behalf of any science whatever, the temptation is
great to meet an objection urged against its dignity and worth; however,
from the very form of it, such an objection cannot receive a satisfactory
answer by means of the science itself. It is an objection external to the
science, and reminds us of the truth of Lord Bacon's remark, "No perfect
discovery can be made upon a flat or a level; neither is it possible to
discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand
upon the level of the science, and ascend not to a higher science."(10)
The objection that Political Economy is inferior to the science of virtue,
or does not conduce to happiness, is an ethical or theological objection;
the question of its "rank" belongs to that Architectonic Science or
Philosophy, whatever it be, which is itself the arbiter of all truth, and
which disposes of the claims and arranges the places of all the
departments of knowledge w