Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/114

 &c. Prometheus sets to work, and from his first day, the first day of the second creation, the product of Prometheus, that is to say his wealth, his well-being, is equal to ten. The second day Prometheus divides his labor, and his product becomes equal to a hundred. The third day and every following day, Prometheus invents machines, discovers new utilities in his body, new forces in nature At each step that his industry takes the amount of his production increases, and denotes to him an increase of felicity. And finally, since, for him, to consume is to produce, it is clear that each day's consumption, absorbing only the product of yesterday, leaves a surplus product for the day after."

This Prometheus of M. Proudhon is a droll sort of fellow, as feeble in logic as in political economy. so far as Prometheus only informs us of the division of labor, the application of machinery, the exploitation of natural forces and scientific power, multiplying the productive forces of men and giving a surplus as compared with the product of isolated labor, this new Prometheus has only the misfortune of coming too late. But when Prometheus begins to speak of production and consumption he becomes really grotesque. To consume is, for him, to produce; he consumes next day that which he produced the day before—thus he has always a day in hand; this day in hand is his "surplus of labor." But in consuming the next day that which he produced the day before, it is necessary that on the first day, which had no yesterday, he should have worked two days, in order to afterwards have a day in hand. How did Prometheus gain this surplus on the first day, when there was neither division of labor, nor machinery, nor even any knowledge of physical forces except fire? Thus the question, in order to have been deferred to