Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/58

429] persons should have work provided for them by the state (14). Their work might be looked upon as unproductive. Yet as crime is so largely due to idleness, the charge of the criminal classes—the menancemenace? [sic] of the state's security—would be reduced. All public works and internal improvements could be systematically carried out by using the labor of the unemployed classes. The educational system should be placed under the control of the state. Its whole aim should be directed to develop human energy and human skill. Education which confines itself to the study of unprofitable subjects is only a preparation for a merely speculative life, and is consequently worse than useless. The maintenance of industrious habits, even at an apparent cost, is insisted upon (48). If a certain industry becomes temporarily unprofitable it should not be discontinued. Those employed in it may by inaction lose their aptitude for labor. He cites with approval the case of Norwich where children were employed, and proposes that child-labor should be introduced into other parts of the country (276). Labor, then, is the corner-stone of the prosperity of the state. He does not forget to assure us, however, that a milleniummillennium [sic] may come when such forms of human activity may pass into something higher. In this happy time man can follow the end for which he was created—the cultivation of the powers of the intellect (488).

Now that we have treated of both factors, land and labor, which create national wealth, the next thing is to determine their relation to one another. An equation between land and labor is "the most