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du salaire de travail; mais que ce dernier était compris dans une gravitation constante autour de ce point central; qu'il peut très bien monter pour un temps par suite de la hausse de la demande, mais que par l'accroissement des mariages et du nombre des travailleurs, il retombe toujours à ce point central de l'entretien nécessaire en usage chez le peuple (my italics). Marx goes further, and anticipates more recent 'historical' conceptions by introducing the idea of historical development:—

Like Ricardo, indeed, Lassalle and Marx frequently speak as if wages were 'fixed to the level of the bare necessaries of life': and, under the excitement of propaganda, their followers have preached the doctrine in its most unqualified form, much in the same way as the middle-class 'hangers-on and parasites' of the Ricardian school enunciated its doctrines 'without the conditions required to make them true.' But if in judging the Ricardian school we must go to its founder and interpret him 'generously,' it is clearly none the less desirable to do the same with scientific Socialism. It is surely possible to do this, and yet, like the present writer, to think no better of Socialism because it can fairly claim Ricardo's authority, and to think no worse of Ricardo because his teaching received so unexpected an application.