Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/639

 REVIEWS 617 lead to a more than proportionate increase in the aggregate income of enjoyment of all kinds;' and places in a subordinate clause the con- dition: 'provided, firstly, an adequate supply of raw produce can be obtained without great difficulty.' The second proviso is not characteristic of the older economists: ' and [provided J, secondly, there is no such overcrowding as causes physical and moral vigour to be impaired by the want of fresh air and light, and of healthy and joyous recreation for the young.' This cheerful prospect should be compared with the view expressed in the last chapter of the volume that the new facilities of transport have much diminished for the present the influence which the Law of Diminishing Return exercises on production. Reconsidering the influence of progress, the author is led to introduce a new term, ' the standard of life' that standard of which the rise implies an ' increase of intelligence, and energy, and self-respect.' It is distinguished from that standard of comfort which operates only by limitation of popu- lation. A consideration of the standard of life leads on to the burning question of a limitation of the hours of labour. We commend the following carefully balanced conclusions to the dogmatists and enthu- siasts on both sides of the question. ' All this tends to show that a general reluction of the hours of labore' is likely to cause a little net material loss and much moral good: that it is not adapted for treat- ment by a rigid cast-iron system, and that the conditions of each class of trades must be studied separately.' ' Since adults, whose habits are already formed, are not likely to adapt themselves quickly to long hours of leisure, it would seem more conducive to the well-being of the nation as a whole to take measures for increasing the material means of a noble and refined life for all classes, and especially the poorest, than to secure a sudden and very great diminution of labour of those who are not now weighed down by their work .... It is the young whose faculties and activities are of the highest importance, both to the moralist and the economist.' The author of the Pri,ciples o.f Economics yields to no utopian Socialist in the ardent desire that the curse of poverty should be remedied. But he is slow to adopt the nostra in which ready writers deal. However anxious for the health of the body economic, he does not rush for the 'potent medicines of the charlatan.' Before adopting the violent constriction recommended by th quack bonesetter, the skilful anatomist con- siders what strains will be transmitted through the whole frame. He desires with the desire of an enthusiast that the opportunity of a life worthy of man should be obtained by all; he deliberates upon the means to that supreme end with the cautious sagacity of an economist whose work is probably freer from mistake than any other equally extensive investigation of the most bewildering of the sciences. F. Y. EDGEWORTH