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    support * calls them into a life which is not only guilty ' and wretched to themselves , but injurious to others , by consuming the resources which were already too small . Such a case needs no comment . It shows us something of our responsibilities , and throws some light on the dispute whether an increase of population is or is not a good , and thus affords us a lesson as to the mode of using our influence .

    Enough has been said , ( though we seem but to have bordered upon the subject , ) to prove the utility of the study of political economy . Much , very much , might also be said of its beauty . Yes , its beauty ; for notwithstanding all that is said of its dryness and dulness , and its concentration in matter of fact , we see great attractiveness and much elegance in it . We might reason at some length upon the kindred arguments , that there is ever

    beauty in utility , and that there is no beauty which is not involved in matter of fact . But for such we have no space . We will only ask if there is no beauty in those discoveries by which the resources of nature are laid open , or in those processes by which her workings are overruled , to the benefit of man ? Is there no beauty in the simple and compound adaptation of means to ends , or in the creative processes of the human

    intellect , whose results are embodied b y the ingenuity of the human hands ? Is there no beauty in the principle of equalization which may be traced in workings more extensive , and with a finer alternation of uniformity and variety than in any region of research with which we are yet acquainted ? Does it not gratify

    the taste , as well as the understanding , to discern how deficiency is supplied , how superabundance subsides , how influences reciprocate , by the natural workings of the principles of social polity ? Is there no pleasure in marking the approach of Plenty to sow her blessings round the cottage of the labourer , and of civilization to adorn the abode of the artizan ? Is there not

    gratification for the finer faculties in tracing the advancement of a state from its infancy of wants and occupations to a period of prosperity , and thence through all its complications of interests , till the intricate organization works with all the regularity which distinguishes the processes of nature , while it is instinct with life , and ( if left free from empiricism ) would expand into a majestic growth of lasting grandeur ? Is there no pleasure in finding in present events a key to the past ; in unravelling the mysteries

    of policy and morals which perplexed the legislators and philosophers of former ages ? Above all , is there no beauty in the dealings of providence with man ? Can it be a dry and irksome task , to explore the plan by which communities are wrought upon to aphieve the great ends of human virtue and human enjoyment ? Social institutions are the grand instruments in the hands of Providence for the government of man 5 and no Jabours caa be more worthy of the disciple of Providence , than that of

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    On the Duty of Studying Political Economy . & %

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/31/