to practice than the ideal of justice, must not be misunderstood. The ideal of human welfare, of which economic welfare is a fundamental and seldom a disharmonious part, is not less high than the ideal of human justice. The first demands for mankind the highest good which the conditions of an imperfect world allow, and the second can demand no more. The appearance of disharmony between these two ideals for the most part disappears, when words are clearly defined and the effects of given causes coolly traced. PART II. CHAPTER I. THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE HISTORICAL METHOD IN THE STUDY OF ECONOMIC THEORY. §1. We may now pass on to a survey of the historical development of the theory of distribution. The so-called "historical method" is often misapplied, both in economics and elsewhere. Much laborious research into the economic facts of the past has no practical utility in the present, and, for most minds, little or no interest " for its own sake." The same is true where the economic opinions of the past are concerned. "The wrong opinions of dead men " are apt to be wearisome and Professor Pigou excites our sympathy when, being invited to review a tome on Theories of Value before Adam Smith, he complains that "these antiquarian researches have no great attractions for one who finds it difficult enough to read what is now thought on economic problems, without spending time in studying confessedly inadequate solutions that were offered cenuries ago." If it be asked whether a particular proposition in economics be true or false, it is no answer to reply that it was first propounded by Ricardo. Similarly, if it be asked whether a particular institution, judged by its present-day effects, be good or bad,-for example, the 1 Economic Journal, 1902. p. 374. |