possible, give the words such a meaning, that the propositions in which
people are accustomed to use them, shall as far as possible still be
true; and that the feelings habitually excited by them, shall be such as
the things to which we mean to appropriate them ought to excite.

We shall endeavour to unite these conditions in the result of the
following enquiry.

In whatever manner political economists may have settled the definition
of productive and unproductive labour or consumption, the consequences
which they have drawn from the definition are nearly the same. In
proportion to the amount of the productive labour and consumption of
a country, the country, they all allow, is enriched: in proportion to
the amount of the unproductive labour and consumption, the country is
impoverished. Productive expenditure they are accustomed to view as
a gain; unproductive expenditure, however useful, as a sacrifice.
Unproductive expenditure of what was destined to be expended
productively, they always characterise as a squandering of resources,
and call it profusion and prodigality. The productive expenditure of
that which might, without encroaching upon capital, be expended
unproductively, is called saving, economy, frugality. Want, misery, and
starvation, are described as the lot of a nation which annually employs
less and less of its labour and resources in production; growing comfort
and opulence as the result of an annual increase in the quantity of
wealth so employed.

Let us then examine what qualities in expenditure, and in the employment
of labour, are those from which all the consequences above mentioned
really flow.