they have been unable to discover in nature. I speak of the law of
consumption, which the majority of political economists may well be
reproached with having too much neglected.

Consumption is the _end_, the final cause of all the phenomena of
political economy, and, consequently, in it is found their final
solution.

No effect, whether favorable or unfavorable, can be vested permanently
in the producer. His advantages and disadvantages, derived from his
relations to nature and to society, both pass gradually from him; and
by an almost insensible tendency are absorbed and fused into the
community at large--the community considered as consumers. This is an
admirable law, alike in its cause and its effects; and he who shall
succeed in making it well understood, will have a right to say, "I
have not, in my passage through the world, forgotten to pay my tribute
to society."

Every circumstance which favors the work of production is of course
hailed with joy by the producer, for its _immediate effect_ is to
enable him to render greater services to the community, and to exact
from it a greater remuneration. Every circumstance which injures
production, must equally be the source of uneasiness to him; for its
_immediate effect_ is to diminish his services, and consequently his
remuneration. This is a fortunate and necessary law of nature. The
immediate good or evil of favorable or unfavorable circumstances must
fall upon the producer, in order to influence him invisibly to seek
the one and to avoid the other.

Again: when an inventor succeeds in his labor-saving machine, the