Chapter III: Wants of Man

[22] A mathematical law of frequent occurrence, but very little understood in Political Economy.

[23] One of the indirect objects of this work is to combat modern sentimental schools, who, in spite of facts, refuse to admit that suffering to any extent enters into the designs of Providence. As these schools are said to proceed from Rousseau, I must here cite to them a passage from their master: “The evil which we see is not absolute evil; and far from being directly antagonistic to the good, it concurs with it in the universal harmony.”

[24] The term ‹consumption› employed by English Economists, the French Economists translate by ‹consommation›.—«Translator.»