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
_immediate_ benefit of this success is received by him. This again is
necessary, to determine him to devote his attention to it.
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