But you commence by _constraining_, by _preventing_, and
then you avail yourself of acts caused by prohibition to exclaim,
"See! practice justifies us!" You oppose our _theory_, indeed all
_theory_. But when you put a principle in antagonism with ours, do
you, by chance, fancy that you have formed no _theory_? No, no; erase
that from your plea. You form a theory as well as ourselves; but
between yours and ours there is this difference: our theory consists
merely in observing universal facts, universal sentiments, universal
calculations and proceedings, and further, in classifying them and
arranging them, in order to understand them better. It is so little
opposed to practice, that it is nothing but _practice explained_. We
observe the actions of men moved by the instinct of preservation and
of progress; and what they do freely, voluntarily, is precisely what
we call _political economy_, or the economy of society. We go on
repeating with out cessation: "Every man is _practically_ an
excellent economist, producing or exchanging, according as it is most
advantageous to him to exchange or to produce.
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