58 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
equally a one-sided aspect, enable the social 
scientist to lay bare the ramified system of 
law inherent in the economical functioning 
of communities. 
At this point, despite the chance of con 
fusion, a new idea must be attached to the 
results of our analysis of demand by the 
marginal method. The term “ marginal ” is 
constantly employed with a meaning different 
from, though related to, that ascribed to it 
above. It is applied not merely to the 
final increment of a class of things but also 
to any particular thing in the class which is 
only just good enough to be used. When the 
second meaning is intended, it would save 
misapprehension if the expression “ marginal 
quality ” were used. Let me illustrate the 
distinction. If I pick twenty roses the 
twentieth is the marginal rose, and the addi 
tion made by the twentieth to the satisfaction 
derived by me from the roses is called the 
marginal utility of twenty roses to me at the 
time. Now the twenty roses are not equally 
perfect. The least perfect of the twenty, the 
one on the margin of being rejected, is also 
loosely designated the marginal rose, or, as we 
had better say, the rose of marginal quality. 
Similarly, of one hundred workmen employed 
on a job, any individual who is only just