ii

PREFACE.

lusion which has formerly misled, to trace
the process of error, to mark the particular
point where inquiry departed from the right
path, or where the unperceived fallacy, which
has vitiated a train of reasoning, first insinuated
itself into the argument. The science cannot
yet be exhibited as a regular and perfect
structure. The rubbish must be removed, the
ground cleared, the scaffolding taken down,
and all unnecessary and cumbrous appendages
must be discarded, before the building can rise
upon the eye in that simple beauty in which it
is destined hereafter to appear.
The writer, on whose doctrines the following
treatise principally animadverts, is generally
regarded as the ablest economist of his day.
It has been unfortunate, perhaps, for Mr. Ricardo’s
 ultimate reputation, and certainly for
the science which he cultivated, that his admirers
 have extolled him beyond the sobriety