Kviil 
PREFACE. 
stand the selection of words, and the mode of 
combining them into sentences, the former solu- 
tion is incorrect, for his language is uncom- 
monly precise and perspicuous, and the con- 
struction of his periods is simple and compact. 
The latter explication is, if possible, still more 
unfounded, there being an evident simplicity of 
aim and steady pursuit after truth in his writ- 
ings, such as are natural to a mind of any ori- 
ginality, and which exclude the idea that he 
indulged the contemptible ambition of per- 
plexing his readers. The defect had a deeper 
source, and 1s to be traced, as the following 
pages will show, to an original perplexity and 
confusion in some fundamental ideas, from 
which he was never able to extricate himself. 
Although Mr. Ricardo possessed remarkable lo- 
gical powers, he seems to have been less gifted 
with analytical subtilty; and hence his writings 
furnish an instance of what the observer of the