CHAPTER lî 
DEMAND 
We all know that ordinarily the lower the 
price of a thing the larger is the quantity of 
the thing that can find purchasers. The 
economist tries to state precisely the truths* 
with their limitations, underlying this super 
ficial knowledge. It is usual in elementary 
works on economics to trace the relation 
between price and purchases to the relation 
between the utility of things and their 
supply ; but, before proceeding to bring out 
the exact connection between utility and the 
consumption of articles and services, we 
must make up our minds as to the implications 
with which the term “ utility " is to be 
invested in this work. 
The term “ utility ” used to have in 
economics a meaning far different from that 
which is customarily assigned to it to-day. 
In the mouths of the philosophers known as 
Utilitarians, the utility of a thing meant its 
power to excite pleasurable feeling which 
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