Kviil

PREFACE.

stand the selection of words, and the mode of
combining them into sentences, the former solution
 is incorrect, for his language is uncommonly
 precise and perspicuous, and the construction
 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 writings,
 such as are natural to a mind of any originality,
 and which exclude the idea that he
indulged the contemptible ambition of perplexing
 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 logical

 powers, he seems to have been less gifted
with analytical subtilty; and hence his writings
furnish an instance of what the observer of the