268 
THE SOC/AL/SM OE TO-DAY. 
in order to live on the fruit of their toil \ the modern man 
attains the same result by paying them wages. 
Inasmuch as, at different stages of civilization, men have 
different wants, different motives, and different methods 
for the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, 
It follows that economic problems do not admit of these 
general and à priori solutions which economic science is called 
upon to supply, and which it has too often ventured to offer. 
The question must always be examined relatively to a given 
country, and thus it is necessary to summon statistics and 
history in aid of Political Economy, Hence the historical 
and realistic " method, as the Katheder-Socialisten call it, that 
is to say, a method founded on facts.* Similarly in politics, 
It IS generally admitted that the question is, not to discover ari 
ideal constitution suitable to man in the abstract, but the forms 
of government most in harmony with the traditions, the lights, 
the temperament, and the wants of this or that particular 
country. 
According to the Katheder-Socialistcn, it is a further mistake 
to allege, as Bastiat has done in his “ Harmonies of Political 
Economy,” that the general order results from the free play of 
personal interests, and that consequently the mere removal of 
all fetters will suffice to distribute welfare in proportion to the 
efforts of each individual. Personal interest leads men to 
iniquity and spoliation ; it must, therefore, be restrained and 
not given free scope : and this is the proper mission, in the 
first place, of morality, and then of the State, as the organ of 
justice. 
True, if men were perfect and desired only what is right, 
liberty of itself would secure the reign of order ; but, taking men 
as they are, their unrestrained self-interests lead to antagonism, 
not to harmony. I'he employer wishes for a fall in wages, the 
workman for a rise. The landowner endeavours to raise the 
rent, the farmer to get it reduced. Everywhere the strongest 
* Although in h ranee no new school of economics has been formed as 
1? h-ngland, and Italy, yet many writers adopt the historical and 
realistic method with a soundness of learning and a wealth of knowledge 
unsurpassed. It will suffice to mention the works of MM, Léonce de 
Lavergne, Wolowski, Victor Bonnet, and Paul Leroy-Beaulieu,