PREFACE. WHILE claiming as I do for the following pages that they have the merits (if merits they be) of being somewhat original, and to a certain extent amusing, I should wish it to be understood that it is not alone on one or both of those accounts that I send them forth to try their chances on the capricious waves of a critical world. The book has a higher aim than this. It has not been hurriedly composed, but is the result of much reading and thought. I come before the world a perfect stranger, and I come before the world to give publicity to my ideas on what the world is pleased to call "The Science of Political Economy." My ideas, for the most part, run a good deal at variance with the general run of the teachers, professors, and expounders of this so-called science; and this being the case, I can hardly expect anyone to give much attention to what I have to say. I have tried my best to treat what is often looked upon as a somewhat repulsive subject in a light and readable way, and if I should at times appear to indulge in more frivolity than my subject ought to admit, I can only cry 'peccavi.' My one and principal object throughout the whole book has been to shew that the word 'science,' as applied to the subject of Political Economy or the study of Wealth, is an entire misnomer. |