If to behold, or hear, all natural things In general gladness hail the blessed light- If these be joys, such joys the Morn is ever bringing.-ANON. We may fitly conclude with Milton's noble Hymn :- So cheer'd he his fair spouse, and she was cheer'd, From either eye, and wiped them with her hair; Flow'd from their lips in prose or numerous verse. To add more sweetness; and they thus began:- Thus wond'rous fair; thyself how wond'rous then! In these thy lowest works; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and pow'r divine. Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn ceaseless change His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow, Join voices, all ye living souls; ye birds, That, singing, up to heaven's gate ascend, Bear on your wings, and in your notes his praise. To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade, 133.-CO-OPERATION. E. G. WAKEFIELD. [THE following is extracted from a Note on the First Chapter of the First Book of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," published in an edition of that celebrated work which appeared in 1840. The author of this Note is well known as a political enonomist, whose plans of colonization have attracted more attention than is usually bestowed by statesmen upon what they term theory.] All improvements in the productive powers of labor, including division of employments, depend upon co-operation. Co-operation appears to be of two distinct kinds: first, such co-operation as takes place when several persons help each other in the same employment; secondly, such co-operation as takes place when several persons help each other in different employments. These may be termed simple co-operation and complex co-operation. It will be seen presently, that, until men help each other in simple operations, they cannot well help each other in operations which consist of several parts. The advantage of simple co-operation is illustrated by the case of two greyhounds running together, which, it is said, will kill more hares than four greyhounds running separately. In a vast number of simple operations performed by human exertion, it is quite obvious that two men working together will do more than four, or four times four men, each of whom should work alone: in the lifting of heavy weights, for example, in the felling of trees, in the sawing of timber, in the gathering of much hay or corn during a short period of fine weather, in draining a large extent of land during the short season when such a work may be properly conducted, in the pulling of ropes on board ship, in the rowing of large boats, in some mining operations, in the erection of a scaffolding for building, and in the breaking of stones for the repair of a road, so that the whole of the road shall always be kept in good order, in all these simple operations, and thousands more, it is absolutely necessary that many persons should work together, at the same time, in the same place, and in the same way. The savages of New Holland never help each other, even in the most simple operations; and their condition is hardly superior, in some respects it is inferior, to that of the wild animals which they now and then catch. Let any one imagine that the laborers of England should suddenly desist from helping each other in simple employments, and he will see at once the prodigious advantages of simple co-operation. In a countless number of employments the produce of labor is, up to a certain point, in proportion to such mutual assistance amongst the workmen. This is the first step in social improvement. A single person, working entirely by himself, either in hunting or in cultivating the earth, will not, it seems plain, obtain more food than what he requires for his own subsistence : several persons combining their labor, in the most simple operations, either of the chase or of agriculture, will obtain more food than they require,-they will obtain a surplus produce, which surplus produce may either be used as capital for the employment of more laborers, whereby the produce, in proportion to the hands at work, will be still further increased; or it may be given in exchange for some other kind of produce, provided always that some other body of workmen have combined their labor, and have so obtained, of some other kind of produce, more than they require for themselves. This possession of capital, and this power of exchanging, both of them being strictly dependent on the greater productiveness of labor arising from simple co-operation, constitute the second step in social improvement. One body of men having combined their labor to raise more food than they require, another body of men are induced to combine their labor for the purpose of producing more clothes than they require, and, with those surplus clothes, buying the surplus food of the other body of laborers; while if both bodies together have produced more food and clothes than they both require, both bodies obtain by means of exchange a proper capital for setting more laborers to work in their respective occupations. What is true of two bodies of men applies to any number of bodies, however great the difference in their occupations; and thus we perceive that the division of employments, the power of exchanging, and the possession of a capital as well, depend on the combination of labor in simple operations. The use of capital, and not the power but the act of exchanging, and, further, the division of employments, are still dependent on something else than simple co-operation; they are all dependent also upon arrangements, agreements, concert, or combination, of a general kind, in which the whole society takes a part, and which, for want of a better expression, may be termed complex co-ope ration. When a body of men raise more food than they want, and employ that surplus food as capital, paying it in wages to other laborers, those other laborers act in concert or combination with those capitalists it is only by means of concert, or co-operation, that the body who raise more food than they want can exchange with the body who raise more clothes than they want; and if the two bodies were separated, either by distance or disinclination, unless the two bodies should virtually form themselves into one, for the common object of raising enough food and clothes for the whole, they could not divide into two distinct parts the whole operation of producing a sufficient quantity of food and clothes. The division of pursuits, then, into the management of capital and such occupations as are carried on by muscular exertion, all division of employments, and all exchanges, result from co-operation amongst men; not only simple co-operation, which first raises capital and surplus produce for exchange, but also complex co-operation, which enables the rich man to employ his capital and the poor one to consume it, and which includes all the means, over and above sur |