THE INDUSTRIAL HIERARCHY. 329 The Practical classes. conceptions which must direct the universal action of human reason; whereas the other is concerned only with the faculties of expression, which must ever hold a secondary place. As for the other leading class, the active or practical, which comprehends the vast majority, its more complete and marked development has already settled the point of its divisions; so that, in regard to them, the theory has only to rationalize the distinctions sanctioned by spontaneous usage. Industrial action is divided into production and transmission of products; the second of which is obviously superior to the first in regard to the abstractness of the work and the generality of the relations. Further division seems to be indicated according as production relates to the mere formation of materials or their working. up; and as the transmission is of the products themselves, or of their representative signs, the generality being greater in the second particulars than in the first. Thus we find the industrial hierarchy formed, the bankers being in the first rank; then the merchants; then the manufacturers; and finally the agriculturists; the labours of the latter being more concrete, and their relations more special, than those of the other three classes. It would be out of place to proceed here to further subdivisions. They will be determined by the same principle when the progress of reorganization is sufficiently advanced; and I may observe that when that time comes the most concrete producers, the labourers, whose collisions with their employers are now the most dangerous feature of our industrial state, will be convinced that the position of the capitalist is owing, not to any abuse of strength or wealth, but to the more abstract and general character of his function. The action and responsibility of the operative are less extensive than those of the employer; and the subordination of the one to the other is therefore as little arbitrary and mutable as any other social gradation. Privileges and When the gradation is once established, it will be preserved from question and confusion, compensations. not only by the clearness of its principle, but by the consciousness in each order that its own subordina tion to the one above it is the condition of its superiority to those below it; and the lowest of all is not without its own special privileges. The abuses attending all inequality will be restrained, not only by the fundamental education common to all, but by the more extended and severe moral obligations which press upon members of society, in proportion to the generality of their functions. Again, in proportion as social occupations are particular and concrete, their utility is direct, incontestable, and assured, and the existence of the workers is more independent, and their responsibility more restricted,-corresponding as their labours do to the most indispensable wants. Thus, if the higher ranks are dignified by a more eminent and difficult co-operation, the lower have a more certain and urgent function and the last could provisionally exist by themselves, without perverting their essential character; whereas the others could not. This difference is not only a guarantee of social harmony, but it is favourable to private happiness, which, when the primary wants are securely provided for, depends mainly on the small amount of habitual solicitude: and thus, the lowest classes really are privileged in that freedom from care, and that thoughtlessness, which would be a serious fault in the higher classes, but are natural to them. : If we consider the successive degrees of material importance, as tested by wealth, we find an apparent contradiction in our statical series, between the speculative and the practical order: for in the first, the preponderance lessens as we ascend the scale, while in the latter it increases. This is owing to a distinction too little attended to by the economists,-between the more general extension and the more direct utility of any public services. Concrete labours, which prove to all eyes their own immediate use, are sure of a special recompense in proportion to their extension: but when the service is highly abstract, admitting of only an indirect appreciation, remote and dim, it is incontestable that, whatever may be its final utility, extensive in proportion to its generality, it will bring in less wealth, through the insufficient private estimation of a class whose partial influence admits of no ordinary analysis. Hence the dangerous error of measuring social participation by wealth, ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE SERVICES. 331 without distinction of the two orders, the speculative and the active,—thus extending to the first the law which relates only to the second. For instance, if the final results, even industrial only, of the great astronomical discoveries which have improved navigation could be estimated in each expedition, it is evident that no existing fortune could give any idea of the enormous wealth which would be realized by the heirs of the Keplers and the Newtons of society, be the toll fixed as low as possible. Such a case shows the absurdity of the principle of pecuniary remuneration for all genuine services, by proving that the most extended utility must, on account of the remoteness and diffusion that belong to its generality, find its reward, not in wealth, but in social honour. Even in the speculative class, the same distinction is evident, the æsthetic order being more in the way of wealth than the scientific,inferior as their ultimate utility must be,--because they are more easily and immediately appreciated. Yet, in the face of these facts, there are economists who propose that the most abstract labours should be left to the protection of private interest. On the whole, it is clear that the greatest deposit of wealth will be in the middle of the hierarchy, with the banking class, who naturally head the industrial movement, and whose ordinary operations are at once appreciable and sufficiently general to favour the accumulation of capital. These circumstances, at the same time, cannot but render them more worthy of their temporal importance,-whenever, at least, their education shall be appropriate to their function. Their familiarity with abstract and extended enterprises must foster the spirit of generality, and an unusual aptitude for social combinations; so that with them will the temporal power principally rest. It will be remembered that this class will always be the least numerous in the industrial order; for the hierarchy will constantly exhibit growing numbers, in proportion as work becomes more particular and urgent, and therefore admits and requires more multiplied agents. What I have said of the public character of all social offices under the new organization relates only to their social aspect, and Practical privacy. not at all to the mode of their fulfilment. In fact, the more the individual is improved by education, the more freely may the execution of public operations be confided to private industry. The less general and more actual labours, those which belong to the practical order,-may be safely delivered over to the natural action of individual minds; and, while the prerogative of the central authority is carefully preserved, there will be entire freedom from any regulating spirit which could impede spontaneous activity, on which progression directly depends. In the speculative case, however, the social efficacy is too indirect, too remote, and therefore too little felt by the multitude to depend altogether on private estimation for aid: and public munificence should protect labours of this kind, the political character of these functions becoming manifest, in proportion as they are more general and abstract. This is the only way in which there can be any distinction between public and private professions; and the distinction will not affect the idea of a common social destination. Practical freedom. It can hardly be necessary to point out that there will be perfect freedom in the formation of the respective classes of the positive hierarchy. The direct effect of a universal education is to place every one in the situation best adapted to his abilities, whatever his birth may have been. This is a liberty which depends more on general manners than on political institutions; and it depends upon two conditions, -that access to every social career should remain open to the capable; and that there should be some means of excluding the unworthy. When order is once completely established, such changes will become exceptional; because it is natural for professions to be hereditary. Few have a determinate vocation, and few social employments require such a vocation; so that the disposition to domestic imitation will have its way; whereas, the quality of the universal education and the state of social manners will be safeguards against this hereditary tendency assuming any oppressive form. There is no room for apprehension of any restoration of the system of castes. Caste can have none but a theological foundation; and we have long THE LOWER CLASSES. 333 passed out of the last social phase that is compatible with it; and its remaining traces are, as I have shown, fast disappearing from amidst the advanced civilization of Western Europe. It remains for me to point out the connection between such an organization and the just claims of the lower classes and for this purpose I must ascertain the influence of such a connection, both upon the mass of the people and upon the speculative class. Any spiritual power must be, by its very nature, popular; for its function is to set up morality to guide the social movement, and Popular claims. its closest relations therefore must be with the most numerous classes, who most need its protection. The Catholic Church was obviously doomed to decay when it forsook its task of enlightening and protecting the people; and inclined to aristocratic interests: and in the same way, the inherent nullity of Protestantism appeared in the impotence of its puny authorities to protect the lower classes: . and in the same way again, we recognize the empiricism and selfishness which spoil the speculative elements of our modern society in the strange aristocratic tendencies of so many savants and artists, who forget their own humble origin, and disdain to apply to the instruction and protection of the people the influence they have acquired, preferring indeed to use it in confirmation of their own oppressive pretensions. There must be, in the normal state of the final economy, a strong sympathy between the speculative class and the multitude, from their analogous relation to the possessors of the chief temporal power, from their somewhat similar practical situation, and from their equivalent habits of material improvidence. Yet more important is the popular efficacy of the speculative authority, on account both of its educational function and of its regular intervention as moderator in social conflicts, through its habitual elevation of views and generosity of disposition. Without at all quitting its attitude of impartiality, its chief care will always be directed towards the humbler classes, who, on the one hand, are much the most in need of a public education such as their private means cannot attain; and, on the other hand, are much more exposed |