Part 32 (2/2)

--His provisions

--What happened to the ax?

--It was all blunted

--Very good; but there is one thing which, perhaps, you do not know At the ave the first bloith his ax, he saw a plank which the waves had cast up on the shore

--Oh, the lucky accident! He ran to pick it up?

--It was his first io after this plank, it will costto and returning from the shore

”But if I make a plank with my ax, I shall in the first place obtain work for fifteen days, then I shall wear outit, and I shall consume my provisions, which will be a third source of labor, since they must be replaced Now, _labor is wealth_ It is plain that I will ruin myself if I pick up this stranded board It is important to protect my _personal labor_, and now that I think of it, I can createthis board back into the sea”

--But this reasoning was absurd!

--Certainly Nevertheless it is that adopted by every nation which _protects_ itself by prohibition It rejects the plank which is offered it in exchange for a little labor, in order to give itself ain even in the labor of the custom house officer This answers to the trouble which Robinson took to give back to the waves the present they wished to , and you will not find an ato and that of Robinson

--Did not Robinson see that he could use the ti else_'?

--So long as one has wants and ti_ to do I am not bound to specify the labor that he could undertake

--I can specify very easily that which he would have avoided

--I assert, that Robinson, with incredible blindness, confounded labor with its result, the end with the means, and I will prove it to you

--It is not necessary But this is the restrictive or prohibitory system in its simplest form If it appears absurd to you, thus stated, it is because the two qualities of producer and consumer are here united in the same person

--Let us pass, then, to a ly So an to work in coht hoarden for six hours each afternoon, and obtained four baskets of vegetables

One day a canoe touched at the Island of Despair A good-looking stranger landed, and was allowed to dine with our two herarden, and before taking leave of his hosts, said to them:

”Generous Islanders, I dwell in a country ame than this, but where horticulture is unknown It would be easy for aetables”

At these words Robinson and Friday stepped on one side, to have a consultation, and the debate which followed is too interesting not to be given _in extenso_:

_Friday_ Friend, what do you think of it?

_Robinson_ If we accept we are ruined

_Friday_ Is that certain? Calculate!

_Robinson_ It is all calculated Hunting, crushed out by competition, will be a lost branch of industry for us