And here psychology comes to the aid of social economy, giving us to understand that talent and material recompense have no common measure; that, in this respect, the condition of all producers is equal: consequently, that all comparison between them, and all distinction in fortunes, is impossible.
_ _In fact, every work coming from the hands of man--compared with the raw material of which it is composed--is beyond price.

In this respect, the distance is as great between a pair of wooden shoes and the trunk of a walnut-tree, as between a statue by Scopas and a block of marble.
The genius of the simplest mechanic exerts as much influence over the materials which he uses, as does the mind of a Newton over the inert spheres whose distances, volumes, and revolutions he calculates.

You ask for talent and genius a corresponding degree of honor and reward.

Fix for me the value of a wood-cutter's talent, and I will fix that of Homer.

If any thing can reward intelligence, it is intelligence itself.
That is what happens, when various classes of producers pay to each other a reciprocal tribute of admiration and praise.