There exist side by side in him a free laborer and an accumulated social capital.

As a laborer, he is charged with the use of an instrument, with the superintendence of a machine; namely, his capacity.

As capital, he is not his own master; he uses himself, not for his own benefit, but for that of others.
Even if talent did not find in its own excellence a reward for the sacrifices which it costs, still would it be easier to find reasons for lowering its reward than for raising it above the common level.
Every producer receives an education; every laborer is a talent, a capacity,--that is, a piece of collective property.

But all talents are not equally costly.

It takes but few teachers, but few years, and but little study, to make a farmer or a mechanic: the generative effort and--if I may venture to use such language--the period of social gestation are proportional to the loftiness of the capacity.