The order they represent is the natural order; and whatever hinders its full operation is an unwise check upon the things for which men strive.
Obviously enough, this attitude runs the grave risk of seeming to abstract a single motive--the desire for wealth--from the confused welter of human impulses and to make it dominant at the expense of human nature itself.

A hasty reading of Adam Smith would, indeed, confirm that impression; and that is perhaps why he seemed to Ruskin to blaspheme human nature.

But a more careful survey, particularly when the _Moral Sentiments_ is borne in mind suggests a different conclusion.

His attitude is implicit in the general medium in which he worked.

What he was trying to do was less to emphasize that men care above all things for the pursuit of wealth than that no institutional modifications are able to destroy the power of that motive to labor.