If the greatest philosophers have been able to deceive themselves as to the iniquity of slavery, how much easier is it for farmers and manufacturers to deceive themselves as to the nature and effects of the protective system.
II.
TWO SYSTEMS OF MORALS.
Arrived at the end of the preceding chapter, if he gets so far, I imagine I hear the reader say: "Well, now, was I wrong in accusing political economists of being dry and cold?
What a picture of humanity! Spoliation is a fatal power, almost normal, assuming every form, practiced under every pretext, against law and according to law, abusing the most sacred things, alternately playing upon the feebleness and the credulity of the masses, and ever growing by what it feeds on.

Could a more mournful picture of the world be imagined than this ?" The problem is, not to find whether the picture is mournful, but whether it is true.

And for that we have the testimony of history.
It is singular that those who decry political economy, because it investigates men and the world as it finds them, are more gloomy than political economy itself, at least as regards the past and the present.
Look into their books and their journals.

What do you find?
Bitterness and hatred of society.

The very word _civilization_ is for them a synonym for injustice, disorder and anarchy.