The former consists of the _a priori_ moral doctrine that every one has a right to what he produces, and consequently to no more.

The latter consists of an assumption that those who produce most will, in deference to a standard of right of a wholly different kind, surrender their own products to those who produce least.

The practical assumption is childish; and the abstract moral doctrine can only lead to a conclusion the opposite of that which those who appeal to it desire.

But the claim in question may, when reduced to reasonable proportions, be defended on grounds both moral and practical, nevertheless, and the present volume aims at rendering these intelligible.

Let us return for a moment to Rousseau and his theory of the social contract.