[92] One will say, perhaps, that the merchant is never innocent, for he should have foreseen the risks which threatened him, and provided against them. But there is no commerce without risks. There is, then, a certain amount of risks which it is allowed and even necessary to run, or else suppress commerce altogether. For example, a merchant in times of peace certainly knows that there may suddenly arise a cause of war, and he must make provision against the eventuality; but if all his transactions were influenced by that idea, commerce in times of peace would not differ from commerce in times of war, and would consequently be null. [93] Rousseau's _Emile_, I., i. [94] Bossuet, _Traité de la concupiscence_, Ch. iv. [95] We may apply here what La Bruyère said of clothes: "There is as much weakness in avoiding fashion as affecting it. A philosopher allows his tailor to dress him." In the same sense is there as much weakness in rebelling against pleasure as in seeking it too artfully. The honest man simply enjoys it without thinking of it. Between the rigorist and the sensualist, the sensible man has his place. [96] _Ciceron_, _Traité des devoirs_, I., xxxiv. [97] Cicero, _Traité des devoirs_, ch. xxxvi. [98] We nowise mean to uphold here the doctrine of the _physiocrats_ for whom land was the only riches; we shall merely say that it is the basis of all wealth. [99] There is here, again, a broad duty, for how can we interdict to a merchant the desire for gain without suppressing one of the incitements to his activity and work? All that we can recommend to him is moderation, and not to sacrifice to this incitement sentiments of a higher order. [100] Kant himself recognizes that self-interest may become a duty when combated by passion. "To secure one's own happiness," he says, "is at least an indirect duty; for he who is dissatisfied with his condition may easily, in the midst of the cares and wants which besiege him, yield to the temptation of transgressing his duties.... Therefore, even though this tendency in man to seek his happiness did not determine his will, even though health were not, for him at least, a thing to be taken account of in his calculations, there would still remain in this case, as in all others, a law, the one, namely, which commands him to work for his happiness, not from inclination, but from a sense of duty, and it is only by this that his conduct may have a real moral value. [101] Franklin, _Poor Richard's Almanac_. [102] Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, iv., i. [103] Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, v., i. [104] Aristotle, Politics, i., ii. [105] Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, Bohn's translation, by Rev. J. S. Watson, M.A., II., vii. [106] Confucius and Mencius, Pauthier's translation, p. 303.