I must here remind the reader of that singular but unquestionable result of the social order to which I have already invited his attention,[63] and which the power of habit hides too frequently from our view. It is this, ‹that the sum total of satisfactions which falls to each member of society is much superior to those which he could procure for himself by his own efforts›. In other words, there is an evident disproportion between our consumption and our labour. This phenomenon, which all of us can easily verify, if we turn our regards upon ourselves, ought, it seems to me, to inspire some gratitude to society, to which we owe it. We come into this world destitute of everything, tormented with numerous wants, and provided with nothing but faculties to enable us to struggle against them. ‹A priori›, it would seem that all we could expect would be to obtain satisfactions proportionate to our labour. If we obtain more, infinitely more, to what do we owe the excess? Precisely to that natural organization against which we are constantly declaiming, when we are not engaged in seeking to subvert it. In itself the phenomenon is truly extraordinary. That certain men consume more than they produce is easily explained, if in one way or other they usurp the rights of other people—if they receive services without rendering them. But how can that be true of all men at the same time? How happens it that, after having exchanged their services without constraint, without spoliation, upon a footing of ‹equivalence›, each man can say to himself with truth, I consume in a day more than I could produce in a century? The reader has seen that the additional element which resolves the problem is the co-operation of natural agents, constantly becoming more and more effective in the work of production; it is gratuitous utility falling continually into the domain of ‹Community›; it is the labour of heat and of cold, of light, of gravitation, of affinity, of elasticity, coming progressively to be added to the labour of man, diminishing the value of services by rendering them more easy.