must find some separate and some distinctive name; and the name which I propose to use for this purpose is Ability. [Sidenote ◆1 In this book it will be called Ability.] [Sidenote ◆2 There is, however, a deeper distinction between the two than the fact of one being mental and the other muscular.] ◆¹ Human Exertion then, as applied to the production of wealth, is of two distinct kinds: Ability and Labour—the former being essentially moral or mental exertion, and only incidentally muscular; the latter being mainly muscular, and only moral or mental in a comparatively unimportant sense. ◆² This difference between them, however, though accidentally it is always present, and is what at first strikes the observation, is not the fundamental difference. The fundamental difference is of quite another kind. It lies in the following fact: That Labour is a kind of exertion on the part of the individual, which begins and ends with each separate task it is employed upon, whilst Ability is a kind of exertion on the part of the individual which is capable of affecting simultaneously the labour of an indefinite number of individuals, and thus hastening or perfecting the accomplishment of an indefinite number of tasks. [Sidenote ◆1 The vital distinction is that the Labour of one man affects one task only; the Ability of one man may affect an indefinite number.] ◆¹ This vital distinction, hitherto so entirely neglected, should be written in letters of fire on the mind of everybody who wishes to understand, to improve, or even to discuss intelligibly, the economic conditions of a country such as ours. Unless it is recognised, and terms are found to express it, it is impossible to think clearly about the question; much more is it impossible to argue clearly about it: for men’s thoughts, even if for moments they are correct and clear, will be presently tripped up and entangled in the language they are obliged to use. Thus, we constantly find that when men have declared all wealth to be due to Labour, more or less consciously including Ability in the term, they go on to speak of Labour and the labouring classes, more or less consciously excluding it; and we can hardly open a review or a newspaper, or listen to a speech on any economic problem, without finding the labouring classes spoken of as “the producers,” to the obvious and intentional exclusion of the classes who exercise Ability; whereas it can be demonstrated, as we shall see in another chapter, that of the wealth enjoyed by this country to-day, Labour produces little more than a third. Let us go back then to the definitions I have just now given, and insist on them and enlarge them and explain them, so as to make them absolutely clear. [Sidenote ◆1 Familiar examples will show the truth of this.]