56 The qualification “true,” excludes from the circle of goods, not only all those things which might satisfy only irrational or immoral wants (compare _Mischler_, Grundsätze der Nationalökonomie, 1856, I, 187), but also vindicates the fundamental idea of the whole system of Political Economy, as a subject of moral as well as of psychological investigation. 57 Even _Aristotle_ (Eth. nicom. V, 8), considers that all things intended to enter into commerce, should be susceptible of comparison with one another, and that the measure of this comparison is _want_, which is the foundation of all association among men. 58 An Arab helped pillage a caravan, and carried away, as his share of the booty, a chest of pearls. He thought it a box of rice, and gave them to his wife to cook, but finding they did not boil tender, he threw them away. (_Niebuhr_, Beschreibung von Arabien, 383). See a similar anecdote in _Ammian. Marcell._, _XXII_. Compare _Strabo_, _VIII_, 381. 59 As soon as the Persians renounce the superstition that the daily contemplation of a turquoise is a talisman against the "evil eye" (_K. Ritter_, Erdkunde, VIII, 327), that precious stone will lose much of its value. On the other hand, the amulets of antiquity, although they have long lost the quality of goods as objects of superstition, have now a real value for the archæologist. 60 Since observation shows, that, as time runs on, matter tends more and more to become _goods_, the blind forms of motion in nature to become useful labor and useful sustenance, impersonal and objectless existence to be transformed into personal property and personal culture, _Schäffle_ inclines to the belief that the whole mechanism of unconsciously governing nature is destined ultimately to aid in the realization of moral good, which alone is really valuable. Das gesellschaftliche System der menschlichen Wirthschaft, III, Auff., 1873, I, 3. _ 61 Hermann_, loc. cit, 1st ed., I, calls internal goods whatever each of us finds in himself, the free gift of nature; also that which we develop in ourselves by our own free action; and external, whatever we create or obtain, through the external world, as a means of satisfying our wants. The internal goods of one man may be external goods to another, as, for instance, when the former conveys them directly to the latter to be enjoyed, by words, demeanor, etc., or indirectly, in combination with other external goods.