In times when calm prevails (not, however, in transition-crises such as are referred to in § 24), there is a public opinion concerning merit and reward, we might say a public conscience, by which a definite relation of the three branches of income to one another is declared equitable. Every "fair-minded man" feels satisfied when this relation is realized, and this feeling of satisfaction is one of the principal conditions precedent to the prosperity of production; inasmuch as upon it depends the participation (_Theilnahme_) of all owners of funds and forces. Every deviation from this relation or proportion is, of course, a misfortune,[202-6] but never so great as when it takes place at the expense of the wages of labor. It should never be forgotten that rent is an appropriation of the gifts of nature, and that interest is a further fruit obtained by frugality from older labor already remunerated. Besides, the rate of wages when high, generally adds to the efficiency of labor, which cannot be claimed for interest or rent.[202-7] The best means to preserve the harmony of the three branches of income is, however, universal activity. "Rich or poor, strong or weak, the idler is a knave." (_J. J. Rousseau._) [Footnote 202-1: The contrast between _Adam Smith_, at the end of the first book, and _Ricardo_, ch. 24, in regard to this point, is very characteristic of the times of those two authors. According to _Smith_, the private interests of the landowners and laborers run entirely parallel; only both classes are easily deceived as to their own interests. Capitalists understand their own interest very well, and represent it with great energy; but their interest is in opposition to the common good, in so far as their profit among a poor and declining people is higher than among a rich and flourishing one. _Ricardo_, on the other hand, thinks that the interest of the landowners is opposed to that of all others for the reason that they desire that the cost of the production of wheat etc. should be as high as possible. Related to this is the fact that, in _Adam Smith's_ time, the new theory of rent remained almost unnoticed, but that after 1815, it became rapidly popular. In a similar way, the socialists of the present time are wont to charge the undertaking class with opposing their own interests to those of the whole people, meaning by the whole the majority. (§ 196 a.)] [Footnote 202-2: Towards the end of the 14th century the great Flemish merchants always sided with the absolutism of France in opposition to their own _Artevelde_.] [Footnote 202-3: Hence it is, that in so many constitutions, charters of cities, etc., the exercise of the higher rights of citizenship is conditioned by the possession of a certain quantity of land, and that landownership is considered as a species of public function.