—Did not Robinson see that he could use the time saved in doing something else?
—What 'something else'?
—So long as one has wants and time, one has always something to do. I am not bound to specify the labor that he could undertake.
—I can specify very easily that which he would have avoided.
—I assert, that Robinson, with incredible blindness, confounded labor with its result, the end with the means, and I will prove it to you.
—It is not necessary. But this is the restrictive or prohibitory system in its simplest form. If it appears absurd to you, thus stated, it is because the two qualities of producer and consumer are here united in the same person.
—Let us pass, then, to a more complicated instance.
—Willingly. Some time after all this, Robinson having met Friday, they united, and began to work in common. They hunted for six hours each morning and brought home four hampers of game. They worked in the garden for six hours each afternoon, and obtained four baskets of vegetables.
One day a canoe touched at the Island of Despair. A good-looking stranger landed, and was allowed to dine with our two hermits. He tasted, and praised the products of the garden, and before taking leave of his hosts, said to them:
"Generous Islanders, I dwell in a country much richer in game than this, but where horticulture is unknown. It would be easy for me to bring you every evening four hampers of game if you would give me only two baskets of vegetables."