No man imbued with a scientific spirit can claim that such
truth is beyond the power of the human intellect. He may doubt his
own ability to grasp it, but cannot doubt that by pursuing the
proper method and adopting the best means the problem can be
solved. It is, in fact, difficult to show why some exact results
could not be as certainly reached in economic questions as in
those of physical science. It is true that if we pursue the
inquiry far enough we shall find more complex conditions to
encounter, because the future course of demand and supply enters
as an uncertain element. But a remarkable fact to be considered is
that the difference of opinion to which we allude does not depend
upon different estimates of the future, but upon different views
of the most elementary and general principles of the subject. It
is as if men were not agreed whether air were elastic or whether
the earth turns on its axis. Why is it that while in all subjects
of physical science we find a general agreement through a wide
range of subjects, and doubt commences only where certainty is not
attained, yet when we turn to economic subjects we do not find the
beginning of an agreement?
No two answers can be given.
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