Ricardo à MacCulloch, 13 juin

58. Eléments y chap. II (2e éd., p. 27) .... Labourers and Capitalists. . . Owners of the Land. . . thèse three form ail the classes who immediately share, that is, divide among them, the whole of the annual produce of the oountry. — De Quincey (« Ricardo and Adam Smith », Blackwood's sept. 1842, CoUected Writings, vol. IX, p. 117) caractérise bien Touvrage de Ricardo : It was a work de principiiSt a searching inquiry into principles orfirst beginnings, as the golden rings from which ail the rest is suspend ed ; and, agreeably tothat object, it was entitled « Principles of Political Economy »... Whatsoever, therefore, may be found either too rapid or too obscure in the delivery of Ricardo is a natural resuit from the very plan of the work ; nobody is entitled to expecta didactic treaties on Natural Philosophy in a severe essay reviewing sceptically the elementary Uws of motion andmechanism.