IV. ofN. Book IV, chap. v; vol. II, p

38. IV. ofN. Book I, chap. vu ; vol . I, p. 60. — The natural priée... is, as it were, the central price, to which the priées of ail coinmodities are continually gravitating. — P. 62 : ... though the market price of every particular commodity is in this manner continually gravitating, if one may say so, towards the natural price... — Hume avait employé la même métaphore, dans son essai On the Balance of Trade : It is évident, that the same causes which would correct thèse exorhitant inequalities, were they to happen miraculously, must prevent their happening in the common course of nature, and must for ever, in ail neighbuuring nations, préserve money nearly proportionable to the art and industry of each nation. Ail water, wherever it communicates, remains always at a level. Ask naturalists the reason ; they tell you that, were it to be raised in any one place, the superior gravity of that part, not being balanced, must depress it, till it meets a counterpoise ; and that the same cause, which redresses the inequality when it happens must for ever prevent it, withoutsome violent and external opération. — Et plus bas : We need not hâve recourse to a physical attraction, in order to explain the necessityof this opération. There is a moral attraction, arising from the interests and passions of men, which is full as potent and infallible. — Le « naturel » se confond dès lors avec le «nécessaire». W. of N. Book IV, chap. vu; vol. II, p. 208 : naturally, or rather necessarily.