The
poorest artificer, who labours alone, expects at least the
protection of the magistrate, to ensure him the enjoyment of the
fruits of his labour. He also expects that, when he carries his
goods to market, and offers them at a reasonable price, he shall
find purchasers, and shall be able, by the money he acquires, to
engage others to supply him with those commodities which are requisite
for his subsistence. In proportion as men extend their dealings, and
render their intercourse with others more complicated, they always
comprehend, in their schemes of life, a greater variety of voluntary
actions, which they expect, from the proper motives, to co-operate
with their own. In all these conclusions they take their measures from
past experience, in the same manner as in their reasonings
concerning external objects; and firmly believe that men, as well as
all the elements, are to continue, in their operations, the same
that they have ever found them. A manufacturer reckons upon the labour
of his servants for the execution of any work as much as upon the
tools which he employs, and would be equally surprised were his
expectations disappointed. In short, this experimental inference and
reasoning concerning the actions of others enters so much into human
life that no man, while awake, is ever a moment without employing
it.
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