Chapter Sixteen
Quod amplius nos delect at, secundum id operemur necesse est.
—ST. AUGUSTINE.
The primary and sole foundation of virtue, or of the proper conduct of life, is to seek our own profit.
—BARUCH SPINOZA.
On Doing the Right Thing
On Doing The Right Thing
AND OTHER ESSAYS
by
Albert Jay Nock
1928
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
New York and London
LVMI
The Ludwig von Mises Institute is dedicated to advancing the Austrian School of economics and libertarian scholarship. Founded in 1982, the Institute defends individual liberty, the free market, private property, sound money, and peace. Its broad range of teaching programs, fellowships, publications, and conferences is supported by voluntary donations.
On Doing The Right Thing
ON DOING THE RIGHT THING
COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY HARPER & BROTHERS
Digital edition June 2013 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute
eISBN: 978-1-61016-619-5
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
FIRST EDITION
To C. R. W.
To C. R. W.
Preface
These essays, except the first, were published in Harper’s Magazine and The American Mercury within the last three years; the first one was printed as an introduction to a small volume, published in 1924 by A. and C. Boni, of selections from the writings of Artemus Ward. My best thanks are due Messrs. Boni and the editors of Harper’s and the Mercury for permission to reprint them.
On Doing the Right Thing
Artemus Ward
Charles Farrar Browne, known to the world as Artemus Ward, was born ninety years ago in Waterford, Maine. He died at an age when most of us are only beginning to mature—thirty-three. Little more can be told of him by way of formal biography. Mr. Don C.
The Decline of Conversation
I
The more one thinks of it, the more one finds in Goethe’s remark that the test of civilization is conversation. The common method of rating the civilization of peoples by what they have got and what they have done is really a poor one; for some peoples who have got much and done a great deal strike one at once as less civilized than others who have got little and done little.
