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CONTENTS

PREFACE xix

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxix

PART 1 POLITICAL ECONOMY

1 Capitalism Shakes the World 1

The Permanent Technological Revolution 3
The Enrichment of Material Life 6
Growing Inequality 11
The Population Explosion and the Growth of Cities 12
The Changing Nature of Work 15
The Transformation of the Family 16
Threats to the Ecosystem 17
The Effects of Climate Change 17
Contamination 21
New Roles for Government 22
Globalization 23
Conclusion 26

2 People, Preferences, and Society 29

Constraints, Preferences, and Beliefs 32
“Economic Man” Reconsidered 34
Human Nature and Cultural Differences 36
The Economy Produces People 39

­­­­vii
viii CONTENTS

The Cooperative Species 45

Conclusion 46

3 A Three-Dimensional Approach to Economics 49

Economic Systems and Capitalism 50
Three-Dimensional Economics 51
Competition 51
Command 52
Change 53
Neoclassical Economics 55
Values in Political Economy 57
Efficiency 59
Inputs and Outputs 59
Pareto Efficiency 60
Fairness 60
Democracy 62
Balancing Efficiency, Fairness, and Democracy 63

4 The Surplus Product: Conflict and Change 67

Economic Interdependence, Production, and Reproduction 69
Production 70
Links Between Production and Reproduction 71
A Labor Process Example: Making Pancakes 73
The Surplus Product 74
A Model of Production and Reproduction 78
Who Gets the Surplus? 80
Enlarging the Surplus 80
Application of Model to Labor 83
The Surplus Product and Conflict 84
The Surplus Product and Change 86

5 Capitalism as an Economic System 89

Class and Class Relationships 91
Classes and Economic Systems 93
Slavery 93
 CONTENTS ix

Feudalism 94
Distinctions Among Economic Systems 94
Capitalism 96
Commodities 97
Privately Owned Capital Goods 102
Wage Labor 108
Capitalism, the Surplus Product, and Profits 108
Conclusion 110

6 Government and the Economy 113

Rules of the Game: Government and the Capitalist Economy 115
The Emergence of Modern Legal Forms of
Corporate Business 115
Limited Liability 115
Corporate Personhood 116
From Competition to Monopoly 117
From National to Transnational 118
Democratic Government as Collective Provision for the
General Welfare 119
Government and the Distribution of Income, Wealth,
and Welfare in the ­Nineteenth Century 120
Railroad Financing: Public and Private Gains 121
Other Rules: Winners and Losers 123
Contention Between Capital and Labor over Rules 124
Voter Turnout in the United States and Around the World 126
Democracy in the Twentieth Century 128
Conclusion 130

7 U.S. Capitalism: Accumulation and Change 132

Accumulation as a Source of Change 134
The Accumulation Process 135
Competition for Profits 136
Capitalism Comes to the United States 137
Social Structures of Accumulation 141
x CONTENTS

Changing Strategies for Profit-Making 142

Consolidation and Decay of an SSA 143
The Stages of Capitalism in the United States 144
Competitive Capitalism (1860s–1898) 144
Corporate Capitalism (1898–1939) 146
Regulated Capitalism (1939–1991) 146
Transnational Capitalism (1991–) 147
U.S. Capitalism: Labor Organizing and Labor Markets 147
The Rise and Fall of Labor Unions 147
The Decline of Labor Unions 149

The Rise and Fall of the Labor Accord 151

Segmented Labor Markets 152

The Independent Primary Labor Market 153

The Subordinate Primary Labor Market 154

The Secondary Labor Market 155

U.S. Capitalism Today is Transnational 155

Immigration 157
Shifts in What U.S. Labor Produces 159
Fragmenting Global Production 161
Rules for the Global Economy 162
Tax Motives for TNCs to Go Global 163
The Transnational Capitalism SSA: Deregulation and Financialization 163
Corporate Stock Buybacks and Falling Productive Investment 166
Conclusion 167

PART 2 MICROECONOMICS

8 Supply and Demand: How Markets Work 169

The Nature of Markets 170
Demand and Supply 171
Demand 171
Supply 173
Marginal Cost 174

Average Cost 175

Demand and Supply Interacting 175

 CONTENTS xi

Shifts in Demand or Supply 178

Conclusion 180

9 Competition and Coordination: The Invisible Hand 181

Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire Economics 182
Coordination 183
Coordination by Rules and by Command 184
The Limits of Coordination by Command 185
The Invisible Hand 187
The Invisible Hand in Action 188
Problems with the Invisible Hand 191
Market Failure 192
Negative Externalities as Market Failures 193
Positive Externalities as Market Failures 194
Monopoly as a Market Failure 196
Economies of Scale as a Market Failure 196
Coordination Failure 200
The Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Benefits of Cooperation 200
The Prisoner’s Dilemma and Global Warming 202

The Tragedy of the Commons 203

10 Capitalist Production and Profits 207

What Are Profits? 208
Profits from a Production Process 209
Calculating Profit and Other Property Incomes in the Whole Economy 211
Profit in a Grain-Growing Capitalist Economy 213
Calculating the Rate of Profit 213
The Corporate Profit Rate in the United States 215
Corporations and Other Businesses: Who Gets the Profit or Bears the Loss? 216
Corporations 217
Limited Liability 217

Financing by Issuing Bonds or Stock 218

Management Separated from Ownership 219

Determinants of Total Profit and the Profit Rate 220

xii CONTENTS

Example: The Good Cod Fishing Company 223

Profit per Unit of Output 224
Conflict Over the Profit Rate 225
Intermediate Inputs per Unit of Output as Profit Rate Determinants 226
Unit Labor Cost as a Profit Rate Determinant 227
Work Effort and the Efficiency of Labor 228

Understanding the Profit Rate 229

Conclusion 232

11 Competition and Concentration 233

Competition for Profits 235
The Forms of Competition 237
Price Competition 238
Price as a Markup over Cost 241
Economies of Scale and Price Competition 243
Other Advantages of Large Size 247
Capacity Utilization 248
Breakthroughs 250
Monopoly Power 252
Investing to Compete 254
The Dynamics of Competition 258
Toward Equal Profit Rates? 259
Toward Economic Concentration? 261
Large Size and Monopoly Power 262
Collusion 262
Exploiting Breakthroughs 262
Government Subsidies and Contracts 263
Trends in Concentration 264
Antitrust Enforcement 267
Conclusion 268
Appendix to Chapter 11 270

12 Wages and Work 271

Work, Sloth, and Social Organization 273
The Capitalist Firm as a Command Economy 275
 CONTENTS xiii

The Conflict between Workers and Employers 276

Labor Discipline: Carrots and Sticks 282
The Labor Market, the Wage, and the Intensity of Labor 285
Cost of Job Loss 286
Avoiding the Cost of Job Loss 288
Additional Implications of the Labor Extraction Curve 295

13 Technology, Control, and Conflict in the Workplace 299

The Social Organization of the Workplace 301
Simple Control 304
Technical Control 304
Bureaucratic Control 305
Technology and the Labor Process 307
Conflict in the Workplace 309
Technical Change and Workplace Conflict 309
Raising the Efficiency of Labor 309

Speedup 310

Deskilling 312

Unions 314
Recent Trends in Union Membership 314

Union Activities 315

Managing the Threat of Replacement 315

Promoting Social Changes to Benefit Workers 317

Discrimination in the Workplace 317

Profitability Versus Efficiency 319
Markets and Hierarchies 321
Democratic Firms 322

PART 3 MACROECONOMICS

14 The Mosaic of Inequality 325

Well-Being and Inequality 328
Influences on Well-Being and the Economy 328
Measuring Living Standards and Inequality 329
xiv CONTENTS

Growing Inequality 331

Wealth Inequality 334
Unequal Chances 338
Race and Inequality 341
Discrimination in Hiring 342
Problem of Differential Pay 342
Women’s Work, Women’s Wages 346
Conclusion 350

15 Progress and Poverty on a World Scale 352

Poverty and Progress 355
Productivity and Income 359
Vicious Circles of Low Productivity 359
Economies of Scale 361

Technology Gap 363

Intellectual Property Rights 364

Other Government Interventions to Promote Development 366
Requisites for Economic Development 366
Eight Essential Elements 366
Stability and Peace 367

Financing 367

A Well-Functioning Government 368

Skills and Education 368

Infrastructure 369

Public Health 369

Access to Foreign Markets 369

Other Factors in Development 369

Variations in Rate of Growth of Productivity 371
Foreign Investment and Development 373
Investment Decisions by Transnational Corporations 375
Transnational Investment and Tax Havens 377
Conclusion 381
 CONTENTS xv

16 Aggregate Demand, Employment, and Unemployment 383

Counting the Unemployed 386
What Determines Employment and Output? 388
Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand 389
Measuring Total Output 391
Terms for Measuring the Macroeconomy 391
Analyzing Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand 392
A Basic Macroeconomic Model 395
Unemployment and Government Fiscal Policy 400
Effects of Deficit Spending on Employment 401
Multiplier Effect of Deficit Spending 404
The Business Cycle and the Built-in Stabilizers 407
Conscious Policy Changes 409
Automatic or Built-in Stabilizers 409
Investment, Aggregate Demand, and Monetary Policy 410
Wages, Aggregate Demand, and Unemployment 417
When is an Employment Situation Wage-Led? 419
Implications for Economic Policy 420
Conclusion 421

17 The Dilemmas of Macroeconomic Policy 422

The High-Employment Profit Squeeze 426
The High-Employment Wage Push 426
The Materials Cost Push 430
Rising Costs Squeeze Profits 431
Exports, Imports, and Aggregate Demand 435
The Demand for Exports and Imports 436
The Foreign Exchange Rate 437
International Trade and Macroeconomic Policy 439
Promoting Net Exports 439
Competing in Global Markets 441
Monetary and Fiscal Policy at Odds 442
xvi CONTENTS

What Determines the Interest Rate? 443

Borrowing and the Exchange Rate 446
The Conflict between Monetary and Fiscal Policy 447
Institutions for Achieving Full Employment 447
Institutional Obstacles to Full Employment 448
The Handshake: Ways to Reach Full Employment 449
Conclusion 452

18 Financial and Economic Crisis 454

The Great Recession and the Subprime Crisis 456
Understanding the Great Recession 458
Why to Buy a Home 458
Home Prices Start to Rise 459
How to Buy a Home 462
Securitization of Mortgages 462
Credit Rating Agencies 462

Prime and Subprime Mortgages 463

Refinancing 463
Deregulation 465
Liars’ Loans 467
Collateral Damage 470
Derivatives of Other Kinds 471
Bailouts and Buyouts 473
Unemployment and Poverty 473
Lessons from the History of Economic Crises 474
Nonfinancial Causes of Crisis: Overinvestment, Underconsumption 476
Underconsumption as a Cause of Stagnation or Crisis 476
Asset Markets Differ from Goods Markets 477
Why Are Asset Markets Prone to Price Bubbles? 478
Feedback Loops 479
Reflexivity 480
Misinformation 481
Deregulation and Financial Fragility 482
Large Firms Exacerbate the Problem 483
Weakening the Social Safety Net 485
 CONTENTS xvii

Regulation in a Capitalist Economy 486

Regulating the Financial Sector 486
The Dodd-Frank Act 488
Inequality, Concentration and Crisis 488

19 Government and the Economy in Transnational

Capitalism 491
More Spending, Less Health 494
Government in the United States: Too Big? 496
Government Spending: Comparing the United States with
Other Countries 496
Old-Age Pensions 498
Influencing the Rules 500
Taxation 502
Tax Rates and Tax Payments to the Federal Government 503

Tax Rules and Enforcement 504

Weakening Enforcement 504

Rules that Affect Business Costs and Profits 506

Contracting Out Government Services 506
Government Contracting: Profits and the Public Interest 507
Decline in Competitive Bidding for Government Contracts 508
Government Contracting for Private Prison Services 508
Laws and Norms on Sentencing 509
Rethinking Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration 511
Selling to Government, Maximizing Profit 512
Medical Services in Private Prisons 514
Changing the Rules 515
Rules Written into Contracts 515

Taxing Transnational Corporations: Who Is In Control? 516

Democracy and Inequality 517
Feedback Loops Between Inequality and Power 519
Supranational Rule Changes 519
TNC Power over Foreign Government Decisions 520
Conflict over Rules 521
Proposals for Alternative Rules 522
xviii CONTENTS

Capitalism and Inequality 524

Democracy and Inequality 525
Conclusion 526

LIST OF VARIABLES 529

SOURCES OF ECONOMIC INFORMATION 532
GLOSSARY 535
INDEX 544
Preface

Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change is an introduction

to economics that explains how capitalism works, why it sometimes does not work as
well as we would like, and how over time it not only changes its own functioning but
also revolutionizes the world around us. The book does not assume that the reader
has any prior knowledge of economics.
The three-dimensional approach to economics offered in this book focuses not
just on market competition, as highlighted in conventional economics textbooks, but
also on relationships of command—the exercise of power in firms, among nations,
and between social groups—and on processes of historical change. The approach is
multidisciplinary, making extensive use of examples from history, anthropology, and
the other behavioral sciences as well as economics.
The core idea uniting the three dimensions of competition, command, and
change is the pursuit of profits by firms. Using this central idea, we analyze com-
petition among firms, the search for profits as the driving force of investment and
technical change, and profit-seeking as a source of conflict among owners, workers,
governments, employers, and consumers.
The book covers the standard topics of supply and demand, market competi-
tion, imperfect competition, aggregate demand, and unemployment. In addition,
we give special attention to the extraordinary dynamism and material productivity
of the capitalist economy, the psychological foundations of human behavior and
the importance of Adam Smith’s invisible hand, technical change and the new
­information-based economy, global economic integration and its impact on national
economies, and inequality both within and among nations. We also provide a criti-
cal evaluation of the tenets of neoclassical economics and a clear introduction to
contract theory as well as to new research in behavioral, institutional, and informa-
tion economics.
We titled the book Understanding Capitalism (rather than, say, Understanding
Economics) to stress that our subject matter is a real economic system—not just the
ideas and models of economists. Considered in this way, economic theory is a body
of knowledge that, along with history, politics, sociology, and the other social sci-
ences, can help us understand capitalism.

Structure of the Book

Part 1, “Political Economy,” introduces the three-dimensional approach to eco-
nomics, explains its relationship to other approaches, develops its fundamental

­­­­xix
xx PREFACE

concepts, and summarizes some of the pertinent facts relating to life in a capitalist
economy.
Part 2, “Microeconomics,” develops the theory of the firm and of mar-
kets, including the labor market, and analyzes technological change using a
Schumpeterian model of dynamic monopolistic competition. Most important, it
develops the analysis of profits and the profit rate that provides the integrating prin-
ciple of three-­dimensional economics and establishes the link between micro- and
macroeconomics.
Part 3, “Macroeconomics,” deals with the workings of the economy as a whole.
To provide a foundation for our study of macroeconomics, we examine inequality
both within and among nations, focusing in particular on uneven development on
a global scale. Here we introduce the concepts of aggregate demand and aggregate
supply and explain why unemployment is a more or less permanent feature of capi-
talist labor markets. This part of the book ends with a chapter on economic crisis and
one on the government’s role in the economy.
Instructors using the book in a microeconomics course may want to assign
Chapters 1–13 and Chapter 19. Those using it in a macroeconomics course might
want to focus on Chapters 1–7, 10, 12, and 14–19. For a one-semester course, Chap-
ters 1–10 and 19 might be appropriate, while other chapters could be included as time
and student interest permit.

Changes in the Fourth Edition

In this fourth edition of Understanding Capitalism, the data and figures have been
thoroughly updated (text, figures, and boxes), and there are three new chapters (6, 18,
and 19) and four substantially rewritten chapters. Chapters that have been replaced
are available on a password-protected website.
• The international aspect of the book has been further strengthened with an up-
dated Chapter 7, substantial improvements to Chapter 15, and some interna-
tional content in a rewritten Chapter 19.
• In Chapter 10, the algebra of how the profit rate is determined has been simplified,
and the simpler algebra has been seamlessly integrated into Chapters 11 and 12.
• Added discussion of the rules that govern the national and world economy, and
how they may affect growth and the public interest, now appears in new or rewrit-
ten material in Chapters 6 and 19. The new Chapter 6 explains how establishing
rules such as limited liability and corporate personhood increased investment,
growth and consolidation of enterprises in the U.S., while laying the foundation
for the development of transnational corporations. Chapter 19 explores current
public debates about what economic rules best serve the public interest.
• A new chapter 18 describes the unfolding of the Great Recession, analyzes changes
in the financial sector, and discusses the causes of economic crises in general.
• Chapter 19 newly considers issues in private vs. public provision of services,
especially in health care and in prison management.
 PREFACE xxi

Pedagogical Aids and Supplements

The glossary, the definitions of terms placed in the text margins, and the captions
under each figure help readers to master the basic language and analytical tools of
economics. The boxes in the text present additional facts about the economy and
raise issues that can be the basis of classroom discussions.
The “Sources of Economic Information” section near the end of the book can
help readers locate economic information from official and other sources, both in
print and online.

Three-Dimensional Economics and the Neoclassical Paradigm

When the first edition of this book was published in 1985, many thought of it as an
“alternative text” and welcomed it as a counterpoint to the neoclassical paradigm
that was the dominant approach to economics at the time. Since that time, econom-
ics has changed in significant ways. Many of the themes central to this book are
now addressed by many economists as well as by other social scientists. In recent
years economists have turned their attention to the problem of inequality, the impor-
tance of ethical values and unselfish motives in economic behavior, the exercise of
power, the way that history shapes economic events, and how the economy shapes
who we are as individuals and as people in societies and cultures. The rapid pace of
economic, scientific, political, and other developments in today’s world has forced
economists to face the issue of change.
Since the first edition of Understanding Capitalism was published, the Nobel
Prize in economics has been awarded to many of the economists and other social
scientists who have inspired our own work. Among them are Amartya Sen, Ronald
Coase, George Akerlof, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Fogel, Douglass North, Daniel Kahn-
eman, Vernon Smith, John Nash, and Elinor Ostrom.
Of course, economics remains a controversial topic. There is, however, no
longer a single dominant school but rather many distinct approaches, each with its
own merits and shortcomings. All of the Nobel Prize winners listed above have been
sharp critics of some aspects of the neoclassical approach (while endorsing others).
Unfortunately, the teaching of economics to undergraduates has lagged behind what
is widely understood by leading economists. The conventional “neoclassical” model
is still taught, often as if it were the only approach to the field. For this reason this
book may still be thought of as an “alternative text” because it focuses on questions
largely ignored in the standard textbooks and develops concepts and ideas that are at
variance with—or not even mentioned in—conventional textbooks.
Samuel Bowles, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Richard Edwards, Lincoln, Nebraska
Frank Roosevelt, New York, New York
Mehrene Larudee, Amherst, Massachusetts
List of Figures

Figure 1.1 Productivity increases in U.S. agriculture, 1830–1987 5

Figure 1.2 Real wages in London over seven centuries 8
Figure 1.3 Two centuries of world GDP per capita 9
Figure 1.4 Improvements in lighting technology, 1700–1992 10
Figure 1.5 Capitalism and the population explosion 12
Figure 1.6 Cities of the world with more than a million
inhabitants in 2014 14
Figure 1.7 Global warming, CO2 emissions, and CO2 in the air 18
Figure 1.8 Cumulative CO2 emissions per capita, 1990–2012, by region,
and trends in total emissions by region, 1950–2012 21
Figure 4.1 The production-reproduction cloverleaf 72
Figure 4.2 Total, net, necessary, and surplus product 75
Figure 4.3 Division of the representative farm family’s total output 82
Figure 4.4 Conflict over the consumption level of the producers 86
Figure 5.1 Percent of All U.S. Labor Performed that is Unpaid,
Paid Commodity-Producing, and Paid Non-Commodity-
Producing, 2013 99
Figure 5.2 The concentration of ownership of capital goods 106
Figure 6.1 The American voter: An endangered species? 126
Figure 6.2 Voter turnouts around the world 127
Figure 6.3 Who votes? U.S. voting patterns in the presidential
election of 2012 128
Figure 7.1 U.S. wages and union membership, 1930–2015 150
Figure 7.2 Who belongs to unions in the U.S.? 152
Figure 7.3 The growing importance of international
profits, 1948–2015 156
Figure 7.4 Percent of U.S population born in other
countries, 1850–2010 157

­­­­x xiii
xxiv LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 7.5 Region of origin of U.S population born in

other countries 158
Figure 7.6 The changing composition of employment in the U.S.,
1939–2015 159
Figure 7.7 The financial sector’s share of all reported U.S. domestic
corporate profits, 1948–2015 164
Figure 8.1 The demand curve and the supply curve 172
Figure 8.2 A shift of the demand curve 178
Figure 8.3 A shift of the supply curve 179
Figure 9.1 Market messages and market motivation 189
Figure 10.1 Exchange and command in the profit-making process 210
Figure 10.2 The U.S. corporate profit rate, 1948–2014 216
Figure 10.3 Division of a firm’s total output into material input costs Pm M,
wage cost wH, and total profit R 221
Figure 11.1 Finding the selling price at which profit is highest 240
Figure 11.2 Average cost curve for an auto plant with marginal cost
$10,000 per car and fixed cost $60 million per year 245
Figure 11.3 Dynamic cost advantage 259
Figure 11.4 Exit and entry of firms from and into markets
tend to equalize profits 260
Figure 11.5 Diverse trends in industry concentration, 1997–2012 265
Figure 12.1 The wage and the intensity of labor 291
Figure 12.2 Output per dollar of wage paid 292
Figure 12.3 The labor extraction curve and profit maximization 293
Figure 12.4 The wage, labor extraction, unit labor cost, and profit
maximization 295
Figure 12.5 Effects of more unemployment insurance 296
Figure 14.1 The determinants of well-being 329
Figure 14.2 The lucky few: Income share of the top 1 percent
of U.S. taxpayers, 1913–2015 331
Figure 14.3 U.S. CEO pay in relation to the average worker’s pay,
1965–2015 332
Figure 14.4 Income shares by quintile in the U.S., 1967 and 2014 333
Figure 14.5 Growth rate of family income, by quintile, 1966–2014 334
Figure 14.6 Composition of wealth holdings at different levels of wealth
distribution in the U.S. in 2010 335
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 VIII.

He pursued it with foot so fleet,

On his forehead stood the heat,

IX.

And down his courser’s flanks it ran;

—Evening now to close began;

X.

When he espied a stream that flowed

Near the Corregan’s abode.

XI.

Smoothest turf encircled its brink;

Down from his steed he alit to drink.

XII.

By its margin was seated there

The Corregan, combing her golden hair,

XIII.

Combing it with a comb of gold;—

Richly clad, and bright to behold.

XIV.
—“Thou art bolder than thou dost know,
Daring to trouble my waters so.

XV.

“Me shalt thou on the instant wed,

Or in three days shalt be dead.”

XVI.

—“I will not wed on the instant thee,

Nor yet in three days dead will be.

XVII.

“When God pleases I will die,

And already wedded am I;

XVIII.

“And besides I had rather died

Than to make a fairy my bride.”

XIX.

—“Sick am I, mother, at heart; oh spread,

If thou lovest me, my death-bed!

XX.

“Me the fairy has looked to death:

In three days shall I yield my breath.
 y y y

XXI.

“Yet though my body in earth they lay,

To her I love, oh! nothing say.”

XXII.

—Three days after, “O mother, tell,”

She exclaimed, “why tolls the bell?

XXIII.

“Why do the Priests so mournfully go,

Clad in white, and chanting low?”

XXIV.

—“A beggar we lodged died yesternight;

They bury him with the morning light.”

XXV.

—“O mother, where is my husband gone?”

—“He from the town will return anon.”

XXVI.

—“O mother, I would to church repair;

Tell me what were meetest to wear:

XXVII.
“Shall it be my robe of blue,
Or my vest of scarlet hue?”

XXVIII.

—“It is now the manner to wear

Garments of black, my daughter, there.”

XXIX.

When she came to the churchyard ground,

Her husband’s grave was the first she found.

XXX.

—“Death of kin I have not heard,

Yet this earth has been newly stirred.”

XXXI.

—“My daughter, the truth I needs must show;

’Tis thy husband that lies below.”

XXXII.

Down she fell upon that floor;

Thence she rose not any more.

XXXIII.

But the night next after the day,

When by his her body lay,
 e by s e body ay,

XXXIV.

Two tall oaks, both stately and fair,

Marvel to see! arose in air;

XXXV.

And upon their uppermost spray,

Two white doves, delightsome and gay:

XXXVI.

At dawn of morn they did sweetly sing;

At noon toward heaven they lightly spring.
 SONNET.

Ulysses, sailing by the Sirens’ isle,

Sealed first his comrades’ ears, then bade them fast
Bind him with many a fetter to the mast,
Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile,
And to their ruin flatter them, the while
Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly past;
And thus the peril they behind them cast,
Though chased by those weird voices many a mile.
But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used:
No fetter he put on, nor stopped his ear,
But ever, as he passed, sang high and clear
The blisses of the Gods, their holy joys,
And with diviner melody confused
And marred earth’s sweetest music to a noise.
 SONNET.

Were the sad tablets of our hearts alone

A dreary blank, for Thee the task were light,
To draw fair letters there and lines of light:
But while far other spectacle is shown
By them, with dismal traceries overdrawn,
Oh! task it seems, transcending highest might,
Ever again to make them clean and white,
Effacing the sad secrets they have known.
And then what heaven were better than a name,
If there must haunt and cling unto us there
Abiding memories of our sin and shame?
Dread doubt! which finds no answer anywhere
Except in him, who with him power did bring
To make us feel our sin an alien thing.
 SONNET.

In the mid garden doth a fountain stand;

From font to font its waters fall alway,
Freshening the leaves by their continual play:—
Such often have I seen in southern land,
While every leaf, as though by light winds fanned,
Has quivered underneath the dazzling spray,
Keeping its greenness all the sultry day,
While others pine aloof, a parchèd band.
And in the mystic garden of the soul
A fountain, nourished from the upper springs,
Sends ever its clear waters up on high,
Which, while a dewy freshness round it flings,
All plants which there acknowledge its control
Show fair and green, else drooping, pale, and dry.
 THE ETRURIAN KING.
[See Mrs. Hamilton Gray’s “Visit to the
Sepulchres of Etruria.”]

I.
One only eye beheld him in his pride,
The old Etrurian monarch, as he, died;

II.

And as they laid him on his bier of stone,

Shield, spear, and arrows laying at his side;

III.

In golden armour with his crown of gold,

One only eye the kingly warrior spied;

IV.

Nor that eye long—for in the common air

The wondrous pageant might not now abide,

V.

Which had in sealèd sepulchre the wrongs

Of time for thirty centuries defied.

VI.

That eye beheld it melt and disappear,

As down an hour-glass the last sand-drops glide.

VII.

A few short moments,—and a shrunken heap

Of common dust survived, of all that pride:
 , p

VIII.

And so that gorgeous vision has remained

For evermore to other eye denied:

IX.

And he who saw must oftentimes believe

That him his waking senses had belied,

X.

Since what if all the pageants of the earth

Melt soon away, and may not long abide,

XI.

Yet when did ever doom so swift before

Even to the glories of the earth betide?
THE FAMINE.

I.
Oh, time it was of famine sore,
That ever sorer grew;
And many hungered that before
Rich plenty only knew!

II.

For year by year the labouring hind

Bewailed his fruitless toil,
And ever seemed some spell to bind
The hard, unthankful soil.

III.

His seed-corn rotted in the ground,

And did no more appear;
Or if in blade and stalk was found,
It withered in the ear.

IV.

And now unseasonable rains,

And now untimely drought,
With blight and mildew, all his pains
And hopes to nothing brought.

V.

And ever did that keen distress

In wider circles spread;
Who once with alms did others bless,
Now lacked their daily bread,
 VI.

—One only, who was never known

To bless another’s board—
In all that Suabian land alone
This cruel, impious lord,

VII.

Did all the while exempt appear

From this wide-reaching ill;
With largest bounties of the year,
His broad fields laughing still.

VIII.

The Autumn duly had outpoured

For him its plenteous horn,
And safe in ample granaries stored
He saw his golden corn;

IX.

And high he reared new granaries vast,

Of hewn stone builded strong,
And made with bars of iron fast,
And fenced from every wrong.

X.

Till safe, as seemed, from every foe,

He now, as if the sight
Of others’ want, and others’ woe
E h d hi d li ht
 Enhanced his own delight,

XI.

Sate high, and with his minions still

Did keep continual feast;
Long nights with waste and wassail fill
Which not with morning ceased;

XII.

Till ofttimes they who wandered near

Those halls at early day,
Culling wild herbs and roots in fear,
Their hunger to allay,

XIII.

Heard sounds of fierce and reckless mirth

Borne from those halls of pride,
While famine’s feeble wail went forth
From all the land beside;

XIV.

And strange thoughts rose in many a breast,

Why God’s true servants pined,
And largest means this man unblest
Did still for riot find;

XV.

Which stranger grew, as more and more

He did his coffers fill
 He did his coffers fill
With gold and every precious store,
Wrung from men’s cruel ill;

XVI.

As he each poor man’s field was fain

To add unto his own—
To the wide space of his domain,
Now daily wider grown.

XVII.

For some, their lives awhile to save,

Had sold him house and lands;
And some to bonds their children gave,
As grew his stern demands:

XVIII.

Yet not a whit for poor man’s curse

This evil churl did care;
He said,—it passed, nor left him worse—
That words were only air.

XIX.

He, if they cried “For Jesu’s sake,

That so may light on thee
God’s blessing!” answer proud would make,
“What will that profit me?”

XX.
“I ask no blessing—yet my fields
Have store of spiky grain:
The earth to me its fatness yields,
The sky its sun and rain.

XXI.

“And high my granaries stand, and strong,

Huge-vaulted, ribbed with stone:
What need I fear? from any wrong
I can defend mine own.”—

XXII.

Thus ever fierce, and fiercer rose

His words of scorn and pride;
And more he mocked at mortal woes,
And earth and heaven defied.

XXIII.

And thus it chanced upon a day,

As oft had been before,
That from his gates he spurned away
A widow, old and poor;

XXIV.

When to his presence entered in

A servant, pale with fear,
And did with trembling words begin:—
“Oh, dread my Lord, give ear!
 XXV.

“As me perchance my business drew

Thy storehouse vast beside,
I heard unwonted sounds, and through
The iron grating spied.

XXVI.

“The thing I saw, if like it seemed

To any thing on earth,
I might some huge black bull have deemed
That hellish monstrous birth.

XXVII.

“Yet how should beast have entrance found

Into that guarded place,
Which strangely now it wandered round,
With wild, unresting pace?

XXVIII.

“Oh, here must be some warning meant,

Which do not now deride:
Oh, yet have pity, and relent,
Nor speak such words of pride!”

XXIX.

Slight heed his tale of fear might find,

Slight heed his counsel true;
That utterance of his faithful mind
He now had learned to rue,
 XXX.

But that, even then, another came,

Worse terror in his mien:
—“Three monstrous creatures, breathing flame,
These eyes but now have seen;

XXXI.

“They toss about the hoarded store,

And greedily they eat,
Consuming thus a part, but more
They stamp beneath their feet.

XXXII.

“Oh, Sir! full often God doth take

What we refuse to give;
But yet to him large offering make,
And all our souls may live.”

XXXIII.

—“Fool!—Let another hasten now,

But if he shall not see
The self-same vision, fellow, thou
Shalt hang on yonder tree.”

XXXIV.

He said—when, lo! inrushed a third

Within the briefest space:—
“Of h ild d b ll h d
—“Of horses wild and bulls an herd
Is filling all the place.

XXXV.

“The numbers of that furious rout

Wax ever high and higher;
And from their mouths smoke issues out,
And from their nostrils fire.

XXXVI.

“From side to side they leap and bound,

The hoarded corn they eat,
They toss and scatter on the ground,
And stamp beneath their feet.

XXXVII.

“My Lord, these portents do not scorn;

Thy granary doors throw wide,
And poor men’s prayers even yet may turn
The threatened wrath aside.”

XXXVIII.

—“What, all conspiring in one tale!

Or fooled by one deceit!
Yet think not ye shall so prevail,
Or me so lightly cheat.

XXXIX.

“Come with me;—fling the portals back;—

Come with me;—fling the portals back;—
I too this sight would see:
What! one and all this courage lack?
Give me the ponderous key.”

XL.

In fear the vassal multitude

Fell back on either side:
Before the doors he singly stood—
He singly—in his pride.

XLI.

But them, or ere he touched, asunder

Some hand unbidden threw;
With lightning flash, with sound like thunder
The gates wide open flew.

XLII.

How shook then underneath the tread

Of thousand feet the earth!
Day darkened into night with dread!
So wild a troop rushed forth.

XLIII.

And all who saw like dead men stood,

As swept that wild troop by,
Till lost within a neighbouring wood
For aye from mortal eye.

XLIV.
 XLIV.

But when that hurricane was past

Of hideous sight and sound,
And when they breathed anew, they cast
Their fearful glances round:

XLV.

They lifted up a blackened corse,

Where scorched and crushed it lay,
And scarred with hooves of fiery force,—
Then bore in awe away;

XLVI.

They bore away, but not to hide

In any holy ground;
Who in his height of sin had died
No hallowed burial found.
THE PRIZE OF SONG.

I.
Challenged by the haughty daughters
Of the old Emathian king,
Strove the Muses at the waters
Of that Heliconian spring—
Proved beside those hallowed fountains
Unto whom the prize of song,
Unto whom those streams and mountains
Did of truest right belong.

II.

First those others in vexed numbers

Mourned the rebel giant brood,
Whom the earth’s huge mass encumbers,
Or who writhe, the vulture’s food;
Mourned for earth-born power, which faileth
Heaven to win by might and main;
Then, thrust back, for ever waileth,
Gnawing its own heart in pain.

III.

Nature shuddered while she hearkened,

Through her veins swift horror ran:
Sun and stars, perturbed and darkened,
To forsake their orbs began.
Back the rivers fled; the Ocean
Howled upon a thousand shores,
As it would with wild commotion
Burst its everlasting doors.

IV.

Hushed was not that stormy riot