Certain moral qualities are somewhat similar to physical qualities; and they
can be appreciated as such, admitting that they are proportional to the effects
that they produce: thus it is not difficult to say that a worker has two or
three times more activity than another, if, all other things being equal, each
day he does double or triple the amount of work done by this other worker.
Here, the effects are purely physical, like the state of compression of a
spring when it is a question of estimation of forces; we can do nothing but
admit the hypothesis that causes are proportional to the effects produced by
them. But, in a large number of cases, this treatment becomes impracticable.
When the activity of man spreads to immaterial works, for example, what will be
our measure, even if works such as books, statues, or paintings are produced,
for how can one take into account the researches and meditations that they have
necessitated? The number of works could at most give an idea of the fecundity
of an author, as the number of children brought into the world gives an idea of
the fecundity of a woman, that is to say, without regard to the worth of the
work produced.
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