Sentinels relocatedHEADmain

1 files changed, 21345 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/57260-0.txt b/57260-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3efc802
--- /dev/null
+++ b/57260-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,21345 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57260 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                           FABLE OF THE BEES;
+
+                                  OR,
+                     PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC BENEFITS:
+
+                            WITH AN ESSAY ON
+                      CHARITY AND CHARITY SCHOOLS,
+
+                           AND A SEARCH INTO
+                         THE NATURE OF SOCIETY:
+
+                                 ALSO,
+
+        A VINDICATION OF THE BOOK FROM THE ASPERSIONS CONTAINED
+            IN A PRESENTMENT OF THE GRAND JURY OF MIDDLESEX,
+                  AND AN ABUSIVE LETTER TO LORD C----.
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+
+          PUBLISHED BY T. OSTELL, AVE-MARIA LANE, LONDON, AND
+                      MUNDELL AND SON, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                 1806.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+                                                       Page
+    Preface,                                            iii
+    The Grumbling Hive; or Knaves turn'd Honest,          1
+    The Introduction,                                    12
+    An Inquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue,          13
+    Remarks,                                             23
+    An Essay on Charity and Charity Schools,            155
+    A Search into the Nature of Society,                205
+    A Vindication of the Book, from the Aspersions
+    contained in a Presentment of the Grand Jury of
+    Middlesex, and an Abusive Letter to Lord C----,     237
+
+
+PART II.
+
+    Preface,                                            261
+    The First Dialogue,                                 279
+    The Second Dialogue,                                302
+    The Third Dialogue,                                 331
+    The Fourth Dialogue,                                366
+    The Fifth Dialogue,                                 400
+    The Sixth Dialogue,                                 451
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Laws and government are to the political bodies of civil societies,
+what the vital spirits and life itself are to the natural bodies
+of animated creatures; and as those that study the anatomy of dead
+carcases may see, that the chief organs and nicest springs more
+immediately required to continue the motion of our machine, are not
+hard bones, strong muscles and nerves, nor the smooth white skin,
+that so beautifully covers them, but small trifling films, and little
+pipes, that are either overlooked or else seem inconsiderable to vulgar
+eyes; so they that examine into the nature of man, abstract from art
+and education, may observe, that what renders him a sociable animal,
+consists not in his desire of company, good nature, pity, affability,
+and other graces of a fair outside; but that his vilest and most
+hateful qualities are the most necessary accomplishments to fit him
+for the largest, and, according to the world, the happiest and most
+flourishing societies.
+
+The following Fable, in which what I have said is set forth at large,
+was printed above eight years ago [1], in a six penny pamphlet,
+called, The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves turn'd Honest; and being soon
+after pirated, cried about the streets in a halfpenny sheet. Since
+the first publishing of it, I have met with several that, either
+wilfully or ignorantly mistaking the design, would have it, that
+the scope of it was a satire upon virtue and morality, and the whole
+wrote for the encouragement of vice. This made me resolve, whenever
+it should be reprinted, some way or other to inform the reader of
+the real intent this little poem was wrote with. I do not dignify
+these few loose lines with the name of Poem, that I would have the
+reader expect any poetry in them, but barely because they are rhyme,
+and I am in reality puzzled what name to give them; for they are
+neither heroic nor pastoral, satire, burlesque, nor heroi-comic;
+to be a tale they want probability, and the whole is rather too
+long for a fable. All I can say of them is, that they are a story
+told in doggerel, which, without the least design of being witty,
+I have endeavoured to do in as easy and familiar a manner as I was
+able: the reader shall be welcome to call them what he pleases. It
+was said of Montaigne, that he was pretty well versed in the defects
+of mankind, but unacquainted with the excellencies of human nature:
+if I fare no worse, I shall think myself well used.
+
+What country soever in the universe is to be understood by the
+Bee-Hive represented here, it is evident, from what is said of the
+laws and constitution of it, the glory, wealth, power, and industry
+of its inhabitants, that it must be a large, rich and warlike nation,
+that is happily governed by a limited monarchy. The satire, therefore,
+to be met with in the following lines, upon the several professions
+and callings, and almost every degree and station of people, was not
+made to injure and point to particular persons, but only to show the
+vileness of the ingredients that altogether compose the wholesome
+mixture of a well-ordered society; in order to extol the wonderful
+power of political wisdom, by the help of which so beautiful a machine
+is raised from the most contemptible branches. For the main design of
+the Fable (as it is briefly explained in the Moral), is to show the
+impossibility of enjoying all the most elegant comforts of life, that
+are to be met with in an industrious, wealthy and powerful nation,
+and at the same time, be blessed with all the virtue and innocence
+that can be wished for in a golden age; from thence to expose the
+unreasonableness and folly of those, that desirous of being an opulent
+and flourishing people, and wonderfully greedy after all the benefits
+they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring at and exclaiming
+against those vices and inconveniences, that from the beginning of the
+world to this present day, have been inseparable from all kingdoms and
+states, that ever were famed, for strength, riches, and politeness,
+at the same time.
+
+To do this, I first slightly touch upon some of the faults and
+corruptions the several professions and callings are generally charged
+with. After that I show that those very vices, of every particular
+person, by skilful management, were made subservient to the grandeur
+and worldly happiness of the whole. Lastly, by setting forth what
+of necessity must be the consequence of general honesty and virtue,
+and national temperance, innocence and content, I demonstrate that if
+mankind could be cured of the failings they are naturally guilty of,
+they would cease to be capable of being raised into such vast potent
+and polite societies, as they have been under the several great
+commonwealths and monarchies that have flourished since the creation.
+
+If you ask me, why I have done all this, cui bono? and what good
+these notions will produce? truly, besides the reader's diversion,
+I believe none at all; but if I was asked what naturally ought to
+be expected from them, I would answer, that, in the first place,
+the people who continually find fault with others, by reading them,
+would be taught to look at home, and examining their own consciences,
+be made ashamed of always railing at what they are more or less guilty
+of themselves; and that, in the next, those who are so fond of the ease
+and comforts, and reap all the benefits that are the consequence of
+a great and flourishing nation, would learn more patiently to submit
+to those inconveniences, which no government upon earth can remedy,
+when they should see the impossibility of enjoying any great share
+of the first, without partaking likewise of the latter.
+
+This, I say, ought naturally to be expected from the publishing of
+these notions, if people were to be made better by any thing that
+could be said to them; but mankind having for so many ages remained
+still the same, notwithstanding the many instructive and elaborate
+writings, by which their amendment has been endeavoured, I am not so
+vain as to hope for better success from so inconsiderable a trifle.
+
+Having allowed the small advantage this little whim is likely to
+produce, I think myself obliged to show that it cannot be prejudicial
+to any; for what is published, if it does no good, ought at least
+to do no harm: in order to this, I have made some explanatory notes,
+to which the reader will find himself referred in those passages that
+seem to be most liable to exceptions.
+
+The censorious, that never saw the Grumbling Hive, will tell me,
+that whatever I may talk of the Fable, it not taking up a tenth
+part of the book, was only contrived to introduce the Remarks;
+that instead of clearing up the doubtful or obscure places, I have
+only pitched upon such as I had a mind to expatiate upon; and that
+far from striving to extenuate the errors committed before, I have
+made bad worse, and shown myself a more barefaced champion for vice,
+in the rambling digressions, than I had done in the Fable itself.
+
+I shall spend no time in answering these accusations: where men are
+prejudiced, the best apologies are lost; and I know that those who
+think it criminal to suppose a necessity of vice in any case whatever,
+will never be reconciled to any part of the performance; but if this
+be thoroughly examined, all the offence it can give must result from
+the wrong inferences that may perhaps be drawn from it, and which I
+desire nobody to make. When I assert that vices are inseparable from
+great and potent societies, and that it is impossible their wealth
+and grandeur should subsist without, I do not say that the particular
+members of them who are guilty of any should not be continually
+reproved, or not be punished for them when they grow into crimes.
+
+There are, I believe, few people in London, of those that are at
+any time forced to go a-foot, but what could wish the streets of it
+much cleaner than generally they are; while they regard nothing but
+their own clothes and private conveniency; but when once they come
+to consider, that what offends them, is the result of the plenty,
+great traffic, and opulency of that mighty city, if they have
+any concern in its welfare, they will hardly ever wish to see the
+streets of it less dirty. For if we mind the materials of all sorts
+that must supply such an infinite number of trades and handicrafts,
+as are always going forward; the vast quantity of victuals, drink,
+and fuel, that are daily consumed in it; the waste and superfluities
+that must be produced from them; the multitudes of horses, and other
+cattle, that are always dawbing the streets; the carts, coaches, and
+more heavy carriages that are perpetually wearing and breaking the
+pavement of them; and, above all, the numberless swarms of people that
+are continually harassing and trampling through every part of them:
+If, I say, we mind all these, we shall find, that every moment must
+produce new filth; and, considering how far distant the great streets
+are from the river side, what cost and care soever be bestowed to
+remove the nastiness almost as fast as it is made, it is impossible
+London should be more cleanly before it is less flourishing. Now would
+I ask, if a good citizen, in consideration of what has been said,
+might not assert, that dirty streets are a necessary evil, inseparable
+from the felicity of London, without being the least hinderance to the
+cleaning of shoes, or sweeping of streets, and consequently without
+any prejudice either to the blackguard or the scavingers.
+
+But if, without any regard to the interest or happiness of the city,
+the question was put, What place I thought most pleasant to walk
+in? Nobody can doubt, but before the stinking streets of London, I
+would esteem a fragrant garden, or a shady grove in the country. In the
+same manner, if laying aside all worldly greatness and vain glory, I
+should be asked where I thought it was most probable that men might
+enjoy true happiness, I would prefer a small peaceable society,
+in which men, neither envied nor esteemed by neighbours, should be
+contented to live upon the natural product of the spot they inhabit,
+to a vast multitude abounding in wealth and power, that should always
+be conquering others by their arms abroad, and debauching themselves
+by foreign luxury at home.
+
+Thus much I had said to the reader in the first edition; and have
+added nothing by way of preface in the second. But since that,
+a violent outcry has been made against the book, exactly answering
+the expectation I always had of the justice, the wisdom, the charity,
+and fair-dealing of those whose good will I despaired of. It has been
+presented by the Grand Jury, and condemned by thousands who never saw
+a word of it. It has been preached against before my Lord Mayor; and
+an utter refutation of it is daily expected from a reverend divine,
+who has called me names in the advertisements, and threatened to
+answer me in two months time for above five months together. What
+I have to say for myself, the reader will see in my Vindication at
+the end of the book, where he will likewise find the Grand Jury's
+Presentment, and a letter to the Right Honourable Lord C. which is
+very rhetorical beyond argument or connection. The author shows a fine
+talent for invectives, and great sagacity in discovering atheism,
+where others can find none. He is zealous against wicked books,
+points at the Fable of the Bees, and is very angry with the author:
+He bestows four strong epithets on the enormity of his guilt, and by
+several elegant innuendos to the multitude, as the danger there is
+in suffering such authors to live, and the vengeance of Heaven upon
+a whole nation, very charitably recommends him to their care.
+
+Considering the length of this epistle, and that it is not wholly
+levelled at me only, I thought at first to have made some extracts
+from it of what related to myself; but finding, on a nearer inquiry,
+that what concerned me was so blended and interwoven with what did not,
+I was obliged to trouble the reader with it entire, not without hopes
+that, prolix as it is, the extravagancy of it will be entertaining
+to those who have perused the treatise it condemns with so much horror.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      THE
+                GRUMBLING HIVE:
+                      OR,
+             KNAVES TURN'D HONEST.
+
+
+    A spacious hive well stock'd with bees,
+    That liv'd in luxury and ease;
+    And yet as fam'd for laws and arms,
+    As yielding large and early swarms;
+    Was counted the great nursery                         5
+    Of sciences and industry.
+    No bees had better government,
+    More fickleness, or less content:
+    They were not slaves to tyranny.
+    Nor rul'd by wild democracy;                         10
+    But kings, that could not wrong, because
+    Their power was circumscrib'd by laws.
+      These insects liv'd like men, and all
+    Our actions they performed in small:
+    They did whatever's done in town,                    15
+    And what belongs to sword or gown:
+    Though th' artful works, by nimble slight
+    Of minute limbs, 'scap'd human sight;
+    Yet we've no engines, labourers,
+    Ships, castles, arms, artificers,                    20
+    Craft, science, shop, or instrument,
+    But they had an equivalent:
+    Which, since their language is unknown,
+    Must be call'd, as we do our own.
+    As grant, that among other things,                   25
+    They wanted dice, yet they had kings;
+    And those had guards; from whence we may
+    Justly conclude, they had some play;
+    Unless a regiment be shown
+    Of soldiers, that make use of none.                  30
+      Vast numbers throng'd the fruitful hive;
+    Yet those vast numbers made 'em thrive;
+    Millions endeavouring to supply
+    Each other's lust and vanity;
+    While other millions were employ'd,                  35
+    To see their handy-works destroy'd;
+    They furnish'd half the universe;
+    Yet had more work than labourers.
+    Some with vast flocks, and little pains,
+    Jump'd into business of great gains;                 40
+    And some were damn'd to scythes and spades,
+    And all those hard laborious trades;
+    Where willing wretches daily sweat,
+    And wear out strength and limbs to eat:
+    While others follow'd mysteries,                     45
+    To which few folks binds 'prentices;
+    That want no stock, but that of brass,
+    And may set up without a cross;
+    As sharpers, parasites, pimps, players,
+    Pickpockets, coiners, quacks, soothsayers,           50
+    And all those, that in enmity,
+    With downright working, cunningly
+    Convert to their own use the labour
+    Of their good-natur'd heedless neighbour.
+    These were call'd Knaves, but bar the name,          55
+    The grave industrious were the same:
+    All trades and places knew some cheat,
+    No calling was without deceit.
+      The lawyers, of whose art the basis
+    Was raising feuds and splitting cases,               60
+    Oppos'd all registers, that cheats
+    Might make more work with dipt estates;
+    As were't unlawful, that one's own,
+    Without a law-suit, should be known.
+    They kept off hearings wilfully,                     65
+    To finger the refreshing fee;
+    And to defend a wicked cause,
+    Examin'd and survey'd the laws,
+    As burglar's shops and houses do,
+    To find out where they'd best break through.         70
+      Physicians valu'd fame and wealth
+    Above the drooping patient's health,
+    Or their own skill: the greatest part
+    Study'd, instead of rules of art,
+    Grave pensive looks and dull behaviour,              75
+    To gain th' apothecary's favour;
+    The praise of midwives, priests, and all
+    That serv'd at birth or funeral.
+    To bear with th' ever-talking tribe,
+    And hear my lady's aunt prescribe;                   80
+    With formal smile, and kind how d'ye,
+    To fawn on all the family;
+    And, which of all the greatest curse is,
+    T' endure th' impertinence of nurses.
+      Among the many priests of Jove,                    85
+    Hir'd to draw blessings from above,
+    Some few were learn'd and eloquent,
+    But thousands hot and ignorant:
+    Yet all pass'd muster that could hide
+    Their sloth, lust, avarice and pride;                90
+    For which they were as fam'd as tailors
+    For cabbage, or for brandy sailors,
+    Some, meagre-look'd, and meanly clad,
+    Would mystically pray for bread,
+    Meaning by that an ample store,                      95
+    Yet lit'rally received no more;
+    And, while these holy drudges starv'd,
+    The lazy ones, for which they serv'd,
+    Indulg'd their ease, with all the graces
+    Of health and plenty in their faces.                100
+      The soldiers, that were forc'd to fight,
+    If they surviv'd, got honour by't;
+    Though some, that shunn'd the bloody fray,
+    Had limbs shot off, that ran away:
+    Some valiant gen'rals fought the foe;               105
+    Others took bribes to let them go:
+    Some ventur'd always where 'twas warm,
+    Lost now a leg, and then an arm;
+    Till quite disabled, and put by,
+    They liv'd on half their salary;                    110
+    While others never came in play,
+    And staid at home for double pay.
+      Their kings were serv'd, but knavishly,
+    Cheated by their own ministry;
+    Many, that for their welfare slaved,                115
+    Robbing the very crown they saved:
+    Pensions were small, and they liv'd high,
+    Yet boasted of their honesty.
+    Calling, whene'er they strain'd their right,
+    The slipp'ry trick a perquisite;                    120
+    And when folks understood their cant,
+    They chang'd that for emolument;
+    Unwilling to be short or plain,
+    In any thing concerning gain;
+    For there was not a bee but would                   125
+    Get more, I won't say, than he should;
+    But than he dar'd to let them know,
+    That pay'd for't; as your gamesters do,
+    That, though at fair play, ne'er will own
+    Before the losers that they've won.                 130
+      But who can all their frauds repeat?
+    The very stuff which in the street
+    They sold for dirt t' enrich the ground,
+    Was often by the buyers found
+    Sophisticated with a quarter                        135
+    Of good-for-nothing stones and mortar;
+    Though Flail had little cause to mutter.
+    Who sold the other salt for butter.
+      Justice herself, fam'd for fair dealing,
+    By blindness had not lost her feeling;              140
+    Her left hand, which the scales should hold,
+    Had often dropt 'em, brib'd with gold;
+    And, though she seem'd impartial,
+    Where punishment was corporal,
+    Pretended to a reg'lar course,                      145
+    In murder, and all crimes of force;
+    Though some first pillory'd for cheating,
+    Were hang'd in hemp of their own beating;
+    Yet, it was thought, the sword she bore
+    Check'd but the desp'rate and the poor;             150
+    That, urg'd by mere necessity,
+    Were ty'd up to the wretched tree
+    For crimes, which not deserv'd that fate,
+    But to secure the rich and great.
+      Thus every part was full of vice,                 155
+    Yet the whole mass a paradise;
+    Flatter'd in peace, and fear'd in wars
+    They were th' esteem of foreigners,
+    And lavish of their wealth and lives,
+    The balance of all other hives.                     160
+    Such were the blessings of that state;
+    Their crimes conspir'd to make them great:
+    And virtue, who from politics
+    Has learn'd a thousand cunning tricks,
+    Was, by their happy influence,                      165
+    Made friends with vice: And ever since,
+    The worst of all the multitude
+    Did something for the common good.
+      This was the state's craft, that maintain'd
+    The whole of which each part complain'd:            170
+    This, as in music harmony
+    Made jarrings in the main agree,
+    Parties directly opposite,
+    Assist each other, as 'twere for spite;
+    And temp'rance with sobriety,                       175
+    Serve drunkenness and gluttony.
+      The root of evil, avarice,
+    That damn'd ill-natur'd baneful vice,
+    Was slave to prodigality,
+    That noble sin; whilst luxury                       180
+    Employ'd a million of the poor,
+    And odious pride a million more:
+    Envy itself, and vanity,
+    Were ministers of industry;
+    Their darling folly, fickleness,                    185
+    In diet, furniture, and dress,
+    That strange ridic'lous vice, was made
+    The very wheel that turn'd the trade.
+    Their laws and clothes were equally
+    Objects of mutability!                              190
+    For, what was well done for a time,
+    In half a year became a crime;
+    Yet while they altered thus their laws,
+    Still finding and correcting flaws,
+    They mended by inconstancy                          195
+    Faults, which no prudence could foresee.
+      Thus vice nurs'd ingenuity,
+    Which join'd the time and industry,
+    Had carry'd life's conveniences,
+    Its real pleasures, comforts, ease,                 200
+    To such a height, the very poor                 }
+    Liv'd better than the rich before.              }
+    And nothing could be added more.                }
+      How vain is mortal happiness!
+    Had they but known the bounds of bliss;             205
+    And that perfection here below
+    Is more than gods can well bestow;
+    The grumbling brutes had been content
+    With ministers and government.
+    But they, at every ill success,                     210
+    Like creatures lost without redress,
+    Curs'd politicians, armies, fleets;
+    While every one cry'd, damn the cheats,
+    And would, though conscious of his own,
+    In others barb'rously bear none.                    215
+      One, that had got a princely store,
+    By cheating master, king, and poor,
+    Dar'd cry aloud, the land must sink
+    For all its fraud; and whom d'ye think
+    The sermonizing rascal chid?                        220
+    A glover that sold lamb for kid.
+      The least thing was not done amiss,
+    Or cross'd the public business;
+    But all the rogues cry'd brazenly,
+    Good gods, had we but honesty!                      225
+    Merc'ry smil'd at th' impudence,
+    And others call'd it want of sense,
+    Always to rail at what they lov'd:
+    But Jove with indignation mov'd,
+    At last in anger swore, he'd rid                    230
+    The bawling hive of fraud; and did.
+    The very moment it departs,
+    And honesty fills all their hearts;
+    There shows 'em, like th' instructive tree,
+    Those crimes which they're asham'd to see;          235
+    Which now in silence they confess,
+    By blushing at their ugliness:
+    Like children, that would hide their faults,
+    And by their colour own their thoughts:
+    Imag'ning, when they're look'd upon,                240
+    That others see what they have done.
+      But, O ye gods! what consternation,
+    How vast and sudden was th' alteration!
+    In half an hour, the nation round,
+    Meat fell a penny in the pound.                     245
+    The mask hypocrisy's sitting down,
+    From the great statesman to the clown:
+    And in some borrow'd looks well known,
+    Appear'd like strangers in their own.
+    The bar was silent from that day;                   250
+    For now the willing debtors pay,
+    Ev'n what's by creditors forgot;
+    Who quitted them that had it not.
+    Those that were in the wrong, stood mute,
+    And dropt the patch'd vexatious suit:               255
+    On which since nothing else can thrive,
+    Than lawyers in an honest hive,
+    All, except those that got enough,
+    With inkhorns by their sides troop'd off.
+      Justice hang'd some, set others free;             260
+    And after gaol delivery,
+    Her presence being no more requir'd,
+    With all her train and pomp retir'd.
+    First march'd some smiths with locks and grates,
+    Fetters, and doors with iron plates:                265
+    Next gaolers, turnkeys and assistants:
+    Before the goddess, at some distance,
+    Her chief and faithful minister,
+    'Squire Catch, the law's great finisher,
+    Bore not th' imaginary sword,                       270
+    But his own tools, an ax and cord:
+    Then on a cloud the hood-wink'd fair,
+    Justice herself was push'd by air:
+    About her chariot, and behind,
+    Were serjeants, bums of every kind,                 275
+    Tip-staffs, and all those officers,
+    That squeeze a living out of tears.
+      Though physic liv'd, while folks were ill,
+    None would prescribe, but bees of skill,
+    Which through the hive dispers'd so wide,           280
+    That none of them had need to ride;
+    Wav'd vain disputes, and strove to free
+    The patients of their misery;
+    Left drugs in cheating countries grown,
+    And us'd the product of their own;                  285
+    Knowing the gods sent no disease,
+    To nations without remedies.
+      Their clergy rous'd from laziness,
+    Laid not their charge on journey-bees;
+    But serv'd themselves, exempt from vice,            290
+    The gods with pray'r and sacrifice;
+    All those, that were unfit, or knew,
+    Their service might be spar'd, withdrew:
+    Nor was their business for so many,
+    (If th' honest stand in need of any,)               295
+    Few only with the high-priest staid,
+    To whom the rest obedience paid:
+    Himself employ'd in holy cares;
+    Resign'd to others state-affairs.
+    He chas'd no starv'ling from his door,              300
+    Nor pinch'd the wages of the poor:
+    But at his house the hungry's fed,              }
+    The hireling finds unmeasur'd bread,            }
+    The needy trav'ller board and bed.              }
+      Among the king's great ministers,                 305
+    And all th' inferior officers,
+    The change was great; for frugally
+    They now liv'd on their salary:
+    That a poor bee should ten times come
+    To ask his due, a trifling sum,                     310
+    And by some well-hir'd clerk be made
+    To give a crown, or ne'er be paid,
+    Would now be call'd a downright cheat,
+    Though formerly a perquisite.
+    All places manag'd first by three,                  315
+    Who watch'd each other's knavery
+    And often for a fellow-feeling,
+    Promoted one another's stealing,
+    Are happily supply'd by one,
+    By which some thousands more are gone.              320
+      No honour now could be content,
+    To live and owe for what was spent;
+    Liv'ries in brokers shops are hung,
+    They part with coaches for a song;
+    Sell stately horses by whole sets;                  325
+    And country-houses, to pay debts.
+      Vain cost is shunn'd as much as fraud;
+    They have no forces kept abroad;
+    Laugh at th' esteem of foreigners,
+    And empty glory got by wars;                        330
+    They fight but for their country's sake,
+    When right or liberty's at stake.
+      Now mind the glorious hive, and see
+    How honesty and trade agree.
+    The show is gone, it thins apace;                   335
+    And looks with quite another face.
+    For 'twas not only that they went,
+    By whom vast sums were yearly spent;
+    But multitudes that liv'd on them,
+    Were daily forc'd to do the same.                   340
+    In vain to other trades they'd fly;
+    All were o'er-stock'd accordingly.
+      The price of land and houses falls;
+    Mirac'lous palaces, whose walls,
+    Like those of Thebes, were rais'd by play,          345
+    Are to be let; while the once gay,
+    Well-seated household gods would be
+    More pleas'd to expire in flames, than see
+    The mean inscription on the door
+    Smile at the lofty ones they bore.                  350
+    The building trade is quite destroy'd,
+    Artificers are not employ'd;
+    No limner for his art is fam'd,
+    Stone-cutters, carvers are not nam'd.
+      Those, that remain'd, grown temp'rate, strive,    355
+    Not how to spend, but how to live;
+    And, when they paid their tavern score,
+    Resolv'd to enter it no more:
+    No vintner's jilt in all the hive
+    Could wear now cloth of gold, and thrive;           360
+    Nor Torcol such vast sums advance,
+    For Burgundy and Ortolans;
+    The courtier's gone that with his miss
+    Supp'd at his house on Christmas peas;
+    Spending as much in two hours stay,                 365
+    As keeps a troop of horse a day.
+      The haughty Chloe, to live great,
+    Had made her husband rob the state:
+    But now she sells her furniture,
+    Which th' Indies had been ransack'd for;            370
+    Contracts the expensive bill of fare,
+    And wears her strong suit a whole year:
+    The slight and fickle age is past;
+    And clothes, as well as fashions, last.
+    Weavers, that join'd rich silk with plate,          375
+    And all the trades subordinate,
+    Are gone; still peace and plenty reign,
+    And every thing is cheap, though plain:
+    Kind nature, free from gard'ners force,
+    Allows all fruits in her own course;                380
+    But rarities cannot be had,
+    Where pains to get them are not paid.
+      As pride and luxury decrease,
+    So by degrees they leave the seas.
+    Not merchants now, but companies                    385
+    Remove whole manufactories.
+    All arts and crafts neglected lie;
+    Content, the bane of industry,
+    Makes 'em admire their homely store,
+    And neither seek nor covet more.                    390
+      So few in the vast hive remain,
+    The hundredth part they can't maintain
+    Against th' insults of numerous foes;
+    Whom yet they valiantly oppose:
+    'Till some well fenc'd retreat is found,            395
+    And here they die or stand their ground.
+    No hireling in their army's known;
+    But bravely fighting for their own,
+    Their courage and integrity
+    At last were crown'd with victory.                  400
+      They triumph'd not without their cost,
+    For many thousand bees were lost.
+    Harden'd with toils and exercise,
+    They counted ease itself a vice;
+    Which so improv'd their temperance;                 405
+    That, to avoid extravagance,
+    They flew into a hollow tree,
+    Blest with content and honesty.
+
+
+
+
+                THE MORAL.
+
+    Then leave complaints: fools only strive
+    To make a great an honest hive.                     410
+    T' enjoy the world's conveniences,
+    Be fam'd in war, yet live in ease,
+    Without great vices, is a vain
+    Eutopia seated in the brain.
+    Fraud, luxury, and pride must live,                 415
+    While we the benefits receive:
+    Hunger's a dreadful plague, no doubt,
+    Yet who digests or thrives without?
+    Do we not owe the growth of wine
+    To the dry shabby crooked vine?                     420
+    Which, while its shoots neglected stood,
+    Chok'd other plants, and ran to wood;
+    But blest us with its noble fruit,
+    As soon as it was ty'd and cut:
+    So vice is beneficial found,                        425
+    When it's by justice lopp'd and bound;
+    Nay, where the people would be great,           }
+    As necessary to the state,                      }
+    As hunger is to make 'em eat.                   }
+    Bare virtue can't make nations live                 430
+    In splendor; they, that would revive
+    A golden age, must be as free,
+    For acorns as for honesty.                          433
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE
+                         INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+One of the greatest reasons why so few people understand themselves,
+is, that most writers are always teaching men what they should be,
+and hardly ever trouble their heads with telling them what they really
+are. As for my part, without any compliment to the courteous reader,
+or myself, I believe man (besides skin, flesh, bones, &c. that are
+obvious to the eye) to be a compound of various passions; that all of
+them, as they are provoked and come uppermost, govern him by turns,
+whether he will or no. To show that these qualifications, which we
+all pretend to be ashamed of, are the great support of a flourishing
+society, has been the subject of the foregoing poem. But there being
+some passages in it seemingly paradoxical, I have in the preface
+promised some explanatory remarks on it; which, to render more useful,
+I have thought fit to inquire, how man, no better qualified, might yet
+by his own imperfections be taught to distinguish between virtue and
+vice: and here I must desire the reader once for all to take notice,
+that when I say men, I mean neither Jews nor Christians; but mere man,
+in the state of nature and ignorance of the true Deity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               AN
+                            INQUIRY
+                            INTO THE
+                    ORIGIN OF MORAL VIRTUE.
+
+
+All untaught animals are only solicitous of pleasing themselves,
+and naturally follow the bent of their own inclinations, without
+considering the good or harm that, from their being pleased, will
+accrue to others. This is the reason that, in the wild state of
+nature, those creatures are fittest to live peaceably together in
+great numbers, that discover the least of understanding, and have the
+fewest appetites to gratify; and consequently no species of animals
+is, without the curb of government, less capable of agreeing long
+together in multitudes, than that of man; yet such are his qualities,
+whether good or bad I shall not determine, that no creature besides
+himself can ever be made sociable: but being an extraordinary selfish
+and headstrong, as well as cunning animal, however he may be subdued
+by superior strength, it is impossible by force alone to make him
+tractable, and receive the improvements he is capable of.
+
+The chief thing, therefore, which lawgivers, and other wise men that
+have laboured for the establishment of society, have endeavoured,
+has been to make the people they were to govern, believe, that
+it was more beneficial for every body to conquer than indulge his
+appetites, and much better to mind the public than what seemed his
+private interest. As this has always been a very difficult task,
+so no wit or eloquence has been left untried to compass it; and the
+moralists and philosophers of all ages employed their utmost skill to
+prove the truth of so useful an assertion. But whether mankind would
+have ever believed it or not, it is not likely that any body could
+have persuaded them to disapprove of their natural inclinations,
+or prefer the good of others to their own, if, at the same time,
+he had not showed them an equivalent to be enjoyed as a reward for
+the violence, which, by so doing, they of necessity must commit upon
+themselves. Those that have undertaken to civilize mankind, were
+not ignorant of this; but being unable to give so many real rewards
+as would satisfy all persons for every individual action, they were
+forced to contrive an imaginary one, that, as a general equivalent
+for the trouble of self-denial, should serve on all occasions, and
+without costing any thing either to themselves or others, be yet a
+most acceptable recompence to the receivers.
+
+They thoroughly examined all the strength and frailties of our nature,
+and observing that none were either so savage as not to be charmed
+with praise, or so despicable as patiently to bear contempt, justly
+concluded, that flattery must be the most powerful argument that could
+be used to human creatures. Making use of this bewitching engine, they
+extolled the excellency of our nature above other animals, and setting
+forth with unbounded praises the wonders of our sagacity and vastness
+of understanding, bestowed a thousand encomiums on the rationality
+of our souls, by the help of which we were capable of performing
+the most noble achievements. Having, by this artful way of flattery,
+insinuated themselves into the hearts of men, they began to instruct
+them in the notions of honour and shame; representing the one as the
+worst of all evils, and the other as the highest good to which mortals
+could aspire: which being done, they laid before them how unbecoming
+it was the dignity of such sublime creatures to be solicitous about
+gratifying those appetites, which they had in common with brutes, and
+at the same time unmindful of those higher qualities that gave them
+the pre-eminence over all visible beings. They indeed confessed, that
+those impulses of nature were very pressing; that it was troublesome to
+resist, and very difficult wholly to subdue them. But this they only
+used as an argument to demonstrate, how glorious the conquest of them
+was on the one hand, and how scandalous on the other not to attempt it.
+
+To introduce, moreover, an emulation amongst men, they divided the
+whole species into two classes, vastly differing from one another:
+the one consisted of abject, low-minded people, that always hunting
+after immediate enjoyment, were wholly incapable of self-denial,
+and without regard to the good of others, had no higher aim than
+their private advantage; such as being enslaved by voluptuousness,
+yielded without resistance to every gross desire, and make no use of
+their rational faculties but to heighten their sensual pleasure. These
+wild grovelling wretches, they said, were the dross of their kind,
+and having only the shape of men, differed from brutes in nothing
+but their outward figure. But the other class was made up of
+lofty high-spirited creatures, that, free from sordid selfishness,
+esteemed the improvements of the mind to be their fairest possessions;
+and, setting a true value upon themselves, took no delight but in
+embellishing that part in which their excellency consisted; such
+as despising whatever they had in common with irrational creatures,
+opposed by the help of reason their most violent inclinations; and
+making a continual war with themselves, to promote the peace of others,
+aimed at no less than the public welfare, and the conquest of their
+own passion.
+
+
+    Fortior est qui se quàm qui fortissima Vincit
+    Moenia ---- ----
+
+
+These they called the true representatives of their sublime species,
+exceeding in worth the first class by more degrees, than that itself
+was superior to the beasts of the field.
+
+As in all animals that are not too imperfect to discover pride,
+we find, that the finest, and such as are the most beautiful and
+valuable of their kind, have generally the greatest share of it; so
+in man, the most perfect of animals, it is so inseparable from his
+very essence (how cunningly soever some may learn to hide or disguise
+it), that without it the compound he is made of would want one of
+the chiefest ingredients: which, if we consider, it is hardly to be
+doubted but lessons and remonstrances, so skilfully adapted to the
+good opinion man has of himself, as those I have mentioned, must,
+if scattered amongst a multitude, not only gain the assent of most
+of them, as to the speculative part, but likewise induce several,
+especially the fiercest, most resolute, and best among them, to
+endure a thousand inconveniences, and undergo as many hardships,
+that they may have the pleasure of counting themselves men of the
+second class, and consequently appropriating to themselves all the
+excellencies they have heard of it.
+
+From what has been said, we ought to expect, in the first place, that
+the heroes who took such extraordinary pains to master some of their
+natural appetites, and preferred the good of others to any visible
+interest of their own, would not recede an inch from the fine notions
+they had received concerning the dignity of rational creatures; and
+having ever the authority of the government on their side, with all
+imaginable vigour assert the esteem that was due to those of the second
+class, as well as their superiority over the rest of their kind. In
+the second, that those who wanted a sufficient stock of either pride
+or resolution, to buoy them up in mortifying of what was dearest to
+them, followed the sensual dictates of nature, would yet be ashamed of
+confessing themselves to be those despicable wretches that belonged
+to the inferior class, and were generally reckoned to be so little
+removed from brutes; and that therefore, in their own defence, they
+would say, as others did, and hiding their own imperfections as well
+as they could, cry up self-denial and public spiritedness as much
+as any: for it is highly probable, that some of them, convinced by
+the real proofs of fortitude and self-conquest they had seen, would
+admire in others what they found wanting in themselves; others be
+afraid of the resolution and prowess of those of the second class,
+and that all of them were kept in awe by the power of their rulers;
+wherefore is it reasonable to think, that none of them (whatever they
+thought in themselves) would dare openly contradict, what by every
+body else was thought criminal to doubt of.
+
+This was (or at least might have been) the manner after which savage
+man was broke; from whence it is evident, that the first rudiments
+of morality, broached by skilful politicians, to render men useful
+to each other, as well as tractable, were chiefly contrived, that
+the ambitious might reap the more benefit from, and govern vast
+numbers of them with the greater ease and security. This foundation
+of politics being once laid, it is impossible that man should long
+remain uncivilized: for even those who only strove to gratify their
+appetites, being continually crossed by others of the same stamp,
+could not but observe, that whenever they checked their inclinations
+or but followed them with more circumspection, they avoided a world
+of troubles, and often escaped many of the calamities that generally
+attended the too eager pursuit after pleasure.
+
+First, they received, as well as others, the benefit of those actions
+that were done for the good of the whole society, and consequently
+could not forbear wishing well to those of the superior class that
+performed them. Secondly, the more intent they were in seeking their
+own advantage, without regard to others, the more they were hourly
+convinced, that none stood so much in their way as those that were
+most like themselves.
+
+It being the interest then of the very worst of them, more than any,
+to preach up public-spiritedness, that they might reap the fruits of
+the labour and self-denial of others, and at the same time indulge
+their own appetites with less disturbance, they agreed with the
+rest, to call every thing, which, without regard to the public,
+man should commit to gratify any of his appetites, vice; if in that
+action there could be observed the least prospect, that it might
+either be injurious to any of the society, or ever render himself
+less serviceable to others: and to give the name of virtue to every
+performance, by which man, contrary to the impulse of nature, should
+endeavour the benefit of others, or the conquest of his own passions,
+out of a rational ambition of being good.
+
+It shall be objected, that no society was ever any ways civilized
+before the major part had agreed upon some worship or other of an
+over-ruling power, and consequently that the notions of good and evil,
+and the distinction between virtue and vice, were never the contrivance
+of politicians, but the pure effect of religion. Before I answer
+this objection, I must repeat what I have said already, that in this
+inquiry into the origin of moral virtue, I speak neither of Jews or
+Christians, but man in his state of nature and ignorance of the true
+Deity; and then I affirm, that the idolatrous superstitions of all
+other nations, and the pitiful notions they had of the Supreme Being,
+were incapable of exciting man to virtue, and good for nothing but
+to awe and amuse a rude and unthinking multitude. It is evident from
+history, that in all considerable societies, how stupid or ridiculous
+soever people's received notions have been, as to the deities they
+worshipped, human nature has ever exerted itself in all its branches,
+and that there is no earthly wisdom or moral virtue, but at one time
+or other men have excelled in it in all monarchies and commonwealths,
+that for riches and power have been any ways remarkable.
+
+The Egyptians, not satisfied with having deified all the ugly
+monsters they could think on, were so silly as to adore the onions
+of their own sowing; yet at the same time their country was the most
+famous nursery of arts and sciences in the world, and themselves more
+eminently skilled in the deepest mysteries of nature than any nation
+has been since.
+
+No states or kingdoms under heaven have yielded more or greater
+patterns in all sorts of moral virtues, than the Greek and Roman
+empires, more especially the latter; and yet how loose, absurd and
+ridiculous were their sentiments as to sacred matters? For without
+reflecting on the extravagant number of their deities, if we only
+consider the infamous stories they fathered upon them, it is not to
+be denied but that their religion, far from teaching men the conquest
+of their passions, and the way to virtue, seemed rather contrived to
+justify their appetites, and encourage their vices. But if we would
+know what made them excel in fortitude, courage, and magnanimity, we
+must cast our eyes on the pomp of their triumphs, the magnificence of
+their monuments and arches; their trophies, statues, and inscriptions;
+the variety of their military crowns, their honours decreed to the
+dead, public encomiums on the living, and other imaginary rewards
+they bestowed on men of merit; and we shall find, that what carried
+so many of them to the utmost pitch of self-denial, was nothing but
+their policy in making use of the most effectual means that human
+pride could be flattered with.
+
+It is visible, then, that it was not any heathen religion, or other
+idolatrous superstition, that first put man upon crossing his appetites
+and subduing his dearest inclinations, but the skilful management
+of wary politicians; and the nearer we search into human nature, the
+more we shall be convinced, that the moral virtues are the political
+offspring which flattery begot upon pride.
+
+There is no man, of what capacity or penetration soever, that is wholly
+proof against the witchcraft of flattery, if artfully performed, and
+suited to his abilities. Children and fools will swallow personal
+praise, but those that are more cunning, must be managed with much
+greater circumspection; and the more general the flattery is, the
+less it is suspected by those it is levelled at. What you say in
+commendation of a whole town is received with pleasure by all the
+inhabitants: speak in commendation of letters in general, and every
+man of learning will think himself in particular obliged to you. You
+may safely praise the employment a man is of, or the country he was
+born in; because you give him an opportunity of screening the joy
+he feels upon his own account, under the esteem which he pretends to
+have for others.
+
+It is common among cunning men, that understand the power which
+flattery has upon pride, when they are afraid they shall be imposed
+upon, to enlarge, though much against their conscience, upon the
+honour, fair dealing, and integrity of the family, country, or
+sometimes the profession of him they suspect; because they know
+that men often will change their resolution, and act against their
+inclination, that they may have the pleasure of continuing to appear in
+the opinion of some, what they are conscious not to be in reality. Thus
+sagacious moralists draw men like angels, in hopes that the pride at
+least of some will put them upon copying after the beautiful originals
+which they are represented to be.
+
+When the incomparable Sir Richard Steele, in the usual elegance of
+his easy style, dwells on the praises of his sublime species, and
+with all the embellishments of rhetoric, sets forth the excellency
+of human nature, it is impossible not to be charmed with his happy
+turns of thought, and the politeness of his expressions. But though
+I have been often moved by the force of his eloquence, and ready to
+swallow the ingenious sophistry with pleasure, yet I could, never
+be so serious, but, reflecting on his artful encomiums, I thought
+on the tricks made use of by the women that would teach children
+to be mannerly. When an awkward girl before she can either speak
+or go, begins after many entreaties to make the first rude essays
+of curtseying, the nurse falls in an ecstacy of praise; "There is a
+delicate curtsey! O fine Miss! there is a pretty lady! Mamma! Miss
+can make a better curtsey than her sister Molly!" The same is echoed
+over by the maids, whilst Mamma almost hugs the child to pieces;
+only Miss Molly, who being four years older, knows how to make a very
+handsome curtsey, wonders at the perverseness of their judgment, and
+swelling with indignation, is ready to cry at the injustice that is
+done her, till, being whispered in the ear that it is only to please
+the baby, and that she is a woman, she grows proud at being let into
+the secret, and rejoicing at the superiority of her understanding,
+repeats what has been said with large additions, and insults over
+the weakness of her sister, whom all this while she fancies to be the
+only bubble among them. These extravagant praises would by any one,
+above the capacity of an infant, be called fulsome flatteries, and,
+if you will, abominable lies; yet experience teaches us, that by
+the help of such gross encomiums, young misses will be brought to
+make pretty curtesies, and behave themselves womanly much sooner,
+and with less trouble, than they would without them. It is the same
+with boys, whom they will strive to persuade, that all fine gentlemen
+do as they are bid, and that none but beggar boys are rude, or dirty
+their clothes; nay, as soon as the wild brat with his untaught fist
+begins to fumble for his hat, the mother, to make him pull it off,
+tells him before he is two years old, that he is a man; and if he
+repeats that action when she desires him, he is presently a captain,
+a lord mayor, a king, or something higher if she can think of it,
+till edged on by the force of praise, the little urchin endeavours
+to imitate man as well as he can, and strains all his faculties to
+appear what his shallow noddle imagines he is believed to be.
+
+The meanest wretch puts an inestimable value upon himself, and the
+highest wish of the ambitious man is to have all the world, as to
+that particular, of his opinion: so that the most insatiable thirst
+after fame that ever heroe was inspired with, was never more than an
+ungovernable greediness to engross the esteem and admiration of others
+in future ages as well as his own; and (what mortification soever this
+truth might be to the second thoughts of an Alexander or a Cæsar) the
+great recompense in view, for which the most exalted minds have with
+so much alacrity sacrificed their quiet, health, sensual pleasures,
+and every inch of themselves, has never been any thing else but the
+breath of man, the aerial coin of praise. Who can forbear laughing
+when he thinks on all the great men that have been so serious on
+the subject of that Macedonian madman, his capacious soul, that
+mighty heart, in one corner of which, according to Lorenzo Gratian,
+the world was so commodiously lodged, that in the whole there was
+room for six more? Who can forbear laughing, I say, when he compares
+the fine things that have been said of Alexander, with the end he
+proposed to himself from his vast exploits, to be proved from his
+own mouth; when the vast pains he took to pass the Hydaspes forced
+him to cry out? Oh ye Athenians, could you believe what dangers I
+expose myself to, to be praised by you! To define then, the reward
+of glory in the amplest manner, the most that can be said of it,
+is, that it consists in a superlative felicity which a man, who is
+conscious of having performed a noble action, enjoys in self-love,
+whilst he is thinking on the applause he expects of others.
+
+But here I shall be told, that besides the noisy toils of war and
+public bustle of the ambitious, there are noble and generous actions
+that are performed in silence; that virtue being its own reward, those
+who are really good, have a satisfaction in their consciousness of
+being so, which is all the recompence they expect from the most worthy
+performances; that among the heathens there have been men, who, when
+they did good to others, were so far from coveting thanks and applause,
+that they took all imaginable care to be for ever concealed from those
+on whom they bestowed their benefits, and consequently that pride
+has no hand in spurring man on to the highest pitch of self-denial.
+
+In answer to this, I say, that it is impossible to judge of a man's
+performance, unless we are thoroughly acquainted with the principle
+and motive from which he acts. Pity, though it is the most gentle and
+the least mischievous of all our passions, is yet as much a frailty of
+our nature, as anger, pride, or fear. The weakest minds have generally
+the greatest share of it, for which reason none are more compassionate
+than women and children. It must be owned, that of all our weaknesses,
+it is the most amiable, and bears the greatest resemblance to virtue;
+nay, without a considerable mixture of it, the society could hardly
+subsist: but as it is an impulse of nature, that consults neither the
+public interest nor our own reason, it may produce evil as well as
+good. It has helped to destroy the honour of virgins, and corrupted
+the integrity of judges; and whoever acts from it as a principle,
+what good soever he may bring to the society, has nothing to boast of,
+but that he has indulged a passion that has happened to be beneficial
+to the public. There is no merit in saving an innocent babe ready
+to drop into the fire: the action is neither good nor bad, and
+what benefit soever the infant received, we only obliged ourselves;
+for to have seen it fall, and not strove to hinder it, would have
+caused a pain, which self preservation compelled us to prevent: Nor
+has a rich prodigal, that happens to be of a commiserating temper,
+and loves to gratify his passions, greater virtue to boast of, when
+he relieves an object of compassion with what to himself is a trifle.
+
+But such men, as without complying with any weakness of their own,
+can part from what they value themselves, and, from no other motive
+but there love to goodness, perform a worthy action in silence:
+such men, I confess, have acquired more refined notions of virtue
+than those I have hitherto spoke of; yet even in these (with which
+the world has yet never swarmed) we may discover no small symptoms
+of pride, and the humblest man alive must confess, that the reward
+of a virtuous action, which is the satisfaction that ensues upon it,
+consists in a certain pleasure he procures to himself by contemplating
+on his own worth: which pleasure, together with the occasion of it,
+are as certain signs of pride, as looking pale and trembling at any
+imminent danger, are the symptoms of fear.
+
+If the too scrupulous reader should at first view condemn these notions
+concerning the origin of moral virtue, and think them perhaps offensive
+to Christianity, I hope he will forbear his censures, when he shall
+consider, that nothing can render the unsearchable depth of the Divine
+Wisdom more conspicuous, than that man, whom Providence had designed
+for society, should not only by his own frailties and imperfections,
+be led into the road to temporal happiness, but likewise receive, from
+a seeming necessity of natural causes, a tincture of that knowledge,
+in which he was afterwards to be made perfect by the true religion,
+to his eternal welfare.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS.
+
+
+    Line 45. Whilst others follow'd mysteries,
+             To which few folks bind 'prentices.
+
+
+In the education of youth, in order to their getting of a livelihood
+when they shall be arrived at maturity, most people look out for some
+warrantable employment or other, of which there are whole bodies or
+companies, in every large society of men. By this means, all arts
+and sciences, as well as trades and handicrafts, are perpetuated in
+the commonwealth, as long as they are found useful; the young ones
+that are daily brought up to them, continually supplying the loss of
+the old ones that die. But some of these employments being vastly
+more creditable than others, according to the great difference of
+the charges required to set up in each of them, all prudent parents,
+in the choice of them, chiefly consult their own abilities, and the
+circumstances they are in. A man that gives three or four hundred
+pounds with his son to a great merchant, and has not two or three
+thousand pounds to spare against he is out of his time to begin
+business with, is much to blame not to have brought his child up to
+something that might be followed with less money.
+
+There are abundance of men of a genteel education, that have but very
+small revenues, and yet are forced, by their reputable callings, to
+make a greater figure than ordinary people of twice their income. If
+these have any children, it often happens, that as their indigence
+renders them incapable of bringing them up to creditable occupations,
+so their pride makes them unwilling to put them out to any of the
+mean laborious trades, and then, in hopes either of an alteration
+in their fortune, or that some friends, or favourable opportunity
+shall offer, they from time to time put off the disposing of them,
+until insensibly they come to be of age, and are at last brought up
+to nothing. Whether this neglect be more barbarous to the children,
+or prejudicial to the society, I shall not determine. At Athens all
+children were forced to assist their parents, if they came to want:
+But Solon made a law, that no son should be obliged to relieve his
+father, who had not bred him up to any calling.
+
+Some parents put out their sons to good trades very suitable to their
+then present abilities, but happen to die, or fail in the world,
+before their children have finished their apprenticeships, or are
+made fit for the business they are to follow: A great many young men
+again, on the other hand, are handsomely provided for and set up for
+themselves, that yet (some for want of industry, or else a sufficient
+knowledge in their callings, others by indulging their pleasures,
+and some few by misfortunes) are reduced to poverty, and altogether
+unable to maintain themselves by the business they were brought
+up to. It is impossible but that the neglects, mismanagements, and
+misfortunes I named, must very frequently happen in populous places,
+and consequently great numbers of people be daily flung unprovided
+for into the wide world, how rich and potent a commonwealth may be,
+or what care soever a government may take to hinder it. How must
+these people be disposed of? The sea, I know, and armies, which the
+world is seldom without, will take off some. Those that are honest
+drudges, and of a laborious temper, will become journeymen to the
+trades they are of, or enter into some other service: such of them
+as studied and were sent to the university, may become schoolmasters,
+tutors, and some few of them get into some office or other: But what
+must become of the lazy, that care for no manner of working, and the
+fickle, that hate to be confined to any thing?
+
+Those that ever took delight in plays and romances, and have a spice
+of gentility, will, in all probability, throw their eyes upon the
+stage, and if they have a good elocution, with tolerable mien, turn
+actors. Some that love their bellies above any thing else, if they
+have a good palate, and a little knack at cookery, will strive to get
+in with gluttons and epicures, learn to cringe and bear all manner of
+usage, and so turn parasites, ever flattering the master, and making
+mischief among the rest of the family. Others, who by their own and
+companions lewdness, judge of people's incontinence, will naturally
+fall to intriguing, and endeavour to live by pimping for such as
+either want leisure or address to speak for themselves. Those of the
+most abandoned principles of all, if they are sly and dexterous, turn
+sharpers, pick-pockets, or coiners, if their skill and ingenuity give
+them leave. Others again, that have observed the credulity of simple
+women, and other foolish people, if they have impudence and a little
+cunning, either set up for doctors, or else pretend to tell fortunes;
+and every one turning the vices and frailties of others to his own
+advantage, endeavours to pick up a living the easiest and shortest
+way his talents and abilities will let him.
+
+These are certainly the bane of civil society; but they are fools,
+who, not considering what has been said, storm at the remissness of
+the laws that suffer them to live, while wise men content themselves
+with taking all imaginable care not to be circumvented by them,
+without quarrelling at what no human prudence can prevent.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 55. These we call'd Knaves, but bar the name,
+             The grave industrious were the same.
+
+
+This, I confess, is but a very indifferent compliment to all the
+trading part of the people. But if the word Knave may be understood
+in its full latitude, and comprehend every body that is not sincerely
+honest, and does to others what he would dislike to have done to
+himself, I do not question but I shall make good the charge. To pass
+by the innumerable artifices, by which buyers and sellers outwit one
+another, that are daily allowed of and practised among the fairest of
+dealers, show me the tradesmen that has always discovered the defects
+of his goods to those that cheapened them; nay, where will you find
+one that has not at one time or other industriously concealed them,
+to the detriment of the buyer? Where is the merchant that has never,
+against his conscience, extolled his wares beyond their worth, to
+make them go off the better.
+
+Decio, a man of great figure, that had large commissions for sugar
+from several parts beyond sea, treats about a considerable parcel
+of that commodity with Alcander, an eminent West India merchant;
+both understood the market very well, but could not agree: Decio was
+a man of substance, and thought no body ought to buy cheaper than
+himself; Alcander was the same, and not wanting money, stood for his
+price. While they were driving their bargain at a tavern near the
+exchange, Alcander's man brought his master a letter from the West
+Indies, that informed him of a much greater quantity of sugars coming
+for England than was expected. Alcander now wished for nothing more
+than to sell at Decio's price, before the news was public; but being
+a cunning fox, that he might not seem too precipitant, nor yet lose
+his customer, he drops the discourse they were upon, and putting
+on a jovial humour, commends the agreeableness of the weather, from
+whence falling upon the delight he took in his gardens, invites Decio
+to go along with him to his country house, that was not above twelve
+miles from London. It was in the month of May, and, as it happened,
+upon a Saturday in the afternoon: Decio, who was a single man, and
+would have no business in town before Tuesday, accepts of the other's
+civility, and away they go in Alcander's coach. Decio was splendidly
+entertained that night and the day following; the Monday morning,
+to get himself an appetite, he goes to take the air upon a pad of
+Alcander's, and coming back meets with a gentleman of his acquaintance,
+who tells him news was come the night before that the Barbadoes fleet
+was destroyed by a storm, and adds, that before he came out it had
+been confirmed at Lloyd's coffee house, where it was thought sugars
+would rise 25 per cent, by change-time. Decio returns to his friend,
+and immediately resumes the discourse they had broke off at the tavern:
+Alcander, who thinking himself sure of his chap, did not design to
+have moved it till after dinner, was very glad to see himself so
+happily prevented; but how desirous soever he was to sell, the other
+was yet more eager to buy; yet both of them afraid of one another,
+for a considerable time counterfeited all the indifference imaginable;
+until at last, Decio fired with what he had heard, thought delays
+might prove dangerous, and throwing a guinea upon the table, struck
+the bargain at Alcander's price. The next day they went to London;
+the news proved true, and Decio got five hundred pounds by his sugars,
+Alcander, whilst he had strove to over-reach the other, was paid in his
+own coin: yet all this is called fair dealing; but I am sure neither
+of them would have desired to be done by, as they did to each other.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 101. The soldiers that were forc'd to fight,
+              If they surviv'd got honour by't.
+
+
+So unaccountable is the desire to be thought well of in men, that
+though they are dragged into the war against their will, and some
+of them for their crimes, and are compelled to fight with threats,
+and often blows, yet they would be esteemed for what they would have
+avoided, if it had been in their power: whereas, if reason in man
+was of equal weight with his pride, he could never be pleased with
+praises, which he is conscious he does not deserve.
+
+By honour, in its proper and genuine signification, we mean nothing
+else but the good opinion of others, which is counted more or less
+substantial, the more or less noise or bustle there is made about the
+demonstration of it; and when we say the sovereign is the fountain of
+honour, it signifies that he has the power, by titles or ceremonies,
+or both together, to stamp a mark upon whom he pleases, that shall
+be as current as his coin, and procure the owner the good opinion of
+every body, whether he deserves it or not.
+
+The reverse of honour is dishonour, or ignominy, which consists in
+the bad opinion and contempt of others; and as the first is counted
+a reward for good actions, so this is esteemed a punishment for bad
+ones; and the more or less public or heinous the manner is in which
+this contempt of others is shown, the more or less the person so
+suffering is degraded by it. This ignominy is likewise called shame,
+from the effect it produces; for though the good and evil of honour
+and dishonour are imaginary, yet there is a reality in shame, as it
+signifies a passion, that has its proper symptoms, over-rules our
+reason, and requires as much labour and self-denial to be subdued, as
+any of the rest; and since the most important actions of life often
+are regulated according to the influence this passion has upon us,
+a thorough understanding of it must help to illustrate the notions
+the world has of honour and ignominy. I shall therefore describe it
+at large.
+
+First, to define the passion of shame, I think it may be called
+a sorrowful reflection on our own unworthiness, proceeding from
+an apprehension that others either do, or might, if they knew all,
+deservedly despise us. The only objection of weight that can be raised
+against this definition is, that innocent virgins are often ashamed,
+and blush when they are guilty of no crime, and can give no manner of
+reason for this frailty: and that men are often ashamed for others,
+for, or with whom, they have neither friendship or affinity, and
+consequently that there may be a thousand instances of shame given, to
+which the words of the definition are not applicable. To answer this,
+I would have it first considered, that the modesty of women is the
+result of custom and education, by which all unfashionable denudations
+and filthy expressions are rendered frightful and abominable to them,
+and that notwithstanding this, the most virtuous young woman alive
+will often, in spite of her teeth, have thoughts and confused ideas
+of things arise in her imagination, which she would not reveal to
+some people for a thousand worlds. Then, I say, that when obscene
+words are spoken in the presence of an unexperienced virgin, she is
+afraid that some body will reckon her to understand what they mean, and
+consequently that she understands this, and that, and several things,
+which she desires to be thought ignorant of. The reflecting on this,
+and that thoughts are forming to her disadvantage, brings upon her
+that passion which we call shame; and whatever can sting her, though
+never so remote from lewdness, upon that set of thoughts I hinted,
+and which she thinks criminal, will have the same effect, especially
+before men, as long as her modesty lasts.
+
+To try the truth of this, let them talk as much bawdy as they please
+in the room next to the same virtuous young woman, where she is sure
+that she is undiscovered, and she will hear, if not hearken to it,
+without blushing at all, because then she looks upon herself as no
+party concerned; and if the discourse should stain her cheeks with red,
+whatever her innocence may imagine, it is certain that what occasions
+her colour, is a passion not half so mortifying as that of shame;
+but if, in the same place, she hears something said of herself that
+must tend to her disgrace, or any thing is named, of which she is
+secretly guilty, then it is ten to one but she will be ashamed and
+blush, though nobody sees her; because she has room to fear, that
+she is, or, if all was known, should be thought of contemptibly.
+
+That we are often ashamed, and blush for others, which was the second
+part of the objection, is nothing else but that sometimes we make
+the case of others too nearly our own; so people shriek out when
+they see others in danger: Whilst we are reflecting with too much
+earnest on the effect which such a blameable action, if it was ours,
+would produce in us, the spirits, and consequently the blood, are
+insensibly moved, after the same manner as if the action was our own,
+and so the same symptoms must appear.
+
+The shame that raw, ignorant, and ill-bred people, though seemingly
+without a cause, discover before their betters, is always accompanied
+with, and proceeds from a consciousness of their weakness and
+inabilities; and the most modest man, how virtuous, knowing, and
+accomplished soever he might be, was never yet ashamed without some
+guilt or diffidence. Such as out of rusticity, and want of education
+are unreasonably subject to, and at every turn overcome by this
+passion, we call bashful; and those who out of disrespect to others,
+and a false opinion of their own sufficiency, have learned not to
+be affected with it, when they should be, are called impudent or
+shameless. What strange contradictions man is made of! The reverse
+of shame is pride, (see Remark on l. 182) yet no body can be touched
+with the first, that never felt any thing of the latter; for that
+we have such an extraordinary concern in what others think of us,
+can proceed from nothing but the vast esteem we have of ourselves.
+
+That these two passions, in which the seeds of most virtues are
+contained, are realities in our frame, and not imaginary qualities,
+is demonstrable from the plain and different effects, that, in spite of
+our reason, are produced in us as soon as we are affected with either.
+
+When a man is overwhelmed with shame, he observes a sinking of the
+spirits! the heart feels cold and condensed, and the blood flies
+from it to the circumference of the body; the face glows, the neck
+and part of the breast partake of the fire: he is heavy as lead;
+the head is hung down, and the eyes through a mist of confusion are
+fixed on the ground: no injuries can move him; he is weary of his
+being, and heartily wishes he could make himself invisible: but when,
+gratifying his vanity, he exults in his pride, he discovers quite
+contrary symptoms; his spirits swell and fan the arterial blood;
+a more than ordinary warmth strengthens and dilates the heart;
+the extremities are cool; he feels light to himself, and imagines
+he could tread on air; his head is held up, his eyes rolled about
+with sprightliness; he rejoices at his being, is prone to anger,
+and would be glad that all the world could take notice of him.
+
+It is incredible how necessary an ingredient shame is to make us
+sociable; it is a frailty in our nature; all the world, whenever
+it affects them, submit to it with regret, and would prevent it
+if they could; yet the happiness of conversation depends upon it,
+and no society could be polished, if the generality of mankind were
+not subject to it. As, therefore, the sense of shame is troublesome,
+and all creatures are ever labouring for their own defence, it is
+probable, that man striving to avoid this uneasiness, would, in a great
+measure, conquer his shame by that he was grown up; but this would be
+detrimental to the society, and therefore from his infancy, throughout
+his education, we endeavour to increase, instead of lessening or
+destroying this sense of shame; and the only remedy prescribed, is a
+strict observance of certain rules, to avoid those things that might
+bring this troublesome sense of shame upon him. But as to rid or cure
+him of it, the politician would sooner take away his life.
+
+The rules I speak of, consist in a dextrous management of ourselves,
+a stifling of our appetites, and hiding the real sentiments of
+our hearts before others. Those who are not instructed in these
+rules long before they come to years of maturity, seldom make any
+progress in them afterwards. To acquire and bring to perfection the
+accomplishment I hint at, nothing is more assisting than pride and
+good sense. The greediness we have after the esteem of others, and the
+raptures we enjoy in the thoughts of being liked, and perhaps admired,
+are equivalents that over-pay the conquest of the strongest passions,
+and consequently keep us at a great distance from all such words or
+actions that can bring shame upon us. The passions we chiefly ought
+to hide, for the happiness and embellishment of the society, are lust,
+pride, and selfishness; therefore the word modesty has three different
+acceptations, that vary with the passions it conceals.
+
+As to the first, I mean the branch of modesty, that has a general
+pretension to chastity for its object, it consists in a sincere and
+painful endeavour, with all our faculties, to stifle and conceal before
+others, that inclination which nature has given us to propagate our
+species. The lessons of it, like those of grammar, are taught us
+long before we have occasion for, or understand the usefulness of
+them; for this reason children often are ashamed, and blush out of
+modesty, before the impulse of nature I hint at makes any impression
+upon them. A girl who is modestly educated, may, before she is two
+years old, begin to observe how careful the women she converses with,
+are of covering themselves before men; and the same caution being
+inculcated to her by precept, as well as example, it is very probable
+that at six she will be ashamed of showing her leg, without knowing
+any reason why such an act is blameable, or what the tendency of it is.
+
+To be modest, we ought, in the first place, to avoid all unfashionable
+denudations: a woman is not to be found fault with for going with
+her neck bare, if the custom of the country allows of it; and when
+the mode orders the stays to be cut very low, a blooming virgin may,
+without fear of rational censure, show all the world:
+
+
+    How firm her pouting breasts, that white as snow,
+    On th' ample chest at mighty distance grow.
+
+
+But to suffer her ancle to be seen, where it is the fashion for
+women to hide their very feet, is a breach of modesty; and she
+is impudent, who shows half her face in a country where decency
+bids her to be veiled. In the second, our language must be chaste,
+and not only free, but remote from obscenities, that is, whatever
+belongs to the multiplication of our species is not to be spoke of,
+and the least word or expression, that, though at a great distance,
+has any relation to that performance, ought never to come from our
+lips. Thirdly, all postures and motions that can any ways sully the
+imagination, that is, put us in mind of what I have called obscenities,
+are to be forbore with great caution.
+
+A young woman, moreover, that would be thought well-bred, ought to
+be circumspect before men in all her behaviour, and never known to
+receive from, much less to bestow favours upon them, unless the great
+age of the man, near consanguinity, or a vast superiority on either
+side, plead her excuse. A young lady of refined education keeps a
+strict guard over her looks, as well as actions, and in her eyes we
+may read a consciousness that she has a treasure about her, not out
+of danger of being lost, and which yet she is resolved not to part
+with at any terms. Thousand satires have been made against prudes, and
+as many encomiums to extol the careless graces, and negligent air of
+virtuous beauty. But the wiser sort of mankind are well assured, that
+the free and open countenance of the smiling fair, is more inviting,
+and yields greater hopes to the seducer, than the ever-watchful look
+of a forbidding eye.
+
+This strict reservedness is to be complied with by all young women,
+especially virgins, if they value the esteem of the polite and knowing
+world; men may take greater liberty, because in them the appetite is
+more violent and ungovernable. Had equal harshness of discipline been
+imposed upon both, neither of them could have made the first advances,
+and propagation must have stood still among all the fashionable people:
+which being far from the politician's aim, it was advisable to ease
+and indulge the sex that suffered most by the severity, and make the
+rules abate of their rigour, where the passion was the strongest, and
+the burden of a strict restraint would have been the most intolerable.
+
+For this reason, the man is allowed openly to profess the veneration
+and great esteem he has for women, and show greater satisfaction, more
+mirth and gaiety in their company, than he is used to do out of it. He
+may not only be complaisant and serviceable to them on all occasions,
+but it is reckoned his duty to protect and defend them. He may praise
+the good qualities they are possessed of, and extol their merit with as
+many exaggerations as his invention will let him, and are consistent
+with good sense. He may talk of love, he may sigh and complain of the
+rigours of the fair, and what his tongue must not utter he has the
+privilege to speak with his eyes, and in that language to say what
+he pleases; so it be done with decency, and short abrupted glances:
+but too closely to pursue a woman, and fasten upon her with ones eyes,
+is counted very unmannerly; the reason is plain, it makes her uneasy,
+and, if she be not sufficiently fortified by art and dissimulation,
+often throws her into visible disorders. As the eyes are the windows
+of the soul, so this staring impudence flings a raw, unexperienced
+woman, into panic fears, that she may be seen through; and that the
+man will discover, or has already betrayed, what passes within her:
+it keeps her on a perpetual rack, that commands her to reveal her
+secret wishes, and seems designed to extort from her the grand truth,
+which modesty bids her with all her faculties to deny.
+
+The multitude will hardly believe the excessive force of education,
+and in the difference of modesty between men and women, ascribe that
+to nature which is altogether owing to early instruction: Miss is
+scarce three years old, but she is spoke to every day to hide her leg,
+and rebuked in good earnest if she shows it; while little Master at
+the same age is bid to take up his coats, and piss like a man. It is
+shame and education that contains the seeds of all politeness, and
+he that has neither, and offers to speak the truth of his heart, and
+what he feels within, is the most contemptible creature upon earth,
+though he committed no other fault. If a man should tell a woman,
+that he could like no body so well to propagate his species upon, as
+herself, and that he found a violent desire that moment to go about
+it, and accordingly offered to lay hold of her for that purpose; the
+consequence would be, that he would be called a brute, the woman would
+run away, and himself be never admitted in any civil company. There is
+no body that has any sense of shame, but would conquer the strongest
+passion rather than be so served. But a man need not conquer his
+passions, it is sufficient that he conceals them. Virtue bids us
+subdue, but good breeding only requires we should hide our appetites. A
+fashionable gentleman may have as violent an inclination to a woman
+as the brutish fellow; but then he behaves himself quite otherwise;
+he first addresses the lady's father, and demonstrates his ability
+splendidly to maintain his daughter; upon this he is admitted into
+her company, where, by flattery, submission, presents, and assiduity,
+he endeavours to procure her liking to his person, which if he can
+compass, the lady in a little while resigns herself to him before
+witnesses in a most solemn manner; at night they go to bed together,
+where the most reserved virgin very tamely suffers him to do what he
+pleases, and the upshot is, that he obtains what he wanted without
+ever having asked for it.
+
+The next day they receive visits, and no body laughs at them, or
+speaks a word of what they have been doing. As to the young couple
+themselves, they take no more notice of one another, I speak of
+well-bred people, than they did the day before; they eat and drink,
+divert themselves as usually, and having done nothing to be ashamed
+of, are looked upon as, what in reality they may be, the most modest
+people upon earth. What I mean by this, is to demonstrate, that by
+being well-bred, we suffer no abridgement in our sensual pleasures,
+but only labour for our mutual happiness, and assist each other in
+the luxurious enjoyment of all worldly comforts. The fine gentleman
+I spoke of need not practise any greater self-denial than the savage,
+and the latter acted more according to the laws of nature and sincerity
+than the first. The man that gratifies his appetites after the manner
+the custom of the country allows of, has no censure to fear. If he is
+hotter than goats or bulls, as soon as the ceremony is over, let him
+sate and fatigue himself with joy and ecstacies of pleasure, raise and
+indulge his appetites by turns, as extravagantly as his strength and
+manhood will give him leave, he may with safety laugh at the wise men
+that should reprove him: all the women, and above nine in ten of the
+men are of his side; nay, he has the liberty of valuing himself upon
+the fury of his unbridled passion, and the more he wallows in lust,
+and strains every faculty to be abandonedly voluptuous, the sooner
+he shall have the good-will and gain the affection of the women,
+not the young, vain, and lascivious only, but the prudent, grave,
+and most sober matrons.
+
+Because impudence is a vice, it does not follow that modesty is
+a virtue; it is built upon shame, a passion in our nature, and
+may be either good or bad according to the actions performed from
+that motive. Shame may hinder a prostitute from yielding to a man
+before company, and the same shame may cause a bashful good-natured
+creature, that has been overcome by frailty, to make away with her
+infant. Passions may do good by chance, but there can be no merit
+but in the conquest of them.
+
+Was there virtue in modesty, it would be of the same force in the
+dark as it is in the light, which it is not. This the men of pleasure
+know very well, who never trouble their heads with a woman's virtue,
+so they can but conquer her modesty; seducers, therefore, do not make
+their attacks at noon-day, but cut their trenches at night.
+
+
+    Illa verecundis lux est præbenda puellis,
+    Qua timidus latebras sperat habere pudor.
+
+
+People of substance may sin without being exposed for their stolen
+pleasure; but servants, and the poorer sort of women, have seldom the
+opportunity of concealing a big belly, or at least the consequences
+of it. It is impossible that an unfortunate girl of good parentage
+may be left destitute, and know no shift for a livelihood than to
+become a nursery, or a chambermaid: she may be diligent, faithful,
+and obliging, have abundance of modesty, and if you will, be
+religious: she may resist temptations, and preserve her chastity
+for years together, and yet at last meet with an unhappy moment in
+which she gives up her honour to a powerful deceiver, who afterwards
+neglects her. If she proves with child, her sorrows are unspeakable,
+and she cannot be reconciled with the wretchedness of her condition;
+the fear of shame attacks her so lively, that every thought distracts
+her. All the family she lives in have a great opinion of her virtue,
+and her last mistress took her for a saint. How will her enemies,
+that envied her character, rejoice! How will her relations detest
+her! The more modest she is now, and the more violently the dread of
+coming to shame hurries her away, the more wicked and more cruel her
+resolutions will be, either against herself or what she bears.
+
+It is commonly imagined, that she who can destroy her child, her own
+flesh and blood, must have a vast stock of barbarity, and be a savage
+monster, different from other women; but this is likewise a mistake,
+which we commit for the want of understanding nature and the force
+of passions. The same woman that murders her bastard in the most
+execrable manner, if she is married afterwards, may take care of,
+cherish, and feel all the tenderness for her infant that the fondest
+mother can be capable of. All mothers naturally love their children:
+but as this is a passion, and all passions centre in self-love,
+so it may be subdued by any superior passion, to sooth that same
+self-love, which if nothing had intervened, would have bid her fondle
+her offspring. Common whores, whom all the world knows to be such,
+hardly ever destroy their children; nay, even those who assist in
+robberies and murders seldom are guilty of this crime; not because
+they are less cruel or more virtuous, but because they have lost their
+modesty to a greater degree, and the fear of shame makes hardly any
+impression upon them.
+
+Our love to what never was within the reach of our senses is but
+poor and inconsiderable, and therefore women have no natural love
+to what they bear; their affection begins after the birth: what they
+feel before is the result of reason, education, and the thoughts of
+duty. Even when children first are born, the mother's love is but
+weak, and increases with the sensibility of the child, and grows
+up to a prodigious height, when by signs it begins to express his
+sorrows and joys, makes his wants known, and discovers his love to
+novelty and the multiplicity of his desires. What labours and hazards
+have not women undergone to maintain and save their children, what
+force and fortitude beyond their sex have they not shown in their
+behalf! but the vilest women have exerted themselves on this head as
+violently as the best. All are prompted to it by a natural drift and
+inclination, without any consideration of the injury or benefit the
+society receives from it. There is no merit in pleasing ourselves,
+and the very offspring is often irreparably ruined by the excessive
+fondness of parents: for though infants, for two or three years,
+may be the better for this indulging care of mothers, yet afterwards,
+if not moderated, it may totally spoil them, and many it has brought
+to the gallows.
+
+If the reader thinks I have been too tedious on that branch of modesty,
+by the help of which we endeavour to appear chaste, I shall make him
+amends in the brevity with which I design to treat of the remaining
+part, by which we would make others believe, that the esteem we have
+for them exceeds the value we have for ourselves, and that we have no
+disregard so great to any interest as we have to our own. This laudable
+quality is commonly known by the name of Manners and Good-breeding,
+and consists in a fashionable habit, acquired by precept and example,
+of flattering the pride and selfishness of others, and concealing our
+own with judgment and dexterity. This must be only understood of our
+commerce with our equals and superiors, and whilst we are in peace
+and amity with them; for our complaisance must never interfere with
+the rules of honour, nor the homage that is due to us from servants
+and others that depend upon us.
+
+With this caution, I believe, that the definition will quadrate
+with every thing that can be alleged as a piece, or an example of
+either good-breeding or ill manners; and it will be very difficult
+throughout the various accidents of human life and conversation, to
+find out an instance of modesty or impudence that is not comprehended
+in, and illustrated by it, in all countries and in all ages. A man
+that asks considerable favours of one who is a stranger to him,
+without consideration, is called impudent, because he shows openly
+his selfishness, without having any regard to the selfishness of
+the other. We may see in it, likewise, the reason why a man ought to
+speak of his wife and children, and every thing that is dear to him,
+as sparing as is possible, and hardly ever of himself, especially in
+commendation of them. A well-bred man may be desirous, and even greedy
+after praise and the esteem of others, but to be praised to his face
+offends his modesty: the reason is this; all human creatures, before
+they are yet polished, receive an extraordinary pleasure in hearing
+themselves praised: this we are all conscious of, and therefore when
+we see a man openly enjoy and feast on this delight, in which we have
+no share, it rouses our selfishness, and immediately we begin to envy
+and hate him. For this reason, the well-bred man conceals his joy,
+and utterly denies that he feels any, and by this means consulting
+and soothing our selfishness, he averts that envy and hatred, which
+otherwise he would have justly to fear. When from our childhood
+we observe how those are ridiculed who calmly can hear their own
+praises, it is possible that we may strenuously endeavour to avoid that
+pleasure, that in tract of time we grow uneasy at the approach of it:
+but this is not following the dictates of nature, but warping her by
+education and custom; for if the generality of mankind took no delight
+in being praised, there could be no modesty in refusing to hear it.
+
+The man of manners picks not the best, but rather takes the worst out
+of the dish, and gets of every thing, unless it be forced upon him,
+always the most indifferent share. By this civility the best remains
+for others, which being a compliment to all that are present, every
+body is pleased with it: the more they love themselves, the more they
+are forced to approve of his behaviour, and gratitude stepping in,
+they are obliged almost, whether they will or not, to think favourably
+of him. After this manner, it is the well-bred man insinuates himself
+in the esteem of all the companies he comes in, and if he gets nothing
+else by it, the pleasure he receives in reflecting on the applause
+which he knows is secretly given him, is to a proud man more than an
+equivalent for his former self-denial, and overpays to self-love with
+interest, the loss it sustained in his complaisance to others.
+
+If there are seven or eight apples or peaches among six people of
+ceremony, that are pretty near equal, he who is prevailed upon to
+choose first, will take that, which, if there be any considerable
+difference, a child would know to be the worst: this he does to
+insinuate, that he looks upon those he is with to be of superior merit,
+and that there is not one whom he wishes not better to than he does to
+himself. It is custom and a general practice that makes this modish
+deceit familiar to us, without being shocked at the absurdity of it;
+for if people had been used to speak from the sincerity of their
+hearts, and act according to the natural sentiments they felt within,
+until they were three or four and twenty, it would be impossible
+for them to assist at this comedy of manners, without either loud
+laughter or indignation; and yet it is certain, that such behaviour
+makes us more tolerable to one another, than we could be otherwise.
+
+It is very advantageous to the knowledge of ourselves, to be able
+well to distinguish between good qualities and virtues. The bond
+of society exacts from every member a certain regard for others,
+which the highest is not exempt from in the presence of the meanest
+even in an empire: but when we are by ourselves, and so far removed
+from company, as to be beyond the reach of their senses, the words
+modesty and impudence lose their meaning; a person may be wicked,
+but he cannot be immodest while he is alone, and no thought can be
+impudent that never was communicated to another. A man of exalted
+pride may so hide it, that no body shall be able to discover that he
+has any; and yet receive greater satisfaction from that passion than
+another, who indulges himself in the declaration of it before all
+the world. Good manners having nothing to do with virtue or religion;
+instead of extinguishing, they rather inflame the passions. The man
+of sense and education never exults more in his pride than when he
+hides it with the greatest dexterity; and in feasting on the applause,
+which he is sure all good judges will pay to his behaviour, he enjoys
+a pleasure altogether unknown to the short-sighted surly alderman,
+that shows his haughtiness glaringly in his face, pulls off his hat
+to nobody, and hardly deigns to speak to an inferior.
+
+A man may carefully avoid every thing that in the eye of the world,
+is esteemed to be the result of pride, without mortifying himself,
+or making the least conquest of his passion. It is possible that he
+only sacrifices the insipid outward part of his pride, which none but
+silly ignorant people take delight in, to that part we all feel within,
+and which the men of the highest spirit and most exalted genius feed
+on with so much ecstacy in silence. The pride of great and polite
+men is no where more conspicuous than in the debates about ceremony
+and precedency, where they have an opportunity of giving their vices
+the appearance of virtues, and can make the world believe that it is
+their care, their tenderness for the dignity of their office, or the
+honour of their masters, what is the result of their own personal pride
+and vanity. This is most manifest in all negotiations of ambassadors
+and plenipotentiaries, and must be known by all that observe what is
+transacted at public treaties; and it will ever be true, that men of
+the best taste have no relish in their pride, as long as any mortal
+can find out that they are proud.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 125. For there was not a bee but would
+              Get more, I won't say, than he should;
+              But than, &c.
+
+
+The vast esteem we have of ourselves, and the small value we have
+for others, make us all very unfair judges in our own cases. Few
+men can be persuaded that they get too much by those they sell to,
+how extraordinary soever their gains are, when, at the same time,
+there is hardly a profit so inconsiderable, but they will grudge
+it to those they buy from; for this reason the smallest of the
+seller's advantage being the greatest persuasive to the buyer;
+tradesmen are generally forced to tell lies in their own defence,
+and invent a thousand improbable stories, rather than discover what
+they really get by their commodities. Some old standers, indeed, that
+pretend to more honesty (or what is more likely, have more pride),
+than their neighbours, are used to make but few words with their
+customers, and refuse to sell at a lower price than what they ask at
+first. But these are commonly cunning foxes that are above the world,
+and know that those who have money, get often more by being surly,
+than others by being obliging. The vulgar imagine they can find
+more sincerity in the sour looks of a grave old fellow, than there
+appears in the submissive air and inviting complacency of a young
+beginner. But this is a grand mistake; and if they are mercers,
+drapers, or others, that have many sorts of the same commodity, you
+may soon be satisfied; look upon their goods and you will find each
+of them have their private marks, which is a certain sign that both
+are equally careful in concealing the prime cost of what they sell.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 128. --------As your gamesters do,
+              That, though at fair play ne'er will own
+              Before the losers what they've won.
+
+
+This being a general practice, which no body can be ignorant of,
+that has ever seen any play, there must be something in the make of
+man that is the occasion of it: but as the searching into this will
+seem very trifling to many, I desire the reader to skip this remark,
+unless he be in perfect good humour, and has nothing at all to do.
+
+That gamesters generally endeavour to conceal their gains before the
+losers, seems to me to proceed from a mixture of gratitude, pity, and
+self-preservation. All men are naturally grateful while they receive a
+benefit, and what they say or do, while it affects and feels warm about
+them, is real, and comes from the heart; but when that is over, the
+returns we make generally proceed from virtue, good manners, reason,
+and the thoughts of duty, but not from gratitude, which is a motive
+of the inclination. If we consider, how tyrannically the immoderate
+love we bear to ourselves, obliges us to esteem every body that with
+or without design acts in our favour, and how often we extend our
+affection to things inanimate, when we imagine them to contribute to
+our present advantage: if, I say, we consider this, it will not be
+difficult to find out which way our being pleased with those whose
+money we win is owing to a principle of gratitude. The next motive
+is our pity, which proceeds from our consciousness of the vexation
+there is in losing; and as we love the esteem of every body, we are
+afraid of forfeiting theirs by being the cause of their loss. Lastly,
+we apprehend their envy, and so self-preservation makes that we
+strive to extenuate first the obligation, then the reason why we
+ought to pity, in hopes that we shall have less of their ill-will and
+envy. When the passions show themselves in their full strength, they
+are known by every body: When a man in power gives a great place to
+one that did him a small kindness in his youth, we call it gratitude:
+When a woman howls and wrings her hands at the loss of her child, the
+prevalent passion is grief; and the uneasiness we feel at the sight
+of great misfortunes, as a man's breaking his legs, or dashing his
+brains out, is every where called pity. But the gentle strokes, the
+slight touches of the passions, are generally overlooked or mistaken.
+
+To prove my assertion, we have but to observe what generally passes
+between the winner and the loser. The first is always complaisant, and
+if the other will but keep his temper, more than ordinary obliging; he
+is ever ready to humour the loser, and willing to rectify his mistakes
+with precaution, and the height of good manners. The loser is uneasy,
+captious, morose, and perhaps swears and storms; yet as long as he says
+or does nothing designedly affronting, the winner takes all in good
+part, without offending, disturbing, or contradicting him. Losers,
+says the proverb, must have leave to rail: All which shows that the
+loser is thought in the right to complain, and for that very reason
+pitied. That we are afraid of the loser's ill-will, is plain from
+our being conscious that we are displeased with those we lose to,
+and envy we always dread when we think ourselves happier than others:
+From whence it follows, that when the winner endeavours to conceal
+his gains, his design is to avert the mischiefs he apprehends, and
+this is self-preservation; the cares of which continue to affect us
+as long as the motives that first produced them remain.
+
+But a month, a week, or perhaps a much shorter time after, when the
+thoughts of the obligation, and consequently the winner's gratitude,
+are worn off, when the loser has recovered his temper, laughs at his
+loss, and the reason of the winner's pity ceases; when the winner's
+apprehension of drawing upon him the ill-will and envy of the loser
+is gone; that is to say, as soon as all the passions are over,
+and the cares of self-preservation employ the winner's thoughts no
+longer, he will not only make no scruple of owning what he has won,
+but will, if his vanity steps in, likewise, with pleasure, brag off,
+if not exaggerate his gains.
+
+It is possible, that when people play together who are at enmity,
+and perhaps desirous of picking a quarrel, or where men playing
+for trifles contend for superiority of skill, and aim chiefly at
+the glory of conquest, nothing shall happen of what I have been
+talking of. Different passions oblige us to take different measures;
+what I have said I would have understood of ordinary play for money,
+at which men endeavour to get, and venture to lose what they value:
+And even here I know it will be objected by many, that though they
+have been guilty of concealing their gains, yet they never observed
+those passions which I allege as the causes of that frailty; which is
+no wonder, because few men will give themselves leisure, and fewer yet
+take the right method of examining themselves as they should do. It is
+with the passions in men, as it is with colours in cloth: It is easy
+to know a red, a green, a blue, a yellow, a black, &c. in as many
+different places; but it must be an artist that can unravel all the
+various colours and their proportions, that make up the compound of a
+well-mixed cloth. In the same manner, may the passions be discovered
+by every body whilst they are distinct, and a single one employs the
+whole man; but it is very difficult to trace every motive of those
+actions that are the result of a mixture of passions.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 163. And virtue, who from politics
+              Has learn'd a thousand cunning tricks,
+              Was, by their happy influence,
+              Made friends with vice.----
+
+
+It may be said, that virtue is made friends with vice, when industrious
+good people, who maintain their families, and bring up their children
+handsomely, pay taxes, and are several ways useful members of the
+society, get a livelihood by something that chiefly depends on, or is
+very much influenced by the vices of others, without being themselves
+guilty of, or accessary to them, any otherwise than by way of trade,
+as a druggist may be to poisoning, or a sword-cutler to blood-shed.
+
+Thus the merchant, that sends corn or cloth into foreign parts to
+purchase wines and brandies, encourages the growth or manufactory
+of his own country; he is a benefactor to navigation, increases
+the customs, and is many ways beneficial to the public; yet it is
+not to be denied, but that his greatest dependence is lavishness
+and drunkenness: For, if none were to drink wine but such only as
+stand in need of it, nor any body more than his health required, that
+multitude of wine-merchants, vintners, coopers, &c. that make such a
+considerable show in this flourishing city, would be in a miserable
+condition. The same may be said not only of card and dice-makers,
+that are the immediate ministers to a legion of vices; but that
+of mercers, upholsterers, tailors, and many others, that would be
+starved in half a year's time, if pride and luxury were at once to
+be banished the nation.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 167. The worst of all the multitude
+             Did something for the common good.
+
+
+This, I know, will seem to be a strange paradox to many; and I
+shall be asked what benefit the public receives from thieves and
+house-breakers. They are, I own, very pernicious to human society,
+and every government ought to take all imaginable care to root out
+and destroy them; yet if all people were strictly honest, and nobody
+would meddle with, or pry into any thing but his own, half the smiths
+of the nation would want employment; and abundance of workmanship
+(which now serves for ornament as well as defence) is to be seen every
+where both in town and country, that would never have been thought of,
+but to secure us against the attempts of pilferers and robbers.
+
+If what I have said be thought far fetched, and my assertion seems
+still a paradox, I desire the reader to look upon the consumption
+of things, and he will find that the laziest and most unactive, the
+profligate and most mischievous, are all forced to do something for
+the common good, and whilst their mouths are not sowed up, and they
+continue to wear and otherwise destroy what the industrious are daily
+employed about to make, fetch and procure, in spite of their teeth
+obliged to help, maintain the poor and the public charges. The labour
+of millions would soon be at an end, if there were not other millions,
+as I say, in the fable.
+
+
+    --------Employ'd,
+    To see their handy-works destroy'd.
+
+
+But men are not to be judged by the consequences that may succeed
+their actions, but the facts themselves, and the motives which it
+shall appear they acted from. If an ill-natured miser, who is almost
+a plumb, and spends but fifty pounds a-year, though he has no relation
+to inherit his wealth, should be robbed of five hundred or a thousand
+guineas, it is certain, that as soon as this money should come to
+circulate, the nation would be the better for the robbery, and receive
+the same, and as real a benefit from it, as if an archbishop had left
+the same sum to the public; yet justice, and the peace of society,
+require that he or they who robbed the miser should be hanged, though
+there were half a dozen of them concerned.
+
+Thieves and pick-pockets steal for a livelihood, and either what they
+can get honestly is not sufficient to keep them, or else they have
+an aversion to constant working: they want to gratify their senses,
+have victuals, strong drink, lewd women, and to be idle when they
+please. The victualler, who entertains them, and takes their money,
+knowing which way they come at it, is very near as great a villain
+as his guests. But if he fleeces them well, minds his business,
+and is a prudent man, he may get money, and be punctual with them
+he deals with: The trusty out-clerk, whose chief aim is his master's
+profit, sends him in what beer he wants, and takes care not to lose
+his custom; while the man's money is good, he thinks it no business
+of his to examine whom he gets it by. In the mean time, the wealthy
+brewer, who leaves all the management to his servants, knows nothing
+of the matter, but keeps his coach, treats his friends, and enjoys
+his pleasure with ease and a good conscience; he gets an estate;
+builds houses, and educates his children in plenty, without ever
+thinking on the labour which wretches perform, the shifts fools make,
+and the tricks knaves play to come at the commodity, by the vast sale
+of which he amasses his great riches.
+
+A highwayman having met with a considerable booty, gives a poor
+common harlot, he fancies, ten pounds to new-rig her from top to toe;
+is there a spruce mercer so conscientious that he will refuse to sell
+her a thread sattin, though he knew who she was? She must have shoes
+and stockings, gloves, the stay and mantua maker, the sempstress, the
+linen-draper, all must get something by her, and a hundred different
+tradesmen dependent on those she laid her money out with, may touch
+part of it before a month is at an end. The generous gentleman, in the
+mean time, his money being near spent, ventured again on the road, but
+the second day having committed a robbery near Highgate, he was taken
+with one of his accomplices, and the next sessions both were condemned,
+and suffered the law. The money due on their conviction fell to three
+country fellows, on whom it was admirably well bestowed. One was an
+honest farmer, a sober pains-taking man, but reduced by misfortunes:
+The summer before, by the mortality among the cattle, he had lost
+six cows out of ten, and now his landlord, to whom he owed thirty
+pounds, had seized on all his stock. The other was a day-labourer,
+who struggled hard with the world, had a sick wife at home, and
+several small children to provide for. The third was a gentleman's
+gardener, who maintained his father in prison, where, being bound
+for a neighbour, he had lain for twelve pounds almost a year and a
+half; this act of filial duty was the more meritorious, because he
+had for some time been engaged to a young woman, whose parents lived
+in good circumstances, but would not give their consent before our
+gardener had fifty guineas of his own to show. They received above
+fourscore pounds each, which extricated every one of them out of the
+difficulties they laboured under, and made them, in their opinion,
+the happiest people in the world.
+
+Nothing is more destructive, either in regard to the health or the
+vigilance and industry of the poor, than the infamous liquor, the
+name of which, derived from Juniper in Dutch, is now, by frequent
+use, and the laconic spirit of the nation, from a word of middling
+length, shrunk into a monosyllable, intoxicating gin, that charms
+the unactive, the desperate and crazy of either sex, and makes the
+starving sot behold his rags and nakedness with stupid indolence,
+or banter both in senseless laughter, and more insipid jests! It is
+a fiery lake that sets the brain in flame, burns up the entrails,
+and scorches every part within; and, at the same time, a Lethe of
+oblivion, in which the wretch immersed drowns his most pinching cares,
+and with his reason, all anxious reflection on brats that cry for food,
+hard winters frosts, and horrid empty home.
+
+In hot and adust tempers it makes men quarrelsome, renders them
+brutes and savages, sets them on to fight for nothing, and has often
+been the cause of murder. It has broke and destroyed the strongest
+constitutions, thrown them into consumptions, and been the fatal and
+immediate occasion of apoplexies, phrenzies, and sudden death. But,
+as these latter mischiefs happen but seldom, they might be overlooked
+and connived at: but this cannot be said of the many diseases that
+are familiar to the liquor, and which are daily and hourly produced
+by it; such as loss of appetite, fevers, black and yellow jaundice,
+convulsions, stone and gravel, dropsies, and leucophlegmacies.
+
+Among the doting admirers of this liquid poison, many of the meanest
+rank, from a sincere affection to the commodity itself, become dealers
+in it, and take delight to help others to what they love themselves,
+as whores commence bawds to make the profits of one trade subservient
+to the pleasures of the other. But as these starvelings commonly drink
+more than their gains, they seldom, by selling, mend the wretchedness
+of condition they laboured under while they were only buyers. In the
+fag-end and outskirts of the town, and all places of the vilest resort,
+it is sold in some part or other of almost every house, frequently in
+cellars, and sometimes in the garret. The petty traders in this Stygian
+comfort, are supplied by others in somewhat higher station, that keep
+professed brandy shops, and are as little to be envied as the former;
+and among the middling people, I know not a more miserable shift for
+a livelihood than their calling; whoever would thrive in it must, in
+the first place, be of a watchful and suspicious, as well as a bold
+and resolute temper, that he may not be imposed upon by cheats and
+sharpers, nor out-bullied by the oaths and imprecations of hackney
+coachmen and foot soldiers: in the second, he ought to be a dabster
+at gross jokes and loud laughter, and have all the winning ways to
+allure customers and draw out their money, and be well versed in the
+low jests and raileries the mob make use of to banter prudence and
+frugality. He must be affable and obsequious to the most despicable;
+always ready and officious to help a porter down with his load, shake
+hands with a basket woman, pull off his hat to an oyster wench, and
+be familiar with a beggar; with patience and good humour he must be
+able to endure the filthy actions and viler language of nasty drabs,
+and the lewdest rakehells, and without a frown, or the least aversion,
+bear with all the stench and squalor, noise and impertinence, that
+the utmost indigence, laziness, and ebriety, can produce in the most
+shameless and abandoned vulgar.
+
+The vast number of the shops I speak of throughout the city and
+suburbs, are an astonishing evidence of the many seducers, that, in
+a lawful occupation, are accessary to the introduction and increase
+of all the sloth, sottishness, want, and misery, which the abuse of
+strong waters is the immediate cause of, to lift above mediocrity
+perhaps half a score men that deal in the same commodity by wholesale,
+while, among the retailers, though qualified as I required, a much
+greater number are broke and ruined, for not abstaining from the
+Circean cup they hold out to others, and the more fortunate are
+their whole lifetime obliged to take the uncommon pains, endure the
+hardships, and swallow all the ungrateful and shocking things I named,
+for little or nothing beyond a bare sustenance, and their daily bread.
+
+The short-sighted vulgar in the chain of causes seldom can see further
+than one link; but those who can enlarge their view, and will give
+themselves the leisure of gazing on the prospect of concatenated
+events, may, in a hundred places, see good spring up and pullulate from
+evil, as naturally as chickens do from eggs. The money that arises from
+the duties upon malt is a considerable part of the national revenue,
+and should no spirits be distilled from it, the public treasure would
+prodigiously suffer on that head. But if we would set in a true
+light the many advantages, and large catalogue of solid blessings
+that accrue from, and are owing to the evil I treat of, we are to
+consider the rents that are received, the ground that is tilled,
+the tools that are made, the cattle that are employed, and above all,
+the multitude of poor that are maintained, by the variety of labour,
+requited in husbandry, in malting, in carriage and distillation, before
+we can have the product of malt, which we call low wines, and is but
+the beginning from which the various spirits are afterwards to be made.
+
+Besides this, a sharp-sighted good-humoured man might pick up abundance
+of good from the rubbish, which I have all flung away for evil. He
+would tell me, that whatever sloth and sottishness might be occasioned
+by the abuse of malt-spirits, the moderate use of it was of inestimable
+benefit to the poor, who could purchase no cordials of higher prices,
+that it was an universal comfort, not only in cold and weariness,
+but most of the afflictions that are peculiar to the necessitous,
+and had often to the most destitute supplied the places of meat,
+drink, clothes, and lodging. That the stupid indolence in the most
+wretched condition occasioned by those composing draughts, which
+I complained of, was a blessing to thousands, for that certainly
+those were the happiest, who felt the least pain. As to diseases,
+he would say, that, as it caused some, so it cured others, and that
+if the excess in those liquors had been sudden death to some few, the
+habit of drinking them daily prolonged the lives of many, whom once
+it agreed with; that for the loss sustained from the insignificant
+quarrels it created at home, we were overpaid in the advantage we
+received from it abroad, by upholding the courage of soldiers, and
+animating the sailors to the combat; and that in the two last wars
+no considerable victory had been obtained without.
+
+To the dismal account I have given of the retailers, and what they
+are forced to submit to, he would answer, that not many acquired more
+than middling riches in any trade, and that what I had counted so
+offensive and intolerable in the calling, was trifling to those who
+were used to it; that what seemed irksome and calamitous to some,
+was delightful and often ravishing to others; as men differed in
+circumstances and education. He would put me in mind, that the profit
+of an employment ever made amends for the toil and labour that belonged
+to it, nor forget, Dulcis odor lucri e re qualibet; or to tell me,
+that the smell of gain was fragrant even to night-workers.
+
+If I should ever urge to him, that to have here and there one great
+and eminent distiller, was a poor equivalent for the vile means, the
+certain want, and lasting misery of so many thousand wretches, as were
+necessary to raise them, he would answer, that of this I could be no
+judge, because I do not know what vast benefit they might afterwards
+be of to the commonwealth. Perhaps, would he say, the man thus raised
+will exert himself in the commission of the peace, or other station,
+with vigilance and zeal against the dissolute and disaffected, and
+retaining his stirring temper, be as industrious in spreading loyalty,
+and the reformation of manners, throughout every cranny of the wide
+populous town, as once he was in filling it with spirits; till he
+becomes at last the scourge of whores, of vagabonds and beggars,
+the terror of rioters and discontented rabbles, and constant plague
+to sabbath-breaking butchers. Here my good-humoured antagonist would
+exult and triumph over me, especially if he could instance to me
+such a bright example, what an uncommon blessing, would he cry out,
+is this man to his country! how shining and illustrious his virtue!
+
+To justify his exclamation, he would demonstrate to me, that it was
+impossible to give a fuller evidence of self-denial in a grateful mind,
+than to see him at the expence of his quiet and hazard of his life
+and limbs, be always harassing, and even for trifles, persecuting
+that very class of men to whom he owes his fortune, from no other
+motive than his aversion to idleness, and great concern for religion
+and the public welfare.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 173. Parties directly opposite,
+              Assist each other, as 'twere for spite.
+
+
+Nothing was more instrumental in forwarding the Reformation, than the
+sloth and stupidity of the Roman clergy; yet the same reformation
+has roused them from the laziness and ignorance they then laboured
+under; and the followers of Luther, Calvin, and others, may be said
+to have reformed not only those whom they drew into their sentiment,
+but likewise those who remained their greatest opposers. The clergy
+of England, by being severe upon the Schismatics, and upbraiding them
+with want of learning, have raised themselves such formidable enemies
+as are not easily answered; and again, the Dissenters by prying into
+the lives, and diligently watching all the actions of their powerful
+antagonists, render those of the Established Church more cautious of
+giving offence, than in all probability they would, if they had no
+malicious over-lookers to fear. It is very much owing to the great
+number of Huguenots that have always been in France, since the late
+utter extirpation of them, that that kingdom has a less dissolute
+and more learned clergy to boast of than any other Roman Catholic
+country. The clergy of that church are no where more sovereign than
+in Italy, and therefore no where more debauched; nor any where more
+ignorant than they are in Spain, because their doctrine is nowhere
+less opposed.
+
+Who would imagine, that virtuous women, unknowingly, should be
+instrumental in promoting the advantage of prostitutes? Or (what
+still seems the greater paradox) that incontinence should be made
+serviceable to the preservation of chastity? and yet nothing is more
+true. A vicious young fellow, after having been an hour or two at
+church, a ball, or any other assembly, where there is a great parcel of
+handsome women dressed to the best advantage, will have his imagination
+more fired, than if he had the same time been poling at Guildhall,
+or walking in the country among a flock of sheep. The consequence of
+this is, that he will strive to satisfy the appetite that is raised
+in him; and when he finds honest women obstinate and uncomatable,
+it is very natural to think, that he will hasten to others that
+are more compliable. Who would so much as surmise, that this is the
+fault of the virtuous women? They have no thoughts of men in dressing
+themselves, poor souls, and endeavour only to appear clean and decent,
+every one according to her quality.
+
+I am far from encouraging vice, and think it would be an unspeakable
+felicity to a state, if the sin of uncleanness could be utterly
+banished from it; but I am afraid it is impossible: The passions of
+some people are too violent to be curbed by any law or precept; and
+it is wisdom in all governments to bear with lesser inconveniencies
+to prevent greater. If courtezans and strumpets were to be prosecuted
+with as much rigour as some silly people would have it, what locks
+or bars would be sufficient to preserve the honour of our wives
+and daughters? For it is not only that the women in general would
+meet with far greater temptations, and the attempts to ensnare the
+innocence of virgins would seem more excusable, even to the sober
+part of mankind, than they do now: but some men would grow outrageous,
+and ravishing would become a common crime. Where six or seven thousand
+sailors arrive at once, as it often happens, at Amsterdam, that have
+seen none but their own sex for many months together, how is it to
+be supposed that honest women should walk the streets unmolested,
+if there were no harlots to be had at reasonable prices? for which
+reason, the wise rulers of that well-ordered city always tolerate an
+uncertain number of houses, in which women are hired as publicly as
+horses at a livery stable; and there being in this toleration a great
+deal of prudence and economy to be seen, a short account of it will
+be no tiresome digression.
+
+In the first place, the houses I speak of are allowed to be no where
+but in the most slovenly and unpolished part of the town, where seamen
+and strangers of no repute chiefly lodge and resort. The street in
+which most of them stand is counted scandalous, and the infamy is
+extended to all the neighbourhood round it. In the second, they are
+only places to meet and bargain in, to make appointments in order to
+promote interviews of greater secrecy, and no manner of lewdness is
+ever suffered to be transacted in them: which order is so strictly
+observed, that bar the ill manners and noise of the company that
+frequent them, you will meet with no more indecency, and generally
+less lasciviousness there, than with us are to be seen at a playhouse.
+
+Thirdly, the female traders that come to these evening exchanges are
+always the scum of the people, and generally such as in the day time
+carry fruit and other eatables about in wheel-barrows. The habits,
+indeed, they appear in at night are very different from their ordinary
+ones; yet they are commonly so ridiculously gay, that they look
+more like the Roman dresses of strolling actresses than gentlewomen's
+clothes: if to this you add the awkwardness, the hard hands, and coarse
+breeding of the damsels that wear them, there is no great reason to
+fear, that many of the better sort of people will be tempted by them.
+
+The music in these temples of Venus is performed by organs, not out
+of respect to the deity that is worshipped in them, but the frugality
+of the owners, whose business it is to procure as much sound for
+as little money as they can, and the policy of the government,
+who endeavour, as little as is possible to encourage the breed of
+pipers and scrapers. All seafaring men, especially the Dutch, are
+like the element they belong to, much given to loudness and roaring,
+and the noise of half-a-dozen of them, when they call themselves
+merry, is sufficient to drown twice the number of flutes or violins;
+whereas, with one pair of organs, they can make the whole house ring,
+and are at no other charge than the keeping of one scurvy musician,
+which can cost them but little: yet notwithstanding the good rules
+and strict discipline that are observed in these markets of love,
+the schout and his officers are always vexing, mulcting, and,
+upon the least complaint, removing the miserable keepers of them:
+which policy is of two great uses; first, it gives an opportunity
+to a large parcel of officers, the magistrates make use of on many
+occasions, and which they could not be without, to squeeze a living
+out of the immoderate gains accruing from the worst of employments,
+and, at the same time, punish those necessary profligates, the bawds
+and panders, which, though they abominate, they desire yet not wholly
+to destroy. Secondly, as on several accounts it might be dangerous to
+let the multitude into the secret, that those houses and the trade
+that is drove in them are connived at, so by this means appearing
+unblameable, the wary magistrates preserve themselves in the good
+opinion of the weaker sort of people, who imagine that the government
+is always endeavouring, though unable, to suppress what it actually
+tolerates: whereas, if they had a mind to root them out, their power
+in the administration of justice is so sovereign and extensive,
+and they know so well how to have it executed, that one week, nay,
+one night might send them all a packing.
+
+In Italy, the toleration of strumpets is yet more barefaced, as is
+evident from their public stews. At Venice and Naples, impurity is
+a kind of merchandise and traffic; the courtezans at Rome, and the
+cantoneras in Spain, compose a body in the state, and are under a legal
+tax and impost. It is well known, that the reason why so many good
+politicians as these tolerate lewd houses, is not their irreligion,
+but to prevent a worse evil, an impurity of a more execrable kind,
+and to provide for the safety of women of honour. "About two hundred
+and fifty years ago," says Monsieur de St. Didier, "Venice being
+in want of courtezans, the republic was obliged to procure a great
+number from foreign parts." Doglioni, who has written the memorable
+affairs of Venice, highly extols the wisdom of the republic in this
+point, which secured the chastity of women of honour, daily exposed
+to public violences, the churches and consecrated places not being
+a sufficient asylum for their chastity.
+
+Our universities in England are much belied, if in some colleges
+there was not a monthly allowance ad expurgandos renes: and time was
+when monks and priests in Germany were allowed concubines on paying
+a certain yearly duty to their prelate. "It is generally believed"
+says Monsieur Bayle, (to whom I owe the last paragraph) "that avarice
+was the cause of this shameful indulgence; but it is more probable
+their design was to prevent their tempting modest women, and to quiet
+the uneasiness of husbands, whose resentments the clergy do well
+to avoid." From what has been said, it is manifest that there is a
+necessity of sacrificing one part of womankind to preserve the other,
+and prevent a filthiness of a more heinous nature. From whence I think
+I may justly conclude (what was the seeming paradox I went about to
+prove) that chastity may be supported by incontinence, and the best
+of virtues want the assistance of the worst of vices.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 177. The root of evil, avarice,
+              That damn'd ill-natur'd baneful vice,
+              Was slave to prodigality.
+
+
+I have joined so many odious epithets to the word avarice, in
+compliance to the vogue of mankind, who generally bestow more
+ill language upon this than upon any other vice, and indeed not
+undeservedly; for there is hardly a mischief to be named which it has
+not produced at one time or other: but the true reason why every body
+exclaims so much against it, is, that almost every body suffers by
+it; for the more the money is hoarded up by some, the scarcer it must
+grow among the rest, and therefore when men rail very much at misers,
+there is generally self-interest at bottom.
+
+As there is no living without money, so those that are unprovided,
+and have nobody to give them any, are obliged to do some service
+or other to the society, before they can come at it; but every
+body esteeming his labour as he does himself, which is generally
+not under the value, most people that want money only to spend it
+again presently, imagine they do more for it than it is worth. Men
+cannot forbear looking upon the necessaries of life as their due,
+whether they work or not; because they find that nature, without
+consulting whether they have victuals or not, bids them eat whenever
+they are hungry; for which reason, every body endeavours to get what
+he wants with as much ease as he can; and therefore when men find that
+the trouble they are put to in getting money is either more or less,
+according as those they would have it from are more or less tenacious,
+it is very natural for them to be angry at covetousness in general;
+for it obliges them either to go without what they have occasion for,
+or else to take greater pains for it than they are willing.
+
+Avarice, notwithstanding it is the occasion of so many evils, is yet
+very necessary to the society, to glean and gather what has been
+dropt and scattered by the contrary vice. Was it not for avarice,
+spendthrifts would soon want materials; and if none would lay up
+and get faster than they spend, very few could spend faster than they
+get. That it is a slave to prodigality, as I have called it, is evident
+from so many misers as we daily see toil and labour, pinch and starve
+themselves, to enrich a lavish heir. Though these two vices appear very
+opposite, yet they often assist each other. Florio is an extravagant
+young blade, of a very profuse temper; as he is the only son of a very
+rich father, he wants to live high, keep horses and dogs, and throw his
+money about, as he sees some of his companions do; but the old hunks
+will part with no money, and hardly allows him necessaries. Florio
+would have borrowed money upon his own credit long ago; but as all
+would be lost, if he died before his father, no prudent man would lend
+him any. At last he has met with the greedy Cornaro, who lets him
+have money at thirty per cent. and now Florio thinks himself happy,
+and spends a thousand a-year. Where would Cornaro ever have got such
+a prodigious interest, if it was not for such a fool as Florio, who
+will give so great a price for money to fling it away? And how would
+Florio get it to spend, if he had not lit of such a greedy usurer as
+Cornaro, whose excessive covetousness makes him overlook the great risk
+he runs in venturing such great sums upon the life of a wild debauchee.
+
+Avarice is no longer the reverse of profuseness, than while it
+signifies that sordid love of money, and narrowness of soul that
+hinders misers from parting with what they have, and makes them covet
+it only to hoard up. But there is a sort of avarice which consists in a
+greedy desire of riches, in order to spend them, and this often meets
+with prodigality in the same persons, as is evident in most courtiers
+and great officers, both civil and military. In their buildings and
+furniture, equipages and entertainments, their gallantry is displayed
+with the greatest profusion; while the base actions they submit to
+for lucre, and the many frauds and impositions they are guilty of,
+discover the utmost avarice. This mixture of contrary vices, comes
+up exactly to the character of Catiline, of whom it is said, that he
+was appetens alieni & sui profusus, greedy after the goods of others,
+and lavish of his own.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 180. That noble sin----
+
+
+The prodigality, I call a noble sin, is not that which has avarice
+for its companion, and makes men unreasonably profuse to some of what
+they unjustly extort from others, but that agreeable good-natured
+vice that makes the chimney smoke, and all the tradesmen smile;
+I mean the unmixed prodigality of heedless and voluptuous men,
+that being educated in plenty, abhor the vile thoughts of lucre,
+and lavish away only what others took pains to scrape together;
+such as indulge their inclinations at their own expence, that have
+the continual satisfaction of bartering old gold for new pleasures,
+and from the excessive largeness of a diffusive soul, are made guilty
+of despising too much what most people overvalue.
+
+When I speak thus honourably of this vice, and treat it with so
+much tenderness and good manners as I do, I have the same thing
+at heart that made me give so many ill names to the reverse of it,
+viz. the interest of the public; for as the avaricious does no good to
+himself, and is injurious to all the world besides, except his heir,
+so the prodigal is a blessing to the whole society, and injures no
+body but himself. It is true, that as most of the first are knaves,
+so the latter are all fools; yet they are delicious morsels for the
+public to feast on, and may with as much justice, as the French call
+the monks the patridges of the women, be styled the woodcocks of the
+society. Was it not for prodigality, nothing could make us amends for
+the rapine and extortion of avarice in power. When a covetous statesman
+is gone, who spent his whole life in fattening himself with the spoils
+of the nation, and had by pinching and plundering heaped up an immense
+treasure, it ought to fill every good member of the society with joy,
+to behold the uncommon profuseness of his son. This is refunding to the
+public what was robbed from it. Resuming of grants is a barbarous way
+of stripping, and it is ignoble to ruin a man faster than he does it
+himself, when he sets about it in such good earnest. Does he not feed
+an infinite number of dogs of all sorts and sizes, though he never
+hunts; keep more horses than any nobleman in the kingdom, though he
+never rides them; and give as large an allowance to an ill-favoured
+whore as would keep a dutchess, though he never lies with her? Is he
+not still more extravagant in those things he makes use of? Therefore
+let him alone, or praise him, call him public-spirited lord, nobly
+bountiful and magnificently generous, and in a few years he will
+suffer himself to be stript his own way. As long as the nation has
+its own back again, we ought not to quarrel with the manner in which
+the plunder is repaid.
+
+Abundance of moderate men, I know, that are enemies to extremes,
+will tell me, that frugality might happily supply the place of the
+two vices I speak of, that if men had not so many profuse ways of
+spending wealth, they would not be tempted to so many evil practices
+to scrape it together, and consequently that the same number of men,
+by equally avoiding both extremes, might render themselves more happy,
+and be less vicious without, than they could with them. Whoever argues
+thus, shows himself a better man than he is a politician. Frugality
+is like honesty, a mean starving virtue, that is only fit for small
+societies of good peaceable men, who are contented to be poor, so
+they may be easy; but, in a large stirring nation, you may have soon
+enough of it. It is an idle dreaming virtue that employs no hands,
+and therefore very useless in a trading country, where there are vast
+numbers that one way or other must be all set to work. Prodigality
+has a thousand inventions to keep people from sitting still, that
+frugality would never think of; and as this must consume a prodigious
+wealth, so avarice again knows innumerable tricks to raise it together,
+which frugality would scorn to make use of.
+
+Authors are always allowed to compare small things to great ones,
+especially if they ask leave first. Si licit exemplis, &c. but to
+compare great things to mean trivial ones, is unsufferable, unless it
+be in burlesque; otherwise I would compare the body politic (I confess
+the simile is very low) to a bowl of punch. Avarice should be the
+souring, and prodigality the sweetening of it. The water I would call
+the ignorance, folly, and credulity of the floating insipid multitude;
+while wisdom, honour, fortitude, and the rest of the sublime qualities
+of men, which separated by art from the dregs of nature, the fire of
+glory has exalted and refined into a spiritual essence, should be an
+equivalent to brandy. I do not doubt but a Westphalian, Laplander,
+or any other dull stranger that is unacquainted with the wholesome
+composition, if he was to sell the several ingredients apart, would
+think it impossible they should make any tolerable liquor. The lemons
+would be too sour, the sugar too luscious, the brandy he will say is
+too strong ever to be drank in any quantity, and the water he will
+call a tasteless liquor, only fit for cows and horses: yet experience
+teaches us, that the ingredients I named, judiciously mixed, will make
+an excellent liquor, liked of, and admired by men of exquisite palates.
+
+As to our vices in particular, I could compare avarice, that causes so
+much mischief, and is complained of by every body who is not a miser,
+to a griping acid that sets our teeth on edge, and is unpleasant to
+every palate that is not debauched: I could compare the gaudy trimming
+and splendid equipage of a profuse beau, to the glistening brightness
+of the finest loaf sugar; for as the one, by correcting the sharpness,
+prevent the injuries which a gnawing sour might do to the bowels,
+so the other is a pleasing balsam that heals and makes amends for
+the smart, which the multitude always suffers from the gripes of the
+avaricious; while the substances of both melt away alike, and they
+consume themselves by being beneficial to the several compositions they
+belong to. I could carry on the simile as to proportions, and the exact
+nicety to be observed in them, which would make it appear how little
+any of the ingredients could be spared in either of the mixtures; but
+I will not tire my reader by pursuing too far a ludicrous comparison,
+when I have other matters to entertain him with of greater importance;
+and to sum up what I have said in this and the foregoing remark, shall
+only add, that I look upon avarice and prodigality in the society, as
+I do upon two contrary poisons in physic, of which it is certain that
+the noxious qualities being by mutual mischief corrected in both, they
+may assist each other, and often make a good medicine between them.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 180. --------Whilst luxury
+              Employ'd a million of the poor, &c.
+
+
+If every thing is to be luxury (as in strictness it ought) that is not
+immediately necessary to make man subsist as he is a living creature,
+there is nothing else to be found in the world, no not even among
+the naked savages; of which it is not probable that there are any
+but what by this time have made some improvements upon their former
+manner of living; and either in the preparation of their eatables,
+the ordering of their huts, or otherwise, added something to what
+once sufficed them. This definition every body will say is too
+rigorous: I am of the same opinion; but if we are to abate one inch
+of this severity, I am afraid we shall not know where to stop. When
+people tell us they only desire to keep themselves sweet and clean,
+there is no understanding what they would be at: if they made use of
+these words in their genuine proper literal sense, they might be soon
+satisfied without much cost or trouble, if they did not want water:
+but these two little adjectives are so comprehensive, especially
+in the dialect of some ladies, that nobody can guess how far they
+may be stretched. The comforts of life are likewise so various and
+extensive, that nobody can tell what people mean by them, except
+he knows what sort of life they lead. The same obscurity I observe
+in the words decency and conveniency, and I never understand them,
+unless I am acquainted with the quality of the persons that make use
+of them. People may go to church together, and be all of one mind
+as much as they please, I am apt to believe that when they pray for
+their daily bread, the bishop includes several things in that petition
+which the sexton does not think on.
+
+By what I have said hitherto I would only show, that if once we depart
+from calling every thing luxury that is not absolutely necessary to
+keep a man alive, that then there is no luxury at all; for if the
+wants of men are innumerable, then what ought to supply them has
+no bounds; what is called superfluous, to some degree of people,
+will be thought requisite to those of higher quality; and neither
+the world, nor the skill of man can produce any thing so curious or
+extravagant, but some most gracious sovereign or other, if it either
+eases or diverts him, will reckon it among the necessaries of life;
+not meaning every body's life, but that of his sacred person.
+
+It is a received notion, that luxury is as destructive to the wealth
+of the whole body politic, as it is to that of every individual
+person who is guilty of it, and that a national frugality enriches a
+country in the same manner, as that which is less general increases
+the estates of private families. I confess, that though I have found
+men of much better understanding than myself of this opinion, I cannot
+help dissenting from them in this point. They argue thus: We send, say
+they, for example, to Turkey of woollen manufactury, and other things
+of our own growth, a million's worth every year; for this we bring
+back silk, mohair, drugs, &c. to the value of twelve hundred thousand
+pounds, that are all spent in our own country. By this, say they, we
+get nothing; but if most of us would be content with our own growth,
+and so consume but half the quantity of those foreign commodities,
+then those in Turkey, who would still want the same quantity of
+our manufactures, would be forced to pay ready money for the rest,
+and so by the balance of that trade only, the nation should get six
+hundred thousand pounds per annum.
+
+To examine the force of this argument, we will suppose (what they
+would have) that but half the silk, &c. shall be consumed in England
+of what there is now; we will suppose likewise, that those in Turkey,
+though we refuse to buy above half as much of their commodities as
+we used to do, either can or will not be without the same quantity of
+our manufactures they had before, and that they will pay the balance
+in money; that is to say, that they shall give us as much gold or
+silver, as the value of what they buy from us, exceeds the value of
+what we buy from them. Though what we suppose might perhaps be done
+for one year, it is impossible it should last: Buying is bartering;
+and no nation can buy goods of others, that has none of her own to
+purchase them with. Spain and Portugal, that are yearly supplied with
+new gold and silver from their mines, may for ever buy for ready money,
+as long as their yearly increase of gold or silver continues; but then
+money is their growth, and the commodity of the country. We know that
+we could not continue long to purchase the goods of other nations,
+if they would not take our manufactures in payment for them; and why
+should we judge otherwise of other nations? If those in Turkey, then,
+had no more money fall from the skies than we, let us see what would be
+the consequence of what we supposed. The six hundred thousand pounds
+in silk, mohair, &c. that are left upon their hands the first year,
+must make those commodities fall considerably: Of this the Dutch and
+French will reap the benefit as much as ourselves; and if we continue
+to refuse taking their commodities in payment for our manufactures,
+they can trade no longer with us, but must content themselves with
+buying what they want of such nations as are willing to take what
+we refuse, though their goods are much worse than ours; and thus our
+commerce with Turkey must in few years be infallibly lost.
+
+But they will say, perhaps, that to prevent the ill consequence I have
+showed, we shall take the Turkish merchandise as formerly, and only
+be so frugal as to consume but half the quantity of them ourselves,
+and send the rest abroad to be sold to others. Let us see what this
+will do, and whether it will enrich the nation by the balance of that
+trade with six hundred thousand pounds. In the first place, I will
+grant them that our people at home making use of so much more of our
+own manufactures, those who were employed in silk, mohair, &c. will
+get a living by the various preparations of woollen goods. But, in
+the second, I cannot allow that the goods can be sold as formerly;
+for suppose the half that is wore at home to be sold at the same rate
+as before, certainly the other half that is sent abroad will want very
+much of it: For we must send those goods to markets already supplied;
+and besides that, there must be freight, insurance, provision, and all
+other charges deducted, and the merchants in general must lose much
+more by this half that is reshipped, than they got by the half that
+is consumed here. For, though the woollen manufactures are our own
+product, yet they stand the merchant that ships them off to foreign
+countries, in as much as they do the shopkeeper here that retails
+them: so that if the returns for what he sends abroad repay him not
+what his goods cost him here, with all other charges, till he has the
+money and a good interest for it in cash, the merchant must run out,
+and the upshot would be, that the merchants in general, finding they
+lost by the Turkish commodities they sent abroad, would ship no more
+of our manufactures, than what would pay for as much silk, mohair,
+&c. as would be consumed here. Other nations would soon find ways
+to supply them with as much as we should send short, and some where
+or other to dispose of the goods we should refuse: So that all we
+should get by this frugality, would be, that those in Turkey would
+take but half the quantity of our manufactures of what they do now,
+while we encourage and wear their merchandises, without which they
+are not able to purchase ours.
+
+As I have had the mortification, for several years, to meet with
+abundance of sensible people against this opinion, and who always
+thought me wrong in this calculation, so I had the pleasure at
+last to see the wisdom of the nation fall into the same sentiments,
+as is so manifest from an act of parliament made in the year 1721,
+where the legislature disobliges a powerful and valuable company,
+and overlooks very weighty inconveniences at home, to promote the
+interest of the Turkey trade, and not only encourages the consumption
+of silk and mohair, but forces the subjects, on penalties, to make
+use of them whether they will or not.
+
+What is laid to the charge of luxury besides, is, that it increases
+avarice and rapine: And where they are reigning vices, offices of
+the greatest trust are bought and sold; the ministers that should
+serve the public, both great and small, corrupted, and the countries
+every moment in danger of being betrayed to the highest bidders: And,
+lastly, that it effeminates and enervates the people, by which the
+nations become an easy prey to the first invaders. These are indeed
+terrible things; but what is put to the account of luxury belongs to
+male-administration, and is the fault of bad politics. Every government
+ought to be thoroughly acquainted with, and stedfastly to pursue the
+interest of the country. Good politicians, by dexterous management,
+laying heavy impositions on some goods, or totally prohibiting them,
+and lowering the duties on others, may always turn and divert the
+course of trade which way they please; and as they will ever prefer,
+if it be equally considerable, the commerce with such countries as can
+pay with money as well as goods, to those that can make no returns
+for what they buy, but in the commodities of their own growth and
+manufactures, so they will always carefully prevent the traffic with
+such nations as refuse the goods of others, and will take nothing
+but money for their own. But, above all, they will keep a watchful
+eye over the balance of trade in general, and never suffer that all
+the foreign commodities together, that are imported in one year,
+shall exceed in value what of their own growth or manufacture is in
+the same imported to others. Note, That I speak now of the interest
+of those nations that have no gold or silver of their own growth,
+otherwise this maxim need not to be so much insisted on.
+
+If what I urged last, be but diligently looked after, and the imports
+are never allowed to be superior to the exports, no nation can ever
+be impoverished by foreign luxury; and they may improve it as much
+as they please, if they can but in proportion raise the fund of their
+own that is to purchase it.
+
+Trade is the principal, but not the only requisite to aggrandize
+a nation: there are other things to be taken care of besides. The
+meum and tuum must be secured, crimes punished, and all other laws
+concerning the administration of justice, wisely contrived, and
+strictly executed. Foreign affairs must be likewise prudently managed,
+and the ministry of every nation ought to have a good intelligence
+abroad, and be well acquainted with the public transactions of all
+those countries, that either by their neighbourhood, strength, or
+interest, may be hurtful or beneficial to them, to take the necessary
+measures accordingly, of crossing some, and assisting others, as
+policy, and the balance of power direct. The multitude must be awed,
+no man's conscience forced, and the clergy allowed no greater share in
+state affairs, than our Saviour has bequeathed in his testament. These
+are the arts that lead to worldly greatness: What sovereign power
+soever makes a good use of them, that has any considerable nation to
+govern, whether it be a monarchy, a commonwealth, or a mixture of both,
+can never fail of making it flourish in spite of all the other powers
+upon earth, and no luxury, or other vice, is ever able to shake their
+constitution.----But here I expect a full-mouthed cry against me;
+What! has God never punished and destroyed great nations for their
+sins? Yes, but not without means, by infatuating their governors,
+and suffering them to depart from either all or some of those general
+maxims I have mentioned; and of all the famous states and empires
+the world has had to boast of hitherto, none ever came to ruin, whose
+destruction was not principally owing to the bad politics, neglects,
+or mismanagements of the rulers.
+
+There is no doubt, but more health and vigour is expected among
+the people, and their offspring, from temperance and sobriety,
+than there is from gluttony and drunkenness; yet I confess, that as
+to luxury's effeminating and enervating a nation, I have not such
+frightful notions now, as I have had formerly. When we hear or read
+of things which we are altogether strangers to, they commonly bring
+to our imagination such ideas of what we have seen, as (according to
+our apprehension) must come the nearest to them: And I remember, that
+when I have read of the luxury of Persia, Egypt, and other countries
+where it has been a reigning vice, and that were effeminated and
+enervated by it, it has sometimes put me in mind of the cramming and
+swilling of ordinary tradesmen at a city feast, and the beastliness
+their overgorging themselves is often attended with; at other times,
+it has made me think on the distraction of dissolute sailors, as I
+had seen them in company of half a dozen lewd women, roaring along
+with fiddles before them; and was I to have been carried into any of
+their great cities, I would have expected to have found one third of
+the people sick a-bed with surfeits; another laid up with the gout,
+or crippled by a more ignominious distemper; and the rest, that could
+go without leading, walk along the streets in petticoats.
+
+It is happy for us to have fear for a keeper, as long as our reason is
+not strong enough to govern our appetites: And I believe, that the
+great dread I had more particularly against the word, to enervate,
+and some consequent thoughts on the etymology of it, did me abundance
+of good when I was a school boy: But since I have seen something
+in the world, the consequences of luxury to a nation seem not so
+dreadful to me as they did. As long as men have the same appetites,
+the same vices will remain. In all large societies, some will love
+whoring, and others drinking. The lustful that can get no handsome
+clean women, will content themselves with dirty drabs: and those
+that cannot purchase true Hermitage or Pontack, will be glad of
+more ordinary French claret. Those that cannot reach wine, take up
+with most liquors, and a foot soldier or a beggar may make himself
+as drunk with stale beer or malt spirits, as a lord with Burgundy,
+Champaign, or Tockay. The cheapest and most slovenly way of indulging
+our passions, does as much mischief to a man's constitution, as the
+most elegant and expensive.
+
+The greatest excesses of luxury are shown in buildings, furniture,
+equipages, and clothes: Clean linen weakens a man no more than flannel;
+tapestry, fine painting, or good wainscot, are no more unwholesome than
+bare walls; and a rich couch, or a gilt chariot, are no more enervating
+than the cold floor, or a country cart. The refined pleasures of men
+of sense are seldom injurious to their constitution, and there are
+many great epicures that will refuse to eat or drink more than their
+heads or stomachs can bear. Sensual people may take as great care of
+themselves as any: and the errors of the most viciously luxurious,
+do not so much consist in the frequent repetitions of their lewdness,
+and their eating and drinking too much (which are the things which
+would most enervate them), as they do in the operose contrivances,
+the profuseness and nicety they are served with, and the vast expence
+they are at in their tables and amours.
+
+But let us once suppose, that the ease and pleasures, the grandees,
+and the rich people of every nation live in, render them unfit
+to endure hardships, and undergo the toils of war. I will allow
+that most of the common council of the city would make but very
+indifferent foot soldiers; and I believe heartily, that if your
+horse was to be composed of aldermen, and such as most of them are,
+a small artillery of squibs would be sufficient to route them. But
+what have the aldermen, the common council, or indeed all people of
+any substance to do with the war, but to pay taxes? The hardships and
+fatigues of war that are personally suffered, fall upon them that bear
+the brunt of every thing, the meanest indigent part of the nation,
+the working slaving people: For how excessive soever the plenty and
+luxury of a nation may be, some body must do the work, houses and
+ships must be built, merchandises must be removed, and the ground
+tilled. Such a variety of labours in every great nation, require a
+vast multitude, in which there are always loose, idle, extravagant
+fellows enough to spare for an army; and those that are robust enough
+to hedge and ditch, plow and thrash, or else not too much enervated
+to be smiths, carpenters, sawyers, cloth-workers, porters or carmen,
+will always be strong and hardy enough in a campaign or two to make
+good soldiers, who, where good orders are kept, have seldom so much
+plenty and superfluity come to their share, as to do them any hurt.
+
+The mischief, then, to be feared from luxury among the people of war,
+cannot extend itself beyond the officers. The greatest of them are
+either men of a very high birth and princely education, or else
+extraordinary parts, and no less experience; and whoever is made
+choice of by a wise government to command an army en chef, should have
+a consummate knowledge in martial affairs, intrepidity to keep him
+calm in the midst of danger, and many other qualifications that must
+be the work of time and application, on men of a quick penetration,
+a distinguished genius, and a world of honour. Strong sinews and supple
+joints are trifling advantages, not regarded in persons of their reach
+and grandeur, that can destroy cities a-bed, and ruin whole countries
+while they are at dinner. As they are most commonly men of great age,
+it would be ridiculous to expect a hale constitution and agility of
+limbs from them: So their heads be but active and well furnished, it
+is no great matter what the rest of their bodies are. If they cannot
+bear the fatigue of being on horseback, they may ride in coaches, or
+be carried in litters. Mens conduct and sagacity are never the less
+for their being cripples, and the best general the king of France
+has now, can hardly crawl along. Those that are immediately under
+the chief commanders must be very nigh of the same abilities, and
+are generally men that have raised themselves to those posts by their
+merit. The other officers are all of them in their several stations
+obliged to lay out so large a share of their pay in fine clothes,
+accoutrements, and other things, by the luxury of the times called
+necessary, that they can spare but little money for debauches; for,
+as they are advanced, and their salaries raised, so they are likewise
+forced to increase their expences and their equipages, which, as well
+as every thing else, must still be proportionable to their quality:
+by which means, the greatest part of them are in a manner hindered
+from those excesses that might be destructive to health; while their
+luxury thus turned another way, serves, moreover, to heighten their
+pride and vanity, the greatest motives to make them behave themselves
+like what they would be thought to be (See Remark on l. 321).
+
+There is nothing refines mankind more than love and honour. Those two
+passions are equivalent to many virtues, and therefore the greatest
+schools of breeding and good manners, are courts and armies; the
+first to accomplish the women, the other to polish the men. What
+the generality of officers among civilized nations affect, is a
+perfect knowledge of the world and the rules of honour; an air of
+frankness, and humanity peculiar to military men of experience, and
+such a mixture of modesty and undauntedness, as may bespeak them both
+courteous and valiant. Where good sense is fashionable, and a genteel
+behaviour is in esteem, gluttony and drunkenness can be no reigning
+vices. What officers of distinction chiefly aim at, is not a beastly,
+but a splendid way of living, and the wishes of the most luxurious,
+in their several degrees of quality, are to appear handsomely, and
+excel each other in finery of equipage, politeness of entertainments,
+and the reputation of a judicious fancy in every thing about them.
+
+But if there should be more dissolute reprobates among officers,
+than there are among men of other professions, which is not true,
+yet the most debauched of them may be very serviceable, if they have
+but a great share of honour. It is this that covers and makes up for a
+multitude of defects in them, and it is this that none (how abandoned
+soever they are to pleasure) dare pretend to be without. But as there
+is no argument so convincing as matter of fact, let us look back on
+what so lately happened in our two last wars with France. How many
+puny young striplings have we had in our armies, tenderly educated,
+nice in their dress, and curious in their diet, that underwent all
+manner of duties with gallantry and cheerfulness?
+
+Those that have such dismal apprehensions of luxury's enervating and
+effeminating people, might, in Flanders and Spain have seen embroidered
+beaux with fine laced shirts and powdered wigs stand as much fire,
+and lead up to the mouth of a cannon, with as little concern as it
+was possible for the most stinking slovens to have done in their own
+hair, though it had not been combed in a month, and met with abundance
+of wild rakes, who had actually impaired their healths, and broke
+their constitutions with excesses of wine and women, that yet behaved
+themselves with conduct and bravery against their enemies. Robustness
+is the least thing required in an officer, and if sometimes strength
+is of use, a firm resolution of mind, which the hopes of preferment,
+emulation, and the love of glory inspire them with, will at a push
+supply the place of bodily force.
+
+Those that understand their business, and have a sufficient sense
+of honour, as soon as they are used to danger will always be capable
+officers: and their luxury, as long as they spend nobody's money but
+their own, will never be prejudicial to a nation.
+
+By all which, I think, I have proved what I designed in this remark
+on luxury. First, that in one sense every thing may be called so,
+and in another there is no such thing. Secondly, that with a wise
+administration all people may swim in as much foreign luxury as
+their product can purchase, without being impoverished by it. And,
+lastly, that where military affairs are taken care of as they ought,
+and the soldiers well paid and kept in good discipline, a wealthy
+nation may live in all the ease and plenty imaginable; and in many
+parts of it, show as much pomp and delicacy, as human wit can invent,
+and at the same time be formidable to their neighbours, and come up
+to the character of the bees in the fable, of which I said, that
+
+
+    Flatter'd in peace, and fear'd in wars,
+    They were th' esteem of foreigners;
+    And lavish of their wealth and lives,
+    The balance of all other hives.
+
+
+(See what is farther said concerning luxury in the Remarks on line
+182 and 307.)
+
+
+
+
+    Line 182. And odious pride a million more.
+
+
+Pride is that natural faculty by which every mortal that has any
+understanding over-values, and imagines better things of himself than
+any impartial judge, thoroughly acquainted with all his qualities
+and circumstances, could allow him. We are possessed of no other
+quality so beneficial to society, and so necessary to render it
+wealthy and flourishing as this, yet it is that which is most
+generally detested. What is very peculiar to this faculty of ours,
+is, that those who are the fullest of it, are the least willing to
+connive at it in others; whereas the heinousness of other vices is
+the most extenuated by those who are guilty of them themselves. The
+chaste man hates fornication, and drunkenness is most abhorred by the
+temperate; but none are so much offended at their neighbour's pride,
+as the proudest of all; and if any one can pardon it, it is the most
+humble: from which, I think, we may justly infer, that it being odious
+to all the world, is a certain sign that all the world is troubled with
+it. This all men of sense are ready to confess, and nobody denies but
+that he has pride in general. But, if you come to particulars, you
+will meet with few that will own any action you can name of theirs
+to have proceeded from that principle. There are likewise many who
+will allow, that among the sinful nations of the times, pride and
+luxury are the great promoters of trade, but they refuse to own the
+necessity there is, that in a more virtuous age (such a one as should
+be free from pride), trade would in a great measure decay.
+
+The Almighty, they say, has endowed us with the dominion over all
+things which the earth and sea produce or contain; there is nothing
+to be found in either, but what was made for the use of man; and his
+skill and industry above other animals were given him, that he might
+render both them and every thing else within the reach of his senses,
+more serviceable to him. Upon this consideration they think it impious
+to imagine, that humility, temperance, and other virtues should debar
+people from the enjoyment of those comforts of life, which are not
+denied to the most wicked nations; and so conclude, that without pride
+or luxury, the same things might be eat, wore, and consumed; the same
+number of handicrafts and artificers employed, and a nation be every
+way as flourishing as where those vices are the most predominant.
+
+As to wearing apparel in particular, they will tell you, that pride,
+which sticks much nearer to us than our clothes, is only lodged in
+the heart, and that rags often conceal a greater portion of it than
+the most pompous attire; and that as it cannot be denied but that
+there have always been virtuous princes, who, with humble hearts, have
+wore their splendid diadems, and swayed their envied sceptres, void of
+ambition, for the good of others; so it is very probable, that silver
+and gold brocades, and the richest embroideries may, without a thought
+of pride, be wore by many whose quality and fortune are suitable to
+them. May not (say they) a good man of extraordinary revenues, make
+every year a greater variety of suits than it is possible he should
+wear out, and yet have no other ends than to set the poor at work,
+to encourage trade, and by employing many, to promote the welfare of
+his country? And considering food and raiment to be necessaries, and
+the two chief articles to which all our worldly cares are extended, why
+may not all mankind set aside a considerable part of their income for
+the one as well as the other, without the least tincture of pride? Nay,
+is not every member of the society in a manner obliged, according to
+his ability, to contribute toward the maintenance of that branch of
+trade on which the whole has so great a dependence? Besides that,
+to appear decently is a civility, and often a duty, which, without
+any regard to ourselves, we owe to those we converse with.
+
+These are the objections generally made use of by haughty moralists,
+who cannot endure to hear the dignity of their species arraigned;
+but if we look narrowly into them, they may soon be answered.
+
+If we had vices, I cannot see why any man should ever make more suits
+than he has occasion for, though he was never so desirous of promoting
+the good of the nation: for, though in the wearing of a well-wrought
+silk, rather than a slight stuff, and the preferring curious fine
+cloth to coarse, he had no other view but the setting of more people
+to work, and consequently the public welfare, yet he could consider
+clothes no otherwise than lovers of their country do taxes now;
+they may pay them with alacrity, but nobody gives more than his due;
+especially where all are justly rated according to their abilities,
+as it could no otherwise be expected in a very virtuous age. Besides,
+that in such golden times nobody would dress above his condition,
+nobody pinch his family, cheat or over reach his neighbour to purchase
+finery, and consequently there would not be half the consumption,
+nor a third part of the people employed as now there are. But, to make
+this more plain, and demonstrate, that for the support of trade there
+can be nothing equivalent to pride, I shall examine the several views
+men have in outward apparel, and set forth what daily experience may
+teach every body as to dress.
+
+Clothes were originally made for two ends, to hide our nakedness, and
+to fence our bodies against the weather, and other outward injuries:
+to these our boundless pride has added a third, which is ornament;
+for what else but an excess of stupid vanity, could have prevailed
+upon our reason to fancy that ornamental, which must continually put
+us in mind of our wants and misery, beyond all other animals that
+are ready clothed by nature herself? It is indeed to be admired
+how so sensible a creature as man, that pretends to so many fine
+qualities of his own, should condescend to value himself upon what
+is robbed from so innocent and defenceless an animal as a sheep, or
+what he is beholden for to the most insignificant thing upon earth,
+a dying worm; yet while he is proud of such trifling depredations, he
+has the folly to laugh at the Hottentots on the furthest promontory
+of Afric, who adorn themselves with the guts of their dead enemies,
+without considering that they are the ensigns of their valour those
+barbarians are fine with, the true spolia opima, and that if their
+pride be more savage than ours, it is certainly less ridiculous,
+because they wear the spoils of the more noble animal.
+
+But whatever reflections may be made on this head, the world has
+long since decided the matter; handsome apparel is a main point,
+fine feathers make fine birds, and people, where they are not
+known, are generally honoured according to their clothes and other
+accoutrements they have about them; from the richness of them we
+judge of their wealth, and by their ordering of them we guess at
+their understanding. It is this which encourages every body, who is
+conscious of his little merit, if he is any ways able to wear clothes
+above his rank, especially in large and populous cities, where obscure
+men may hourly meet with fifty strangers to one acquaintance, and
+consequently have the pleasure of being esteemed by a vast majority,
+not as what they are, but what they appear to be: which is a greater
+temptation than most people want to be vain.
+
+Whoever takes delight in viewing the various scenes of low life, may,
+on Easter, Whitsun, and other great holidays, meet with scores of
+people, especially women, of almost the lowest rank, that wear good
+and fashionable clothes: if coming to talk with them, you treat them
+more courteously and with greater respect than what they are conscious
+they deserve, they will commonly be ashamed of owning what they are;
+and often you may, if you are a little inquisitive, discover in them
+a most anxious care to conceal the business they follow, and the
+place they live in. The reason is plain; while they receive those
+civilities that are not usually paid them, and which they think only
+due to their betters, they have the satisfaction to imagine, that they
+appear what they would be, which, to weak minds, is a pleasure almost
+as substantial as they could reap from the very accomplishments of
+their wishes: this golden dream they are unwilling to be disturbed
+in, and being sure that the meanness of their condition, if it is
+known, must sink them very low in your opinion, they hug themselves
+in their disguise, and take all imaginable precaution not to forfeit,
+by a useless discovery, the esteem which they flatter themselves that
+their good clothes have drawn from you.
+
+Though every body allows, that as to apparel and manner of living,
+we ought to behave ourselves suitable to our conditions, and follow
+the examples of the most sensible, and prudent among our equals in
+rank and fortune: yet how few, that are not either miserably covetous,
+or else proud of singularity, have this discretion to boast of? We
+all look above ourselves, and, as fast as we can, strive to imitate
+those that some way or other are superior to us.
+
+The poorest labourer's wife in the parish, who scorns to wear a
+strong wholesome frize, as she might, will half starve herself and
+her husband to purchase a second-hand gown and petticoat, that cannot
+do her half the service; because, forsooth, it is more genteel. The
+weaver, the shoemaker, the tailor, the barber, and every mean working
+fellow, that can set up with little, has the impudence, with the
+first money he gets, to dress himself like a tradesman of substance:
+the ordinary retailer in the clothing of his wife, takes pattern
+from his neighbour, that deals in the same commodity by wholesale,
+and the reason he gives for it is, that twelve years ago the other
+had not a bigger shop than himself. The druggist, mercer, draper,
+and other creditable shopkeepers, can find no difference between
+themselves and merchants, and therefore dress and live like them. The
+merchant's lady, who cannot bear the assurance of those mechanics,
+flies for refuge to the other end of the town, and scorns to follow
+any fashion but what she takes from thence; this haughtiness alarms the
+court, the women of quality are frightened to see merchants wives and
+daughters dressed like themselves: this impudence of the city, they
+cry, is intolerable; mantua-makers are sent for, and the contrivance
+of fashions becomes all their study, that they may have always new
+modes ready to take up, as soon as those saucy cits shall begin to
+imitate those in being. The same emulation is continued through the
+several degrees of quality, to an incredible expence, till at last
+the prince's great favourites and those of the first rank of all,
+having nothing left to outstrip some of their inferiors, are forced
+to lay out vast estates in pompous equipages, magnificent furniture,
+sumptuous gardens, and princely palaces.
+
+To this emulation and continual striving to out-do one another it is
+owing, that after so many various shiftings and changes of modes, in
+trumping up new ones, and renewing of old ones, there is still a plus
+ultra left for the ingenious; it is this, or at least the consequence
+of it, that sets the poor to work, adds spurs to industry, and
+encourages the skilful artificer to search after further improvements.
+
+It may be objected, that many people of good fashion, who have been
+used to be well dressed, out of custom, wear rich clothes with all
+the indifferency imaginable, and that the benefit to trade accruing
+from them cannot be ascribed to emulation or pride. To this I answer,
+that it is impossible, that those who trouble their heads so little
+with their dress, could ever have wore those rich clothes, if both
+the stuffs and fashions had not been first invented to gratify the
+vanity of others, who took greater delight in fine apparel, than they;
+besides that every body is not without pride that appears to be so;
+all the symptoms of that vice are not easily discovered; they are
+manifold, and vary according to the age, humour, circumstances,
+and often constitution of the people.
+
+The choleric city captain seems impatient to come to action, and
+expressing his warlike genius by the firmness of his steps, makes
+his pike, for want of enemies, tremble at the valour of his arm:
+his martial finery, as he marches along, inspires him with an unusual
+elevation of mind, by which, endeavouring to forget his shop as well as
+himself, he looks up at the balconies with the fierceness of a Saracen
+conqueror: while the phlegmatic alderman, now become venerable both
+for his age and his authority, contents himself with being thought
+a considerable man; and knowing no easier way to express his vanity,
+looks big in his coach, where being known by his paultry livery, he
+receives, in sullen state, the homage that is paid him by the meaner
+sort of people.
+
+The beardless ensign counterfeits a gravity above his years, and with
+ridiculous assurance strives to imitate the stern countenance of
+his colonel, flattering himself, all the while, that by his daring
+mien you will judge of his prowess. The youthful fair, in a vast
+concern of being overlooked, by the continual changing of her posture,
+betrays a violent desire of being observed, and catching, as it were,
+at every body's eyes, courts with obliging looks the admiration of
+her beholders. The conceited coxcomb, on the contrary, displaying an
+air of sufficiency, is wholly taken up with the contemplation of his
+own perfections, and in public places discovers such a disregard to
+others, that the ignorant must imagine, he thinks himself to be alone.
+
+These, and such like, are all manifest, though different tokens of
+pride, that are obvious to all the world; but man's vanity is not
+always so soon found out. When we perceive an air of humanity, and
+men seem not to be employed in admiring themselves, nor altogether
+unmindful of others, we are apt to pronounce them void of pride,
+when, perhaps, they are only fatigued with gratifying their vanity,
+and become languid from a satiety of enjoyments. That outward show
+of peace within, and drowsy composure of careless negligence, with
+which a great man is often seen in his plain chariot to loll at ease,
+are not always so free from art, as they may seem to be. Nothing is
+more ravishing to the proud, than to be thought happy.
+
+The well-bred gentleman places his greatest pride in the skill he has
+of covering it with dexterity, and some are so expert in concealing
+this frailty, that when they are the most guilty of it, the vulgar
+think them the most exempt from it. Thus the dissembling courtier,
+when he appears in state, assumes an air of modesty and good humour;
+and while he is ready to burst with vanity, seems to be wholly
+ignorant of his greatness; well knowing, that those lovely qualities
+must heighten him in the esteem of others, and be an addition to that
+grandeur, which the coronets about his coach and harnesses, with the
+rest of his equipage, cannot fail to proclaim without his assistance.
+
+And as in these, pride is overlooked, because industriously concealed,
+so in others again, it is denied that they have any, when they show
+(or at least seem to show) it in the most public manner. The wealthy
+parson being, as well as the rest of his profession, debarred from the
+gaiety of laymen, makes it his business to look out for an admirable
+black, and the finest cloth that money can purchase, and distinguishes
+himself by the fullness of his noble and spotless garment; his wigs
+are as fashionable as that form he is forced to comply with will
+admit of; but as he is only stinted in their shape, so he takes
+care that for goodness of hair, and colour, few noblemen shall be
+able to match him; his body is ever clean, as well as his clothes,
+his sleek face is kept constantly shaved, and his handsome nails
+are diligently pared; his smooth white hand, and a brilliant of the
+first water, mutually becoming, honour each other with double graces;
+what linen he discovers is transparently curious, and he scorns ever
+to be seen abroad with a worse beaver than what a rich banker would
+be proud of on his wedding-day; to all these niceties in dress he
+adds a majestic gait, and expresses a commanding loftiness in his
+carriage; yet common civility, notwithstanding, the evidence of so
+many concurring symptoms, will not allow us to suspect any of his
+actions to be the result of pride: considering the dignity of his
+office, it is only decency in him, what would be vanity in others;
+and in good manners to his calling we ought to believe, that the worthy
+gentleman, without any regard to his reverend person, puts himself to
+all this trouble and expence, merely out of a respect which is due
+to the divine order he belongs to, and a religious zeal to preserve
+his holy function from the contempt of scoffers. With all my heart;
+nothing of all this shall be called pride, let me only be allowed to
+say, that to our human capacities it looks very like it.
+
+But if at last I should grant, that there are men who enjoy all the
+fineries of equipage and furniture, as well as clothes, and yet have
+no pride in them; it is certain, that if all should be such, that
+emulation I spoke of before must cease, and consequently trade, which
+has so great a dependence upon it, suffer in every branch. For to say,
+that if all men were truly virtuous, they might, without any regard to
+themselves, consume as much out of zeal to serve their neighbours and
+promote the public good, as they do now out of self-love and emulation,
+is a miserable shift, and an unreasonable supposition. As there have
+been good people in all ages, so, without doubt, we are not destitute
+of them in this; but let us inquire of the periwig-makers and tailors,
+in what gentlemen, even of the greatest wealth and highest quality,
+they ever could discover such public-spirited views. Ask the lacemen,
+the mercers, and the linen-drapers, whether the richest, and if
+you will, the most virtuous ladies, if they buy with ready money,
+or intend to pay in any reasonable time, will not drive from shop to
+shop, to try the market, make as many words, and stand as hard with
+them to save a groat or sixpence in a yard, as the most necessitous
+jilts in town. If it be urged, that if there are not, it is possible
+there might be such people; I answer that it is as possible that cats,
+instead of killing rats and mice, should feed them, and go about the
+house to suckle and nurse their young ones; or that a kite should call
+the hens to their meat, as the cock does, and sit brooding over their
+chickens instead of devouring them; but if they should all do so,
+they would cease to be cats and kites; it is inconsistent with their
+natures, and the species of creatures which now we mean, when we name
+cats and kites, would be extinct as soon as that could come to pass.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 183. Envy itself, and vanity,
+              Were ministers of industry.
+
+
+Envy is that baseness in our nature, which makes us grieve and pine at
+what we conceive to be a happiness in others. I do not believe there
+is a human creature in his senses arrived to maturity, that at one time
+or other has not been carried away by this passion in good earnest; and
+yet I never met with any one that dared own he was guilty of it, but in
+jest. That we are so generally ashamed of this vice, is owing to that
+strong habit of hypocrisy, by the help of which, we have learned from
+our cradle to hide even from ourselves the vast extent of self-love,
+and all its different branches. It is impossible man should wish
+better for another than he does for himself, unless where he supposes
+an impossibility that himself should attain to those wishes; and from
+hence we may easily learn after what manner this passion is raised in
+us. In order to it, we are to consider first, that as well as we think
+of ourselves, so ill we think of our neighbour with equal injustice;
+and when we apprehend, that others do or will enjoy what we think
+they do not deserve, it afflicts and makes us angry with the cause
+of that disturbance. Secondly, That we are employed in wishing well
+for ourselves, every one according to his judgment and inclinations,
+and when we observe something we like, and yet are destitute of,
+in the possession of others; it occasions first sorrow in us for not
+having the thing we like. This sorrow is incurable, while we continue
+our esteem for the thing we want: but as self-defence is restless, and
+never suffers us to leave any means untried how to remove evil from us,
+as far and as well as we are able; experience teaches us, that nothing
+in nature more alleviates this sorrow, than our anger against those
+who are possessed of what we esteem and want. This latter passion,
+therefore, we cherish and cultivate to save or relieve ourselves,
+at least in part, from the uneasiness we felt from the first.
+
+Envy, then, is a compound of grief and anger; the degrees of this
+passion depend chiefly on the nearness or remoteness of the objects,
+as to circumstances. If one, who is forced to walk on foot envies
+a great man for keeping a coach and six, it will never be with that
+violence, or give him that disturbance which it may to a man, who keeps
+a coach himself, but can only afford to drive with four horses. The
+symptoms of envy are as various, and as hard to describe, as those
+of the plague; at some time it appears in one shape, at others in
+another quite different. Among the fair, the disease is very common,
+and the signs of it very conspicuous in their opinions and censures
+of one another. In beautiful young women, you may often discover
+this faculty to a high degree; they frequently will hate one another
+mortally at first sight, from no other principle than envy; and you may
+read this scorn, and unreasonable aversion, in their very countenances,
+if they have not a great deal of art, and well learned to dissemble.
+
+In the rude and unpolished multitude, this passion is very bare-faced;
+especially when they envy others for the goods of fortune: They rail
+at their betters, rip up their faults, and take pains to misconstrue
+their most commendable actions: They murmur at Providence, and loudly
+complain, that the good things of this world are chiefly enjoyed
+by those who do not deserve them. The grosser sort of them it often
+affects so violently, that if they were not withheld by the fear of the
+laws, they would go directly and beat those their envy is levelled at,
+from no other provocation than what that passion suggests to them.
+
+The men of letters, labouring under this distemper, discover
+quite different symptoms. When they envy a person for his parts
+and erudition, their chief care is industriously to conceal their
+frailty, which generally is attempted by denying and depreciating
+the good qualities they envy: They carefully peruse his works, and
+are displeased with every fine passage they meet with; they look for
+nothing but his errors, and wish for no greater feast than a gross
+mistake: In their censures they are captious, as well as severe,
+make mountains of mole-hills, and will not pardon the least shadow
+of a fault, but exaggerate the most trifling omission into a capital
+blunder.
+
+Envy is visible in brute-beasts; horses show it in their endeavours of
+outstripping one another; and the best spirited will run themselves
+to death, before they will suffer another before them. In dogs,
+this passion is likewise plainly to be seen, those who are used to be
+caressed will never tamely bear that felicity in others. I have seen
+a lap-dog that would choke himself with victuals, rather than leave
+any thing for a competitor of his own kind; and we may often observe
+the same behaviour in those creatures which we daily see in infants
+that are froward, and by being over-fondled made humoursome. If out
+of caprice they at any time refuse to eat what they have asked for,
+and we can but make them believe that some body else, nay, even the
+cat or the dog is going to take it from them, they will make an end
+of their oughts with pleasure, and feed even against their appetite.
+
+If envy was not rivetted in human nature, it would not be so common
+in children, and youth would not be so generally spurred on by
+emulation. Those who would derive every thing that is beneficial to
+the society from a good principle, ascribe the effects of emulation in
+school-boys to a virtue of the mind; as it requires labour and pains,
+so it is evident, that they commit a self-denial, who act from that
+disposition; but if we look narrowly into it, we shall find, that this
+sacrifice of ease and pleasure is only made to envy, and the love of
+glory. If there was not something very like this passion, mixed with
+that pretended virtue, it would be impossible to raise and increase
+it by the same means that create envy. The boy, who receives a reward
+for the superiority of his performance, is conscious of the vexation
+it would have been to him, if he should have fallen short of it:
+This reflection makes him exert himself, not to be outdone by those
+whom he looks upon as his inferiors, and the greater his pride is,
+the more self-denial he will practise to maintain his conquest. The
+other, who, in spite of the pains he took to do well, has missed of
+the prize, is sorry, and consequently angry with him whom he must
+look upon as the cause of his grief: But to show this anger, would
+be ridiculous, and of no service to him, so that he must either be
+contented to be less esteemed than the other boy; or, by renewing
+his endeavours, become a greater proficient: and it is ten to one,
+but the disinterested, good-humoured, and peaceable lad, will choose
+the first, and so become indolent and inactive, while the covetous,
+peevish, and quarrelsome rascal, shall take incredible pains, and
+make himself a conqueror in his turn.
+
+Envy, as it is very common among painters, so it is of great use
+for their improvement: I do not mean, that little dawbers envy great
+masters, but most of them are tainted with this vice against those
+immediately above them. If the pupil of a famous artist is of a
+bright genius, and uncommon application, he first adores his master;
+but as his own skill increases, he begins insensibly to envy what
+he admired before. To learn the nature of this passion, and that
+it consists in what I have named, we are but to observe, that, if a
+painter, by exerting himself, comes not only to equal, but to exceed
+the man he envied, his sorrow is gone, and all his anger disarmed;
+and if he hated him before, he is now glad to be friends with him,
+if the other will condescend to it.
+
+Married women, who are guilty of this vice, which few are not,
+are always endeavouring to raise the same passion in their spouses;
+and where they have prevailed, envy and emulation have kept more men
+in bounds, and reformed more ill husbands from sloth, from drinking,
+and other evil courses, than all the sermons that have been preached
+since the time of the Apostles.
+
+As every body would be happy, enjoy pleasure, and, avoid pain, if
+he could, so self-love bids us look on every creature that seems
+satisfied, as a rival in happiness; and the satisfaction we have in
+seeing that felicity disturbed, without any advantage to ourselves,
+but what springs from the pleasure we have in beholding it, is called
+loving mischief for mischief's sake; and the motive of which that
+frailty is the result, malice, another offspring derived from the same
+original; for if there was no envy, there could be no malice. When
+the passions lie dormant, we have no apprehension of them, and often
+people think they have not such a frailty in their nature, because
+that moment they are not affected with it.
+
+A gentleman well dressed, who happens to be dirtied all over by a
+coach or a cart, is laughed at, and by his inferiors much more than his
+equals, because they envy him more: they know he is vexed at it, and,
+imagining him to be happier than themselves, they are glad to see him
+meet with displeasures in his turn! But a young lady, if she be in a
+serious mood, instead of laughing at, pities him, because a clean man
+is a sight she takes delight in, and there is no room for envy. At
+disasters, we either laugh, or pity those that befal them, according
+to the stock we are possessed of either malice or compassion. If a
+man falls or hurts himself so slightly, that it moves not the latter,
+we laugh, and here our pity and malice shake us alternately: Indeed,
+Sir, I am very sorry for it, I beg your pardon for laughing, I am
+the silliest creature in the world, then laugh again; and again,
+I am indeed very sorry, and so on. Some are so malicious, they would
+laugh if a man broke his leg, and others are so compassionate, that
+they can heartily pity a man for the least spot in his clothes; but
+nobody is so savage that no compassion can touch him, nor any man so
+good-natured, as never to be affected with any malicious pleasure. How
+strangely our passions govern us! We envy a man for being rich, and
+then perfectly hate him: But if we come to be his equals, we are calm,
+and the least condescension in him makes us friends; but if we become
+visibly superior to him, we can pity his misfortunes. The reason
+why men of true good sense envy less than others, is because they
+admire themselves with less hesitation than fools and silly people;
+for, though they do not show this to others, yet the solidity of their
+thinking gives them an assurance of their real worth, which men of weak
+understanding can never feel within, though they often counterfeit it.
+
+The ostracism of the Greeks was a sacrifice of valuable men made
+to epidemic envy, and often applied as an infallible remedy to cure
+and prevent the mischiefs of popular spleen and rancour. A victim of
+state often appeases the murmurs of a whole nation, and after-ages
+frequently wonder at barbarities of this nature, which, under the
+same circumstances, they would have committed themselves. They are
+compliments to the people's malice, which is never better gratified,
+than when they can see a great man humbled. We believe that we love
+justice, and to see merit rewarded; but if men continue long in the
+first posts of honour, half of us grow weary of them, look for their
+faults, and, if we can find none, we suppose they hide them, and it
+is much if the greatest part of us do not wish them discarded. This
+foul play, the best of men ought ever to apprehend from all who are
+not their immediate friends or acquaintance, because nothing is more
+tiresome to us, than the repetition of praises we have no manner of
+share in.
+
+The more a passion is a compound of many others, the more difficult it
+is to define it; and the more it is tormenting to those that labour
+under it, the greater cruelty it is capable of inspiring them with
+against others: Therefore nothing is more whimsical or mischievous
+than jealousy, which is made up of love, hope, fear, and a great deal
+of envy: The last has been sufficiently treated of already; and what I
+have to say of fear, the reader will find under Remark on l. 321. So
+that the better to explain and illustrate this odd mixture, the
+ingredients I shall further speak of in this place, are hope and love.
+
+Hoping is wishing with some degree of confidence, that the thing
+wished for will come to pass. The firmness and imbecility of our hope
+depend entirely on the greater or lesser degree of our confidence,
+and all hope includes doubt; for when our confidence is arrived to
+that height, as to exclude all doubts, it becomes a certainty, and
+we take for granted what we only hoped for before. A silver inkhorn
+may pass in speech, because every body knows what we mean by it,
+but a certain hope cannot: For a man who makes use of an epithet that
+destroys the essence of the substantive he joins it to, can have no
+meaning at all; and the more clearly we understand the force of the
+epithet, and the nature of the substantive, the more palpable is the
+nonsense of the heterogeneous compound. The reason, therefore, why
+it is not so shocking to some to hear a man speak of certain hope,
+as if he should talk of hot ice, or liquid oak, is not because there
+is less nonsense contained in the first, than there is in either
+of the latter; but because the word hope, I mean the essence of it,
+is not so clearly understood by the generality of the people, as the
+words and essence of ice and oak are.
+
+Love, in the first place, signifies affection, such as parents and
+nurses bear to children, and friends to one another; it consists
+in a liking and well-wishing to the person beloved. We give an
+easy construction to his words and actions, and feel a proneness
+to excuse and forgive his faults, if we see any; his interest we
+make on all accounts our own, even to our prejudice, and receive
+an inward satisfaction for sympathising with him in his sorrows,
+as well as joys. What I said last is not impossible, whatever it may
+seem to be; for, when we are sincere in sharing with one another in
+his misfortunes, self-love makes us believe, that the sufferings we
+feel must alleviate and lessen those of our friend; and while this
+fond reflection is soothing our pain, a secret pleasure arises from
+our grieving for the person we love.
+
+Secondly, by love we understand a strong inclination, in its nature
+distinct from all other affections of friendship, gratitude, and
+consanguinity, that persons of different sexes, after liking, bear
+to one another: it is in this signification, that love enters into
+the compound of jealousy, and is the effect as well as happy disguise
+of that passion that prompts us to labour for the preservation of our
+species. This latter appetite is innate both in men and women, who are
+not defective in their formation, as much as hunger or thirst, though
+they are seldom affected with it before the years of puberty. Could we
+undress nature, and pry into her deepest recesses, we should discover
+the seeds of this passion before it exerts itself, as plainly as we
+see the teeth in an embryo, before the gums are formed. There are
+few healthy people of either sex, whom it has made no impression on
+before twenty: yet, as the peace and happiness of the civil society
+require that this should be kept a secret, never to be talked of in
+public; so, among well-bred people, it is counted highly criminal to
+mention, before company, any thing in plain words, that is, relating
+to this mystery of succession: by which means, the very name of the
+appetite, though the most necessary for the continuance of mankind,
+is become odious, and the proper epithets commonly joined to lust,
+are filthy and abominable.
+
+This impulse of nature in people of strict morals, and rigid
+modesty, often disturbs the body for a considerable time before it is
+understood or known to be what it is, and it is remarkable, that the
+most polished, and best instructed, are generally the most ignorant
+as to this affair; and here I can but observe the difference between
+man in the wild state of nature, and the same creature in the civil
+society. In the first, men and women, if left rude and untaught in
+the sciences of modes and manners, would quickly find out the cause
+of that disturbance, and be at a loss no more than other animals
+for a present remedy: besides, that it is not probable they would
+want either precept or example from the more experienced. But, in
+the second, where the rules of religion, law, and decency, are to
+be followed, and obeyed, before any dictates of nature, the youth
+of both sexes are to be armed and fortified against this impulse,
+and from their infancy artfully frightened from the most remote
+approaches of it. The appetite itself, and all the symptoms of it,
+though they are plainly felt and understood, are to be stifled with
+care and severity, and, in women, flatly disowned, and if there be
+occasion, with obstinacy denied, even when themselves are affected by
+them. If it throws them into distempers, they must be cured by physic,
+or else patiently bear them in silence; and it is the interest of the
+society to preserve decency and politeness; that women should linger,
+waste, and die, rather than relieve themselves in an unlawful manner;
+and among the fashionable part of mankind, the people of birth and
+fortune, it is expected that matrimony should never be entered upon
+without a curious regard to family, estate, and reputation, and, in the
+making of matches, the call of nature be the very last consideration.
+
+Those, then, who would make love and lust synonymous, confound the
+effect with the cause of it: yet such is the force of education,
+and a habit of thinking, as we are taught, that sometimes persons of
+either sex are actually in love without feeling any carnal desires,
+or penetrating into the intentions of nature, the end proposed by
+her, without which they could never have been affected with that
+sort of passion. That there are such is certain, but many more
+whose pretences to those refined notions are only upheld by art and
+dissimulation. Those, who are really such Platonic lovers, are commonly
+the pale-faced weakly people, of cold and phlegmatic constitutions
+in either sex; the hale and robust, of bilious temperament, and a
+sanguine complexion, never entertain any love so spiritual as to
+exclude all thoughts and wishes that relate to the body; but if the
+most seraphic lovers would know the original of their inclination,
+let them but suppose that another should have the corporal enjoyment
+of the person beloved, and by the tortures they will suffer from
+that reflection they will soon discover the nature of their passions:
+whereas, on the contrary, parents and friends receive a satisfaction
+in reflecting on the joys and comforts of a happy marriage, to be
+tasted by those they wish well to.
+
+The curious, that are skilled in anatomizing the invisible part of
+man, will observe that the more sublime and exempt this love is from
+all thoughts of sensuality, the more spurious it is, and the more it
+degenerates from its honest original and primitive simplicity. The
+power and sagacity as well as labour and care of the politician in
+civilizing the society, has been no where more conspicuous, than in
+the happy contrivance of playing our passions against one another. By
+flattering our pride, and still increasing the good opinion we have
+of ourselves on the one hand, and inspiring us on the other with
+a superlative dread and mortal aversion against shame, the artful
+moralists have taught us cheerfully to encounter ourselves, and if
+not subdue, at least, so to conceal and disguise our darling passion,
+lust, that we scarce know it when we meet with it in our breasts:
+Oh! the mighty prize we have in view for all our self-denial! can any
+man be so serious as to abstain from laughter, when he considers, that
+for so much deceit and insincerity practiced upon ourselves as well
+as others, we have no other recompense than the vain satisfaction
+of making our species appear more exalted and remote from that
+of other animals, than it really is; and we, in our consciences,
+know it to be? yet this is fact, and in it we plainly perceive the
+reason why it was necessary to render odious every word or action by
+which we might discover the innate desire we feel to perpetuate our
+kind; and why tamely to submit to the violence of a furious appetite
+(which is painful to resist) and innocently to obey the most pressing
+demand of nature without guile or hypocrisy, like other creatures,
+should be branded with the ignominious name of brutality.
+
+What we call love, then, is not a genuine, but an adulterated appetite,
+or rather a compound, a heap of several contradictory passions blended
+in one. As it is a product of nature warped by custom and education,
+so the true origin and first motive of it, as I have hinted already,
+is stifled in well-bred people, and concealed from themselves: all
+which is the reason, that, as those affected with it, vary in age,
+strength, resolution, temper, circumstances, and manners, the effects
+of it are so different, whimsical, surprising, and unaccountable.
+
+It is this passion that makes jealousy so troublesome, and the envy
+of it often so fatal: those who imagine that there may be jealousy
+without love, do not understand that passion. Men may not have the
+least affection for their wives, and yet be angry with them for their
+conduct, and suspicious of them either with or without a cause: but
+what in such cases affects them is their pride, the concern for their
+reputation. They feel a hatred against them without remorse; when
+they are outrageous, they can beat them and go to sleep contentedly:
+such husbands may watch their dames themselves, and have them observed
+by others; but their vigilance is not so intense; they are not so
+inquisitive or industrious in their searches, neither do they feel
+that anxiety of heart at the fear of a discovery, as when love is
+mixed with the passions.
+
+What confirms me in this opinion is, that we never observe this
+behaviour between a man and his mistress; for when his love is gone
+and he suspects her to be false, he leaves her, and troubles his head
+no more about her: whereas, it is the greatest difficulty imaginable,
+even to a man of sense, to part with his mistress as long as he loves
+her, whatever faults she may be guilty of. If in his anger he strikes
+her, he is uneasy after it; his love makes him reflect on the hurt he
+has done her, and he wants to be reconciled to her again. He may talk
+of hating her, and many times from his heart wish her hanged, but if
+he cannot get entirely rid of his frailty, he can never disentangle
+himself from her: though she is represented in the most monstrous
+guilt to his imagination, and he has resolved and swore a thousand
+times never to come near her again, there is no trusting him, even
+when he is fully convinced of her infidelity, if his love continues,
+his despair is never so lasting, but between the blackest fits of it
+he relents, and finds lucid intervals of hope; he forms excuses for
+her, thinks of pardoning, and in order to it racks his invention for
+possibilities that may make her appear less criminal.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 200. Real pleasures, comforts, ease.
+
+
+That the highest good consisted in pleasure, was the doctrine of
+Epicurus, who yet led a life exemplary for continence, sobriety, and
+other virtues, which made people of the succeeding ages quarrel about
+the signification of pleasure. Those who argued from the temperance
+of the philosopher, said, That the delight Epicurus meant, was being
+virtuous; so Erasmus in his Colloquies tells us, that there are no
+greater Epicures than pious Christians. Others that reflected on the
+dissolute manners of the greatest part of his followers, would have
+it, that by pleasures he could have understood nothing but sensual
+ones, and the gratification of our passions. I shall not decide
+their quarrel, but am of opinion, that whether men be good or bad,
+what they take delight in is their pleasure; and not to look out
+for any further etymology from the learned languages, I believe an
+Englishman may justly call everything a pleasure that pleases him,
+and according to this definition, we ought to dispute no more about
+men's pleasures than their tastes: Trahit sua quemque voluptas.
+
+The worldly-minded, voluptuous, and ambitious man, notwithstanding
+he is void of merit, covets precedence every where, and desires
+to be dignified above his betters: he aims at spacious palaces,
+and delicious gardens; his chief delight is in excelling others
+in stately horses, magnificent coaches, a numerous attendance, and
+dear-bought furniture. To gratify his lust, he wishes for genteel,
+young, beautiful women of different charms and complexions, that
+shall adore his greatness, and be really in love with his person:
+his cellars he would have stored with the flower of every country
+that produces excellent wines: his tables he desires may be served
+with many courses, and each of them contain a choice variety of
+dainties not easily purchased, and ample evidences of elaborate and
+judicious cookery; while harmonious music, and well-couched flattery,
+entertain his hearing by turns. He employs even in the meanest
+trifles, none but the ablest and most ingenious workmen, that his
+judgment and fancy may as evidently appear in the least things that
+belong to him as his wealth and quality are manifested in those of
+greater value. He desires to have several sets of witty, facetious,
+and polite people to converse with, and among them he would have
+some famous for learning and universal knowledge: for his serious
+affairs, he wishes to find men of parts and experience, that should
+be diligent and faithful. Those that are to wait on him he would have
+handy, mannerly, and discreet, of comely aspect, and a graceful mien:
+what he requires in them besides, is a respectful care of every thing
+that is his, nimbleness without hurry, dispatch without noise, and an
+unlimited obedience to his orders: nothing he thinks more troublesome
+than speaking to servants; wherefore he will only be attended by such,
+as by observing his looks have learned to interpret his will from the
+slightest motions. He loves to see an elegant nicety in every thing
+that approaches him, and in what is to be employed about his person,
+he desires a superlative cleanliness to be religiously observed. The
+chief officers of his household he would have to be men of birth,
+honour and distinction, as well as order, contrivance, and economy; for
+though he loves to be honoured by every body, and receives the respects
+of the common people with joy, yet the homage that is paid him by
+persons of quality is ravishing to him in a more transcendent manner.
+
+While thus wallowing in a sea of lust and vanity, he is wholly
+employed in provoking and indulging his appetites, he desires the
+world should think him altogether free from pride and sensuality,
+and put a favourable construction upon his most glaring vices: nay,
+if his authority can purchase it, he covets to be thought wise,
+brave, generous, good-natured, and endued with the virtues he thinks
+worth having. He would have us believe that the pomp and luxury
+he is served with are as many tiresome plagues to him; and all the
+grandeur he appears in is an ungrateful burden, which, to his sorrow,
+is inseparable from the high sphere he moves in; that his noble
+mind, so much exalted above vulgar capacities, aims at higher ends,
+and cannot relish such worthless enjoyments; that the highest of his
+ambition is to promote the public welfare, and his greatest pleasure
+to see his country flourish, and every body in it made happy. These
+are called real pleasures by the vicious and earthly-minded, and
+whoever is able, either by his skill or fortune, after this refined
+manner at once to enjoy the world, and the good opinion of it, is
+counted extremely happy by all the most fashionable part of the people.
+
+But, on the other side, most of the ancient philosophers and grave
+moralists, especially the Stoics, would not allow any thing to be a
+real good that was liable to be taken from them by others. They wisely
+considered the instability of fortune, and the favour of princes; the
+vanity of honour, and popular applause; the precariousness of riches,
+and all earthly possessions; and therefore placed true happiness in the
+calm serenity of a contented mind, free from guilt and ambition; a mind
+that, having subdued every sensual appetite, despises the smiles as
+well as frowns of fortune, and taking no delight but in contemplation,
+desires nothing but what every body is able to give to himself: a mind
+that, armed with fortitude and resolution, has learned to sustain the
+greatest losses without concern, to endure pain without affliction, and
+to bear injuries without resentment. Many have owned themselves arrived
+to this height of self-denial, and then, if we may believe them, they
+were raised above common mortals, and their strength extended vastly
+beyond the pitch of their first nature: they could behold the anger
+of threatening tyrants and the most imminent dangers without terror,
+and preserved their tranquillity in the midst of torments: death itself
+they could meet with intrepidity, and left the world with no greater
+reluctance than they had showed fondness at their entrance into it.
+
+These among the ancients have always bore the greatest sway; yet
+others that were no fools neither, have exploded those precepts as
+impracticable, called their notions romantic, and endeavoured to prove,
+that what these Stoics asserted of themselves, exceeded all human force
+and possibility; and that therefore the virtues they boasted of could
+be nothing but haughty pretence, full of arrogance and hypocrisy;
+yet notwithstanding these censures, the serious part of the world,
+and the generality of wise men that have lived ever since to this
+day, agree with the Stoics in the most material points; as that there
+can be no true felicity in what depends on things perishable; that
+peace within is the greatest blessing, and no conquest like that of
+our passions; that knowledge, temperance, fortitude, humility, and
+other embellishments of the mind are the most valuable acquisitions;
+that no man can be happy but he that is good: and that the virtuous
+are only capable of enjoying real pleasures.
+
+I expect to be asked, why in the fable I have called those pleasures
+real, that are directly opposite to those which I own the wise men of
+all ages have extolled as the most valuable? My answer is, because I do
+not call things pleasures which men say are best, but such as they seem
+to be most pleased with; how can I believe that a mans chief delight is
+in the embellishment of the mind, when I see him ever employed about,
+and daily pursue the pleasures that are contrary to them? John never
+cuts any pudding, but just enough that you cannot say he took none:
+this little bit, after much chomping and chewing, you see goes down
+with him like chopped hay; after that he falls upon the beef with
+a voracious appetite, and crams himself up to his throat. Is it not
+provoking, to hear John cry every day that pudding is all his delight,
+and that he does not value the beef of a farthing.
+
+I could swagger about fortitude and the contempt of riches as much
+as Seneca himself, and would undertake to write twice as much in
+behalf of poverty as ever he did; for the tenth part of his estate,
+I could teach the way to his summum bonum as exactly as I know my way
+home: I could tell people to extricate themselves from all worldly
+engagements, and to purify the mind, they must divest themselves of
+their passions, as men take out the furniture when they would clean
+a room thoroughly; and I am clearly of the opinion, that the malice
+and most severe strokes of fortune, can do no more injury to a mind
+thus stripped of all fears, wishes, and inclinations, than a blind
+horse can do in an empty barn. In the theory of all this I am very
+perfect, but the practice is very difficult; and if you went about
+picking my pocket, offered to take the victuals from before me when
+I am hungry, or made but the least motion of spitting in my face,
+I dare not promise how philosophically I should behave myself. But
+that I am forced to submit to every caprice of my unruly nature, you
+will say, is no argument, that others are as little masters of theirs,
+and therefore, I am willing to pay adoration to virtue wherever I can
+meet with it, with a proviso that I shall not be obliged to admit
+any as such, where I can see no self-denial, or to judge of mens
+sentiments from their words, where I have their lives before me.
+
+I have searched through every degree and station of men, and confess,
+that I have found no where more austerity of manners, or greater
+contempt of earthly pleasures, than in some religious houses,
+where people freely resigning and retiring from the world to combat
+themselves, have no other business but subdue their appetites. What
+can be a greater evidence of perfect chastity, and a superlative
+love, to immaculate purity in men and women, than that in the
+prime of their age, when lust is most raging, they should actually
+seclude themselves from each others company, and by a voluntary
+renunciation debar themselves for life, not only from uncleanness,
+but even the most lawful embraces? those that abstain from flesh,
+and often all manner of food, one would think in the right way, to
+conquer all carnal desires; and I could almost swear, that he does
+not consult his ease, who daily mauls his bare back and shoulders
+with unconscionable stripes, and constantly roused at night from his
+sleep, leaves his bed for his devotion. Who can despise riches more,
+or show himself less avaricious than he, who will not so much as touch
+gold or silver, no not with his feet? Or can any mortal show himself
+less luxurious or more humble than the man, that making poverty his
+choice, contents himself with scraps and fragments, and refuses to
+eat any bread but what is bestowed upon him by the charity of others.
+
+Such fair instances of self-denial, would make me bow down to virtue,
+if I was not deterred and warned from it by so many persons of
+eminence and learning, who unanimously tell me that I am mistaken,
+and all I have seen is farce and hypocrisy; that what seraphic
+love they may pretend to, there is nothing but discord among them;
+and that how penitential the nuns and friars may appear in their
+several convents, they none of them sacrifice their darling lusts:
+that among the women, they are not all virgins that pass for such,
+and that if I was to be let into their secrets, and examine some of
+their subterraneous privacies, I should soon be convinced by scenes of
+horror, that some of them must have been mothers. That among the men
+I should find calumny, envy, and ill nature, in the highest degree,
+or else gluttony, drunkenness, and impurities of a more execrable
+kind than adultery itself: and as for the mendicant orders, that
+they fer in nothing but their habits from other sturdy beggars, who
+deceive people with a pitiful tone, and an outward show of misery,
+and as soon as they are out of sight, lay by their cant, indulge
+their appetites, and enjoy one another.
+
+If the strict rules, and so many outward signs of devotion observed
+among those religious orders, deserve such harsh censures, we may well
+despair of meeting with virtue any where else; for if we look into the
+actions of the antagonists and greatest accusers of those votaries,
+we shall not find so much as the appearance of self-denial. The
+reverend divines of all sects, even of the most reformed churches
+in all countries, take care with the Cyclops Evangeliphorus first;
+ut ventri bene sit, and afterwards, ne quid desit iis quæ sub ventre
+sunt. To these they will desire you to add convenient houses, handsome
+furniture, good fires in winter, pleasant gardens in summer, neat
+clothes, and money enough to bring up their children; precedency in all
+companies, respect from every body, and then as much religion as you
+please. The things I have named are the necessary comforts of life,
+which the most modest are not ashamed to claim, and which they are
+very uneasy without. They are, it is true, made of the same mould,
+and have the same corrupt nature with other men, born with the same
+infirmities, subject to the same passions, and liable to the same
+temptations, and therefore if they are diligent in their calling,
+and can but abstain from murder, adultery, swearing, drunkenness,
+and other heinous vices, their lives are all called unblemished,
+and their reputations unspotted; their function renders them holy,
+and the gratification of so many carnal appetites, and the enjoyment
+of so much luxurious ease notwithstanding, they may set upon themselves
+what value their pride and parts will allow them.
+
+All this I have nothing against, but I see no self-denial, without
+which there can be no virtue. Is it such a mortification not to desire
+a greater share of worldly blessings, than what every reasonable
+man ought to be satisfied with? Or, is there any mighty merit in not
+being flagitious, and forbearing indecencies that are repugnant to
+good manners, and which no prudent man would be guilty of, though he
+had no religion at all?
+
+I know I shall be told, that the reason why the clergy are so violent
+in their resentments, when at any time they are but in the least
+affronted, and show themselves so void of all patience when their
+rights are invaded, is their great care to preserve their calling,
+their profession from contempt, not for their own sakes, but to be
+more serviceable to others. It is the same reason that makes them
+solicitous about the comforts and conveniences of life; for should
+they suffer themselves to be insulted over, be content with a coarser
+diet, and wear more ordinary clothes than other people, the multitude,
+who judge from outward appearances, would be apt to think that the
+clergy was no more the immediate care of Providence than other folks,
+and so not only undervalue their persons, but despise likewise all the
+reproofs and instructions that came from them. This is an admirable
+plea, and as it is much made use of, I will try the worth of it.
+
+I am not of the learned Dr. Echard's opinion, that poverty is one of
+those things that bring the clergy into contempt, any further than as
+it may be an occasion of discovering their blind side: for when men
+are always struggling with their low condition, and are unable to bear
+the burden of it without reluctancy, it is then they show how uneasy
+their poverty sits upon them, how glad they would be to have their
+circumstances meliorated, and what a real value they have for the good
+things of this world. He that harangues on the contempt of riches,
+and the vanity of earthly enjoyments, in a rusty threadbare gown,
+because he has no other, and would wear his old greasy hat no longer
+if any body would give him a better; that drinks small beer at home
+with a heavy countenance, but leaps at a glass of wine if he can catch
+it abroad; that with little appetite feeds upon his own coarse mess,
+but falls to greedily where he can please his palate, and expresses
+an uncommon joy at an invitation to a splendid dinner: it is he that
+is despised, not because he is poor, but because he knows not how to
+be so, with that content and resignation which he preaches to others,
+and so discovers his inclinations to be contrary to his doctrine. But,
+when a man from the greatness of his soul (or an obstinate vanity,
+which will do as well) resolving to subdue his appetites in good
+earnest, refuses all the offers of ease and luxury that can be
+made to him, and embracing a voluntary poverty with cheerfulness,
+rejects whatever may gratify the senses, and actually sacrifices all
+his passions to his pride, in acting this part, the vulgar, far from
+contemning, will be ready to deify and adore him. How famous have the
+Cynic philosophers made themselves, only by refusing to dissimulate
+and make use of superfluities? Did not the most ambitious monarch the
+world ever bore, condescend to visit Diogenes in his tub, and return
+to a studied incivility, the highest compliment a man of his pride
+was able to make?
+
+Mankind are very willing to take one another's word, when they see some
+circumstances that corroborate what is told them; but when our actions
+directly contradict what we say, it is counted impudence to desire
+belief. If a jolly hale fellow, with glowing cheeks and warm hands,
+newly returned from some smart exercise, or else the cold bath, tells
+us in frosty weather, that he cares not for the fire, we are easily
+induced to believe him, especially if he actually turns from it, and
+we know by his circumstances, that he wants neither fuel nor clothes:
+but if we should hear the same from the mouth of a poor starved wretch,
+with swelled hands, and a livid countenance, in a thin ragged garment,
+we should not believe a word of what he said, especially if we saw
+him shaking and shivering, creep toward the sunny bank; and we would
+conclude, let him say what he could, that warm clothes, and a good
+fire, would be very acceptable to him. The application is easy, and
+therefore if there be any clergy upon earth that would be thought not
+to care for the world, and to value the soul above the body, let them
+only forbear showing a greater concern for their sensual pleasures
+than they generally do for their spiritual ones, and they may rest
+satisfied, that no poverty, while they bear it with fortitude, will
+ever bring them into contempt, how mean soever their circumstances
+may be.
+
+Let us suppose a pastor that has a little flock intrusted to him,
+of which he is very careful: He preaches, visits, exhorts, reproves
+among his people with zeal and prudence, and does them all the kind
+offices that lie in his power to make them happy. There is no doubt
+but those under his care must be very much obliged to him. Now, we
+shall suppose once more, that this good man, by the help of a little
+self-denial, is contented to live upon half his income, accepting
+only of twenty pounds a-year instead of forty, which he could claim;
+and moreover, that he loves his parishioners so well, that he will
+never leave them for any preferment whatever, no not a bishoprick,
+though it be offered. I cannot see but all this might be an easy
+task to a man who professes mortification, and has no value for
+worldly pleasures; yet such a disinterested divine, I dare promise,
+notwithstanding the degeneracy of mankind, will be loved, esteemed,
+and have every body's good word; nay, I would swear, that though he
+should yet further exert himself, give above half of his small revenue
+to the poor, live upon nothing but oatmeal and water, lie upon straw,
+and wear the coarsest cloth that could be made, his mean way of living
+would never be reflected on, or be a disparagement either to himself
+or the order he belonged to; but that on the contrary his poverty would
+never be mentioned but to his glory, as long as his memory should last.
+
+But (says a charitable young gentlewoman) though you have the heart
+to starve your parson, have you no bowels of compassion for his wife
+and children? pray what must remain of forty pounds a year, after it
+has been twice so unmercifully split? or would you have the poor woman
+and the innocent babes likewise live upon oatmeal and water, and lie
+upon straw, you unconscionable wretch, with all your suppositions
+and self-denials; nay, is it possible, though they should all live
+at your own murdering rate, that less than ten pounds a-year could
+maintain a family?----Do not be in a passion, good Mrs. Abigail,
+I have a greater regard for your sex than to prescribe such a lean
+diet to married men; but I confess I forgot the wives and children:
+The main reason was, because I thought poor priests could have no
+occasion for them. Who could imagine, that the parson who is to teach
+others by example as well as precept, was not able to withstand those
+desires which the wicked world itself calls unreasonable? What is
+the reason when an apprentice marries before he is out of his time,
+that unless he meets with a good fortune, all his relations are angry
+with him, and every body blames him? Nothing else, but because at
+that time he has no money at his disposal, and being bound to his
+master's service, has no leisure, and perhaps little capacity to
+provide for a family. What must we say to a parson that has twenty,
+or, if you will, forty pounds a-year, that being bound more strictly
+to all the services a parish and his duty require, has little time,
+and generally much less ability to get any more? Is it not very
+reasonable he should marry? But why should a sober young man, who
+is guilty of no vice, be debarred from lawful enjoyments? Right;
+marriage is lawful, and so is a coach; but what is that to people
+that have not money enough to keep one? If he must have a wife, let
+him look out for money, or wait for a greater benefice, or something
+else to maintain her handsomely, and bear all incident charges. But
+nobody that has any thing herself will have him, and he cannot stay:
+He has a very good stomach, and all the symptoms of health; it is not
+every body that can live without a woman; it is better to marry than
+burn.----What a world of self-denial is here? The sober young man is
+very willing to be virtuous, but you must not cross his inclinations;
+he promises never to be a deer-stealer, upon condition that he shall
+have venison of his own, and no body must doubt, but that if it come
+to the push, he is qualified to suffer martyrdom, though he owns that
+he has not strength enough, patiently to bear a scratched finger.
+
+When we see so many of the clergy, to indulge their lust, a brutish
+appetite, run themselves after this manner upon an inevitable poverty,
+which, unless they could bear it with greater fortitude, than they
+discover in all their actions, must of necessity make them contemptible
+to all the world, what credit must we give them, when they pretend that
+they conform themselves to the world, not because they take delight
+in the several decencies, conveniences, and ornaments of it, but only
+to preserve their function from contempt, in order to be more useful
+to others? Have we not reason to believe, that what they say is full
+of hypocrisy and falsehood, and that concupiscence is not the only
+appetite they want to gratify; that the haughty airs and quick sense
+of injuries, the curious elegance in dress, and niceness of palate,
+to be observed in most of them that are able to show them, are the
+results of pride and luxury in them, as they are in other people,
+and that the clergy are not possessed of more intrinsic virtue than
+any other profession?
+
+I am afraid, by this time I have given many of my readers a real
+displeasure, by dwelling so long upon the reality of pleasure; but I
+cannot help it, there is one thing comes into my head to corroborate
+what I have urged already, which I cannot forbear mentioning: It is
+this: Those who govern others throughout the world, are at least as
+wise as the people that are governed by them, generally speaking: If,
+for this reason, we would take pattern from our superiors, we have but
+to cast our eyes on all the courts and governments in the universe,
+and we shall soon perceive from the actions of the great ones, which
+opinion they side with, and what pleasures those in the highest
+stations of all seem to be most fond of: For, if it be allowable at
+all to judge of people's inclinations, from their manner of living,
+none can be less injured by it, than those who are the most at liberty
+to do as they please.
+
+If the great ones of the clergy, as well as the laity of any country
+whatever, had no value for earthly pleasures, and did not endeavour
+to gratify their appetites, why are envy and revenge so raging among
+them, and all the other passions improved and refined upon in courts
+of princes more than any where else, and why are their repasts,
+their recreations, and whole manner of living always such as are
+approved of, coveted, and imitated by the most sensual people of that
+same country? If despising all visible decorations they were only in
+love with the embellishments of the mind, why should they borrow so
+many of the implements, and make use of the most darling toys of the
+luxurious? Why should a lord treasurer, or a bishop, or even the grand
+signior, or the pope of Rome, to be good and virtuous, and endeavour
+the conquest of his passions, have occasion for greater revenues,
+richer furniture, or a more numerous attention, as to personal service,
+than a private man? What virtue is it the exercise of which requires
+so much pomp and superfluity, as are to be seen by all men in power? A
+man has as much opportunity to practise temperance, that has but one
+dish at a meal, as he that is constantly served with three courses,
+and a dozen dishes in each: One may exercise as much patience, and be
+as full of self-denial on a few flocks, without curtains or tester,
+as in a velvet bed that is sixteen foot high. The virtuous possessions
+of the mind are neither charge nor burden: A man may bear misfortunes
+with fortitude in a garret, forgive injuries a-foot, and be chaste,
+though he has not a shirt to his back: and therefore I shall never
+believe, but that an indifferent sculler, if he was intrusted with it,
+might carry all the learning and religion that one man can contain,
+as well as a barge with six oars, especially if it was but to cross
+from Lambeth to Westminster; or that humility is so ponderous a virtue,
+that it requires six horses to draw it.
+
+To say that men not being so easily governed by their equals as by
+their superiors, it is necessary, that to keep the multitude in awe,
+those who rule over us should excel others in outward appearance,
+and consequently, that all in high stations should have badges of
+honour, and ensigns of power to be distinguished from the vulgar, is
+a frivolous objection. This, in the first place, can only be of use to
+poor princes, and weak and precarious governments, that being actually
+unable to maintain the public peace, are obliged with a pageant show
+to make up what they want in real power: so the governor of Batavia,
+in the East Indies, is forced to keep up a grandeur, and live in a
+magnificence above his quality, to strike a terror in the natives of
+Java, who, if they had skill and conduct, are strong enough to destroy
+ten times the number of their masters; but great princes and states
+that keep large fleets at sea, and numerous armies in the field,
+have no occasion for such stratagems; for what makes them formidable
+abroad, will never fail to be their security at home. Secondly,
+what must protect the lives and wealth of people from the attempts of
+wicked men in all societies, is the severity of the laws, and diligent
+administration of impartial justice. Theft, house-breaking, and murder,
+are not to be prevented by the scarlet gowns of the aldermen, the gold
+chains of the sheriffs, the fine trappings of their horses, or any
+gaudy show whatever: Those pageant ornaments are beneficial another
+way; they are eloquent lectures to apprentices, and the use of them
+is to animate, not to deter: but men of abandoned principles must be
+awed by rugged officers, strong prisons, watchful jailors, the hangman,
+and the gallows. If London was to be one week destitute of constables
+and watchmen to guard the houses a-nights, half the bankers would
+be ruined in that time, and if my lord mayor had nothing to defend
+himself but his great two handed sword, the huge cap of maintenance,
+and his gilded mace, he would soon be stripped, in the very streets
+to the city, of all his finery in his stately coach.
+
+But let us grant that the eyes of the mobility are to be dazzled
+with a gaudy outside; if virtue was the chief delight of great men,
+why should their extravagance be extended to things not understood
+by the mob, and wholly removed from public view, I mean their private
+diversions, the pomp and luxury of the dining-room and the bed-chamber,
+and the curiosities of the closet? few of the vulgar know that there
+is wine of a guinea the bottle, that birds, no bigger than larks,
+are often sold for half-a-guinea a-piece, or that a single picture
+may be worth several thousand pounds: besides, is it to be imagined,
+that unless it was to please their own appetites, men should put
+themselves to such vast expences for a political show, and be so
+solicitous to gain the esteem of those whom they so much despise in
+every thing else? if we allow that the splendor and all the elegancy
+of a court insipid, and only tiresome to the prince himself, and are
+altogether made use of to preserve royal majesty from contempt, can
+we say the same of half a dozen illegitimate children, most of them
+the offspring of adultery, by the same majesty, got, educated, and
+made princes at the expence of the nation! therefore, it is evident,
+that this awing of the multitude, by a distinguished manner of living,
+is only a cloak and pretence, under which, great men would shelter
+their vanity, and indulge every appetite about them without reproach.
+
+A burgomaster of Amsterdam, in his plain black suit, followed perhaps
+by one footman, is fully as much respected, and better obeyed, than
+a lord mayor of London, with all his splendid equipage, and great
+train of attendance. Where there is a real power, it is ridiculous
+to think that any temperance or austerity of life should ever render
+the person, in whom that power is lodged, contemptible in his office,
+from an emperor to the beadle of a parish. Cato, in his government
+of Spain, in which he acquitted himself with so much glory, had only
+three servants to attend him; do we hear that any of his orders were
+ever slighted for this, notwithstanding that he loved his bottle? and
+when that great man marched on foot through the scorching sands of
+Libya, and parched up with thirst, refused to touch the water that
+was brought him, before all his soldiers had drank, do we ever read
+that this heroic forbearance weakened his authority, or lessened him
+in the esteem of his army? but what need we go so far off? there has
+not, for these many ages, been a prince less inclined to pomp and
+luxury than the [2] present king of Sweden, who, enamoured with the
+title of hero, has not only sacrificed the lives of his subjects, and
+welfare of his dominions, but (what is more uncommon in sovereigns)
+his own ease, and all the comforts of life, to an implacable spirit
+of revenge; yet he is obeyed to the ruin of his people, in obstinately
+maintaining a war that has almost utterly destroyed his kingdom.
+
+Thus I have proved, that the real pleasures of all men in nature are
+worldly and sensual, if we judge from their practice; I say all men in
+nature, because devout Christians, who alone are to be excepted here,
+being regenerated, and preternaturally assisted by the Divine grace,
+cannot be said to be in nature. How strange it is, that they should
+all so unanimously deny it! ask not only the divines and moralists
+of every nation, but likewise all that are rich and powerful, about
+real pleasure, and they will tell you, with the Stoics, that there
+can be no true felicity in things mundane and corruptible: but then
+look upon their lives, and you will find they take delight in no other.
+
+What must we do in this dilemma? shall we be so uncharitable, as
+judging from mens actions, to say, that all the world prevaricates, and
+that this is not their opinion, let them talk what they will? or shall
+we be so silly, as relying on what they say, to think them sincere in
+their sentiments, and so not believe our own eyes? or shall we rather
+endeavour to believe ourselves and them too, and say with Montaigne,
+that they imagine, and are fully persuaded, that they believe what
+they do not believe? these are his words: "some impose on the world,
+and would be thought to believe what they really do not: but much the
+greater number impose upon themselves, not considering, nor thoroughly
+apprehending what it is to believe." But this is making all mankind
+either fools or impostors, which, to avoid, there is nothing left us,
+but to say what Mr. Bayle has endeavoured to prove at large in his
+Reflections on Comets: "that man is so unaccountable a creature as
+to act most commonly against his principle;" and this is so far from
+being injurious, that it is a compliment to human nature, for we must
+see either this or worse.
+
+This contradiction in the frame of man is the reason that the theory
+of virtue is so well understood, and the practice of it so rarely
+to be met with. If you ask me where to look for those beautiful
+shining qualities of prime ministers, and the great favourites
+of princes that are so finely painted in dedications, addresses,
+epitaphs, funeral sermons, and inscriptions, I answer, there, and
+no where else. Where would you look for the excellency of a statue,
+but in that part which you see of it? It is the polished outside
+only that has the skill and labour of the sculptor to boast of; what
+is out of sight is untouched. Would you break the head, or cut open
+the breast to look for the brains or the heart, you would only show
+your ignorance, and destroy the workmanship. This has often made
+me compare the virtues of great men to your large China jars: they
+make a fine show, and are ornamental even to a chimney; one would,
+by the bulk they appear in, and the value that is set upon them,
+think they might be very useful, but look into a thousand of them,
+and you will find nothing in them but dust and cobwebs.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 201. ----The very poor
+              Liv'd better than the rich before.
+
+
+If we trace the most flourishing nations in their origin, we shall
+find, that in the remote beginnings of every society, the richest and
+most considerable men among them were a great while destitute of a
+great many comforts of life that are now enjoyed by the meanest and
+most humble wretches: so that many things which were once looked upon
+as the invention of luxury, are now allowed, even to those that are so
+miserably poor as to become the objects of public charity, nay, counted
+so necessary, that we think no human creature ought to want them.
+
+In the first ages, man, without doubt, fed on the fruits of the earth,
+without any previous preparation, and reposed himself naked like other
+animals on the lap of their common parent: whatever has contributed
+since to make life more comfortable, as it must have been the result
+of thought, experience, and some labour, so it more or less deserves
+the name of luxury, the more or less trouble it required, and deviated
+from the primitive simplicity. Our admiration is extended no farther
+than to what is new to us, and we all overlook the excellency of things
+we are used to, be they never so curious. A man would be laughed at,
+that should discover luxury in the plain dress of a poor creature, that
+walks along in a thick parish gown, and a coarse shirt underneath it;
+and yet what a number of people, how many different trades, and what a
+variety of skill and tools must be employed to have the most ordinary
+Yorkshire cloth? What depth of thought and ingenuity, what toil and
+labour, and what length of time must it have cost, before man could
+learn from a seed, to raise and prepare so useful a product as linen.
+
+Must that society not be vainly curious, among whom this admirable
+commodity, after it is made, shall not be thought fit to be used even
+by the poorest of all, before it is brought to a perfect whiteness,
+which is not to be procured but by the assistance of all the elements,
+joined to a world of industry and patience? I have not done yet: can we
+reflect not only on the cost laid out upon this luxurious invention,
+but likewise on the little time the whiteness of it continues, in
+which part of its beauty consists, that every six or seven days at
+farthest it wants cleaning, and while it lasts is a continual charge
+to the wearer; can we, I say, reflect on all this, and not think it
+an extravagant piece of nicety, that even those who receive alms of
+the parish, should not only have whole garments made of this operose
+manufacture, but likewise that as soon as they are soiled, to restore
+them to their pristine purity, they should make use of one of the
+most judicious as well as difficult compositions that chemistry
+can boast of; with which, dissolved in water by the help of fire,
+the most detersive, and yet innocent lixivium is prepared that human
+industry has hitherto been able to invent?
+
+It is certain, time was that the things I speak of would have bore
+those lofty expressions, and in which every body would have reasoned
+after the same manner; but the age we live in would call a man fool,
+who should talk of extravagance and nicety, if he saw a poor woman,
+after having wore her crown cloth smock a whole week, wash it with
+a bit of stinking soap of a groat a pound.
+
+The arts of brewing, and making bread, have by slow degrees been
+brought to the perfection they now are in, but to have invented
+them at once, and à priori, would have required more knowledge and
+a deeper insight into the nature of fermentation, than the greatest
+philosopher has hitherto been endowed with; yet the fruits of both
+are now enjoyed by the meanest of our species, and a starving wretch
+knows not how to make a more humble, or a more modest petition,
+than by asking for a bit of bread, or a draught of small beer.
+
+Man has learned by experience, that nothing was softer than the small
+plumes and down of birds, and found that heaped together, they would
+by their elasticity, gently resist any incumbent weight, and heave up
+again of themselves as soon as the pressure is over. To make use of
+them to sleep upon was, no doubt, first invented to compliment the
+vanity as well as ease of the wealthy and potent; but they are long
+since become so common, that almost every body lies upon featherbeds,
+and to substitute flocks in the room of them is counted a miserable
+shift of the most necessitous. What a vast height must luxury have
+been arrived to, before it could be reckoned a hardship to repose
+upon the soft wool of animals!
+
+From caves, huts, hovels, tents, and barracks, with which mankind
+took up at first, we are come to warm and well-wrought houses, and
+the meanest habitations to be seen in cities, are regular buildings,
+contrived by persons skilled in proportions and architecture. If the
+ancient Britons and Gauls should come out of their graves, with what
+amazement would they gaze on the mighty structures every where raised
+for the poor! Should they behold the magnificence of a Chelsey-College,
+a Greenwich-Hospital, or what surpasses all them, a Des Invalides
+at Paris, and see the care, the plenty, the superfluities and pomp,
+which people that have no possessions at all are treated with in those
+stately palaces, those who were once the greatest and richest of the
+land would have reason to envy the most reduced of our species now.
+
+Another piece of luxury the poor enjoy, that is not looked upon as
+such, and which there is no doubt but the wealthiest in a golden age
+would abstain from, is their making use of the flesh of animals to
+eat. In what concerns the fashions and manners of the ages men live
+in, they never examine into the real worth or merit of the cause,
+and generally judge of things not as their reason, but custom direct
+them. Time was when the funeral rites in the disposing of the dead,
+were performed by fire, and the cadavers of the greatest emperors were
+burnt to ashes. Then burying the corps in the ground was a funeral
+for slaves, or made a punishment for the worst of malefactors. Now
+nothing is decent or honourable but interring; and burning the body
+is reserved for crimes of the blackest dye. At some times we look
+upon trifles with horror, at other times we can behold enormities
+without concern. If we see a man walk with his hat on in a church,
+though out of service time, it shocks us; but if on a Sunday night we
+meet half a dozen fellows drunk in the street, the sight makes little
+or no impression upon us. If a woman at a merry-making dresses in
+man's clothes, it is reckoned a frolic amongst friends, and he that
+finds too much fault with it is counted censorious: upon the stage it
+is done without reproach, and the most virtuous ladies will dispense
+with it in an actress, though every body has a full view of her legs
+and thighs; but if the same woman, as soon as she has petticoats on
+again, should show her leg to a man as high as her knee, it would be
+a very immodest action, and every body will call her impudent for it.
+
+I have often thought, if it was not for this tyranny which custom
+usurps over us, that men of any tolerable good-nature could never be
+reconciled to the killing of so many animals, for their daily food, as
+long as the bountiful earth so plentifully provides them with varieties
+of vegetable dainties. I know that reason excites our compassion but
+faintly, and therefore I would not wonder how men should so little
+commiserate such imperfect creatures as crayfish, oysters, cockles,
+and indeed all fish in general: as they are mute, and their inward
+formation, as well as outward figure, vastly different from ours,
+they express themselves unintelligibly to us, and therefore it is not
+strange that their grief should not affect our understanding which
+it cannot reach; for nothing stirs us to pity so effectually, as when
+the symptoms of misery strike immediately upon our senses, and I have
+seen people moved at the noise a live lobster makes upon the spit,
+that could have killed half a dozen fowls with pleasure. But in such
+perfect animals as sheep and oxen, in whom the heart, the brain and
+nerves differ so little from ours, and in whom the separation of the
+spirits from the blood, the organs of sense, and consequently feeling
+itself, are the same as they are in human creatures; I cannot imagine
+how a man not hardened in blood and massacre, is able to see a violent
+death, and the pangs of it, without concern.
+
+In answer to this, most people will think it sufficient to say, that
+all things being allowed to be made for the service of man, there can
+be no cruelty in putting creatures to the use they were designed for;
+but I have heard men make this reply, while their nature within them
+has reproached them with the falsehood of the assertion. There is of
+all the multitude not one man in ten but what will own (if he was not
+brought up in a slaughter-house), that of all trades he could never
+have been a butcher; and I question whether ever any body so much
+as killed a chicken without reluctancy the first time. Some people
+are not to be persuaded to taste of any creatures they have daily
+seen and been acquainted with, while they were alive; others extend
+their scruple no further than to their own poultry, and refuse to
+eat what they fed and took care of themselves; yet all of them will
+feed heartily and without remorse on beef, mutton, and fowls, when
+they are bought in the market. In this behaviour, methinks, there
+appears something like a consciousness of guilt, it looks as if they
+endeavoured to save themselves from the imputation of a crime (which
+they know sticks somewhere) by removing the cause of it as far as they
+can from themselves; and I can discover in it some strong remains of
+primitive pity and innocence, which all the arbitrary power of custom,
+and the violence of luxury, have not yet been able to conquer.
+
+What I build upon I shall be told is a folly that wise men are not
+guilty of: I own it; but while it proceeds from a real passion inherent
+in our nature, it is sufficient to demonstrate, that we are born with
+a repugnancy to the killing, and consequently the eating of animals;
+for it is impossible that a natural appetite should ever prompt us
+to act, or desire others to do, what we have an aversion to, be it
+as foolish as it will.
+
+Every body knows, that surgeons, in the cure of dangerous wounds and
+fractures, the extirpations of limbs, and other dreadful operations,
+are often compelled to put their patients to extraordinary torments,
+and that the more desperate and calamitous cases occur to them,
+the more the outcries and bodily sufferings of others must become
+familiar to them; for this reason, our English law, out of a most
+affectionate regard to the lives of the subject, allows them not to
+be of any jury upon life and death, as supposing that their practice
+itself is sufficient to harden and extinguish in them that tenderness,
+without which no man is capable of setting a true value upon the lives
+of his fellow-creatures. Now, if we ought to have no concern for what
+we do to brute beasts, and there was not imagined to be any cruelty
+in killing them, why should of all callings butchers, and only they,
+jointly with surgeons, be excluded from being jurymen by the same law?
+
+I shall urge nothing of what Pythagoras and many other wise men
+have said concerning this barbarity of eating flesh; I have gone
+too much out of my way already, and shall therefore beg the reader,
+if he would have any more of this, to run over the following fable,
+or else, if he be tired, to let it alone, with an assurance that in
+doing of either he shall equally oblige me.
+
+A Roman merchant, in one of the Carthaginian wars, was cast away upon
+the coast of Afric: himself and his slave with great difficulty got
+safe ashore; but going in quest of relief, were met by a lion of a
+mighty size. It happened to be one of the breed that ranged in Æsop's
+days, and one that could not only speak several languages, but seemed,
+moreover, very well acquainted with human affairs. The slave got upon
+a tree, but his master not thinking himself safe there, and having
+heard much of the generosity of lions, fell down prostrate before him,
+with all the signs of fear and submission. The lion who had lately
+filled his belly, bids him rise, and for a while lay by his fears,
+assuring him withal, that he should not be touched, if he could
+give him any tolerable reasons why he should not be devoured. The
+merchant obeyed; and having now received some glimmering hopes of
+safety, gave a dismal account of the shipwreck he had suffered, and
+endeavouring from thence to raise the lion's pity, pleaded his cause
+with abundance of good rhetoric; but observing by the countenance of
+the beast, that flattery and fine words made very little impression,
+he betook himself to arguments of greater solidity, and reasoning
+from the excellency of man's nature and abilities, remonstrated how
+improbable it was that the gods should not have designed him for
+a better use, than to be eat by savage beasts. Upon this the lion
+became more attentive, and vouchsafed now and then a reply, till at
+last the following dialogue ensued between them.
+
+Oh vain and covetous animal (said the lion), whose pride and avarice
+can make him leave his native soil, where his natural wants might
+be plentifully supplied, and try rough seas and dangerous mountains
+to find out superfluities, why should you esteem your species above
+ours? And if the gods have given you a superiority over all creatures,
+then why beg you of an inferior? Our superiority (answered the
+merchant) consists not in bodily force, but strength of understanding;
+the gods have endued us with a rational soul, which, though invisible,
+is much the better part of us. I desire to touch nothing of you but
+what is good to eat; but why do you value yourself so much upon that
+part which is invisible? Because it is immortal, and shall meet with
+rewards after death for the actions of this life, and the just shall
+enjoy eternal bliss and tranquillity with the heroes and demi-gods in
+the Elysian fields. What life have you led? I have honoured the gods,
+and studied to be beneficial to man. Then why do you fear death, if
+you think the gods as just as you have been? I have a wife and five
+small children that must come to want if they lose me. I have two
+whelps that are not big enough to shift for themselves, that are in
+want now, and must actually be starved if I can provide nothing for
+them: Your children will be provided for one way or other; at least
+as well when I have eat you, as if you had been drowned.
+
+As to the excellency of either species, the value of things among you
+has ever increased with the scarcity of them, and to a million of men
+there is hardly one lion; besides that, in the great veneration man
+pretends to have for his kind, there is little sincerity farther than
+it concerns the share which every one's pride has in it for himself;
+it is a folly to boast of the tenderness shown, and attendance given
+to your young ones, or the excessive and lasting trouble bestowed in
+the education of them: Man being born the most necessitous and most
+helpless animal, this is only an instinct of nature, which, in all
+creatures, has ever proportioned the care of the parents to the wants
+and imbecilities of the offspring. But if a man had a real value
+for his kind, how is it possible that often ten thousand of them,
+and sometimes ten times as many, should be destroyed in few hours,
+for the caprice of two? All degrees of men despise those that are
+inferior to them, and if you could enter into the hearts of kings
+and princes, you would hardly find any but what have less value for
+the greatest part of the multitudes they rule over, than those have
+for the cattle that belong to them. Why should so many pretend to
+derive their race, though but spuriously, from the immortal gods;
+why should all of them suffer others to kneel down before them,
+and more or less take delight in having divine honours paid them,
+but to insinuate that themselves are of a more exalted nature, and
+a species superior to that of their subjects?
+
+Savage I am, but no creature can be called cruel, but what either
+by malice or insensibility extinguishes his natural pity: The lion
+was born without compassion; we follow the instinct of our nature;
+the gods have appointed us to live upon the waste and spoil of other
+animals, and as long as we can meet with dead ones, we never hunt after
+the living. It is only man, mischievous man, that can make death a
+sport. Nature taught your stomach to crave nothing but vegetables; but
+your violent fondness to change, and great eagerness after novelties,
+have prompted you to the destruction of animals without justice or
+necessity, perverted your nature, and warped your appetites which way
+soever your pride or luxury have called them. The lion has a ferment
+within him that consumes the toughest skin and hardest bones, as well
+as the flesh of all animals without exception: Your squeamish stomach,
+in which the digestive heat is weak and inconsiderable, will not so
+much as admit of the most tender parts of them, unless above half
+the concoction has been performed by artificial fire before hand; and
+yet what animal have you spared to satisfy the caprices of a languid
+appetite? Languid I say; for what is man's hunger, if compared to the
+lion's? Yours, when it is at the worst, makes you faint, mine makes
+me mad: Oft have I tried with roots and herbs to allay the violence
+of it, but in vain; nothing but large quantities of flesh can anywise
+appease it.
+
+Yet the fierceness of our hunger notwithstanding, lions have often
+requited benefits received; but ungrateful and perfidious man feeds on
+the sheep that clothes him, and spares not her innocent young ones,
+whom he has taken into his care and custody. If you tell me the gods
+made man master over all other creatures, what tyranny was it then
+to destroy them out of wantonness? No, fickle, timorous animal, the
+gods have made you for society, and designed that millions of you,
+when well joined together, should compose the strong Leviathan. A
+single lion bears some sway in the creation, but what is single man? A
+small and inconsiderable part, a trifling atom of one great beast. What
+nature designs, she executes; and it is not safe to judge of what she
+purposed, but from the effects she shows: If she had intended that
+man, as man from a superiority of species, should lord it over all
+other animals, the tiger, nay, the whale and eagle would have obeyed
+his voice.
+
+But if your wit and understanding exceeds ours, ought not the lion,
+in deference to that superiority, to follow the maxims of men, with
+whom nothing is more sacred, than that the reason of the strongest
+is ever the most prevalent? Whole multitudes of you have conspired
+and compassed the destruction of one, after they had owned the gods
+had made him their superior; and one has often ruined and cut off
+whole multitudes, whom, by the same gods, he had sworn to defend and
+maintain. Man never acknowledged superiority without power, and why
+should I? The excellence I boast of is visible, all animals tremble
+at the sight of the lion, not out of panic fear. The gods have given
+me swiftness to overtake, and strength to conquer whatever comes near
+me. Where is there a creature that has teeth and claws like mine,
+behold the thickness of these massy jaw-bones, consider the width of
+them, and feel the firmness of this brawny neck. The nimblest deer,
+the wildest boar, the stoutest horse, and strongest bull, are my
+prey wherever I meet them. Thus spoke the lion, and the merchant
+fainted away.
+
+The lion, in my opinion, has stretched the point too far; yet, when
+to soften the flesh of male animals, we have by castration prevented
+the firmness their tendons, and every fibre would have come to,
+without it, I confess, I think it ought to move a human creature,
+when he reflects upon the cruel care with which they are fattened for
+destruction. When a large and gentle bullock, after having resisted a
+ten times greater force of blows than would have killed his murderer,
+falls stunned at last, and his armed head is fastened to the ground
+with cords; as soon as the wide wound is made, and the jugulars are
+cut asunder, what mortal can, without compassion, hear the painful
+bellowings intercepted by his blood, the bitter sighs that speak
+the sharpness of his anguish, and the deep sounding groans, with
+loud anxiety, fetched from the bottom of his strong and palpitating
+heart; look on the trembling and violent convulsions of his limbs;
+see, while his reeking gore streams from him, his eyes become dim
+and languid, and behold his strugglings, gasps, and last efforts for
+life, the certain signs of his approaching fate? When a creature has
+given such convincing and undeniable proofs of the terrors upon him,
+and the pains and agonies he feels, is there a follower of Descartes
+so inured to blood, as not to refute, by his commiseration, the
+philosophy of that vain reasoner?
+
+
+
+
+    Line 307. ----For frugally
+              They now liv'd 'on their salary.
+
+
+When people have small comings in, and are honest withal, it
+is then that the generality of them begin to be frugal, and
+not before. Frugality in ethics is called that virtue, from the
+principle of which men abstain from superfluities, and, despising
+the operose contrivances of art to procure either ease or pleasure,
+content themselves with the natural simplicity of things, and are
+carefully temperate in the enjoyment of them, without any tincture of
+covetousness. Frugality thus limited, is perhaps scarcer than many may
+imagine; but what is generally understood by it, is a quality more
+often to be met with, and consists in a medium between profuseness
+and avarice, rather leaning to the latter. As this prudent economy,
+which some people call saving is in private families the most certain
+method to increase an estate. So some imagine, that whether a country
+be barren or fruitful, the same method, if generally pursued (which
+they think practicable), will have the same effect upon a whole nation,
+and that, for example, the English might be much richer than they are,
+if they would be as frugal as some of their neighbours. This, I think,
+is an error, which to prove, I shall first refer the reader to what
+has been said upon this head in Remark on l. 180. and then go on thus.
+
+Experience teaches us first, that as people differ in their views
+and perceptions of things, so they vary in their inclinations; one
+man is given to covetousness, another to prodigality, and a third is
+only saving. Secondly, that men are never, or at least very seldom,
+reclaimed from their darling passions, either by reason or precept,
+and that if any thing ever draws them from what they are naturally
+propense to, it must be a change in their circumstances or their
+fortunes. If we reflect upon these observations, we shall find,
+that to render the generality of a nation lavish, the product of
+the country must be considerable, in proportion to the inhabitants,
+and what they are profuse of cheap; that, on the contrary, to make
+a nation generally frugal, the necessaries of life must be scarce,
+and consequently dear; and that, therefore, let the best politician
+do what he can, the profuseness or frugality of a people in general,
+must always depend upon, and will, in spite of his teeth, be ever
+proportioned to the fruitfulness and product of the country, the
+number of inhabitants, and the taxes they are to bear. If any body
+would refute what I have said, let them only prove from history,
+that there ever was in any country a national frugality without a
+national necessity.
+
+Let us examine then what things are requisite to aggrandize and
+enrich a nation. The first desirable blessings for any society of men,
+are a fertile soil, and a happy climate, a mild government, and more
+land than people. These things will render man easy, loving, honest,
+and sincere. In this condition they may be as virtuous as they can,
+without the least injury to the public, and consequently as happy
+as they please themselves. But they shall have no arts or sciences,
+or be quiet longer than their neighbours will let them; they must
+be poor, ignorant, and almost wholly destitute of what we call the
+comforts of life, and all the cardinal virtues together would not so
+much as procure a tolerable coat or a porridge-pot among them: for
+in this state of slothful ease and stupid innocence, as you need not
+fear great vices, so you must not expect any considerable virtues. Man
+never exerts himself but when he is roused by his desires: while they
+lie dormant, and there is nothing to raise them, his excellence and
+abilities will be for ever undiscovered, and the lumpish machine,
+without the influence of his passions, may be justly compared to a
+huge wind-mill without a breath of air.
+
+Would you render a society of men strong and powerful, you must touch
+their passions. Divide the land, though there be never so much to
+spare, and their possessions will make them covetous: rouse them,
+though but in jest, from their idleness with praises, and pride will
+set them to work in earnest: teach them trades and handicrafts, and you
+will bring envy and emulation among them: to increase their numbers,
+set up a variety of manufactures, and leave no ground uncultivated; let
+property be inviolably secured, and privileges equal to all men; suffer
+nobody to act but what is lawful, and every body to think what he
+pleases; for a country where every body may be maintained that will be
+employed, and the other maxims are observed, must always be thronged,
+and can never want people, as long as there is any in the world. Would
+you have them bold and warlike, turn to military discipline, make good
+use of their fear, and flatter their vanity with art and assiduity:
+but would you, moreover, render them an opulent, knowing, and polite
+nation, teach them commerce with foreign countries, and, if possible,
+get into the sea, which to compass spare no labour nor industry, and
+let no difficulty deter you from it; then promote navigation, cherish
+the merchant, and encourage trade in every branch of it; this will
+bring riches, and where they are, arts and sciences will soon follow:
+and by the help of what I have named and good management, it is that
+politicians can make a people potent, renowned, and flourishing.
+
+But would you have a frugal and honest society, the best policy is to
+preserve men in their native simplicity, strive not to increase their
+numbers; let them never be acquainted with strangers or superfluities,
+but remove, and keep from them every thing that might raise their
+desires, or improve their understanding.
+
+Great wealth, and foreign treasure, will ever scorn to come among
+men, unless you will admit their inseparable companions, avarice and
+luxury: where trade is considerable, fraud will intrude. To be at once
+well-bred and sincere, is no less than a contradiction; and, therefore,
+while man advances in knowledge, and his manners are polished, we must
+expect to see, at the same time, his desires enlarged, his appetites
+refined, and his vices increased.
+
+The Dutch may ascribe their present grandeur to the virtue and
+frugality of their ancestors as they please; but what made that
+contemptible spot of ground so considerable among the principal powers
+of Europe, has been their political wisdom in postponing every thing
+to merchandise and navigation, the unlimited liberty of conscience
+that is enjoyed among them, and the unwearied application with which
+they have always made use of the most effectual means to encourage
+and increase trade in general.
+
+They never were noted for frugality before Philip II. of Spain began
+to rage over them with that unheard of tyranny. Their laws were
+trampled upon, their rights and large immunities taken from them,
+and their constitution torn to pieces. Several of their chief nobles
+were condemned and executed without legal form of process. Complaints
+and remonstrances were punished as severely as resistance, and those
+that escaped being massacred, were plundered by ravenous soldiers. As
+this was intolerable to a people that had always been used to the
+mildest of governments, and enjoyed greater privileges than any of
+the neighbouring nations, so they chose rather to die in arms than
+perish by cruel executioners. If we consider the strength Spain
+had then, and the low circumstances those distressed states were
+in, there never was heard of a more unequal strife; yet, such was
+their fortitude and resolution, that only seven of those provinces,
+uniting themselves together, maintained against the greatest and
+best disciplined nation in Europe, the most tedious and bloody war,
+that is to be met with in ancient or modern history.
+
+Rather than to become a victim to the Spanish fury, they were contented
+to live upon a third part of their revenues, and lay out far the
+greatest part of their income in defending themselves against their
+merciless enemies. These hardships and calamities of a war within
+their bowels, first put them upon that extraordinary frugality; and
+the continuance under the same difficulties for above fourscore years,
+could not but render it customary and habitual to them. But all their
+arts of saving, and penurious way of living, could never have enabled
+them to make head against so potent an enemy, if their industry in
+promoting their fishery and navigation in general, had not helped to
+supply the natural wants and disadvantages they laboured under.
+
+The country is so small and so populous, that there is not land enough
+(though hardly an inch of it is unimproved) to feed the tenth part
+of the inhabitants. Holland itself is full of large rivers, and
+lies lower than the sea, which would run over it every tide, and
+wash it away in one winter, if it was not kept out by vast banks
+and huge walls: the repairs of those, as well as their sluices,
+quays, mills, and other necessaries they are forced to make use of
+to keep themselves from being drowned, are a greater expence to them,
+one year with another, than could be raised by a general land tax of
+four shillings in the pound, if to be deducted from the neat produce
+of the landlord's revenue.
+
+Is it a wonder, that people, under such circumstances, and loaden
+with greater taxes, besides, than any other nation, should be obliged
+to be saving? but why must they be a pattern to others, who, besides,
+that they are more happily situated, are much richer within themselves,
+and have, to the same number of people, above ten times the extent of
+ground? The Dutch and we often buy and sell at the same markets, and
+so far our views may be said to be the same: otherwise the interests
+and political reasons of the two nations, as to the private economy
+of either, are very different. It is their interest to be frugal,
+and spend little; because they must have every thing from abroad,
+except butter, cheese, and fish, and therefore of them, especially
+the latter, they consume three times the quantity, which the same
+number of people do here. It is our interest to eat plenty of beef
+and mutton to maintain the farmer, and further improve our land,
+of which we have enough to feed ourselves, and as many more, if it
+was better cultivated. The Dutch perhaps have more shipping, and more
+ready money than we, but then those are only to be considered as the
+tools they work with. So a carrier may have more horses than a man
+of ten times his worth, and a banker that has not above fifteen or
+sixteen hundred pounds in the world, may have generally more ready
+cash by him, than a gentleman of two thousand a-year. He that keeps
+three or four stage-coaches to get his bread, is to a gentleman that
+keeps a coach for his pleasure, what the Dutch are in comparison
+to us; having nothing of their own but fish, they are carriers and
+freighters to the rest of the world, while the basis of our trade
+chiefly depends upon our own product.
+
+Another instance, that what makes the bulk of the people saving,
+are heavy taxes, scarcity of land, and such things that occasion a
+dearth of provisions, may be given from what is observable among the
+Dutch themselves. In the province of Holland there is a vast trade,
+and an unconceivable treasure of money. The land is almost as rich
+as dung itself, and (as I have said once already) not an inch of it
+unimproved. In Gelderland, and Overyssel, there is hardly any trade,
+and very little money: the soil is very indifferent, and abundance
+of ground lies waste. Then, what is the reason that the same Dutch,
+in the two latter provinces, though poorer than the first, are yet
+less stingy and more hospitable? Nothing but that their taxes in
+most things are less extravagant, and in proportion to the number of
+people, they have a great deal more ground. What they save in Holland,
+they save out of their bellies; it is eatables, drinkables, and fuel,
+that their heaviest taxes are upon, but they wear better clothes,
+and have richer furniture, than you will find in the other provinces.
+
+Those that are frugal by principle, are so in every thing; but in
+Holland the people are only sparing in such things as are daily wanted,
+and soon consumed; in what is lasting they are quite otherwise: in
+pictures and marble they are profuse; in their buildings and gardens
+they are extravagant to folly. In other countries, you may meet with
+stately courts and palaces of great extent, that belong to princes,
+which nobody can expect in a commonwealth, where so much equality
+is observed as there is in this; but in all Europe you shall find
+no private buildings so sumptuously magnificent, as a great many
+of the merchants and other gentlemen's houses are in Amsterdam, and
+some other great cities of that small province; and the generality of
+those that build there, lay out a greater proportion of their estates
+on houses they dwell in, than any people upon the earth.
+
+The nation I speak of was never in greater straits, nor their affairs
+in a more dismal posture since they were a republic, than in the
+year 1671, and the beginning of 1672. What we know of their economy
+and constitution with any certainty, has been chiefly owing to Sir
+William Temple, whose observations upon their manners and government,
+it is evident from several passages in his memoirs, were made about
+that time. The Dutch, indeed, were then very frugal; but since those
+days, and that their calamities have not been so pressing (though
+the common people, on whom the principal burden of all excises and
+impositions lies, are perhaps much as they were), a great alteration
+has been made among the better sort of people in their equipages,
+entertainments, and whole manner of living.
+
+Those who would have it, that the frugality of that nation flows not
+so much from necessity, as a general aversion to vice and luxury,
+will put us in mind of their public administration, and smallness
+of salaries, their prudence in bargaining for, and buying stores
+and other necessaries, the great care they take not to be imposed
+upon by those that serve them, and their severity against them that
+break their contracts. But what they would ascribe to the virtue
+and honesty of ministers, is wholly due to their strict regulations,
+concerning the management of the public treasure, from which their
+admirable form of government will not suffer them to depart; and
+indeed one good man may take another's word, if they so agree, but a
+whole nation ought never to trust to any honesty, but what is built
+upon necessity; for unhappy is the people, and their constitution
+will be ever precarious, whose welfare must depend upon the virtues
+and consciences of ministers and politicians.
+
+The Dutch generally endeavour to promote as much frugality among their
+subjects as it is possible, not because it is a virtue, but because
+it is, generally speaking, their interest, as I have shown before;
+for, as this latter changes, so they alter their maxims, as will be
+plain in the following instance.
+
+As soon as their East India ships come home, the Company pays off the
+men, and many of them receive the greatest part of what they have been
+earning in seven or eight, or some fifteen or sixteen years time. These
+poor fellows are encouraged to spend their money with all profuseness
+imaginable; and considering that most of them, when they set out first,
+were reprobates, that under the tuition of a strict discipline, and a
+miserable diet, have been so long kept at hard labour without money,
+in the midst of danger, it cannot be difficult to make them lavish,
+as soon as they have plenty.
+
+They squander away in wine, women, and music, as much as people
+of their taste and education are well capable of, and are suffered
+(so they but abstain from doing of mischief), to revel and riot with
+greater licentiousness than is customary to be allowed to others. You
+may in some cities see them accompanied with three or four lewd women,
+few of them sober, run roaring through the streets by broad day-light
+with a fiddler before them: And if the money, to their thinking, goes
+not fast enough these ways, they will find out others, and sometimes
+fling it among the mob by handfuls. This madness continues in most
+of them while they have any thing left, which never lasts long, and
+for this reason, by a nick-name, they are called, Lords of six Weeks,
+that being generally the time by which the Company has other ships
+ready to depart; where these infatuated wretches (their money being
+gone) are forced to enter themselves again, and may have leisure to
+repent their folly.
+
+In this stratagem there is a double policy: First, if the sailors that
+have been inured to the hot climates and unwholesome air and diet,
+should be frugal, and stay in their own country, the Company would be
+continually obliged to employ fresh men, of which (besides that they
+are not so fit for their business), hardly one in two ever lives in
+some places of the East Indies, which often would prove great charge
+as well as disappointment to them. The second is, that the large
+sums so often distributed among those sailors, are by this means
+made immediately to circulate throughout the country, from whence,
+by heavy excises, and other impositions, the greatest part of it is
+soon drawn back into the public treasure.
+
+To convince the champions for national frugality by another argument,
+that what they urge is impracticable, we will suppose that I am
+mistaken in every thing which in Remark, l. 180, I have said in behalf
+of luxury, and the necessity of it to maintain trade: after that let
+us examine what a general frugality, if it was by art and management
+to be forced upon people whether they have occasion for it or not,
+would produce in such a nation as ours. We will grant, then, that all
+the people in Great Britain shall consume but four-fifths of what
+they do now, and so lay by one-fifth part of their income; I shall
+not speak of what influence this would have upon almost every trade,
+as well as the farmer, the grazier, and the landlord, but favourably
+suppose (what is yet impossible), that the same work shall be done,
+and consequently the same handicrafts be employed as there are
+now. The consequence would be, that unless money should all at once
+fall prodigiously in value, and every thing else, contrary to reason,
+grow very dear, at the five years end all the working people, and the
+poorest of labourers (for I would not meddle with any of the rest),
+would be worth in ready cash as much as they now spend in a whole
+year; which, by the bye, would be more money than ever the nation
+had at once.
+
+Let us now, overjoyed with this increase of wealth, take a view of
+the condition the working people would be in, and, reasoning from
+experience, and what we daily observe of them, judge what their
+behaviour would be in such a case. Every body knows that there is a
+vast number of journeymen weavers, tailors, clothworkers, and twenty
+other handicrafts, who, if by four days labour in a week they can
+maintain themselves, will hardly be persuaded to work the fifth;
+and that there are thousands of labouring men of all sorts, who will,
+though they can hardly subsist, put themselves to fifty inconveniences,
+disoblige their masters, pinch their bellies, and run in debt to make
+holidays. When men show such an extraordinary proclivity to idleness
+and pleasure, what reason have we to think that they would ever work,
+unless they were obliged to it by immediate necessity? When we see
+an artificer that cannot be drove to his work before Tuesday, because
+the Monday morning he has two shillings left of his last week's pay;
+why should we imagine he would go to it at all, if he had fifteen or
+twenty pounds in his pocket?
+
+What would, at this rate, become of our manufactures? If the merchant
+would send cloth abroad, he must make it himself, for the clothier
+cannot get one man out of twelve that used to work for him. If what I
+speak of was only to befal the journeymen shoemakers, and nobody else,
+in less than a twelvemonth, half of us would go barefoot. The chief
+and most pressing use there is for money in a nation, is to pay the
+labour of the poor, and when there is a real scarcity of it, those
+who have a great many workmen to pay, will always feel it first; yet
+notwithstanding this great necessity of coin, it would be easier, where
+property was well secured, to live without money, than without poor;
+for who would do the work? For this reason the quantity of circulating
+coin in a country, ought always to be proportioned to the number of
+hands that are employed; and the wages of labourers to the price of
+provisions. From whence it is demonstrable, that whatever procures
+plenty, makes labourers cheap, where the poor are well managed;
+who as they ought to be kept from starving, so they should receive
+nothing worth saving. If here and there one of the lowest class by
+uncommon industry, and pinching his belly, lifts himself above the
+condition he was brought up in, nobody ought to hinder him; nay,
+it is undeniably the wisest course for every person in the society,
+and for every private family to be frugal; but it is the interest of
+all rich nations, that the greatest part of the poor should almost
+never be idle, and yet continually spend what they get.
+
+All men, as Sir William Temple observes very well, are more prone to
+ease and pleasure than they are to labour, when they are not prompted
+to it by pride and avarice, and those that get their living by their
+daily labour, are seldom powerfully influenced by either: so that
+they have nothing to stir them up to be serviceable but their wants,
+which it is prudence to relieve, but folly to cure. The only thing,
+then, that can render the labouring man industrious, is a moderate
+quantity of money; for as too little will, according as his temper
+is, either dispirit or make him desperate, so too much will make him
+insolent and lazy.
+
+A man would be laughed at by most people, who should maintain that
+too much money could undo a nation: yet this has been the fate of
+Spain; to this the learned Don Diego Savedra ascribes the ruin of his
+country. The fruits of the earth in former ages had made Spain so rich,
+that King Lewis XI. of France being come to the court of Toledo, was
+astonished at its splendour, and said, that he had never seen any thing
+to be compared to it, either in Europe or Asia; he that in his travels
+to the Holy Land had run through every province of them. In the kingdom
+of Castile alone (if we may believe some writers), there were for the
+holy war, from all parts of the world got together one hundred thousand
+foot, ten thousand horse, and sixty thousand carriages for baggage,
+which Alonso III. maintained at his own charge, and paid every day,
+as well soldiers as officers and princes, every one according to his
+rank and dignity: nay, down to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella
+(who equipped Columbus), and some time after, Spain was a fertile
+country, where trade and manufactures flourished, and had a knowing
+industrious people to boast of. But as soon as that mighty treasure,
+that was obtained with more hazard and cruelty than the world until
+then had known, and which to come at, by the Spaniard's own confession,
+had cost the lives of twenty millions of Indians; as soon, I say, as
+that ocean of treasure came rolling in upon them, it took away their
+senses, and their industry forsook them. The farmer left his plough,
+the mechanic his tools, the merchant his compting-house, and every
+body scorning to work, took his pleasure and turned gentleman. They
+thought they had reason to value themselves above all their neighbours,
+and now nothing but the conquest of the world would serve them.
+
+The consequence of this has been, that other nations have supplied
+what their own sloth and pride denied them; and when every body saw,
+that notwithstanding all the prohibitions the government could make
+against the exportation of bullion, the Spaniard would part with his
+money, and bring it you aboard himself at the hazard of his neck,
+all the world endeavoured to work for Spain. Gold and silver being by
+this means yearly divided and shared among all the trading countries,
+have made all things dear, and most nations of Europe industrious,
+except their owners, who, ever since their mighty acquisitions,
+sit with their arms across, and wait every year with impatience and
+anxiety, the arrival of their revenues from abroad, to pay others for
+what they have spent already: and thus by too much money, the making
+of colonies and other mismanagements, of which it was the occasion,
+Spain is, from a fruitful and well-peopled country, with all its mighty
+titles and possessions, made a barren and empty thoroughfare through
+which gold and silver pass from America to the rest of the world;
+and the nation, from a rich, acute, diligent, and laborious, become
+a slow, idle, proud, and beggarly people: So much for Spain. The
+next country where money is called the product, is Portugal, and
+the figure which that kingdom with all its gold makes in Europe,
+I think is not much to be envied.
+
+The great art then to make a nation happy, and what we call
+flourishing, consists in giving every body an opportunity of being
+employed; which to compass, let a government's first care be to
+promote as great a variety of manufactures, arts, and handicrafts,
+as human wit can invent; and the second, to encourage agriculture and
+fishery in all their branches, that the whole earth may be forced to
+exert itself as well as man; for as the one is an infallible maxim
+to draw vast multitudes of people into a nation, so the other is the
+only method to maintain them.
+
+It is from this policy, and not the trifling regulations of lavishness
+and frugality (which will ever take their own course, according to
+the circumstances of the people), that the greatness and felicity of
+nations must be expected; for let the value of gold and silver either
+rise or fall, the enjoyment of all societies will ever depend upon
+the fruits of the earth, and the labour of the people; both which
+joined together are a more certain, a more inexhaustible, and a more
+real treasure, than the gold of Brazil, or the silver of Potosi.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 321. No honour now, &c.
+
+
+Honour, in its figurative sense, is a chimera without truth or being,
+an invention of moralists and politicians, and signifies a certain
+principle of virtue not related to religion, found in some men that
+keeps them close to their duty and engagements whatever they be;
+as for example, a man of honour enters into a conspiracy with others
+to murder a king; he is obliged to go thorough stitch with it; and
+if overcome by remorse or good nature, he startles at the enormity
+of his purpose, discovers the plot, and turns a witness against his
+accomplices, he then forfeits his honour, at least among the party
+he belonged to. The excellency of this principle is, that the vulgar
+are destitute of it, and it is only to be met with in people of the
+better sort, as some oranges have kernels, and others not, though the
+outside be the same. In great families it is like the gout, generally
+counted hereditary, and all the lords children are born with it. In
+some that never felt any thing of it, it is acquired by conversation
+and reading (especially of romances), in others by preferment; but
+there is nothing that encourages the growth of it more than a sword,
+and upon the first wearing of one, some people have felt considerable
+shoots of it in four and twenty hours.
+
+The chief and most important care a man of honour ought to have,
+is the preservation of this principle, and rather than forfeit it,
+he must lose his employments and estate, nay, life itself; for which
+reason, whatever humility he may show by way of good-breeding, he is
+allowed to put an inestimable value upon himself, as a possessor of
+this invisible ornament. The only method to preserve this principle,
+is to live up to the rules of honour, which are laws he is to walk by:
+himself is obliged always to be faithful to his trust, to prefer the
+public interest to his own, not to tell lies, nor defraud or wrong
+any body, and from others to suffer no affront, which is a term of
+art for every action designedly done to undervalue him.
+
+The men of ancient honour, of which I reckon Don Quixote to have been
+the last upon record, were very nice observers of all these laws,
+and a great many more than I have named; but the moderns seem to be
+more remiss: they have a profound veneration for the last of them,
+but they pay not an equal obedience to any of the other; and whoever
+will but strictly comply with that I hint at, shall have abundance
+of trespasses against all the rest connived at.
+
+A man of honour is always counted impartial, and a man of sense of
+course; for nobody never heard of a man of honour that was a fool:
+for this reason, he has nothing to do with the law, and is always
+allowed to be a judge in his own case; and if the least injury be
+done either to himself or his friend, his relation, his servant, his
+dog, or any thing which he is pleased to take under his honourable
+protection, satisfaction must be forthwith demanded; and if it proves
+an affront, and he that gave it like wise a man of honour, a battle
+must ensue. From all this it is evident, that a man of honour must
+be possessed of courage, and that without it his other principle
+would be no more than a sword without a point. Let us, therefore,
+examine what courage consists in, and whether it be, as most people
+will have it, a real something that valiant men have in their nature
+distinct from all their other qualities or not.
+
+There is nothing so universally sincere upon earth, as the love
+which all creatures, that are capable of any, bear to themselves;
+and as there is no love but what implies a care to preserve the thing
+beloved, so there is nothing more sincere in any creature than his
+will, wishes, and endeavours, to preserve himself. This is the law of
+nature, by which no creature is endued with any appetite or passion,
+but what either directly or indirectly tends to the preservation
+either of himself or his species.
+
+The means by which nature obliges every creature continually to stir in
+this business of self-preservation, are grafted in him, and, in man,
+called desires, which either compel him to crave what he thinks will
+sustain or please him, or command him to avoid what he imagines might
+displease, hurt, or destroy him. These desires or passions have all
+their different symptoms by which they manifest themselves to those
+they disturb, and from that variety of disturbances they make within
+us, their various denominations have been given them, as has been
+shown already in pride and shame.
+
+The passion that is raised in us when we apprehend that mischief is
+approaching us, is called fear: the disturbance it makes within us is
+always more or less violent in proportion, not of the danger, but our
+apprehension of the mischief dreaded, whether real or imaginary. Our
+fear then being always proportioned to the apprehension we have of
+the danger, it follows, that while that apprehension lasts, a man can
+no more shake off his fear than he can a leg or an arm. In a fright,
+it is true, the apprehension of danger is so sudden, and attacks us
+so lively (as sometimes to take away reason and senses), that when
+it is over we often do not remember we had any apprehension at all;
+but, from the event, it is plain we had it, for how could we have
+been frightened if we had not apprehended that some evil or other
+was coming upon us?
+
+Most people are of opinion, that this apprehension is to be conquered
+by reason, but I confess I am not: Those that have been frightened
+will tell you, that as soon as they could recollect themselves, that
+is, make use of their reason, their apprehension was conquered. But
+this is no conquest at all, for in a fright the danger was either
+altogether imaginary, or else it is past by that time they can make
+use of their reason; and therefore if they find there is no danger,
+it is no wonder that they should not apprehend any: but, when the
+danger is permanent, let them then make use of their reason, and they
+will find that it may serve them to examine the greatness and reality
+of the danger, and that, if they find it less than they imagined,
+the apprehension will be lessened accordingly; but, if the danger
+proves real, and the same in every circumstance as they took it to
+be at first, then their reason, instead of diminishing, will rather
+increase their apprehension. While this fear lasts, no creature can
+fight offensively; and yet we see brutes daily fight obstinately, and
+worry one another to death; so that some other passion must be able
+to overcome this fear, and the most contrary to it is anger: which,
+to trace to the bottom, I must beg leave to make another digression.
+
+No creature can subsist without food, nor any species of them (I
+speak of the more perfect animals) continue long unless young ones
+are continually born as fast as the old ones die. Therefore the first
+and fiercest appetite that nature has given them is hunger, the next
+is lust; the one prompting them to procreate, as the other bids them
+eat. Now, if we observe that anger is that passion which is raised
+in us when we are crossed or disturbed in our desires, and that, as
+it sums up all the strength in creatures, so it was given them, that
+by it they might exert themselves more vigorously in endeavouring to
+remove, overcome, or destroy whatever obstructs them in the pursuit
+of self preservation; we shall find that brutes, unless themselves or
+what they love, or the liberty of either are threatened or attacked,
+have nothing worth notice that can move them to anger, but hunger
+or lust. It is they that make them more fierce, for we must observe,
+that the appetites of creatures are as actually crossed, while they
+want and cannot meet with what they desire (though perhaps with less
+violence) as when hindered from enjoying what they have in view. What
+I have said will appear more plainly, if we but mind what nobody can
+be ignorant of, which is this: all creatures upon earth live either
+upon the fruits and product of it, or else the flesh of other animals,
+their fellow-creatures. The latter, which we call beasts of prey,
+nature has armed accordingly, and given them weapons and strength to
+overcome and tear asunder those whom she has designed for their food,
+and likewise a much keener appetite than to other animals that live
+upon herbs, &c. For, as to the first, if a cow loved mutton as well as
+she does grass, being made as she is, and having no claws or talons,
+and but one row of teeth before, that are all of an equal length, she
+would be starved even among a flock of sheep. Secondly, as to their
+voraciousness, if experience did not teach us, our reason might: in the
+first place, it is highly probable, that the hunger which can make a
+creature fatigue, harass and expose himself to danger for every bit he
+eats, is more piercing than that which only bids him eat what stands
+before him, and which he may have for stooping down. In the second,
+it is to be considered, that as beasts of prey have an instinct by
+which they learn to crave, trace, and discover those creatures that
+are good food for them; so the others have likewise an instinct that
+teaches them to shun, conceal themselves, and run away from those
+that hunt after them: from hence it must follow, that beasts of prey,
+though they could almost eat forever, go yet more often with empty
+bellies than other creatures, whose victuals neither fly from nor
+oppose them. This must perpetuate as well as increase their hunger,
+which hereby becomes a constant fuel to their anger.
+
+If you ask me what stirs up this anger in bulls and cocks that
+will fight to death, and yet are neither animals of prey, nor very
+voracious, I answer, lust. Those creatures, whose rage proceeds from
+hunger, both male and female, attack every thing they can master,
+and fight obstinately against all: But the animals, whose fury is
+provoked by a venereal ferment, being generally males, exert themselves
+chiefly against other males of the same species. They may do mischief
+by chance to other creatures; but the main objects of their hatred
+are their rivals, and it is against them only that their prowess
+and fortitude are shown. We see likewise in all those creatures,
+of which the male is able to satisfy a great number of females, a
+more considerable superiority in the male, expressed by nature in his
+make and features, as well as fierceness, than is observed in other
+creatures, where the male is contented with one or two females. Dogs,
+though become domestic animals, are ravenous to a proverb, and those
+of them that will fight being carnivorous, would soon become beasts
+of prey, if not fed by us; what we may observe in them is an ample
+proof of what I have hitherto advanced. Those of a true fighting
+breed, being voracious creatures, both male and female, will fasten
+upon any thing, and suffer themselves to be killed before they give
+over. As the female is rather more salacious than the male; so there
+is no difference in their make at all, what distinguishes the sexes
+excepted, and the female is rather the fiercest of the two. A bull
+is a terrible creature when he is kept up, but where he has twenty
+or more cows to range among, in a little time he will become as tame
+as any of them, and a dozen hens will spoil the best game cock in
+England. Harts and deers are counted chaste and timorous creatures,
+and so indeed they are almost all the year long, except in rutting
+time, and then on a sudden they become bold to admiration, and often
+make at the keepers themselves.
+
+That the influence of those two principal appetites, hunger and lust,
+upon the temper of animals, is not so whimsical as some may imagine,
+may be partly demonstrated from what is observable in ourselves; for,
+though our hunger is infinitely less violent than that of wolves and
+other ravenous creatures, yet we see that people who are in health,
+and have a tolerable stomach, are more fretful, and sooner put out
+of humour for trifles when they stay for their victuals beyond their
+usual hours, than at any other time. And again, though lust in man
+is not so raging as it is in bulls, and other salacious creatures,
+yet nothing provokes men and women both sooner, and more violently
+to anger, than what crosses their amours, when they are heartily in
+love; and the most fearful and tenderly educated of either sex, have
+slighted the greatest dangers, and set aside all other considerations,
+to compass the destruction of a rival.
+
+Hitherto I have endeavoured to demonstrate, that no creature can
+fight offensively as long as his fear lasts; that fear cannot be
+conquered but by another passion; that the most contrary to it,
+and most effectual to overcome it, is anger; that the two principal
+appetites which, disappointed, can stir up this last-named passion,
+are hunger and lust, and that, in all brute beasts, the proneness to
+anger and obstinacy in fighting, generally depend upon the violence of
+either or both those appetites together: From whence it must follow,
+that what we call prowess, or natural courage in creatures, is nothing
+but the effect of anger, and that all fierce animals must be either
+very ravenous, or very lustful, if not both.
+
+Let us now examine what by this rule we ought to judge of our own
+species. From the tenderness of man's skin, and the great care that is
+required for years together to rear him; from the make of his jaws, the
+evenness of his teeth, the breadth of his nails, and the slightness
+of both, it is not probable that nature should have designed him
+for rapine; for this reason his hunger is not voracious as it is in
+beasts of prey; neither is he so salacious as other animals that are
+called so, and being besides very industrious to supply his wants,
+he can have no reigning appetite to perpetuate his anger, and must
+consequently be a timorous animal.
+
+What I have said last must only be understood of man in his savage
+state; for, if we examine him as a member of a society, and a taught
+animal, we shall find him quite another creature: As soon as his
+pride has room to play, and envy, avarice, and ambition begin to
+catch hold of him, he is roused from his natural innocence and
+stupidity. As his knowledge increases, his desires are enlarged,
+and consequently his wants and appetites are multiplied: Hence it
+must follow, that he will often be crossed in the pursuit of them,
+and meet with abundance more disappointment to stir up his anger in
+this than his former condition, and man would in a little time become
+the most hurtful and obnoxious creature in the world, if let alone,
+whenever he could over-power his adversary, if he had no mischief to
+fear but from the person that angered him.
+
+The first care, therefore, of all governments is, by severe punishments
+to curb his anger when it does hurt, and so, by increasing his fears,
+prevent the mischief it might produce. When various laws to restrain
+him from using force are strictly executed, self-preservation must
+teach him to be peaceable; and, as it is every body's business to
+be as little disturbed as is possible, his fears will be continually
+augmented and enlarged as he advances in experience, understanding, and
+foresight. The consequence of this must be, that as the provocations
+he will receive to anger will be infinite in the civilized state, so
+his fears to damp it will be the same, and thus, in a little time,
+he will be taught by his fears to destroy his anger, and by art to
+consult, in an opposite method, the same self-preservation for which
+nature before had furnished him with anger, as well as the rest of
+his passions.
+
+The only useful passion, then, that man is possessed of toward the
+peace and quiet of a society, is his fear, and the more you work upon
+it the more orderly and governable he will be; for how useful soever
+anger may be to man, as he is a single creature by himself, yet the
+society has no manner of occasion for it: But nature being always the
+same, in the formation of animals, produces all creatures as like to
+those that beget and bear them, as the place she forms them in, and the
+various influences from without, will give her leave; and consequently
+all men, whether they are born in courts or forests, are susceptible of
+anger. When this passion overcomes (as among all degrees of people it
+sometimes does) the whole set of fears man has, he has true courage,
+and will fight as boldly as a lion or a tiger, and at no other time;
+and I shall endeavour to prove, that whatever is called courage in man,
+when he is not angry, is spurious and artificial.
+
+It is possible, by good government, to keep a society always quiet
+in itself, but nobody can ensure peace from without for ever. The
+society may have occasion to extend their limits further, and enlarge
+their territories, or others may invade theirs, or something else
+will happen that man must be brought to fight; for how civilized
+soever men may be, they never forget that force goes beyond reason:
+The politician now must alter his measures, and take off some of
+man's fears; he must strive to persuade him, that all what was told
+him before of the barbarity of killing men ceases, as soon as these
+men are enemies to the public, and that their adversaries are neither
+so good nor so strong as themselves. These things well managed will
+seldom fail of drawing the hardiest, the most quarrelsome, and the
+most mischievous into combat; but unless they are better qualified,
+I will not answer for their behaviour there: If once you can make
+them undervalue their enemies, you may soon stir them up to anger,
+and while that lasts they will fight with greater obstinacy than any
+disciplined troops: But if any thing happens that was unforeseen,
+and a sudden great noise, a tempest, or any strange or uncommon
+accident that seems to threaten them, intervenes, fear seizes them,
+disarms their anger, and makes them run away to a man.
+
+This natural courage, therefore, as soon as people begin to have more
+wit, must be soon exploded. In the first place, those that have felt
+the smart of the enemy's blows, will not always believe what is said to
+undervalue him, and are often not easily provoked to anger. Secondly,
+anger consisting in an ebullition of the spirits, is a passion of no
+long continuance (ira furor brevis est), and the enemies, if they
+withstand the first shock of these angry people, have commonly the
+better of it. Thirdly, as long as people are angry, all counsel and
+discipline are lost upon them, and they can never be brought to use
+art or conduct in their battles. Anger then, without which no creature
+has natural courage, being altogether useless in a war to be managed
+by stratagem, and brought into a regular art, the government must
+find out an equivalent for courage that will make men fight.
+
+Whoever would civilize men, and establish them into a body politic,
+must be thoroughly acquainted with all the passions and appetites,
+strength and weaknesses of their frame, and understand how to turn
+their greatest frailties to the advantage of the public. In the
+Inquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue, I have shown how easily men
+were induced to believe any thing that is said in their praise. If,
+therefore, a lawgiver or politician, whom they have a great veneration
+for, should tell them, that the generality of men had within them a
+principle of valour distinct from anger, or any other passion, that
+made them to despise danger, and face death itself with intrepidity,
+and that they who had the most of it were the most valuable of their
+kind, it is very likely, considering what has been said, that most
+of them, though they felt nothing of this principle, would swallow
+it for truth, and that the proudest, feeling themselves moved at
+this piece of flattery, and not well versed in distinguishing the
+passions, might imagine that they felt it heaving in their breasts,
+by mistaking pride for courage. If but one in ten can be persuaded
+openly to declare, that he is possessed of this principle, and
+maintain it against all gainsayers, there will soon be half a dozen
+that shall assert the same. Whoever has once owned it is engaged,
+the politician has nothing to do but to take all imaginable care to
+flatter the pride of those that brag of, and are willing to stand by
+it a thousand different ways: The same pride that drew him in first
+will ever after oblige him to defend the assertion, till at last the
+fear of discovering the reality of his heart, comes to be so great,
+that it outdoes the fear of death itself. Do but increase man's pride,
+and his fear of shame will ever be proportioned to it: for the greater
+value a man sets upon himself, the more pains he will take, and the
+greater hardships he will undergo, to avoid shame.
+
+The great art to make man courageous, is first to make him own this
+principle of valour within, and afterwards to inspire him with as much
+horror against shame, as nature has given him against death; and that
+there are things to which man has, or may have, a stronger aversion
+than he has to death, is evident from suicide. He that makes death his
+choice, must look upon it as less terrible than what he shuns by it;
+for whether the evil dreaded be present or to come, real or imaginary,
+nobody would kill himself wilfully but to avoid something. Lucretia
+held out bravely against all the attacks of the ravisher, even when he
+threatened her life; which shows that she valued her virtue beyond it:
+but when he threatened her reputation with eternal infamy, she fairly
+surrendered, and then slew herself; a certain sign that she valued
+her virtue less than her glory, and her life less than either. The
+fear of death did not make her yield, for she resolved to die before
+she did it, and her compliance must only be considered as a bribe, to
+make Tarquin forbear sullying her reputation; so that life had neither
+the first nor second place in the esteem of Lucretia. The courage,
+then, which is only useful to the body politic, and what is generally
+called true valour, is artificial, and consists in a superlative
+horror against shame, by flattery infused into men of exalted pride.
+
+As soon as the notions of honour and shame are received among a
+society, it is not difficult to make men fight. First, take care they
+are persuaded of the justice of their cause; for no man fights heartily
+that thinks himself in the wrong; then show them that their altars,
+their possessions, wives, children, and every thing that is near and
+dear to them, is concerned in the present quarrel, or at least may
+be influenced by it hereafter; then put feathers in their caps, and
+distinguish them from others, talk of public-spiritedness, the love of
+their country, facing an enemy with intrepidity, despising death the
+bed of honour, and such like high-sounding words, and every proud man
+will take up arms and fight himself to death before we will turn tail,
+if it be by daylight. One man in an army is a check upon another, and a
+hundred of them, that single and without witness, would be all cowards,
+are, for fear of incurring one another's contempt, made valiant by
+being together. To continue and heighten this artificial courage, all
+that run away ought to be punished with ignominy; those that fought
+well, whether they did beat or were beaten, must be flattered and
+solemnly commended; those that lost their limbs rewarded; and those
+that were killed, ought, above all to be taken notice of, artfully
+lamented, and to have extraordinary encomiums bestowed upon them;
+for to pay honours to the dead, will ever be a sure method to make
+bubbles of the living.
+
+When I say, that the courage made use of in the wars is artificial,
+I do not imagine that by the same art, all men may be made equally
+valiant: as men have not an equal share of pride, and differ from
+one another in shape and inward structure, it is impossible they
+should be all equally fit for the same uses. Some men will never be
+able to learn music, and yet make good mathematicians; others will
+play excellently well upon the violin, and yet be coxcombs as long
+as they live, let them converse with whom they please. But to show
+that there is no evasion, I shall prove, that setting aside what I
+said of artificial courage already, what the greatest heroe differs
+in from the rankest coward, is altogether corporeal, and depends
+upon the inward make of man. What I mean is called constitution; by
+which is understood the orderly or disorderly mixture of the fluids
+in our body: that constitution which favours courage, consists in the
+natural strength, elasticity, and due contexture of the finer spirits,
+and upon them wholly depends what we call stedfastness, resolution,
+and obstinacy. It is the only ingredient that is common to natural
+and artificial bravery, and is to either what size is to white walls,
+which hinders them from coming off, and makes them lasting. That
+some people are very much, others very little frightened at things
+that are strange and sudden to them, is likewise altogether owing to
+the firmness or imbecility in the tone of the spirits. Pride is of
+no use in a fright, because while it lasts we cannot think, which,
+being counted a disgrace, is the reason people is always angry with
+any thing that frightens them, as soon as the surprise is over;
+and when at the turn of a battle the conquerors give no quarter,
+and are very cruel, it is a sign their enemies fought well, and had
+put them first into great fears.
+
+That resolution depends upon this tone of the spirits, appears likewise
+from the effects of strong liquors, the fiery particles whereof
+crowding into the brain, strengthen the spirits; their operation
+imitates that of anger, which I said before was an ebullition of
+the spirits. It is for this reason, that most people when they are in
+drink, are sooner touched and more prone to anger, than at other times,
+and some raving mad without any provocation at all. It is likewise
+observed, that brandy makes men more quarrelsome at the same pitch of
+drunkenness than wine; because the spirits of distilled waters have
+abundance of fiery particles mixed with them, which the other has
+not. The contexture of spirits is so weak in some, that though they
+have pride enough, no art can ever make them fight, or overcome their
+fears; but this is a defect in the principle of the fluids, as other
+deformities are faults of the solids. These pusillanimous people,
+are never thoroughly provoked to anger, where there is any danger,
+and drinking makes them bolder, but seldom so resolute as to attack
+any, unless they be women or children, or such who they know dare not
+resist. This constitution is often influenced by health and sickness,
+and impaired by great losses of blood; sometimes it is corrected
+by diet; and it is this which the Duke de la Rochefoucauld means,
+when he says: vanity, shame, and above all constitution, make up very
+often the courage of men, and virtue of women.
+
+There is nothing that more improves the useful martial courage
+I treat of, and at the same time shows it to be artificial, than
+practice; for when men are disciplined, come to be acquainted with
+all the tools of death, and engines of destruction, when the shouts,
+the outcries, the fire and smoke, the grones of wounded, and ghostly
+looks of dying men, with all the various scenes of mangled carcases
+and bloody limbs tore off, begin to be familiar to them, their fear
+abate apace; not that they are now less afraid to die than before,
+but being used so often to see the same dangers, they apprehend the
+reality of them less than they did: as they are deservedly valued
+for every siege they are at, and every battle they are in, it is
+impossible but the several actions they share in, must continually
+become as many solid steps by which their pride mounts up; and thus
+their fear of shame, as I said before, will always be proportioned to
+their pride, increasing as the apprehension of the danger decreases,
+it is no wonder that most of them learn to discover little or no fear:
+and some great generals are able to preserve a presence of mind,
+and counterfeit a calm serenity within the midst of all the noise,
+horror, and confusion, that attend a battle.
+
+So silly a creature is man, as that, intoxicated with the fumes of
+vanity, he can feast on the thoughts of the praises that shall be
+paid his memory in future ages, with so much ecstacy, as to neglect
+his present life, nay, court and covet death, if he but imagines that
+it will add to the glory he had acquired before. There is no pitch
+of self-denial, that a man of pride and constitution cannot reach,
+nor any passion so violent but he will sacrifice it to another, which
+is superior to it; and here I cannot but admire at the simplicity
+of some good men, who, when they hear of the joy and alacrity
+with which holy men in persecutions have suffered for their faith,
+imagine that such constancy must exceed all human force, unless it
+was supported by some miraculous assistance from Heaven. As most
+people are willing to acknowledge all the frailties of their species,
+so they are unacquainted with the strength of our nature, and know
+not that some men of firm constitution may work themselves up into
+enthusiasm, by no other help than the violence of their passions; yet,
+it is certain, that there have been men who only assisted with pride
+and constitution to maintain the worst of causes, have undergone
+death and torments, with as much cheerfulness as the best of men,
+animated with piety and devotion, ever did for the true religion.
+
+To prove this assertion, I could produce many instances; but one
+or two will be sufficient. Jordanus Bruno of Nola, who wrote that
+silly piece of blasphemy, called Spaccio della Bestia triumphante,
+and the infamous Vanini, were both executed for openly professing and
+teaching of atheism: the latter might have been pardoned the moment
+before the execution, if he would have retracted his doctrine; but
+rather than recant, he chose to be burnt to ashes. As he went to the
+stake, he was so far from showing any concern, that he held his hand
+out to a physician whom he happened to know, desiring him to judge
+of the calmness of his mind by the regularity of his pulse, and from
+thence taking an opportunity of making an impious comparison, uttered
+a sentence too execrable to be mentioned. To these we may join one
+Mahomet Effendi, who, as Sir Paul Ricaut tells us, was put to death at
+Constantinople, for having advanced some notions against the existence
+of a God. He likewise might have saved his life by confessing his
+error, and renouncing it for the future; but chose rather to persist
+in his blasphemies, saying, "Though he had no reward to expect,
+the love of truth constrained him to suffer martyrdom in its defence."
+
+I have made this digression chiefly to show the strength of human
+nature, and what mere man may perform by pride and constitution
+alone. Man may certainly be as violently roused by his vanity,
+as a lion is by his anger; and not only this, avarice, revenge,
+ambition, and almost every passion, pity not excepted, when they
+are extraordinary, may, by overcoming fear, serve him instead of
+valour, and be mistaken for it even by himself; as daily experience
+must teach every body that will examine and look into the motives
+from which some men act. But that we may more clearly perceive what
+this pretended principle is really built upon, let us look into the
+management of military affairs, and we shall find that pride is no
+where so openly encouraged as there. As for clothes, the very lowest
+of the commission officers have them richer, or at least more gay and
+splendid, than are generally wore by other people of four or five times
+their income. Most of them, and especially those that have families,
+and can hardly subsist, would be very glad, all Europe over, to be
+less expensive that way; but it is a force put upon them to uphold
+their pride, which they do not think on.
+
+But the ways and means to rouse man's pride, and catch him by it,
+are nowhere more grossly conspicuous, than in the treatment which the
+common soldiers receive, whose vanity is to be worked upon (because
+there must be so many) at the cheapest rate imaginable. Things we are
+accustomed to we do not mind, or else what mortal that never had seen
+a soldier, could look without laughing upon a man accoutred with so
+much paltry gaudiness, and affected finery? The coarsest manufacture
+that can be made of wool, dyed of a brickdust colour, goes down with
+him, because it is in imitation of scarlet or crimson cloth; and to
+make him think himself as like his officer as it is possible, with
+little or no cost, instead of silver or gold lace, his hat is trimmed
+with white or yellow worsted, which in others would deserve bedlam;
+yet these fine allurements, and the noise made upon a calf's skin,
+have drawn in, and been the destruction of more men in reality,
+than all the killing eyes and bewitching voices of women ever slew
+in jest. To-day the swine herd puts on his red coat, and believes
+every body in earnest that calls him gentleman; and two days after
+Serjeant Kite gives him a swinging wrap with his cane, for holding
+his musket an inch higher than he should do. As to the real dignity
+of the employment, in the two last wars, officers, when recruits were
+wanted, were allowed to list fellows that were convicted of burglary
+and other capital crimes, which shows that to be made a soldier is
+deemed to be a preferment next to hanging. A trooper is yet worse than
+a foot soldier; for when he is most at ease, he has the mortification
+of being groom to a horse, that spends more money than himself. When
+a man reflects on all this, the usage they generally receive from
+their officers, their pay, and the care that is taken of them, when
+they are not wanted, must he not wonder how wretches can be so silly
+as to be proud of being called gentlemen soldiers? Yet if there were
+not, no art, discipline, or money, would be capable of making them
+so brave as thousands of them are.
+
+If we will mind what effects man's bravery, without any other
+qualifications to sweeten him, would have out of an army, we shall find
+that it would be very pernicious to the civil society; for if man could
+conquer all his fears, you would hear of nothing but rapes, murders,
+and violences of all sorts, and valiant men would be like giants
+in romances: politics, therefore, discovered in men a mixed-metal
+principle, which was a compound of justice, honesty, and all the moral
+virtues joined to courage, and all that were possessed of it turned
+knights-errant of course. They did abundance of good throughout the
+world, by taming monsters, delivering the distressed, and killing the
+oppressors: but the wings of all the dragons being clipped, the giants
+destroyed, and the damsels every where set at liberty, except some few
+in Spain and Italy, who remained still captivated by their monsters,
+the order of chivalry, to whom the standard of ancient honour belonged,
+has been laid aside some time. It was like their armours very massy and
+heavy; the many virtues about it made it very troublesome, and as ages
+grew wiser and wiser, the principle of honour in the beginning of the
+last century was melted over again, and brought to a new standard; they
+put in the same weight of courage, half the quantity of honesty, and
+a very little justice, but not a scrap of any other virtue, which has
+made it very easy and portable to what it was. However, such as it is,
+there would be no living without it in a large nation; it is the tie
+of society, and though we are beholden to our frailties for the chief
+ingredient of it, there is no virtue, at least that I am acquainted
+with, that has been half so instrumental to the civilizing of mankind,
+who in great societies would soon degenerate into cruel villains and
+treacherous slaves, were honour to be removed from among them.
+
+As to the duelling part which belongs to it, I pity the unfortunate
+whose lot it is; but to say, that those who are guilty of it go by
+false rules, or mistake the notions of honour, is ridiculous; for
+either there is no honour at all, or it teaches men to resent injuries,
+and accept of challenges. You may as well deny that it is the fashion
+what you see every body wear, as to say that demanding and giving
+satisfaction is against the laws of true honour. Those that rail at
+duelling do not consider the benefit the society receives from that
+fashion: if every ill-bred fellow might use what language he pleased,
+without being called to an account for it, all conversation would
+be spoiled. Some grave people tell us, that the Greeks and Romans
+were such valiant men, and yet knew nothing of duelling but in their
+country's quarrel. This is very true, but, for that reason, the kings
+and princes in Homer gave one another worse language than our porters
+and hackney coachmen would be able to bear without resentment.
+
+Would you hinder duelling, pardon nobody that offends that way, and
+make the laws as severe as you can, but do not take away the thing
+itself, the custom of it. This will not only prevent the frequency of
+it, but likewise, by rendering the most resolute and most powerful
+cautious and circumspect in their behaviour, polish and brighten
+society in general. Nothing civilizes a man equally as his fear,
+and if not all (as my lord Rochester said), at least most men would
+be cowards if they durst. The dread of being called to an account
+keeps abundance in awe; and there are thousands of mannerly and
+well-accomplished gentlemen in Europe, who would have been insolent
+and insupportable coxcombs without it: besides, if it was out of
+fashion to ask satisfaction for injuries which the law cannot take
+hold of, there would be twenty times the mischief done there is now,
+or else you must have twenty times the constables and other officers
+to keep the peace. I confess that though it happens but seldom, it is
+a calamity to the people, and generally the families it falls upon;
+but there can be no perfect happiness in this world, and all felicity
+has an allay. The act itself is uncharitable, but when above thirty in
+a nation destroy themselves in one year, and not half that number are
+killed by others, I do not think the people can be said to love their
+neighbours worse than themselves. It is strange that a nation should
+grudge to see, perhaps, half-a-dozen men sacrificed in a twelvemonth
+to obtain so valuable a blessing, as the politeness of manners, the
+pleasure of conversation, and the happiness of company in general, that
+is often so willing to expose, and sometimes loses as many thousands
+in a few hours, without knowing whether it will do any good or not.
+
+I would have nobody that reflects on the mean original of honour,
+complain of being gulled and made a property by cunning politicians,
+but desire every body to be satisfied, that the governors of societies,
+and those in high stations, are greater bubbles to pride than any
+of the rest. If some great men had not a superlative pride, and
+every body understood the enjoyment of life, who would be a lord
+chancellor of England, a prime minister of state in France, or what
+gives more fatigue, and not a sixth part of the profit of either, a
+grand pensionary of Holland? The reciprocal services which all men pay
+to one another, are the foundation of the society. The great ones are
+not flattered with their high birth for nothing: it is to rouse their
+pride, and excite them to glorious actions, that we extol their race,
+whether it deserves it or not; and some men have been complimented with
+the greatness of their family, and the merit of their ancestors, when
+in the whole generation you could not find two but what were uxorious
+fools, silly biggots, noted poltrons, or debauched whore-masters. The
+established pride that is inseparable from those that are possessed of
+titles already, makes them often strive as much not to seem unworthy
+of them, as the working ambition of others that are yet without,
+renders them industrious and indefatigable to deserve them. When a
+gentleman is made a baron or an earl, it is as great a check upon
+him in many respects, as a gown and cassock are to a young student
+that has been newly taken into orders.
+
+The only thing of weight that can be said against modern honour
+is, that it is directly opposite to religion. The one bids you bear
+injuries with patience; the other tells you if you do not resent them,
+you are not fit to live. Religion commands you to leave all revenge
+to God; honour bids you trust your revenge to nobody but yourself,
+even where the law would do it for you: religion plainly forbids
+murder; honour openly justifies it: religion bids you not shed blood
+upon any account whatever; honour bids you fight for the least trifle:
+religion is built on humility, and honour upon pride: how to reconcile
+them must be left to wiser heads than mine.
+
+The reason why there are so few men of real virtue, and so many of real
+honour, is, because all the recompence a man has of a virtuous action,
+is the pleasure of doing it, which most people reckon but poor pay;
+but the self-denial a man of honour submits to in one appetite, is
+immediately rewarded by the satisfaction he receives from another,
+and what he abates of his avarice, or any other passion, is doubly
+repaid to his pride: besides, honour gives large grains of allowance,
+and virtue none. A man of honour must not cheat or tell a lie; he
+must punctually repay what he borrows at play, though the creditor has
+nothing to show for it; but he may drink, and swear, and owe money to
+all the tradesmen in town, without taking notice of their dunning. A
+man of honour must be true to his prince and country, while he is in
+their service; but if he thinks himself not well used, he may quit it,
+and do them all the mischief he can. A man of honour must never change
+his religion for interest; but he may be as debauched as he pleases,
+and never practise any. He must make no attempts upon his friend's
+wife, daughter, sister, or any body that is trusted to his care;
+but he may lie with all the world besides.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 353. No limner for his art is fam'd,
+              Stone-cutters, carvers are not nam'd.
+
+
+It is, without doubt, that among the consequences of a national honesty
+and frugality, it would be one not to build any new houses, or use
+new materials as long as there were old ones enough to serve. By this
+three parts in four, of masons, carpenters, bricklayers, &c. would
+want employment; and the building trade being once destroyed, what
+would become of limning, carving, and other arts that are ministering
+to luxury, and have been carefully forbid by those lawgivers that
+preferred a good and honest, to a great and wealthy society, and
+endeavoured to render their subjects rather virtuous than rich. By
+a law of Lycurgus, it was enacted, that the ceilings of the Spartan
+houses should only be wrought by the ax, and their gates and doors only
+smoothed by the saw; and this, says Plutarch, was not without mystery:
+for if Epaminondas could say with so good a grace, inviting some of
+his friends to his table: "Come, gentlemen, be secure, treason would
+never come to such a poor dinner as this:" Why might not this great
+lawgiver, in all probability, have thought that such ill-favoured
+houses would never be capable of receiving luxury and superfluity?
+
+It is reported, as the same author tells us, that Leotichidas, the
+first of that name, was so little used to the sight of carved work,
+that being entertained at Corinth in a stately room, he was much
+surprised to see the timber and ceiling so finely wrought, and asked
+his host whether the trees grew so in his country.
+
+The same want of employment would reach innumerable callings; and,
+among the rest, that of the
+
+
+    Weavers that join'd rich silk with plate,
+    And all the trades subordinate,
+
+
+(as the fable has it) would be one of the first that should have
+reason to complain; for the price of land and houses being, by the
+removal of the vast numbers that had left the hive, sunk very low
+on the one side, and every body abhorring all other ways of gain,
+but such as were strictly honest on the other, it is not probable
+that many without pride or prodigality should be able to wear cloth
+of gold and silver, or rich brocades. The consequence of which would
+be, that not only the weaver, but likewise the silver-spinner, the
+flatter, the wire-drawer, the bar-man, and the refiner, would, in a
+little time be affected with this frugality.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 367. ----To live great,
+              Had made her husband rob the state.
+
+
+What our common rogues, when they are going to be hanged, chiefly
+complain of, as the cause of their untimely end, is, next to the
+neglect of the Sabbath, their having kept company with ill women,
+meaning whores; and I do not question, but that among the lesser
+villains, many venture their necks to indulge and satisfy their
+low amours. But the words that have given occasion to this remark,
+may serve to hint to us, that among the great ones, men are often
+put upon such dangerous projects, and forced into such pernicious
+measures by their wives, as the most subtle mistress never could have
+persuaded them to. I have shown already, that the worst of women,
+and most profligate of the sex, did contribute to the consumption of
+superfluities, as well as the necessaries of life, and consequently
+were beneficial to many peaceable drudges, that work hard to maintain
+their families, and have no worse design than an honest livelihood. Let
+them be banished, notwithstanding, says a good man: When every strumpet
+is gone, and the land wholly freed from lewdness, God Almighty will
+pour such blessings upon it, as will vastly exceed the profits that
+are now got by harlots. This perhaps would be true; but I can make it
+evident, that, with or without prostitutes, nothing could make amends,
+for the detriment trade would sustain, if all those of that sex, who
+enjoy the happy state of matrimony, should act and behave themselves
+as a sober wise man could wish them.
+
+The variety of work that is performed, and the number of hands employed
+to gratify the fickleness and luxury of women, is prodigious, and if
+only the married ones should hearken to reason and just remonstrances,
+think themselves sufficiently answered with the first refusal, and
+never ask a second time what had been once denied them: If, I say,
+married women would do this, and then lay out no money but what
+their husbands knew, and freely allowed of, the consumption of a
+thousand things, they now make use of, would be lessened by at least
+a fourth part. Let us go from house to house, and observe the way of
+the world only among the middling people, creditable shop-keepers,
+that spend two or three hundred a-year, and we shall find the women
+when they have half a score suits of clothes, two or three of them
+not the worse for wearing, will think it a sufficient plea for new
+ones, if they can say that they have never a gown or petticoat, but
+what they have been often seen in, and are known by, especially at
+church; I do not speak now of profuse extravagant women, but such as
+are counted prudent and moderate in their desires.
+
+If by this pattern we should in proportion judge of the highest ranks,
+where the richest clothes are but a trifle to their other expences,
+and not forget the furniture of all sorts, equipages, jewels, and
+buildings of persons of quality, we should find the fourth part I
+speak of a vast article in trade, and that the loss of it would be
+a greater calamity to such a nation as ours, than it is possible to
+conceive any other, a raging pestilence not excepted: for the death
+of half a million of people could not cause a tenth part of the
+disturbance to the kingdom, than the same number of poor unemployed
+would certainly create, if at once they were to be added to those,
+that already, one way or other, are a burden to the society.
+
+Some few men have a real passion for their wives, and are fond of them
+without reserve; others that do not care, and have little occasion
+for women, are yet seemingly uxorious, and love out of vanity; they
+take delight in a handsome wife, as a coxcomb does in a fine horse,
+not for the use he makes of it, but because it is his: The pleasure
+lies in the consciousness of an uncontrolable possession, and what
+follows from it, the reflection on the mighty thoughts he imagines
+others to have of his happiness. The men of either sort may be very
+lavish to their wives, and often preventing their wishes, crowd new
+clothes, and other finery upon them, faster than they can ask it, but
+the greatest part are wiser, than to indulge the extravagances of their
+wives so far, as to give them immediately every thing they are pleased
+to fancy. It is incredible what vast quantity of trinkets, as well as
+apparel, are purchased and used by women, which they could never have
+come at by any other means, than pinching their families, marketing,
+and other ways of cheating and pilfering from their husbands: Others,
+by ever teazing their spouses, tire them into compliance, and conquer
+even obstinate churls by perseverance, and their assiduity of asking:
+A third sort are outrageous at a denial, and by downright noise and
+scolding, bully their tame fools out of any thing they have a mind
+to; while thousands, by the force of wheedling, know how to overcome
+the best weighed reasons, and the most positive reiterated refusals;
+the young and beautiful, especially, laugh at all remonstrances and
+denials, and few of them scruple to employ the most tender minutes of
+wedlock to promote a sordid interest. Here, had I time, I could inveigh
+with warmth against those base, those wicked women, who calmly play
+their arts and false deluding charms against our strength and prudence,
+and act the harlots with their husbands! Nay, she is worse than whore,
+who impiously profanes and prostitutes the sacred rites of love to
+vile ignoble ends; that first excites to passion, and invites to joy
+with seeming ardour, then racks our fondness for no other purpose than
+to extort a gift, while full of guile in counterfeited transports,
+she watches for the moment when men can least deny.
+
+I beg pardon for this start out of my way, and desire the experienced
+reader duly to weigh what has been said as to the main purpose, and
+after that call to mind the temporal blessings, which men daily hear
+not only toasted and wished for, when people are merry and doing of
+nothing; but likewise gravely and solemnly prayed for in churches,
+and other religious assemblies, by clergymen of all sorts and sizes:
+And as soon as he shall have laid these things together, and, from
+what he has observed in the common affairs of life, reasoned upon
+them consequentially without prejudice, I dare flatter myself, that
+he will be obliged to own, that a considerable portion of what the
+prosperity of London and trade in general, and consequently the honour,
+strength, safety, and all the worldly interest of the nation consist
+in, depend entirely on the deceit and vile stratagems of women; and
+that humility, content, meekness, obedience to reasonable husbands,
+frugality, and all the virtues together, if they were possessed of
+them in the most eminent degree, could not possibly be a thousandth
+part so serviceable, to make an opulent, powerful, and what we call
+a flourishing kingdom, than their most hateful qualities.
+
+I do not question, but many of my readers will be startled at this
+assertion, when they look on the consequences that may be drawn
+from it; and I shall be asked, whether people may not as well be
+virtuous in a populous, rich, wide, extended kingdom, as in a small,
+indigent state or principality, that is poorly inhabited? And if that
+be impossible, Whether it is not the duty of all sovereigns to reduce
+their subjects, as to wealth and numbers, as much as they can? If I
+allow they may, I own myself in the wrong; and if I affirm the other,
+my tenets will justly be called impious, or at least dangerous to
+all large societies. As it is not in this place of the book only,
+but a great many others, that such queries might be made even by a
+well-meaning reader, I shall here explain myself, and endeavour to
+solve those difficulties, which several passages might have raised in
+him, in order to demonstrate the consistency of my opinion to reason,
+and the strictest morality.
+
+I lay down as a first principle, that in all societies, great or
+small, it is the duty of every member of it to be good, that virtue
+ought to be encouraged, vice discountenanced, the laws obeyed, and
+the transgressors punished. After this I affirm, that if we consult
+history, both ancient and modern, and take a view of what has passed
+in the world, we shall find that human nature, since the fall of Adam,
+has always been the same, and that the strength and frailties of it
+have ever been conspicuous in one part of the globe or other, without
+any regard to ages, climates, or religion. I never said, nor imagined,
+that man could not be virtuous as well in a rich and mighty kingdom,
+as in the most pitiful commonwealth; but I own it is my sense, that
+no society can be raised into such a rich and mighty kingdom, or so
+raised, subsist in their wealth and power for any considerable time,
+without the vices of man.
+
+This, I imagine, is sufficiently proved throughout the book; and as
+human nature still continues the same, as it has always been for so
+many thousand years, we have no great reason to suspect a future change
+in it, while the world endures. Now, I cannot see what immorality there
+is in showing a man the origin and power of those passions, which so
+often, even unknowingly to himself, hurry him away from his reason;
+or that there is any impiety in putting him upon his guard against
+himself, and the secret stratagems of self-love, and teaching him the
+difference between such actions as proceed from a victory over the
+passions, and those that are only the result of a conquest which one
+passion obtains over another; that is, between real and counterfeited
+virtue. It is an admirable saying of a worthy divine, That though many
+discoveries have been made in the world of self-love, there is yet
+abundance of terra incognita left behind. What hurt do I do to man,
+if I make him more known to himself than he was before? But we are
+all so desperately in love with flattery, that we can never relish a
+truth that is mortifying, and I do not believe that the immortality
+of the soul, a truth broached long before Christianity, would have
+ever found such a general reception in human capacities as it has,
+had it not been a pleasing one, that extolled, and was a compliment
+to the whole species, the meanest and most miserable not excepted.
+
+Every one loves to hear the thing well spoke of that he has a share in,
+even bailiffs, gaol-keepers, and the hangman himself would have you
+think well of their functions; nay, thieves and house breakers have a
+greater regard to those of their fraternity, than they have for honest
+people; and I sincerely believe, that it is chiefly self-love that has
+gained this little treatise (as it was before the last impression), so
+many enemies; every one looks upon it as an affront done to himself,
+because it detracts from the dignity, and lessens the fine notions
+he had conceived of mankind, the most worshipful company he belongs
+to. When I say that societies cannot be raised to wealth and power,
+and the top of earthly glory, without vices, I do not think that,
+by so saying, I bid men be vicious, any more than I bid them be
+quarrelsome or covetous, when I affirm that the profession of the
+law could not be maintained in such numbers and splendor, if there
+was not abundance of too selfish and litigious people.
+
+But as nothing would more clearly demonstrate the falsity of my
+notions, than that the generality of the people should fall in
+with them, so I do not expect the approbation of the multitude. I
+write not to many, nor seek for any well-wishers, but among the few
+that can think abstractly, and have their minds elevated above the
+vulgar. If I have shown the way to worldly greatness, I have always,
+without hesitation, preferred the road that leads to virtue.
+
+Would you banish fraud and luxury, prevent profaneness and irreligion,
+and make the generality of the people charitable, good, and virtuous;
+break down the printing-presses, melt the founds, and burn all the
+books in the island, except those at the universities, where they
+remain unmolested, and suffer no volume in private hands but a Bible:
+knock down foreign trade, prohibit all commerce with strangers,
+and permit no ships to go to sea, that ever will return, beyond
+fisher-boats. Restore to the clergy, the king and the barons their
+ancient privileges, prerogatives, and professions: build new churches,
+and convert all the coin you can come at into sacred utensils: erect
+monasteries and alms-houses in abundance, and let no parish be without
+a charity-school. Enact sumptuary laws, and let your youth be inured
+to hardship: inspire them with all the nice and most refined notions
+of honour and shame, of friendship and of heroism, and introduce among
+them a great variety of imaginary rewards: then let the clergy preach
+abstinence and self-denial to others, and take what liberty they please
+for themselves; let them bear the greatest sway in the management of
+state-affairs, and no man be made lord-treasurer but a bishop.
+
+But by such pious endeavours, and wholesome regulations, the scene
+would be soon altered; the greatest part of the covetous, the
+discontented, the restless and ambitious villains, would leave the
+land; vast swarms of cheating knaves would abandon the city, and be
+dispersed throughout the country: artificers would learn to hold the
+plough, merchants turn farmers, and the sinful overgrown Jerusalem,
+without famine, war, pestilence, or compulsion, be emptied in the most
+easy manner, and ever after cease to be dreadful to her sovereigns. The
+happy reformed kingdom would by this means be crowded in no part of
+it, and every thing necessary for the sustenance of man, be cheap and
+abound: on the contrary, the root of so many thousand evils, money,
+would be very scarce, and as little wanted, where every man should
+enjoy the fruits of his own labour, and our own dear manufacture
+unmixed, be promiscuously wore by the lord and the peasant. It is
+impossible, that such a change of circumstances should not influence
+the manners of a nation, and render them temperate, honest, and
+sincere; and from the next generation we might reasonably expect a
+more healthy and robust offspring than the present; an harmless,
+innocent, and well-meaning people, that would never dispute the
+doctrine of passive obedience, nor any other orthodox principles,
+but be submissive to superiors, and unanimous in religious worship.
+
+Here I fancy myself interrupted by an Epicure, who, not to want a
+restorative diet in case of necessity, is never without live ortolans;
+and I am told that goodness and probity are to be had at a cheaper rate
+than the ruin of a nation, and the destruction of all the comforts of
+life; that liberty and property may be maintained without wickedness
+or fraud, and men be good subjects without being slaves, and religious
+though they refused to be priest-rid; that to be frugal and saving
+is a duty incumbent only on those, whose circumstances require it,
+but that a man of a good estate does his country a service by living
+up to the income of it; that as to himself, he is so much master of
+his appetites, that he can abstain from any thing upon occasion; that
+where true Hermitage was not to be had, he could content himself with
+plain Bourdeaux, if it had a good body; that many a morning, instead
+of St. Lawrence, he has made a shift with Fronteniac, and after dinner
+given Cyprus wine, and even Madeira, when he has had a large company,
+and thought it extravagant to treat with Tockay; but that all voluntary
+mortifications are superstitious, only belonging to blind zealots
+and enthusiasts. He will quote my Lord Shaftsbury against me, and
+tell me that people may be virtuous and sociable without self-denial;
+that it is an affront to virtue to make it inaccessible, that I make
+a bugbear of it to frighten men from it as a thing impracticable;
+but that for his part he can praise God, and at the same time enjoy
+his creatures with a good conscience; neither will he forget any
+thing to his purpose of what I have said, page 66. He will ask me
+at last, whether the legislature, the wisdom of the nation itself,
+while they endeavour as much as possible, to discourage profaneness
+and immorality, and promote the glory of God, do not openly profess,
+at the same time, to have nothing more at heart, than the ease and
+welfare of the subject, the wealth, strength, honour, and what else
+is called the true interest of the country? and, moreover, whether
+the most devout and most learned of our prelates, in their greatest
+concern for our conversion, when they beseech the Deity to turn their
+own as well as our hearts, from the world and all carnal desires,
+do not in the same prayer as loudly solicit him to pour all earthly
+blessings and temporal felicity, on the kingdom they belong to?
+
+These are the apologies, the excuses, and common pleas, not only
+of those who are notoriously vicious, but the generality of mankind,
+when you touch the copy-hold of their inclinations; and trying the real
+value they have for spirituals, would actually strip them of what their
+minds are wholly bent upon. Ashamed of the many frailties they feel
+within, all men endeavour to hide themselves, their ugly nakedness,
+from each other, and wrapping up the true motives of their hearts, in
+the specious cloak of sociableness, and their concern for the public
+good, they are in hopes of concealing their filthy appetites, and the
+deformity of their desires; while they are conscious within of the
+fondness for their darling lusts, and their incapacity, bare-faced,
+to tread the arduous, rugged path of virtue.
+
+As to the two last questions, I own they are very puzzling: to what the
+Epicure asks, I am obliged to answer in the affirmative; and unless
+I would (which God forbid!) arraign the sincerity of kings, bishops,
+and the whole legislative power, the objection stands good against me:
+all I can say for myself is, that in the connection of the facts, there
+is a mystery past human understanding; and to convince the reader,
+that this is no evasion, I shall illustrate the incomprehensibility
+of it in the following parable.
+
+In old heathen times, there was, they say, a whimsical country,
+where the people talked much of religion, and the greatest part, as
+to outward appearance, seemed really devout: the chief moral evil
+among them was thirst, and to quench it a damnable sin; yet they
+unanimously agreed that every one was born thirsty, more or less:
+small beer in moderation was allowed to all, and he was counted an
+hypocrite, a cynic, or a madman, who pretended that one could live
+altogether without it; yet those, who owned they loved it, and drank
+it to excess, were counted wicked. All this, while the beer itself
+was reckoned a blessing from Heaven, and there was no harm in the
+use of it; all the enormity lay in the abuse, the motive of the
+heart, that made them drink it. He that took the least drop of it
+to quench his thirst, committed a heinous crime, while others drank
+large quantities without any guilt, so they did it indifferently,
+and for no other reason than to mend their complexion.
+
+They brewed for other countries as well as their own, and for the small
+beer they sent abroad, they received large returns of Westphalia-hams,
+neats tongues, hung-beef, and Bologna sausages, red-herrings, pickled
+sturgeon, caviar, anchovies, and every thing that was proper to make
+their liquor go down with pleasure. Those who kept great stores of
+small beer by them without making use of it, were generally envied,
+and at the same time very odious to the public, and nobody was
+easy that had not enough of it come to his own share. The greatest
+calamity they thought could befal them, was to keep their hops and
+barley upon their hands, and the more they yearly consumed of them,
+the more they reckoned the country to flourish.
+
+The government had many very wise regulations concerning the returns
+that were made for their exports, encouraged very much the importation
+of salt and pepper, and laid heavy duties on every thing that was not
+well seasoned, and might any ways obstruct the sale of their own hops
+and barley. Those at helm, when they acted in public, showed themselves
+on all accounts exempt and wholly divested from thirst, made several
+laws to prevent the growth of it, and punish the wicked who openly
+dared to quench it. If you examined them in their private persons,
+and pryed narrowly into their lives and conversations, they seemed to
+be more fond, or at least drank larger draughts of small beer than
+others, but always under pretence that the mending of complexions
+required greater quantities of liquor in them, than it did in those
+they ruled over; and that, what they had chiefly at heart, without any
+regard to themselves, was to procure great plenty of small beer, among
+the subjects in general, and a great demand for their hops and barley.
+
+As nobody was debarred from small beer, the clergy made use of it as
+well as the laity, and some of them very plentifully; yet all of them
+desired to be thought less thirsty by their function than others, and
+never would own that they drank any but to mend their complexions. In
+their religious assemblies they were more sincere; for as soon as they
+came there, they all openly confessed, the clergy as well as the laity,
+from the highest to the lowest, that they were thirsty, that mending
+their complexions was what they minded the least, and that all their
+hearts were set upon small beer and quenching their thirst, whatever
+they might pretend to the contrary. What was remarkable, is, that to
+have laid hold of those truths to any ones prejudice, and made use of
+those confessions afterwards out of their temples, would be counted
+very impertinent, and every body thought it an heinous affront to
+be called thirsty, though you had seen him drink small beer by whole
+gallons. The chief topics of their preachers, was the great evil of
+thirst, and the folly there was in quenching it. They exhorted their
+hearers to resist the temptations of it, inveighed against small beer,
+and often told them it was poison, if they drank it with pleasure,
+or any other design than to mend their complexions.
+
+In their acknowledgments to the gods, they thanked them for the plenty
+of comfortable small beer they had received from them, notwithstanding
+they had so little deserved it, and continually quenched their thirst
+with it; whereas, they were so thoroughly satisfied, that it was
+given them for a better use. Having begged pardon for those offences,
+they desired the gods to lessen their thirst, and give them strength
+to resist the importunities of it; yet, in the midst of their sorest
+repentance, and most humble supplications, they never forgot small
+beer, and prayed that they might continue to have it in great plenty,
+with a solemn promise, that how neglectful soever they might hitherto
+have been in this point, they would for the future not drink a drop
+of it, with any other design than to mend their complexions.
+
+These were standing petitions put together to last; and having
+continued to be made use of without any alterations, for several
+hundred years together; it was thought by some, that the gods, who
+understood futurity, and knew that the same promise they heard in June,
+would be made to them the January following, did not rely much more
+on those vows, than we do on those waggish inscriptions by which men
+offer us their goods; to-day for money, and to-morrow for nothing. They
+often began their prayers very mystically, and spoke many things in
+a spiritual sense; yet, they never were so abstract from the world in
+them, as to end one without beseeching the gods to bless and prosper
+the brewing trade in all its branches, and for the good of the whole,
+more and more to increase the consumption of hops and barley.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 388. Content, the bane of industry.
+
+
+I have been told by many, that the bane of industry is laziness,
+and not content; therefore to prove my assertion, which seems a
+paradox to some, I shall treat of laziness and content separately,
+and afterwards speak of industry, that the reader may judge which it
+is of the two former, that is opposite to the latter.
+
+Laziness is an aversion to business, generally attended with an
+unreasonable desire of remaining unactive; and every body is lazy, who,
+without being hindered by any other warrantable employment, refuses or
+puts off any business which he ought to do for himself or others. We
+seldom call any body lazy, but such as we reckon inferior to us, and
+of whom we expect some service. Children do not think their parents
+lazy, nor servants their masters; and if a gentleman indulges his
+ease and sloth so abominably, that he will not put on his own shoes,
+though he is young and slender, nobody shall call him lazy for it,
+if he can keep but a footman, or some body else to do it for him.
+
+Mr. Dryden has given us a very good idea of superlative slothfulness,
+in the person of a luxurious king of Egypt. His majesty having bestowed
+some considerable gifts on several of his favourites, is attended by
+some of his chief ministers with a parchment, which he was to sign
+to confirm those grants. First, he walks a few turns to and fro,
+with a heavy uneasiness in his looks, then sets himself down like a
+man that is tired, and, at last, with abundance of reluctancy to what
+he was going about, he takes up the pen, and falls a complaining very
+seriously of the length of the word Ptolemy, and expresses a great
+deal of concern, that he had not some short monosyllable for his name,
+which he thought would save him a world of trouble.
+
+We often reproach others with laziness, because we are guilty of it
+ourselves. Some days ago, as two young women sat knotting together,
+says one to the other, there comes a wicked cold through that door;
+you are the nearest to it, sister, pray shut it. The other, who was
+the youngest, vouchsafed, indeed, to cast an eye towards the door,
+but sat still, and said nothing; the eldest spoke again two or three
+times, and at last the other making her no answer, nor offering to
+stir, she got up in a pet, and shut the door herself; coming back
+to sit down again, she gave the younger a very hard look; and said,
+Lord, sister Betty, I would not be so lazy as you are for all the
+world; which she spoke so earnestly, that it brought a colour in
+her face. The youngest should have risen, I own; but if the eldest
+had not overvalued her labour, she would have shut the door herself,
+as soon as the cold was offensive to her, without making any words of
+it. She was not above a step farther from the door than her sister,
+and as to age, there was not eleven months difference between them,
+and they were both under twenty. I thought it a hard matter to
+determine which was the laziest of the two.
+
+There are a thousand wretches that are always working the marrow out
+of their bones for next to nothing, because they are unthinking and
+ignorant of what the pains they take are worth: while others who are
+cunning, and understand the true value of their work, refuse to be
+employed at under rates, not because they are of an unactive temper,
+but because they will not beat down the price of their labour. A
+country gentleman sees at the back side of the Exchange a porter
+walking to and fro with his hands in his pockets. Pray, says he,
+friend, will you step for me with this letter as far as Bow-church,
+and I will give you a penny? I will go with all my heart, says the
+other, but I must have twopence, master; which the gentleman refusing
+to give, the fellow turned his back, and told him, he would rather
+play for nothing than work for nothing. The gentleman thought it
+an unaccountable piece of laziness in a porter, rather to saunter
+up and down for nothing, than to be earning a penny with as little
+trouble. Some hours after he happened to be with some friends at a
+tavern in Threadneedle-street, where one of them calling to mind that
+he had forgot to send for a bill of exchange that was to go away with
+the post that night, was in great perplexity, and immediately wanted
+some body to go for him to Hackney with all the speed imaginable. It
+was after ten, in the middle of winter, a very rainy night, and all
+the porters thereabouts were gone to bed. The gentleman grew very
+uneasy, and said, whatever it cost him, that somebody he must send;
+at last one of the drawers seeing him so very pressing, told him
+that he knew a porter, who would rise, if it was a job worth his
+while. Worth his while, said the gentleman very eagerly, do not
+doubt of that, good lad, if you know of any body, let him make what
+haste he can, and I will give him a crown if he be back by twelve
+o'clock. Upon this the drawer took the errand, left the room, and in
+less than a quarter of an hour, came back with the welcome news that
+the message would be dispatched with all expedition. The company in
+the mean time, diverted themselves as they had done before; but when
+it began to be towards twelve, the watches were pulled out, and the
+porter's return was all the discourse. Some were of opinion he might
+yet come before the clock had struck; others thought it impossible,
+and now it wanted but three minutes of twelve, when in comes the
+nimble messenger smoking hot, with his clothes as wet as dung with
+the rain, and his head all over in a bath of sweat. He had nothing
+dry about him but the inside of his pocket-book, out of which he took
+the bill he had been for, and by the drawer's direction, presented
+it to the gentleman it belonged to; who, being very well pleased
+with the dispatch he had made, gave him the crown he had promised,
+while another filled him a bumper, and the whole company commended his
+diligence. As the fellow came nearer the light, to take up the wine,
+the country gentleman I mentioned at first, to his great admiration,
+knew him to be the same porter that had refused to earn his penny,
+and whom he thought the laziest mortal alive.
+
+The story teaches us, that we ought not to confound those who remain
+unemployed for want of an opportunity of exerting themselves to the
+best advantage, with such as for want of spirit, hug themselves in
+their sloth, and will rather starve than stir. Without this caution,
+we must pronounce all the world more or less lazy, according to their
+estimation of the reward they are to purchase with their labour,
+and then the most industrious may be called lazy.
+
+Content, I call that calm serenity of the mind, which men enjoy while
+they think themselves happy, and rest satisfied with the station
+they are in: It implies a favourable construction of our present
+circumstances, and a peaceful tranquillity, which men are strangers
+to as long as they are solicitous about mending their condition. This
+is a virtue of which the applause is very precarious and uncertain:
+for, according as mens circumstances vary, they will either be blamed
+or commended for being possessed of it.
+
+A single man that works hard at a laborious trade, has a hundred a year
+left him by a relation: this change of fortune makes him soon weary of
+working, and not having industry enough to put himself forward in the
+world, he resolves to do nothing at all, and live upon his income. As
+long as he lives within compass, pays for what he has, and offends
+nobody, he shall be called an honest quiet man. The victualler, his
+landlady, the tailor, and others, divide what he has between them,
+and the society is every year the better for his revenue; whereas,
+if he should follow his own or any other trade, he must hinder
+others, and some body would have the less for what he should get;
+and therefore, though he should be the idlest fellow in the world, lie
+a-bed fifteen hours in four and twenty, and do nothing but sauntering
+up and down all the rest of the time, nobody would discommend him,
+and his unactive spirit is honoured with the name of content.
+
+But if the same man marries, gets three or four children, and still
+continues of the same easy temper, rests satisfied with what he has,
+and without endeavouring to get a penny, indulges his former sloth:
+first, his relations, afterwards, all his acquaintance, will be alarmed
+at his negligence: they foresee that his income will not be sufficient
+to bring up so many children handsomely, and are afraid, some of them
+may, if not a burden, become a disgrace to them. When these fears
+have been, for some time, whispered about from one to another, his
+uncle Gripe takes him to task, and accosts him in the following cant:
+"What, nephew, no business yet! fie upon it! I cannot imagine how you
+do to spend your time; if you will not work at your own trade, there
+are fifty ways that a man may pick up a penny by: you have a hundred
+a-year, it is true, but your charges increase every year, and what
+must you do when your children are grown up? I have a better estate
+than you myself, and yet you do not see me leave off my business;
+nay, I declare it, might I have the world I could not lead the life
+you do. It is no business of mine, I own, but every body cries, it
+is a shame for a young man, as you are, that has his limbs and his
+health, should not turn his hands to something or other." If these
+admonitions do not reform him in a little time, and he continues
+half-a-year longer without employment, he will become a discourse to
+the whole neighbourhood, and for the same qualifications that once
+got him the name of a quiet contented man, he shall be called the
+worst of husbands, and the laziest fellow upon earth: from whence it
+is manifest, that when we pronounce actions good or evil, we only
+regard the hurt or benefit the society receives from them, and not
+the person who commits them. (See page 17.)
+
+Diligence and industry are often used promiscuously, to signify the
+same thing, but there is a great difference between them. A poor wretch
+may want neither diligence nor ingenuity, be a saving pains-taking man,
+and yet without striving to mend his circumstances, remain contented
+with the station he lives in; but industry implies, besides the
+other qualities, a thirst after gain, and an indefatigable desire of
+meliorating our condition. When men think either the customary profits
+of their calling, or else the share of business they have too small,
+they have two ways to deserve the name of industrious; and they must
+be either ingenious enough to find out uncommon, and yet warrantable
+methods to increase their business or their profit, or else supply that
+defect by a multiplicity of occupations. If a tradesman takes care to
+provide his shop, and gives due attendance to those that come to it,
+he is a diligent man in his business; but if, besides that, he takes
+particular pains to sell, to the same advantage, a better commodity
+than the rest of his neighbours, or if, by his obsequiousness, or
+some other good quality, getting into a large acquaintance, he uses
+all possible endeavours of drawing customers to his house, he then
+may be called industrious. A cobbler, though he is not employed half
+of his time, if he neglects no business, and makes dispatch when he
+has any, is a diligent man; but if he runs of errands when he has
+no work, or makes but shoe-pins, and serves as a watchman a-nights,
+he deserves the name of industrious.
+
+If what has been said in this remark be duly weighed, we shall find
+either, that laziness and content are very near a-kin, or, if there
+be a great difference between them, that the latter is more contrary
+to industry than the former.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 410. To make a great and honest hive.
+
+
+This perhaps might be done where people are contented to be poor and
+hardy; but if they would likewise enjoy their ease and the comforts
+of the world, and be at once an opulent, potent, and flourishing,
+as well as a warlike nation, it is utterly impossible. I have heard
+people speak of the mighty figure the Spartans made above all the
+commonwealths of Greece, notwithstanding their uncommon frugality
+and other exemplary virtues. But certainly there never was a nation
+whose greatness was more empty than theirs: The splendor they lived
+in was inferior to that of a theatre, and the only thing they could
+be proud of, was, that they enjoyed nothing. They were, indeed,
+both feared and esteemed abroad: they were so famed for valour and
+skill in martial affairs, that their neighbours did not only court
+their friendship and assistance in their wars, but were satisfied,
+and thought themselves sure of the victory, if they could but get a
+Spartan general to command their armies. But then their discipline
+was so rigid, and their manner of living so austere and void of all
+comfort, that the most temperate man among us would refuse to submit
+to the harshness of such uncouth laws. There was a perfect equality
+among them: gold and silver coin were cried down; their current money
+was made of iron, to render it of a great bulk, and little worth: To
+lay up twenty or thirty pounds, required a pretty large chamber, and
+to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen. Another remedy they
+had against luxury, was, that they were obliged to eat in common of
+the same meat, and they so little allowed any body to dine, or sup by
+himself at home, that Agis, one of their kings, having vanquished the
+Athenians, and sending for his commons at his return home (because he
+desired privately to eat with his queen) was refused by the Polemarchi.
+
+In training up their youth, their chief care, says Plutarch, was to
+make them good subjects, to fit them to endure the fatigues of long
+and tedious marches, and never to return without victory from the
+field. When they were twelve years old, they lodged in little bands,
+upon beds made of the rushes, which grew by the banks of the river
+Eurotas; and because their points were sharp, they were to break them
+off with their hands without a knife: If it were a hard winter, they
+mingled some thistle-down with their rushes to keep them warm (see
+Plutarch in the life of Lycurgus.) From all these circumstances it is
+plain, that no nation on earth was less effeminate; but being debarred
+from all the comforts of life, they could have nothing for their pains,
+but the glory of being a warlike people, inured to toils and hardships,
+which was a happiness that few people would have cared for upon the
+same terms: and, though they had been masters of the world, as long
+as they enjoyed no more of it, Englishmen would hardly have envied
+them their greatness. What men want now-a-days has sufficiently been
+shewn in Remark on line 200, where I have treated of real pleasures.
+
+
+
+
+    Line 411. T' enjoy the world's conveniencies.
+
+
+That the words, decency and conveniency, were very ambiguous, and
+not to be understood, unless we were acquainted with the quality and
+circumstances of the persons that made use of them, has been hinted
+already in Remark on line 177. The goldsmith, mercer, or any other
+of the most creditable shopkeepers, that has three or four thousand
+pounds to set up with, must have two dishes of meat every day, and
+something extraordinary for Sundays. His wife must have a damask bed
+against her lying-in, and two or three rooms very well furnished: the
+following summer she must have a house, or at least very good lodgings
+in the country. A man that has a being out of town, must have a horse;
+his footman must have another. If he has a tolerable trade, he expects
+in eight or ten years time to keep his coach, which, notwithstanding,
+he hopes, that after he has slaved (as he calls it) for two or three
+and twenty years, he shall be worth at least a thousand a-year for
+his eldest son to inherit, and two or three thousand pounds for
+each of his other children to begin the world with; and when men of
+such circumstances pray for their daily bread, and mean nothing more
+extravagant by it, they are counted pretty modest people. Call this
+pride, luxury, superfluity, or what you please, it is nothing but what
+ought to be in the capital of a flourishing nation: those of inferior
+condition must content themselves with less costly conveniencies, as
+others of higher rank will be sure to make theirs more expensive. Some
+people call it but decency to be served in plate, and reckon a coach
+and six among the necessary comforts of life; and if a peer has not
+above three or four thousand a-year, his lordship is counted poor.
+
+Since the first edition of this book, several have attacked me with
+demonstrations of the certain ruin, which excessive luxury must bring
+upon all nations, who yet were soon answered, when I showed them the
+limits within which I had confined it; and therefore, that no reader
+for the future may misconstrue me on this head, I shall point at the
+cautions I have given, and the provisos I have made in the former,
+as well as this present impression, and which, if not overlooked,
+must prevent all rational censure, and obviate several objections
+that otherwise might be made against me. I have laid down as maxims
+never to be departed from, that the [3] poor should be kept strictly
+to work, and that it was prudence to relieve their wants, but folly
+to cure them; that agriculture [4] and fishery should be promoted in
+all their branches, in order to render provisions, and consequently
+labour cheap. I have named [5] ignorance as a necessary ingredient
+in the mixture of society: from all which it is manifest that I could
+never have imagined, that luxury was to be made general through every
+part of a kingdom. I have likewise required [6] that property should
+be well secured, justice impartially administered, and in every thing
+the interest of the nation taken care of: but what I have insisted
+on the most, and repeated more than once, is the great regard that
+is to be had to the balance of trade, and the care the legislature
+ought to take, that the yearly [7] imports never exceed the exports;
+and where this is observed, and the other things I spoke of are not
+neglected, I still continue to assert that no foreign luxury can
+undo a country: the height of it is never seen but in nations that
+are vastly populous, and there only in the upper part of it, and the
+greater, that is, the larger still in proportion must be the lowest,
+the basis that supports all, the multitude of working poor.
+
+Those who would too nearly imitate others of superior fortune, must
+thank themselves if they are ruined. This is nothing against luxury;
+for whoever can subsist, and lives above his income is a fool. Some
+persons of quality may keep three or four coaches and six, and at the
+same time lay up money for their children: while a young shopkeeper
+is undone for keeping one sorry horse. It is impossible there should
+be a rich nation without prodigals, yet I never knew a city so full
+of spendthrifts, but there were covetous people enough to answer
+their number. As an old merchant breaks for having been extravagant
+or careless a great while, so a young beginner falling into the same
+business, gets an estate by being saving or more industrious before
+he is forty years old: besides, that the frailties of men often work
+by contraries: some narrow souls can never thrive because they are too
+stingy, while longer heads amass great wealth by spending their money
+freely, and seeming to despise it. But the vicissitudes of fortune
+are necessary, and the most lamentable are no more detrimental to
+society, than the death of the individual members of it. Christenings
+are a proper balance to burials. Those who immediately lose by
+the misfortunes of others, are very sorry, complain, and make a
+noise; but the others who get by them, as there always are such,
+hold their tongues, because it is odious to be thought the better
+for the losses and calamities of our neighbour. The various ups and
+downs compose a wheel, that always turning round, gives motion to the
+whole machine. Philosophers, that dare extend their thoughts beyond
+the narrow compass of what is immediately before them, look on the
+alternate changes in the civil society, no otherwise than they do on
+the risings and fallings of the lungs; the latter of which are much
+a part of respiration in the most perfect animals as the first; so
+that the fickle breath of never-stable fortune is to the body politic,
+the same as floating air is to a living creature.
+
+Avarice then, and prodigality, are equally necessary to the
+society. That in some countries, men are most generally lavish
+than in others, proceeds from the difference in circumstances that
+dispose to either vice, and arise from the condition of the social
+body, as well as the temperament of the natural. I beg pardon of the
+attentive reader, if here, in behalf of short memories, I repeat some
+things, the substance of which they have already seen in Remark, line
+307. More money than land, heavy taxes and scarcity of provisions,
+industry, laboriousness, an active and stirring spirit, ill-nature,
+and saturnine temper; old age, wisdom, trade, riches, acquired
+by our own labour, and liberty and property well secured, are all
+things that dispose to avarice. On the contrary, indolence, content,
+good-nature, a jovial temper, youth, folly, arbitrary power, money
+easily got, plenty of provisions and the uncertainty of possessions,
+are circumstances that render men prone to prodigality: where there
+is the most of the first, the prevailing vice will be avarice, and
+prodigality where the other turns the scale; but a national frugality
+there never was nor never will be without a national necessity.
+
+Sumptuary laws, may be of use to an indigent country, after great
+calamities of war, pestilence, or famine, when work has stood still,
+and the labour of the poor been interrupted; but to introduce them
+into an opulent kingdom, is the wrong way to consult the interest of
+it. I shall end my remarks on the Grumbling-Hive, with assuring the
+champions of national frugality, that it would be impossible for the
+Persians and other eastern people, to purchase the vast quantities
+of fine English cloth they consume, should we load our women with
+less cargoes of Asiatic silks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               AN
+                       ESSAY ON CHARITY,
+                              AND
+                        CHARITY-SCHOOLS.
+
+
+Charity, is that virtue by which part of that sincere love we have for
+ourselves, is transferred pure and unmixed to others, not tied to us
+by the bonds of friendship or consanguinity, and even mere strangers,
+whom we have no obligation to, nor hope or expect any thing from. If
+we lessen any ways the rigour of this definition, part of the virtue
+must be lost. What we do for our friends and kindred, we do partly
+for ourselves: when a man acts in behalf of nephews or nieces,
+and says they are my brother's children, I do it out of charity;
+he deceives you: for if he is capable, it is expected from him, and
+he does it partly for his own sake: if he values the esteem of the
+world, and is nice as to honour and reputation, he is obliged to have
+a greater regard to them than for strangers, or else he must suffer
+in his character.
+
+The exercise of this virtue, relates either to opinion, or to action,
+and is manifested in what we think of others, or what we do for
+them. To be charitable, then, in the first place, we ought to put
+the best construction on all that others do or say, that things
+are capable of. If a man builds a fine house, though he has not one
+symptom of humility, furnishes it richly, and lays out a good estate
+in plate and pictures, we ought not to think that he does it out of
+vanity, but to encourage artists, employ hands, and set the poor to
+work for the good of his country: and if a man sleeps at church, so
+he does not snore, we ought to think he shuts his eyes to increase
+his attention. The reason is, because in our turn we desire that
+our utmost avarice should pass for frugality; and that for religion,
+which we know to be hypocrisy. Secondly, that virtue is conspicuous
+in us, when we bestow our time and labour for nothing, or employ
+our credit with others, in behalf of those who stand in need of it,
+and yet could not expect such an assistance from our friendship or
+nearness of blood. The last branch of charity consists in giving
+away (while we are alive) what we value ourselves, to such as I have
+already named; being contented rather to have and enjoy less, than
+not relieve those who want, and shall be the objects of our choice.
+
+This virtue is often counterfeited by a passion of ours, called Pity
+or Compassion, which consists in a fellow-feeling and condolence for
+the misfortunes and calamities of others: all mankind are more or
+less affected with it; but the weakest minds generally the most. It
+is raised in us, when the sufferings and misery of other creatures
+make so forcible an impression upon us, as to make us uneasy. It
+comes in either at the eye, or ear, or both; and the nearer and more
+violently the object of compassion strikes those senses, the greater
+disturbance it causes in us, often to such a degree, as to occasion
+great pain and anxiety.
+
+Should any of us be locked up in a ground-room, where in a yard
+joining to it, there was a thriving good humoured child at play,
+of two or three years old, so near us that through the grates of the
+window we could almost touch it with our hand; and if while we took
+delight in the harmless diversion, and imperfect prittle-prattle of the
+innocent babe, a nasty overgrown sow should come in upon the child,
+set it a screaming, and frighten it out of its wits; it is natural
+to think, that this would make us uneasy, and that with crying out,
+and making all the menacing noise we could, we should endeavour to
+drive the sow away. But if this should happen to be an half-starved
+creature, that, mad with hunger, went roaming about in quest of food,
+and we should behold the ravenous brute, in spite of our cries, and
+all the threatening gestures we could think of, actually lay hold of
+the helpless infant, destroy and devour it; to see her widely open
+her destructive jaws, and the poor lamb beat down with greedy haste;
+to look on the defenceless posture of tender limbs first trampled on,
+then tore asunder; to see the filthy snout digging in the yet living
+entrails, suck up the smoking blood, and now and then to hear the
+crackling of the bones, and the cruel animal with savage pleasure
+grunt over the horrid banquet; to hear and see all this, what tortures
+would it give the soul beyond expression! let me see the most shining
+virtue the moralists have to boast of, so manifest either to the
+person possessed of it, or those who behold his actions: let me see
+courage, or the love of ones country so apparent without any mixture,
+cleared and distinct, the first from pride and anger, the other from
+the love of glory, and every shadow of self-interest, as this pity
+would be cleared and distinct from all other passions. There would
+be no need of virtue or self-denial to be moved at such a scene;
+and not only a man of humanity, of good morals and commiseration,
+but likewise an highwayman, an house-breaker, or a murderer could
+feel anxieties on such an occasion; how calamitous soever a man's
+circumstances might be, he would forget his misfortunes for the time,
+and the most troublesome passion would give way to pity, and not one
+of the species has a heart so obdurate or engaged, that it would not
+ache at such a sight, as no language has an epithet to fit it.
+
+Many will wonder at what I have said of pity, that it comes in at the
+eye or ear, but the truth of this will be known when we consider that
+the nearer the object is, the more we suffer, and the more remote
+it is, the less we are troubled with it. To see people executed for
+crimes, if it is a great way off, moves us but little, in comparison to
+what it does when we are near enough to see the motion of the soul in
+their eyes, observe their fears and agonies, and are able to read the
+pangs in every feature of the face. When the object is quite removed
+from our senses, the relation of the calamities or the reading of them,
+can never raise in us the passion called pity. We may be concerned at
+bad news, the loss and misfortunes of friends and those whose cause we
+espouse, but this is not pity, but grief or sorrow; the same as we feel
+for the death of those we love, or the destruction of what we value.
+
+When we hear that three or four thousand men, all strangers to us,
+are killed with the sword, or forced into some river where they
+are drowned, we say, and perhaps believe, that we pity them. It is
+humanity bids us have compassion with the sufferings of others;
+and reason tells us, that whether a thing be far off or done in
+our sight, our sentiments concerning it ought to be the same, and
+we should be ashamed to own, that we felt no commiseration in us
+when any thing requires it. He is a cruel man, he has no bowels of
+compassion; all these things are the effects of reason and humanity,
+but nature makes no compliments; when the object does not strike,
+the body does not feel it; and when men talk of pitying people out of
+sight, they are to be believed in the same manner as when they say,
+that they are our humble servants. In paying the usual civilities at
+first meeting, those who do not see one another every day, are often
+very glad and very sorry alternately, for five or six times together,
+in less than two minutes, and yet at parting carry away not a jot
+more of grief or joy than they met with. The same it is with pity,
+and it is a choice no more than fear or anger. Those who have a strong
+and lively imagination, and can make representations of things in
+their minds, as they would be if they were actually before them,
+may work themselves up into something that resembles compassion;
+but this is done by art, and often the help of a little enthusiasm,
+and is only an imitation of pity; the heart feels little of it, and
+it is as faint as what we suffer at the acting of a tragedy; where
+our judgment leaves part of the mind uninformed, and to indulge a lazy
+wantonness, suffers it to be led into an error, which is necessary to
+have a passion raised, the slight strokes of which are not unpleasant
+to us, when the soul is in an idle unactive humour.
+
+As pity is often by ourselves and in our own cases mistaken for
+charity, so it assumes the shape, and borrows the very name of it; a
+beggar asks you to exert that virtue for Jesus Christ's sake, but all
+the while his great design is to raise your pity. He represents to your
+view the first side of his ailments and bodily infirmities; in chosen
+words he gives you an epitome of his calamities, real or fictitious;
+and while he seems to pray God that he will open your heart, he is
+actually at work upon your ears; the greatest profligate of them flies
+to religion for aid, and assists his cant with a doleful tone, and a
+studied dismality of gestures: but he trusts not to one passion only,
+he flatters your pride with titles and names of honour and distinction;
+your avarice he sooths with often repeating to you the smallness of the
+gift he sues for, and conditional promises of future returns, with an
+interest extravagant beyond the statute of usury, though out of the
+reach of it. People not used to great cities, being thus attacked
+on all sides, are commonly forced to yield, and cannot help giving
+something though they can hardly spare it themselves. How oddly are
+we managed by self-love! It is ever watching in our defence, and yet,
+to sooth a predominant passion, obliges us to act against our interest:
+for when pity seizes us, if we can but imagine, that we contribute to
+the relief of him we have compassion with, and are instrumental to the
+lessening of his sorrows, it eases us, and therefore pitiful people
+often give an alms, when they really feel that they would rather not.
+
+When sores are very bare, or seem otherwise afflicting in an
+extraordinary manner, and the beggar can bear to have them exposed
+to the cold air, it is very shocking to some people; it is a shame,
+they cry, such sights should be suffered; the main reason is, it
+touches their pity feelingly, and at the same time they are resolved,
+either because they are covetous, or count it an idle expence, to
+give nothing, which makes them more uneasy. They turn their eyes,
+and where the cries are dismal, some would willingly stop their ears
+if they were not ashamed. What they can do is to mend their pace,
+and be very angry in their hearts that beggars should be about the
+streets. But it is with pity as it is with fear, the more we are
+conversant with objects that excite either passion, the less we are
+disturbed by them, and those to whom all these scenes and tones are by
+custom made familiar, they make little impression upon. The only thing
+the industrious beggar has left to conquer those fortified hearts,
+if he can walk either with or without crutches, is to follow close,
+and with uninterrupted noise teaze and importune them, to try if he can
+make them buy their peace. Thus thousands give money to beggars from
+the same motive as they pay their corn-cutter, to walk easy. And many
+a halfpenny is given to impudent and designedly persecuting rascals,
+whom, if it could be done handsomely, a man would cane with much
+greater satisfaction. Yet all this, by the courtesy of the country,
+is called charity.
+
+The reverse of pity is malice: I have spoke of it where I treat of
+envy. Those who know what it is to examine themselves, will soon
+own that it is very difficult to trace the root and origin of this
+passion. It is one of those we are most ashamed of, and therefore the
+hurtful part of it is easily subdued and corrected by a judicious
+education. When any body near us stumbles, it is natural even
+before reflection, to stretch out our hands to hinder, or at least
+break the fall, which shows that while we are calm we are rather
+bent to pity. But though malice by itself is little to be feared,
+yet assisted with pride it is often mischievous, and becomes most
+terrible when egged on and heightened by anger. There is nothing that
+more readily or more effectually extinguishes pity than this mixture,
+which is called cruelty: from whence we may learn, that to perform a
+meritorious action, it is not sufficient barely to conquer a passion,
+unless it likewise be done from a laudable principle, and consequently
+how necessary that clause was in the definition of virtue, that our
+endeavours were to proceed from a rational ambition of being good.
+
+Pity, as I have said somewhere else, is the most amiable of all our
+passions, and there are not many occasions, on which we ought to
+conquer or curb it. A surgeon may be as compassionate as he pleases,
+so it does not make him omit or forbear to perform what he ought
+to do. Judges likewise, and juries, may be influenced with pity, if
+they take care that plain laws and justice itself are not infringed,
+and do not suffer by it. No pity does more mischief in the world,
+than what is excited by the tenderness of parents, and hinders them
+from managing their children, as their rational love to them would
+require, and themselves could wish it. The sway likewise which this
+passion bears in the affections of women, is more considerable than
+is commonly imagined, and they daily commit faults that are altogether
+ascribed to lust, and yet are in a great measure owing to pity.
+
+What I named last is not the only passion that mocks and resembles
+charity; pride and vanity have built more hospitals than all the
+virtues together. Men are so tenacious of their possessions, and
+selfishness is so riveted in our nature, that whoever can but any
+ways conquer it shall have the applause of the public, and all the
+encouragement imaginable to conceal his frailty, and sooth any other
+appetite he shall have a mind to indulge. The man that supplies,
+with his private fortune, what the whole must otherwise have
+provided for, obliges every member of the society, and, therefore,
+all the world are ready to pay him their acknowledgment, and think
+themselves in duty bound to pronounce all such actions virtuous,
+without examining, or so much as looking into the motives from which
+they were performed. Nothing is more destructive to virtue or religion
+itself, than to make men believe, that giving money to the poor,
+though they should not part with it till after death, will make a
+full atonement in the next world, for the sins they have committed
+in this. A villain, who has been guilty of a barbarous murder, may,
+by the help of false witnesses, escape the punishment he deserved:
+he prospers, we will say, heaps up great wealth, and, by the advice
+of his father confessor, leaves all his estate to a monastery, and
+his children beggars. What fine amends has this good Christian made
+for his crime, and what an honest man was the priest who directed
+his conscience? He who parts with all he has in his life-time,
+whatever principle he acts from, only gives away what was his own;
+but the rich miser who refuses to assist his nearest relations while
+he is alive, though they never designedly disobliged him, and disposes
+of his money, for what we call charitable uses, after his death, may
+imagine of his goodness what he pleases, but he robs his posterity. I
+am now thinking of a late instance of charity, a prodigious gift,
+that has made a great noise in the world: I have a mind to set it
+in the light I think it deserves, and beg leave, for once, to please
+pedants, to treat it somewhat rhetorically.
+
+That a man, with small skill in physic, and hardly any learning,
+should, by vile arts, get into practice, and lay up great wealth,
+is no mighty wonder; but, that he should so deeply work himself into
+the good opinion of the world as to gain the general esteem of a
+nation, and establish a reputation beyond all his contemporaries,
+with no other qualities but a perfect knowledge of mankind, and a
+capacity of making the most of it, is something extraordinary. If a
+man arrived to such a height of glory should be almost distracted
+with pride, sometime give his attendance on a servant or any mean
+person for nothing, and, at the same time, neglect a nobleman that
+gives exorbitant fees, at other times refuse to leave his bottle
+for his business, without any regard to the quality of the persons
+that sent for him, or the danger they are in: if he should be surly
+and morose, affect to be an humourist, treat his patients like dogs,
+though people of distinction, and value no man but what would deify
+him, and never call in question the certainty of his oracles: if he
+should insult all the world, affront the first nobility, and extend
+his insolence even to the royal family: if, to maintain as well as
+to increase the fame of his sufficiency, he should scorn to consult
+with his betters on what emergency soever, look down with contempt
+on the most deserving of his profession, and never confer with any
+other physician but what will pay homage to his superior genius,
+creep to his humour, and never approach him but with all the slavish
+obsequiousness a court-flatterer can treat a prince with: If a man,
+in his lifetime, should discover, on the one hand, such manifest
+symptoms of superlative pride, and an insatiable greediness after
+wealth at the same time, and, on the other, no regard to religion or
+affection to his kindred, no compassion to the poor, and hardly any
+humanity to his fellow-creatures, if he gave no proofs that he loved
+his country, had a public spirit, or was a lover of arts, of books,
+or of literature, what must we judge of his motive, the principle he
+acted from, when, after his death, we find that he has left a trifle
+among his relations who stood in need of it, and an immense treasure
+to an university that did not want it.
+
+Let a man be as charitable as it is possible for him to be without
+forfeiting his reason or good sense: can he think otherwise, but that
+this famous physician did, in the making of his will, as in every thing
+else, indulge his darling passion, entertaining his vanity with the
+happiness of the contrivance? when he thought on the monuments and
+inscriptions, with all the sacrifices of praise that would be made
+to him, and, above all, the yearly tribute of thanks, of reverence,
+and veneration that would be paid to his memory, with so much pomp
+and solemnity; when he considered, how in all these performances,
+wit and invention would be racked, art and eloquence ransacked to find
+out encomiums suitable to the public spirit, the munificence and the
+dignity of the benefactor, and the artful gratitude of the receivers;
+when he thought on, I say, and considered these things, it must have
+thrown his ambitious soul into vast ecstasies of pleasure, especially
+when he ruminated on the duration of his glory, and the perpetuity he
+would by this means procure to his name. Charitable opinions are often
+stupidly false; when men are dead and gone, we ought to judge of their
+actions, as we do of books, and neither wrong their understanding
+nor our own. The British Æsculapius was undeniably a man of sense,
+and if he had been influenced by charity, a public spirit, or the
+love of learning, and had aimed at the good of mankind in general,
+or that of his own profession in particular, and acted from any of
+these principles, he could never have made such a will; because so
+much wealth might have been better managed, and a man of much less
+capacity would have found out several better ways of laying out the
+money. But if we consider, that he was as undeniably a man of vast
+pride, as he was a man of sense, and give ourselves leave only to
+surmise, that this extraordinary gift might have proceeded from such
+a motive, we shall presently discover the excellency of his parts,
+and his consummate knowledge of the world: for, if a man would render
+himself immortal, be ever praised and deified after his death, and
+have all the acknowledgment, the honours, and compliments paid to
+his memory, that vain glory herself could wish for, I do not think
+it in human skill to invent a more effectual method. Had he followed
+arms, behaved himself in five-and-twenty sieges, and as many battles,
+with the bravery of an Alexander, and exposed his life and limbs to
+all the fatigues and dangers of war for fifty campaigns together;
+or devoting himself to the muses, sacrificed his pleasure, his rest,
+and his health to literature, and spent all his days in a laborious
+study, and the toils of learning; or else, abandoning all worldly
+interest, excelled in probity, temperance, and austerity of life,
+and ever trod in the strictest path of virtue, he would not so
+effectually have provided for the eternity of his name, as after a
+voluptuous life, and the luxurious gratification of his passions, he
+has now done without any trouble or self denial, only by the choice
+in the disposal of his money, when he was forced to leave it.
+
+A rich miser, who is thoroughly selfish, and would receive the interest
+of his money, even after his death, has nothing else to do than to
+defraud his relations, and leave his estate to some famous university;
+they are the best markets to buy immortality at with little merit:
+in them knowledge, wit, and penetration are the growth, I had almost
+said the manufacture of the place: there men are profoundly skilled
+in human nature, and know what it is their benefactors want; and
+their extraordinary bounties shall always meet with an extraordinary
+recompence, and the measure of the gift is ever the standard of
+their praises, whether the donor be a physician or a tinker, when
+once the living witnesses that might laugh at them are extinct. I can
+never think on the anniversary of the thanksgiving-day decreed to a
+great man, but it puts me in mind of the miraculous cures, and other
+surprising things that will be said of him a hundred years hence;
+and I dare prognosticate, that before the end of the present century,
+he will have stories forged in his favour (for rhetoricians are never
+upon oath) that shall be as fabulous, at least, as any legends of
+the saints.
+
+Of all this our subtle benefactor was not ignorant; he understood
+universities, their genius, and their politics, and from thence
+foresaw and knew, that the incense to be offered to him would not
+cease with the present or few succeeding generations, and that it
+would not only for the trifling space of three or four hundred years,
+but that it would continue to be paid to him through all changes and
+revolutions of government and religion, as long as the nation subsists,
+and the island itself remains.
+
+It is deplorable that the proud should have such temptations to wrong
+their lawful heirs: For when a man in ease and affluence, brim-full
+of vain glory, and humoured in his pride by the greatest of a polite
+nation, has such an infallible security in petto for an everlasting
+homage and adoration to his manes to be paid in such an extraordinary
+manner, he is like a hero in battle, who, in feasting of his own
+imagination, tastes all the felicity of enthusiasm. It buys him up
+in sickness, relieves him in pain, and either guards him against,
+or keeps from his view all the terrors of death, and the most dismal
+apprehensions of futurity.
+
+Should it be said, that to be thus censorious, and look into matters,
+and men's consciences with that nicety, will discourage people from
+laying out their money this way; and that, let the money and the
+motive of the donor be what they will, he that receives the benefit
+is the gainer, I would not disown the charge, but am of opinion, that
+this is no injury to the public, should one prevent men from crowding
+too much treasure into the dead stock of the kingdom. There ought to
+be a vast disproportion between the active and unactive part of the
+society to make it happy, and where this is not regarded, the multitude
+of gifts and endowments may soon be excessive and detrimental to a
+nation. Charity, where it is too extensive, seldom fails of promoting
+sloth and idleness, and is good for little in the commonwealth but to
+breed drones, and destroy industry. The more colleges and alms-houses
+you build, the more you may. The first founders and benefactors
+may have just and good intentions, and would perhaps, for their own
+reputations, seem to labour for the most laudable purposes, but the
+executors of those wills, the governors that come after him, have
+quite other views, and we seldom see charities long applied as it was
+first intended they should be. I have no design that is cruel, nor the
+least aim that savours of inhumanity. To have sufficient hospitals for
+sick and wounded, I look upon as an indispensable duty both in peace
+and war: Young children without parents, old age without support,
+and all that are disabled from working, ought to be taken care of
+with tenderness and alacrity. But as, on the one hand, I would have
+none neglected that are helpless, and really necessitous without
+being wanting to themselves, so, on the other, I would not encourage
+beggary or laziness in the poor: All should be set to work that are
+anywise able, and scrutinies should be made even among the infirm:
+Employments might be found out for most of our lame, and many that are
+unfit for hard labour, as well as the blind, as long as their health
+and strength would allow of it. What I have now under consideration
+leads me naturally to that kind of distraction the nation has laboured
+under for some time, the enthusiastic passion for Charity-Schools.
+
+The generality are so bewitched with the usefulness and excellency
+of them, that whoever dares openly oppose them is in danger of being
+stoned by the rabble. Children that are taught the principles of
+religion, and can read the word of God, have a greater opportunity
+to improve in virtue and good morality, and must certainly be more
+civilized than others, that are suffered to run at random, and
+have nobody to look after them. How perverse must be the judgment
+of those, who would not rather see children decently dressed, with
+clean linen at least once a-week, that, in an orderly manner, follow
+their master to church, than in every open place, meet with a company
+of blackguards without shirts or any thing whole about them, that,
+insensible of their misery, are continually increasing it with oaths
+and imprecations! Can any one doubt but these are the great nursery of
+thieves and pickpockets? What numbers of felons, and other criminals,
+have we tried and convicted every sessions! This will be prevented by
+charity-schools; and when the children of the poor receive a better
+education, the society will, in a few years, reap the benefit of it,
+and the nation be cleared of so many miscreants, as now this great
+city, and all the country about it, are filled with.
+
+This is the general cry, and he that speaks the least word against
+it, an uncharitable, hard-hearted and inhuman, if not a wicked,
+profane, and atheistical wretch. As to the comeliness of the sight,
+nobody disputes it; but I would not have a nation pay too dear for
+so transient a pleasure; and if we might set aside the finery of the
+show, every thing that is material in this popular oration might soon
+be answered.
+
+As to religion, the most knowing and polite part of a nation have
+every where the least of it; craft has a greater hand in making rogues
+than stupidity, and vice, in general, is nowhere more predominant
+than where arts and sciences flourish. Ignorance is, to a proverb,
+counted to be the mother of devotion; and it is certain, that we shall
+find innocence and honesty nowhere more general than among the most
+illiterate, the poor silly country people. The next to be considered,
+are the manners and civility that by charity-schools are to be grafted
+into the poor of the nation. I confess that, in my opinion, to be in
+any degree possessed of what I named, is a frivolous, if not a hurtful
+quality, at least nothing is less requisite in the laborious poor. It
+is not compliments we want of them, but their work and assiduity. But I
+give up this article with all my heart; good manners we will say are
+necessary to all people, but which way will they be furnished with
+them in a charity-school? Boys there may be taught to pull off their
+caps promiscuously to all they meet, unless it be a beggar: But that
+they should acquire in it any civility beyond that I cannot conceive.
+
+The master is not greatly qualified, as may be guessed by his salary,
+and if he could teach them manners he has not time for it: while they
+are at school they are either learning or saying their lesson to him,
+or employed in writing or arithmetic; and as soon as school is done,
+they are as much at liberty as other poor people's children. It is
+precept, and the example of parents, and those they eat, drink and
+converse with, that have an influence upon the minds of children:
+reprobate parents that take ill courses, and are regardless to their
+children, will not have a mannerly civilized offspring though they went
+to a charity-school till they were married. The honest pains-taking
+people, be they never so poor, if they have any notion of goodness
+and decency themselves, will keep their children in awe, and never
+suffer them to rake about the streets, and lie out a-nights. Those
+who will work themselves, and have any command over their children,
+will make them do something or other that turns to profit as soon as
+they are able, be it never so little; and such are so ungovernable,
+that neither words nor blows can work upon them, no charity-school will
+mend; nay, experience teaches us, that among the charity-boys there are
+abundance of bad ones that swear and curse about, and, bar the clothes,
+are as much blackguard as ever Tower-hill or St. James's produced.
+
+I am now come to the enormous crimes, and vast multitude of
+malefactors, that are all laid upon the want of this notable
+education. That abundance of thefts and robberies are daily committed
+in and about the city, and great numbers yearly suffer death for
+those crimes is undeniable: but because this is ever hooked in, when
+the usefulness of charity-schools is called in question, as if there
+was no dispute, but they would in a great measure remedy, and in time
+prevent those disorders; I intend to examine into the real causes of
+those mischiefs so justly complained of, and doubt not but to make
+it appear that charity-schools, and every thing else that promotes
+idleness, and keeps the poor from working, are more accessary to the
+growth of villany, than the want of reading and writing, or even the
+grossest ignorance and stupidity.
+
+Here I must interrupt myself to obviate the clamours of some impatient
+people, who, upon reading of what I said last, will cry out, that far
+from encouraging idleness, they bring up their charity-children to
+handicrafts, as well as trades, and all manner of honest labour. I
+promise them that I shall take notice of that hereafter, and answer
+it without stifling the least thing that can be said in their behalf.
+
+In a populous city, it is not difficult for a young rascal, that has
+pushed himself into a crowd, with a small hand and nimble fingers,
+to whip away a handkerchief or snuff-box, from a man who is thinking
+on business, and regardless of his pocket. Success in small crimes
+seldom fails of ushering in greater; and he that picks pockets with
+impunity at twelve, is likely to be a house-breaker at sixteen, and a
+thorough-paced villain long before he is twenty. Those who are cautious
+as well as bold, and no drunkards, may do a world of mischief before
+they are discovered: and this is one of the greatest inconveniencies
+of such vast overgrown cities, as London or Paris; that they harbour
+rogues and villains as granaries do vermin; they afford a perpetual
+shelter to the worst of people, and are places of safety to thousands
+of criminals, who daily commit thefts and burglaries, and yet, by
+often changing their places of abode, may conceal themselves for many
+years, and will perhaps for ever escape the hands of justice, unless
+by chance they are apprehended in a fact. And when they are taken,
+the evidences perhaps want clearness, or are otherwise insufficient;
+the depositions are not strong enough; juries and often judges are
+touched with compassion; prosecutors though vigorous at first, often
+relent before the time of trial comes on: few men prefer the public
+safety to their own ease; a man of good-nature is not easily reconciled
+with taking away of another man's life, though he has deserved the
+gallows. To be the cause of any ones death, though justice requires
+it, is what most people is startled at, especially men of conscience
+and probity, when they want judgment or resolution: as this is the
+reason that thousands escape that deserve to be capitally punished,
+so it is likewise the cause that there are so many offenders, who
+boldly venture, in hopes that if they are taken they shall have the
+same good fortune of getting off.
+
+But if men did imagine, and were fully persuaded, that as surely as
+they committed a fact that deserved hanging, so surely they would be
+hanged; executions would be very rare, and the most desperate felon
+would almost as soon hang himself as he would break open a house. To
+be stupid and ignorant is seldom the character of a thief. Robberies
+on the highway, and other bold crimes, are generally perpetrated by
+rogues of spirit, and a genius; and villains of any fame are commonly
+subtle cunning fellows, that are well versed in the method of trials,
+and acquainted with every quirk in the law that can be of use to them;
+that overlook not the smallest flaw in an indictment, and know how to
+make an advantage of the least slip of an evidence, and every thing
+else, that can serve their turn to bring them off.
+
+It is a mighty saying, that it is better that five hundred guilty
+people should escape, than that one innocent person should suffer:
+this maxim is only true as to futurity, and in relation to another
+world; but it is very false in regard to the temporal welfare of
+society. It is a terrible thing a man should be put to death for a
+crime he is not guilty of; yet so oddly circumstances may meet in the
+infinite variety of accidents, that it is possible it should come to
+pass, all the wisdom that judges, and consciousness that juries may be
+possessed of, notwithstanding. But where men endeavour to avoid this,
+with all the care and precaution human prudence is able to take, should
+such a misfortune happen perhaps once or twice in half a score years,
+on condition that all that time justice should be administered with
+all the strictness and severity, and not one guilty person suffered
+to escape with impunity, it would be a vast advantage to a nation,
+not only as to the securing of every ones property, and the peace of
+the society in general, but would likewise save the lives of hundreds,
+if not thousands, of necessitous wretches, that are daily hanged for
+trifles, and who would never have attempted any thing against the
+law, or at least have ventured on capital crimes, if the hopes of
+getting off, should they be taken, had not been one of the motives
+that animated their resolution. Therefore where the laws are plain
+and severe, all the remissness in the execution of them, lenity of
+juries, and frequency of pardons, are in the main a much greater
+cruelty to a populous state or kingdom, than the use of racks and
+the most exquisite torments.
+
+Another great cause of those evils, is to be looked for in the want
+of precaution in those that are robbed, and the many temptations that
+are given. Abundance of families are very remiss in looking after
+the safety of their houses; some are robbed by the carelessness
+of servants, others for having grudged the price of bars and
+shutters. Brass and pewter are ready money, they are every where
+about the house; plate perhaps and money are better secured; but an
+ordinary lock is soon opened, when once a rogue is got in.
+
+It is manifest, then, that many different causes concur, and several
+scarce avoidable evils contribute to the misfortune of being pestered
+with pilferers, thieves, and robbers, which all countries ever were,
+and ever will be, more or less, in and near considerable towns, more
+especially vast and overgrown cities. It is opportunity makes the
+thief; carelessness and neglect in fastening doors and windows, the
+excessive tenderness of juries and prosecutors, the small difficulty
+of getting a reprieve and frequency of pardons; but above all, the
+many examples of those who are known to be guilty, are destitute both
+of friends and money, and yet by imposing on the jury, baffling the
+witnesses, or other tricks and stratagems, find out means to escape
+the gallows. These are all strong temptations that conspire to draw
+in the necessitous, who want principle and education.
+
+To these you may add as auxiliaries to mischief, an habit of sloth and
+idleness, and strong aversion to labour and assiduity, which all young
+people will contract that are not brought up to downright working,
+or at least kept employed most days in the week, and the greatest part
+of the day. All children that are idle, even the best of either sex,
+are bad company to one another whenever they meet.
+
+It is not, then, the want of reading and writing, but the concurrence
+and complication of more substantial evils, that are the perpetual
+nursery of abandoned profligates in great and opulent nations; and
+whoever would accuse ignorance, stupidity, and dastardness, as the
+first, and what the physicians call the procataric cause, let him
+examine into the lives, and narrowly inspect the conversations and
+actions of ordinary rogues and our common felons, and he will find
+the reverse to be true, and that the blame ought rather to be laid
+on the excessive cunning and subtlety, and too much knowledge in
+general, which the worst of miscreants and the scum of the nation
+are possessed of.
+
+Human nature is every where the same: genius, wit, and natural parts,
+are always sharpened by application, and may be as much improved
+in the practice of the meanest villany, as they can in the exercise
+of industry, or the most heroic virtue. There is no station of life,
+where pride, emulation, and the love of glory may not be displayed. A
+young pick-pocket, that makes a jest of his angry prosecutor, and
+dextrously wheedles the old justice into an opinion of his innocence,
+is envied by his equals, and admired by all the fraternity. Rogues
+have the same passions to gratify as other men, and value themselves
+on their honour and faithfulness to one another, their courage,
+intrepidity, and other manly virtues, as well as people of better
+professions; and in daring enterprises, the resolution of a robber
+may be as much supported by his pride, as that of an honest soldier,
+who fights for his country.
+
+The evils then we complain of, are owing to quite other causes than
+what we assign for them. Men must be very wavering in their sentiments,
+if not inconsistent with themselves, that at one time will uphold
+knowledge and learning to be the most proper means to promote religion,
+and defend at another, that ignorance is the mother of devotion.
+
+But if the reasons alleged for this general education are not the true
+ones, whence comes it, that the whole kingdom, both great and small,
+are so unanimously fond of it? There is no miraculous conversion to be
+perceived among us, no universal bent to goodness and morality that
+has on a sudden overspread the island; there is as much wickedness
+as ever, charity is as cold, and real virtue as scarce: the year
+seventeen hundred and twenty, has been as prolific in deep villany,
+and remarkable for selfish crimes and premeditated mischief, as can
+be picked out of any century whatever; not committed by poor ignorant
+rogues, that could neither read nor write, but the better sort of
+people as to wealth and education, that most of them were great
+masters in arithmetic, and lived in reputation and splendor. To say,
+that when a thing is once in vogue, the multitude follows the common
+cry, that charity schools are in fashion in the same manner as hooped
+petticoats, by caprice, and that no more reason can be given for
+the one than the other, I am afraid will not be satisfactory to the
+curious, and at the same time I doubt much, whether it will be thought
+of great weight by many of my readers, what I can advance besides.
+
+The real source of this present folly, is certainly very abstruse and
+remote from sight; but he that affords the least light in matters of
+great obscurity, does a kind office to the inquirers. I am willing to
+allow, that in the beginning, the first design of those schools, was
+good and charitable; but to know what increases them so extravagantly,
+and who are the chief promoters of them now, we must make our search
+another way, and address ourselves to the rigid party-men, that
+are zealous for their cause, either episcopacy or presbytery; but
+as the latter are but the poor mimicks of the first, though equally
+pernicious, we shall confine ourselves to the national church, and
+take a turn through a parish that is not blessed yet with a charity
+school.--But here I think myself obliged in conscience to ask pardon of
+my reader, for the tiresome dance I am going to lead him, if he intends
+to follow me, and therefore I desire, that he would either throw away
+the book and leave me, or else arm himself with the patience of Job,
+to endure all the impertinences of low life; the cant and tittle-tattle
+he is like to meet with before he can go half a street's length.
+
+First we must look out among the young shop-keepers, that have
+not half the business they could wish for, and consequently time
+to spare. If such a new-beginner has but a little pride more than
+ordinary, and loves to be meddling, he is soon mortified in the
+vestry, where men of substance and long standing, or else your pert
+litigious or opinionated bawlers, that have obtained the title of
+notable men, commonly bear the sway. His stock and perhaps credit
+are but inconsiderable, and yet he finds within himself a strong
+inclination to govern. A man thus qualified, thinks it a thousand
+pities there is no charity-school in the parish: he communicates
+his thoughts to two or three of his acquaintance first; they do the
+same to others, and in a month's time there is nothing else talked
+of in the parish. Every body invents discourses and arguments to the
+purpose, according to his abilities.--It is an arrant shame, says one,
+to see so many poor that are not able to educate their children, and
+no provision made for them, where we have so many rich people. What
+do you talk of rich, answers another, they are the worst: they must
+have so many servants, coaches and horses: they can lay out hundreds,
+and some of them thousands of pounds for jewels and furniture, but
+not spare a shilling to a poor creature that wants it: when modes and
+fashions are discoursed of, they can hearken with great attention,
+but are wilfully deaf to the cries of the poor. Indeed, neighbour,
+replies the first, you are very right, I do not believe there is a
+worse parish in England for charity than ours: It is such as you and
+I that would do good if it was in our power, but of those that are
+able there is very few that are willing.
+
+Others more violent, fall upon particular persons, and fasten slander
+on every man of substance they dislike, and a thousand idle stories
+in behalf of charity, are raised and handed about to defame their
+betters. While this is doing throughout the neighbourhood, he that
+first broached the pious thought, rejoices to hear so many come
+into it, and places no small merit in being the first cause of so
+much talk and bustle: but neither himself nor his intimates, being
+considerable enough to set such a thing on foot, some body must be
+found out who has greater interest: he is to be addressed to, and
+showed the necessity, the goodness, the usefulness, and Christianity
+of such a design: next he is to be flattered.--Indeed, Sir, if you
+would espouse it, nobody has a greater influence over the best of the
+parish than yourself: one word of you I am sure would engage such a
+one: if you once would take it to heart, Sir, I would look upon the
+thing as done, Sir.--If by this kind of rhetoric they can draw in some
+old fool, or conceited busy-body that is rich, or at least reputed
+to be such, the thing begins to be feasible, and is discoursed of
+among the better sort. The parson or his curate, and the lecturer,
+are every where extolling the pious project. The first promoters
+meanwhile are indefatigable: if they were guilty of any open vice,
+they either sacrifice it to the love of reputation, or at least grow
+more cautious and learn to play the hypocrite, well knowing that to
+be flagitious or noted for enormities, is inconsistent with the zeal
+which they pretend to, for works of supererogation and excessive piety.
+
+The number of these diminutive patriots increasing, they form
+themselves into a society, and appoint stated meetings, where every
+one concealing his vices, has liberty to display his talents. Religion
+is the theme, or else the misery of the times occasioned by atheism
+and profaneness. Men of worth, who live in splendour, and thriving
+people that have a great deal of business of their own, are seldom
+seen among them. Men of sense and education likewise, if they have
+nothing to do, generally look out for better diversion. All those
+who have a higher aim, shall have their attendance easily excused,
+but contribute they must, or else lead a weary life in the parish. Two
+sorts of people come in voluntarily, stanch churchmen, who have good
+reasons for it in petto, and your sly sinners that look upon it as
+meritorious, and hope that it will expiate their guilt, and Satan
+be nonsuited by it at a small expence. Some come into it to save
+their credit, others to retrieve it, according as they have either
+lost or are afraid of losing it: others again do it prudentially,
+to increase their trade and get acquaintance, and many would own
+to you, if they dared to be sincere and speak the truth, that they
+would never have been concerned in it, but to be better known in the
+parish. Men of sense that see the folly of it, and have nobody to fear,
+are persuaded into it not to be thought singular, or to run counter
+to all the world; even those who are resolute at first in denying it,
+it is ten to one but at last they are teazed and importuned into a
+compliance. The charge being calculated for most of the inhabitants,
+the insignificancy of it is another argument that prevails much,
+and many are drawn in to be contributors, who, without that, would
+have stood out and strenuously opposed the whole scheme.
+
+The governors are made of the middling people, and many inferior to
+that class are made use of, if the forwardness of their zeal can
+but over-balance the meanness of their condition. If you should
+ask these worthy rulers, why they take upon them so much trouble,
+to the detriment of their own affairs and loss of time, either
+singly or the whole body of them, they would all unanimously answer,
+that it is the regard they have for religion and the church, and the
+pleasure they take in contributing to the good, and eternal welfare
+of so many poor innocents, that in all probability would run into
+perdition, in these wicked times of scoffers and freethinkers. They
+have no thought of interest; even those who deal in and provide these
+children with what they want, have not the least design of getting by
+what they sell for their use; and though in every thing else, their
+avarice and greediness after lucre be glaringly conspicuous, in this
+affair they are wholly divested from selfishness, and have no worldly
+ends. One motive above all, which is none of the least with the most
+of them, is to be carefully concealed, I mean the satisfaction there
+is in ordering and directing: there is a melodious sound in the word
+governor, that is charming to mean people: every body admires sway
+and superiority; even imperium in belluas has its delights: there
+is a pleasure in ruling over any thing; and it is this chiefly that
+supports human nature in the tedious slavery of school-masters. But
+if there be the least satisfaction in governing the children, it must
+be ravishing to govern the school-master himself. What fine things
+are said and perhaps wrote to a governor, when a school-master is to
+be chosen! How the praises tickle, and how pleasant it is not to find
+out the fulsomeness of the flattery, the stiffness of the expressions,
+or the pedantry of the stile!
+
+Those who can examine nature, will always find, that what these people
+most pretend to is the least, and what they utterly deny their greatest
+motive. No habit or quality is more easily acquired than hypocrisy,
+nor any thing sooner learned than to deny the sentiments of our hearts,
+and the principle we act from: but the seeds of every passion are
+innate to us, and nobody comes into the world without them. If we will
+mind the pastimes and recreations of young children, we shall observe
+nothing more general in them, than that all who are suffered to do it,
+take delight in playing with kittens and little puppy dogs. What makes
+them always lugging and pulling the poor creatures about the house,
+proceeds from nothing else but that they can do with them what they
+please, and put them into what posture and shape they list; and the
+pleasure they receive from this, is originally owing to the love of
+dominion, and that usurping temper all mankind are born with.
+
+When this great work is brought to bear, and actually accomplished,
+joy and serenity seem to overspread the face of every inhabitant,
+which likewise to account for, I must make a short digression. There
+are every where slovenly sorry fellows, that are used to be seen always
+ragged and dirty: these people we look upon as miserable creatures in
+general, and unless they are very remarkable, we take little notice
+of them, and yet among these there are handsome and well-shaped men,
+as well as among their betters. But if one of these turns soldier,
+what a vast alteration is there observed in him for the better, as
+soon as he is put in his red coat, and we see him look smart with
+his grenadier's cap and a great ammunition sword! All who knew him
+before are struck with other ideas of his qualities, and the judgment
+which both men and women form of him in their minds, is very different
+from what it was. There is something analogous to this in the sight
+of charity children; there is a natural beauty in uniformity, which
+most people delight in. It is diverting to the eye to see children
+well matched, either boys or girls, march two and two in good order;
+and to have them all whole and tight in the same clothes and trimming,
+must add to the comeliness of the sight; and what makes it still more
+generally entertaining, is the imaginary share which even servants,
+and the meanest in the parish, have in it, to whom it costs nothing:
+our parish church, our charity children. In all this there is a
+shadow of property that tickles every body, that has a right to make
+use of the words, but more especially those who actually contribute,
+and had a great hand in advancing the pious work.
+
+It is hardly conceivable, that men should so little know their own
+hearts, and be so ignorant of their inward condition, as to mistake
+frailty, passion, and enthusiasm, for goodness, virtue and charity;
+yet nothing is more true than that the satisfaction, the joy and
+transports they feel on the accounts I named, pass with these miserable
+judges for principles of piety and religion. Whoever will consider of
+what I have said for two or three pages, and suffer his imagination
+to rove a little further on what he has heard and seen concerning
+this subject, will be furnished with sufficient reasons, abstract
+from the love of God and true Christianity, why charity-schools are
+in such uncommon vogue, and so unanimously approved of and admired
+among all sorts and conditions of people. It is a theme which every
+body can talk of, and understands thoroughly; there is not a more
+inexhaustible fund for tittle-tattle, and a variety of low conversation
+in hoy-boats and stage-coaches. If a governor that in behalf of the
+school or the sermon, exerted himself more than ordinary, happens
+to be in company, how he is commended by the women, and his zeal and
+charitable disposition extolled to the skies! Upon my word, sir, says
+an old lady, we are all very much obliged to you; I do not think any
+of the other governors could have made interest enough to procure us
+a bishop; it was on your account, I am told, that his lordship came,
+though he was not very well: to which the other replies very gravely,
+that it is his duty, but that he values no trouble nor fatigue, so he
+can be but serviceable to the children, poor lambs: indeed, says he,
+I was resolved to get a pair of lawn sleeves, though I rid all night
+for it, and I am very glad I was not disappointed.
+
+Sometimes the school itself is discoursed of, and of whom in all the
+parish it is most expected he should build one: The old room where
+it is now kept is ready to drop down; such a one had a vast estate
+left him by his uncle, and a great deal of money besides; a thousand
+pounds would be nothing in his pocket.
+
+At others, the great crowds are talked of that are seen at some
+churches, and the considerable sums that are gathered; from whence,
+by an easy transition, they go over to the abilities, the different
+talents and orthodoxy of clergymen. Dr. ---- is a man of great parts
+and learning, and I believe he is very hearty for the church, but
+I do not like him for a charity sermon. There is no better man in
+the world than ----; he forces the money out of their pockets. When
+he preached last for our children, I am sure there was abundance of
+people that gave more than they intended when they came to church. I
+could see it in their faces, and rejoiced at it heartily.
+
+Another charm that renders charity-schools so bewitching to the
+multitude, is the general opinion established among them, that they
+are not only actually beneficial to society as to temporal happiness,
+but likewise that Christianity enjoys and requires of us, we should
+erect them for our future welfare. They are earnestly and fervently
+recommended by the whole body of the clergy, and have more labour and
+eloquence laid out upon them than any other Christian duty; not by
+young persons, or poor scholars of little credit, but the most learned
+of our prelates, and the most eminent for orthodoxy, even those who do
+not often fatigue themselves on any other occasion. As to religion,
+there is no doubt but they know what is chiefly required of us, and
+consequently the most necessary to salvation: and as to the world,
+who should understand the interest of the kingdom better than the
+wisdom of the nation, of which the lords spiritual are so considerable
+a branch? The consequence of this sanction is, first, that those,
+who, with their purses or power, are instrumental to the increase or
+maintenance of these schools, are tempted to place a greater merit in
+what they do, than otherwise they could suppose it deserved. Secondly,
+that all the rest, who either cannot, or will not any wise contribute
+towards them, have still a very good reason why they should speak well
+of them; for though it be difficult, in things that interfere with
+our passions, to act well, it is always in our power to wish well,
+because it is performed with little cost. There is hardly a person so
+wicked among the superstitious vulgar, but in the liking he has for
+charity schools, he imagines to see a glimmering hope that it will
+make an atonement for his sins, from the same principle as the most
+vicious comfort themselves with the love and veneration they bear to
+the church; and the greatest profligates find an opportunity in it
+to show the rectitude of their inclinations at no expence.
+
+But if all these were not inducements sufficient to make men stand
+up in defence of the idol I speak of, there is another that will
+infallibly bribe most people to be advocates for it. We all naturally
+love triumph, and whoever engages in this course is sure of conquest,
+at least in nine companies out of ten. Let him dispute with whom he
+will, considering the speciousness of the pretence, and the majority
+he has on his side, it is a castle, an impregnable fortress he can
+never be beat out of; and was the most sober, virtuous man alive to
+produce all the arguments to prove the detriment charity-schools,
+at least the multiplicity of them, do to society, which I shall
+give hereafter, and such as are yet stronger, against the greatest
+scoundrel in the world, who should only make use of the common cant
+of charity and religion, the vogue would be against the first, and
+himself lose his cause in the opinion of the vulgar.
+
+The rise, then, and original of all the bustle and clamour that is made
+throughout the kingdom in behalf of charity schools, is chiefly built
+on frailty and human passion, at least it is more than possible that a
+nation should have the same fondness, and feel the same zeal for them
+as are shown in ours, and yet not be prompted to it by any principle
+of virtue or religion. Encouraged by this consideration, I shall,
+with the greater liberty, attack this vulgar error, and endeavour to
+make it evident, that far from being beneficial, this forced education
+is pernicious to the public, the welfare whereof, as it demands of
+us a regard superior to all other laws and considerations, so it
+shall be the only apology I intend to make for differing from the
+present sentiments of the learned and reverend body of our divines,
+and venturing plainly to deny, what I have just now owned to be openly
+asserted by most of our bishops, as well as inferior clergy. As our
+church pretends to no infallibility even in spirituals, her proper
+province, so it cannot be an affront to her to imagine that she may
+err in temporals, which are not so much under her immediate care. But
+to my task.
+
+The whole earth being cursed, and no bread to be had but what we
+eat in the sweat of our brows, vast toil must be undergone before
+man can provide himself with necessaries for his sustenance, and the
+bare support of his corrupt and defective nature, as he is a single
+creature; but infinitely more to make life comfortable in a civil
+society, where men are become taught animals, and great numbers of
+them have, by mutual compact, framed themselves into a body politic;
+and the more man's knowledge increases in this state, the greater will
+be the variety of labour required to make him easy. It is impossible
+that a society can long subsist, and suffer many of its members to
+live in idleness, and enjoy all the ease and pleasure they can invent,
+without having, at the same time, great multitudes of people that
+to make good this defect will condescend to be quite the reverse,
+and by use and patience inure their bodies to work for others and
+themselves besides.
+
+The plenty and cheapness of provisions depends, in a great measure,
+on the price and value that is set upon this labour, and consequently
+the welfare of all societies, even before they are tainted with foreign
+luxury, requires that it should be performed by such of their members
+as, in the first place, are sturdy and robust, and never used to ease
+or idleness; and, in the second, soon contented as to the necessaries
+of life; such as are glad to take up with the coarsest manufacture
+in every thing they wear, and in their diet have no other aim than
+to feed their bodies when their stomachs prompt them to eat, and,
+with little regard to taste or relish, refuse no wholesome nourishment
+that can be swallowed when men are hungry, or ask any thing for their
+thirst but to quench it.
+
+As the greatest part of the drudgery is to be done by daylight,
+so it is by this only that they actually measure the time of their
+labour without any thought of the hours they are employed, or the
+weariness they feel; and the hireling in the country must get up in
+the morning, not because he has rested enough, but because the sun
+is going to rise. This last article alone would be an intolerable
+hardship to grown people under thirty, who, during nonage, had been
+used to lie a-bed as long as they could sleep: but all three together
+make up such a condition of life, as a man more mildly educated would
+hardly choose, though it should deliver him from a gaol or a shrew.
+
+If such people there must be, as no great nation can be happy without
+vast numbers of them, would not a wise legislature cultivate the
+breed of them with all imaginable care, and provide against their
+scarcity as he would prevent the scarcity of provision itself? No
+man would be poor, and fatigue himself for a livelihood, if he could
+help it: The absolute necessity all stand in for victuals and drink,
+and in cold climates for clothes and lodging, makes them submit to
+any thing that can be bore with. If nobody did want, nobody would
+work; but the greatest hardships are looked upon as solid pleasures,
+when they keep a man from starving.
+
+From what has been said, it is manifest, that in a free nation, where
+slaves are not allowed of, the surest wealth consists in a multitude
+of laborious poor; for besides that they are the never-failing nursery
+of fleets and armies, without them there could be no enjoyment, and no
+product of any country could be valuable. To make the society happy,
+and people easy under the meanest circumstances, it is requisite that
+great numbers of them should be ignorant, as well as poor. Knowledge
+both enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things a man
+wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be supplied.
+
+The welfare and felicity, therefore, of every state and kingdom,
+require that the knowledge of the working poor should be confined
+within the verge of their occupations, and never extended (as to things
+visible), beyond what relates to their calling. The more a shepherd,
+a ploughman, or any other peasant, knows of the world, and the things
+that are foreign to his labour or employment, the less fit he will
+be to go through the fatigues and hardships of it with cheerfulness
+and content.
+
+Reading, writing, and arithmetic, are very necessary to those whose
+business require such qualifications; but where people's livelihood
+has no dependence on these arts, they are very pernicious to the poor,
+who are forced to get their daily bread by their daily labour. Few
+children make any progress at school, but, at the same time, they
+are capable of being employed in some business or other, so that
+every hour those of poor people spend at their book is so much time
+lost to the society. Going to school, in comparison to working, is
+idleness, and the longer boys continue in this easy sort of life,
+the more unfit they will be when grown up for downright labour,
+both as to strength and inclination. Men who are to remain and end
+their days in a laborious, tiresome, and painful station of life,
+the sooner they are put upon it at first, the more patiently they will
+submit to it for ever after. Hard labour, and the coarsest diet, are
+a proper punishment to several kinds of malefactors, but to impose
+either on those that have not been used and brought up to both, is
+the greatest cruelty, when there is no crime you can charge them with.
+
+Reading and writing are not attained to without some labour of the
+brain and assiduity, and before people are tolerably versed in either,
+they esteem themselves infinitely above those who are wholly ignorant
+of them, often with so little justice and moderation, as if they
+were of another species. As all mortals have naturally an aversion to
+trouble and pains-taking, so we are all fond of, and apt to overvalue
+those qualifications we have purchased at the expence of our ease and
+quiet for years together. Those who spent a great part of their youth
+in learning to read, write, and cypher, expect, and not unjustly,
+to be employed where those qualifications may be of use to them; the
+generality of them will look upon downright labour with the utmost
+contempt, I mean labour performed in the service of others in the
+lowest station of life, and for the meanest consideration. A man, who
+has had some education, may follow husbandry by choice, and be diligent
+at the dirtiest and most laborious work; but then the concern must be
+his own, and avarice, the care of a family, or some other pressing
+motive, must put him upon it; but he will not make a good hireling,
+and serve a farmer for a pitiful reward; at least he is not so fit for
+it as a day labourer that has always been employed about the plough
+and dung cart, and remembers not that ever he has lived otherwise.
+
+When obsequiousness and mean services are required, we shall always
+observe that they are never so cheerfully nor so heartily performed,
+as from inferiors to superiors; I mean inferiors not only in riches
+and quality, but likewise in knowledge and understanding. A servant
+can have no unfeigned respect for his master, as soon as he has
+sense enough to find out that he serves a fool. When we are to
+learn or to obey, we shall experience in ourselves, that the greater
+opinion we have of the wisdom and capacity of those that are either
+to teach or command us, the greater deference we pay to their laws
+and instructions. No creatures submit contentedly to their equals;
+and should a horse know as much as a man, I should not desire to be
+his rider.
+
+Here I am obliged again to make a digression, though I declare I never
+had a less mind to it than I have at this minute; but I see a thousand
+rods in piss, and the whole posse of diminutive pedants against me,
+for assaulting the Christ-cross-row, and opposing the very elements
+of literature.
+
+This is no panic fear, and the reader will not imagine my apprehensions
+ill grounded, if he considers what an army of petty tyrants I have to
+cope with, that all either actually persecute with birch, or else are
+soliciting for such a preferment. For if I had no other adversaries
+than the starving wretches of both sexes, throughout the kingdom of
+Great Britain, that from a natural antipathy to working, have a great
+dislike to their present employment, and perceiving within a much
+stronger inclination to command than ever they felt to obey others,
+think themselves qualified, and wish from their hearts to be masters
+and mistresses of charity schools, the number of my enemies would, by
+the most modest computation, amount to one hundred thousand at least.
+
+Methinks I hear them cry out, that a more dangerous doctrine never
+was broached, and Popery is a fool to it, and ask what brute of
+a Saracen it is that draws his ugly weapon for the destruction of
+learning. It is ten to one but they will indict me for endeavouring, by
+instigation of the prince of darkness, to introduce into these realms
+greater ignorance and barbarity, than ever nation was plunged into by
+Goths and Vandals since the light of the gospel first appeared in the
+world. Whoever labours under the public odium, has always crimes laid
+to his charge he never was guilty of, and it will be suspected that
+I have had a hand in obliterating the Holy Scriptures, and perhaps
+affirmed, that it was at my request that the small Bibles, published by
+patent in the year 1721, and chiefly made use of in charity schools,
+were, through badness of print and paper, rendered illegible; which
+yet I protest I am as innocent of as the child unborn. But I am in
+a thousand fears; the more I consider my case, the worse I like it,
+and the greatest comfort I have is in my sincere belief, that hardly
+any body will mind a word of what I say; or else, if ever the people
+suspected that what I write would be of any weight to any considerable
+part of the society, I should not have the courage barely to think
+on all the trades I should disoblige; and I cannot but smile, when I
+reflect on the variety of uncouth sufferings that would be prepared
+for me, if the punishment they would differently inflict upon me was
+emblematically to point at my crime. For if I was not suddenly stuck
+full of useless pen knives up to the hilts, the company of stationers
+would certainly take me in hand, and either have me buried alive
+in their hall, under a great heap of primers and spelling-books,
+they would not be able to sell; or else send me up against tide to
+be bruised to death in a paper mill, that would be obliged to stand
+still a week upon my account. The ink-makers, at the same time,
+would, for the public good, offer to choke me with astringents, or
+drown me in the black liquor that would be left upon their hands;
+which, if they joined stock, might easily be performed in less than
+a month; and if I should escape the cruelty of these united bodies,
+the resentment of a private monopolist would be as fatal to me, and
+I should soon find myself pelted and knocked on the head with little
+squat Bibles clasped in brass, and ready armed for mischief, that,
+charitable learning ceasing, would be fit for nothing but unopened
+to fight with, and exercises truly polemic.
+
+The digression I spoke of just now, is not the foolish trifle that
+ended with the last paragraph, and which the grave critic, to whom
+all mirth is unseasonable, will think very impertinent; but a serious
+apologetical one I am going to make out of hand, to clear myself from
+having any design against arts and sciences, as some heads of colleges
+and other careful preservers of human learning might have apprehended,
+upon seeing ignorance recommended as a necessary ingredient in the
+mixture of civil society.
+
+In the first place, I would have near double the number of professors
+in every university of what there is now. Theology with us is generally
+well provided, but the two other faculties have very little to boast
+of, especially physic. Every branch of that art ought to have two or
+three professors, that would take pains to communicate their skill
+and knowledge to others. In public lectures, a vain man has great
+opportunities to set off his parts, but private instructions are more
+useful to students. Pharmacy, and the knowledge of the simples, are as
+necessary as anatomy or the history of diseases: it is a shame, that
+when men have taken their degree, and are by authority intrusted with
+the lives of the subject, they should be forced to come to London to be
+acquainted with the Materia Medica, and the composition of medicines,
+and receive instructions from others that never had university
+education themselves; it is certain, that in the city I named, there
+is ten times more opportunity for a man to improve himself in anatomy,
+botany, pharmacy, and the practice of physic, than at both universities
+together. What has an oil shop to do with silks; or who would look
+for hams and pickles at a mercers? Where things are well managed,
+hospitals are made as subservient to the advancement of students in
+the art of physic, as they are to the recovery of health in the poor.
+
+Good sense ought to govern men in learning as well as in trade: no
+man ever bound his son apprentice to a goldsmith to make him a linen
+draper; then why should he have a divine for his tutor to become
+a lawyer or a physician? It is true, that the languages, logic and
+philosophy, should be the first studies in all the learned professions;
+but there is so little help for physic in our universities that are
+so rich, and where so many idle people are well paid for eating and
+drinking, and being magnificently, as well as commodiously lodged,
+that bar books, and what is common to all the three faculties, a man
+may as well qualify himself at Oxford or Cambridge to be a Turkey
+merchant, as he can to be a physician; which is, in my humble opinion,
+a great sign that some part of the great wealth they are possessed
+of is not so well applied as it might be.
+
+Professors should, besides their stipends allowed them by the public,
+have gratifications from every student they teach, that self-interest,
+as well as emulation and the love of glory, might spur them on to
+labour and assiduity. When a man excels in any one study or part of
+learning, and is qualified to teach others, he ought to be procured, if
+money will purchase him, without regarding what party, or indeed what
+country or nation he is of, whether black or white. Universities should
+be public marts for all manner of literature, as your annual fairs,
+that are kept at Leipsic, Frankfort, and other places in Germany,
+are for different wares and merchandises, where no difference is
+made between natives and foreigners, and which men resort to from
+all parts of the world with equal freedom and equal privilege.
+
+From paying the gratifications I spoke of, I would excuse all students
+designed for the ministry of the gospel. There is no faculty so
+immediately necessary to the government of a nation as that of
+theology, and as we ought to have great numbers of divines for the
+service of this island, I would not have the meaner people discouraged
+from bringing up their children to that function. For though wealthy
+men, if they have many sons, sometimes make one of them a clergyman,
+as we see even persons of quality take up holy orders, and there
+are likewise people of good sense, especially divines, that from a
+principle of prudence bring up their children to that profession, when
+they are morally assured that they have friends or interest enough,
+and shall be able, either by a good fellowship at the university,
+advowsons, or other means to procure them a livelihood: but these
+produce not the large number of divines that are yearly ordained,
+and for the bulk of the clergy, we are indebted to another original.
+
+Among the middling people of all trades there are bigots who have a
+superstitious awe for a gown and cassock: of these there are multitudes
+that feel an ardent desire of having a son promoted to the ministry of
+the gospel, without considering what is to become of them afterwards;
+and many a kind mother in this kingdom, without consulting her own
+circumstances or her child's capacity, transported with this laudable
+wish, is daily feasting on this pleasing thought, and often before her
+son is twelve years old, mixing maternal love with devotion, throws
+herself into ecstasies and tears of satisfaction, by reflecting on the
+future enjoyment she is to receive from seeing him stand in a pulpit,
+and, with her own ears, hearing him preach the word of God. It is to
+this religious zeal, or at least the human frailties that pass for
+and represent it, that we owe the great plenty of poor scholars the
+nation enjoys. For, considering the inequality of livings, and the
+smallness of benefices up and down the kingdom, without this happy
+disposition in parents of small fortune, we could not possibly be
+furnished from any other quarter with proper persons for the ministry,
+to attend all the cures of souls, so pitifully provided for, that no
+mortal could live upon them that had been educated in any tolerable
+plenty, unless he was possessed of real virtue, which it is foolish
+and indeed injurious, we should more expect from the clergy than we
+generally find it in the laity.
+
+The great care I would take to promote that part of learning which
+is more immediately useful to society, should not make me neglect
+the more curious and polite, but all the liberal arts, and every
+branch of literature should be encouraged throughout the kingdom,
+more than they are, if my wishing could do it. In every county, there
+should be one or more large schools, erected at the public charge,
+for Latin and Greek, that should be divided into six or more classes,
+with particular masters in each of them. The whole should be under
+the care and inspection of some men of letters in authority, who would
+not only be titular governors, but actually take pains at least twice
+a-year, in hearing every class thoroughly examined by the master of it,
+and not content themselves with judging of the progress the scholars
+had made for the themes and other exercises that had been made out
+of their sight.
+
+At the same time, I would discharge and hinder the multiplicity of
+those petty schools, that never would have had any existence had
+the masters of them not been extremely indigent. It is a vulgar
+error, that nobody can spell or write English well without a little
+smatch of Latin. This is upheld by pedants for their own interest,
+and by none more strenuously maintained than such of them as are
+poor scholars in more than one sense; in the mean time it is an
+abominable falsehood. I have known, and I am still acquainted with
+several, and some of the fair sex, that never learned any Latin,
+and yet kept to strict orthography, and write admirable good sense;
+where, on the other hand, every body may meet with the scribblings
+of pretended scholars, at least such as went to a grammar school
+for several years, that have grammar faults and are ill spelled. The
+understanding of Latin thoroughly, is highly necessary to all that
+are designed for any of the learned professions, and I would have
+no gentleman without literature; even those who are to be brought up
+attorneys, surgeons, and apothecaries, should be much better versed in
+that language than generally they are; but to youth, who afterwards
+are to get a livelihood in trades and callings in which Latin is not
+daily wanted, it is of no use, and the learning of it an evident loss
+of just so much time and money as are bestowed upon it. When men come
+into business, what was taught them of it, in those petty schools is
+either soon forgot, or only fit to make them impertinent, and often
+very troublesome in company. Few men can forbear valuing themselves on
+any knowledge they had once acquired, even after they have lost it;
+and, unless they are very modest and discreet, the undigested scraps
+which such people commonly remember of Latin, seldom fail of rendering
+them, at one time or other, ridiculous to those who understand it.
+
+Reading and writing I would treat as we do music and dancing, I would
+not hinder them nor force them upon the society: as long as there
+was any thing to be got by them, there would be masters enough to
+teach them; but nothing should be taught for nothing but at church:
+and here I would exclude even those who might be designed for the
+ministry of the gospel; for, if parents are so miserably poor that
+they cannot afford their children these first elements of learning,
+it is impudence in them to aspire any further.
+
+It would encourage, likewise, the lower sort of people to give their
+children this part of education, if they could see them preferred to
+those of idle sots or sorry rake-hells, that never knew what it was to
+provide a rag for their brats but by begging. But now, when a boy or
+a girl are wanted for any small service, we reckon it a duty to employ
+our charity children before any other. The education of them looks like
+a reward for being vicious and unactive, a benefit commonly bestowed on
+parents, who deserve to be punished for shamefully neglecting their
+families. In one place you may hear a rascal half drunk, damning
+himself, call for the other pot, and as a good reason for it, add,
+that his boy is provided for in clothes, and has his schooling for
+nothing: In another you shall see a poor woman in great necessity,
+whose child is to be taken care of, because herself is a lazy slut,
+and never did any thing to remedy her wants in good earnest, but
+bewailing them at a gin-shop.
+
+If every body's children are well taught, who, by their own industry,
+can educate them at our universities, there will be men of learning
+enough to supply this nation and such another; and reading, writing,
+or arithmetic, would never be wanting in the business that requires
+them, though none were to learn them but such whose parents could
+be at the charge of it. It is not with letters as it is with the
+gifts of the Holy Ghost, that they may not be purchased with money;
+and bought wit, if we believe the proverb, is none of the worst.
+
+I thought it necessary to say thus much of learning, to obviate
+the clamours of the enemies to truth and fair dealing, who, had I
+not so amply explained myself on this head, would have represented
+me as a mortal foe to all literature and useful knowledge, and a
+wicked advocate for universal ignorance and stupidity. I shall now
+make good my promise, of answering what I know the well-wishers to
+charity schools would object against me, by saying that they brought
+up the children under their care, to warrantable and laborious trades,
+and not to idleness as I did insinuate.
+
+I have sufficiently showed already, why going to school was idleness
+if compared to working, and exploded this sort of education in the
+children of the poor, because it incapacitates them ever after for
+downright labour, which is their proper province, and, in every
+civil society, a portion they ought not to repine or grumble at,
+if exacted from them with discretion and humanity. What remains, is,
+that I should speak as to their putting them out to trades, which I
+shall endeavour to demonstrate to be destructive to the harmony of
+a nation, and an impertinent intermeddling with what few of these
+governors know any thing of.
+
+In order to this, let us examine into the nature of societies, and
+what the compound ought to consist of, if we would raise it to as high
+a degree of strength, beauty, and perfection, as the ground we are to
+do it upon will let us. The variety of services that are required to
+supply the luxurious and wanton desires, as well as real necessities of
+man, with all their subordinate callings, is in such a nation as ours
+prodigious; yet it is certain that though the number of those several
+occupations be excessively great, it is far from being infinite;
+if you add one more than is required, it must be superfluous. If a
+man had a good stock, and the best shop in Cheapside to sell turbants
+in, he would be ruined; and if Demetrius, or any other silversmith,
+made nothing but Diana's shrines, he would not get his bread, now the
+worship of that goddess is out of fashion. As it is folly to set up
+trades that are not wanted, so what is next to it is to increase in any
+one trade, the numbers beyond what are required. As things are managed
+with us, it would be preposterous to have as many brewers as there
+are bakers, or as many woollen-drapers as there are shoemakers. This
+proportion as to numbers, in every trade, finds itself, and is never
+better kept than when nobody meddles or interferes with it.
+
+People that have children to educate that must get their livelihood,
+are always consulting and deliberating what trade or calling they
+are to bring them up to, until they are fixed; and thousands think on
+this, that hardly think at all on any thing else. First, they confine
+themselves to their circumstances, and he that can give but ten pounds
+with his son must not look out for a trade, where they ask an hundred
+with an apprentice; but the next they think on, is always which will
+be the most advantageous; if there be a calling where at that time
+people are more generally employed than they are in any other in the
+same reach, there are presently half a score fathers ready to supply
+it with their sons. Therefore the greatest care most companies have,
+is about the regulation of the number of apprentices. Now, when all
+trades complain, and perhaps justly, that they are overstocked, you
+manifestly injure that trade, to which you add one member more than
+would flow from the nature of society. Besides that, the governors
+of charity schools do not deliberate so much what trade is the best,
+but what tradesmen they can get that will take the boys, with such a
+sum; and few men of substance and experience will have any thing to
+do with these children; they are afraid of a hundred inconveniencies
+from the necessitous parents of them: so that they are bound, at least
+most commonly, either to sots and neglectful masters, or else such
+as are very needy and do not care what becomes of their apprentices,
+after they have received the money; by which it seems as if we studied
+nothing more than to have a perpetual nursery for charity schools.
+
+When all trades and handicrafts are overstocked, it is a certain
+sign there is a fault in the management of the whole; for it is
+impossible there should be too many people if the country is able to
+feed them. Are provisions dear? Whose fault is that, as long as you
+have ground untilled and hands unemployed? But I shall be answered,
+that to increase plenty, must at long-run undo the farmer, or lessen
+the rents all over England. To which I reply, that what the husbandman
+complains of most, is what I would redress: the greatest grievance
+of farmers, gardeners, and others, where hard labour is required,
+and dirty work to be done, is, that they cannot get servants for the
+same wages they used to have them at. The day-labourer grumbles at
+sixteen pence to do no other drudgery, than what thirty years ago
+his grandfather did cheerfully for half the money. As to the rents,
+it is impossible they should fall while you increase your numbers;
+but the price of provisions, and all labour in general, must fall with
+them, if not before; and a man of a hundred and fifty pounds a-year,
+has no reason to complain that his income is reduced to one hundred,
+if he can buy as much for that one hundred as before he could have
+done for two.
+
+There is no intrinsic worth in money, but what is alterable with the
+times; and whether a guinea goes for twenty pounds or for a shilling,
+it is (as I have already hinted before) the labour of the poor, and not
+the high and low value that is set on gold or silver, which all the
+comforts of life must arise from. It is in our power to have a much
+greater plenty than we enjoy, if agriculture and fishery were taken
+care of, as they might be; but we are so little capable of increasing
+our labour, that we have hardly poor enough to do what is necessary
+to make us subsist. The proportion of the society is spoiled, and
+the bulk of the nation, which should every where consist of labouring
+poor, that are unacquainted with every thing but their work, is too
+little for the other parts. In all business where downright labour is
+shunned or over-paid, there is plenty of people. To one merchant you
+have ten book keepers, or at least pretenders; and every where in the
+country the farmer wants hands. Ask for a footman that for some time
+has been in gentlemen's families, and you will get a dozen that are
+all butlers. You may have chamber-maids by the score, but you cannot
+get a cook under extravagant wages.
+
+Nobody will do the dirty slavish work, that can help it. I do not
+discommend them; but all these things show, that the people of the
+meanest rank, know too much to be serviceable to us. Servants require
+more than masters and mistresses can afford; and what madness is it to
+encourage them in this, by industriously increasing at our cost, that
+knowledge, which they will be sure to make us pay for over again! And
+it is not only that those who are educated at our own expence, encroach
+upon us, but the raw ignorant country wenches and boobily fellows that
+can do, and are good for nothing, impose upon us likewise. The scarcity
+of servants occasioned by the education of the first, gives a handle
+to the latter of advancing their price, and demanding what ought only
+to be given to servants that understand their business, and have most
+of the good qualities that can be required in them. There is no place
+in the world where there are more clever fellows to look at, or to do
+an errand, than some of our footmen; but what are they good for in the
+main? The greatest part of them are rogues, and not to be trusted;
+and if they are honest, half of them are sots, and will get drunk
+three or four times a week. The surly ones are generally quarrelsome,
+and valuing their manhood beyond all other considerations, care not
+what clothes they spoil, or what disappointments they may occasion,
+when their prowess is in question. Those who are good-natured, are
+generally sad whore-masters, that are ever running after the wenches,
+and spoil all the maid-servants they come near. Many of them are
+guilty of all these vices, whoring, drinking, quarrelling, and yet
+shall have all their faults overlooked and bore with, because they
+are men of good mien and humble address, that know how to wait on
+gentlemen; which is an unpardonable folly in masters, and generally
+ends in the ruin of servants.
+
+Some few there are, that are not addicted to any of these failings,
+and understand their duty besides; but as these are rarities, so there
+is not one in fifty but what over-rates himself; his wages must be
+extravagant, and you can never have done giving him; every thing in
+the house is his perquisite, and he will not stay with you unless
+his vails are sufficient to maintain a middling family; and though
+you had taken him from the dunghill, out of an hospital, or a prison,
+you shall never keep him longer than he can make of his place, what
+in his high estimation of himself he shall think he deserves; nay,
+the best and most civilized, that never were saucy and impertinent,
+will leave the most indulgent master, and, to get handsomely away,
+frame fifty excuses, and tell downright lies, as soon as they can mend
+themselves. A man, who keeps an half-crown or twelve-penny ordinary,
+looks not more for money from his customers, than a footman does
+from every guest that dines or sups with his master; and I question
+whether the one does not often think a shilling or half-a-crown,
+according to the quality of the person, his due as much as the other.
+
+A housekeeper, who cannot afford to make many entertainments, and
+does not often invite people to his table, can have no creditable
+man-servant, and is forced to take up with some country booby, or
+other awkward fellow, who will likewise give him the slip, as soon
+as he imagines himself fit for any other service, and is made wiser
+by his rascally companions. All noted eating-houses, and places that
+many gentlemen resort to for diversion or business, more especially
+the precincts of Westminster-hall, are the great schools for servants,
+where the dullest fellows may have their understandings improved;
+and get rid at once of their stupidity and their innocence. They are
+the academies for footmen, where public lectures are daily read, on
+all sciences of low debauchery, by the experienced professors of them;
+and students are instructed in above seven hundred illiberal arts, how
+to cheat, impose upon, and find out the blind side of their masters,
+with so much application, that in few years they become graduates in
+iniquity. Young gentlemen and others, that are not thoroughly versed
+in the world, when they get such knowing sharpers in their service,
+are commonly indulging above measure; and for fear of discovering
+their want of experience, hardly dare to contradict or deny them any
+thing, which is often the reason, that by allowing them unreasonable
+privileges, they expose their ignorance when they are most endeavouring
+to conceal it.
+
+Some perhaps will lay the things I complain of to the charge of
+luxury, of which I said that it could do no hurt to a rich nation,
+if the imports never did exceed the exports; but I do not think this
+imputation just, and nothing ought to be scored on the account of
+luxury, that is downright the effect of folly. A man may be very
+extravagant in indulging his ease and his pleasure, and render the
+enjoyment of the world as operose and expensive as they can be made, if
+he can afford it, and, at the same time, show his good sense in every
+thing about him: This he cannot be said to do, if he industriously
+renders his people incapable of doing him that service he expects from
+them. It is too much money, excessive wages, and unreasonable vails,
+that spoil servants in England. A man may have five and twenty horses
+in his stables, without being guilty of folly, if it suits with the
+rest of his circumstances; but if he keeps but one, and overfeeds it
+to show his wealth, he is a fool for his pains. Is it not madness to
+suffer, that servants should take three, and others five per cent. of
+what they pay to tradesmen for their masters, as is so well known
+to watchmakers, and others that sell toys, superfluous nicknacks,
+and other curiosities, if they deal with people of quality and
+fashionable gentlemen, that are above telling their own money? If
+they should accept of a present when offered, it might be connived
+at, but it is an unpardonable impudence that they should claim it
+as their due, and contend for it if refused. Those who have all the
+necessaries of life provided for, can have no occasion for money, but
+what does them hurt as servants, unless they were to hoard it up for
+age or sickness, which, among our skip-kennels, is not very common,
+and even then it makes them saucy and insupportable.
+
+I am credibly informed, that a parcel of footmen are arrived to that
+height of insolence, as to have entered into a society together, and
+made laws, by which they oblige themselves not to serve for less than
+such a sum, nor carry burdens, or any bundle or parcel above a certain
+weight, not exceeding two or three pounds, with other regulations
+directly opposite to the interest of those they serve, and altogether
+destructive to the use they were designed for. If any of them be
+turned away for strictly adhering to the orders of this honourable
+corporation, he is taken care of till another service is provided
+for him; and there is no money wanting at any time to commence and
+maintain a law-suit against any master that shall pretend to strike,
+or offer any other injury to his gentleman footman, contrary to the
+statutes of their society. If this be true, as I have reason to believe
+it is, and they are suffered to go on in consulting and providing for
+their own ease and conveniency any further, we may expect quickly to
+see the French comedy, Le Maitre le Valet acted in good earnest in
+most families, which, if not redressed in a little time, and those
+footmen increase their company to the number it is possible they may,
+as well as assemble when they please with impunity, it will be in
+their power to make a tragedy of it whenever they have a mind to it.
+
+But suppose those apprehensions frivolous and groundless, it is
+undeniable that servants, in general, are daily encroaching upon
+masters and mistresses, and endeavouring to be more upon the level
+with them. They not only seem solicitous to abolish the low dignity
+of their condition, but have already considerably raised it in the
+common estimation from the original meanness which the public welfare
+requires it should always remain in. I do not say that these things are
+altogether owing to charity schools, there are other evils they may be
+partly ascribed to. London is too big for the country, and, in several
+respects, we are wanting to ourselves. But if a thousand faults were
+to concur before the inconveniences could be produced we labour under,
+can any man doubt, who will consider what I have said, that charity
+schools are accessary, or, at least, that they are more likely to
+create and increase than to lessen or redress those complaints?
+
+The only thing of weight, then, that can be said in their behalf is,
+that so many thousand children are educated by them in the Christian
+faith, and the principles of the church of England. To demonstrate that
+this is not a sufficient plea for them, I must desire the reader,
+as I hate repetitions, to look back on what I have said before,
+to which I shall add, that whatever is necessary to salvation, and
+requisite for poor labouring people to know concerning religion,
+that children learn at school, may fully as well either by preaching
+or catechizing be taught at church, from which, or some other place of
+worship, I would not have the meanest of a parish that is able to walk
+to it be absent on Sundays. It is the Sabbath, the most useful day in
+seven, that is set apart for divine service and religious exercise,
+as well as resting from bodily labour; and it is a duty incumbent on
+all magistrates, to take particular care of that day. The poor more
+especially and their children, should be made to go to church on it,
+both in the fore and afternoon, because they have no time on any
+other. By precept and example they ought to be encouraged and used
+to it from their very infancy; the wilful neglect of it ought to be
+counted scandalous, and if downright compulsion to what I urge might
+seem too harsh, and perhaps impracticable, all diversions at least
+ought strictly to be prohibited, and the poor hindered from every
+amusement abroad that might allure or draw them from it.
+
+Where this care is taken by the magistrates, as far as it lies in their
+power, ministers of the gospel may instil into the smallest capacities,
+more piety and devotion, and better principles of virtue and religion,
+than charity schools ever did or ever will produce; and those who
+complain, when they have such opportunities, that they cannot imbue
+their parishioners with sufficient knowledge, of what they stand in
+need of as Christians, without the assistance of reading and writing,
+are either very lazy or very ignorant and undeserving themselves.
+
+That the most knowing are not the most religious, will be evident if
+we make a trial between people of different abilities, even in this
+juncture, where going to church is not made such an obligation on
+the poor and illiterate, as it might be. Let us pitch upon a hundred
+poor men, the first we can light on, that are above forty, and were
+brought up to hard labour from their infancy, such as never went
+to school at all, and always lived remote from knowledge and great
+towns: Let us compare to these an equal number of very good scholars,
+that shall all have had university education, and be, if you will,
+half of them divines, well versed in philology and polemic learning;
+then let us impartially examine into the lives and conversations of
+both, and I dare engage that among the first, who can neither read
+nor write, we shall meet with more union and neighbourly love, less
+wickedness and attachment to the world, more content of mind, more
+innocence, sincerity, and other good qualities that conduce to the
+public peace and real felicity, than we shall find among the latter,
+where, on the contrary, we may be assured of the height of pride and
+insolence, eternal quarrels and dissensions, irreconcileable hatreds,
+strife, envy, calumny, and other vices, destructive to mutual concord,
+which the illiterate labouring poor are hardly ever tainted with,
+to any considerable degree.
+
+I am very well persuaded, that what I have said in the last paragraph,
+will be no news to most of my readers; but if it be truth, why should
+it be stifled, and why must our concern for religion be eternally
+made a cloak to hide our real drifts and worldly intentions? Would
+both parties agree to pull off the mask, we should soon discover
+that whatever they pretend to, they aim at nothing so much in charity
+schools, as to strengthen their party; and that the great sticklers
+for the church, by educating children in the principles of religion,
+mean inspiring them with a superlative veneration for the clergy of
+the church of England, and a strong aversion and immortal animosity
+against all that dissent from it. To be assured of this, we are but
+to mind on the one hand, what divines are most admired for their
+charity sermons, and most fond to preach them; and on the other,
+whether of late years we have had any riots or party scuffles among
+the mob, in which the youth of a famous hospital in this city, were
+not always the most forward ringleaders.
+
+The grand asserters of liberty, who are ever guarding themselves,
+and skirmishing against arbitrary power, often when they are in no
+danger of it, are generally speaking, not very superstitious, nor
+seem to lay great stress on any modern apostleship: yet some of these
+likewise speak up loudly for charity schools; but what they expect
+from them has no relation to religion or morality: they only look
+upon them as the proper means to destroy, and disappoint the power of
+the priests over the laity. Reading and writing increase knowledge;
+and the more men know, the better they can judge for themselves,
+and they imagine that, if knowledge could be rendered universal,
+people could not be priest-rid, which is the thing they fear the most.
+
+The first, I confess, it is very possible will get their aim. But sure
+wise men that are not red-hot for a party, or bigots to the priests,
+will not think it worth while to suffer so many inconveniencies, as
+charity schools may be the occasion of, only to promote the ambition
+and power of the clergy. To the other I would answer, that if all
+those who are educated at the charge of their parents or relations,
+will but think for themselves, and refuse to have their reason imposed
+upon by the priests, we need not be concerned for what the clergy
+will work upon the ignorant that have no education at all. Let them
+make the most of them: considering the schools we have for those who
+can and do pay for learning, it is ridiculous to imagine that the
+abolishing of charity schools would be a step towards any ignorance
+that could be prejudicial to the nation.
+
+I would not be thought cruel, and am well assured if I know any
+thing of myself, that I abhor inhumanity; but to be compassionate
+to excess, where reason forbids it, and the general interest of
+the society requires steadiness of thought and resolution, is an
+unpardonable weakness. I know it will be ever urged against me, that
+it is barbarous the children of the poor should have no opportunity
+of exerting themselves, as long as God has not debarred them from
+natural parts and genius, more than the rich. But I cannot think
+this is harder, than it is that they should not have money, as long
+as they have the same inclinations to spend as others. That great
+and useful men have sprung from hospitals, I do not deny; but it is
+likewise very probable, that when they were first employed, many as
+capable as themselves not brought up in hospitals were neglected,
+that with the same good fortune would have done as well as they,
+if they had been made use of instead of them.
+
+There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and
+even in war, but this is no reason we should bring them all up to Latin
+and Greek, or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and
+housewifery. But there is no scarcity of sprightliness or natural
+parts among us, and no soil and climate has human creatures to
+boast of better formed, either inside or outside, than this island
+generally produces. But it is not wit, genius, or docility we want,
+but diligence, application, and assiduity.
+
+Abundance of hard and dirty labour is to be done, and coarse living
+is to be complied with: where shall we find a better nursery for these
+necessities than the children of the poor? none, certainly, are nearer
+to it or fitter for it: Besides that the things I called hardships,
+neither seem nor are such to those who have been brought up to them,
+and know no better. There is not a more contented people among us,
+than those who work the hardest, and are the least acquainted with
+the pomp and delicacies of the world.
+
+These are truths that are undeniable; yet I know few people will
+be pleased to have them divulged; what makes them odious, is an
+unreasonable vein of petty reverence for the poor, that runs through
+most multitudes, and more particularly in this nation, and arises from
+a mixture of pity, folly, and superstition. It is from a lively sense
+of this compound, that men cannot endure to hear or see any thing said
+or acted against the poor; without considering how just the one, or
+insolent the other. So a beggar must not be beat, though he strikes
+you first. Journeymen tailors go to law with their masters, and are
+obstinate in a wrong cause, yet they must be pitied; and murmuring
+weavers must be relieved, and have fifty silly things done to humour
+them, though in the midst of their poverty they insult their betters,
+and, on all occasions, appear to be more prone to make holidays and
+riots than they are to working or sobriety.
+
+This puts me in mind of our wool, which, considering the posture
+of our affairs, and the behaviour of the poor, I sincerely believe,
+ought not, upon any account, to be carried abroad: but if we look into
+the reason, why suffering it to be fetched away is so pernicious, our
+heavy complaint and lamentations that it is exported can be no great
+credit to us. Considering the mighty and manifold hazards that must be
+run before it can be got off the coast, and safely landed beyond sea,
+it is manifest that the foreigners, before they can work our wool,
+must pay more for it very considerably, than what we can have it for
+at home. Yet, notwithstanding this great difference in the prime cost,
+they can afford to sell the manufactures made of it cheaper at foreign
+markets than ourselves. This is the disaster we groan under, the
+intolerable mischief, without which the exportation of that commodity
+could be no greater prejudice to us than that of tin or lead, as long
+as our hands were fully employed, and we had still wool to spare.
+
+There is no people yet come to higher perfection in the woollen
+manufacture, either as to dispatch or goodness of work, at least in
+the most considerable branches, than ourselves; and therefore what
+we complain of can only depend on the difference in the management of
+the poor, between other nations and ours. If the labouring people in
+one country will work twelve hours in a day, and six days in a week,
+and in another they are employed but eight hours in a day, and not
+above four days in a week the one is obliged to have nine hands for
+what the other does with four. But if, moreover, the living, the food,
+and raiment, and what is consumed by the workmen of the industrious,
+costs but half the money of what is expended among an equal number
+of the other, the consequence must be, that the first will have the
+work of eighteen men for the same price as the other gives for the
+work of four. I would not insinuate, neither do I think, that the
+difference, either in diligence or necessaries of life between us
+and any neighbouring nation, is near so great as what I speak of,
+yet I would have it considered, that half of that difference, and
+much less, is sufficient to over-balance the disadvantage they labour
+under as to the price of wool.
+
+Nothing to me is more evident, than that no nation in any manufacture
+whatever can undersell their neighbours with whom they are at best
+but equals as to skill and dispatch, and the conveniency for working,
+more especially when the prime cost of the thing to be manufactured
+is not in their favour, unless they have provisions, and whatever
+is relating to their sustenance, cheaper, or else workmen that
+are either more assiduous, and will remain longer at their work,
+or be content with a meaner and coarser way of living than those
+of their neighbours. This is certain, that where numbers are equal,
+the more laborious people are, and the fewer hands the same quantity
+of work is performed by, the greater plenty there is in a country of
+the necessaries for life, the more considerable and the cheaper that
+country may render its exports.
+
+It being granted, then, that abundance of work is to be done, the
+next thing which I think to be likewise undeniable, is, that the more
+cheerfully it is done the better, as well for those that perform it,
+as for the rest of the society. To be happy is to be pleased, and the
+less notion a man has of a better way of living, the more content he
+will be with his own; and, on the other hand, the greater a man's
+knowledge and experience is in the world, the more exquisite the
+delicacy of his taste, and the more consummate judge he is of things
+in general, certainly the more difficult it will be to please him. I
+would not advance any thing that is barbarous or inhuman: but when a
+man enjoys himself, laughs and sings, and in his gesture and behaviour
+shows me all the tokens of content and satisfaction, I pronounce him
+happy, and have nothing to do with his wit or capacity. I never enter
+into the reasonableness of his mirth, at least I ought not to judge
+of it by my own standard, and argue from the effect which the thing
+that makes him merry would have upon me. At that rate, a man that
+hates cheese must call me fool for loving blue mold. De gustibus
+non est disputandum is as true in a metaphorical, as it is in the
+literal sense; and the greater the distance is between people as to
+their condition, their circumstances and manner of living, the less
+capable they are of judging of one another's troubles or pleasures.
+
+Had the meanest and most uncivilized peasant leave incognito to
+observe the greatest king for a fortnight; though he might pick out
+several things he would like for himself, yet he would find a great
+many more, which, if the monarch and he were to exchange conditions,
+he would wish for his part to have immediately altered or redressed,
+and which with amazement he sees the king submit to. And again, if the
+sovereign was to examine the peasant in the same manner, his labour
+would be unsufferable; the dirt and squalor, his diet and amours,
+his pastimes and recreations would be all abominable; but then what
+charms would he find in the other's peace of mind, the calmness and
+tranquillity of his soul? No necessity for dissimulation with any
+of his family, or feigned affection to his mortal enemies; no wife
+in a foreign interest, no danger to apprehend from his children; no
+plots to unravel, no poison to fear; no popular statesman at home,
+or cunning courts abroad to manage; no seeming patriots to bribe;
+no unsatiable favourite to gratify; no selfish ministry to obey; no
+divided nation to please, or fickle mob to humour, that would direct
+and interfere with his pleasures.
+
+Was impartial reason to be judge between real good and real evil, and
+a catalogue made accordingly, of the several delights and vexations
+differently to be met with in both stations; I question whether the
+condition of kings would be at all preferable to that of peasants,
+even as ignorant and laborious as I seem to require the latter to
+be. The reason why the generality of people would rather be kings
+than peasants, is first owing to pride and ambition, that is deeply
+riveted in human nature, and which to gratify, we daily see men
+undergo and despise the greatest hazards and difficulties. Secondly,
+to the difference there is in the force with which our affection is
+wrought upon, as the objects are either material or spiritual. Things
+that immediately strike our outward senses, act more violently upon
+our passions than what is the result of thought, and the dictates of
+the most demonstrative reason; and there is a much stronger bias to
+gain our liking or aversion in the first, than there is in the latter.
+
+Having thus demonstrated that what I urge could be no injury, or
+the least diminution of happiness to the poor, I leave it to the
+judicious reader, whether it is not more probable we should increase
+our exports by the methods I hint at, than by sitting still and
+damning and sinking our neighbours, for beating us at our own weapons;
+some of them out-selling us in manufactures made of our own product,
+which they dearly purchased, others growing rich in spite of distance
+and trouble, by the same fish which we neglect, though it is ready
+to jump into our mouths.
+
+As by discouraging idleness with art and steadiness, you may compel the
+poor to labour without force; so, by bringing them up in ignorance,
+you may inure them to real hardships, without being ever sensible
+themselves that they are such. By bringing them up in ignorance,
+I mean no more, as I have hinted long ago, than that, as to worldly
+affairs, their knowledge should be confined within the verge of their
+own occupations, at least that we should not take pains to extend
+it beyond those limits. When by these two engines we shall have made
+provisions, and consequently labour cheap, we must infallibly outsell
+our neighbours; and at the same time increase our numbers. This is
+the noble and manly way of encountering the rivals of our trade,
+and by dint of merit outdoing them at foreign markets.
+
+To allure the poor, we make use of policy in some cases with
+success. Why should we be neglectful of it in the most important point,
+when they make their boast that they will not live as the poor of other
+nations? If we cannot alter their resolution, why should we applaud
+the justness of their sentiments against the common interest? I have
+often wondered formerly how an Englishman that pretended to have the
+honour and glory, as well as the welfare of his country at heart,
+could take delight in the evening to hear an idle tenant that owed
+him above a year's rent, ridicule the French for wearing wooden shoes,
+when in the morning he had had the mortification of hearing the great
+King William, that ambitious monarch, as well as able statesman, openly
+own to the world, and with grief and anger in his looks, complain of
+the exorbitant power of France. Yet I do not recommend wooden shoes,
+nor do the maxims I would introduce require arbitrary power in one
+person. Liberty and property I hope may remain secured, and yet the
+poor be better employed than they are, though their children should
+wear out their clothes by useful labour, and blacken them with country
+dirt for something, instead of tearing them off their backs at play,
+and daubing them with ink for nothing.
+
+There is above three or four hundred years work, for a hundred
+thousand poor more than we have in this island. To make every part
+of it useful, and the whole thoroughly inhabited, many rivers are
+to be made navigable; canals to be cut in hundreds of places. Some
+lands are to be drained and secured from inundations for the future:
+abundance of barren soil is to be made fertile, and thousands of
+acres rendered more beneficial, by being made more accessible. Dii
+laboribus omnia vendunt. There is no difficulty of this nature,
+that labour and patience cannot surmount. The highest mountains may
+be thrown into their valleys that stand ready to receive them; and
+bridges might be laid where now we would not dare to think of it. Let
+us look back on the stupendous works of the Romans, more especially
+their highways and aqueducts. Let us consider in one view the vast
+extent of several of their roads, how substantial they made them,
+and what duration they have been of; and in another a poor traveller
+that at every ten miles end is stopped by a turnpike, and dunned for
+a penny for mending the roads in the summer, with what every body
+knows will be dirt before the winter that succeeds is expired.
+
+The conveniency of the public ought ever to be the public care, and
+no private interest of a town, or a whole country, should ever hinder
+the execution of a project or contrivance that would manifestly tend
+to the improvement of the whole; and every member of the legislature,
+who knows his duty. and would choose rather to act like a wise man,
+than curry favour with his neighbours, will prefer the least benefit
+accruing to the whole kingdom, to the most visible advantage of the
+place he serves for.
+
+We have materials of our own, and want neither stone nor timber to do
+any thing; and was the money that people give uncompelled to beggars,
+who do not deserve it, and what every housekeeper is obliged to pay
+to the poor of his parish, that is other wise employed or ill-applied,
+to be put together every year, it would make a sufficient fund to keep
+a great many thousands at work. I do not say this because I think it
+practicable, but only to show that we have money enough to spare,
+to employ vast multitudes of labourers; neither should we want so
+much for it as we perhaps might imagine. When it is taken for granted,
+that a soldier, whose strength and vigour is to be kept up at least as
+much as any body's, can live upon sixpence a-day, I cannot conceive
+the necessity of giving the greatest part of the year, sixteen and
+eighteen pence to a day-labourer.
+
+The fearful and cautious people, that are ever jealous of their
+liberty, I know will cry out, that where the multitudes I speak of
+should be kept in constant pay, property and privileges would be
+precarious. But they might be answered, that sure means might be
+found out, and such regulations made, as to the hands in which to
+trust the management and direction of these labourers, that it would
+be impossible for the prince, or any body else, to make an ill use
+of their numbers.
+
+What I have said in the four or five last paragraphs, I foresee,
+will, with abundance of scorn, be laughed at by many of my readers,
+and at best be called building castles in the air; but whether that
+is my fault or theirs is a question. When the public spirit has left
+a nation, they not only lose their patience with it, and all thoughts
+of perseverance, but become likewise so narrow-souled, that it is a
+pain for them even to think of things that are of uncommon extent,
+or require great length of time; and whatever is noble or sublime
+in such conjectures, is counted chimerical. Where deep ignorance
+is entirely routed and expelled, and low learning promiscuously
+scattered on all the people, self-love turns knowledge into cunning;
+and the more this last qualification prevails in any country, the
+more the people will fix all their cares, concern, and application,
+on the time present, without regard of what is to come after them,
+or hardly ever thinking beyond the next generation.
+
+But as cunning, according to my Lord Verulam, is but left-handed
+wisdom; so a prudent legislator ought to provide against this disorder
+of the society, as soon as the symptoms of it appear, among which
+the following are the most obvious. Imaginary rewards are generally
+despised; every body is for turning the penny, and short bargains;
+he that is diffident of every thing and believes nothing but what
+he sees with his own eyes, is counted the most prudent; and in all
+their dealings, men seem to act from no other principle than that
+of the devil take the hindmost. Instead of planting oaks, that will
+require a hundred and fifty years before they are fit to be cut down,
+they build houses with a design that they shall not stand above twelve
+or fourteen years. All heads run upon the uncertainty of things, and
+the vicissitudes of human affairs. The mathematics become the only
+valuable study, and are made use of in every thing, even where it
+is ridiculous, and men seem to repose no greater trust in Providence
+than they would in a broken merchant.
+
+It is the business of the public to supply the defects of the society,
+and take that in hand first which is most neglected by private
+persons. Contraries are best cured by contraries, and therefore,
+as example is of greater efficacy than precept, in the amendment of
+national failings, the legislature ought to resolve upon some great
+undertakings, that must be the work of ages as well as vast labour,
+and convince the world that they did nothing without an anxious
+regard to their latest posterity. This will fix, or at least help to
+settle, the volatile genius and fickle spirit of the kingdom; put us
+in mind that we are not born for ourselves only, and be a means of
+rendering men less distrustful, and inspiring them with a true love
+for their country, and a tender affection for the ground itself,
+than which nothing is more necessary to aggrandize a nation. Forms
+of government may alter; religions and even languages may change,
+but Great Britain, or at least (if that likewise might lose its
+name) the island itself will remain, and in all human probability,
+last as long as any part of the globe. All ages have ever paid their
+kind acknowledgments to their ancestors, for the benefits derived
+from them; and a Christian who enjoys the multitude of fountains,
+and vast plenty of water to be met with in the city of St. Peter,
+is an ungrateful wretch if he never casts a thankful remembrance on
+old Pagan Rome, that took such prodigious pains to procure it.
+
+When this island shall be cultivated, and every inch of it made
+habitable and useful, and the whole the most convenient and agreeable
+spot upon earth, all the cost and labour laid out upon it, will be
+gloriously repaid by the incense of them that shall come after us;
+and those who burn with the noble zeal and desire after immortality,
+and took such care to improve their country, may rest satisfied, that
+a thousand and two thousand years hence, they shall live in the memory
+and everlasting praises of the future ages that shall then enjoy it.
+
+Here I should have concluded this rhapsody of thoughts; but something
+comes in my head concerning the main scope and design of this essay,
+which is to prove the necessity there is for a certain portion of
+ignorance, in a well-ordered society, that I must not omit, because,
+by mentioning it, I shall make an argument on my side, of what, if I
+had not spoke of it, might easily have appeared as a strong objection
+against me. It is the opinion of most people, and mine among the rest,
+that the most commendable quality of the present Czar of Muscovy, is
+his unwearied application, in raising his subjects from their native
+stupidity, and civilizing his nation: but then we must consider it is
+what they stood in need of, and that not long ago the greatest part
+of them were next to brute beasts. In proportion to the extent of his
+dominions, and the multitudes he commands, he had not that number
+or variety of tradesmen and artificers, which the true improvement
+of the country required, and therefore was in the right, in leaving
+no stone unturned to procure them. But what is that to us who labour
+under a contrary disease? Sound politics are to the social body, what
+the art of medicine is to the natural, and no physician would treat
+a man in a lethargy as if he was sick for want of rest, or prescribe
+in a dropsy what should be administered in a diabetes. In short,
+Russia has too few knowing men, and Great Britain too many.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               A
+                             SEARCH
+                            INTO THE
+                       NATURE OF SOCIETY.
+
+
+The generality of moralists and philosophers have hitherto agreed
+that there could be no virtue without self-denial; but a late author,
+who is now much read by men of sense, is of a contrary opinion, and
+imagines that men, without any trouble, or violence upon themselves,
+may be naturally virtuous. He seems to require and expect goodness
+in his species, as we do a sweet taste in grapes and China oranges,
+of which, if any of them are sour, we boldly pronounce that they are
+not come to that perfection their nature is capable of. This noble
+writer (for it is the Lord Shaftesbury I mean in his Characteristics)
+fancies, that as a man is made for society, so he ought to be born with
+a kind affection to the whole, of which he is a part, and a propensity
+to seek the welfare of it. In pursuance of this supposition, he calls
+every action performed with regard to the public good, Virtuous; and
+all selfishness, wholly excluding such a regard, Vice. In respect to
+our species, he looks upon virtue and vice as permanent realities, that
+must ever be the same in all countries and all ages, and imagines that
+a man of sound understanding, by following the rules of good sense,
+may not only find out that pulchrum et honestum both in morality and
+the works of art and nature, but likewise govern himself, by his
+reason, with as much ease and readiness as a good rider manages a
+well-taught horse by the bridle.
+
+The attentive reader, who perused the foregoing part of this book,
+will soon perceive that two systems cannot be more opposite than his
+Lordship's and mine. His notions I confess, are generous and refined:
+they are a high compliment to human-kind, and capable, by a little
+enthusiasm, of inspiring us with the most noble sentiments concerning
+the dignity of our exalted nature. What pity it is that they are not
+true. I would not advance thus much if I had not already demonstrated,
+in almost ever page of this treatise, that the solidity of them is
+inconsistent with our daily experience. But, to leave not the least
+shadow of an objection that might be made unanswered, I design to
+expatiate on some things which hitherto I have but slightly touched
+upon, in order to convince the reader, not only that the good and
+amiable qualities of men are not those that make him beyond other
+animals a sociable creature; but, moreover, that it would be utterly
+impossible, either to raise any multitudes into a populous, rich,
+and flourishing nation, or, when so raised, to keep and maintain
+them in that condition, without the assistance of what we call Evil,
+both natural and moral.
+
+The better to perform what I have undertaken, I shall previously
+examine into the reality of the pulchrum et honestum, the to kalon
+that the ancients have talked of so much: the meaning of this is to
+discuss, whether there be a real worth and excellency in things, a
+pre-eminence of one above another; which every body will always agree
+to that well understands them; or, that there are few things, if any,
+that have the same esteem paid them, and which the same judgment is
+passed upon in all countries and all ages. When we first set out in
+quest of this intrinsic worth, and find one thing better than another,
+and a third better than that, and so on, we begin to entertain great
+hopes of success; but when we meet with several things that are all
+very good or all very bad, we are puzzled, and agree not always with
+ourselves, much less with others. There are different faults as well
+as beauties, that as modes and fashions alter and men vary in their
+tastes and humours, will be differently admired or disapproved of.
+
+Judges of painting will never disagree in opinion, when a fine picture
+is compared to the daubing of a novice; but how strangely have they
+differed as to the works of eminent masters! There are parties among
+connoisseurs; and few of them agree in their esteem as to ages and
+countries; and the best pictures bear not always the best prices: a
+noted original will be ever worth more than any copy that can be made
+of it by an unknown hand, though it should be better. The value that
+is set on paintings depends not only on the name of the master, and
+the time of his age he drew them in, but likewise in a great measure
+on the scarcity of his works; but, what is still more unreasonable,
+the quality of the persons in whose possession they are, as well as the
+length of time they have been in great families; and if the Cartons,
+now at Hampton-Court, were done by a less famous hand than that of
+Raphael, and had a private person for their owner, who would be forced
+to sell them, they would never yield the tenth part of the money which,
+with all their gross faults, they are now esteemed to be worth.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, I will readily own, that the judgment
+to be made of painting might become of universal certainty, or at
+least less alterable and precarious than almost any thing else. The
+reason is plain; there is a standard to go by that always remains
+the same. Painting is an imitation of nature, a copying of things
+which men have every where before them. My good humoured reader I
+hope will forgive me, if, thinking on this glorious invention, I
+make a reflection a little out of season, though very much conducive
+to my main design; which is, that valuable as the art is I speak
+of, we are beholden to an imperfection in the chief of our senses
+for all the pleasures and ravishing delight we receive from this
+happy deceit. I shall explain myself. Air and space are no objects
+of sight, but as soon as we can see with the least attention, we
+observe that the bulk of the things we see is lessened by degrees,
+as they are further remote from us, and nothing but experience,
+gained from these observations, can teach us to make any tolerable
+guesses at the distance of things. If one born blind should remain
+so till twenty, and then be suddenly blessed with sight, he would be
+strangely puzzled as to the difference of distances, and hardly able,
+immediately, by his eyes alone, to determine which was nearest to him,
+a post almost within the reach of his stick, or a steeple that should
+be half a mile off. Let us look as narrowly as we can upon a hole
+in a wall that has nothing but the open air behind it, and we shall
+not be able to see otherwise, but that the sky fills up the vacuity,
+and is as near us as the back part of the stones that circumscribe
+the space where they are wanting. This circumstance, not to call it a
+defect, in our sense of seeing, makes us liable to be imposed upon,
+and every thing, but motion, may, by art, be represented to us on
+a flat, in the same manner as we see them in life and nature. If a
+man had never seen this art put into practice, a looking-glass might
+soon convince him that such a thing was possible, and I cannot help
+thinking, but that the reflections from very smooth and well-polished
+bodies made upon our eyes, must have given the first handle to the
+inventions of drawings and painting.
+
+In the works of nature, worth, and excellency, are as uncertain: and
+even in human creatures, what is beautiful in one country, is not so
+in another. How whimsical is the florist in his choice! Sometimes the
+tulip, sometimes the auricula, and at other times the carnation shall
+engross his esteem, and every year a new flower, in his judgment, beats
+all the old ones, though it is much inferior to them both in colour and
+shape. Three hundred years ago men were shaved as closely as they are
+now: Since that they have wore beards, and cut them in vast variety of
+forms, that were all as becoming, when fashionable, as now they would
+be ridiculous. How mean and comically a man looks, that is otherwise
+well dressed, in a narrow brimmed hat, when every body wears broad
+ones; and again, how monstrous is a very great hat, when the other
+extreme has been in fashion for a considerable time? experience has
+taught us, that these modes seldom last above ten or twelve years,
+and a man of threescore must have observed five or six revolutions
+of them at least! yet the beginnings of these changes, though we have
+seen several, seem always uncouth, and are offensive a-fresh whenever
+they return. What mortal can decide which is the handsomest, abstract
+from the mode in being, to wear great buttons or small ones? the many
+ways of laying out a garden judiciously are almost innumerable; and
+what is called beautiful in them, varies according to the different
+tastes of nations and ages. In grass plats, knots and parterres, a
+great diversity of forms is generally agreeable; but a round may be
+as pleasing to the eye as a square: an oval cannot be more suitable
+to one place, than it is possible for a triangle to be to another;
+and the pre-eminence an octogon has over an hexagon is no greater in
+figures, than at hazard eight has above six among the chances.
+
+Churches, ever since Christians have been able to build them, resemble
+the form of a cross, with the upper end pointing toward the east; and
+an architect, where there is room, and it can be conveniently done, who
+should neglect it, would be thought to have committed an unpardonable
+fault; but it would be foolish to expect this of a Turkish mosque or
+a Pagan temple. Among the many beneficial laws that have been made
+these hundred years, it is not easy to name one of greater utility,
+and, at the same time, more exempt from all inconveniences, than that
+which regulated the dresses of the dead. Those who were old enough
+to take notice of things when that act was made, and are yet alive,
+must remember the general clamour that was made against it. At first,
+nothing could be more shocking to thousands of people than that they
+were to be buried in woollen, and the only thing that made that law
+supportable was, that there was room left for people of some fashion
+to indulge their weakness without extravagancy; considering the other
+expences of funerals where mourning is given to several, and rings
+to a great many. The benefit that accrues to the nation from it is
+so visible, that nothing ever could be said in reason to condemn it,
+which, in few years, made the horror conceived against it lessen
+every day. I observed then that young people, who had seen but few
+in their coffins, did the soonest strike in with the innovation;
+but that those who, when the act was made, had buried many friends
+and relations, remained averse to it the longest, and I remember many
+that never could be reconciled to it to their dying day. By this time,
+burying in linen being almost forgot, it is the general opinion that
+nothing could be more decent than woollen, and the present manner of
+dressing a corps; which shows that our liking or disliking of things
+chiefly depends on mode and custom, and the precept and example of our
+betters, and such whom one way or other we think to be superior to us.
+
+In morals there is no greater certainty. Plurality of wives is odious
+among Christians, and all the wit and learning of a great genius in
+defence of it, has been rejected with contempt: But polygamy is not
+shocking to a Mahometan. What men have learned from their infancy
+enslaves them, and the force of custom warps nature, and, at the same
+time, imitates her in such a manner, that it is often difficult to
+know which of the two we are influenced by. In the east, formerly
+sisters married brothers, and it was meritorious for a man to marry
+his mother. Such alliances are abominable; but it is certain that,
+whatever horror we conceive at the thoughts of them, there is nothing
+in nature repugnant against them, but what is built upon mode and
+custom. A religious Mahometan that has never tasted any spirituous
+liquor, and has often seen people drunk, may receive as great an
+aversion against wine, as another with us of the least morality and
+education may have against lying with his sister, and both imagine that
+their antipathy proceeds from nature. Which is the best religion? is
+a question that has caused more mischief than all other questions
+together. Ask it at Pekin, at Constantinople, and at Rome, and you will
+receive three distinct answers extremely different from one another,
+yet all of them equally positive and peremptory. Christians are well
+assured of the falsity of the Pagan and Mahometan superstitions:
+as to this point, there is a perfect union and concord among them;
+but inquire of the several sects they are divided into, Which is the
+true church of Christ? and all of them will tell you it is theirs,
+and to convince you, go together by the ears.
+
+It is manifest, then, that the hunting after this pulchrum & honestum,
+is not much better than a wild-goose-chase that is but little to be
+depended on: But this is not the greatest fault I find with it. The
+imaginary notions that men may be virtuous without self-denial, are
+a vast inlet to hypocrisy; which being once made habitual, we must
+not only deceive others, but likewise become altogether unknown to
+ourselves; and in an instance I am going to give, it will appear, how,
+for want of duly examining himself, this might happen to a person of
+quality, of parts, and erudition, one every way resembling the author
+of the Characteristics himself.
+
+A man that has been brought up in ease and affluence, if he is of a
+quiet indolent nature, learns to shun every thing that is troublesome,
+and chooses to curb his passions, more because of the inconveniences
+that arise from the eager pursuit after pleasure, and the yielding
+to all the demands of our inclinations, than any dislike he has to
+sensual enjoyments; and it is possible, that a person educated under
+a great philosopher, who was a mild and good-natured, as well as able
+tutor, may, in such happy circumstances, have a better opinion of his
+inward state than it really deserves, and believe himself virtuous,
+because his passions lie dormant. He may form fine notions of the
+social virtues, and the contempt of death, write well of them in
+his closet, and talk eloquently of them in company, but you shall
+never catch him fighting for his country, or labouring to retrieve
+any national losses. A man that deals in metaphysics may easily throw
+himself into an enthusiasm, and really believe that he does not fear
+death while it remains out of sight. But should he be asked, why,
+having this intrepidity either from nature, or acquired by philosophy,
+he did not follow arms when his country was involved in war; or when
+he saw the nation daily robbed by those at the helm, and the affairs
+of the exchequer perplexed, why he did not go to court, and make use
+of all his friends and interest to be a lord treasurer, that by his
+integrity and wise management, he might restore the public credit:
+It is probable he would answer that he loved retirement, had no
+other ambition than to be a good man, and never aspired to have any
+share in the government; or that he hated all flattery and slavish
+attendance, the insincerity of courts and bustle of the world. I
+am willing to believe him: but may not a man of an indolent temper
+and unactive spirit, say, and be sincere in all this, and, at the
+same time, indulge his appetites without being able to subdue them,
+though his duty summons him to it. Virtue consists in action, and
+whoever is possessed of this social love and kind affection to his
+species, and by his birth or quality can claim any post in the public
+management, ought not to sit still when he can be serviceable, but
+exert himself to the utmost for the good of his fellow subjects. Had
+this noble person been of a warlike genius, or a boisterous temper,
+he would have chose another part in the drama of life, and preached
+a quite contrary doctrine: For we are ever pushing our reason which
+way soever we feel passion to draw it, and self-love pleads to all
+human creatures for their different views, still furnishing every
+individual with arguments to justify their inclinations.
+
+That boasted middle way, and the calm virtues recommended in the
+Characteristics, are good for nothing but to breed drones, and
+might qualify a man for the stupid enjoyments of a monastic life,
+or at best a country justice of peace, but they would never fit him
+for labour and assiduity, or stir him up to great achievements and
+perilous undertakings. Man's natural love of ease and idleness, and
+proneness to indulge his sensual pleasures, are not to be cured by
+precept: His strong habits and inclinations can only be subdued by
+passions of greater violence. Preach and demonstrate to a coward the
+unreasonableness of his fears, and you will not make him valiant,
+more than you can make him taller, by bidding him to be ten foot
+high, whereas the secret to raise courage, as I have made it public
+in Remark on l. 321, is almost infallible.
+
+The fear of death is the strongest when we are in our greatest vigour,
+and our appetite is keen; when we are sharp-sighted, quick of hearing,
+and every part performs its office. The reason is plain, because
+then life is most delicious, and ourselves most capable of enjoying
+it. How comes it, then, that a man of honour should so easily accept
+of a challenge, though at thirty and in perfect health? It is his
+pride that conquers his fear: For, when his pride is not concerned,
+this fear will appear most glaringly. If he is not used to the sea, let
+him but be in a storm, or, if he never was ill before, have but a sore
+throat, or a slight fever, and he will show a thousand anxieties, and
+in them the inestimable value he sets on life. Had man been naturally
+humble and proof against flattery, the politician could never have
+had his ends, or known what to have made of him. Without vices, the
+excellency of the species would have ever remained undiscovered, and
+every worthy that has made himself famous in the world, is a strong
+evidence against this amiable system.
+
+If the courage of the great Macedonian came up to distraction, when he
+fought alone against a whole garrison, his madness was not less when
+he fancied himself to be a god, or at least doubted whether he was
+or not; and as soon as we make this reflection, we discover both the
+passion and the extravagancy of it, that buoyed up his spirits in the
+most imminent dangers, and carried him through all the difficulties
+and fatigues he underwent.
+
+There never was in the world a brighter example of an able and complete
+magistrate than Cicero: When I think on his care and vigilance,
+the real hazards he slighted, and the pains he took for the safety
+of Rome; his wisdom and sagacity in detecting and disappointing
+the stratagems of the boldest and most subtle conspirators, and,
+at the same time, on his love to literature, arts, and sciences,
+his capacity in metaphysics, the justness of his reasonings, the
+force of his eloquence, the politeness of his style, and the genteel
+spirit that runs through his writings; when I think, I say, on all
+these things together, I am struck with amazement, and the least I
+can say of him is, that he was a prodigious man. But when I have set
+the many good qualities he had in the best light, it is as evident
+to me on the other side, that had his vanity been inferior to his
+greatest excellency, the good sense and knowledge of the world he
+was so eminently possessed of, could never have let him be such a
+fulsome as well as noisy trumpeter as he was of his own praises, or
+suffered him rather than not proclaim his own merit, to make a verse
+that a school boy would have been laughed at for. O! Fortunatam, &c.
+
+How strict and severe was the morality of rigid Cato, how steady and
+unaffected the virtue of that grand asserter of Roman liberty! but
+though the equivalent this stoic enjoyed, for all the self-denial and
+austerity he practised, remained long concealed, and his peculiar
+modesty hid from the world, and perhaps himself a vast while, the
+frailty of his heart, that forced him into heroism, yet it was brought
+to light in the last scene of his life, and by his suicide it plainly
+appeared that he was governed by a tyrannical power, superior to the
+love of his country, and that the implacable hatred and superlative
+envy he bore to the glory, the real greatness and personal merit
+of Cæsar, had for a long time swayed all his actions under the most
+noble pretences. Had not this violent motive over-ruled his consummate
+prudence, he might not only have saved himself, but likewise most of
+his friends that were ruined by the loss of him, and would in all
+probability, if he could have stooped to it, been the second man
+in Rome. But he knew the boundless mind and unlimited generosity
+of the victor: it was his clemency he feared, and therefore chose
+death because it was less terrible to his pride, than the thoughts
+of giving his mortal foe so tempting an opportunity of showing the
+magnanimity of his soul, as Cæsar would have found in forgiving such an
+inveterate enemy as Cato, and offering him his friendship; and which,
+it is thought by the judicious, that penetrating as well as ambitious
+conqueror would not have slipped, if the other had dared to live.
+
+Another argument to prove the kind disposition, and real affection
+we naturally have for our species, is our love of company, and the
+aversion men that are in their senses generally have to solitude,
+beyond other creatures. This bears a fine gloss in the Characteristics,
+and is set off in very good language to the best advantage: the next
+day after I read it first, I heard abundance of people cry fresh
+herrings, which, with the reflexion on the vast shoals of that and
+other fish that are caught together, made me very merry, though I was
+alone; but as I was entertaining myself with this contemplation, came
+an impertinent idle fellow, whom I had the misfortune to be known by,
+and asked me how I did, though I was, and dare say, looked as healthy
+and as well as ever I was or did in my life. What I answered him I
+forgot, but remember that I could not get rid of him in a good while,
+and felt all the uneasiness my friend Horace complains of, from a
+persecution of the like nature.
+
+I would have no sagacious critic pronounce me a man-hater from this
+short story; whoever does is very much mistaken. I am a great lover
+of company, and if the reader is not quite tired with mine, before
+I show the weakness and ridicule of that piece of flattery made to
+our species, and which I was just now speaking of, I will give him a
+description of the man I would choose for conversation, with a promise
+that before he has finished, what at first he might only take for a
+digression foreign to my purpose, he shall find the use of it.
+
+By early and artful instruction, he should be thoroughly imbued with
+the notions of honour and shame, and have contracted an habitual
+aversion to every thing that has the least tendency to impudence,
+rudeness, or inhumanity. He should be well versed in the Latin tongue,
+and not ignorant of the Greek, and moreover understand one or two of
+the modern languages besides his own. He should be acquainted with
+the fashions and customs of the ancients, but thoroughly skilled in
+the history of his own country, and the manners of the age he lives
+in. He should besides literature, have studied some useful science or
+other, seen some foreign courts and universities, and made the true use
+of travelling. He should at times take delight in dancing, fencing,
+riding the great horse, and knowing something of hunting and other
+country sports, without being attached to any, and he should treat
+them all as either exercises for health, or diversions that should
+never interfere with business, or the attaining to more valuable
+qualifications. He should have a smatch of geometry and astronomy,
+as well as anatomy, and the economy of human bodies; to understand
+music so as to perform, is an accomplishment: but there is abundance
+to be said against it; and instead of it, I would have him know so
+much of drawing as is required to take a landskip, or explain ones
+meaning of any form or model we would describe, but never to touch a
+pencil. He should be very early used to the company of modest women,
+and never be a fortnight without conversing with the ladies.
+
+Gross vices, as irreligion, whoring, gaming, drinking and quarrelling,
+I will not mention: even the meanest education guards us against them;
+I would always recommend to him the practice of virtue, but I am for
+no voluntary ignorance, in a gentleman, of any thing that is done in
+court or city. It is impossible a man should be perfect, and therefore
+there are faults I would connive at, if I could not prevent them;
+and if between the years of nineteen and three-and-twenty, youthful
+heat should sometimes get the better of his chastity, so it was done
+with caution; should he on some extraordinary occasion, overcome by
+the pressing solicitations of jovial friends, drink more than was
+consistent with strict sobriety, so he did it very seldom and found
+it not to interfere with his health or temper; or if by the height of
+his mettle, and great provocation in a just cause, he had been drawn
+into a quarrel, which true wisdom and a less strict adherence to the
+rules of honour, might have declined or prevented, so it never befel
+him above once: if I say he should have happened to be guilty of these
+things, and he would never speak, much less brag of them himself,
+they might be pardoned, or at least overlooked at the age I named,
+if he left off then and continued discreet forever after. The very
+disasters of youth, have sometimes frightened gentlemen into a more
+steady prudence, than in all probability they would ever have been
+masters of without them. To keep him from turpitude and things that are
+openly scandalous, there is nothing better than to procure him free
+access in one or two noble families, where his frequent attendance
+is counted a duty: and while by that means you preserve his pride,
+he is kept in a continual dread of shame.
+
+A man of a tolerable fortune, pretty near accomplished as I have
+required him to be, that still improves himself and sees the world till
+he is thirty, cannot be disagreeable to converse with, at least while
+he continues in health and prosperity, and has nothing to spoil his
+temper. When such a one, either by chance or appointment, meets with
+three or four of our equals, and all agree to pass away a few hours
+together, the whole is what I call good company. There is nothing
+said in it that is not either instructive or diverting to a man of
+sense. It is possible they may not always be of the same opinion, but
+there can be no contest between any, but who shall yield first to the
+other he differs from. One only speaks at a time, and no louder than
+to be plainly understood by him who sits the farthest off. The greatest
+pleasure aimed at by every one of them, is to have the satisfaction of
+pleasing others, which they all practically know may as effectually
+be done, by hearkening with attention and an approving countenance,
+as we said very good things ourselves.
+
+Most people of any taste would like such a conversation, and justly
+prefer it to being alone, when they knew not how to spend their time;
+but if they could employ themselves in something from which they
+expected, either a more solid or a more lasting satisfaction, they
+would deny themselves this pleasure, and follow what was of greater
+consequence to them. But would not a man, though he had seen no
+mortal in a fortnight, remain alone as much longer, rather than get
+into company of noisy fellows, that take delight in contradiction,
+and place a glory in picking a quarrel? Would not one that has books
+read for ever, or set himself to write upon some subject or other,
+rather than be every night with party-men who count the island to
+be good for nothing, while their adversaries are suffered to live
+upon it? Would not a man be by himself a month, and go to bed before
+seven a clock, rather than mix with fox-hunters, who having all day
+long tried in vain to break their necks, join at night in a second
+attempt upon their lives by drinking, and to express their mirth,
+are louder in senseless sounds within doors, than their barking and
+less troublesome companions are only without? I have no great value
+for a man who would not rather tire himself with walking; or if he was
+shut up scatter pins about the room in order to pick them up again,
+than keep company for six hours with half a score common sailors the
+day their ship was paid off.
+
+I will grant, nevertheless, that the greatest part of mankind,
+rather than be alone any considerable time, would submit to the
+things I named: but I cannot see, why this love of company, this
+strong desire after society, should be construed so much in our
+favour, and alleged as a mark of some intrinsic worth in man, not to
+be found in other animals. For to prove from it the goodness of our
+nature, and a generous love in man, extended beyond himself on the
+rest of his species, by virtue of which he was a sociable creature,
+this eagerness after company and aversion of being alone, ought to
+have been most conspicuous, and most violent in the best of their
+kind; the men of the greatest genius, parts and accomplishments,
+and those who are the least subject to vice; the contrary of which
+is true. The weakest minds, who can the least govern their passions,
+guilty consciences that abhor reflexion, and the worthless, who are
+incapable of producing any thing of their own that is useful, are
+the greatest enemies to solitude, and will take up with any company
+rather than be without; whereas, the men of sense and of knowledge,
+that can think and contemplate on things, and such as are but little
+disturbed by their passions, can bear to be by themselves the longest
+without reluctancy; and, to avoid noise, folly, and impertinence,
+will run away from twenty companies; and, rather than meet with any
+thing disagreeable to their good taste, will prefer their closet or
+a garden, nay, a common or a desert to the society of some men.
+
+But let us suppose the love of company so inseparable from our species,
+that no man could endure to be alone one moment, what conclusions
+could be drawn from this? Does not man love company, as he does every
+thing else, for his own sake? No friendships or civilities are lasting
+that are not reciprocal. In all your weekly and daily meetings for
+diversion, as well as annual feasts, and the most solemn carousels,
+every member that assists at them has his own ends, and some frequent
+a club which they would never go to unless they were the top of it. I
+have known a man who was the oracle of the company, be very constant,
+and as uneasy at any thing that hindered him from coming at the hour,
+leave his society altogether, as soon as another was added that could
+match, and disputed superiority with him. There are people who are
+incapable of holding an argument, and yet malicious enough to take
+delight in hearing others wrangle; and though they never concern
+themselves in the controversy, would think a company insipid where
+they could not have that diversion. A good house, rich furniture,
+a fine garden, horses, dogs, ancestors, relations, beauty, strength,
+excellency in any thing whatever; vices as well as virtue, may all
+be accessary to make men long for society, in hopes that what they
+value themselves upon will at one time or other become the theme of
+the discourse, and give an inward satisfaction to them. Even the
+most polite people in the world, and such as I spoke of at first,
+give no pleasure to others that is not repaid to their self-love,
+and does not at last centre in themselves, let them wind it and turn
+it as they will. But the plainest demonstration that in all clubs
+and societies of conversable people, every body has the greatest
+consideration for himself, is, that the disinterested, who rather
+over-pays than wrangles; the good humoured, that is never waspish nor
+soon offended; the easy and indolent, that hates disputes and never
+talks for triumph, is every where the darling of the company: whereas,
+the man of sense and knowledge, that will not be imposed upon or talked
+out of his reason; the man of genius and spirit, that can say sharp
+and witty things, though he never lashes but what deserves it; the man
+of honour, who neither gives nor takes an affront, may be esteemed,
+but is seldom so well beloved as a weaker man less accomplished.
+
+As in these instances, the friendly qualities arise from our contriving
+perpetually our own satisfaction, so, on other occasions, they proceed
+from the natural timidity of man, and the solicitous care he takes
+of himself. Two Londoners, whose business oblige them not to have
+any commerce together, may know, see, and pass by one another every
+day upon the Exchange, with not much greater civility than bulls
+would: let them meet at Bristol they will pull off their hats, and
+on the least opportunity enter into conversation, and be glad of one
+another's company. When French, English, and Dutch, meet in China,
+or any other Pagan country, being all Europeans, they look upon
+one another as countrymen, and if no passion interferes, will feel
+a natural propensity to love one another. Nay, two men that are at
+enmity, if they are forced to travel together, will often lay by their
+animosities, be affable, and converse in a friendly manner, especially
+if the road be unsafe, and they are both strangers in the place they
+are to go to. These things by superficial judges, are attributed to
+mans sociableness, his natural propensity to friendship and love of
+company; but whoever will duly examine things, and look into man more
+narrowly, will find, that on all these occasions we only endeavour to
+strengthen our interest, and are moved by the causes already alleged.
+
+What I have endeavoured hitherto, has been to prove, that the pulchrum
+et honestum, excellency and real worth of things are most commonly
+precarious and alterable as modes and customs vary; that consequently
+the inferences drawn from their certainty are insignificant, and
+that the generous notions concerning the natural goodness of man
+are hurtful, as they tend to mislead, and are merely chimerical: the
+truth of this latter I have illustrated by the most obvious examples in
+history. I have spoke of our love of company and aversion to solitude,
+examined thoroughly the various motives of them, and made it appear
+that they all centre in self-love. I intend now to investigate into
+the nature of society, and diving into the very rise of it, make
+it evident, that not the good and amiable, but the bad and hateful
+qualities of man, his imperfections and the want of excellencies,
+which other creatures are endued with, are the first causes that
+made man sociable beyond other animals, the moment after he lost
+Paradise; and that if he had remained in his primitive innocence,
+and continued to enjoy the blessings that attended it, there is no
+shadow of probability that he ever would have become that sociable
+creature he is now.
+
+How necessary our appetites and passions are for the welfare of all
+trades and handicrafts, has been sufficiently proved throughout the
+book, and that they are our bad qualities, or at least produce them,
+nobody denies. It remains then, that I should set forth the variety of
+obstacles that hinder and perplex man in the labour he is constantly
+employed in, the procuring of what he wants; and which in other words
+is called the business of self-preservation: while, at the same time,
+I demonstrate that the sociableness of man arises only from these
+two things, viz. the multiplicity of his desires, and the continual
+opposition he meets with in his endeavours to gratify them.
+
+The obstacles I speak of, relate either to our own frame, or the globe
+we inhabit, I mean the condition of it, since it has been cursed. I
+have often endeavoured to contemplate separately on the two things I
+named last, but could never keep them asunder; they always interfere
+and mix with one another; and at last make up together a frightful
+chaos of evil. All the elements are our enemies, water drowns and
+fire consumes those who unskilfully approach them. The earth in a
+thousand places produces plants, and other vegetables that are hurtful
+to man, while she feeds and cherishes a variety of creatures that are
+noxious to him; and suffers a legion of poisons to dwell within her:
+but the most unkind of all the elements is that which we cannot live
+one moment without: it is impossible to repeat all the injuries we
+receive from the wind and weather; and though the greatest part of
+mankind, have ever been employed in defending their species from the
+inclemency of the air, yet no art or labour have hitherto been able
+to find a security against the wild rage of some meteors.
+
+Hurricanes, it is true, happen but seldom, and few men are swallowed
+up by earthquakes, or devoured by lions; but while we escape those
+gigantic mischiefs, we are persecuted by trifles. What a vast variety
+of insects are tormenting to us; what multitudes of them insult and
+make game of us with impunity! The most despicable scruple not to
+trample and graze upon us as cattle do upon a field: which yet is
+often born with, if moderately they use their fortune; but here again
+our clemency becomes a vice, and so encroaching are their cruelty and
+contempt of us on our pity, that they make laystalls of our hands,
+and devour our young ones if we are not daily vigilant in pursuing
+and destroying them.
+
+There is nothing good in all the universe to the best-designing man,
+if either through mistake or ignorance he commits the least failing in
+the use of it; there is no innocence or integrity, that can protect
+a man from a thousand mischiefs that surround him: on the contrary,
+every thing is evil, which art and experience have not taught us
+to turn into a blessing. Therefore how diligent in harvest time is
+the husbandman, in getting in his crop and sheltering it from rain,
+without which he could never have enjoyed it! As seasons differ with
+the climates, experience has taught us differently to make use of
+them, and in one part of the globe we may see the farmer sow while he
+is reaping in the other; from all which we may learn how vastly this
+earth must have been altered since the fall of our first parents. For
+should we trace man from his beautiful, his divine original, not
+proud of wisdom acquired by haughty precept or tedious experience,
+but endued with consummate knowledge the moment he was formed; I mean
+the state of innocence, in which no animal nor vegetable upon earth,
+nor mineral under ground was noxious to him, and himself secured from
+the injuries of the air as well as all other harms, was contented
+with the necessaries of life, which the globe he inhabited furnished
+him with, without his assistance. When yet not conscious of guilt,
+he found himself in every place to be the well obeyed unrivalled lord
+of all, and unaffected with his greatness, was wholly wrapped up in
+sublime meditations on the infinity of his Creator, who daily did
+vouchsafe intelligibly to speak to him, and visit without mischief.
+
+In such a golden age, no reason or probability can be alleged, why
+mankind ever should have raised themselves into such large societies
+as there have been in the world, as long as we can give any tolerable
+account of it. Where a man has every thing he desires, and nothing to
+vex or disturb him, there is nothing can be added to his happiness; and
+it is impossible to name a trade, art, science, dignity, or employment,
+that would not be superfluous in such a blessed state. If we pursue
+this thought, we shall easily perceive that no societies could have
+sprung from the amiable virtues and loving qualities of man; but,
+on the contrary, that all of them must have had the origin from his
+wants, his imperfections, and the variety of his appetites: we shall
+find likewise, that the more their pride and vanity are displayed,
+and all their desires enlarged, the more capable they must be of
+being raised into large and vastly numerous societies.
+
+Was the air always as inoffensive to our naked bodies, and as pleasant
+as to our thinking it is to the generality of birds in fair weather,
+and man had not been affected with pride, luxury and hypocrisy, as
+well as lust, I cannot see what could have put us upon the invention of
+clothes and houses. I shall say nothing of jewels, of plate, painting,
+sculpture, fine furniture, and all that rigid moralists have called
+unnecessary and superfluous: but if we were not soon tired with walking
+a-foot, and were as nimble as some other animals; if men were naturally
+laborious, and none unreasonable in seeking and indulging their ease,
+and likewise free from other vices, and the ground was every where
+even, solid and clean, who would have thought of coaches or ventured
+on a horse's back? What occasion has the dolphin for a ship, or what
+carriage would an eagle ask to travel in?
+
+I hope the reader knows, that by society I understand a body politic,
+in which man either subdued by superior force, or by persuasion drawn
+from his savage state, is become a disciplined creature, that can find
+his own ends in labouring for others, and where under one head or other
+form of government, each member is rendered subservient to the whole,
+and all of them by cunning management are made to act as one. For
+if by society we only mean a number of people, that without rule or
+government, should keep together, out of a natural affection to their
+species, or love of company, as a herd of cows or a flock of sheep,
+then there is not in the world a more unfit creature for society than
+man; an hundred of them that should be all equals, under no subjection,
+or fear of any superior upon earth, could never live together awake
+two hours without quarrelling, and the more knowledge, strength, wit,
+courage and resolution there was among them, the worse it would be.
+
+It is probable, that in the wild state of nature, parents would keep a
+superiority over their children, at least while they were in strength,
+and that even afterwards, the remembrance of what the others had
+experienced, might produce in them something between love and fear,
+which we call reverence: it is probable, likewise, that the second
+generation following the example of the first; a man with a little
+cunning would always be able, as long as he lived and had his senses,
+to maintain a superior sway over all his own offspring and descendants,
+how numerous soever they might grow. But the old stock once dead,
+the sons would quarrel, and there could be no peace long before there
+had been war. Eldership in brothers is of no great force, and the
+pre-eminence that is given to it, only invented as a shift to live
+in peace. Man, as he is a fearful animal, naturally not rapacious,
+loves peace and quiet, and he would never fight, if nobody offended
+him, and he could have what he fights for without it. To this fearful
+disposition, and the aversion he has to his being disturbed, are
+owing all the various projects and forms of government. Monarchy,
+without doubt, was the first. Aristocracy and democracy were two
+different methods of mending the inconveniencies of the first, and
+a mixture of these three an improvement on all the rest.
+
+But be we savages or politicians, it is impossible that man, mere
+fallen man, should act with any other view but to please himself while
+he has the use of his organs, and the greatest extravagancy either
+of love or despair can have no other centre. There is no difference
+between will and pleasure in one sense, and every motion made in spite
+of them must be unnatural and convulsive. Since, then, action is so
+confined, and we are always forced to do what we please, and at the
+same time our thoughts are free and uncontrouled, it is impossible we
+could be sociable creatures without hypocrisy. The proof of this is
+plain, since we cannot prevent the ideas that are continually arising
+within us, all civil commerce would be lost, if, by art and prudent
+dissimulation we had not learned to hide and stifle them; and if all
+we think was to be laid open to others, in the same manner as it is
+to ourselves, it is impossible that, endued with speech, we could be
+sufferable to one another. I am persuaded that every reader feels the
+truth of what I say; and I tell my antagonist that his conscience
+flies in his face, while his tongue is preparing to refute me. In
+all civil societies men are taught insensibly to be hypocrites from
+their cradle; nobody dares to own that he gets by public calamities,
+or even by the loss of private persons. The sexton would be stoned
+should he wish openly for the death of the parishioners, though every
+body knew that he had nothing else to live upon.
+
+To me it is a great pleasure, when I look on the affairs of human
+life, to behold into what various, and often strangely opposite forms,
+the hope of gain and thoughts of lucre shape men, according to the
+different employments they are of, and stations they are in. How gay
+and merry does every face appear at a well ordered ball, and what a
+solemn sadness is observed at the masquerade of a funeral! but the
+undertaker is as much pleased with his gains as the dancing-master:
+both are equally tired in their occupations, and the mirth of the one
+is as much forced as the gravity of the other is affected. Those who
+have never minded the conversation of a spruce mercer, and a young
+lady his customer that comes to his shop, have neglected a scene of
+life that is very entertaining. I beg of my serious reader, that he
+would, for a while, abate a little of his gravity, and suffer me to
+examine these people separately, as to their inside, and the different
+motives they act from.
+
+His business is to sell as much silk as he can at a price by which
+he shall get what he proposes to be reasonable, according to the
+customary profits of the trade. As to the lady, what she would be
+at is to please her fancy, and buy cheaper by a groat or sixpence
+per yard than the things she wants are commonly sold at. From the
+impression the gallantry of our sex has made upon her, she imagines
+(if she be not very deformed) that she has a fine mien and easy
+behaviour, and a peculiar sweetness of voice; that she is handsome,
+and if not beautiful, at least more agreeable than most young women
+she knows. As she has no pretensions to purchase the same things with
+less money than other people, but what are built on her good qualities,
+so she sets herself off to the best advantage her wit and discretion
+will let her. The thoughts of love are here out of the case; so on
+the one hand, she has no room for playing the tyrant, and giving
+herself angry and peevish airs, and, on the other, more liberty of
+speaking kindly, and being affable than she can have almost on any
+other occasion. She knows that abundance of well-bred people come
+to his shop, and endeavours to render herself as amiable as virtue
+and the rules of decency allow of. Coming with such a resolution of
+behaviour, she cannot meet with any thing to ruffle her temper.
+
+Before her coach is yet quite stopped, she is approached by a
+gentleman-like man, that has every thing clean and fashionable
+about him, who in low obeisance pays her homage, and as soon as her
+pleasure is known that she has a mind to come in, hands her into the
+shop, where immediately he slips from her, and through a by-way that
+remains visible only for half a moment, with great address entrenches
+himself behind the counter: here facing her, with a profound reverence
+and modish phrase, he begs the favour of knowing her commands. Let
+her say and dislike what she pleases, she can never be directly
+contradicted: she deals with a man in whom consummate patience is
+one of the mysteries of his trade, and whatever trouble she creates
+she is sure to hear nothing but the most obliging language, and has
+always before her a cheerful countenance, where joy and respect seem
+to be blended with good humour, and altogether make up an artificial
+serenity more engaging than untaught nature is able to produce.
+
+When two persons are so well met, the conversation must be very
+agreeable, as well as extremely mannerly, though they talk about
+trifles. While she remains irresolute what to take, he seems to be the
+same in advising her; and is very cautious how to direct her choice;
+but when once she has made it and is fixed, he immediately becomes
+positive, that it is the best of the sort, extols her fancy, and
+the more he looks upon it, the more he wonders he should not before
+have discovered the pre-eminence of it over any thing he has in his
+shop. By precept, example, and great application, he has learned
+unobserved to slide into the inmost recesses of the soul, sound the
+capacity of his customers, and find out their blind side unknown to
+them: by all which he is instructed in fifty other stratagems to
+make her over-value her own judgment as well as the commodity she
+would purchase. The greatest advantage he has over her, lies in the
+most material part of the commerce between them, the debate about the
+price, which he knows to a farthing, and she is wholly ignorant of:
+therefore he no where more egregiously imposes on her understanding;
+and though here he has the liberty of telling what lies he pleases,
+as to the prime cost, and the money he has refused, yet he trusts not
+to them only; but, attacking her vanity, makes her believe the most
+incredible things in the world, concerning his own weakness and her
+superior abilities; he had taken a resolution, he says, never to part
+with that piece under such a price, but she has the power of talking
+him out of his goods beyond any body he ever sold to: he protests that
+he loses by his silk, but seeing that she has a fancy for it, and is
+resolved to give no more, rather than disoblige a lady he has such
+an uncommon value for, he will let her have it, and only begs that
+another time she will not stand so hard with him. In the mean time,
+the buyer, who knows that she is no fool, and has a voluble tongue,
+is easily persuaded that she has a very winning way of talking, and
+thinking it sufficient, for the sake of good-breeding, to disown
+her merit, and in some witty repartee retort the compliment, he
+makes her swallow very contentedly, the substance of every thing he
+tells her. The upshot is, that, with the satisfaction of having saved
+ninepence per yard, she has bought her silk exactly at the same price
+as any body else might have done, and often gives sixpence more than,
+rather than not have sold it, he would have taken.
+
+It is possible that this lady, for want of being sufficiently
+flattered, for a fault she is pleased to find in his behaviour,
+or perhaps the tying of his neckcloth, or some other dislike as
+substantial, may be lost, and her custom bestowed on some other of
+the fraternity. But where many of them live in a cluster, it is not
+always easily determined which shop to go to, and the reasons some of
+the fair sex have for their choice, are often very whimsical, and kept
+as great a secret. We never follow our inclinations with more freedom,
+than where they cannot be traced, and it is unreasonable for others
+to suspect them. A virtuous woman has preferred one house to all
+the rest, because she had seen a handsome fellow in it, and another
+of no bad character for having received greater civility before it,
+than had been paid her any where else, when she had no thoughts of
+buying, and was going to Paul's church: for among the fashionable
+mercers, the fair dealer must keep before his own door, and to draw
+in random customers, make use of no other freedom or importunities
+than an obsequious air, with a submissive posture, and perhaps a bow
+to every well dressed female that offers to look towards his shop.
+
+What I have said last, makes me think on another way of inviting
+customers, the most distant in the world from what I have been speaking
+of, I mean that which is practised by the watermen, especially on
+those whom, by their mien and garb, they know to be peasants. It is
+not unpleasant to see half a dozen people surround a man they never
+saw in their lives before, and two of them that can get the nearest,
+clapping each an arm over his neck, hug him in as loving and familiar
+a manner, as if he was their brother newly come home from an East
+India voyage; a third lays hold of his hand, another of his sleeve,
+his coat, the buttons of it, or any thing he can come at, while a fifth
+or a sixth, who has scampered twice round him already, without being
+able to get at him, plants himself directly before the man in hold,
+and within three inches of his nose, contradicting his rivals with
+an open mouthed cry, shows him a dreadful set of large teeth, and a
+small remainder of chewed bread and cheese, which the countryman's
+arrival had hindered from being swallowed.
+
+At all this no offence is taken, and the peasant justly thinks they are
+making much of him; therefore, far from opposing them, he patiently
+suffers himself to be pushed or pulled which way the strength that
+surrounds him shall direct. He has not the delicacy to find fault
+with a man's breath, who has just blown out his pipe, or a greasy
+head of hair that is rubbing against his chops: Dirt and sweat he
+has been used to from his cradle, and it is no disturbance to him to
+hear half a score people, some of them at his ear, and the furthest
+not five foot from him, bawl out as if he was hundred yards off: He
+is conscious that he makes no less noise when he is merry himself,
+and is secretly pleased with their boisterous usages. The hawling
+and pulling him about he construes the way it is intended; it is a
+courtship he can feel and understand: He cannot help wishing them well
+for the esteem they seem to have for him: He loves to be taken notice
+of, and admires the Londoners for being so pressing in the offers of
+their service to him, for the value of threepence or less; whereas,
+in the country at the shop he uses, he can have nothing but he must
+first tell them what he wants, and, though he lays out three or four
+shillings at a time, has hardly a word spoke to him unless it be in
+answer to a question himself is forced to ask first. This alacrity
+in his behalf moves his gratitude, and, unwilling to disoblige any,
+from his heart he knows not whom to choose. I have seen a man think
+all this, or something like it, as plainly as I could see the nose in
+his face; and, at the same time, move along very contentedly under
+a load of watermen, and with a smiling countenance carry seven or
+eight stone more than his own weight to the water side.
+
+If the little mirth I have shown, in the drawing of these two images
+from low life, misbecomes me, I am sorry for it, but I promise not
+to be guilty of that fault any more, and will now, without loss
+of time, proceed with my argument in artless dull simplicity, and
+demonstrate the gross error of those, who imagine that the social
+virtues, and the amiable qualities that are praise-worthy in us,
+are equally beneficial to the public as they are to the individual
+persons that are possessed of them, and that the means of thriving,
+and whatever conduces to the welfare and real happiness of private
+families, must have the same effect upon the whole society. This,
+I confess, I have laboured for all along, and I flatter myself not
+unsuccessfully: But I hope nobody will like a problem the worse for
+seeing the truth of it proved more ways than one.
+
+It is certain, that the fewer desires a man has, and the less he
+covets, the more easy he is to himself; the more active he is to
+supply his own wants, and the less he requires to be waited upon,
+the more he will be beloved, and the less trouble he is in a family;
+the more he loves peace and concord, the more charity he has for his
+neighbour, and the more he shines in real virtue, there is no doubt
+but that in proportion he is acceptable to God and man. But let us be
+just, what benefit can these things be of, or what earthly good can
+they do, to promote the wealth, the glory, and worldly greatness of
+nations? It is the sensual courtier that sets no limits to his luxury;
+the fickle strumpet that invents new fashions every week; the haughty
+duchess that in equipage, entertainments, and all her behaviour, would
+imitate a princess; the profuse rake and lavish heir, that scatter
+about their money without wit or judgment, buy every thing they see,
+and either destroy or give it away the next day; the covetous and
+perjured villain that squeezed an immense treasure from the tears of
+widows and orphans, and left the prodigals the money to spend: It is
+these that are the prey and proper food of a full grown Leviathan;
+or, in other words, such is the calamitous condition of human affairs,
+that we stand in need of the plagues and monsters I named, to have all
+the variety of labour performed, which the skill of men is capable
+of inventing in order to procure an honest livelihood to the vast
+multitudes of working poor, that are required to make a large society:
+And it is folly to imagine, that great and wealthy nations can subsist,
+and be at once powerful and polite without.
+
+I protest against Popery as much as ever Luther and Calvin did,
+or Queen Elizabeth herself; but I believe from my heart, that
+the Reformation has scarce been more instrumental in rendering
+the kingdoms and states that have embraced it, flourishing beyond
+other nations, than the silly and capricious invention of hooped and
+quilted petticoats. But if this should be denied me by the enemies
+of priestly power, at least I am sure that, bar the great men who
+have fought for and against that layman's blessing, it has, from its
+beginning to this day, not employed so many hands, honest, industrious,
+labouring hands, as the abominable improvement on female luxury,
+I named, has done in few years. Religion is one thing, and trade is
+another. He that gives most trouble to thousands of his neighbours,
+and invents the most operose manufactures, is, right or wrong, the
+greatest friend to the society.
+
+What a bustle is there to be made in several parts of the world, before
+a fine scarlet or crimson cloth can be produced; what multiplicity of
+trades and artificers must be employed! Not only such as are obvious,
+as woolcombers, spinners, the weaver, the cloth worker, the scourer,
+the dyer, the setter, the drawer, and the packer; but others that
+are more remote, and might seem foreign to it; as the mill-wright,
+the pewterer, and the chemist, which yet are all necessary, as well as
+a great number of other handicrafts, to have the tools, utensils, and
+other implements belonging to the trades already named: But all these
+things are done at home, and may be performed without extraordinary
+fatigue or danger; the most frightful prospect is left behind, when
+we reflect on the toil and hazard that are to be undergone abroad,
+the vast seas we are to go over, the different climates we are to
+endure, and the several nations we must be obliged to for their
+assistance. Spain alone, it is true, might furnish us with wool to
+make the finest cloth; but what skill and pains, what experience and
+ingenuity, are required to dye it of those beautiful colours! How
+widely are the drugs, and other ingredients, dispersed through the
+universe that are to meet in one kettle! Allum, indeed, we have of our
+own; argol we might have from the Rhine, and vitriol from Hungary; all
+this is in Europe; but then for saltpetre in quantity, we are forced to
+go as far as the East Indies. Cocheneal, unknown to the ancients, is
+not much nearer to us, though in a quite different part of the earth:
+we buy it, it is true, from the Spaniards; but not being their product,
+they are forced to fetch it for us from the remotest corner of the
+new world in the East Indies. While so many sailors are broiling in
+the sun, and sweltered with heat in the east and west of us, another
+set of them are freezing in the north, to fetch potashes from Russia.
+
+When we are thoroughly acquainted with all the variety of toil and
+labour, the hardships and calamities that must be undergone to compass
+the end I speak of, and we consider the vast risks and perils that
+are run in those voyages, and that few of them are ever made but at
+the expence, not only of the health and welfare, but even the lives
+of many: When we are acquainted with, I say, and duly consider the
+things I named, it is scarce possible to conceive a tyrant so inhuman,
+and void of shame, that, beholding things in the same view, he should
+exact such terrible services from his innocent slaves; and, at the
+same time, dare to own, that he did it for no other reason, than the
+satisfaction a man receives from having a garment made of scarlet or
+crimson cloth. But to what height of luxury must a nation be arrived,
+where not only the king's officers, but likewise the guards, even
+the private soldiers, should have such impudent desires!
+
+But if we turn the prospect, and look on all those labours as so many
+voluntary actions, belonging to different callings and occupations,
+that men are brought up to for a livelihood, and in which every one
+works for himself, how much soever he may seem to labour for others: If
+we consider, that even the sailors who undergo the greatest hardships,
+as soon as one voyage is ended, even after shipwreck, are looking out,
+and soliciting for employment in another: If we consider, I say, and
+look on these things in another view, we shall find, that the labour
+of the poor is so far from being a burden and an imposition upon them,
+that to have employment is a blessing, which, in their addresses to
+Heaven, they pray for, and to  procure it for the generality of them,
+is the greatest care of every legislature.
+
+As children, and even infants, are the apes of others, so all
+youth have an ardent desire of being men and women, and become often
+ridiculous by their impatient endeavours to appear what every body sees
+they are not; all large societies are not a little indebted to this
+folly for the perpetuity, or at least long continuance, of trades once
+established. What pains will young people take, and what violence will
+they not commit upon themselves, to attain to insignificant, and often
+blameable qualifications, which, for want of judgment and experience,
+they admire in others, that are superior to them in age! This fondness
+of imitation makes them accustom themselves, by degrees, to the use
+of things that were irksome, if not intolerable to them at first,
+till they know not how to leave them, and are often very sorry for
+having inconsiderately increased the necessaries of life without any
+necessity. What estates have been got by tea and coffee! What a vast
+traffic is drove, what a variety of labour is performed in the world,
+to the maintenance of thousands of families that altogether depend on
+two silly, if not odious customs; the taking of snuff, and smoking
+of tobacco; both which, it is certain, do infinitely more hurt
+than good to those that are addicted to them! I shall go further,
+and demonstrate the usefulness of private losses and misfortunes
+to the public, and the folly of our wishes, when we pretend to be
+most wise and serious. The fire of London was a great calamity; but
+if the carpenters, bricklayers, smiths, and all, not only that are
+employed in building, but likewise those that made and dealt in the
+same manufactures, and other merchandises that were burnt, and other
+trades again that got by them when they were in full employ, were to
+vote against those who lost by the fire, the rejoicings would equal,
+if not exceed the complaints. In recruiting what is lost and destroyed
+by fire, storms, sea-fights, sieges, battles, a considerable part of
+trade consists; the truth of which, and whatever I have said of the
+nature of society, will plainly appear from what follows.
+
+It would be a difficult task to enumerate all the advantages and
+different benefits, that accrue to a nation, on account of shipping
+and navigation; but if we only take into consideration the ships
+themselves, and every vessel great and small that is made use of for
+water-carriage, from the least wherry to a first rate man of war;
+the timber and hands that are employed in the building of them;
+and consider the pitch, tar, rosin, grease; the masts, yards, sails
+and riggings; the variety of smiths work; the cables, oars, and every
+thing else belonging to them; we shall find, that to furnish only such
+a nation as ours with all the necessaries, make up a considerable
+part of the traffic of Europe, without speaking of the stores and
+ammunition of all sorts, that are consumed in them, or the mariners,
+waterman and others, with their families, that are maintained by them.
+
+But should we, on the other hand, take a view of the manifold mischiefs
+and variety of evils, moral as well as natural, that befal nations on
+the score of seafaring, and their commerce with strangers, the prospect
+would be very frightful; and could we suppose a large populous island,
+that should be wholly unacquainted with ships and sea affairs, but
+otherwise a wise and well-governed people; and that some angel, or
+their genius, should lay before them a scheme or draught, where they
+might see on the one side, all the riches and real advantages that
+would be acquired by navigation in a thousand years; and on the other,
+the wealth and lives that would be lost, and all the other calamities,
+that would be unavoidably sustained on account of it during the same
+time, I am confident, they would look upon ships with horror and
+detestation, and that their prudent rulers would severely forbid the
+making and inventing all buildings or machines to go to sea with, of
+what shape or denomination soever, and prohibit all such abominable
+contrivances on great penalties, if not the pain of death.
+
+But to let alone the necessary consequence of foreign trade, the
+corruption of manners, as well as plagues, poxes, and other diseases,
+that are brought to us by shipping, should we only cast our eyes on
+what is either to be imputed to the wind and weather, the treachery of
+the seas, the ice of the north, the vermin of the south, the darkness
+of nights, and unwholesomeness of climates, or else occasioned by the
+want of good provisions, and the faults of mariners, and unskilfulness
+of some, and the neglect and drunkenness of others; and should we
+consider the losses of men and treasure swallowed up in the deep, the
+tears and necessities of widows and orphans made by the sea, the ruin
+of merchants and the consequences, the continual anxieties that parents
+and wives are in for the safety of their children and husbands, and
+not forget the many pangs and heart-aches that are felt throughout a
+trading nation, by owners and insurers, at every blast of wind; should
+we cast our eyes, I say, on these things, consider with due attention
+and give them the weight they deserve, would it not be amazing, how a
+nation of thinking people should talk of their ships and navigation
+as a peculiar blessing to them, and placing an uncommon felicity in
+having an infinity of vessels dispersed through the wide world, and
+always some going to and others coming from every part of the universe?
+
+But let us once, in our consideration on these things, confine
+ourselves to what the ships suffer only, the vessels themselves,
+with their rigging and appurtenances, without thinking on the freight
+they carry, or the hands that work them, and we shall find that the
+damage sustained that way only, is very considerable, and must one
+year with another amount to vast sums; the ships that are foundered
+at sea, split against rocks and swallowed up by sands, some by the
+fierceness of tempests altogether, others by that and the want of
+pilots, experience, and knowledge of the coasts: the masts that are
+blown down, or forced to be cut and thrown overboard, the yards,
+sails, and cordage of different sizes that are destroyed by storms,
+and the anchors that are lost: add to these the necessary repairs of
+leaks sprung, and other hurts received from the rage of winds, and the
+violence of the waves: many ships are set on fire by carelessness,
+and the effects of strong liquors, which none are more addicted to
+than sailors: sometimes unhealthy climates, at others the badness of
+provision breed fatal distempers, that sweep away the greatest part
+of the crew, and not a few ships are lost for want of hands.
+
+These are all calamities inseparable from navigation, and seem to be
+great impediments that clog the wheels of foreign commerce. How happy
+would a merchant think himself, if his ships should always have fine
+weather, and the wind he wished for, and every mariner he employed,
+from the highest to the lowest, be a knowing experienced sailor, and a
+careful, sober, good man! Was such a felicity to be had for prayers,
+what owner of ships is there, or dealer in Europe, nay, the whole
+world, who would not be all day long teazing Heaven to obtain such a
+blessing for himself, without regard to what detriment it would do to
+others? Such a petition would certainly be a very unconscionable one;
+yet where is the man who imagines not that he has a right to make
+it? And therefore, as every one pretends to an equal claim to those
+favours, let us, without reflecting on the impossibility of its being
+true, suppose all their prayers effectual and their wishes answered,
+and afterwards examine into the result of such a happiness.
+
+Ships would last as long as timber houses to the full, because they
+are as strongly built, and the latter are liable to suffer by high
+winds and other storms, which the first, by our supposition, are not
+to be: so that, before there would be any real occasion for new ships,
+the master builders now in being, and every body under them, that is
+set to work about them, would all die a natural death, if they were
+not starved or come to some untimely end: for, in the first place,
+all ships having prosperous gales, and never waiting for the wind,
+they would make very quick voyages both out and home: secondly,
+no merchandises would be damaged by the sea, or by stress of weather
+thrown overboard, but the entire lading would always come safe ashore;
+and hence it would follow, that three parts in four of the merchantmen
+already made, would be superfluous for the present, and the stock of
+ships that are now in the world, serve a vast many years. Masts and
+yards would last as long as the vessels themselves, and we should not
+need to trouble Norway on that score a great while yet. The sails
+and rigging, indeed, of the few ships made use of would wear out,
+but not a quarter part so fast as now they do, for they often suffer
+more in one hour's storm, than in ten days fair weather.
+
+Anchors and cables there would be seldom any occasion for, and one
+of each would last a ship time out of mind: this article alone,
+would yield many a tedious holiday to the anchor-smiths and the
+rope-yards. This general want of consumption would have such
+an influence on the timber-merchants, and all that import iron,
+sail-cloth, hemp, pitch, tar, &c. that four parts in five of what,
+in the beginning of this reflection on sea-affairs, I said, made a
+considerable branch of the traffic of Europe, would be entirely lost.
+
+I have only touched hitherto on the consequences of this blessing in
+relation to shipping, but it would be detrimental to all other branches
+of trade besides, and destructive to the poor of every country, that
+exports any thing of their own growth or manufacture. The goods and
+merchandises that every year go to the deep, that are spoiled at sea
+by salt water, by heat, by vermine, destroyed by fire, or lost to the
+merchant by other accidents, all owing to storms or tedious voyages,
+or else the neglect or rapacity of sailors; such goods, I say, and
+merchandises are a considerable part of what every year is sent abroad
+throughout the world, and must have employed great multitudes of poor,
+before they could come on board. A hundred bales of cloth that are
+burnt or sunk in the Mediterranean, are as beneficial to the poor
+in England, as if they had safely arrived at Smyrna or Aleppo, and
+every yard of them had been retailed on the grand Signior's dominions.
+
+The merchant may break, and by him the clothier, the dyer, the packer,
+and other tradesmen, the middling people, may suffer; but the poor
+that were set to work about them can never lose. Day-labourers
+commonly receive their earnings once a-week, and all the working
+people that were employed, either in any of the various branches of
+the manufacture itself, or the several land and water carriages it
+requires to be brought to perfection, from the sheep's back, to the
+vessel it was entered in, were paid, at least much the greatest part
+of them, before the parcel came on board. Should any of my readers
+draw conclusions in infinitum, from my assertions, that goods sunk
+or burnt are as beneficial to the poor, as if they had been well
+sold and put to their proper uses, I would count him a caviller and
+not worth answering: should it always rain and the sun never shine,
+the fruits of the earth would soon be rotten and destroyed; and yet
+it is no paradox to affirm, that, to have grass or corn, rain is as
+necessary as the sunshine.
+
+In what manner this blessing of fair winds and fine weather, would
+affect the mariners themselves, and the breed of sailors, may be
+easily conjectured from what has been said already. As there would
+hardly one ship in four be made use of, so the vessels themselves being
+always exempt from storms, fewer hands would be required to work them,
+and consequently five in six of the seamen we have might be spared,
+which in this nation, most employments of the poor being overstocked,
+would be but an untoward article. As soon as those superfluous seamen
+should be extinct, it would be impossible to man such large fleets as
+we could at present: but I do not look upon this as a detriment, or
+the least inconveniency: for the reduction of mariners, as to numbers
+being general throughout the world, all the consequence would be,
+that in case of war, the maritime powers would be obliged to fight
+with fewer ships, which would be an happiness instead of an evil:
+and would you carry this felicity to the highest pitch of perfection,
+it is but to add one desirable blessing more, and no nation shall ever
+fight at all: the blessing I hint at is, what all good Christians
+are bound to pray for, viz. that all princes and states would be
+true to their oaths and promises, and just to one another, as well
+as their own subjects; that they might have a greater regard for the
+dictates of conscience and religion, than those of state politics
+and worldly wisdom, and prefer the spiritual welfare of others to
+their own carnal desires, and the honesty, the safety, the peace and
+tranquillity of the nations they govern, to their own love of glory,
+spirit of revenge, avarice, and ambition.
+
+The last paragraph will to many seem a digression, that makes little
+for my purpose; but what I mean by it, is to demonstrate that goodness,
+integrity, and a peaceful disposition in rulers and governors of
+nations, are not the proper qualifications to aggrandize them, and
+increase their numbers; any more than the uninterrupted series of
+success that every private person would be blest with, if he could,
+and which I have shown would be injurious and destructive to a large
+society, that should place a felicity in worldly greatness, and being
+envied by their neighbours, and value themselves upon their honour
+and their strength.
+
+No man needs to guard himself against blessings, but calamities
+require hands to avert them. The amiable qualities of man put none
+of the species upon stirring: his honesty, his love of company, his
+goodness, content and frugality, are so many comforts to an indolent
+society, and the more real and unaffected they are, the more they
+keep every thing at rest and peace, and the more they will every
+where prevent trouble and motion itself. The same almost may be said
+of the gifts and munificence of Heaven, and all the bounties and
+benefits of nature: this is certain, that the more extensive they
+are, and the greater plenty we have of them, the more we save our
+labour. But the necessities, the vices, and imperfections of man,
+together with the various inclemencies of the air and other elements,
+contain in them the seeds of all arts, industry and labours: it is
+the extremities of heat and cold, the inconstancy and badness of
+seasons, the violence and uncertainty of winds, the vast power and
+treachery of water, the rage and untractableness of fire, and the
+stubbornness and sterility of the earth, that rack our invention, how
+we shall either avoid the mischiefs they may produce, or correct the
+malignity of them, and turn their several forces to our own advantage
+a thousand different ways; while we are employed in supplying the
+infinite variety of our wants, which will ever be multiplied as our
+knowledge is enlarged, and our desires increase. Hunger, thirst, and
+nakedness, are the first tyrants that force us to stir: afterwards,
+our pride, sloth, sensuality, and fickleness, are the great patrons
+that promote all arts and sciences, trades, handicrafts and callings;
+while the great task-masters, necessity, avarice, envy, and ambition,
+each in the class that belongs to him, keep the members of the society
+to their labour, and make them all submit, most of them cheerfully,
+to the drudgery of their station; kings and princes not excepted.
+
+The greater the variety of trades and manufactures the more operose
+they are, and the more they are divided in many branches, the greater
+numbers may be contained in a society without being in one another's
+way, and the more easily they may be rendered a rich, potent, and
+flourishing people. Few virtues employ any hands, and therefore they
+may render a small nation good, but they can never make a great one. To
+be strong and laborious, patient in difficulties, and assiduous in all
+business, are commendable qualities; but as they do their own work,
+so they are their own reward, and neither art nor industry have ever
+paid their compliments to them; whereas the excellency of human thought
+and contrivance, has been, and is yet no where more conspicuous than
+in the variety of tools and instruments of workmen and artificers,
+and the multiplicity of engines, that were all invented either to
+assist the weakness of man, to correct his many imperfections, to
+gratify his laziness, or obviate his impatience.
+
+It is in morality as it is in nature, there is nothing so perfectly
+good in creatures, that it cannot be hurtful to any one of the society,
+nor any thing so entirely evil, but it may prove beneficial to some
+part or other of the creation: so that things are only good and evil
+in reference to something else, and according to the light and position
+they are placed in. What pleases us is good in that regard, and by this
+rule every man wishes well for himself to the best of his capacity,
+with little respect to his neighbour. There never was any rain yet,
+though in a very dry season when public prayers had been made for it,
+but somebody or other who wanted to go abroad, wished it might be fair
+weather only for that day. When the corn stands thick in the spring,
+and the generality of the country rejoice at the pleasing object,
+the rich farmer who kept his last year's crop for a better market,
+pines at the sight, and inwardly grieves at the prospect of a plentiful
+harvest. Nay, we shall often hear your idle people openly wish for the
+possessions of others, and not to be injurious forsooth add this wise
+proviso, that it should be without detriment to the owners: but I am
+afraid they often do it without any such restriction in their hearts.
+
+It is a happiness that the prayers as well as wishes of most people,
+are insignificant and good for nothing; or else the only thing that
+could keep mankind fit for society, and the world from falling into
+confusion, would be the impossibility that all the petitions made
+to Heaven should be granted. A dutiful pretty young gentleman newly
+come from his travels, lies at the Briel waiting with impatience for
+an easterly wind, to waft him over to England, where a dying father,
+who wants to embrace and give him his blessing before he yields his
+breath, lies hoaning after him, melted with grief and tenderness:
+in the mean while a British minister, who is to take care of the
+Protestant interest in Germany, is riding post to Harwich, and in
+violent haste to be at Ratisbone before the diet breaks up. At the
+same time a rich fleet lies ready for the Mediterranean, and a fine
+squadron is bound for the Baltic. All these things may probably
+happen at once, at least there is no difficulty in supposing they
+should. If these people are not atheists, or very great reprobates,
+they will all have some good thoughts before they go to sleep, and
+consequently about bed-time, they must all differently pray for a
+fair wind and a prosperous voyage. I do not say but it is their duty,
+and it is possible they may be all heard, but I am sure they cannot
+be all served at the same time.
+
+After this, I flatter myself to have demonstrated that, neither the
+friendly qualities and kind affections that are natural to man, nor
+the real virtues he is capable of acquiring by reason and self-denial,
+are the foundation of society; but that what we call evil in this
+world, moral as well as natural, is the grand principle that makes
+us sociable creatures, the solid basis, the life and support of all
+trades and employments without exception: that there we must look
+for the true origin of all arts and sciences, and that the moment
+evil ceases, the society must be spoiled, if not totally dissolved.
+
+I could add a thousand things to enforce, and further illustrate this
+truth, with abundance of pleasure; but for fear of being troublesome,
+I shall make an end, though I confess that I have not been half so
+solicitous to gain the approbation of others, as I have studied to
+please myself in this amusement: yet if ever I hear, that by following
+this diversion I have given any to the intelligent reader, it will
+always add to the satisfaction I have received in the performance. In
+the hope my vanity forms of this, I leave him with regret, and conclude
+with repeating the seeming paradox, the substance of which is advanced
+in the title page; that private vices, by the dexterous management
+of a skilful politician, may be turned into public benefits.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               A
+                          VINDICATION
+                             OF THE
+    Book, from the Aspersions contained in a Presentment of
+                  the Grand Jury of Middlesex,
+
+              And an Abusive Letter to Lord C----
+
+
+That the reader may be fully instructed in the merits of the cause
+between my adversaries and myself, it is requisite that, before he
+sees my defence, he should know the whole charge, and have before
+him all the accusations against me at large.
+
+
+The Presentment of the Grand Jury is worded thus:
+
+
+We the Grand Jury for the county of Middlesex, have, with the greatest
+sorrow and concern, observed the many books and pamphlets that are
+almost every week published against the sacred articles of our holy
+religion, and all discipline and order in the church, and the manner
+in which this is carried on, seems to us to have a direct tendency
+to propagate infidelity, and consequently corruption of all morals.
+
+We are justly sensible of the goodness of the Almighty, that has
+preserved us from the plague, which has visited our neighbouring
+nation, and for which great mercy, his Majesty was graciously pleased
+to command, by his proclamation, that thanks should be returned to
+Heaven; but how provoking must it be to the Almighty, that his mercies
+and deliverances extended to this nation, and our thanksgiving that
+was publicly commanded for it, should be attended with such flagrant
+impieties.
+
+We know of nothing that can be of greater service to his Majesty,
+and the Protestant succession (which is happily established among
+us for the defence of the Christian Religion), than the suppression
+of blasphemy and profaneness, which has a direct tendency to subvert
+the very foundation on which his Majesty's government is fixed.
+
+So restless have these zealots for infidelity been in their diabolical
+attempts against religion, that they have,
+
+First, Openly blasphemed and denied the doctrine of the ever Blessed
+Trinity, endeavouring, by species pretences, to revive the Arian
+heresy, which was never introduced into any nation, but the vengeance
+of Heaven pursued it.
+
+Secondly, They affirm an absolute fate, and deny the Providence and
+government of the Almighty in the world.
+
+Thirdly, They have endeavoured to subvert all order and discipline
+of the church, and by vile and unjust reflections on the clergy, they
+strive to bring contempt on all religion; that by the libertinism of
+their opinions they may encourage and draw others into the immoralities
+of their practice.
+
+Fourthly, That a general libertinism may the more effectually be
+established, the universities are decried, and all instructions of
+youth in the principles of the Christian religion are exploded with
+the greatest malice and falsity.
+
+Fifthly, The more effectually to carry on these works of darkness,
+studied artifices, and invented colours, have been made use of to run
+down religion and virtue as prejudicial to society, and detrimental
+to the state; and to recommend luxury, avarice, pride, and all kind
+of vices, as being necessary to public welfare, and not tending to
+the destruction of the constitution: nay, the very stews themselves
+have had strained apologies and forced encomiums made in their favour,
+and produced in print, with design, we conceive, to debauch the nation.
+
+These principles having a direct tendency to the subversion of all
+religion and civil government, our duty to the Almighty, our love to
+our country, and regard to our oaths, oblige us to present
+
+as the publisher of a book, intituled the Fable of the Bees; or
+Private Vices Public Benefits. 2d. Edit. 1723.
+
+And also
+
+as the publisher of a weekly paper, called the British Journal,
+Numb. 26, 35, 36, and 39.
+
+
+The Letter I complain of is this:
+
+
+My Lord,
+
+It is welcome news to all the king's loyal subjects and true friends
+to the established government and succession in the illustrious house
+of Hanover, that your Lordship is said to be contriving some effectual
+means of securing us from the dangers, wherewith his Majesty's happy
+government seems to be threatened by Catiline, under the name of
+Cato; by the writer of a book, intituled, The Fable of the Bees,
+&c. and by others of their fraternity, who are undoubtedly useful
+friends to the Pretender, and diligent, for his sake, in labouring
+to subvert and ruin our constitution, under a specious pretence of
+defending it. Your Lordship's wise resolution, totally to suppress
+such impious writings, and the direction already given for having them
+presented, immediately, by some of the grand juries, will effectually
+convince the nation, that no attempts against Christianity will be
+suffered or endured here. And this conviction will at once rid men's
+minds of the uneasiness which this flagitious race of writers has
+endeavoured to raise in them; will therefore be a firm bulwark to
+the Protestant religion; will effectually defeat the projects and
+hopes of the Pretender; and best secure us against any change in the
+ministry. And no faithful Briton could be unconcerned, if the people
+should imagine any the least neglect in any single person bearing a
+part in the ministry, or begin to grow jealous, that any thing could
+be done, which is not done, in defending their religion from every
+the least appearance of danger approaching towards it. And, my Lord,
+this jealousy might have been apt to rise, if no measures had been
+taken to discourage and crush the open advocates of irreligion. It is
+no easy matter to get jealousy out of one's brains, when it is once
+got into them. Jealousy, my Lord! it is as furious a fiend as any
+of them all. I have seen a little thin weak woman so invigorated by
+a fit of jealousy, that five grenadiers could not hold her. My Lord,
+go on with your just methods of keeping the people clear of this cursed
+jealousy: for amongst the various kinds and occasions of it, that which
+concerns their religion, is the most violent, flagrant, frantic sort
+of all; and accordingly has, in former reigns, produced those various
+mischiefs, which your Lordship has faithfully determined to prevent,
+dutifully regarding the royal authority, and conforming to the example
+of his Majesty, who has graciously given directions (which are well
+known to your Lordship) for the preserving of unity in the church;
+and the purity of the Christian faith. It is in vain to think that
+the people of England will ever give up their religion, or be very
+fond of any ministry that will not support it, as the wisdom of this
+ministry has done, against such audacious attacks as are made upon
+it by the scribblers; for scribbler, your Lordship knows, is the just
+appellation of every author, who, under whatever plausible appearance
+of good sense, attempts to undermine the religion, and therefore the
+content and quiet, the peace and happiness of his fellow-subjects,
+by subtle and artful, and fallacious arguments and insinuations. May
+Heaven avert those insufferable miseries, which the Church of
+Rome would bring upon us! tyranny is the bane of human society,
+and there is no tyranny heavier than that of the triple crown. And,
+therefore, this free and happy people has justly conceived an utter
+abhorrence and dread of Popery, and of every thing that looks like
+encouragement or tendency to it; but they do also abhor and dread the
+violence offered to Christianity itself, by our British Catilines,
+who shelter their treacherous designs against it, under the false
+colours of regard and good will to our blessed Protestant religion,
+while they demonstrate, too plainly demonstrate, that the title of
+Protestants does not belong to them, unless it can belong to those
+who are in effect protestors against all religion.
+
+And really the people cannot be much blamed for being a little
+unwilling to part with their religion: for they tell ye that there is
+a God; and that God governs the world; and that he is wont to bless or
+blast a kingdom, in proportion to the degrees of religion or irreligion
+prevailing in it. Your Lordship has a fine collection of books; and,
+which is a finer thing still, you do certainly understand them,
+and can turn to an account of any important affair in a trice. I
+would therefore fain know, whether your Lordship can show, from
+any writer, let him be as profane as the scribblers would have him,
+that any one empire, kingdom, country, or province, great or small,
+did not dwindle and sink, and was confounded, when it once failed of
+providing studiously for the support of religion.
+
+The scribblers talk much of the Roman government, and liberty, and
+the spirit of the old Romans. But it is undeniable, that their most
+plausible talk of these things is all pretence, and grimace, and an
+artifice to serve the purposes of irreligion; and by consequence to
+render the people uneasy, and ruin the kingdom. For if they did in
+reality esteem, and would faithfully recommend to their countrymen,
+the sentiments and principles, the main purposes and practices of the
+wise and prosperous Romans, they would, in the first place, put us
+in mind, that old Rome was as remarkable for observing and promoting
+natural religion, as new Rome has been for corrupting that which is
+revealed. And as the old Romans did signally recommend themselves to
+the favour of heaven, by their faithful care of religion; so were
+they abundantly convinced, and did accordingly acknowledge, with
+universal consent, that their care of religion was the great means
+[8] of God's preserving the empire, and crowning it with conquest
+and success, prosperity and glory. Hence it was, that when their
+orators were bent upon exerting their utmost in moving and persuading
+the people, upon any occasion, they ever put them in mind of their
+religion, if that could be any way affected by the point in debate;
+not doubting that the people would determine in their favour, if
+they could but demonstrate, that the safety of religion depended
+upon the success of their cause. And, indeed, neither the Romans,
+nor any other nation upon earth, did ever suffer their established
+religion to be openly ridiculed, exploded, or opposed: and I am sure,
+your Lordship would not, for all the world, that this thing would be
+done with impunity amongst us, which was never endured in the world
+before. Did ever any man, since the blessed revelation of the gospel,
+run riot upon Christianity, as some men, nay, and some few women
+too, have lately done? must the devil grow rampant at this rate, and
+not to be called coram nobis? Why should not he content himself to
+carry off people in the common way, the way of cursing and swearing,
+Sabbath breaking and cheating, bribery, and hypocrisy, drunkenness
+and whoring, and such kind of things as he used to do? never let
+him domineer in mens mouths and writings, as he does now, with loud,
+tremendous infidelity, blasphemy and profaneness, enough to frighten
+the King's subjects out of their wits. We are now come to a short
+question: God or the devil? that is the word; and time will show, who
+and who goes together. Thus much may be said at present, that those
+have abundantly shown their spirit of opposition to sacred things,
+who have not only inveighed against the national profession and
+exercise of religion; and endeavoured, with bitterness and dexterity,
+to render it odious and contemptible, but are solicitous to hinder
+multitudes of the natives of this island from having the very seeds
+of religion sown among them with advantage.
+
+Arguments are urged, with the utmost vehemence, against the education
+of poor children in the charity schools, though there hath not one just
+reason been offered against the provision made for that education. The
+things that have been objected against it are not, in fact, true;
+and nothing ought to be regarded, by serious and wise men, as a
+weighty or just argument, if it is not a true one. How hath Catiline
+the confidence left to look any man in the face, after he hath spent
+more confidence than most mens whole stock amounts to, in saying, that
+this pretended charity has, in effect, destroyed all other charities,
+which were before given to the aged, sick, and impotent.
+
+It seems pretty clear, that if those, who do not contribute to any
+charity school, are become more uncharitable to any other object than
+formerly they were, their want of charity to the one, is not owing to
+their contribution to the other. And as to those who do contribute
+to these schools; they are so far from being more sparing in their
+relief of other objects, than they were before, that the poor widows,
+the aged and the impotent do plainly receive more relief from them,
+in proportion to their numbers and abilities, than from any the
+same numbers of men under the same circumstances of fortune, who do
+not concern themselves with charity schools, in any respect, but in
+condemning and decrying them. I will meet Catiline at the Grecian
+coffee-house any day in the week, and by an enumeration of particular
+persons, in as great a number as he pleaseth, demonstrate the truth of
+what I say. But I do not much depend upon his giving me the meeting,
+because it is his business, not to encourage demonstrations of the
+truth, but to throw disguises upon it; otherwise, he never could have
+allowed himself, after representing the charity schools as intended to
+breed up children to reading and writing, and a sober behaviour, that
+they may be qualified to be servants, immediately to add these words, a
+sort of idle and rioting vermin, by which the kingdom is already almost
+devoured, and are become every where a public nuisance, &c. What? Is
+it owing to the charity schools, that servants are become so idle,
+such rioting vermin, such a public nuisance; that women-servants turn
+whores, and the men-servants robbers, house-breakers, and sharpers? (as
+he says they commonly do). Is this owing to the charity schools? or,
+if it is not, how comes he to allow himself the liberty of representing
+these schools as a means of increasing this load of mischief, which is
+indeed too plainly fallen upon the public? The imbibing principles of
+virtue hath not, usually, been thought the chief occasion of running
+into vice. If the early knowledge of truth, and of our obligations to
+it, were the surest means of departing from it, nobody would doubt,
+that the knowledge of truth was instilled into Catiline very early,
+and with the utmost care. It is a good pretty thing in him to spread
+a report, and to lay so much stress upon it as he does, that there
+is more collected at the church doors in a day, to make these poor
+boys and girls appear in caps and livery-coats, than for all the
+poor in a year. O rare Catiline! This point you will carry most
+swimmingly; for you have no witnesses against you, nor any living
+soul to contradict you, except the collectors and overseers of the
+poor, and all other principal inhabitants of most of the parishes,
+where any charity schools are in England.
+
+The jest of it is, my Lord, that these scribblers would still be
+thought good moral men. But, when men make it their business to
+mislead and deceive their neighbours, and that in matters of moment,
+by distorting and disguising the truth, by misrepresentations and
+false insinuations; if such men are not guilty of usurpation, while
+they take upon them the character of good moral men, then it is not
+immoral, in any man, to be false and deceitful, in cases where the
+law cannot touch him for being so, and morality bears no relation to
+truth and fair dealing. However, I shall not be very willing to meet
+one of these moral men upon Hounslow-heath, if I should happen to ride
+that way without pistols. For I have a notion, that they who have no
+conscience in one point, do not much abound with it in another. Your
+Lordship, who judges accurately of men, as well as books, will easily
+imagine, if you had no other knowledge of the charity schools, that
+there must be something very excellent in them because such kind of
+men as these are so warm in opposing them.
+
+They tell you, that these schools are hindrances to husbandry and
+to manufacture. As to husbandry; the children are not kept in the
+schools longer than till they are of age and strength to perform the
+principal parts of it, or to bear constant labour in it; and even
+while they are under this course of education, your Lordship may
+depend upon it, that they shall never be hindered from working in
+the fields, or being employed in such labour as they are capable of,
+in any parts of the year, when they can get such employment for the
+support of their parents and themselves. In this case, the parents,
+in the several counties, are proper judges of their several situations
+and circumstances, and at the same time, not so very fond of their
+children getting a little knowledge, rather than a little money,
+but that they will find other employment for them than going to
+school, whenever they can get a penny by so doing. And the case is
+the same as to the manufactures; the trustees of the charity schools,
+and the parents of the children bred in them, would be thankful to
+those gentlemen who make the objection, if they would assist in
+removing it, by subscribing to a fund for joining the employment
+of manufacture, to the business of learning to read and write
+in the charity schools. This would be a noble work: it is already
+effected by the supporters of some charity schools, and is aimed at,
+and earnestly desired by all the rest: but Rome was not built in a
+day. Till this great thing can be brought about, let the masters and
+managers of the manufactures in the several places of the kingdom,
+be so charitable as to employ the poor children for a certain number
+of hours in every day, in the respective manufactures, while the
+trustees are taking care to fill up their other hours of the day,
+in the usual duties of the charity schools. It is an easy matter for
+party-men, for designing and perverted minds, to invent colourable,
+fallacious arguments, and to offer railing, under the appearance of
+reasoning, against the best things in the world. But undoubtedly,
+no impartial man, who is affected with a serious sense of goodness,
+and a real love of his country, can think this proper and just view of
+the charity schools, liable to any just weighty objection, or refuse to
+contribute his endeavours to improve and raise them to that perfection
+which is proposed in them. In the mean time, let no man be so weak
+or so wicked as to deny, that when poor children cannot meet with
+employment in any other honest way, rather than suffer their tender
+age to be spent in idleness, or in learning the arts of lying, and
+swearing, and stealing, it is true charity to them, and good service
+done to our country, to employ them in learning the principles of
+religion and virtue, till their age and strength will enable them
+to become servants in families, or to be engaged in husbandry, or
+manufacture, or any kind of mechanic trade or laborious employment;
+for to these laborious employments are the charity children generally,
+if not always turned, as soon as they become capable of them: and
+therefore Catiline may be pleased to retract his objection concerning
+shop-keepers, or retailers of commodities, wherein he has affirmed,
+that their employments, which he says ought to fall to the share of
+children of their own degree, are mostly anticipated and engrossed
+by the managers of the charity schools. He must excuse my acquainting
+your Lordship, that this affirmation is in fact directly false, which
+is an inconvenience very apt to fall upon his affirmations, as it has
+particularly done upon one of them more, which I would mention. For he
+is not ashamed roundly to assert, That the principles of our common
+people are debauched in our charity schools, who are taught, as soon
+as they can speak, to blabber out High-church and Ormond, and so are
+bred up to be traitors before they know what treason signifies. Your
+Lordship, and other persons of integrity, whose words are the faithful
+representatives of their meaning, would now think, if I had not
+given you a key to Catiline's talk, that he has been fully convinced,
+that the children in the charity schools are bred up to be traitors.
+
+My Lord, if any one master be suffered by the trustees to continue
+in any charity school, against whom proof can be brought, that he is
+disaffected to the government, or that he does not as faithfully teach
+the children obedience and loyalty to the King, as any other duty in
+the catechism, then I will gratify Catiline with a licence to pull down
+the schools, and hang up the masters, according to his heart's desire.
+
+These, and such things as these, are urged with the like bitterness,
+and as little truth, in the book mentioned above, viz. The Fable of
+the Bees; or, Private Vices, Public Benefits, &c. Catiline explodes
+the fundamental articles of faith, impiously comparing the doctrine
+of the blessed Trinity to fee-fa-fum: this profligate author of the
+Fable is not only an auxiliary to Catiline in opposition to faith, but
+has taken upon him to tear up the very foundations of moral virtue,
+and establish vice in its room. The best physician in the world
+did never labour more, to purge the natural body of bad qualities,
+than this bumble-bee has done to purge the body-politic of good
+ones. He himself bears testimony to the truth of this charge against
+him: for when he comes to the conclusion of his book, he makes this
+observation upon himself and his performance: "After this, I flatter
+myself to have demonstrated, that neither the friendly qualities and
+kind affections that are natural to man, nor the real virtues he is
+capable of acquiring by reason and self-denial, are the foundation
+of society; but that what we call evil in this world, moral as well
+as natural, is the grand principle that makes us sociable creatures,
+the solid basis, the life and support of all trades and employments
+without exception: that there we must look for the true origin of all
+arts and sciences, and that the moment evil ceases, the society must
+be spoiled, if not totally dissolved."
+
+Now, my Lord, you see the grand design, the main drift of Catiline and
+his confederates; now the scene opens, and the secret springs appear;
+now the fraternity adventure to speak out, and surely no band of men
+ever dared to speak at this rate before; now you see the true cause of
+all their enmity to the poor charity schools; it is levelled against
+religion: religion, my Lord, which the schools are instituted to
+promote, and which this confederacy is resolved to destroy; for the
+schools are certainly one of the greatest instruments of religion and
+virtue, one of the firmest bulwarks against Popery, one of the best
+recommendations of this people to the Divine favour, and therefore
+one of the greatest blessings to our country of any thing that has
+been set on foot since our happy Reformation and deliverance from
+the idolatry and tyranny of Rome. If any trivial inconvenience did
+arise from so excellent a work, as some little inconvenience attends
+all human institutions and affairs, the excellency of the work would
+still be matter of joy, and find encouragement with all the wise
+and the good, who despise such insignificant objections against it,
+as other men are not ashamed to raise and defend.
+
+Now your Lordship also sees the true cause of the satire, which
+is continually formed against the clergy, by Catiline and his
+confederates. Why should Mr. Hall's conviction and execution be any
+more an objection against the clergy, than Mr. Layer's against the
+gentlemen of the long robe? Why, because the profession of the law
+does not immediately relate to religion: and therefore Catiline will
+allow, that if any persons of that profession should be traitors,
+or otherwise vicious, all the rest may, notwithstanding the iniquity
+of a brother, be as loyal and virtuous as any other subjects in the
+King's dominions: but because matters of religion are the professed
+concern, and the employment of the clergy; therefore Catiline's
+logic makes it out, as clear as the day, that if any of them be
+disaffected to the government, all the rest are so too; or if any
+of them be chargeable with vice, this consequence from it is plain,
+that all or most of the rest are as vicious as the devil can make
+them. I shall not trouble your Lordship with a particular vindication
+of the clergy, nor is there any reason that I should, for they are
+already secure of your Lordship's good affection to them, and they
+are able to vindicate themselves wheresoever such a vindication is
+wanted, being as faithful, and virtuous, and learned, a body of men
+as any in Europe; and yet they suspend the publication of arguments
+in a solemn defence of themselves, because they neither expect nor
+desire approbation and esteem from impious and abandoned men; and,
+at the same time, they cannot doubt that all persons, not only of
+great penetration, but of common sense, do now clearly see, that
+the arrows shot against the clergy are intended to wound and destroy
+the divine institution of the ministerial offices, and to extirpate
+the religion which the sacred offices were appointed to preserve and
+promote. This was always supposed and suspected by every honest and
+impartial man; but it is now demonstrated by those who before had
+given occasion to such suspicions, for they have now openly declared,
+that faith, in the principal articles of it, is not only needless,
+but ridiculous, that the welfare of human society must sink and
+perish under the encouragement of virtue, and that immorality is
+the only firm foundation whereon the happiness of mankind can be
+built and subsist. The publication of such tenets as these, an open
+avowed proposal to extirpate the Christian faith and all virtue, and
+to fix moral evil for the basis of the government, is so stunning, so
+shocking, so frightful, so flagrant an enormity, that if it should be
+imputed to us as a national guilt, the Divine vengeance must inevitably
+fall upon us. And how far this enormity would become a national guilt,
+if it should pass disregarded and unpunished, a casuist less skilful
+and discerning than your Lordship may easily guess. And, no doubt,
+your Lordship's good judgment, in so plain and important a case,
+has made you, like a wise and faithful patriot, resolve to use your
+utmost endeavours in your high station, to defend religion from the
+bold attacks made upon it.
+
+As soon as I have seen a copy of the bill, for the better security
+of his Majesty and his happy government, by the better security of
+religion in Great Britain, your Lordship's just scheme of politics,
+your love of your country, and your great services done to it, shall
+again be acknowledged by,
+
+
+    My Lord,
+
+        Your most faithful humble Servant;
+
+        Theophilus Philo-Britannus.
+
+
+These violent accusations, and the great clamour every where raised
+against the book, by governors, masters, and other champions of charity
+schools, together with the advice of friends, and the reflection on
+what I owed to myself, drew from me the following answer. The candid
+reader, in the perusal of it, will not be offended at the repetition
+of some passages, one of which he may have met with twice already,
+when he shall consider that, to make my defence by itself to the
+public, I was obliged to repeat what had been quoted in the Letter,
+since the paper would unavoidably fall into the hands of many who
+had never seen either the Fable of the Bees, or the Defamatory Letter
+wrote against it. The Answer was published in the London Journal of
+August 10, 1723, in these words:
+
+
+Whereas, in the Evening Post of Thursday July 11, a presentment was
+inserted of the Grand Jury of Middlesex, against the publisher of
+a book, intituled, The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices, Public
+Benefits; and since that, a passionate and abusive Letter has been
+published against the same book, and the author of it, in the London
+Journal of Saturday, July 27; I think myself indispensably obliged
+to vindicate the above said book against the black aspersions that
+undeservedly have been cast upon it, being conscious that I have not
+had the least ill design in composing it. The accusations against it
+having been made openly in the public papers, it is not equitable
+the defence of it should appear in a more private manner. What I
+have to say in my behalf, I shall address to all men of sense and
+sincerity, asking no other favour of them, than their patience and
+attention. Setting aside what in that Letter relates to others, and
+every thing that is foreign and immaterial, I shall begin with the
+passage that is quoted from the book, viz. "After this, I flatter
+myself to have demonstrated, that neither the friendly qualities and
+kind affections that are natural to man, nor the real virtues he is
+capable of acquiring by reason and self-denial, are the foundation
+of society; but that what we call evil in this world, moral as well
+as natural, is the grand principle that makes us sociable creatures;
+the solid basis, the life and support of all trades and employments
+without exception: That there we must look for the true origin of
+all arts and sciences; and that the moment evil ceases, the society
+must be spoiled, if not totally dissolved." These words, I own,
+are in the book, and, being both innocent and true, like to remain
+there in all future impressions. But I will likewise own very freely,
+that, if I had wrote with a design to be understood by the meanest
+capacities, I would not have chose the subject there treated of; or if
+I had, I would have amplified and explained every period, talked and
+distinguished magisterially, and never appeared without the fescue in
+my hand. As for example; to make the passage pointed at intelligible,
+I would have bestowed a page or two on the meaning of the word Evil;
+after that I would have taught them, that every defect, every want,
+was an evil; that on the multiplicity of those wants depended all
+those mutual services which the individual members of a society pay
+to each other; and that consequently, the greater variety there was
+of wants, the larger number of individuals might find their private
+interest in labouring for the good of others, and, united together,
+compose one body. Is there a trade or handicraft but what supplies us
+with something we wanted? This want certainly, before it was supplied,
+was an evil, which that trade or handicraft was to remedy, and without
+which it could never have been thought of. Is there an art or science
+that was not invented to mend some defect! Had this latter not existed,
+there could have been no occasion for the former to move it. I say,
+p. 236. "The excellency of human thought and contrivance has been,
+and is yet nowhere more conspicuous, than in the variety of tools
+and instruments of workmen and artificers, and the multiplicity of
+engines, that were all invented, either to assist the weakness of
+man, to correct his many imperfections, to gratify his laziness,
+or obviate his impatience." Several foregoing pages run in the same
+strain. But what relation has all this to religion or infidelity,
+more than it has to navigation or the peace in the north?
+
+The many hands that are employed to supply our natural wants, that
+are really such, as hunger, thirst, and nakedness, are inconsiderable
+to the vast numbers that are all innocently gratifying the depravity
+of our corrupt nature, I mean the industrious, who get a livelihood
+by their honest labour, to which the vain and voluptuous must be
+beholden for all their tools and implements of ease and luxury. "The
+short-sighted vulgar, in the chain of causes, seldom can see farther
+than one link; but those who can enlarge their view, and will give
+themselves leisure of gazing on the prospect of concatenated events,
+may, in a hundred places, see good spring up, and pullulate from evil,
+as naturally as chickens do from eggs."
+
+The words are to be found p. 46. in the Remark made on the seeming
+paradox; that in the grumbling hive,
+
+
+    The worst of all the multitude
+    Did something for the common good.
+
+
+Where, in many instances, may be amply discovered, how unsearchable
+Providence daily orders the comforts of the laborious, and even the
+deliverances of the oppressed, secretly to come forth, not only from
+the vices of the luxurious, but likewise the crimes of the flagitious
+and most abandoned.
+
+Men of candour and capacity perceive, at first sight, that in the
+passage censured, there is no meaning hid or expressed that is not
+altogether contained in the following words: "Man is a necessitous
+creature on innumerable accounts, and yet from those very necessities,
+and nothing else, arise all trades and employments." But it is
+ridiculous for men to meddle with books above their sphere.
+
+The Fable of the Bees was designed for the entertainment of people of
+knowledge and education, when they have an idle hour which they know
+not how to spend better: it is a book of severe and exalted morality,
+that contains a strict test of virtue, an infallible touchstone
+to distinguish the real from the counterfeited, and shows many
+actions to be faulty that are palmed upon the world for good ones:
+it describes the nature and symptoms of human passions, detects their
+force and disguises; and traces self-love in its darkest recesses;
+I might safely add, beyond any other system of ethics: the whole is a
+rhapsody void of order or method, but no part of it has any thing in
+it that is sour or pedantic; the style, I confess, is very unequal,
+sometimes very high and rhetorical, and sometimes very low, and even
+very trivial; such as it is, I am satisfied that it has diverted
+persons of great probity and virtue, and unquestionable good sense;
+and I am in no fear that it will ever cease to do so while it is
+read by such. Whoever has seen the violent charge against this book,
+will pardon me for saying more in commendation of it, than a man,
+not labouring under the same necessity, would do of his own work on
+any other occasion.
+
+The encomiums upon stews complained of in the presentment are no
+where in the book. What might give a handle to this charge, must
+be a political dissertation concerning the best method to guard and
+preserve women of honour and virtue from the insults of dissolute men,
+whose passions are often ungovernable: As in this there is a dilemma
+between two evils, which it is impracticable to shun both, so I have
+treated it with the utmost caution, and begin thus: "I am far from
+encouraging vice, and should think it an unspeakable felicity for a
+state, if the sin of uncleanness could be utterly banished from it;
+but I am afraid it is impossible." I give my reasons why I think it
+so; and, speaking occasionally of the music-houses at Amsterdam,
+I give a short account of them, than which nothing can be more
+harmless; and I appeal to all impartial judges, whether, what I
+have said of them is not ten times more proper to give men (even
+the voluptuous of any state) a disgust and aversion against them,
+than it is to raise any criminal desire. I am sorry the Grand Jury
+should conceive that I published this with a design to debauch the
+nation, without considering, that, in the first place, there is not
+a sentence nor a syllable that can either offend the chastest ear,
+or sully the imagination of the most vicious; or, in the second,
+that the matter complained of is manifestly addressed to magistrates
+and politicians, or, at least, the more serious and thinking part
+of mankind; whereas a general corruption of manners as to lewdness,
+to be produced by reading, can only be apprehended from obscenities
+easily purchased, and every way adapted to the tastes and capacities
+of the heedless multitude and unexperienced youth of both sexes: but
+that the performance, so outrageously exclaimed against, was never
+calculated for either of these classes of people, is self-evident
+from every circumstance. The beginning of the prose is altogether
+philosophical, and hardly intelligible to any that have not been used
+to matters of speculation; and the running title of it is so far from
+being specious or inviting, that without having read the book itself,
+nobody knows what to make of it, while, at the same time, the price is
+five shillings. From all which it is plain, that if the book contains
+any dangerous tenets, I have not been very solicitous to scatter them
+among the people. I have not said a word to please or engage them, and
+the greatest compliment I have made them has been, Apage vulgus. But
+as nothing (I say, p. 138) would more clearly demonstrate the falsity
+of my notions than that, the generality of the people should fall in
+with them, so I do not expect the approbation of the multitude. I write
+not to many, nor seek for any well-wishers, but among the few that can
+think abstractly, and have their minds elevated above the vulgar." Of
+this I have made no ill use, and ever preserved such a tender regard
+to the public, that when I have advanced any uncommon sentiments,
+I have used all the precautions imaginable, that they might not be
+hurtful to weak minds that might casually dip into the book. When
+(p. 137.) I owned, "That it was my sentiment that no society could be
+raised into a rich and mighty kingdom, or so raised subsist in their
+wealth and power for any considerable time, without the vices of man,"
+I had premised, what was true, "That I had never said or imagined,
+that man could not be virtuous as well in a rich and mighty kingdom,
+as in the most pitiful commonwealth:" which caution, a man less
+scrupulous than myself might have thought superfluous, when he had
+already explained himself on that head in the very same paragraph
+which begins thus: "I lay down, as a first principle, that in all
+societies, great or small, it is the duty of every member of it to
+be good; that virtue ought to be encouraged, vice discountenanced,
+the laws obeyed, and the transgressors punished." There is not a line
+in the book that contradicts this doctrine, and I defy my enemies
+to disprove what I have advanced, p. 139, "That if I have shown
+the way to worldly greatness, I have always, without hesitation,
+preferred the road that leads to virtue." No man ever took more
+pains not to be misconstrued than myself: mind p. 138, when I say,
+"That societies cannot be raised to wealth and power, and the top
+of earthly glory, without vices; I do not think, that by so saying,
+I bid men be vicious, any more than I bid them be quarrelsome or
+covetous, when I affirm, that the profession of the law could not be
+maintained in such numbers and splendour, if there was not abundance
+of too selfish and litigious people." A caution of the same nature
+I had already given towards the end of the Preface, on account of
+a palpable evil inseparable from the felicity of London. To search
+into the real causes of things, imports no ill design, nor has any
+tendency to do harm. A man may write on poisons, and be an excellent
+physician. Page 235, I say, "No man needs to guard himself against
+blessings, but calamities require hands to avert them." And lower,
+"It is the extremities of heat and cold, the inconstancy and badness
+of seasons, the violence and uncertainty of winds, the vast power
+and treachery of water, the rage and untractableness of fire, and
+the stubbornness and sterility of the earth, that rack our invention,
+how we shall either avoid the mischiefs they produce, or correct the
+malignity of them, and turn their several forces to our own advantage a
+thousand different ways." While a man is inquiring into the occupation
+of vast multitudes, I cannot see why he may not say all this and much
+more, without being accused of depreciating and speaking slightly
+of the gifts and munificence of heaven; when, at the same time, he
+demonstrates, that without rain and sunshine this globe would not
+be habitable to creatures like ourselves. It is an out-of-the-way
+subject, and I would never quarrel with the man who should tell me
+that it might as well have been let alone: yet I always thought it
+would please men of any tolerable taste, and not be easily lost.
+
+My vanity I could never conquer, so well as I could wish; and I am too
+proud to commit crimes, and as to the main scope, the intent of the
+book, I mean the view it was wrote with, I protest that it has been
+with the utmost sincerity, what I have declared of it in the Preface,
+where you will find these words: "If you ask me, why I have done all
+this, cui bono? And what good these notions will produce? Truly,
+besides the reader's diversion, I believe none at all; but if I
+was asked, what naturally ought to be expected from them? I would
+answer, That, in the first place, the people who continually find
+fault with others, by reading them would be taught to look at home,
+and examining their own consciences, be made ashamed of always railing
+at what they are more or less guilty of themselves; and that, in the
+next, those who are so fond of the ease and comforts of a great and
+flourishing nation, would learn more patiently to submit to those
+inconveniences, which no government upon earth can remedy, when they
+should see the impossibility of enjoying any great share of the first,
+without partaking likewise of the latter."
+
+The first impression of the Fable of the Bees, which came out in 1714,
+was never carped at, or publicly taken notice of; and all the reason
+I can think on, why this second edition should be so unmercifully
+treated, though it has many precautions which the former wanted,
+is an Essay on Charity and Charity Schools, which is added to what
+was printed before. I confess, that it is my sentiment, that all hard
+and dirty work, ought, in a well-governed nation, to be the lot and
+portion of the poor, and that to divert their children from useful
+labour till they are fourteen or fifteen years old, is a wrong method
+to qualify them for it when are they grown up. I have given several
+reasons for my opinion in that Essay, to which I refer all impartial
+men of understanding, assuring them that they will not meet with such
+monstrous impiety in it as reported. What an advocate I have been for
+libertinism and immorality, and what an enemy to all instructions of
+youth in the Christian faith, may be collected from the pains I have
+taken on education for above seven pages together: and afterwards
+again, page 193, where speaking of the instructions the children of
+the poor might receive at church; from which, I say, "Or some other
+place of worship, I would not have the meanest of a parish that
+is able to walk to it, be absent on Sundays," I have these words:
+"It is the Sabbath, the most useful day in seven, that is set apart
+for divine service and religious exercise, as well as resting from
+bodily labour; and it is a duty incumbent on all magistrates, to take
+a particular care of that day. The poor more especially, and their
+children, should be made to go to church on it, both in the fore and
+the afternoon, because they have no time on any other. By precept and
+example, they ought to be encouraged to it from their very infancy:
+the wilful neglect of it ought to be counted scandalous; and if
+downright compulsion to what I urge might seem too harsh, and perhaps
+impracticable, all diversions at least ought strictly to be prohibited,
+and the poor hindered from every amusement abroad, that might allure
+or draw them from it." If the arguments I have made use of are not
+convincing, I desire they may be refuted, and I will acknowledge it as
+a favour in any one that shall convince me of my error, without ill
+language, by showing me wherein I have been mistaken: but calumny,
+it seems, is the shortest way of confuting an adversary, when men
+are touched in a sensible part. Vast sums are gathered for these
+charity schools, and I understand human nature too well to imagine,
+that the sharers of the money should hear them spoke against with
+any patience. I foresaw, therefore, the usage I was to receive, and
+having repeated the common cant that is made for charity schools,
+I told my readers, page 165. "This is the general cry, and he that
+speaks the least word against it, is an uncharitable, hard-hearted,
+and inhuman, if not a wicked, profane and atheistical wretch." For
+this reason, it cannot be thought, that it was a great surprise to
+me, when in that extraordinary letter to Lord C. I saw myself called
+"profligate author; the publication of my tenets, an open and avowed
+proposal to extirpate the Christian faith and all virtue, and what
+I had done so stunning, so shocking, so frightful, so flagrant an
+enormity, that it cried for the vengeance of Heaven." This is no more
+than what I have already expected from the enemies to truth and fair
+dealing, and I shall retort nothing on the angry author of that letter,
+who endeavours to expose me to the public fury. I pity him, and have
+charity enough to believe that he has been imposed upon himself, by
+trusting to fame and the hearsay of others; for no man in his wits
+can imagine that he should have read one quarter part of my book,
+and write as he does.
+
+I am sorry if the words Private Vices, Public Benefits, have ever
+given any offence to a well-meaning man. The mystery of them is
+soon unfolded, when once they are rightly understood; but no man of
+sincerity will question the innocence of them, that has read the last
+paragraph, where I take my leave of the reader, "and conclude with
+repeating the seeming paradox, the substance of which is advanced
+in the title page; that private vices, by the dexterous management
+of a skilful politician, may be turned into public benefits." These
+are the last words of the book, printed in the same large character
+with the rest. But I set aside all what I have said in my vindication;
+and if, in the whole book called the Fable of the Bees, and presented
+by the grand jury of Middlesex to the judges of the King's Bench,
+there is to be found the least title of blasphemy or profaneness,
+or any thing tending to immorality or the corruption of manners, I
+desire it may be published; and if this be done without invective,
+personal reflections, or setting the mob upon me, things I never
+design to answer, I will not only recant, but likewise beg pardon of
+the offended public in the most solemn manner: and (if the hangman
+might be thought too good for the office) burn the book myself, at any
+reasonable time and place my adversaries shall be pleased to appoint.
+
+
+    The Author of the Fable of the Bees.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE
+                       FABLE OF THE BEES.
+
+                            PART II.
+
+
+
+                           Opinionum enim Commenta delet dies;
+                           Naturæ judicia confirmat.
+
+                                            Cicero de Nat. Deor. Lib. 2.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Considering the manifold clamours, that have been raised from several
+quarters, against the Fable of the Bees, even after I had published
+the vindication of it, many of my readers will wonder to see me come
+out with a second part, before I have taken any further notice of
+what has been said against the first. Whatever is published, I take
+it for granted, is submitted to the judgment of all the world that
+see it; but it is very unreasonable, that authors should not be upon
+the same footing with their critics. The treatment I have received,
+and the liberties some gentlemen have taken with me, being well known,
+the public must be convinced before now, that, in point of civility,
+I owe my adversaries nothing: and if those, who have taken upon them
+to school and reprimand me, had an undoubted right to censure what
+they thought fit, without asking my leave, and to say of me what
+they pleased, I ought to have an equal privilege to examine their
+censures, and, without consulting them, to judge in my turn, whether
+they are worth answering or not. The public must be the umpire between
+us. From the Appendix that has been added to the first part, ever
+since the third edition, it is manifest, that I have been far from
+endeavouring to stifle, either the arguments or the invectives that
+were made against me; and, not to have left the reader uninformed
+of any thing extant of either sort, I once thought to have taken
+this opportunity of presenting him with a list of the adversaries
+that have appeared in print against me: but as they are in nothing
+so considerable as they are in their numbers, I was afraid it would
+have looked like ostentation, unless I would have answered them all,
+which I shall never attempt. The reason, therefore, of my obstinate
+silence has been all along, that hitherto I have not been accused
+of any thing that is criminal or immoral, for which every middling
+capacity could not have framed a very good answer, from some part or
+other, either of the vindication or the book itself.
+
+However, I have wrote, and had by me near two years, a defence of
+the Fable of the Bees, in which I have stated and endeavoured to
+solve all the objections that might reasonably be made against it,
+as to the doctrine contained in it, and the detriment it might be
+of to others: for this is the only thing about which I ever had
+any concern. Being conscious, that I have wrote with no ill design,
+I should be sorry to lie under the imputation of it: but as to the
+goodness or badness of the performance itself, the thought was never
+worth my care; and therefore those critics, that found fault with
+my bad reasoning, and said of the book, that it is ill wrote, that
+there is nothing new in it, that it is incoherent stuff, that the
+language is barbarous, the humour low, and the style mean and pitiful;
+those critics, I say, are all very welcome to say what they please:
+In the main, I believe they are in the right; but if they are not,
+I shall never give myself the trouble to contradict them; for I never
+think an author more foolishly employed, than when he is vindicating
+his own abilities. As I wrote it for my diversion, so I had my ends;
+if those who read it have not had theirs, I am sorry for it, though
+I think myself not at all answerable for the disappointment. It was
+not wrote by subscription, nor have I ever warranted, any where,
+what use or goodness it would be of: on the contrary, in the very
+preface, I have called it an inconsiderable trifle; and since that,
+I have publicly owned that it was a rhapsody. If people will buy
+books without looking into them, or knowing what they are, I cannot
+see whom they have to blame but themselves, when they do not answer
+expectations. Besides, it is no new thing for people to dislike books
+after they have bought them: this will happen sometimes, even when
+men of considerable figure had given them the strongest assurances,
+before hand, that they would be pleased with them.
+
+A considerable part of the defence I mentioned, has been seen by
+several of my friends, who have been in expectation of it for some
+time. I have stayed neither for types nor paper, and yet I have
+several reasons, why I do not yet publish it; which, having touched
+nobody's money, nor made any promise concerning it, I beg leave to
+keep to myself. Most of my adversaries, whenever it comes out, will
+think it soon enough; and nobody suffers by the delay but myself.
+
+Since I was first attacked, it has long been a matter of wonder and
+perplexity to me to find out, why and how men should conceive, that I
+had wrote with an intent to debauch the nation, and promote all manner
+of vice: and it was a great while before I could derive the charge from
+any thing, but wilful mistake and premeditated malice. But since I have
+seen, that men could be serious in apprehending the increase of rogues
+and robberies, from the frequent representations of the Beggar's Opera,
+I am persuaded, that there really are such wrongheads in the world,
+as will fancy vices to be encouraged, when they see them exposed. To
+the same perverseness of judgment it must have been owing, that some
+of my adversaries were highly incensed with me, for having owned,
+in the Vindication, that hitherto I had not been able to conquer
+my vanity, as well as I could have wished. From their censure it
+is manifest, that they must have imagined, that to complain of a
+frailty, was the same as to brag of it. But if these angry gentlemen
+had been less blinded with passion, or seen with better eyes,
+they would easily have perceived, unless they were too well pleased
+with their pride, that to have made the same confession themselves,
+they wanted nothing but sincerity. Whoever boasts of his vanity, and
+at the same time shows his arrogance, is unpardonable. But when we
+hear a man complain of an infirmity, and his want of power entirely
+to cure it, whilst he suffers no symptoms of it to appear, that we
+could justly upbraid him with, we are so far from being offended,
+that we are pleased with the ingenuity, and applaud his candour;
+and when such an author takes no greater liberties with his readers,
+than what is usual in the same manner of writing, and owns that to
+be the result of vanity, which others tell a thousand lies about,
+his confession is a compliment, and the frankness of it ought not
+to be looked upon otherwise, than as a civility to the public, a
+condescension he was not obliged to make. It is not in feeling the
+passions, or in being affected with the frailties of nature, that vice
+consists; but in indulging and obeying the call of them, contrary to
+the dictates of reason. Whoever pays great deference to his readers,
+respectfully submitting himself to their judgment, and tells them
+at the same time, that he is entirely destitute of pride; whoever,
+I say, does this, spoils his compliment whilst he is making of it:
+for it is no better than bragging, that it costs him nothing. Persons
+of taste, and the least delicacy, can be but little affected with a
+man's modesty, of whom they are sure, that he is wholly void of pride
+within: the absence of the one makes the virtue of the other cease;
+at least the merit of it is not greater than that of chastity in an
+eunuch, or humility in a beggar. What glory would it be to the memory
+of Cato, that he refused to touch the water that was brought him,
+if it was not supposed that he was very thirsty when he did it?
+
+The reader will find, that in this second part I have endeavoured
+to illustrate and explain several things, that were obscure and only
+hinted at in the first.
+
+Whilst I was forming this design, I found, on the one hand, that,
+as to myself, the easiest way of executing it, would be by dialogue;
+but I knew, on the other, that to discuss opinions, and manage
+controversies, it is counted the most unfair manner of writing. When
+partial men have a mind to demolish an adversary, and triumph over
+him with little expence, it has long been a frequent practice to
+attack him with dialogues, in which the champion, who is to lose the
+battle, appears at the very beginning of the engagement, to be the
+victim that is to be sacrificed, and seldom makes a better figure
+than cocks on Shrove-Tuesday, that receive blows, but return none,
+and are visibly set up on purpose to be knocked down. That this is
+to be said against dialogues, is certainly true; but it is as true,
+that there is no other manner of writing, by which greater reputation
+has been obtained. Those, who have most excelled all others in it,
+were the two most famous authors of all antiquity, Plato and Cicero:
+the one wrote almost all his philosophical works in dialogues, and the
+other has left us nothing else. It is evident, then, that the fault
+of those, who have not succeeded in dialogues; was in the management,
+and not in the manner of writing; and that nothing but the ill use that
+has been made of it, could ever have brought it into disrepute. The
+reason why Plato preferred dialogues to any other manner of writing,
+he said, was, that things thereby might look, as if they were acted,
+rather than told: the same was afterwards given by Cicero in the same
+words, rendered into his own language. The greatest objection that
+in reality lies against it, is the difficulty there is in writing
+them well. The chief of Plato's interlocutors was always his master
+Socrates, who every where maintains his character with great dignity;
+but it would have been impossible to have made such an extraordinary
+person speak like himself on so many emergencies, if Plato had not
+been as great a man as Socrates.
+
+Cicero, who studied nothing more than to imitate Plato, introduced in
+his dialogues some of the greatest men in Rome, his contemporaries,
+that were known to be of different opinions, and made them maintain
+and defend every one his own sentiments, as strenuously, and in as
+lively a manner, as they could possibly have done themselves; and
+in reading his dialogues a man may easily imagine himself to be in
+company with several learned men of different tastes and studies. But
+to do this, a man must have Cicero's capacity. Lucian likewise,
+and several others among the ancients, chose for their speakers,
+persons of known characters. That this interests and engages the
+reader more than strange names, is undeniable; but then, when the
+personages fall short of those characters, it plainly shows, that
+the author undertook what he was not able to execute. To avoid this
+inconveniency, most dialogue-writers among the moderns, have made
+use of fictitious names, which they either invented themselves or
+borrowed of others. These are, generally speaking, judicious compounds,
+taken from the Greek, that serve for short characters of the imaginary
+persons they are given to, denoting either the party they side with,
+or what it is they love or hate. But of all these happy compounds,
+there is not one that has appeared equally charming to so many authors
+of different views and talents, as Philalethes; a plain demonstration
+of the great regard mankind generally have to truth. There has not been
+a paper-war of note, these two hundred years, in which both parties,
+at one time or other, have not made use of this victorious champion;
+who, which side soever he has fought on, has hitherto, like Dryden's
+Almanzor, been conqueror, and constantly carried all before him. But,
+as by this means the event of the battle must always be known, as soon
+as the combatants are named, and before a blow is struck; and as all
+men are not equally peaceable in their dispositions, many readers have
+complained, that they had not sport enough for their money, and that
+knowing so much before hand, spoiled all their diversion. This humour
+having prevailed for some time, authors are grown less solicitous
+about the names of the personages they introduce. This careless way,
+seeming to me at least as reasonable as any other, I have followed;
+and had no other meaning by the names I have given my interlocutors,
+than to distinguish them, without the least regard to the derivation
+of words, or any thing relating to the etymology of them: all the care
+I have taken about them, that I know of, is, that the pronunciation
+of them should not be harsh, nor the sounds offensive.
+
+But though the names I have chosen are feigned, and the circumstances
+of the persons fictitious, the characters themselves are real, and
+as faithfully copied from nature as I have been able to take them. I
+have known critics find fault with play-wrights for annexing short
+characters to the names they gave the persons of the drama; alleging,
+that it is forestalling their pleasure, and that whatever the actors
+are represented to be, they want no monitor, and are wise enough to
+find it out themselves. But I could never approve of this censure:
+there is a satisfaction, I think, in knowing one's company; and when
+I am to converse with people for a considerable time, I desire to
+be well acquainted with them, and the sooner the better. It is for
+this reason, I thought it proper to give the reader some account
+of the persons that are to entertain him. As they are supposed to
+be people of quality, I beg leave, before I come to particulars,
+to premise some things concerning the beau monde in general; which,
+though most people perhaps know them every body does not always attend
+to. Among the fashionable part of mankind throughout Christendom,
+there are, in all countries, persons, who, though they feel a just
+abhorrence to atheism and professed infidelity, yet have very little
+religion, and are scarce half-believers, when their lives come to be
+looked into, and their sentiments examined. What is chiefly aimed
+at in a refined education, is to procure as much ease and pleasure
+upon earth, as that can afford: therefore men are first instructed
+in all the various arts of rendering their behaviour agreeable to
+others, with the least disturbance to themselves. Secondly, they
+are imbued with the knowledge of all the elegant comforts of life,
+as well as the lessons of human prudence, to avoid pain and trouble,
+in order to enjoy as much of the world, and with as little opposition,
+as it is possible. Whilst thus men study their own private interest,
+in assisting each other to promote and increase the pleasures of life
+in general, they find by experience, that to compass those ends,
+every thing ought to be banished from conversation, that can have
+the least tendency of making others uneasy; and to reproach men
+with their faults or imperfections, neglects or omissions, or to
+put them in mind of their duty, are offices that none are allowed
+to take upon them, but parents or professed masters and tutors; nor
+even they before company: but to reprove and pretend to teach others,
+we have no authority over, is ill manners, even in a clergyman out of
+the pulpit; nor is he there to talk magisterially, or ever to mention
+things, that are melancholy or dismal, if he should pass for a polite
+preacher: but whatever we may vouchsafe to hear at church, neither
+the certainty of a future state, nor the necessity of repentance, nor
+any thing else relating to the essentials of Christianity, are ever
+to be talked of when we are out of it, among the beau monde, upon
+any account whatever. The subject is not diverting: besides, every
+body is supposed to know those things, and to take care accordingly;
+nay, it is unmannerly to think otherwise. The decency in fashion
+being the chief, if not the only, rule, all modish people walk by,
+not a few of them go to church, and receive the sacrament, from the
+same principle that obliges them to pay visits to one another, and
+now and then to make an entertainment. But as the greatest care of
+the beau monde is to be agreeable, and appear well-bred, so most of
+them take particular care, and many against their consciences, not
+to seem burdened with more religion than it is fashionable to have,
+for fear of being thought to be either hypocrites or bigots.
+
+Virtue, however, is a very fashionable word, and some of the most
+luxurious are extremely fond of the amiable sound; though they
+mean nothing by it, but a great veneration for whatever is courtly
+or sublime, and an equal aversion to every thing that is vulgar or
+unbecoming. They seem to imagine, that it chiefly consists in a strict
+compliance to the rules of politeness, and all the laws of honour,
+that have any regard to the respect that is due to themselves. It is
+the existence of this virtue, that is often maintained with so much
+pomp of words, and for the eternity of which so many champions are
+ready to take up arms: whilst the votaries of it deny themselves
+no pleasure, they can enjoy, either fashionably or in secret,
+and, instead of sacrificing the heart to the love of real virtue,
+can only condescend to abandon the outward deformity of vice, for
+the satisfaction they receive from appearing to be well-bred. It is
+counted ridiculous for men to commit violence upon themselves, or to
+maintain, that virtue requires self-denial: all court philosophers are
+agreed, that nothing can be lovely or desirable, that is mortifying or
+uneasy. A civil behaviour among the fair in public, and a deportment
+inoffensive both in words and actions, is all the chastity the polite
+world requires in men. What liberties soever a man gives himself in
+private, his reputation shall never suffer, whilst he conceals his
+amours from all those that are not unmannerly inquisitive, and takes
+care that nothing criminal can ever be proved upon him. Si non caste,
+saltem caute, is a precept that sufficiently shows what every body
+expects; and though incontinence is owned to be a sin, yet never to
+have been guilty of it is a character which most single men under
+thirty would not be fond of, even amongst modest women.
+
+As the world everywhere, in compliment itself, desires to be counted
+really virtuous, so bare-faced vices, and all trespasses committed
+in sight of it, are heinous and unpardonable. To see a man drunk in
+the open street, or any serious assembly at noon-day, is shocking;
+because it is a violation of the laws of decency, and plainly shows a
+want of respect, and neglect of duty, which every body is supposed to
+owe to the public. Men of mean circumstances likewise may be blamed
+for spending more time or money in drinking, than they can afford;
+but when these and all worldly considerations are out of the question,
+drunkenness itself, as it is a sin, an offence to Heaven, is seldom
+censured; and no man of fortune scruples to own, that he was at such
+a time in such a company, where they drank very hard. Where nothing is
+committed, that is either beastly, or otherwise extravagant, societies,
+that meet on purpose to drink and be merry, reckon their manner of
+passing away the time as innocent as any other, though most days in
+the year they spend five or six hours of the four and twenty in that
+diversion. No man had ever the reputation of being a good companion,
+that would never drink to excess; and if a man's constitution be so
+strong, or himself so cautious, that the dose he takes overnight,
+never disorders him the next day, the worst that shall be said of him,
+is, that he loves his bottle with moderation: though every night
+constantly he makes drinking his pastime, and hardly ever goes to
+bed entirely sober.
+
+Avarice, it is true, is generally detested; but as men may be as guilty
+of it by scraping money together, as they can be by hoarding it up,
+so all the base, the sordid, and unreasonable means of acquiring
+wealth, ought to be equally condemned and exploded, with the vile,
+the pitiful, and penurious way of saving it: but the world is more
+indulgent; no man is taxed with avarice, that will conform with the
+beau monde, and live every way in splendour, though he should always
+be raising the rents of his estate, and hardly suffer his tenants to
+live under him; though he should enrich himself by usury, and all the
+barbarous advantages that extortion can make of the necessities of
+others: and though, moreover, he should be a bad paymaster himself,
+and an unmerciful creditor to the unfortunate; it is all one, no
+man is counted covetous, who entertains well, and will allow his
+family what is fashionable for a person in his condition. How often
+do we see men of very large estates unreasonably solicitous after
+greater riches! What greediness do some men discover in extending
+the perquisites of their offices! What dishonourable condescensions
+are made for places of profit! What slavish attendance is given, and
+what low submissions and unmanly cringes are made to favourites for
+pensions, by men that could subsist without them! Yet these things
+are no reproach to men, and they are never upbraided with them but by
+their enemies, or those that envy them, and perhaps the discontented
+and the poor. On the contrary, most of the well-bred people, that live
+in affluence themselves, will commend them for their diligence and
+activity; and say of them, that they take care of the main chance;
+that they are industrious men for their families, and that they know
+how, and are fit, to live in the world.
+
+But these kind constructions are not more hurtful to the practice of
+Christianity, than the high opinion which, in an artful education, men
+are taught to have of their species, is to the belief of its doctrine,
+if a right use be not made of it. That the great pre-eminence we
+have over all other creatures we are acquainted with, consists in
+our rational faculty, is very true; but it is as true, that the more
+we are taught to admire ourselves, the more our pride increases,
+and the greater stress we lay on the sufficiency of our reason: For
+as experience teaches us, that the greater and the more transcendent
+the esteem is, which men have for their own worth, the less capable
+they generally are to bear injuries without resentment; so we see,
+in like manner, that the more exalted the notions are which men
+entertain of their better part, their reasoning faculty, the more
+remote and averse they will be from giving their assent to any thing
+that seems to insult over or contradict it: And asking a man to admit
+of any thing he cannot comprehend, the proud reasoner calls an affront
+to human understanding. But as ease and pleasure are the grand aim
+of the beau monde, and civility is inseparable from their behaviour,
+whether they are believers or not, so well-bred people never quarrel
+with the religion they are brought up in: They will readily comply
+with every ceremony in divine worship they have been used to, and
+never dispute with you either about the Old or the New Testament,
+if, in your turn, you will forbear laying great stress upon faith
+and mysteries, and allow them to give an allegorical, or any other
+figurative sense to the History of the Creation, and whatever else
+they cannot comprehend or account for by the light of nature.
+
+I am far from believing, that, among the fashionable people, there
+are not, in all Christian countries, many persons of stricter virtue,
+and greater sincerity in religion, than I have here described; but
+that a considerable part of mankind have a great resemblance to the
+picture I have been drawing, I appeal to every knowing and candid
+reader. Horatio, Cleomenes, and Fulvia, are the names I have given
+to my interlocutors: The first represents one of the modish people
+I have been speaking of, but rather of the better sort of them as to
+morality, though he seems to have a greater distrust of the sincerity
+of clergymen, than he has of that of any other profession, and to
+be of the opinion, which is expressed in that trite and specious, as
+well as false and injurious saying, priests of all religions are the
+same. As to his studies, he is supposed to be tolerably well versed
+in the classics, and to have read more than is usual for people of
+quality, that are born to great estates. He is a man of strict honour,
+and of justice as well as humanity; rather profuse than covetous,
+and altogether disinterested in his principles. He has been abroad,
+seen the world, and is supposed to be possessed of the greatest part
+of the accomplishments that usually gain a man the reputation of
+being very much of a gentleman.
+
+Cleomenes had been just such another, but was much reformed. As he
+had formerly, for his amusement only, been dipping into anatomy,
+and several parts of natural philosophy; so, since he was come home
+from his travels, he had studied human nature, and the knowledge of
+himself, with great application. It is supposed, that, whilst he was
+thus employing most of his leisure hours, he met with the Fable of the
+Bees; and, making a great use of what he read, compared what he felt
+himself within, as well as what he had seen in the world, with the
+sentiments set forth in that book, and found the insincerity of men
+fully as universal, as it was there represented. He had no opinion of
+the pleas and excuses that are commonly made to cover the real desires
+of the heart; and he ever suspected the sincerity of men, whom he saw
+to be fond of the world, and with eagerness grasping at wealth and
+power, when they pretended that the great end of their labours was to
+have opportunities of doing good to others upon earth, and becoming
+themselves more thankful to Heaven; especially, if they conformed
+with the beau monde, and seemed to take delight in a fashionable way
+of living: He had the same suspicion of all men of sense, who, having
+read and considered the gospel, would maintain the possibility that
+persons might pursue worldly glory with all their strength, and, at the
+same time, be good Christians. Cleomenes himself believed the Bible
+to be the word of God, without reserve, and was entirely convinced
+of the mysterious, as well as historical truths that are contained
+in it. But as he was fully persuaded, not only of the veracity of the
+Christian religion, but likewise of the severity of its precepts, so
+he attacked his passions with vigour, but never scrupled to own his
+want of power to subdue them, or the violent opposition he felt from
+within; often complaining, that the obstacles he met with from flesh
+and blood, were insurmountable. As he understood perfectly well the
+difficulty of the task required in the gospel, so he ever opposed those
+easy casuists, that endeavoured to lessen and extenuate it for their
+own ends; and he loudly maintained, that men's gratitude to Heaven
+was an unacceptable offering, whilst they continued to live in ease
+and luxury, and were visibly solicitous after their share of the pomp
+and vanity of this world. In the very politeness of conversation, the
+complacency with which fashionable people are continually soothing each
+other's frailties, and in almost every part of a gentleman's behaviour,
+he thought there was a disagreement between the outward appearances,
+and what is felt within, that was clashing with uprightness and
+sincerity. Cleomenes was of opinion, that of all religious virtues,
+nothing was more scarce, or more difficult to acquire, than Christian
+humility; and that to destroy the possibility of ever attaining to it,
+nothing was so effectual as what is called a gentleman's education;
+and that the more dexterous, by this means, men grew in concealing
+the outward signs, and every symptom of pride, the more entirely they
+became enslaved by it within. He carefully examined into the felicity
+that accrues from the applause of others, and the invisible wages
+which men of sense and judicious fancy received for their labours;
+and what it was at the bottom that rendered those airy rewards so
+ravishing to mortals. He had often observed, and watched narrowly the
+countenances and behaviour of men, when any thing of theirs was admired
+or commended, such as the choice of their furniture, the politeness
+of their entertainments, the elegancy of their equipages, their dress,
+their diversions, or the fine taste displayed in their buildings.
+
+Cleomenes seemed charitable, and was a man of strict morals, yet he
+would often complain that he was not possessed of one Christian virtue,
+and found fault with his own actions, that had all the appearances of
+goodness; because he was conscious, he said, that they were performed
+from a wrong principle. The effects of his education, and his aversion
+to infamy, had always been strong enough to keep him from turpitude;
+but this he ascribed to his vanity, which he complained was in such
+full possession of his heart, that he knew no gratification of any
+appetite from which he was able to exclude it. Having always been a
+man of unblameable behaviour, the sincerity of his belief had made
+no visible alteration in his conduct to outward appearances; but in
+private he never ceased from examining himself. As no man was less
+prone to enthusiasm than himself, so his life was very uniform; and
+as he never pretended to high flights of devotion, so he never was
+guilty of enormous offences. He had a strong aversion to rigorists
+of all sorts; and when he saw men quarrelling about forms and creeds,
+and the interpretation of obscure places, and requiring of others the
+strictest compliance to their own opinions in disputable matters, it
+raised his indignation to see the generality of them want charity, and
+many of them scandalously remiss in the plainest and most necessary
+duties. He took uncommon pains to search into human nature, and
+left no stone unturned, to detect the pride and hypocrisy of it,
+and, among his intimate friends, to expose the stratagems of the
+one, and the exorbitant power of the other. He was sure, that the
+satisfaction which arose from worldly enjoyments, was something
+distinct from gratitude, and foreign to religion; and he felt plainly,
+that as it proceeded from within, so it centered in himself: The very
+relish of life, he said, was accompanied with an elevation of mind,
+that seemed to be inseparable from his being. Whatever principle
+was the cause of this, he was convinced within himself, that the
+sacrifice of the heart, which the gospel requires, consisted in the
+utter extirpation of that principle; confessing, at the same time,
+that this satisfaction he found in himself, this elevation of mind,
+caused his chief pleasure; and that, in all the comforts of life,
+it made the greatest part of the enjoyment.
+
+Cleomenes, with grief, often owned his fears, that his attachment to
+the world would never cease whilst he lived; the reasons he gave, were
+the great regard he continued to have for the opinion of worldly men;
+the stubbornness of his indocile heart, that could not be brought
+to change the objects of its pride; and refused to be ashamed of
+what, from his infancy, it had been taught to glory in; and, lastly,
+the impossibility, he found in himself, of being ever reconciled to
+contempt, and enduring, with patience, to be laughed at and despised
+for any cause, or on any consideration whatever. These were the
+obstacles, he said, that hindered him from breaking off all commerce
+with the beau monde, and entirely changing his manner of living;
+without which, he thought it mockery to talk of renouncing the world,
+and bidding adieu to all the pomp and vanity of it.
+
+The part of Fulvia, which is the third person, is so inconsiderable,
+she just appearing only in the first dialogue, that it would be
+impertinent to trouble the reader with a character of her. I had a mind
+to say some things on painting and operas, which I thought might, by
+introducing her, be brought in more naturally, and with less trouble,
+than they could have been without her. The ladies, I hope, will find
+no reason, from the little she does say, to suspect that she wants
+either virtue or understanding.
+
+As to the fable, or what is supposed to have occasioned the first
+dialogue between Horatio and Cleomenes, it is this. Horatio, who had
+found great delight in my Lord Shaftsbury's polite manner of writing,
+his fine raillery, and blending virtue with good manners, was a great
+stickler for the social system; and wondered how Cleomenes could
+be an advocate for such a book as the Fable of the Bees, of which
+he had heard a very vile character from several quarters. Cleomenes,
+who loved and had a great friendship for Horatio, wanted to undeceive
+him; but the other, who hated satire, was prepossessed, and having
+been told likewise, that martial courage, and honour itself, were
+ridiculed in that book, he was very much exasperated against the
+author and his whole scheme: he had two or three times heard Cleomenes
+discourse on this subject with others; but would never enter into
+the argument himself; and finding his friend often pressing to come
+to it, he began to look cooly upon him, and at last to avoid all
+opportunities of being alone with him: till Cleomenes drew him in,
+by the stratagem which the reader will see he made use of, as Horatio
+was one day taking his leave after a short complimentary visit.
+
+I should not wonder to see men of candour, as well as good sense, find
+fault with the manner, in which I have chose to publish these thoughts
+of mine to the world: There certainly is something in it, which I
+confess I do not know how to justify to my own satisfaction. That
+such a man as Cleomenes, having met with a book agreeable to his own
+sentiments, should desire to be acquainted with the author of it,
+has nothing in it that is improbable or unseemly; but then it will be
+objected, that, whoever the interlocutors are, it was I myself who
+wrote the dialogues; and that it is contrary to all decency, that a
+man should proclaim concerning his own work, all that a friend of
+his, perhaps, might be allowed to say: this is true; and the best
+answer which I think can be made to it, is, that such an impartial
+man, and such a lover of truth, as Cleomenes is represented to be,
+would be as cautious in speaking of his friend's merit, as he would
+be of his own. It might be urged likewise, that when a man professes
+himself to be an author's friend, and exactly to entertain the same
+sentiments with another, it must naturally put every reader upon his
+guard, and render him as suspicious and distrustful of such a man,
+as he would be of the author himself. But how good soever the excuses
+are, that might be made for this manner of writing, I would never
+have ventured upon it, if I had not liked it in the famous Gassendus,
+who, by the help of several dialogues and a friend, who is the chief
+personage in them, has not only explained and illustrated his system,
+but likewise refuted his adversaries: him I have followed, and I
+hope the reader will find, that whatever opportunity I have had by
+this means, of speaking well of myself indirectly, I had no design
+to make that, or any other ill use of it.
+
+As it is supposed, that Cleomenes is my friend, and speaks my
+sentiments, so it is but justice, that every thing which he advances
+should be looked upon and considered as my own; but no man in his
+senses would think, that I ought to be equally responsible for every
+thing that Horatio says, who is his antagonist. If ever he offers
+any thing that favours of libertinism, or is otherwise exceptionable,
+which Cleomenes does not reprove him for in the best and most serious
+manner, or to which he gives not the most satisfactory and convincing
+answer that can be made, I am to blame, otherwise not. Yet from the
+fate the first part has met with, I expect to see in a little time
+several things transcribed and cited from this, in that manner, by
+themselves, without the replies that are made to them, and so shown to
+the world, as my words and my opinion. The opportunity of doing this
+will be greater in this part than it was in the former, and should I
+always have fair play, and never be attacked, but by such adversaries,
+as would make their quotations from me without artifice, and use me
+with common honesty, it would go a great way to the refuting of me;
+and I should myself begin to suspect the truth of several things I
+have advanced, and which hitherto I cannot help believing.
+
+A stroke made in this manner,----which the reader will sometimes meet
+with in the following dialogues, is a sign, either of interruption,
+when the person speaking is not suffered to go on with what he was
+going to say, or else of a pause, during which something is supposed
+to be said or done, not relating to the discourse.
+
+As in this part I have not altered the subject, on which a former,
+known by the name of the Fable of the Bees, was wrote; and the same
+unbiassed method of searching after truth, and inquiring into the
+nature of man and society, made use of in that, is continued in this,
+I thought it unnecessary to look out for another title; and being
+myself a great lover of simplicity, and my invention none of the most
+fruitful, the reader, I hope, will pardon the bald, inelegant aspect,
+and unusual emptiness of the title page.
+
+Here I would have made an end of my Preface, which I know very well is
+too long already: but the world having been very grossly imposed upon
+by a false report, that some months ago was very solemnly made, and
+as industriously spread in most of the newspapers, for a considerable
+time, I think it would be an unpardonable neglect in me, of the public,
+should I suffer them; to remain in the error they were led into,
+when I am actually addressing them; and there is no other person,
+from whom they can so justly expect to be undeceived. In the London
+Evening Post of Saturday March 9, 1727-8, the following paragraph
+was printed in small Italic, at the end of the home news.
+
+On Friday evening the first instant, a gentleman, well-dressed,
+appeared at the bonfire before St. James's Gate, who declared himself
+the author of a book, intituled, the Fable of the Bees; and that he
+was sorry for writing the same: and recollecting his former promise,
+pronounced these words: I commit my book to the flames; and threw it
+in accordingly.
+
+The Monday following, the same piece of news was repeated in the Daily
+Journal, and after that for a considerable time, as I have said,
+in most of the papers: but since the Saturday mentioned, which was
+the only time it was printed by itself, it appeared always with a
+small addition to it, and annexed (with a N. B. before it) to the
+following advertisement.
+
+
+                          ARETÊ-LOGIA:
+
+Or an Inquiry into the Original of Moral Virtue, wherein the false
+notions of Machiavel, Hobbs, Spinosa, and Mr. Bayle, as they are
+collected and digested by the Author of the Fable of the Bees,
+are examined and confuted; and the eternal and unalterable nature
+and obligation of moral virtue is stated and vindicated; to which
+is prefixed, a Prefatory Introduction, in a Letter to that Author,
+By Alexander Innes, D. D. Preacher Assistant at St. Margaret's,
+Westminster.
+
+
+The small addition which I said was made to that notable piece of news,
+after it came to be annexed to this advertisement, consisted of these
+five words (upon reading the above book), which were put in after,
+"sorry for writing the same." This story having been often repeated in
+the papers, and never publicly contradicted, many people, it seems,
+were credulous enough to believe, notwithstanding the improbability
+of it. But the least attentive would have suspected the whole, as soon
+as they had seen the addition that was made to it, the second time it
+was published; for supposing it to be intelligible, as it follows the
+advertisement, it cannot be pretended, that the repenting gentleman
+pronounced those very words. He must have named the book; and if he
+had said, that his sorrow was occasioned by reading the ARETÊ-LOGIA,
+or the new book of the reverend Dr. Innes, how came such a remarkable
+part of his confession to be omitted in the first publication, where
+the well-dressed gentleman's words and actions seemed to be set down
+with so much care and exactness? Besides, every body knows the great
+industry, and general intelligence of our news-writers: if such a farce
+had really been acted, and a man had been hired to pronounce the words
+mentioned, and throw a book into the fire, which I have often wondered
+was not done, is it credible at all, that a thing so remarkable,
+done so openly, and before so many witnesses, the first day of March,
+should not be taken notice of in any of the papers before the ninth,
+and never be repeated afterwards, or ever mentioned but as an appendix
+of the advertisement to recommend Dr. Innes's book?
+
+However, this story has been much talked of, and occasioned a great
+deal of mirth among my acquaintance, several of whom have earnestly
+pressed me more than once to advertise the falsity of it, which I
+would never comply with for fear of being laughed at, as some years
+ago poor Dr. Patridge was, for seriously maintaining that he was
+not dead. But all this while we were in the dark, and nobody could
+tell how this report came into the world, or what it could be that
+had given a handle to it, when one evening a friend of mine, who had
+borrowed Dr. Innes's book, which till then I had never seen, showed
+me in it the following lines.
+
+But à propos Sir, if I rightly remember, the ingenuous Mr. Law, in
+his Remarks upon your Fable of the Bees, puts you in mind of a promise
+you had made, by which you obliged yourself to burn that book at any
+time or place your adversary should appoint, if any thing should be
+found in it tending to immorality or the corruption of manners. I
+have a great respect for that gentleman, though I am not personally
+acquainted with him, but I cannot but condemn his excessive credulity
+and good nature, in believing that a man of your principles could be
+a slave to his word; for my own part, I think, I know you too well
+to be so easily imposed upon; or if, after all, you should. really
+persist in your resolution, and commit it to the flames, I appoint
+the first of March, before St. James's Gate, for that purpose, it
+being the birthday of the best and most glorious queen upon earth;
+and the burning of your book the smallest atonement you can make, for
+endeavouring to corrupt and debauch his majesty's subjects in their
+principles. Now, Sir, if you agree to this, I hope you are not so
+destitute of friends, but that you may find some charitable neighbour
+or other, who will lend you a helping hand, and throw in the author
+at the same time by way of appendix; the doing of which will, in my
+opinion, complete the solemnity of the day. I am not your patient,
+but, your most humble servant.
+
+Thus ends what, in the ARETÊ-LOGIA Doctor Innes is pleased to call
+a Prefatory Introduction, in a Letter to the Author of the Fable of
+the Bees. It is signed A. I. and dated Tot-hill-fields, Westminster,
+Jan. 20. 1727-8.
+
+Now all our wonder ceased. The judicious reader will easily allow me,
+that, having read thus much, I had an ample dispensation from going on
+any further; therefore I can say nothing of the book: and as to the
+reverend author of it, who seems to think himself so well acquainted
+with my principles, I have not the honour to know either him or his
+morals, otherwise than from what I have quoted here. Ex pede Herculem.
+
+
+    London, October 20. 1728.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE FIRST
+                           DIALOGUE.
+                            BETWEEN
+                HORATIO, CLEOMENES, and FULVIA.
+
+
+CLEOMENES.
+
+Always in haste, Horatio?
+
+Hor. I must beg of you to excuse me, I am obliged to go.
+
+Cleo. Whether you have other engagements than you used to have, or
+whether your temper is changed, I cannot tell, but something has made
+an alteration in you, of which I cannot comprehend the cause. There
+is no man in the world whose friendship I value more than I do yours,
+or whose company I like better, yet I can never have it. I profess
+I have thought sometimes that you have avoided me on purpose.
+
+Hor. I am sorry, Cleomenes, I should have been wanting in civility
+to you; I come every week constantly to pay my respects to you,
+and if ever I fail, I always send to inquire after your health.
+
+Cleo. No man outdoes Horatio in civility; but I thought something more
+was due to our affections and long acquaintance, besides compliments
+and ceremony: Of late I have never been to wait upon you, but you are
+gone abroad, or I find you engaged; and when I have the honour to see
+you here, your stay is only momentary. Pray pardon my rudeness for
+once: What is it that hinders you now from keeping me company for an
+hour or two? My cousin talks of going out, and I shall be all alone.
+
+Hor. I know better than to rob you of such an opportunity for
+speculation?
+
+Cleo. Speculation! on what, pray?
+
+Hor. That vileness of our species in the refined way of thinking you
+have of late been so fond of, I call it the scheme of deformity, the
+partisans of which study chiefly to make every thing in our nature
+appear as ugly and contemptible as it is possible, and take uncommon
+pains to persuade men that they are devils.
+
+Cleo. If that be all, I shall soon convince you.
+
+Hor. No conviction to me, I beseech you: I am determined, and fully
+persuaded, that there is good in the world as well as evil; and that
+the words, honesty, benevolence, and humanity, and even charity, are
+not empty sounds only, but that there are such things in spite of the
+Fable of the Bees; and I am resolved to believe, that, notwithstanding
+the degeneracy of mankind, and the wickedness of the age, there are
+men now living, who are actually possessed of those virtues.
+
+Cleo. But you do not know what I am going to say: I am----
+
+Hor. That may be, but I will not hear one word; all you can say is
+lost upon me, and if you will not give me leave to speak out, I am gone
+this moment. That cursed book has bewitched you, and made you deny the
+existence of those very virtues that had gained you the esteem of your
+friends. You know this is not my usual language; I hate to say harsh
+things: But what regard can, or ought one to have for an author that
+treats every body de haut en bas, makes a jest of virtue and honour,
+calls Alexander the Great a madman, and spares kings and princes no
+more than any one, would the most abject of the people? The business
+of his philosophy is just the reverse to that of the herald's office;
+for, as there they are always contriving and finding out high and
+illustrious pedigrees for low and obscure people, so your author is
+ever searching after, and inventing mean contemptible origins for
+worthy and honourable actions. I am your very humble servant.
+
+Cleo. Stay. I am of your opinion; what I offered to convince you of,
+was, how entirely I am recovered of the folly which you have so justly
+exposed: I have left that error.
+
+Hor. Are you in earnest?
+
+Cleo. No man more: There is no greater stickler for the social
+virtues than myself; and I much question, whether there is any of
+Lord Shaftsbury's admirers that will go my lengths!
+
+Hor. I shall be glad to see you go my lengths first, and as many more
+as you please. You cannot conceive, Cleomenes, how it has grieved me,
+when I have seen how many enemies you made yourself by that extravagant
+way of arguing. If you are but serious, whence comes this change?
+
+Cleo. In the first place, I grew weary of having every body against
+me: and, in the second, there is more room for invention in the other
+system. Poets and orators in the social system have fine opportunities
+of exerting themselves.
+
+Hor. I very much suspect the recovery you boast of: Are you convinced,
+that the other system was false, which you might have easily learned
+from seeing every body against you?
+
+Cleo. False to be sure; but what you allege is no proof of it: for if
+the greatest part of mankind were not against that scheme of deformity,
+as you justly call it, insincerity could not be so general, as the
+scheme itself supposes it to be: But since my eyes have been opened,
+I have found out that truth and probability are the silliest things in
+the world; they are of no manner of use, especially among the people
+de bon gout.
+
+Hor. I thought what a convert you was: but what new madness has seized
+you now?
+
+Cleo. No madness at all: I say, and will maintain it to the world,
+that truth, in the sublime, is very impertinent; and that in the arts
+and sciences, fit for men of taste to look into, a master cannot commit
+a more unpardonable fault, than sticking to, or being influenced by
+truth, where it interferes with what is agreeable.
+
+Hor. Homely truths indeed----
+
+Cleo. Look upon that Dutch piece of the nativity: what charming
+colouring there is! What a fine pencil, and how just are the outlines
+for a piece so curiously finished! But what a fool the fellow was
+to draw hay, and straw, and water, and a rack as well as a manger:
+it is a wonder he did not put the bambino into the manger.
+
+Ful. The bambino? That is the child, I suppose: why it should be in
+the manger; should it not? Does not the history tell us, that the
+child was laid in the manger? I have no skill in painting; but I can
+see whether things are drawn to the life or not: sure nothing can be
+more like the head of an ox than that there. A picture then pleases
+me best when the art in such a manner deceives my eye, that, without
+making any allowance, I can imagine I see the things in reality which
+the painter has endeavoured to represent. I have always thought it
+an admirable piece; sure nothing in the world can be more like nature.
+
+Cleo. Like nature! So much the worse: Indeed, cousin, it is easily
+seen, that you have no skill in painting. It is not nature, but
+agreeable nature, la belle nature, that is to be represented: all
+things that are abject, low, pitiful, and mean, are carefully to be
+avoided, and kept out of sight; because, to men of the true taste,
+they are as offensive as things that are shocking, and really nasty.
+
+Ful. At that rate, the Virgin Mary's condition, and our Saviour's
+birth, are never to be painted.
+
+Cleo. That is your mistake; the subject itself is noble: Let us go
+but in the next room, and I will show you the difference.----Look upon
+that picture, which is the same history. There is fine architecture,
+there is a colonnade; can any thing be thought of more magnificent? How
+skilfully is that ass removed, and how little you see of the ox: pray,
+mind the obscurity they are both placed in. It hangs in a strong
+light, or else one might look ten times upon the picture without
+observing them: Behold these pillars of the Corinthian order, how
+lofty they are, and what an effect they have, what a noble space,
+what an area here is! How nobly every thing concurs to express the
+majestic grandeur of the subject, and strikes the soul with awe and
+admiration at the same time!
+
+Ful. Pray cousin, has good sense ever any share in the judgment which
+your men of true taste form about pictures?
+
+Hor. Madam!
+
+Ful. I beg pardon, Sir, if I have offended: but to me it seems strange
+to hear such commendations given to a painter, for turning the stable
+of a country inn into a palace of extraordinary magnificence: This is
+a great deal worse than Swift's Metamorphosis of Philemon and Baucis;
+for there some show of resemblance is kept in the changes.
+
+Hor. In a country stable, Madam, there is nothing but filth and
+nastiness, or vile abject things not fit to be seen, at least not
+capable of entertaining persons of quality.
+
+Ful. The Dutch picture in the next room has nothing that is offensive:
+but an Augean stable, even before Hercules had cleaned it, would be
+less shocking to me than those fluted pillars; for nobody can please
+my eye that affronts my understanding: When I desire a man to paint a
+considerable history, which every body knows to have been transacted
+at a country inn, does he not strangely impose upon me, because he
+understands architecture, to draw me a room that might have served
+for a great hall, or banqueting-house, to any Roman emperor? Besides,
+that the poor and abject state in which our Saviour chose to appear
+at his coming into the world, is the most material circumstance
+of the history: it contains an excellent moral against vain pomp,
+and is the strongest persuasive to humility, which, in the Italian,
+are more than lost.
+
+Hor. Indeed, Madam, experience is against you; and it is certain, that,
+even among the vulgar, the representations of mean and abject things,
+and such as they are familiar with, have not that effect, and either
+breed contempt, or are insignificant: whereas vast piles, stately
+buildings, roofs of uncommon height, surprising ornaments, and all the
+architecture of the grand taste, are the fittest to raise devotion,
+and inspire men with veneration, and a religious awe for the places
+that have these excellencies to boast of. Is there ever a meeting-house
+or barn to be compared to a fine cathedral, for this purpose?
+
+Ful. I believe there is a mechanical way of raising devotion in silly
+superstitious creatures; but an attentive contemplation on the works
+of God, I am sure----
+
+Cleo. Pray, cousin, say no more in defence of your low taste: The
+painter has nothing to do with the truth of the history; his business
+is to express the dignity of the subject, and, in compliment to his
+judges, never to forget the excellency of our species: All his art
+and good sense must be employed in raising that to the highest pitch;
+Great masters do not paint for the common people, but for persons
+of refined understanding: What you complain o£ is the effect of the
+good manners and complaisance of the painter. When he had drawn the
+Infant and the Madona, he thought the least glimpse of the ox and
+the ass would be sufficient to acquaint you with the history: They
+who want more fescuing, and a broader explanation, he does not desire
+his picture should ever be shown to; for the rest, he entertains you
+with nothing but what is noble and worthy your attention: You see he
+is an architect, and completely skilled in perspective, and he shows
+you how finely he can round a pillar, and that both the depth, and
+the height of a space, may be drawn on a flat, with all the other
+wonders he performs by his skill in that inconceivable mystery of
+light and shadows.
+
+Ful. Why then is it pretended that painting is an imitation of nature?
+
+Cleo. At first setting out a scholar is to copy things exactly as
+he sees them; but from a great matter, when he is left to his own
+invention, it is expected he should take the perfections of nature,
+and not paint it as it is, but as we would wish it to be. Zeuxis,
+to draw a goddess, took five beautiful women, from which he culled
+what was most graceful in each.
+
+Ful. Still every grace he painted was taken from nature.
+
+Cleo. That's true; but he left nature her rubbish, and imitated
+nothing but what was excellent, which made the assemblage superior
+to any thing in nature. Demetrius was taxed for being too natural;
+Dionysus was also blamed for drawing men like us. Nearer our times,
+Michael Angelo was esteemed too natural, and Lysippus of old upbraided
+the common sort of sculptors for making men such as they were found
+in nature.
+
+Ful. Are these things real?
+
+Cleo. You may read it yourself in Graham's Preface to The Art of
+Painting: the book is above in the library.
+
+Hor. These things may seem strange to you, Madam, but they are of
+immense use to the public: the higher we can carry the excellency of
+our species, the more those beautiful images will fill noble minds
+with worthy and suitable ideas of their own dignity, that will seldom
+fail of spurring them on to virtue and heroic actions. There is a
+grandeur to be expressed in things that far surpasses the beauties of
+simple nature. You take delight in operas, Madam, I do not question;
+you must have minded the noble manner and stateliness beyond nature,
+which every thing there is executed with. What gentle touches, what
+slight and yet majestic motions are made use of to express the most
+boisterous passions! As the subject is always lofty, so no posture is
+to be chosen but what is serious and significant, as well as comely
+and agreeable; should the actions there be represented as they are
+in common life, they would ruin the sublime, and at once rob you of
+all your pleasure.
+
+Ful. I never expected any thing natural at an opera; but as persons
+of distinction resort thither, and every body comes dressed, it is
+a sort of employment, and I seldom miss a night, because it is the
+fashion to go: besides, the royal family, and the monarch himself,
+generally honouring them with their presence, it is almost become a
+duty to attend them, as much as it is to go to court. What diverts me
+there is the company, the lights, the music, the scenes, and other
+decorations: but as I understand but very few words of Italian, so
+what is most admired in the recitativo is lost upon me, which makes
+the acting part to me rather ridiculous than----
+
+Hor. Ridiculous, Madam! For Heaven's sake----
+
+Ful. I beg pardon, Sir, for the expression, I never laughed at an
+opera in my life; but I confess, as to the entertainment itself,
+that a good play is infinitely more diverting to me; and I prefer
+any thing that informs my understanding beyond all the recreations
+which either my eyes or my ears can be regaled with.
+
+Hor. I am sorry to hear a lady of your good sense make such a
+choice. Have you no taste for music, Madam?
+
+Ful. I named that as part of my diversion.
+
+Cleo. My cousin plays very well upon the harpsichord herself.
+
+Ful. I love to hear good music; but it does not throw me into those
+raptures, I hear others speak of.
+
+Hor. Nothing certainly can elevate the mind beyond a fine concert:
+it seems to disengage the soul from the body, and lift it up
+to heaven. It is in this situation, that we are most capable of
+receiving extraordinary impressions: when the instruments cease, our
+temper is subdued, and beautiful action joins with the skilful voice,
+in setting before us in a transcendent light, the heroic labours we
+are come to admire, and which the word Opera imports. The powerful
+harmony between the engaging sounds and speaking gestures invades
+the heart, and forcibly inspires us with those noble sentiments,
+which to entertain, the most expressive words can only attempt to
+persuade us. Few comedies are tolerable, and in the best of them, if
+the levity of the expressions does not corrupt, the meanness of the
+subject must debase the manners; at least to persons of quality. In
+tragedies the style is more sublime; and the subjects generally
+great; but all violent passions, and even the representations of
+them, ruffle and discompose the mind: besides, when men endeavour to
+express things strongly, and they are acted to the life, it often
+happens that the images do mischief, because they are too moving,
+and that the action is faulty for being too natural; and experience
+teaches us, that in unguarded minds, by those pathetic performances,
+flames are often raised that are prejudicial to virtue. The playhouses
+themselves are far from being inviting, much less the companies, at
+least the greatest part of them that frequent them, some of which
+are almost of the lowest rank of all. The disgust that persons of
+the least elegance receive from these people are many; besides, the
+ill scents, and unseemly sights one meets with, of careless rakes and
+impudent wenches, that, having paid their money, reckon themselves to
+be all upon the level with every body there; the oaths, scurrilities,
+and vile jests one is often obliged to hear, without resenting them;
+and the odd mixture of high and low that are all partaking of the same
+diversion, without regard to dress or quality, are all very offensive;
+and it cannot but be very disagreeable to polite people to be in the
+same crowd with a variety of persons, some of them below mediocrity,
+that pay no deference to one another. At the opera, every thing charms
+and concurs to make happiness complete. The sweetness of voice, in the
+first place, and the solemn composure of the action, serve to mitigate
+and allay every passion; it is the gentleness of them, and the calm
+serenity of the mind, that make us amiable, and bring us the nearest
+to the perfection of angels; whereas, the violence of the passions,
+in which the corruption of the heart chiefly consists, dethrones our
+reason, and renders us more like unto savages. It is incredible, how
+prone we are to imitation, and how strangely, unknown to ourselves,
+we are shaped and fashioned after the models and examples that are
+often set before us. No anger nor jealousy are ever to be seen at
+an opera, that distort the features; no flames that are noxious,
+nor is any love represented in them, that is not pure and next to
+seraphic; and it is impossible for the remembrance to carry any
+thing away from them, that can sully the imagination. Secondly, the
+company is of another sort: the place itself is a security to peace,
+as well as every one's honour; and it is impossible to name another,
+where blooming innocence and irresistible beauty stand in so little
+need of guardians. Here we are sure never to meet with petulancy or
+ill manners, and to be free from immodest ribaldry, libertine wit,
+and detestable satire. If you will mind, on the one hand, the richness
+and splendour of dress, and the quality of the persons that appear in
+them; the variety of colours, and the lustre of the fair in a spacious
+theatre, well illuminated and adorned; and on the other, the grave
+deportment of the assembly, and the consciousness that appears in
+every countenance, of the respect they owe to each other, you will
+be forced to confess, that upon earth there cannot be a pastime more
+agreeable: believe me, Madam, there is no place, where both sexes
+have such opportunities of imbibing exalted sentiments, and raising
+themselves above the vulgar, as they have at the opera; and there is
+no other sort of diversion or assembly, from the frequenting of which,
+young persons of quality can have equal hopes of forming their manners,
+and contracting a strong and lasting habit of virtue.
+
+Ful. You have said more in commendation of operas, Horatio, than I
+ever heard or thought of before; and I think every body who loves
+that diversion is highly obliged to you. The grand gout, I believe,
+is a great help in panegyric, especially, where it is an incivility
+strictly to examine and over-curiously to look into matters.
+
+Cleo. What say you now, Fulvia, of nature and good sense, are they
+not quite beat out of doors?
+
+Ful. I have heard nothing yet, to make me out of conceit with good
+sense; though what you insinuated of nature, as if it was not to be
+imitated in painting, is an opinion, I must confess, which hitherto
+I more admire at, than I can approve of it.
+
+Hor. I would never recommend any thing, Madam, that is repugnant
+to good sense; but Cleomenes must have some design in over-acting
+the part he pretends to have chosen. What he said about painting is
+very true, whether he spoke it in jest or in earnest; but he talks so
+diametrically opposite to the opinion which he is known every where
+to defend of late, that I do not know what to make of him.
+
+Ful. I am convinced of the narrowness of my own understanding, and am
+going to visit some persons, with whom I shall be more upon the level.
+
+Hor. You will give me leave to wait upon you to your coach,
+Madam.----Pray, Cleomenes, what is it you have got in your head?
+
+Cleo. Nothing at all: I told you before, that I was so entirely
+recovered from my folly, that few people went my lengths. What jealousy
+you entertain of me I do not know; but I find myself much improved in
+the social system. Formerly I thought, that chief ministers, and all
+those at the helm of affairs, acted from principles of avarice and
+ambition; that in all the pains they took, and even in the slaveries
+they underwent for the public good, they had their private ends, and
+that they were supported in the fatigue by secret enjoyments they
+were unwilling to own. It is not a month ago, that I imagined that
+the inward care and real solicitude of all great men centered within
+themselves; and that to enrich themselves, acquire titles of honour,
+and raise their families on the one hand, and to have opportunities on
+the other of displaying a judicious fancy to all the elegant comforts
+of life, and establishing, without the least trouble of self-denial,
+the reputation of being wise, humane, and munificent, were the
+things, which, besides the satisfaction there is in superiority and
+the pleasure of governing, all candidates to high offices and great
+posts proposed to themselves, from the places they sued for: I was
+so narrow minded, that I could not conceive how a man would ever
+voluntarily submit to be a slave but to serve himself. But I have
+abandoned that ill-natured way of judging: I plainly perceive the
+public good, in all the designs of politicians, the social virtues
+shine in every action, and I find that the national interest is the
+compass that all statesmen steer by.
+
+Hor. That is more than I can prove; but certainly there have been such
+men, there have been patriots, that without selfish views have taken
+incredible pains for their country's welfare: nay, there are men now
+that would do the same, if they were employed; and we have had princes
+that have neglected their ease and pleasure, and sacrificed their
+quiet, to promote the prosperity and increase the wealth and honour
+of the kingdom, and had nothing so much at heart as the happiness of
+their subjects.
+
+Cleo. No disaffection, I beg of you. The difference between past and
+present times, and persons in and out of places, is perhaps clearer
+to you than it is to me; but it is many years ago, you know, that it
+has been agreed between us never to enter into party disputes: what I
+desire your attention to, is my reformation, which you seem to doubt
+of, and the great change that is wrought in me. The religion of most
+kings and other high potentates, I formerly had but a slender opinion
+of, but now I measure their piety by what they say of it themselves
+to their subjects.
+
+Hor. That is very kindly done.
+
+Cleo. By thinking meanly of things, I once had strange blundering
+notions concerning foreign wars: I thought that many of them arose
+from trifling causes, magnified by politicians for their own ends;
+that the most ruinous misunderstandings between states and kingdoms
+might spring from the hidden malice, folly, or caprice of one man;
+that many of them had been owing to the private quarrels, piques,
+resentments, and the haughtiness of the chief ministers of the
+respective nations, that were the sufferers; and that what is called
+personal hatred between princes seldom was more at first, than either
+an open or secret animosity which the two great favourites of those
+courts had against one another: but now I have learned to derive those
+things from higher causes. I am reconciled likewise to the luxury
+of the voluptuous, which I used to be offended at, because now I am
+convinced that the money of most rich men, is laid out with the social
+design of promoting arts and sciences, and that in the most expensive
+undertakings their principal aim is the employment of the poor.
+
+Hor. These are lengths indeed.
+
+Cleo. I have a strong aversion to satire, and detest it every whit
+as much as you do: the most instructive writings to understand the
+world, and penetrate into the heart of man, I take to be addresses,
+epithets, dedications, and above all, the preambles to patents,
+of which I am making a large collection.
+
+Hor. A very useful undertaking!
+
+Cleo. But to remove all your doubts of my conversion, I will show
+you some easy rules I have laid down for young beginners.
+
+Hor. What to do?
+
+Cleo. To judge of mens actions by the lovely system of Lord Shaftsbury,
+in a manner diametrically opposite to that of the Fable of the Bees.
+
+Hor. I do not understand you.
+
+Cleo. You will presently. I have called them rules, but they are rather
+examples from which the rules are to be gathered: as for instance,
+if we see an industrious poor woman, who has pinched her belly,
+and gone in rags for a considerable time to save forty shillings,
+part with her money to put out her son at six years of age to a
+chimney-sweeper; to judge of her charitably, according to the system
+of the social virtues, we must imagine, that though she never paid
+for the sweeping of a chimney in her life, she knows by experience,
+that for want of this necessary cleanliness the broth has been often
+spoiled, and many a chimney has been set on fire, and therefore to
+do good in her generation, as far as she is able, she gives up her
+all, both offspring and estate, to assist in preventing the several
+mischiefs that are often occasioned by great quantities of soot
+disregarded; and, free from selfishness, sacrifices her only son to
+the most wretched employment for the public welfare.
+
+Hor. You do not vie I see with Lord Shaftsbury, for loftiness of
+subjects.
+
+Cleo. When in a starry night with amazement we behold the glory
+of the firmament, nothing is more obvious than that the whole, the
+beautiful all, must be the workmanship of one great Architect of power
+and wisdom stupendous; and it is as evident, that every thing in the
+universe is a constituent part of one entire fabric.
+
+Hor. Would you make a jest of this too.
+
+Cleo. Far from it: they are awful truths, of which I am as much
+convinced as I am of my own existence; but I was going to name
+the consequences, which Lord Shaftsbury draws from them, in order
+to demonstrate to you, that I am a convert, and a very punctual
+observer of his Lordship's instructions, and that, in my judgment
+on the poor woman's conduct, there is nothing that is not entirely
+agreeable to the generous way of thinking set forth and recommended
+in the Characteristics.
+
+Hor. Is it possible a man should read such a book, and make no better
+use of it! I desire you would name the consequences you speak of.
+
+Cleo. As that infinity of luminous bodies, however different in
+magnitude, velocity, and the figures they describe in their courses,
+concur all of them to make up the universe, so this little spot
+we inhabit is likewise a compound of air, water, fire, minerals,
+vegetables, and living creatures, which, though vastly differing from
+one another in their nature, do altogether make up the body of this
+terraqueous globe.
+
+Hor. This is very right, and in the same manner as our whole species is
+composed of many nations of different religions, forms of government,
+interests and manners that divide and share the earth between them;
+so the civil society in every nation consists in great multitudes of
+both sexes, that widely differing from each other in age, constitution,
+strength, temper, wisdom and possessions, all help to make up one
+body politic.
+
+Cleo. The same exactly which I would have said: now, pray Sir, is not
+the great end of men's forming themselves into such societies, mutual
+happiness; I mean, do not all individual persons, from being thus
+combined, propose to themselves a more comfortable condition of life,
+than human creatures, if they were to live like other wild animals,
+without tie or dependance, could enjoy in a free and savage state?
+
+Hor. This certainly is not only the end, but the end which is every
+where attained to by government and society, in some degree or other.
+
+Cleo. Hence it must follow, that it is always wrong for men to pursue
+gain or pleasure, by means that are visibly detrimental to the civil
+society, and that creatures who can do this must be narrow-souled,
+short-sighted, selfish people; whereas, wise men never look upon
+themselves as individual persons, without considering the whole,
+of which they are but trifling parts in respect to bulk, and are
+incapable of receiving any satisfaction from things that interfere
+with the public welfare. This being undeniably true, ought not all
+private advantage to give way to this general interest; and ought it
+not to be every one's endeavour, to increase this common stock of
+happiness; and, in order to it, do what he can to render himself a
+serviceable and useful member of that whole body which he belongs to?
+
+Hor. What of all this?
+
+Cleo. Has not my poor woman, in what I have related of her, acted in
+conformity to this social system?
+
+Hor. Can any one in his senses imagine, that an indigent thoughtless
+wretch, without sense or education, should ever act from such generous
+principles?
+
+Cleo. Poor I told you the woman was, and I will not insist upon her
+education; but as for her being thoughtless and void of sense, you
+will give me leave to say, that it is an aspersion for which you have
+no manner of foundation; and from the account I have given of her,
+nothing can be gathered but that she was a considerate, virtuous,
+wise woman, in poverty.
+
+Hor. I suppose you would persuade me that you are in earnest.
+
+Cleo. I am much more so than you imagine; and say once, more, that, in
+the example I have given, I have trod exactly in my Lord Shaftsbury's
+steps, and closely followed the social system. If I have committed
+any error, show it me.
+
+Hor. Did that author ever meddle with any thing so low and pitiful.
+
+Cleo. There can be nothing mean in noble actions, whoever the persons
+are that perform them. But if the vulgar are to be all excluded from
+the social virtues, what rule or instruction shall the labouring poor,
+which are by far the greatest part of the nation, have left them to
+walk by, when the Characteristics have made a jest of all revealed
+religion, especially the Christian? but if you despise the poor
+and illiterate, I can, in the same method, judge of men in higher
+stations. Let the enemies to the social system behold the venerable
+counsellor, now grown eminent for his wealth, that at his great age
+continues sweltering at the bar to plead the doubtful cause, and,
+regardless of his dinner, shorten his own life in endeavouring to
+secure the possessions of others. How conspicuous is the benevolence
+of the physician to his kind, who, from morning till night, visiting
+the sick, keeps several sets of horses to be more serviceable to many,
+and still grudges himself the time for the necessary functions of
+life! In the same manner the indefatigable clergyman, who, with his
+ministry, supplies a very large parish already, solicits with zeal
+to be as useful and beneficent to another, though fifty of his order,
+yet unemployed, offer their service for the same purpose.
+
+Hor. I perceive your drift: from the strained panegyrics you labour
+at, you would form arguments ad absurdum: the banter is ingenious
+enough, and, at proper times, might serve to raise a laugh; but then
+you must own likewise, that those studied encomiums will not bear to
+be seriously examined into. When we consider that the great business
+as well as perpetual solicitude of the poor, are to supply their
+immediate wants, and keep themselves from starving, and that their
+children are a burden to them, which they groan under, and desire
+to be delivered from by all possible means, that are not clashing
+with the low involuntary affection which nature forces them to have
+for their offspring: when, I say, we consider this, the virtues of
+your industrious make no great figure. The public spirit likewise,
+and the generous principles, your sagacity has found out in the three
+faculties, to which men are brought up for a livelihood, seem to be
+very far fetched. Fame, wealth, and greatness, every age can witness:
+but whatever labour or fatigue they submit to, the motives of their
+actions are as conspicuous as their calling themselves.
+
+Cleo. Are they not beneficial to mankind, and of use to the public?
+
+Hor. I do not deny that; we often receive inestimable benefits from
+them, and the good ones in either profession are not only useful,
+but very necessary to the society: but though there are several that
+sacrifice their whole lives, and all the comforts of them, to their
+business, there is not one of them that would take a quarter of the
+pains he now is at, if, without taking any, he could acquire the
+same money, reputation, and other advantages that may accrue to him
+from the esteem or gratitude of those whom he has been serviceable
+to; and I do not believe, there is an eminent man among them that
+would not own this if the question was put to him. Therefore, when
+ambition and the love of money are avowed principles men act from,
+it is very silly to ascribe virtues to them, which they themselves
+pretend to lay no manner of claim to. But your encomium upon the
+parson is the merriest jest of all: I have heard many excuses made,
+and some of them very frivolous, for the covetousness of priests; but
+what you have picked out in their praise is more extraordinary than
+any thing I ever met with; and the most partial advocate and admirer
+of the clergy never yet discovered before yourself a great virtue
+in their hunting after pluralities, when they were well provided for
+themselves, and many others for want of employ were ready to starve.
+
+Cleo. But if there be any reality in the social system, it would be
+better for the public, if men, in, all professions, were to act from
+those generous principles; and you will allow, that the society would
+be the gainers, if the generality in the three faculties would mind
+others more, and themselves less than they do now.
+
+Hor. I do not know that; and considering what slavery some lawyers,
+as well as physicians, undergo, I much question whether it would
+be possible for them to exert themselves in the same manner though
+they would, if the constant baits and refreshments of large fees did
+not help to support human nature, by continually stimulating this
+darling passion.
+
+Cleo. Indeed, Horatio, this is a stronger argument against the social
+system, and more injurious to it than any thing that has been said
+by the author whom you have exclaimed against with so much bitterness.
+
+Hor. I deny that: I do not conclude from the selfishness in some,
+that there is no virtue in others.
+
+Cleo. Nor he neither, and you very much wrong him if you assert that
+he ever did.
+
+Hor. I refuse to commend what is not praise-worthy; but as bad as
+mankind are, virtue has an existence as well as vice, though it is
+more scarce.
+
+Cleo. What you said last, nobody ever contradicted; but I do not know
+what you would be at: does not the Lord Shaftsbury endeavour to do
+good, and promote the social virtues, and am I not doing the very
+same? suppose me to be in the wrong in the favourable constructions
+I have made of things, still it is to be wished for at least, that
+men had a greater regard to the public welfare, less fondness for
+their private interest, and more charity for their neighbours, than
+the generality of them have.
+
+Hor. To be wished for, perhaps, it may be, but what probability is
+there that this ever will come to pass?
+
+Cleo. And unless that can come to pass, it is the idlest thing in the
+world to discourse upon, and demonstrate the excellency of virtue;
+what signifies it to set forth the beauty of it, unless it was possible
+that men should fall in love with it?
+
+Hor. If virtue was never recommended, men might grow worse than
+they are.
+
+Cleo. Then, by the same reason, if it was recommended more, men
+might grow better than they are. But I see perfectly well the reason
+of these shifts and evasions you make use of against your opinion:
+You find yourself under a necessity of allowing my panegyrics, as you
+call them, to be just; or finding the same fault with most of my Lord
+Shaftsbury's; and you would do neither if you could help it: From mens
+preferring company to solitude, his Lordship pretends to prove the love
+and natural affection we have for our own species: If this was examined
+into with the same strictness as you have done every thing I have said
+in behalf of the three faculties, I believe that the solidity of the
+consequences would be pretty equal in both. But I stick to my text,
+and stand up for the social virtues: The noble author of that system
+had a most charitable opinion of his species, and extolled the dignity
+of it in an extraordinary manner, and why my imitation of him should
+be called a banter, I see no reason. He certainly wrote with a good
+design, and endeavoured to inspire his readers with refined notions,
+and a public spirit abstract from religion: The world enjoys the
+fruits of his labours; but the advantage that is justly expected from
+his writings, can never be so universally felt, before that public
+spirit, which he recommended, comes down to the meanest tradesmen,
+whom you would endeavour to exclude from the generous sentiments
+and noble pleasures that are already so visible in many. I am now
+thinking on two sorts of people that stand very much in need of,
+and yet hardly ever meet with one another: This misfortune must have
+caused such a chasm in the band of society, that no depth of thought,
+or happiness of contrivance, could have filled up the vacuity, if a
+most tender regard for the commonwealth, and the height of benevolence
+did not influence and oblige others, mere strangers to those people,
+and commonly men of small education, to afflict them with their good
+offices, and stop up the gap. Many ingenious workmen, in obscure
+dwellings, would be starved in spite of industry, only for want of
+knowing where to sell the product of their labour, if there were not
+others to dispose of it for them: And again, the rich and extravagant
+are daily furnished with an infinite variety of superfluous knicknacks
+and elaborate trifles, every one of them invented to gratify either
+a needless curiosity, or else wantonness and folly; and which they
+could never have thought of, much less wanted, had they never seen
+or known where to buy them. What a blessing, then, to the public,
+is the social toyman, who lays out a considerable estate to gratify
+the desires of these two different classes of people? He procures
+food and raiment for the deserving poor, and searches with great
+diligence after the most skilful artificers, that no man shall be able
+to produce better workmanship than himself: with studied civilities,
+and a serene countenance, he entertains the greatest strangers; and,
+often speaking to them first, kindly offers to guess at their wants:
+He confines not his attendance to a few stated hours, but waits their
+leisure all day long in an open shop, where he bears the summer's heat,
+and winter's cold, with equal cheerfulness. What a beautiful prospect
+is here of natural affection to our kind! For, if he acts from that
+principle, who only furnishes us with necessaries of life, certainly
+he shows a more superlative love and indulgence to his species, who
+will not suffer the most whimsical of it to be an hour destitute of
+what he shall fancy, even things the most unnecessary.
+
+Hor. You have made the most of it indeed, but are you not tired yet
+with these fooleries yourself?
+
+Cleo. What fault do you find with these kind constructions; do they
+detract from the dignity of our species?
+
+Hor. I admire your invention, and thus much I will own, that,
+by overacting the part in that extravagant manner, you have set
+the social system in a more disadvantageous light than ever I had
+considered it before: But the best things, you know, may be ridiculed.
+
+Cleo. Whether I know that or not, Lord Shaftsbury has flatly denied
+it; and takes joke and banter to be the best and surest touchstone
+to prove the worth of things: It is his opinion, that no ridicule can
+be fastened upon what is really great and good. His Lordship has made
+use of that test to try the Scriptures and the Christian religion by,
+and exposed them because it seems they could not stand it.
+
+Hor. He has exposed superstition, and the miserable notions the vulgar
+were taught to have of God; but no man ever had more sublime ideas
+of the Supreme Being, and the universe, than himself.
+
+Cleo. You are convinced, that what I charge him with is true.
+
+Hor. I do not pretend to defend every syllable that noble Lord has
+wrote. His style is engaging, his language is polite, his reasoning
+strong; many of his thoughts are beautifully expressed, and his
+images, for the greatest part, inimitably fine. I may be pleased
+with an author, without obliging myself to answer every cavil that
+shall be made against him. As to what you call your imitation of him,
+I have no taste in burlesque: but the laugh you would raise might be
+turned upon you with less trouble than you seem to have taken. Pray,
+when you consider the hard and dirty labours that are performed to
+supply the mob with the vast quantities of strong beer they swill,
+do not you discover social virtue in a drayman?
+
+Cleo. Yes, and in a dray-horse too; at least as well as I can in some
+great men, who yet would be very angry should we refuse to believe,
+that the most selfish actions of theirs, if the society received
+but the least benefit from them, were chiefly owing to principles of
+virtue, and a generous regard to the public. Do you believe that, in
+the choice of a Pope, the greatest dependence of the Cardinals, and
+what they principally rely upon, is the influence of the Holy Ghost?
+
+Hor. No more than I do transubstantiation.
+
+Cleo. But if you had been brought up a Roman Catholic, you would
+believe both.
+
+Hor. I do not know that.
+
+Cleo. You would, if you was sincere in your religion, as thousands
+of them are, that are no more destitute of reason and good sense than
+you or I.
+
+Hor. I have nothing to say as to that: there are many things
+incomprehensible, that yet are certainly true: These are properly the
+objects of faith; and, therefore, when matters are above my capacity,
+and really surpass my understanding, I am silent, and submit with
+great humility: but I will swallow nothing which I plainly apprehend
+to be contrary to my reason, and is directly clashing with my senses.
+
+Cleo. If you believe a Providence, what demonstration can you have,
+that God does not direct men in an affair of higher importance to
+all Christendom, than any other you can name?
+
+Hor. This is an ensnaring, and a very unfair question. Providence
+superintends and governs every thing without exception. To defend
+my negative, and give a reason for my unbelief, it is sufficient,
+if I prove, that all the instruments, and the means they make use of
+in those elections, are visibly human and mundane, and many of them
+unwarrantable and wicked.
+
+Cleo. Not all the means; because every day they have prayers, and
+solemnly invoke the Divine assistance.
+
+Hor. But what stress they lay upon it may be easily gathered from
+the rest of their behaviour. The court of Rome is, without dispute,
+the greatest academy of refined politics, and the best school to learn
+the art of caballing: there ordinary cunning, and known stratagems,
+are counted rusticity, and designs are pursued through all the mazes of
+human subtlety. Genius there must give way to finesse, as strength does
+to art in wrestling; and a certain skill some men have in concealing
+their capacities from others, is of far greater use with them, than
+real knowledge, or the soundest understanding. In the sacred college,
+where every thing is auro venale, truth and justice bear the lowest
+price: Cardinal Palavicini, and other Jesuits, that have been the
+stanch advocates of the Papal authority, have owned with ostentation
+the Politia religiosa della chiésa, and not hid from us the virtues
+and accomplishments, that were only valuable among the Purpurati,
+in whose judgment over-reaching, at any rate, is the highest honour,
+and to be outwitted, though by the basest artifice, the greatest
+shame. In conclaves, more especially, nothing is carried on without
+tricks and intrigue; and in them the heart of man is so deep, and
+so dark an abyss, that the finest air of dissimulation is sometimes
+found to have been insincere, and men often deceive one another,
+by counterfeiting hypocrisy. And is it credible, that holiness,
+religion, or the least concern for spirituals, should have any share
+in the plots, machinations, brigues, and contrivances of a society,
+of which each member, besides the gratification of his own passions,
+has nothing at heart but the interest of his party, right or wrong,
+and to distress every faction that opposes it?
+
+Cleo. These sentiments confirm to me what I have often heard, that
+renegadoes are the most cruel enemies.
+
+Hor. Was ever I a Roman Catholic?
+
+Cleo. I mean from the social system, of which you have been the
+most strenuous assertor; and now no man can judge of actions more
+severely, and indeed less charitably, than yourself, especially of
+the poor cardinals. I little thought, if once I quitted the scheme
+of deformity, to have found an adversary in you; but we have both
+changed sides it seems.
+
+Hor. Much alike, I believe.
+
+Cleo. Nay, what could any body think to hear me making the kindest
+interpretations of things that can be imagined, and yourself doing
+quite the reverse?
+
+Hor. What ignorant people, that knew neither of us, might have done,
+I do not know: but it has been very manifest from our discourse,
+that you have maintained your cause, by endeavouring to show the
+absurdity of the contrary side, and that I have defended mine by
+letting you see, that we were not such fools as you would represent
+us to be. I had taken a resolution never to engage with you on this
+topic, but you see I have broke it: I hate to be thought uncivil;
+it was mere complaisance drew me in; though I am not sorry that we
+talked of it so much as we did, because I found your opinion less
+dangerous than 1 imagined: you have owned the existence of virtue,
+and that there are men who act from it as a principle, both which I
+thought you denied: but I would not have you flatter yourself that
+you deceived me, by hanging out false colours.
+
+Cleo. I did not lay on the disguise so thick, as not to have you see
+through it, nor would I ever have discoursed upon this subject with
+any body, who could have been so easily imposed upon. I know you to
+be a man of very good sense and sound judgment; and it is for that
+very reason I so heartily wish you would suffer me to explain myself,
+and demonstrate to you, how small the difference is between us, which
+you imagine to be so considerable: There is not a man in the world, in
+whose opinion I would less pass for an ill man than in yours; but I am
+so scrupulously fearful of offending you, that I never dared to touch
+upon some points, unless you had given me leave. Yield something to our
+friendship, and condescend for once to read the Fable of the Bees for
+my sake: It is a handsome volume: you love books: I have one extremely
+well bound; do; let me, suffer me to make you a present of it.
+
+Hor. I am no bigot, Cleomenes; but I am a man of honour, and, you know,
+of strict honour: I cannot endure to hear that ridiculed, and the least
+attempt of it chafes my blood: Honour is the strongest and noblest tie
+of society by far, and therefore, believe me, can never be innocently
+sported with. It is a thing so solid and awful, as well as serious,
+that it can at no time become the object of mirth or diversion;
+and it is impossible for any pleasantry to be so ingenious, or any
+jest so witty, that I could bear with it on that head. Perhaps I
+am singular in this, and, if you will, in the wrong; be that as it
+will, all I can say is, Je ne'entens pas Raillerie la dessus; and
+therefore, no Fable of the Bees for me, if we are to remain friends:
+I have heard enough of that.
+
+Cleo. Pray, Horatio, can there be honour without justice?
+
+Hor. No: Who affirms there can?
+
+Cleo. Have you not owned, that you have thought worse of me, than now
+you find me to deserve? No men, nor their works, ought to be condemned
+upon hearsays and bare surmises, much less upon the accusations of
+their enemies, without being examined into.
+
+Hor. There you are in the right: I heartily beg your pardon, and to
+atone for the wrong I have done you, say what you please, I will hear
+it with patience, be it never so shocking; but I beg of you be serious.
+
+Cleo. I have nothing to say to you that is distasteful, much less
+shocking: all I desire is, to convince you, that I am neither so
+ill-natured nor uncharitable, in my opinion of mankind, as you take
+me to be: and that the notions I entertain of the worth of things,
+will not differ much from yours, when both come to be looked into. Do
+but consider what we have been doing: I have endeavoured to set
+every thing in the handsomest light I could think of; you say,
+to ridicule the social system; I own it; now reflect on your own
+conduct, which has been to show the folly of my strained panegyrics,
+and replace things in that natural view, which all just, knowing men
+would certainly behold them in. This is very well done: but it is
+contrary to the scheme you pretended to maintain; and if you judge of
+all actions in the same manner, there is an end of the social system;
+or, at least, it will be evident, that it is a theory never to be
+put into practice. You argue for the generality of men, that they
+are possessed of these virtues, but when we come to particulars,
+you can find none. I have tried you every where: you are as little
+satisfied with persons of the highest rank, as you are with them
+of the lowest, and you count it ridiculous to think better of the
+middling people. Is this otherwise than standing up for the goodness
+of a design, at the same time you confess, that it never was, or ever
+can be executed? What sort of people are they, and where must we look
+for them, whom you will own to act from those principles of virtue?
+
+Hor. Are there not in all countries men of birth and ample fortune,
+that would not accept of places, though they were offered, that are
+generous and beneficent, and mind nothing but what is great and noble?
+
+Cleo. Yes: But examine their conduct, look into their lives, and
+scan their actions with as little indulgence as you did those of
+the cardinals, or the lawyers and physicians, and then see what
+figure their virtues will make beyond those of the poor industrious
+woman. There is, generally speaking, less truth in panegyrics, than
+there is in satires. When all our senses are soothed, when we have no
+distemper of body or mind to disturb us, and meet with nothing that is
+disagreeable, we are pleased with our being: it is in this situation
+that we are most apt to mistake outward appearances for realities, and
+judge of things more favourably than they deserve. Remember, Horatio,
+how feelingly you spoke half an hour ago in commendation of operas:
+Your soul seemed to be lifted up whilst you was thinking on the many
+charms you find in them. I have nothing to say against the elegancy of
+the diversion, or the politeness of those that frequent them: but I
+am afraid you lost yourself in the contemplation of the lovely idea,
+when you asserted that they were the most proper means to contract
+a strong and lasting habit of virtue; do you think, that among the
+same number of people, there is more real virtue at an opera, than
+there is at a bear-garden?
+
+Hor. What a comparison!
+
+Cleo. I am very serious.
+
+Hor. The noise of dogs, and bulls, and bears, make a fine harmony!
+
+Cleo. It is impossible you should mistake me, and you know very
+well, that it is not the different pleasures of those two places I
+would compare together. The things you mentioned are the least to
+be complained of: the continual sounds of oaths and imprecations,
+the frequent repetitions of the word lie, and other more filthy
+expressions, the loudness and dissonance of many strained and untuneful
+voices, are a perfect torment to a delicate ear. The frowsiness of
+the place, and the ill scents of different kinds, are a perpetual
+nuisance; but in all mob meetings----
+
+Hor. L'odorat souffre beaucoup.
+
+Cleo. The entertainment in general is abominable, and all the senses
+suffer. I allow all this. The greasy heads, some of them bloody, the
+jarring looks, and threatening, wild, and horrid aspects, that one
+meets with in those ever-restless assemblies, must be very shocking to
+the sight, and so indeed is every thing else that can be seen among
+a rude and ragged multitude, that are covered with dirt, and have in
+none of their pastimes one action that is inoffensive: but, after all,
+vice and what is criminal, are not to be confounded with roughness
+and want of manners, no more than politeness and an artful behaviour
+ought to be with virtue or religion. To tell a premeditated falsehood
+in order to do mischief, is a greater sin, than to give a man the lie,
+who speaks an untruth; and it is possible, that a person may suffer
+greater damage, and more injury to his ruin, from slander in the low
+whisper of a secret enemy, than he could have received from all the
+dreadful swearing and cursing, the most noisy antagonist could pelt
+him with. Incontinence, and adultery itself, persons of quality are
+not more free from all over Christendom, than the meaner people:
+but if there are some vices, which the vulgar are more guilty of
+than the better sort, there are others the reverse. Envy, detraction,
+and the spirit of revenge, are more raging and mischievous in courts
+than they are in cottages. Excess of vanity and hurtful ambition are
+unknown among the poor; they are seldom tainted with avarice, with
+irreligion never; and they have much less opportunity of robbing the
+public than their betters. There are few persons of distinction, whom
+you are not acquainted with: I desire, you would seriously reflect
+on the lives of as many as you can think of, and next opera night on
+the virtues of the assembly.
+
+Hor. You make me laugh. There is a good deal in what you say; and I
+am persuaded, all is not gold that glisters. Would you add any more?
+
+Cleo. Since you have given me leave to talk, and you are such a
+patient hearer, I would not slip the opportunity of laying before
+you some things of high concern, that perhaps you never considered
+in the light, which you shall own yourself they ought to be seen in.
+
+Hor. I am sorry to leave you; but I have really business that must
+be done to-night: it is about my law-suit, and I have stayed beyond
+my time already: but if you will come and eat a bit of mutton with
+me to-morrow, I will see nobody but yourself, and we will converse
+as long as you please.
+
+Cleo. With all my heart. I will not fail to wait on you.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SECOND
+                            DIALOGUE
+                            BETWEEN
+                     HORATIO AND CLEOMENES
+
+
+HORATIO.
+
+The discourse we had yesterday, has made a great impression upon me;
+you said several things that were very entertaining, and some which I
+shall not easily forget: I do not remember I ever looked into myself
+so much as I have done since last night after I left you.
+
+Cleo. To do that faithfully, is a more difficult and a severer talk
+than is commonly imagined. When, yesterday, I asked you where and
+among what sort of people we were to look for those whom you would
+allow to act from principles of virtue, you named a class, among
+whom I have found very agreeable characters of men, that yet all have
+their failings. If these could be left out, and the best were picked
+and culled from the different good qualities that are to be seen in
+several, the compound would make a very handsome picture.
+
+Hor. To finish it well every way would be a great masterpiece.
+
+Cleo. That I shall not attempt: but I do not think it would be very
+difficult to make a little sketch of it, that yet should exceed nature,
+and be a better pattern for imitation than any can be shown alive. I
+have a mind to try; the very thought enlivens me. How charming is the
+portrait of a complete gentleman, and how ravishing is the figure
+which a person of great birth and fortune, to whom nature has been
+no niggard, makes, when he understands the world, and is thoroughly
+well-bred!
+
+Hor. I think them so, I can assure you, whether you are in jest or
+in earnest.
+
+Cleo. How entirely well hid are his greatest imperfections! though
+money is his idol, and he is covetous in his heart, yet his inward
+avarice is forced to give way to his outward liberality, and an open
+generosity shines through all his actions.
+
+Hor. There lies your fault: it is this I cannot endure in you.
+
+Cleo. What is the matter?
+
+Hor. I know what you are about, you are going to give me the caricatura
+of a gentleman, under pretence of drawing his portrait.
+
+Cleo. You wrong me, I have no such thought.
+
+Hor. But why is it impossible for human nature ever to be good? instead
+of leaving out, you put in failings without the least grounds or
+colour. When things have a handsome appearance every way, what reason
+have you to suspect them still to be bad? How came you to know, and
+which way have you discovered imperfections that are entirely well
+hid; and why should you suppose a person to be covetous in his heart,
+and that money is his idol, when you own yourself that he never shews
+it, and that an open generosity shines through all his actions? This
+is monstrous.
+
+Cleo. I have made no such supposition of any man, and I protest to
+you, that, in what I said, I had no other meaning than to observe,
+that whatever frailties and natural infirmities persons might be
+conscious of within, good sense and good manners were capable, and,
+without any other assistance, sufficient to keep them out of sight:
+but your questions are very reasonable, and since you have started
+this, I will be very open to you, and acquaint you before hand
+with my design of the description I am going to make; and the use I
+intend it for; which in short is, to demonstrate to you, that a most
+beautiful superstructure may be raised upon a rotten and despicable
+foundation. You will understand me better presently.
+
+Hor. But how do you know a foundation to be rotten that supports the
+building, and is wholly concealed from you?
+
+Cleo. Have patience, and I promise you, that I shall take nothing
+for granted, which you shall not allow of yourself.
+
+Hor. Stick close to that, and I desire no more: now say what you will.
+
+Cleo. The true object of pride or vain glory is the opinion of
+others; and the most superlative wish, which a man possessed, and
+entirely filled with it can make, is, that he may be well thought of,
+applauded, and admired by the whole world, not only in the present
+but all future ages. This passion is generally exploded; but it is
+incredible, how many strange and widely different miracles are, and may
+be performed by the force of it; as persons differ in circumstances and
+inclinations. In the first place, there is no danger so great, but by
+the help of his pride a man may slight and confront it; nor any manner
+of death so terrible, but with the same assistance he may court, and if
+he has a firm constitution, undergo it with alacrity. In the second,
+there are no good offices or duties, either to others or ourselves,
+that Cicero has spoke of, nor any instance of benevolence, humanity,
+or other social virtue, that Lord Shaftsbury has hinted at, but a man
+of good sense and knowledge may learn to practise them from no better
+principle than vain glory, if it be strong enough to subdue and keep
+under all other passions that may thwart and interfere with his design.
+
+Hor. Shall I allow all this?
+
+Cleo. Yes.
+
+Hor. When?
+
+Cleo. Before we part.
+
+Hor. Very well.
+
+Cleo. Men of tolerable parts in plentiful circumstances, that were
+artfully educated, and are not singular in their temper, can hardly
+fail of a genteel behaviour: the more pride they have, and the greater
+value they set on the esteem of others, the more they will make it
+their study to render themselves acceptable to all they converse
+with; and they will take uncommon pains to conceal and stifle in
+their bosoms, every thing which their good sense tells them ought
+not to be seen or understood.
+
+Hor. I must interrupt you, and cannot suffer you to go on thus. What
+is all this but the old story over again, that every thing is pride,
+and all we see hypocrisy, without proof or argument? Nothing in the
+world is more false than what you have advanced now; for, according
+to that, the most noble, the most gallant, and the best bred man
+would be the proudest; which is so clashing with daily experience,
+that the very reverse is true. Pride and insolence are no where more
+common than among upstarts; men of no family, that raise estates out of
+nothing, and the most ordinary people, that having had no education,
+are puffed up with their fortune whenever they are lifted up above
+mediocrity, and from mean stations advanced to posts of honour:
+whereas, no men upon earth, generally speaking, are more courteous,
+humane, or polite, than persons of high birth, that enjoy the large
+possessions and known seats of their ancestors; men illustrious by
+descent, that have been used to grandeur and titles of honour from
+their infancy, and received an education suitable to their quality. I
+do not believe there ever was a nation, that were not savages, in which
+the youth of both sexes were not expressly taught never to be proud
+or haughty: did you ever know a school, a tutor, or a parent, that
+did not continually inculcate to those under their care to be civil
+and obliging; nay, does not the word mannerly itself import as much?
+
+Cleo. I beg of you, let us be calm, and speak with exactness. The
+doctrine of good manners furnishes us with a thousand lessons,
+against the various appearances and outward symptoms of pride, but
+it has not one precept against the passion itself.
+
+Hor. How is that?
+
+Cleo. No, not one against the passion itself; the conquest of it
+is never attempted, nor talked of in a gentleman's education, where
+men are to be continually inspired and kept warm with the sense of
+their honour, and the inward value they must put upon themselves on
+all emergencies.
+
+Hor. This is worth consideration, and requires time to be examined
+into; but where is your fine gentleman, the picture you promised?
+
+Cleo. I am ready, and shall begin with his dwelling: Though he has
+several noble seats in different countries, yet I shall only take
+notice of his chief mansion-house that bears the name, and does the
+honours of the family: this is amply magnificent, and yet, commodious
+to admiration. His gardens are very extensive, and contain an infinite
+variety of pleasing objects: they are divided into many branches
+for divers purposes, and every where filled with improvements of
+art upon nature; yet a beautiful order and happy contrivance are
+conspicuous through every part; and though nothing is omitted to
+render them stately and delightful; the whole is laid out to the
+best advantage. Within doors, every thing bespeaks the grandeur and
+judgment of the master; and as no cost is spared any where to procure
+beauty or conveniency, so you see none impertinently lavished. All his
+plate and furniture are completely fine, and you see nothing but what
+is fashionable. He has no pictures but of the most eminent hands: the
+rarities he shows are really such; he hoards up no trifles, nor offers
+any thing to your sight that is shocking: but the several collections
+he has of this sort, are agreeable as well as extraordinary, and rather
+valuable than large: but curiosities and wealth are not confined to his
+cabinet; the marble and sculpture that are displayed up and down are a
+treasure themselves; and there is abundance of admirable gilding and
+excellent carving to be seen in many places. What has been laid out
+on the great hall, and one gallery, would be a considerable estate;
+and there is a salloon and a stair-case not inferior to either;
+these are all very spacious and lofty; the architecture of them is
+of the best taste, and the decorations surprising. Throughout the
+whole there appears a delicate mixture and astonishing variety of
+lively embellishments, the splendour of which, joined to a perfect
+cleanliness, no where neglected, are highly entertaining to the
+most careless and least observing eye; whilst the exactness of the
+workmanship bestowed on every part of the meanest utensil, gives a
+more solid satisfaction, and is ravishing to the curious. But the
+greatest excellency in this model of perfection is this; that as in
+the most ordinary rooms there is nothing wanting for their purpose,
+and the least passage is handsomely finished; so in those of the
+greatest eclat there is nothing overcharged, nor any part of them
+encumbered with ornaments.
+
+Hor. This is a studied piece; but I do not like it the worse for it,
+pray go on.
+
+Cleo. I have thought of it before, I own. His equipage is rich and
+well chosen, and there is nothing to be seen about him that art or
+expence, within the compass of reason, could make better. At his own
+table his looks are ever jovial; and his heart seems to be as open as
+his countenance. His chief business there is to take care of others,
+without being troublesome; and all his happiness seems to consist in
+being able to please his friends: in his greatest mirth, he is wanting
+in respect to no man; and never makes use of abbreviations in names,
+or unhandsome familiarities with the meanest of his guests. To every
+one that speaks to him, he gives an obliging attention, and seems never
+to disregard any thing but what is said in commendation of his fare:
+he never interrupts any discourse but what is made in his praise,
+and seldom assents to any encomiums, though the most equitable that
+are made on any thing that is his. When he is abroad he never spies
+faults; and whatever is amiss, he either says nothing, or, in answer
+to the complaints and uneasiness of others, gives every thing the
+best-natured turn it can bear; but he seldom leaves a house before he
+finds out something to extol in it, without wronging his judgment. His
+conversation is always facetious and good-humoured, but as solid as it
+is diverting. He never utters a syllable that has the least tincture
+of obscenity or profaneness; nor ever made a jest that was offensive.
+
+Hor. Very fine!
+
+Cleo. He seems to be entirely free from bigotry and superstition,
+avoids all disputes about religion; but goes constantly to church,
+and is seldom absent from his family devotions.
+
+Hor. A very godly gentleman!
+
+Cleo. I expected we should differ there.
+
+Hor. I do not find fault. Proceed, pray.
+
+Cleo. As he is a man of erudition himself, so he is a promoter of
+arts and sciences; he is a friend to merit, a rewarder of industry,
+and a professed enemy to nothing but immorality and oppression. Though
+no man's table is better furnished, nor cellars better stored; he
+is temperate in his eating, and never commits excess in drinking:
+though he has an exquisite palate, he always prefers wholesome meats
+to those that are delicious only, and never indulges his appetite in
+any thing that might probably be prejudicial to his health.
+
+Hor. Admirably good!
+
+Cleo. As he is in all other things, so he is elegant in his clothes,
+and has often new ones: neatness he prefers to finery in his own dress;
+but his retinue is rich. He seldom wears gold or silver himself, but
+on very solemn occasions, in compliment to others; and to demonstrate
+that these pompous habits are made for no other purpose, he is never
+seen twice in the same; but having appeared in them one day, he gives
+them away the next. Though of every thing he has the best of the sort,
+and might be called curious in apparel; yet he leaves the care of
+it to others; and no man has his clothes put on better that seem so
+little to regard them.
+
+Hor. Perfectly right; to be well dressed is a necessary article,
+and yet to be solicitous about it is below a person of quality.
+
+Cleo. Therefore he has a domestic of good taste, a judicious man, who
+saves him that trouble; and the management likewise of his lace and
+linen, is the province of a skilful woman. His language is courtly,
+but natural and intelligible; it is neither low nor bombastic, and
+ever free from pedantic and vulgar expressions. All his motions are
+genteel without affectation; his mien is rather sedate than airy,
+and his manner noble: for though he is ever civil and condescending,
+and no man less arrogant, yet in all his carriage there is something
+gracefully majestic; and as there is nothing mean in his humility,
+so his loftiness has nothing disobliging.
+
+Hor. Prodigiously good!
+
+Cleo. He is charitable to the poor; his house is never shut to
+strangers; and all his neighbours he counts to be his friends. He is
+a father to his tenants; and looks upon their welfare as inseparable
+from his interest. No man is less uneasy at little offences, or more
+ready to forgive all trespasses without design. The injuries that are
+suffered from other landlords, he turns into benefits; and whatever
+damages, great or small, are sustained on his account, either from
+his diversions or otherwise, he doubly makes good. He takes care to
+be early informed of such losses, and commonly repairs them before
+they are complained of.
+
+Hor. Oh rare humanity; hearken ye foxhunters!
+
+Cleo. He never chides any of his people; yet no man is better served;
+and though nothing is wanting in his housekeeping, and his family is
+very numerous, yet the regularity of it is no less remarkable than
+the plenty they live in. His orders he will have strictly obeyed;
+but his commands are always reasonable, and he never speaks to the
+meanest footman without regard to humanity. Extraordinary diligence
+in servants, and all laudable actions he takes notice of himself,
+and often commends them to their faces; but leaves it to his steward
+to reprove or dismiss those he dislikes.
+
+Hor. Well judged.
+
+Cleo. Whoever lives with him is taken care of in sickness as well
+as in health. The wages he gives are above double those of other
+masters; and he often makes presents to those that are more than
+ordinary observing and industrious to please: but he suffers nobody
+to take a penny of his friends or others, that come to his house,
+on any account whatever. Many faults are connived at, or pardoned
+for the first time, but a breach of this order is ever attended with
+the loss of their places as soon as it is found out; and there is a
+premium for the discovery.
+
+Hor. This is the only exceptionable thing, in my opinion, that I have
+heard yet.
+
+Cleo. I wonder at that: why so, pray?
+
+Hor. In the first place, it is very difficult to enforce obedience
+to such a command; secondly, if it could be executed, it would be of
+little use; unless it could be made general, which is impossible:
+and therefore I look upon the attempt of introducing this maxim
+to be singular and fantastical. It would please misers and others,
+that would never follow the example at home; but it would take away
+from generous men a handsome opportunity of showing their liberal
+and beneficent disposition: besides, it would manifestly make ones
+house too open to all sorts of people.
+
+Cleo. Ways might be found to prevent that; but then it would be a
+blessing, and do great kindness to men of parts and education, that
+have little to spare, to many of whom this money to servants is a
+very grievous burden.
+
+Hor. What you mention is the only thing that can be said for it,
+and I own, of great weight: but I beg your pardon for interrupting you.
+
+Cleo. In all his dealings he is punctual and just. As he has an immense
+estate, so he has good managers to take care of it: but though all his
+accounts are very neatly kept, yet he makes it part of his business
+to look them over himself. He suffers no tradesman's bill to lie by
+unexamined; and though he meddles not with his ready cash himself,
+yet he is a quick and cheerful, as well as an exact paymaster; and
+the only singularity he is guilty of, is, that he never will owe any
+thing on a new-year's day.
+
+Hor. I like that very well.
+
+Cleo. He is affable with discretion, of easy access, and never ruffled
+with passion. To sum up all, no man seems to be less elevated with
+his condition than himself; and in the full enjoyment of so many
+personal accomplishments, as well as other possessions, his modesty
+is equal to the rest of his happiness; and in the midst of the pomp
+and distinction he lives in, he never appears to be entertained with
+his greatness, but rather unacquainted with the things he excels in.
+
+Hor. It is an admirable character, and pleases me exceedingly; but I
+will freely own to you, that I should have been more highly delighted
+with the description, if I had not known your design, and the use you
+intend to make of it; which, I think, is barbarous: to raise so fine,
+so elegant, and so complete an edifice, in order to throw it down,
+is taking great pains to show one's skill in doing mischief. I have
+observed the several places where you left room for evasions, and
+lapping the foundation you have built upon. His heart seems to be as
+open; and he never appears to be entertained with his greatness, I am
+persuaded, that wherever you have put in this seeming and appearing,
+you have done it designedly, and with an intent to make use of them as
+so many back doors to creep out at. I could never have taken notice
+of these things, if you had not acquainted me with your intention
+before hand.
+
+Cleo. I have made use of the caution you speak of: but with no other
+view than to avoid just censure and prevent your accusing me of
+incorrectness, or judging with too much precipitation; if it should
+be proved afterwards, that this gentleman had acted from an ill
+principle, which is the thing I own I purposed to convince you of;
+but seeing, that it would be unpleasant to you, I will be satisfied
+with having given you some small entertainment of the description,
+and for the rest, I give you leave to think me in the wrong.
+
+Hor. Why so? I thought the character was made and contrived on purpose
+for my instruction.
+
+Cleo. I do not pretend to instruct you: I would have offered something,
+and appealed to your judgment; but I have been mistaken, and plainly
+see my error. Both last night and now, when we began our discourse,
+I took you to be in another disposition of thinking than I perceive
+you are. You spoke of an impression that had been made upon you, and
+of looking into yourself, and gave some other hints, which too rashly
+I misconstrued in my favour; but I have found since, that you are as
+warm as ever against the sentiments I profess myself to be of; and
+therefore I will desist. I expect no pleasure from any triumph, and I
+know nothing that would vex me more, than the thoughts of disobliging
+you. Pray let us do in this as we do in another matter of importance,
+never touch upon it: friends in prudence should avoid all subjects
+in which they are known essentially to differ. Believe me, Horatio,
+if it was in my power to divert or give you any pleasure, I would
+grudge no pains to compass that end: but to make you uneasy, is a
+thing that I shall never be knowingly guilty of, and I beg a thousand
+pardons for having said so much both yesterday and to-day. Have you
+heard any thing from Gibraltar?
+
+Hor. I am ashamed of my weakness and your civility: you have not been
+mistaken in the hints you speak of; what you have said has certainly
+made a great impression upon me, and I have endeavoured to examine
+myself: but, as you say, it is a severe task to do it faithfully. I
+desired you to dine with me on purpose, that we might talk of these
+things. It is I that have offended, and it is I that ought to ask
+pardon for the ill manners I have been guilty of; but you know the
+principles I have always adhered to; it is impossible to recede from
+them at once. I see great difficulties, and now and then a glimpse of
+truth, that makes me start: I sometimes feel great struggles within;
+but I have been so used to derive all actions that are really good from
+laudable motives, that as soon as I return to my accustomed way of
+thinking, it carries all before it. Pray bear with my infirmities. I
+am in love with your fine gentleman, and I confess, I cannot see how
+a person so universally good, so far remote from all selfishness, can
+act in such an extraordinary manner every way, but from principles of
+virtue and religion. Where is there such a landlord in the world? If
+I am in an error, I shall be glad to be undeceived. Pray inform me,
+and say what you will, I promise you to keep my temper, and I beg of
+you speak your mind with freedom.
+
+Cleo. You have bid me before say what I would, and when I did,
+you seemed displeased; but since you command me I will try once
+more.----Whether there is or ever was such a man as I have described,
+in the world, is not very material: but I will easily allow, that most
+people would think it less difficult to conceive one, than to imagine
+that such a clear and beautiful stream could flow from so mean and
+muddy a spring, as an excessive thirst after praise, and an immoderate
+desire of general applause from the most knowing judges; yet it is
+certain, that great parts and extraordinary riches may compass all this
+in a man, who is not deformed, and has had a refined education; and
+that there are many persons naturally no better than a thousand others,
+who by the helps mentioned, might attain to those good qualities and
+accomplishments, if they had but resolution and perseverance enough,
+to render every appetite and every faculty subservient to that one
+predominant passion, which, if continually gratified, will always
+enable them to govern, and, if required, to subdue all the rest
+without exception, even in the most difficult cases.
+
+Hor. To enter into an argument concerning the possibility of what
+you say, might occasion a long dispute; but the probability, I think,
+is very clear against you, and if there was such a man, it would be
+much more credible, that he acted from the excellency of his nature,
+in which so many virtues and rare endowments were assembled, than that
+all his good qualities sprung from vicious motives. If pride could
+be the cause of all this, the effect of it would sometimes appear
+in others. According to your system, there is no scarcity of it, and
+there are men of great parts and prodigious estates all over Europe:
+why are there not several such patterns to be seen up and down,
+as you have drawn as one; and why is it so very seldom, that many
+virtues and good qualities are seen to meet in one individual?
+
+Cleo. Why so few persons, though there are so many men of
+immense fortune, ever arrive at any thing like this high pitch of
+accomplishments; there are several reasons that are very obvious. In
+the first place, men differ in temperament: some are naturally
+of an active, stirring; others of an indolent, quiet disposition;
+some of a bold, others of a meek spirit. In the second, it is to
+be considered, that this temperament in men come to maturity is
+more or less conspicuous, according as it has been either checked
+or encouraged by education. Thirdly, that on these two depend the
+different perception men have of happiness, according to which the love
+of glory determines them different ways. Some think it the greatest
+felicity to govern and rule over others: some take the praise of
+bravery and undauntedness in dangers to be the most valuable: others,
+erudition, and to be a celebrated author: so that, though they all love
+glory, they set out differently to acquire it. But a man who hates a
+bustle, and is naturally of a quiet easy temper, and which has been
+encouraged in him by education, it is very likely might think nothing
+more desirable than the character of a fine gentleman; and if he did,
+I dare say that he would endeavour to behave himself pretty near
+the pattern I have given you; I say pretty near, because I may have
+been mistaken in some things, and as I have not touched upon every
+thing, some will say, that I have left out several necessary ones:
+but in the main I believe, that in the country and age we live in,
+the qualifications I have named would get a man the reputation I have
+supposed him to desire.
+
+Hor. Without doubt, I make no manner of scruple about what you said
+last; and I told you before that it was an admirable character,
+and pleased me exceedingly. That I took notice of your making your
+gentleman so very godly as you did, was because it is not common;
+but I intended it not as a reflection. One thing, indeed, there was
+in which I differed from you; but that was merely speculative; and,
+since I have reflected on what you have answered me, I do not know but
+I may be in the wrong, as I should certainly believe myself to be,
+if there really was such a man, and he was of the contrary opinion:
+to such a fine genius I would pay an uncommon deference, and with
+great readiness submit my understanding to his superior capacity. But
+the reasons you give why those effects which you ascribe to pride,
+are not more common, the cause being so universal, I think are
+insufficient. That men are prompted to follow different ends, as their
+inclinations differ, I can easily allow; but there are great numbers
+of rich men that are likewise of a quiet and indolent disposition,
+and moreover very desirous of being thought fine gentlemen. How comes
+it, that among so many persons of high birth, princely estates, and
+the most refined education, as there are in Christendom, that study,
+travel, and take great pains to be well accomplished, there is not
+one, to whom all the good qualities, and every thing you named,
+could be applied without flattery?
+
+Cleo. It is very possible that thousands may aim at this, and not
+one of them succeed to that degree: in some, perhaps the predominant
+passion is not strong enough entirely to subdue the rest: love or
+covetousness may divert others: drinking, gaming, may draw away many,
+and break in upon their resolution; they may not have strength to
+persevere in a design, and steadily to pursue the same ends; or they
+may want a true taste or knowledge of what is esteemed by men of
+judgment; or, lastly, they may not be so thoroughly well-bred, as is
+required to conceal themselves on all emergencies: for the practical
+part of dissimulation is infinitely more difficult than the theory:
+and any one of these obstacles is sufficient to spoil all, and hinder
+the finishing of such a piece.
+
+Hor. I shall not dispute that with you: but all this while you have
+proved nothing; nor given the least reason why you should imagine,
+that a man of a character, to all outward appearance so bright and
+beautiful, acted from vicious motives. You would not condemn him
+without so much as naming the cause why you suspect him.
+
+Cleo. By no means; nor have I advanced any thing that is ill natured
+or uncharitable: for I have not said, that if I found a gentleman
+in possession of all the things I mentioned, I would give his rare
+endowments this turn, and think all his perfections derived from no
+better stock, than an extraordinary love of glory. What I argue for,
+and insist upon, is, the possibility that all these things might
+be performed by a man from no other views, and with no other helps,
+than those I have named: nay, I believe moreover, that a gentleman
+so accomplished, all his knowledge and great parts notwithstanding,
+may himself be ignorant, or at least not well assured of the motive
+he acts from.
+
+Hor. This is more unintelligible than any thing you have said yet;
+why will you heap difficulties upon one another, without solving
+any? I desire you would clear up this last paradox, before you do
+any thing else.
+
+Cleo. In order to obey you, I must put you in mind of what happens
+in early education, by the first rudiments of which, infants are
+taught in the choice of actions to prefer the precepts of others
+to the dictates of their own inclinations; which, in short, is no
+more than doing as they are bid. To gain this point, punishments and
+rewards are not neglected, and many different methods are made use of;
+but it is certain, that nothing proves more often effectual for this
+purpose, or has a greater influence upon children, than the handle
+that is made of shame; which, though a natural passion, they would
+not be sensible of so soon, if we did not artfully rouse and stir
+it up in them, before they can speak or go: by which means, their
+judgment being then weak, we may teach them to be ashamed of what we
+please, as soon as we can perceive them to be any ways affected with
+the passion itself: but as the fear of shame is very insignificant,
+where there is but little pride, so it is impossible to augment the
+first, without increasing the latter in the same proportion.
+
+Hor. I should have thought that this increase of pride would render
+children more stubborn and less docile.
+
+Cleo. You judge right; it would so, and must have been a great
+hinderance to good manners, till experience taught men, that though
+pride was not to be destroyed by force, it might be governed by
+stratagem, and that the best way to manage it, is by playing the
+passion against itself. Hence it is, that in an artful education,
+we are allowed to place as much pride as we please in our dexterity
+of concealing it. I do not suppose, that this covering ourselves,
+notwithstanding the pride we take in it, is performed without a
+difficulty that is plainly felt, and perhaps very unpleasant at first;
+but this wears off as we grow up; and when a man has behaved himself
+with so much prudence as I have described, lived up to the strictest
+rules of good-breeding for many years, and has gained the esteem
+of all that know him, when this noble and polite manner is become
+habitual to him, it is possible he may in time forget the principle
+he set out with, and become ignorant, or at least insensible of the
+hidden spring that gives life and motion to all his actions.
+
+Hor. I am convinced of the great use that may be made of pride, if
+you will call it so; but I am not satisfied yet, how a man of so much
+sense, knowledge, and penetration, one that understands himself so
+entirely well, should be ignorant of his own heart, and the motives
+he acts from. What is it that induces you to believe this, besides
+the possibility of his forgetfulness?
+
+Cleo. I have two reasons for it, which I desire may be seriously
+considered. The first is, that in what relates to ourselves, especially
+our own worth and excellency, pride blinds the understanding in men of
+sense and great parts as well as in others, and the greater value we
+may reasonably set upon ourselves, the fitter we are to swallow the
+grossest flatteries, in spite of all our knowledge and abilities in
+other matters: witness Alexander the Great, whose vast genius could not
+hinder him from doubting seriously, whether he was a god or not. My
+second reason will prove to us, that if the person in question was
+capable of examining himself, it is yet highly improbable, that he
+would ever set about it: for, it must be granted, that, in order to
+search into ourselves, it is required we should be willing as well as
+able; and we have all the reason in the world to think, that there
+is nothing which a very proud man of such high qualifications would
+avoid more carefully than such an inquiry: because, for all other acts
+of self-denial, he is repaid in his darling passion; but this alone is
+really mortifying, and the only sacrifice of his quiet for which he can
+have no equivalent. If the hearts of the best and sincerest men are
+corrupt and deceitful, what condition must theirs be in, whose whole
+life is one continued scene of hypocrisy! therefore inquiring within,
+and boldly searching into ones own bosom, must be the most shocking
+employment, that a man can give his mind to, whose greatest pleasure
+consists in secretly admiring himself. It would be ill manners,
+after this, to appeal to yourself; but the severity of the task----
+
+Hor. Say no more, I yield this point, though I own I cannot conceive
+what advantage you can expect from it: for, instead of removing, it
+will rather help to increase the grand difficulty, which is to prove,
+that this complete person you have described, acts from a vicious
+motive: and if that be not your design, I cannot see what you drive at.
+
+Cleo. I told you it was.
+
+Hor. You must have a prodigious sagacity in detecting abstruse matters
+before other men.
+
+Cleo. You wonder, I know, which way I arrogate to myself such a
+superlative degree of penetration, as to know an artful cunning man
+better than he does himself, and how I dare pretend to enter and look
+into a heart, which I have owned to be completely well concealed
+from all the world; which in strictness is an impossibility, and
+consequently not to be bragged of but by a coxcomb.
+
+Hor. You may treat yourself as you please, I have said no such thing;
+but I own that I long to see it proved, that you have this capacity. I
+remember the character very well: Notwithstanding the precautions
+you have taken, it is very full: I told you before, that where things
+have a handsome appearance every way, there can be no just cause to
+suspect them. I will stick close to that; your gentleman is all of a
+piece: You shall alter nothing, either by retracting any of the good
+qualities you have given him, or making additions that are either
+clashing with, or unsuitable to what you have allowed already.
+
+Cleo. I shall attempt neither: And without that decisive trials may
+be made, by which it will plainly appear whether a person acts from
+inward goodness, and a principle of religion, or only from a motive
+of vain glory; and, in the latter case, there is an infallible way of
+dragging the lurking fiend from his darkest recesses into a glaring
+light, where all the world shall know him.
+
+Hor. I do not think myself a match for you in argument; but I have
+a great mind to be your gentleman's advocate against all your
+infallibility: I never liked a cause better in my life. Come, I
+undertake to defend him in all the suppositions you can make that
+are reasonable and consistent with what you have said before.
+
+Cleo. Very well: let us suppose what may happen to the most
+inoffensive, the most prudent, and best-bred man; that our fine
+gentleman differs in opinion before company, with another, who is his
+equal in birth and quality, but not so much master over his outward
+behaviour, and less guarded in his conduct; let this adversary, mal
+á propos, grow warm, and seem to be wanting in the respect that is
+due to the other, and reflect on his honour in ambiguous terms. What
+is your client to do?
+
+Hor. Immediately to ask for an explanation.
+
+Cleo. Which, if the hot man disregards with scorn, or flatly refuses
+to give, satisfaction must be demanded, and tilt they must.
+
+Hor. You are too hasty: it happened before company; in such cases,
+friends, or any gentlemen present, should interpose and take care,
+that if threatening words ensue, they are, by the civil authority, both
+put under arrest; and before they came to uncourteous language, they
+ought to have been parted by friendly force, if it were possible. After
+that, overtures may be made of reconciliation with the nicest regard
+to the point of honour.
+
+Cleo. I do not ask for directions to prevent a quarrel; what you say
+may be done, or it may not be done: The good offices of friends may
+succeed, and they may not succeed. I am to make what suppositions I
+think fit within the verge of possibility, so they are reasonable and
+consistent with the character I have drawn: can we not suppose these
+two persons in such a situation that you yourself would advise your
+friend to send his adversary a challenge?
+
+Hor. Without doubt such a thing may happen.
+
+Cleo. That is enough. After that a duel must ensue, in which,
+without determining any thing, the fine gentleman, we will say,
+behaves himself with the utmost gallantry.
+
+Hor. To have suspected or supposed otherwise would have been
+unreasonable.
+
+Cleo. You see, therefore, how fair I am. But what is it, pray, that
+so suddenly disposes a courteous sweet-tempered man, for so small an
+evil, to seek a remedy of that extreme violence? But above all, what
+is it that buoys up and supports him against the fear of death? for
+there lies the greatest difficulty.
+
+Hor. His natural courage and intrepidity, built on the innocence of
+his life, and the rectitude of his manners.
+
+Cleo. But what makes so just and prudent a man, that has the good
+of society so much at heart, act knowingly against the laws of his
+country?
+
+Hor. The strict obedience he pays to the laws of honour, which are
+superior to all others.
+
+Cleo. If men of honour would act confidently, they ought all to be
+Roman Catholics.
+
+Hor. Why, pray?
+
+Cleo. Because they prefer oral tradition to all written laws: for
+nobody can tell when, in what king's or emperor's reign, in what
+country, or by what authority these laws of honour were first enacted:
+it is very strange they should be of such force.
+
+Hor. They are wrote and engraved in every ones breast that is a man of
+honour: there is no denying of it; you are conscious of it yourself;
+every body feels it within.
+
+Cleo. Let them be wrote or engraved wherever you please, they are
+directly opposite to and clashing with the laws of God; and if the
+gentleman I described was as sincere in his religion as he appeared to
+be, he must have been of an opinion contrary to yours; for Christians
+of all persuasions are unanimous in allowing the divine laws to
+be far above all other; and that all other considerations ought to
+give way to them. How, and under what pretence can a Christian, who
+is a man of sense, submit or agree to laws that prescribe revenge,
+and countenance murder; both which are so expressly forbid by the
+precepts of his religion?
+
+Hor. I am no casuist: but you know, that what I say is true; and that,
+among persons of honour, a man would be laughed at, that should make
+such a scruple. Not but that I think killing a man to be a great sin,
+where it can be helped; and that all prudent men ought to avoid the
+occasion, as much as it is in their power. He is highly blameable who
+is the first aggressor, and gives the affront; and whoever enters upon
+it out of levity, or seeks a quarrel out of wantonness, ought to be
+hanged. Nobody would choose it, who is not a fool; and yet, when it
+is forced upon one, all the wisdom in the world cannot teach him how
+to avoid it. It has been my case you know: I shall never forget the
+reluctancy I had against it; but necessity has no law.
+
+Cleo. I saw you that very morning, and you seemed to be sedate and
+void of passion: you could have no concern.
+
+Hor. It is silly to show any at such times; but I know best what I
+felt; the struggle I had within was unspeakable: it is a terrible
+thing. I would then have given a considerable part of my estate,
+that the thing which forced me into it had not happened; and yet,
+upon less provocation, I would act the same part again to-morrow.
+
+Cleo. Do you remember what your concern was chiefly about?
+
+Hor. How can you ask? It is an affair of the highest importance that
+can occur in life; I was no boy; it was after we came from Italy;
+I was in my nine and twentieth year, had very good acquaintance,
+and was not ill received: a man of that age, in health and vigour,
+who has seven thousand a-year, and the prospect of being a peer of
+England, has no reason to quarrel with the world, or wish himself out
+of it. It is a very great hazard a man runs in a duel; besides the
+remorse and uneasiness one must feel as long as he lives, if he has the
+misfortune of killing his adversary. It is impossible to reflect on
+all these things, and at the same time resolve to run those hazards
+(though there are other considerations of still greater moment),
+without being under a prodigious concern.
+
+Cleo. You say nothing about the sin.
+
+Hor. The thoughts of that, without doubt, are a great addition; but
+the other things are so weighty of themselves, that a man's condition
+at such a time, is very perplexed without further reflection.
+
+Cleo. You have now a very fine opportunity, Horatio, of looking into
+your heart, and with a little of my assistance, examining yourself. If
+you can condescend to this, I promise you that you shall make great
+discoveries, and be convinced of truths you are now unwilling to
+believe. A lover of justice and probity, as you are, ought not to be
+fond of a road of thinking, where he is always forced to skulk, and
+never dares to meet with light or reason. Will you suffer me to ask you
+some questions, and will you answer them directly and in good humour?
+
+Hor. I will, without reserve.
+
+Cleo. Do you remember the storm upon the coast of Genoa?
+
+Hor. Going to Naples? Very well; it makes me cold to think of it.
+
+Cleo. Was you afraid?
+
+Hor. Never more in my life: I hate that fickle element; I cannot
+endure the sea.
+
+Cleo. What was you afraid of?
+
+Hor. That is a pretty question: do you think a young fellow of
+six-and-twenty, as I was then, and in my circumstances, had a great
+mind to be drowned? The captain himself said we were in danger.
+
+Cleo. But neither he nor any body else discovered half so much fear
+and anxiety as you did.
+
+Hor. There was nobody there, yourself excepted, that had half a
+quarter so much to lose as I had: besides, they are used to the sea;
+storms are familiar to them. I had never been at sea before, but that
+fine afternoon we crossed from Dover to Calais.
+
+Cleo. Want of knowledge or experience may make men apprehend danger
+where there is none; but real dangers, when they are known to be such,
+try the natural courage of all men; whether they have been used to them
+or not: sailors are as unwilling to lose their lives as other people.
+
+Hor. I am not ashamed to own, that I am a great coward at sea: give
+me terra firma, and then--
+
+Cleo. Six or seven months after you fought that duel, I remember you
+had the small-pox; you was then very much afraid of dying.
+
+Hor. Not without a cause.
+
+Cleo. I heard your physicians say, that the violent apprehension
+you was under, hindered your sleep, increased your fever, and was as
+mischievous to you as the distemper itself.
+
+Hor. That was a terrible time; I am glad it is over: I had a sister
+died of it. Before I had it, I was in perpetual dread of it, and many
+times to hear it named only has made me uneasy.
+
+Cleo. Natural courage is a general armour against the fear of death,
+whatever shape that appears in, Si fractus illabatur erbis. It supports
+a man in tempestuous seas, and in a burning fever, whilst he is in his
+senses, as well as in a siege before a town, or in a duel with seconds.
+
+Hor. What! you are going to show me, that I have no courage.
+
+Cleo. Far from it; it would be ridiculous to doubt a man's bravery,
+that has shown it in such an extraordinary manner as you have done
+more than once: what I question, is the epithet you joined to it at
+first, the word natural; for there is a great difference between that
+and artificial courage.
+
+Hor. That is a chicane I will not enter into: but I am not of your
+opinion, as to what you said before. A gentleman is not required to
+show his bravery, but where his honour is concerned; and if he dares
+to fight for his king, his friend, his mistress, and every thing where
+his reputation is engaged, you shall think of him what you please
+for the rest. Besides, that in sickness and other dangers, as well
+as afflictions, where the hand of God is plainly to be seen, courage
+and intrepidity are impious as well as impertinent. Undauntedness in
+chastisements is a kind of rebellion: it is waging war with Heaven,
+which none but atheists and freethinkers would be guilty of; it is only
+they that can glory in impenitence, and talk of dying hard. All others
+that have any sense of religion, desire to repent before they go out of
+the world: the best of us do not always live, as we could wish to die.
+
+Cleo. I am very glad to hear you are so religious: but do not you
+perceive yet, how inconsistent you are with yourself: how can a man
+sincerely wish to repent, that wilfully plunges himself into a mortal
+sin, and an action where he runs a greater and more immediate hazard
+of his life, than he could have done in almost any other, without
+force or necessity?
+
+Hor. I have over and over owned to you that duelling is a sin; and,
+unless a man is forced to it by necessity, I believe, a mortal one:
+but this was not my case, and therefore I hope God will forgive me:
+let them look to it that make a sport of it. But when a man comes to
+an action with the utmost reluctancy, and what he does is not possibly
+to be avoided, I think he then may justly be said to be forced to it,
+and to act from necessity. You may blame the rigorous laws of honour,
+and the tyranny of custom, but a man that will live in the world must,
+and is bound to obey them. Would not you do it yourself?
+
+Cleo. Do not ask me what I would do: the question is, what every
+body ought to do. Can a man believe the Bible, and at the same time
+apprehend a tyrant more crafty or malicious, more unrelenting or
+inhuman than the devil, or a mischief worse than hell, and pains
+either more exquisite or more durable than torments unspeakable
+and yet everlasting? You do not answer. What evil is it? Think of
+it, and tell me what dismal thing it is you apprehend, should you
+neglect these laws, and despise that tyrant: what calamity could
+befall you? Let me know the worst that can be feared.
+
+Hor. Would you be posted for a coward?
+
+Cleo. For what? For not daring to violate all human and divine laws?
+
+Hor. Strictly speaking you are in the right, it is unanswerable;
+but who will consider things in that light?
+
+Cleo. All good Christians.
+
+Hor. Where are they then? For all mankind in general would despise
+and laugh at a man, who should move those scruples. I have heard and
+seen clergymen themselves in company show their contempt of poltrons,
+whatever they might talk or recommend in the pulpit. Entirely to quit
+the world, and at once to renounce the conversation of all persons
+that are valuable in it, is a terrible thing to resolve upon. Would
+you become a town and table-talk? Could you submit to be the jest
+and scorn of public-houses, stage-coaches, and market-places? Is
+not this the certain fate of a man, who should refuse to fight, or
+bear an affront without resentment? be just, Cleomenes; is it to be
+avoided? Must he not be made a common laughing-stock, be pointed at in
+the streets, and serve for diversion to the very children; to link-boys
+and hackney-coachmen? Is it a thought to be born with patience?
+
+Cleo. How come you now to have such an anxious regard for what may be
+the opinion of the vulgar, whom at other times you so heartily despise?
+
+Hor. All this is reasoning, and you know the thing will not bear it:
+how can you be so cruel?
+
+Cleo. How can you be so backward in discovering and owning the passion,
+that is so conspicuously the occasion of all this, the palpable and
+only cause of the uneasiness we feel at the thoughts of being despised?
+
+Hor. I am not sensible of any; and I declare to you, that I feel
+nothing that moves me to speak as I do, but the sense and principle
+of honour within me.
+
+Cleo. Do you think that the lowest of the mob, and the scum of the
+people, are possessed of any part of this principle?
+
+Hor. No, indeed.
+
+Cleo. Or that among the highest quality, infants can be affected with
+it before they are two years old?
+
+Hor. Ridiculous.
+
+Cleo. If neither of these are affected with it, then honour should be
+either adventitious, and acquired by culture; or, if contained in the
+blood of those that are nobly born, imperceptible until the years
+of discretion; and neither of them can be said of the principle,
+the palpable cause I speak of. For we plainly see on the one hand,
+that scorn and ridicule are intolerable to the poorest wretches,
+and that there is no beggar so mean or miserable, that contempt will
+never offend him: on the other, that human creatures are so early
+influenced by the sense of shame; that children, by being laughed at
+and made a jest of, may be set a crying before they can well speak
+or go. Whatever, therefore, this mighty principle is, it is born with
+us, and belongs to our nature: are you unacquainted with the proper,
+genuine, homely name of it?
+
+Hor. I know you call it pride. I will not dispute with you about
+principles and origins of things; but that high value which men
+of honour set upon themselves as such, and which is no more than
+what is due to the dignity of our nature, when well cultivated,
+is the foundation of their character, and a support to them in
+all difficulties, that is of great use to the society. The desire,
+likewise, of being thought well of, and the love of praise and even of
+glory are commendable qualities, that are beneficial to the public. The
+truth of this is manifest in the reverse; all shameless people that are
+below infamy, and matter not what is said or thought of them, these,
+we see nobody can trust; they stick at nothing, and if they can but
+avoid death, pain, and penal laws, are always ready to execute all
+manner of mischief, their selfishness or any brutal appetite shall
+prompt them to, without regard to the opinion of others: such are
+justly called men of no principles, because they have nothing of any
+strength within, that can either spur them on to brave and virtuous
+actions, or restrain them from villany and baseness.
+
+Cleo. The first part of your assertion is very true, when that high
+value, that desire, and that love are kept within the bounds of reason:
+But, in the second, there is a mistake; those whom we call shameless,
+are not more destitute of pride, than their betters. Remember what I
+have said of education, and the power of it; you may add inclinations,
+knowledge, and circumstances; for, as men differ in all these, so they
+are differently influenced and wrought upon by all the passions. There
+is nothing that some men may not be taught to be ashamed of. The same
+passion that makes the well-bred man, and prudent officer, value and
+secretly admire themselves for the honour and fidelity they display,
+may make the rake and scoundrel brag of their vices, and boast of
+their impudence.
+
+Hor. I cannot comprehend, how a man of honour, and one that has none,
+should both act from the same principle.
+
+Cleo. This is not more strange, than that self-love may make a man
+destroy himself, yet nothing is more true; and it is as certain, that
+some men indulge their pride in being shameless. To understand human
+nature, requires study and application, as well as penetration and
+sagacity. All passions and instincts in general, were given to all
+animals for some wise end, tending to the preservation and happiness
+of themselves, or their species: It is our duty to hinder them from
+being detrimental or offensive to any part of the society; but why
+should we be ashamed of having them? The instinct of high value,
+which every individual has for himself, is a very useful passion:
+but a passion it is, and though I could demonstrate, that we should
+be miserable creatures without it, yet, when it is excessive, it
+often is the cause of endless mischiefs.
+
+Hor. But in well-bred people it never is excessive.
+
+Cleo. You mean the excess of it never appears outwardly: But we ought
+never to judge of its height or strength from what we can discover
+of the passion itself, but from the effects it produces: It often is
+most superlative, where it is most concealed; and nothing increases
+and influences it more, than what is called a refined education, and a
+continual commerce with the beau monde: The only thing that can subdue,
+or any ways curb it, is a strict adherence to the Christian religion.
+
+Hor. Why do you so much insist upon it, that this principle, this
+value men set upon themselves, is a passion? And why will you choose
+to call it pride rather than honour?
+
+Cleo. For very good reasons. Fixing this principle in human nature,
+in the first place, takes away all ambiguity: Who is a man of honour,
+and who is not, is often a disputable point; and, among those
+that are allowed to be such, the several degrees of strictness,
+in complying with the rules of it, make great difference in the
+principle itself. But a passion that is born with us is unalterable,
+and part of our frame, whether it exerts itself or not: The essence
+of it is the same, which way soever it is taught to turn. Honour
+is the undoubted offspring of pride, but the same cause produces
+not always the same effect. All the vulgar, children, savages, and
+many others that are not affected with any sense of honour, have all
+of them pride, as is evident from the symptoms. Secondly, it helps
+us to explain the phenomena that occur in quarrels and affronts,
+and the behaviour of men of honour on these occasions, which cannot
+be accounted for any other way. But what moves me to it most of all,
+is the prodigious force and exorbitant power of this principle of self
+esteem, where it has been long gratified and encouraged. You remember
+the concern you was under, when you had that duel upon your hands,
+and the great reluctancy you felt in doing what you did; you knew it
+to be a crime, and, at the same time, had a strong aversion to it;
+what secret power was it that subdued your will, and gained the victory
+over that great reluctancy you felt against it? You call it honour,
+and the too strict, though unavoidable adherence to the rules of it:
+But men never commit violence upon themselves, but in struggling with
+the passions that are innate and natural to them. Honour is acquired,
+and the rules of it are taught: Nothing adventitious, that some are
+possessed, and others destitute of, could raise such intestine wars
+and dire commotions within us; and therefore, whatever is the cause
+that can thus divide us against ourselves, and, as it were, rend human
+nature in twain, must be part of us; and, to speak without disguise,
+the struggle in your breast was between the fear of shame and the fear
+of death: had this latter not been so considerable, your struggle would
+have been less: Still the first conquered, because it was strongest;
+but if your fear of shame had been inferior to that of death, you
+would have reasoned otherwise, and found out some means or other to
+have avoided fighting.
+
+Hor. This is a strange anatomy of human nature.
+
+Cleo. Yet, for want of making use of it, the subject we are upon is not
+rightly understood by many; and men have discoursed very inconsistently
+on duelling. A divine who wrote a dialogue to explode that practice,
+said, that those who were guilty of it, had mistaken notions of, and
+went by false rules of honour; for which my friend justly ridiculed
+him, saying, You may as well deny, that it is the fashion what you see
+every body wear, as to say, that demanding and giving satisfaction,
+is against the laws of true honour. Had that man understood human
+nature, he could not have committed such a blunder: But when once he
+took it for granted, that honour is a just and good principle, without
+inquiring into the cause of it among the passions, it is impossible
+he should have accounted for duelling, in a Christian pretending to
+act from such a principle; and therefore, in another place, with the
+same justice, he said, that a man who had accepted a challenge was
+not qualified to make his will, because he was not compos mentis: He
+might, with greater show of reason, have said, that he was bewitched.
+
+Hor. Why so?
+
+Cleo. Because people out of their wits, as they think at random,
+so commonly they act and talk incoherently; but when a man of known
+sobriety, and who shows no manner of discomposure, discourses and
+behaves himself in every thing, as he is used to do; and, moreover,
+reasons on points of great nicety with the utmost accuracy, it is
+impossible we should take him to be either a fool or a madman; and
+when such a person, in an affair of the highest importance, acts so
+diametrically against his interest, that a child can see it, and with
+deliberation pursues his own destruction, those who believe that there
+are malignant spirits of that power, would rather imagine that he was
+led away by some enchantment, and over-ruled by the enemy of mankind,
+than they would fancy a palpable absurdity: But even the supposition
+of that is not sufficient to solve the difficulty, without the help of
+that strange anatomy. For what spell or witchcraft is there, by the
+delusion of which a man of understanding shall, keeping his senses,
+mistake an imaginary duty for an unavoidable necessity to break all
+real obligations? But let us wave all ties of religion, as well as
+human laws, and the person we speak of to be a professed Epicure,
+that has no thoughts of futurity; what violent power of darkness
+is it, that can force and compel a peaceable quiet man, neither
+inured to hardship, nor valiant by nature, to quit his beloved ease
+and security; and seemingly by choice go fight in cold blood for his
+life, with this comfortable reflection, that nothing forfeits it so
+certainly as the entire defeat of his enemy?
+
+Hor. As to the law and the punishment, persons of quality have little
+to fear of that.
+
+Cleo. You cannot say that in France, nor the Seven Provinces. But
+men of honour, that are of much lower ranks, decline duelling no
+more than those of the highest quality. How many examples have we,
+even here, of gallant men, that have suffered for it either by exile
+or the hangman! A man of honour must fear nothing: Do but consider
+every obstacle which this principle of self-esteem has conquered at
+one time or other; and then tell me whether it must not be something
+more than magic, by the fascination of which a man of taste and
+judgment, in health and vigour, as well as the flower of his age, can
+be tempted, and actually drawn from the embraces of a wife he loves,
+and the endearments of hopeful children, from polite conversation
+and the charms of friendship, from the fairest possessions and the
+happy enjoyment of all worldly pleasures, to an unwarrantable combat,
+of which the victor must be exposed either to an ignominious death,
+or perpetual banishment.
+
+Hor. When things are set in this light, I confess it is very
+unaccountable: but will your system explain this; can you make it
+clear yourself?
+
+Cleo. Immediately, as the sun: If you will but observe two things,
+that must necessarily follow, and are manifest from what I have
+demonstrated already. The first is, that the fear of shame, in general,
+is a matter of caprice, that varies with modes and customs, and may be
+fixed on different objects, according to the different lessons we have
+received, and the precepts we are imbued with; and that this is the
+reason, why this fear of shame, as it is either well or ill placed,
+sometimes produces very good effects, and at others is the cause
+of the most enormous crimes. Secondly, that, though shame is a real
+passion, the evil to be feared from it is altogether imaginary, and
+has no existence but in our own reflection on the opinion of others.
+
+Hor. But there are real and substantial mischiefs which a man may
+draw upon himself, by misbehaving in point of honour; it may ruin
+his fortune, and all hopes of preferment: An officer may be broken
+for putting up an affront: Nobody will serve with a coward, and who
+will employ him?
+
+Cleo. What you urge is altogether out of the question; at least it
+was in your own case; you had nothing to dread or apprehend but the
+bare opinion of men. Besides, when the fear of shame is superior to
+that of death, it is likewise superior to, and outweighs all other
+considerations; as has been sufficiently proved: But when the fear
+of shame is not violent enough to curb the fear of death, nothing
+else can; and whenever the fear of death is stronger than that of
+shame, there is no consideration that will make a man fight in cold
+blood, or comply with any of the laws of honour, where life is at
+stake. Therefore, whoever acts from the fear of shame as a motive,
+in sending and accepting of challenges, must be sensible, on the one
+hand, that the mischiefs he apprehends, should he disobey the tyrant,
+can only be the offspring of his own thoughts; and, on the other,
+that if he could be persuaded anywise to lessen the great esteem and
+high value he sets upon himself, his dread of shame would likewise
+palpably diminish. From all which, it is most evident, that the grand
+cause of this distraction, the powerful enchanter we are seeking after,
+is pride, excess of pride, that highest pitch of self-esteem, to which
+some men may be wound up by an artful education, and the perpetual
+flatteries bestowed upon our species, and the excellencies of our
+nature. This is the sorcerer, that is able to divert all other passions
+from their natural objects, and make a rational creature ashamed
+of what is most agreeable to his inclination, as well as his duty;
+both which the duellist owns, that he has knowingly acted against.
+
+Hor. What a wonderful machine, what an heterogenous compound is
+man! You have almost conquered me.
+
+Cleo. I aim at no victory, all I wish for is to do you service,
+in undeceiving you.
+
+Hor. What is the reason that, in the same person, the fear of death
+should be so glaringly conspicuous in sickness, or a storm, and so
+entirely well hid in a duel, and all military engagements? Pray,
+solve that too.
+
+Cleo. I will as well as I can: On all emergencies, where reputation
+is thought to be concerned, the fear of shame is effectually roused
+in men of honour, and immediately their pride rushes in to their
+assistance, and summons all their strength to fortify and support them
+in concealing the fear of death; by which extraordinary efforts, the
+latter, that is the fear of death, is altogether stifled, or, at least,
+kept out of sight, and remains undiscovered. But in all other perils,
+in which they do not think their honour engaged, their pride lies
+dormant. And thus the fear of death, being checked by nothing, appears
+without disguise. That this is the true reason, is manifest from the
+different behaviour that is observed in men of honour, according as
+they are either pretenders to Christianity; or tainted with irreligion;
+for there are of both sorts; and you shall see, most commonly at least,
+that your esprits forts, and those who would be thought to disbelieve
+a future state (I speak of men of honour), show the greatest calmness
+and intrepidity in the same dangers, where the pretended believers
+among them, appear to be the most ruffled and pusillanimous.
+
+Hor. But why pretended believers? at that rate there are no Christians
+among the men of honour.
+
+Cleo. I do not see how they can be real believers.
+
+Hor. Why so?
+
+Cleo. For the same reason that a Roman Catholic cannot be a good
+subject, always to be depended upon, in a Protestant, or indeed any
+other country, but the dominions of his Holiness. No sovereign can
+confide with safety in a man's allegiance, who owns and pays homage
+to another superior power upon earth. I am sure you understand me.
+
+Hor. Too well.
+
+Cleo. You may yoke a knight with a prebendary, and put them together
+into the same stall; but honour, and the Christian religion, make no
+couple, nec in unâ sede morantur, any more than majesty and love. Look
+back on your own conduct, and you shall find, that what you said of the
+hand of God was only a shift, an evasion you made to serve your then
+present purpose. On another occasion, you had said yesterday yourself,
+that Providence superintends and governs every thing without exception;
+you must, therefore, have known, that the hand of God is as much
+to be seen in one common accident in life, and in one misfortune,
+as it is in another, that is not more extraordinary. A severe fit
+of sickness may be less fatal, than a slight skirmish between two
+hostile parties; and, among men of honour, there is often as much
+danger in a quarrel about nothing, as there can be in the most
+violent storm. It is impossible, therefore, that a man of sense,
+who has a solid principle to go by, should, in one sort of danger,
+think it impiety not to show fear, and in another be ashamed to be
+thought to have any. Do but consider your own inconsistency with
+yourself. At one time, to justify your fear of death, when pride is
+absent, you become religious on a sudden, and your conscience then is
+so tenderly scrupulous, that, to be undaunted under chastisements from
+the Almighty, seems no less to you than waging war with Heaven; and,
+at another, when honour calls, you dare not knowingly and willingly
+break the most positive command of God, but likewise to own, that the
+greatest calamity which, in your opinion, can befal you, is, that the
+world should believe, or but suspect of you, that you had any scruple
+about it. I defy the wit of man to carry the affront to the Divine
+Majesty higher. Barely to deny his being, is not half so daring,
+as it is to do this after you have owned him to exist. No Atheism----
+
+Hor. Hold, Cleomenes; I can no longer resist the force of truth, and
+I am resolved to be better acquainted with myself for the future. Let
+me become your pupil.
+
+Cleo. Do not banter me, Horatio; I do not pretend to instruct a
+man of your knowledge; but if you will take my advice, search into
+yourself with care and boldness, and, at your leisure, peruse the
+book I recommended.
+
+Hor. I promise you I will, and shall be glad to accept of the handsome
+present I refused: Pray, send a servant with it to-morrow morning.
+
+Cleo. It is a trifle. You had better let one of yours go with me now;
+I shall drive home directly.
+
+Hor. I understand your scruple. It shall be as you please.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE THIRD
+                            DIALOGUE
+                            BETWEEN
+                     HORATIO AND CLEOMENES.
+
+
+HORATIO.
+
+I thank you for your book.
+
+Cleo. Your acceptance of it I acknowledge as a great favour.
+
+Hor. I confess, that once I thought nobody could have persuaded me
+to read it; but you managed me very skilfully, and nothing could
+have convinced me so well as the instance of duelling: The argument,
+à majori ad minus, struck me, without your mentioning it. A passion
+that can subdue the fear of death, may blind a man's understanding,
+and do almost every thing else.
+
+Cleo. It is incredible what strange, various, unaccountable, and
+contradictory forms we may be shaped into by a passion, that is not to
+be gratified without being concealed, and never enjoyed with greater
+ecstacy than when we are most fully persuaded, that it is well hid:
+and therefore, there is no benevolence or good nature, no amiable
+quality or social virtue, that may not be counterfeited by it; and,
+in short, no achievement, good or bad, that the human body or mind are
+capable of, which it may not seem to perform. As to its blinding and
+infatuating the persons possessed with it to a high degree, there is
+no doubt of it: for what strength of reason, I pray, what judgment or
+penetration, has the greatest genius, if he pretends to any religion,
+to boast of, after he has owned himself to have been more terrified
+by groundless apprehensions, and an imaginary evil from vain impotent
+men, whom he has never injured, than he was alarmed with the just
+fears of a real punishment from an all-wise and omnipotent God,
+whom he has highly offended?
+
+Hor. But your friend makes no such religious reflections: he actually
+speaks in favour of duelling.
+
+Cleo. What, because he would have the laws against it as severe
+as possible, and nobody pardoned, without exception, that offends
+that way?
+
+Hor. That indeed seems to discourage it; but he shows the necessity
+of keeping up that custom, to polish and brighten society in general.
+
+Cleo. Do not you see the irony there?
+
+Hor. No, indeed: he plainly demonstrates the usefulness of it, gives
+as good reasons as it is possible to invent, and shows how much
+conversation would suffer, if that practice was abolished.
+
+Cleo. Can you think a man serious on a subject, when he leaves it in
+the manner he does?
+
+Hor. I do not remember that.
+
+Cleo. Here is the book: I will look for the passage----Pray, read this.
+
+Hor. It is strange, that a nation should grudge to see, perhaps,
+half a dozen men sacrificed in a twelvemonth, to obtain so valuable a
+blessing, as the politeness of manners, the pleasure of conversation,
+and the happiness of company in general, that is often so willing to
+expose, and sometimes loses as many thousands in a few hours, without
+knowing whether it will do any good or not. This, indeed, seems to
+be said with a sneer: but in what goes before he is very serious.
+
+Cleo. He is so, when he says that the practice of duelling, that is
+the keeping up of the fashion of it, contributes to the politeness
+of manners and pleasure of conversation, and this is very true; but
+that politeness itself, and that pleasure, are the things he laughs
+at and exposes throughout his book.
+
+Hor. But who knows, what to make of a man, who recommends a thing
+very seriously in one page, and ridicules it in the next?
+
+Cleo. It is his opinion, that there is no solid principle to go by but
+the Christian religion, and that few embrace it with sincerity: always
+look upon him in this view, and you will never find him inconsistent
+with himself. Whenever at first sight he seems to be so, look again,
+and upon nearer inquiry you will find, that he is only pointing at,
+or labouring to detect the inconsistency of others with the principles
+they pretend to.
+
+Hor. He seems to have nothing less at heart than religion.
+
+Cleo. That is true, and if he had appeared otherwise, he would never
+have been read by the people whom he designed his book for, the modern
+deists and all the beau monde: It is those he wants to come at. To
+the first he sets forth the origin and insufficiency of virtue, and
+their own insincerity in the practice of it: to the rest he shows
+the folly of vice and pleasure, the vanity of worldly greatness,
+and the hypocrisy of all those divines, who, pretending to preach
+the gospel, give and take allowances that are inconsistent with,
+and quite contrary to the precepts of it.
+
+Hor. But this is not the opinion the world has of the book; it is
+commonly imagined, that it is wrote for the encouragement of vice,
+and to debauch the nation.
+
+Cleo. Have you found any such thing in it?
+
+Hor. To speak my conscience, I must confess, I have not: vice is
+exposed in it, and laughed at; but it ridicules war and martial
+courage, as well as honour and every thing else.
+
+Cleo. Pardon me, religion is ridiculed in no part of it.
+
+Hor. But if it is a good book, why then are so many of the clergy so
+much against it as they are?
+
+Cleo. For the reason I have given you: my friend has exposed their
+lives, but he has done it in such a manner, that nobody can say he
+has wronged them, or treated them harshly. People are never more
+vexed, than when the thing that offends them, is what they must not
+complain of: they give the book an ill name because they are angry;
+but it is not their interest, to tell you the the true reason why
+they are so. I could draw you a parallel case that would clear up
+this matter, if you would have patience to hear me, which, as you
+are a great admirer of operas, I can hardly expect.
+
+Hor. Any thing to be informed.
+
+Cleo. I always had such an aversion to eunuchs, as no fine singing
+or acting of any of them has yet been able to conquer; when I hear a
+feminine voice, I look for a petticoat; and I perfectly loath the sight
+of those sexless animals. Suppose that a man with the same dislike
+to them had wit at will, and a mind to lash that abominable piece
+of luxury, by which men are taught in cold blood to spoil males for
+diversion, and out of wantonness to make waste of their own species. In
+order to this, we will say, he takes a handle from the operation
+itself; he describes and treats it in the most inoffensive manner; then
+shows the narrow bounds of human knowledge, and the small assistance
+we can have, either from dissection or philosophy, or any part of
+the mathematics, to trace and penetrate into the cause à priori, why
+this destroying of manhood should have that surprising effect upon the
+voice; and afterwards demonstrates, how sure we are à posteriori, that
+it has a considerable influence, not only on the pharinx, the glands
+and muscles of the throat, but likewise the windpipe, and the lungs
+themselves, and in short on the whole mass of blood, consequently all
+the juices of the body, and every fibre in it. He might say likewise,
+that no honey, no preparations of sugar, raisins, or spermaceti;
+no emulsions, lozenges or other medicines, cooling or balsamic; no
+bleeding, no temperance or choice in eatables; no abstinence from
+women, from wine, and every thing that is hot, sharp or spirituous,
+were of that efficacy to preserve, sweeten, and strengthen the voice;
+he might insist upon it, that nothing could do this so effectually as
+castration. For a blind to his main scope, and to amuse his readers,
+he might speak of this practice, as made use of for other purposes;
+that it had been inflicted as a solemn punishment for analogous crimes;
+that others had voluntarily submitted to it, to preserve health and
+prolong life; whilst the Romans, by Cæsar's testimony, thought it
+more cruel than death, morte gravius. How it had been used sometimes
+by way of revenge; and then say something in pity of poor Abelard;
+at other times for precaution; and then relate the story of Combabus
+and Stratonice: with scraps from Martial, Juvenal, and other poets, he
+might interlard it, and from a thousand pleasant things that have been
+said on the subject, he might pick out the most diverting to embellish
+the whole. His design being satire, he would blame our fondness for
+these castrati, and ridicule the age in which a brave English nobleman
+and a general officer, serves his country at the hazard of his life,
+a whole twelvemonth, for less pay than an Italian no-man of scoundrel
+extraction receives, for now and then singing a song in great safety,
+during only the winter-season. He would laugh at the caresses and
+the court that are made to them by persons of the first quality,
+who prostitute their familiarity with these most abject wretches,
+and misplace the honour and civilities only due to their equals,
+on things that are no part of the creation, and owe their being to
+the surgeon; animals so contemptible, that they can curse their maker
+without ingratitude. If he should call this book, the Eunuch is the
+Man; as soon as I heard the title, before I saw the book, I should
+understand by it, that eunuchs were now esteemed, that they were in
+fashion and in the public favour, and considering that a eunuch is
+in reality not a man, I should think it was a banter upon eunuchs,
+or a satire against those, who had a greater value for them than they
+deserved. But if the gentlemen of the academy of music, displeased at
+the freedom they were treated with, should take it ill, that a paultry
+scribbler should interfere and pretend to censure their diversion,
+as well as they might; if they should be very angry, and study to do
+him a mischief, and accordingly, not having much to say in behalf of
+eunuchs, not touch upon any thing the author had said against their
+pleasure, but represent him to the world as an advocate for castration,
+and endeavour to draw the public odium upon him by quotations taken
+from him proper for that purpose, it would not be difficult to raise
+a clamour against the author, or find a grand jury to present his book.
+
+Hor. The simile holds very well as to the injustice of the accusation,
+and the insincerity of the complaint; but is it as true, that luxury
+will render a nation flourishing, and that private vices are public
+benefits, as that castration preserves and strengthens the voice?
+
+Cleo. With the restrictions my friend requires, I believe it is, and
+the cases are exactly alike. Nothing is more effectual to preserve,
+mend, and strengthen a fine voice in youth than castration: the
+question is not, whether this is true, but whether it is eligible;
+whether a fine voice is an equivalent for the loss, and whether a man
+would prefer the satisfaction of singing, and the advantages that
+may accrue from it, to the comforts of marriage, and the pleasure
+of posterity, of which enjoyments it destroys the possibility. In
+like manner, my friend demonstrates, in the first place, that the
+national happiness which the generality wish and pray for, is wealth
+and power, glory and worldly greatness; to live in ease, in affluence
+and splendour at home, and to be feared, courted, and esteemed abroad:
+in the second, that such a felicity is not to be attained to without
+avarice, profuseness, pride, envy, ambition, and other vices. The
+latter being made evident beyond contradiction, the question is not,
+whether it is true, but whether this happiness is worth having at
+the rate it is only to be had at, and whether any thing ought to be
+wished for, which a nation cannot enjoy, unless the generality of
+them are vicious. This he offers to the consideration of Christians,
+and men who pretend to have renounced the world, with all the pomp
+and vanity of it.
+
+Hor. How does it appear that the author addresses himself to such?
+
+Cleo. From his writing it in English, and publishing it in London. But
+have you read it through yet?
+
+Hor. Twice: there are many things I like very well, but I am not
+pleased with the whole.
+
+Cleo. What objection have you against it?
+
+Hor. It has diminished the pleasure I had in reading a much better
+book. Lord Shaftsbury is my favourite author: I can take delight in
+enthusiasm; but the charms of it cease as soon as I am told what it
+is I enjoy. Since we are such odd creatures, why should we not make
+the most of it?
+
+Cleo. I thought you was resolved to be better acquainted with yourself,
+and to search into your heart with care and boldness.
+
+Hor. That is a cruel thing; I tried it three times since I saw you
+last, till it put me into a sweat, and then I was forced to leave off.
+
+Cleo. You should try again, and use yourself by degrees to think
+abstractly, and then the book will be a great help to you.
+
+Hor. To confound me it will: it makes a jest of all politeness and
+good manners.
+
+Cleo. Excuse me, Sir, it only tells us, what they are.
+
+Hor. It tells us, that all good manners consist in flattering the
+pride of others, and concealing our own. Is not that a horrid thing?
+
+Cleo. But is it not true?
+
+Hor. As soon as I had read that passage, it struck me: down I laid
+the book, and tried in above fifty instances, sometimes of civility,
+and sometimes of ill manners, whether it would answer or not, and I
+profess that it held good in every one.
+
+Cleo. And so it would if you tried till doomsday.
+
+Hor. But is not that provoking? I would give a hundred guineas with
+all my heart, that I did not know it. I cannot endure to see so much
+of my own nakedness.
+
+Cleo. I never met with such an open enmity to truth in a man of
+honour before.
+
+Hor. You shall be as severe upon me as you please; what I say is
+fact. But since I am got in so far, I must go through with it now:
+there are fifty things that I want to be informed about.
+
+Cleo. Name them, pray; if I can be of any service to you, I shall
+reckon it as a great honour; I am perfectly well acquainted with the
+author's sentiments.
+
+Hor. I have twenty questions to ask about pride, and I do not know
+where to begin. There is another thing I do not understand; which is,
+that there can be no virtue without self-denial.
+
+Cleo. This was the opinion of all the ancients. Lord Shaftsbury was
+the first that maintained the contrary.
+
+Hor. But are there no persons in the world that are good by choice?
+
+Cleo. Yes; but then they are directed in that choice by reason and
+experience, and not by nature, I mean, not by untaught nature: but
+there is an ambiguity in the word good which I would avoid; let us
+stick to that of virtuous, and then I affirm, that no action is such,
+which does not suppose and point at some conquest or other, some
+victory great or small over untaught nature; otherwise the epithet
+is improper.
+
+Hor. But if by the help of a careful education, this victory is
+obtained, when we are young, may we not be virtuous afterwards
+voluntarily and with pleasure?
+
+Cleo. Yes, if it really was obtained: but how shall we be sure of
+this, and what reason have we to believe that it ever was? when it is
+evident, that from our infancy, instead of endeavouring to conquer
+our appetites, we have always been taught, and have taken pains
+ourselves to conceal them; and we are conscious within, that whatever
+alterations have been made in our manners and our circumstances,
+the passions themselves always remained? The system that virtue
+requires to self-denial, is, as my friend has justly observed, a
+vast inlet to hypocrisy: it will, on all accounts, furnish men with
+a more obvious handle, and a greater opportunity of counterfeiting
+the love of society, and regard to the public, than ever they could
+have received from the contrary doctrine, viz. that there is no merit
+but in the conquest of the passions, nor any virtue without apparent
+self-denial. Let us ask those that have had long experience, and are
+well skilled in human affairs, whether they have found the generality
+of men such impartial judges of themselves, as never to think better of
+their own worth than it deserved, or so candid in the acknowledgment
+of their hidden faults and slips, they could never be convinced of,
+that there is no fear they should ever stifle or deny them. Where is
+the man that has at no time covered his failings, and screened himself
+with false appearances, or never pretended to act from principles of
+social virtue, and his regard to others, when he knew in his heart
+that his greatest care had been to oblige himself? The best of us
+sometimes receive applause without undeceiving those who give it;
+though, at the same time, we are conscious that the actions, for
+which we suffer ourselves to be thought well of, are the result of
+a powerful frailty in our nature, that has often been prejudicial to
+us, and which we have wished a thousand times in vain, that we could
+have conquered. The same motives may produce very different actions,
+as men differ in temper and circumstances. Persons of an easy fortune
+may appear virtuous, from the same turn of mind that would show their
+frailty if they were poor. I£ we would know the world, we must look
+into it. You take no delight in the occurrences of low life; but if
+we always remain among persons of quality, and extend our inquiries no
+farther, the transactions there will not furnish us with a sufficient
+knowledge of every thing that belongs to our nature. There are,
+among the middling people, men of low circumstances, tolerably well
+educated, that set out with the same stock of virtues and vices,
+and though equally qualified, meet with very different success;
+visibly owing to the difference in their temper. Let us take a view
+of two persons bred to the same business, that have nothing but their
+parts and the world before them, launching out with the same helps and
+disadvantages: let there be no difference between them, but in their
+temper; the one active, and the other indolent. The latter will never
+get an estate by his own industry, though his profession be gainful,
+and himself master of it. Chance, or some uncommon accident, may be
+the occasion of great alterations in him, but without that he will
+hardly ever raise himself to mediocrity. Unless his pride affects him
+in an extraordinary manner, he must always be poor, and nothing but
+some share of vanity can hinder him from being despicably so. If he
+be a man of sense, he will be strictly honest, and a middling stock
+of covetousness will never divert him from it. In the active stirring
+man, that is easily reconciled to the bustle of the world, we shall
+discover quite different symptoms, under the same circumstances;
+and a very little avarice will egg him on to pursue his aim with
+eagerness and assiduity: small scruples are no opposition to him;
+where sincerity will not serve, he uses artifice; and in compassing
+his ends, the greatest use he will make of his good sense will be,
+to preserve as much as is possible, the appearance of honesty; when
+his interest obliges him to deviate from it. To get wealth, or even a
+livelihood by arts and sciences, it is not sufficient to understand
+them: it is a duty incumbent on all men, who have their maintenance
+to seek, to make known and forward themselves in the world, as far as
+decency allows of, without bragging of themselves, or doing prejudice
+to others: here the indolent man is very deficient and wanting to
+himself; but seldom will own his fault, and often blames the public for
+not making use of him, and encouraging that merit, which they never
+were acquainted with, and himself perhaps took pleasure to conceal;
+and though you convince him of his error, and that he has neglected
+even the most warrantable methods of soliciting employment, he will
+endeavour to colour over his frailty with the appearance of virtue;
+and what is altogether owing to his too easy temper, and an excessive
+fondness for the calmness of his mind, he will ascribe to his modesty
+and the great aversion he has to impudence and boasting. The man of a
+contrary temper trusts not to his merit only, or the setting it off
+to the best advantage; he takes pains to heighten it in the opinion
+of others, and make his abilities seem greater than he knows them to
+be. As it is counted folly for a man to proclaim his own excellencies,
+and speak magnificently of himself, so his chief business is to seek
+acquaintance, and make friends on purpose to do it for him: all other
+passions he sacrifices to his ambition; he laughs at disappointments,
+is inured to refusals, and no repulse dismays him: this renders the
+whole man always flexible to his interest; he can defraud his body of
+necessaries, and allow no tranquillity to his mind; and counterfeit,
+if it will serve his turn, temperance, chastity, compassion, and piety
+itself, without one grain of virtue or religion: his endeavours to
+advance his fortune per fas et nefas are always restless, and have
+no bounds, but where he is obliged to act openly, and has reason to
+fear the censure of the world. It is very diverting to see how, in the
+different persons I speak of, natural temper will warp and model the
+very passions to its own bias: pride, for example, has not the same,
+but almost a quite contrary effect on the one to what it has on the
+other: the stirring active man it makes in love with finery, clothes,
+furniture, equipages, building, and every thing his superiors enjoy:
+the other it renders sullen, and perhaps morose; and if he has wit,
+prone to satire, though he be otherwise a good-natured man. Self-love,
+in every individual, ever bestirs itself in soothing and flattering
+the darling inclination; always turning from us the dismal side of
+the prospect; and the indolent man in such circumstances, finding
+nothing pleasing without, turns his view inward upon himself; and
+there, looking on every thing with great indulgence, admires and
+takes delight in his own parts, whether natural or acquired: hence
+he is easily induced to despise all others who have not the same
+good qualifications, especially the powerful, and wealthy, whom yet
+he never hates or envies with any violence; because that would ruffle
+his temper. All things that are difficult he looks upon as impossible,
+which makes him despair of meliorating his condition; and as he has
+no possessions, and his gettings will but just maintain him in a low
+station of life, so his good sense, if he would enjoy so much as the
+appearance of happiness, must necessarily put him upon two things; to
+be frugal, and pretend to have no value for riches; for, by neglecting
+either, he must be blown up, and his frailty unavoidably discovered.
+
+Hor. I am pleased with your observations, and the knowledge you display
+of mankind; but pray, is not the frugality you now speak of a virtue?
+
+Cleo. I think not.
+
+Hor. Where there is but a small income, frugality is built upon reason;
+and in this case there is an apparent self-denial, without which an
+indolent man that has no value for money cannot be frugal; and we
+see indolent men, that have no regard for wealth, reduced to beggary,
+as it often happens, it is most commonly for want of this virtue.
+
+Cleo. I told you before, that the indolent man, setting out as he did,
+would be poor; and that nothing but some share of vanity could hinder
+him from being despicably so. A strong fear of shame may gain so much
+upon the indolence of a man of sense, that he will bestir himself
+sufficiently to escape contempt; but it will hardly make him do any
+more; therefore he embraces frugality, as being instrumental and
+assisting to him in procuring his summum bonum, the darling quiet
+of his easy mind; whereas, the active man, with the same share of
+vanity, would do any thing rather than submit to the same frugality,
+unless his avarice forced him to it. Frugality is no virtue, when it
+is imposed upon us by any of the passions, and the contempt of riches
+is seldom sincere. I have known men of plentiful estates, that, on
+account of posterity, or other warrantable views of employing their
+money, were saving, and more penurious, than they would have been,
+if their wealth had been greater: but I never yet found a frugal
+man, without avarice or necessity. And again, there are innumerable
+spendthrifts, lavish and extravagant to a high degree, who seem not to
+have the least regard to money, whilst they have any to fling away:
+but these wretches are the least capable of bearing poverty of any,
+and the money once gone, hourly discover how uneasy, impatient, and
+miserable they are without it. But what several in all ages have made
+pretence to, the contempt of riches, is more scarce than is commonly
+imagined. To see a man of a very good estate, in health and strength
+of body and mind, one that has no reason to complain of the world or
+fortune, actually despise both, and embrace a voluntary poverty, for a
+laudable purpose, is a great rarity. I know but one in all antiquity,
+to whom all this may be applied with strictness of truth.
+
+Hor. Who is that, pray?
+
+Cleo. Anaxagoras of Clazomene in Ionia: He was very rich, of noble
+extraction, and admired for his great capacity: he divided and gave
+away his estate among his relations, and refused to meddle with the
+administration of public affairs that was offered him, for no other
+reason, than that he might have leisure for contemplation of the
+works of nature, and the study of philosophy.
+
+Hor. To me it seems to be more difficult to be virtuous without money,
+than with: it is senseless for a man to be poor, when he can help it,
+and if I saw any body choose it, when he might as lawfully be rich,
+I would think him to be distracted.
+
+Cleo. But you would not think him so, if you saw him sell his estate,
+and give the money to the poor: you know where that was required.
+
+Hor. It is not required of us.
+
+Cleo. Perhaps not: but what say you to renouncing the world, and the
+solemn promise we have made of it?
+
+Hor. In a literal sense that is impossible, unless we go out of it;
+and therefore I do not think, that to renounce the world signifies
+any more, than not to comply with the vicious, wicked part of it.
+
+Cleo. I did not expect a more rigid construction from you, though it is
+certain, that wealth and power are great snares, and strong impediments
+to all Christian virtue: but the generality of mankind, that have any
+thing to lose, are of your opinion; and let us bar saints and madmen,
+we shall find every where, that those who pretend to undervalue,
+and are always haranguing against wealth, are generally poor and
+indolent. But who can blame them? They act in their own defence;
+nobody that could help it would ever be laughed at; for it must be
+owned, that of all the hardships of poverty, it is that which is the
+most intolerable.
+
+
+    Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se,
+    Quam quod ridiculos homines faciat.----
+
+
+In the very satisfaction that is enjoyed by those who excel in,
+or are possessed of things valuable, there is interwoven a spice of
+contempt for others, that are destitute of them, which nothing keeps
+from public view, but a mixture of pity and good manners. Whoever
+denies this, let them consult within, and examine whether it is not
+the same with happiness, as what Seneca says of the reverse, nemo
+est miser nisi comparatus. The contempt and ridicule I speak of,
+is, without doubt, what all men of sense and education endeavour to
+avoid or disappoint. Now, look upon the behaviour of the two contrary
+tempers before us, and mind how differently they set about this talk,
+every one suitably to his own inclination. The man of action, you see,
+leaves no stone unturned to acquire quod oportet habere: but this is
+impossible for the indolent; he cannot stir; his idol ties him down
+hand and foot; and, therefore, the easiest, and, indeed the only thing
+he has left, is to quarrel with the world, and find out arguments to
+depreciate what others value themselves upon.
+
+Hor. I now plainly see, how pride and good sense must put an indolent
+man, that is poor, upon frugality; and likewise the reason, why they
+will make him affect to be content, and seem pleased with his low
+condition: for, if he will not be frugal, want and misery are at the
+door: and if he shows any fondness for riches, or a more ample way
+of living, he loses the only plea he has for his darling frailty,
+and immediately he will be asked, why he does not exert himself in a
+better manner? and he will be continually told of the opportunities
+he neglects.
+
+Cleo. It is evident, then, that the true reasons, why men speak
+against things, are not always writ upon their foreheads.
+
+Hor. But after all this quiet easy temper, this indolence you talk of,
+is it not what, in plain English, we call laziness?
+
+Cleo. Not at all; it implies no sloth, or aversion to labour: an
+indolent man may be very diligent, though he cannot be industrious:
+he will take up with things below him, if they come in his way; he
+will work in a garret, or any where else, remote from public view,
+with patience and assiduity, but he knows not how to solicit and teaze
+others to employ him, or demand his due of a shuffling, designing
+master, that is either difficult of access, or tenacious of his money:
+if he be a man of letters, he will study hard for a livelihood, but
+generally parts with his labours at a disadvantage, and will knowingly
+sell them at an under-rate to an obscure man, who offers to purchase,
+rather than bear the insults of haughty booksellers, and be plagued
+with the sordid language of the trade. An indolent man may, by chance,
+meet with a person of quality, that takes a fancy to him; but he will
+never get a patron by his own address; neither will he ever be the
+better for it, when he has one, further than the unasked-for bounty,
+and downright generosity of his benefactor make him. As he speaks
+for himself with reluctancy, and is always afraid of asking favours,
+so, for benefits received, he shows no other gratitude, than what
+the natural emotions of his heart suggest to him. The striving,
+active man studies all the winning ways to ingratiate himself,
+and hunts after patrons with design and sagacity: whilst they are
+beneficial to him; he affects a perpetual sense of thankfulness;
+but all his acknowledgments of past obligations, he turns into
+solicitations for fresh favours: his complaisance may be engaging,
+and his flattery ingenious, but the heart is untouched: he has
+neither leisure, nor the power to love his benefactors: the eldest
+he has, he will always sacrifice to a new one; and he has no other
+esteem for the fortune, the greatness, or the credit of a patron,
+than as he can make them subservient either to raise or maintain
+his own. From all this, and a little attention on human affairs,
+we may easily perceive, in the first place, that the man of action,
+and an enterprising temper, in following the dictates of his nature,
+must meet with more rubs and obstacles infinitely, than the indolent,
+and a multitude of strong temptations, to deviate from the rules of
+strict virtue, which hardly ever come in the other's way; that, in many
+circumstances, he will be forced to commit such actions, for which,
+all his skill and prudence notwithstanding, he will, by some body or
+other, deservedly be thought to be an ill man; and that to end with
+a tolerable reputation, after a long course of life, he must have had
+a great deal of good fortune, as well as cunning. Secondly, that the
+indolent man may indulge his inclinations, and be as sensual as his
+circumstances may let him, with little offence or disturbance to his
+neighbour; that the excessive value he sets upon the tranquillity of
+his mind, and the grand aversion he has to part with it, must prove a
+strong curb to every passion, that comes uppermost; none of which, by
+this means, can ever affect him in any high degree, and consequently,
+that the corruption of his heart remaining, he may, with little art and
+no great trouble, acquire many valuable qualities, that shall have all
+the appearances of social virtues, whilst nothing extraordinary befals
+him. As to his contempt of the world, the indolent man perhaps will
+scorn to make his court, and cringe to a haughty favourite, that will
+browbeat him at first; but he will run with joy to a rich nobleman,
+that he is sure will receive him with kindness and humanity: With
+him he will partake, without reluctancy, of all the elegant comforts
+of life that are offered, the most expensive not excepted. Would you
+try him further, confer upon him honour and wealth in abundance. If
+this change in his fortune stirs up no vice that lay dormant before,
+as it may by rendering him either covetous or extravagant, he will
+soon conform himself to the fashionable world: Perhaps he will be a
+kind master, an indulgent father, a benevolent neighbour, munificent
+to merit that pleases him, a patron to virtue, and a wellwisher to
+his country; but for the rest, he will take all the pleasure he is
+capable of enjoying; stifle no passion he can calmly gratify, and,
+in the midst of a luxuriant plenty, laugh heartily at frugality,
+and the contempt of riches and greatness he professed in his poverty;
+and cheerfully own the futility of those pretences.
+
+Hor. I am convinced, that, in the opinion of virtue's requiring
+self-denial, there is greater certainty, and hypocrites have less
+latitude than in the contrary system.
+
+Cleo. Whoever follows his own inclinations, be they never so kind,
+beneficent, or human, never quarrel with any vice, but what is
+clashing with his temperament and nature; whereas those who act
+from a principle of virtue, take always reason for their guide,
+and combat, without exception, every passion that hinders them from
+their duty! The indolent man will never deny a just debt; but, if it
+be large, he will not give himself the trouble which, poor as he is,
+he might, and ought to take to discharge it, or, at least, satisfy
+his creditors, unless he is often dunned, or threatened to be sued
+for it. He will not be a litigious neighbour, nor make mischief among
+his acquaintance; but he will never serve his friend or his country,
+at the expence of his quiet. He will not be rapacious, oppress the
+poor, or commit vile actions for lucre; but then he will never exert
+himself, and be at the pains another would take on all opportunities,
+to maintain a large family, make provision for children, and promote
+his kindred and relations; and his darling frailty will incapacitate
+him from doing a thousand things for the benefit of the society, which,
+with the same parts and opportunities, he might, and would have done,
+had he been of another temper.
+
+Hor. Your observations are very curious, and, as far as I can judge
+from what I have seen myself, very just and natural.
+
+Cleo. Every body knows that there is no virtue so often counterfeited
+as charity, and yet so little regard have the generality of men to
+truth, that how gross and bare-faced soever the deceit is in pretences
+of this nature, the world never fails of being angry with, and
+hating those who detect or take notice of the fraud. It is possible,
+that, with blind fortune on his side, a mean shopkeeper, by driving
+a trade prejudicial to his country on the one hand, and grinding,
+on all occasions, the face of the poor on the other, may accumulate
+great wealth; which, in process of time, by continual scraping, and
+sordid saving, may be raised into an exorbitant, an unheard-of estate
+for a tradesman. Should such a one, when old and decrepit, lay out
+the greatest part of his immense riches in the building, or largely
+endowing an hospital, and I was thoroughly acquainted with his temper
+and manners, I could have no opinion of his virtue, though he parted
+with the money, whilst he was yet alive; more especially, if I was
+assured, that, in his last will, he had been highly unjust, and had
+not only left unrewarded several, whom he had great obligations to,
+but likewise defrauded others, to whom, in his conscience, he knew
+that he was, and would die actually indebted. I desire you to tell
+me what name, knowing all I have said to be true, you would give to
+this extraordinary gift, this mighty donation!
+
+Hor. I am of opinion, than when an action of our neighbour may admit
+of different constructions, it is our duty to side with, and embrace
+the most favourable.
+
+Cleo. The most favourable constructions with all my heart: But what is
+that to the purpose, when all the straining in the world cannot make
+it a good one? I do not mean the thing itself, but the principle it
+came from, the inward motive of the mind that put him upon performing
+it; for it is that which, in a free agent, I call the action: And,
+therefore, call it what you please, and judge as charitably of it as
+you can, what can you say of it?
+
+Hor. He might have had several motives, which I do not pretend to
+determine; but it is an admirable contrivance of being extremely
+beneficial to all posterity in this land, a noble provision that will
+perpetually relieve, and be an unspeakable comfort to a multitude
+of miserable people; and it is not only a prodigious, but likewise a
+well-concerted bounty that was wanting, and for which, in after ages,
+thousands of poor wretches will have reason to bless his memory,
+when every body else shall have neglected them.
+
+Cleo. All that I have nothing against; and if you would add more,
+I shall not dispute it with you, as long as you confine your praises
+to the endowment itself, and the benefit the public is like to receive
+from it. But to ascribe it to, or suggest that it was derived from a
+public spirit in the man, a generous sense of humanity and benevolence
+to his kind, a liberal heart, or any other virtue or good quality,
+which it is manifest the donor was an utter stranger to, is the
+utmost absurdity in an intelligent creature, and can proceed from no
+other cause than either a wilful wronging of his own understanding,
+or else ignorance and folly.
+
+Hor. I am persuaded, that many actions are put off for virtuous,
+that are not so; and that according as men differ in natural temper,
+and turn of mind, so they are differently influenced by the same
+passions: I believe likewise, that these last are born with us, and
+belong to our nature; that some of them are in us, or at least the
+seeds of them, before we perceive them: but since they are in every
+individual, how comes it that pride is more predominant in some than
+it is in others? For from what you have demonstrated already, it must
+follow, that one person is more affected with the passion within
+than another; I mean, that one man has actually a greater share of
+pride than another, as well among the artful that are dexterous in
+concealing it, as among the ill-bred that openly show it.
+
+Cleo. What belongs to our nature, all men may justly be said to have
+actually or virtually in them at their birth; and whatever is not born
+with us, either the thing itself, or that which afterwards produces
+it, cannot be said to belong to our nature: but as we differ in our
+faces and stature, so we do in other things, that are more remote from
+sight: but all these depend only upon the different frame, the inward
+formation of either the solids or the fluids; and there are vices
+of complexion, that are peculiar, some to the pale and phlegmatic,
+others to the sanguine and choleric: some are more lustful, others more
+fearful in their nature, than the generality are: but I believe of man,
+generally speaking, what my friend has observed of other creatures,
+that the best of the kind, I mean the best formed within, such as
+have the finest natural parts, are born with the greatest aptitude
+to be proud; but I am convinced, that the difference there is in men,
+as to the degrees of their pride, is more owing to circumstances and
+education, than any thing in their formation. Where passions are most
+gratified and least controlled, the indulgence makes them stronger;
+whereas those persons, that have been kept under, and whose thoughts
+have never been at liberty to rove beyond the first necessaries of
+life; such as have not been suffered, or had no opportunity to gratify
+this passion, have commonly the least share of it. But whatever portion
+of pride a man may feel in his heart, the quicker his parts are,
+the better his understanding is; and the more experience he has, the
+more plainly he will perceive the aversion which all men have to those
+that discover their pride: and the sooner persons are imbued with good
+manners, the sooner they grow perfect in concealing that passion. Men
+of mean birth and education, that have been kept in great subjection,
+and consequently had no great opportunities to exert their pride,
+if ever they come to command others, have a sort of revenge mixed
+with that passion, which makes it often very mischievous, especially
+in places where they have no superiors or equals, before whom they
+are obliged to conceal the odious passion.
+
+Hor. Do you think women have more pride from nature than men?
+
+Cleo. I believe not: but they have a great deal more from education.
+
+Hor. I do not see the reason: for among the better sort, the sons,
+especially the eldest, have as many ornaments and fine things given
+them from their infancy, to stir up their pride, as the daughters.
+
+Cleo. But among people equally well-educated, the ladies have more
+flattery bestowed upon them, than the gentlemen, and it begins sooner.
+
+Hor. But why should pride be more encouraged in women than in men?
+
+Cleo. For the same reason, that it is encouraged in soldiers, more
+than it is in other people; to increase their fear of shame, which
+makes them always mindful of their honour.
+
+Hor. But to keep both to their respective duties, why must a lady
+have more pride than a gentleman?
+
+Cleo. Because the lady is in the greatest danger of straying from it;
+she has a passion within, that may begin to affect her at twelve, or
+thirteen, and perhaps sooner, and she has all the temptations of the
+men to withstand besides: she has all the artillery of our sex to fear;
+a seducer of uncommon address and resistless charms, may court her to
+what nature prompts and solicits her to do; he may add great promises,
+actual bribes; this may be done in the dark, and when nobody is by
+dissuade her. Gentlemen very seldom have occasion to show their courage
+before they are sixteen or seventeen years of age, and rarely so soon:
+they are not put to the trial, till, by conversing with men of honour,
+they are confirmed in their pride: in the affair of a quarrel they
+have their friends to consult, and these are so many witnesses of their
+behaviour, that awe them to their duty, and in a manner oblige them to
+obey the laws of honour: all these things conspire to increase their
+fear of shame; and if they can but render that superior to the fear of
+death, their business is done; they have no pleasure to expect from
+breaking the rules of honour, nor any crafty tempter that solicits
+them to be cowards. That pride which is the cause of honour in men,
+only regards their courage; and if they can but appear to be brave,
+and will but follow the fashionable rules of manly honour, they may
+indulge all other appetites, and brag of incontinence without reproach:
+the pride likewise that produces honour in women, has no other object
+than their chastity; and whilst they keep that jewel entire, they can
+apprehend no shame: tenderness and delicacy are a compliment to them;
+and there is no fear of danger so ridiculous, but they may own it
+with ostentation. But notwithstanding the weakness of their frame,
+and the softness in which women are generally educated, if overcome
+by chance they have sinned in private, what real hazards will they
+not run, what torments will they not stifle, and what crimes will
+they not commit, to hide from the world that frailty, which they were
+taught to be most ashamed of!
+
+Hor. It is certain, that we seldom hear of public prostitutes,
+and such as have lost their shame, that they murder their infants,
+though they are otherwise the most abandoned wretches: I took notice
+of this in the Fable of the Bees, and it is very remarkable.
+
+Cleo. It contains a plain demonstration, that the same passion may
+produce either a palpable good or a palpable evil in the same person,
+according as self-love and his present circumstances shall direct; and
+that the same fear of shame, that makes men sometimes appear so highly
+virtuous, may at others oblige them to commit the most heinous crimes:
+that, therefore, honour is not founded upon any principle, either of
+real virtue or true religion, must be obvious to all that will but mind
+what sort of people they are, that are the greatest votaries of that
+idol, and the different duties it requires in the two sexes: in the
+first place, the worshippers of honour are the vain and voluptuous,
+the strict observers of modes and fashions, that take delight in pomp
+and luxury, and enjoy as much of the world as they are able: in the
+second, the word itself, I mean the sense of it, is so whimsical,
+and there is such a prodigious difference in the signification of
+it, according as the attribute is differently applied, either to a
+man or to a woman, that neither of them shall forfeit their honour,
+though each should be guilty, and openly boast of what would be the
+others greatest shame.
+
+Hor. I am sorry that I cannot charge you with injustice: but it is
+very strange; that to encourage and industriously increase pride
+in a refined education, should be the most proper means to make men
+solicitous in concealing the outward appearances of it.
+
+Cleo. Yet nothing is more true; but where pride is so much indulged,
+and yet to be so carefully kept from all human view, as it is in
+persons of honour of both sexes, it would be impossible for mortal
+strength to endure the restraint, if men could not be taught to play
+the passion against itself, and were not allowed to change the natural
+home-bred symptoms of it, for artificial foreign ones.
+
+Hor. By playing the passion against itself, I know you mean placing
+a secret pride in concealing the barefaced signs of it: but I do not
+rightly understand what you mean by changing the symptoms of it.
+
+Cleo. When a man exults in his pride, and gives a loose to that
+passion, the marks of it are as visible in his countenance, his mien,
+his gait and behaviour, as they are in a prancing horse, or a strutting
+turkey-cock. These are all very odious; every one feeling the same
+principle within, which is the cause of those symptoms; and man being
+endued with speech, all the open expressions the same passion can
+suggest to him, must for the same reason be equally displeasing: these,
+therefore, have in all societies been strictly prohibited by common
+consent, in the very infancy of good manners; and men have been taught,
+in the room of them, to substitute other symptoms, equally evident
+with the first, but less offensive, and more beneficial to others.
+
+Hor. Which are they?
+
+Cleo. Fine clothes, and other ornaments about them, the cleanliness
+observed about their persons, the submissions that is required of
+servants, costly equipages, furniture, buildings, titles of honour,
+and every thing that men can acquire to make themselves esteemed
+by others, without discovering any of the symptoms that are forbid:
+upon a satiety of enjoying these, they are allowed likewise to have
+the vapours, and be whimsical, though otherwise they are known to be
+in health and of good sense.
+
+Hor. But since the pride of others is displeasing to us in every shape,
+and these latter symptoms, you say, are equally evident with the first,
+what is got by the change?
+
+Cleo. A great deal: when pride is designedly expressed in looks and
+gestures, either in a wild or tame man, it is known by all human
+creatures that see it; it is the same, when vented in words, by every
+body that understands the language they are spoken in. These are marks
+and tokens that are all the world over the same: nobody shows them,
+but to have them seen and understood, and few persons ever display
+them without designing that offence to others, which they never fail
+to give: whereas, the other symptoms may be denied to be what they
+are; and many pretences, that they are derived from other motives,
+may be made for them, which the same good manners teach us never to
+refute, nor easily to disbelieve: in the very excuses that are made,
+there is a condescension that satisfies and pleases us. In those that
+are altogether destitute of the opportunities to display the symptoms
+of pride that are allowed of, the least portion of that passion
+is a troublesome, though often an unknown guest; for in them it is
+easily turned into envy and malice, and on the least provocation,
+it sallies out in those disguises, and is often the cause of cruelty;
+and there never was a mischief committed by mobs or multitudes, which
+this passion had not a hand in: whereas, the more room men have to
+vent and gratify the passion in the warrantable ways, the more easy
+it is for them to stifle the odious part of pride, and seem to be
+wholly free from it.
+
+Hor. I see very well, that real virtues requires a conquest over
+untaught nature, and that the Christian religion demands a still
+stricter self-denial: it likewise is evident, that to make ourselves
+acceptable to an omniscient Power, nothing is more necessary than
+sincerity, and that the heart should be pure. But setting aside sacred
+matters, and a future state, do not you think that this complaisance
+and easy construction of one another's actions, do a great deal of good
+upon earth; and do not you believe that good manners and politeness
+make men more happy, and their lives more comfortable in this world,
+than any thing else could make them without those arts?
+
+Cleo. If you will set aside what ought to employ our first care,
+and be our greatest concern; and men will have no value for that
+felicity and peace of mind, which can only arise from a consciousness
+of being good, it is certain, that in a great nation, and among a
+flourishing people, whose highest wishes seem to be ease and luxury,
+the upper part could not, without those arts, enjoy so much of the
+world as that can afford; and that none stand more in need of them
+than the voluptuous men of parts, that will join worldly prudence to
+sensuality, and make it their chief study to refine upon pleasure.
+
+Hor. When I had the honour of your company at my house, you said that
+nobody knew when or where, nor in what king's or emperor's reign the
+laws of honour were enacted; pray, can you inform me when or which way,
+what we call good manners or politeness came into the world? what
+moralist or politician was it, that could teach men to be proud of
+hiding their pride?
+
+Cleo. The resistless industry of man to supply his wants; and his
+constant endeavours to meliorate his condition upon earth, have
+produced and brought to perfection many useful arts and sciences,
+of which the beginnings are of uncertain eras, and to which we can
+align no other causes, than human sagacity in general, and the joint
+labour of many ages, in which men have always employed themselves
+in studying and contriving ways and means to sooth their various
+appetites, and make the best of their infirmities. Whence had we the
+first rudiments of architecture; how came sculpture and painting to
+be what they have been these many hundred years; and who taught every
+nation the respective languages they speak now. When I have a mind
+to dive into the origin of any maxim or political invention, for the
+use of society in general, I do not trouble my head with inquiring
+after the time or country in which it was first heard of, nor what
+others have wrote or said about it; but I go directly to the fountain
+head, human nature itself, and look for the frailty or defect in man,
+that is remedied or supplied by that invention: when things are very
+obscure, I sometimes make use of conjectures to find my way.
+
+Hor. Do you argue, or pretend to prove any thing from those
+conjectures?
+
+Cleo. No; I never reason but from the plain observations which every
+body may make on man, the phenomena that appear in the lesser world.
+
+Hor. You have, without doubt, thought on this subject before now;
+would you communicate to me some of your guesses?
+
+Cleo. With abundance of pleasure.
+
+Hor. You will give me leave, now and then, when things are not clear
+to me, to put in a word for information's sake.
+
+Cleo. I desire you would: you will oblige me with it. That
+self-love was given to all animals, at least, the most perfect,
+for self-preservation, is not disputed; but as no creature can love
+what it dislikes, it is necessary, moreover, that every one should
+have a real liking to its own being, superior to what they have to
+any other. I am of opinion, begging pardon for the novelty, that if
+this liking was not always permanent, the love which all creatures
+have for themselves, could not be so unalterable as we see it is.
+
+Hor. What reason have you to suppose this liking, which creatures
+have for themselves, to be distinct from self-love; since the one
+plainly comprehends the other?
+
+Cleo. I will endeavour to explain myself better. I fancy, that to
+increase the care in creatures to preserve themselves, nature has given
+them an instinct, by which every individual values itself above its
+real worth; this in us, I mean in man, seems to be accompanied with a
+diffidence, arising from a consciousness, or at least an apprehension,
+that we do overvalue ourselves: it is that makes us so fond of the
+approbation, liking, and assent of others; because they strengthen
+and confirm us in the good opinion we have of ourselves. The reasons
+why this self-liking, give me leave to call it so, is not plainly to
+be seen in all animals that are of the same degree of perfection, are
+many. Some want ornaments, and consequently the means to express it;
+others are too stupid and listless: it is to be considered likewise,
+that creatures, which are always in the same circumstances, and
+meet with little variation in their way of living, have neither
+opportunity nor temptation to show it; that the more mettle and
+liveliness creatures have, the more visible this liking is; and that
+in those of the same kind, the greater spirit they are of, and the more
+they excel in the perfections of their species, the fonder they are of
+showing it: in most birds it is evident, especially in those that have
+extraordinary finery to display: in a horse it is more conspicuous than
+in any other irrational creature: it is most apparent in the swiftest,
+the strongest, the most healthy and vigorous; and may be increased
+in that animal by additional ornaments, and the presence of man,
+whom he knows, to clean, take care of, and delight in him. It is not
+improbable, that this great liking which creatures have for their own
+individuals, is the principle on which the love to their species is
+built: cows and sheep, too dull and lifeless to make any demonstration
+of this liking, yet herd and feed together, each with his own species;
+because no others are so like themselves: by this they seem to know
+likewise, that they have the same interest, and the same enemies;
+cows have often been seen to join in a common defence against wolves:
+birds of a feather flock together; and I dare say, that the screechowl
+likes her own note better than that of the nightingale.
+
+Hor. Montaigne seems to have been somewhat of your opinion, when he
+fancied, that if brutes were to paint the Deity, they would all draw
+him of their own species. But what you call self-liking is evidently
+pride.
+
+Cleo. I believe it is, or at least the cause of it. I believe,
+moreover, that many creatures show this liking, when, for want of
+understanding them, we do not perceive it: When a cat washes her face,
+and a dog licks himself clean, they adorn themselves as much as it is
+in their power. Man himself, in a savage state, feeding on nuts and
+acorns, and destitute of all outward ornaments, would have infinitely
+less temptation, as well as opportunity, of showing this liking of
+himself, than he has when civilized; yet if a hundred males of the
+first, all equally free, were together, within less than half an
+hour, this liking in question, though their bellies were full, would
+appear in the desire of superiority, that would be shown among them;
+and the most vigorous, either in strength or understanding, or both,
+would be the first that would display it: If, as supposed, they were
+all untaught, this would breed contention, and there would certainly
+be war before there could be any agreement among them; unless one of
+them had some one or more visible excellencies above the rest. I said
+males, and their bellies full; because, if they had women among them,
+or wanted food, their quarrel might begin on another account.
+
+Hor. This is thinking abstractly indeed: but do you think that two
+or three hundred single savages, men and women, that never had been
+under any subjection, and were above twenty years of age, could ever
+establish a society, and be united into one body, if, without being
+acquainted with one another, they should meet by chance!
+
+Cleo. No more, I believe, than so many horses: but societies never were
+made that way. It is possible that several families of savages might
+unite, and the heads of them agree upon some sort of government or
+other, for their common good: but among them it is certain likewise,
+that, though superiority was tolerably well settled, and every male
+had females enough, strength and prowess in this uncivilized state
+would be infinitely more valued than understanding: I mean in the men;
+for the women will always prize themselves for what they see the men
+admire in them: Hence it would follow, that the women would value
+themselves, and envy one another for being handsome; and that the
+ugly and deformed, and all those that were least favoured by nature,
+would be the first, that would fly to art and additional ornaments:
+seeing that this made them more agreeable to the men, it would soon
+be followed by the rest, and in a little time they would strive to
+outdo one another, as much as their circumstances would allow of;
+and it is possible, that a woman, with a very handsome nose, might
+envy her neighbour with a much worse, for having a ring through it.
+
+Hor. You take great delight in dwelling on the behaviour of savages;
+what relation has this to politeness?
+
+Cleo. The seeds of it are lodged in this self-love and
+self-liking, which I have spoke of, as will soon appear, if we
+would consider what would be the consequence of them in the affair
+of self-preservation, and a creature endued with understanding,
+speech, and risibility. Self-love would first make it scrape
+together every thing it wanted for sustenance, provide against the
+injuries of the air, and do every thing to make itself and young ones
+secure. Self-liking would make it seek for opportunities, by gestures,
+looks, and sounds, to display the value it has for itself, superior to
+what it has for others; an untaught man would desire every body that
+came near him, to agree with him in the opinion of his superior worth,
+and be angry, as far as his fear would let him, with all that should
+refuse it: he would be highly delighted with, and love every body
+whom he thought to have a good opinion of him, especially those, that,
+by words or gestures, should own it to his face: whenever he met with
+any visible marks in others of inferiority to himself, he would laugh,
+and do the same at their misfortunes, as far as his own pity would
+give him leave, and he would insult every body that would let him.
+
+Hor. This self-liking, you say, was given to creatures for
+self-preservation: I should think rather that it is hurtful to men,
+because it must make them odious to one another; and I cannot see what
+benefit they can receive from it, either in a savage or a civilized
+state: is there any instance of its doing any good?
+
+Cleo. I wonder to hear you ask that question. Have you forgot the
+many virtues which I have demonstrated, may be counterfeited to gain
+applause, and the good qualities a man of sense in great fortune may
+acquire, by the sole help and instigation of his pride?
+
+Hor. I beg your pardon: yet what you say only regards man in the
+society, and after he has been perfectly well educated: what advantage
+is it to him as a single creature? Self-love I can plainly see,
+induces him to labour for his maintenance and safety, and makes him
+fond of every thing which he imagines to tend to his preservation;
+but what good does the self-liking to him?
+
+Cleo. If I should tell you, that the inward pleasure and satisfaction
+a man receives from the gratification of that passion, is a cordial
+that contributes to his health, you would laugh at me, and think it
+far fetched.
+
+Hor. Perhaps not; but I would set against it the many sharp vexations
+and heart-breaking sorrows, that men suffer on the score of this
+passion, from disgraces, disappointments, and other misfortunes, which,
+I believe, have sent millions to their graves much sooner than they
+would have gone, if their pride had less affected them.
+
+Cleo. I have nothing against what you say: but this is no proof that
+the passion itself was not given to man for self-preservation; and
+it only lays open to us the precariousness of sublunary happiness,
+and the wretched condition of mortals. There is nothing created that
+is always a blessing; the rain and sunshine themselves, to which
+all earthly comforts are owing, have been the causes of innumerable
+calamities. All animals of prey, and thousand others, hunt after food
+with the hazard of their lives, and the greater part of them perish in
+their pursuits after sustenance. Plenty itself is not less fatal to
+some, than want is to others; and of our own species, every opulent
+nation has had great numbers, that in full safety from all other
+dangers, have destroyed themselves by excesses of eating and drinking:
+yet nothing is more certain, than that hunger and thirst were given to
+creatures, to make them solicitous after, and crave those necessaries,
+without which it would be impossible for them to subsist.
+
+Hor. Still I can see no advantage accruing from their self-liking to
+man, considered as a single creature, which can induce me to believe,
+that nature should have given it us for self-preservation. What you
+have alleged is obscure; can you name a benefit every individual
+person receives from that principle within him, that is manifest,
+and clearly to be understood?
+
+Cleo. Since it has been in disgrace, and every body disowns the
+passion, it seldom is seen in its proper colours, and disguises
+itself in a thousand different shapes: we are often affected with it,
+when we have not the least suspicion of it; but it seems to be that
+which continually furnishes us with that relish we have for life, even
+when it is not worth having. Whilst men are pleased, self-liking has
+every moment a considerable share, though unknown, in procuring the
+satisfaction they enjoy. It is so necessary to the well-being of those
+that have been used to indulge it, that they can taste no pleasure
+without it; and such is the deference, and the submissive veneration
+they pay to it, that they are deaf to the loudest calls of nature,
+and will rebuke the strongest appetites that should pretend to be
+gratified at the expence of that passion. It doubles our happiness in
+prosperity, and buoys us up against the frowns of adverse fortune. It
+is the mother of hopes, and the end as well as the foundation of our
+best wishes: it is the strongest armour against despair; and as long
+as we can like any ways our situation, either in regard to present
+circumstances, or the prospect before us, we take care of ourselves;
+and no man can resolve upon suicide, whilst self-liking lasts: but as
+soon as that is over, all our hopes are extinct, and we can form no
+wishes but for the dissolution of our frame; till at last our being
+becomes so intolerable to us, that self-love prompts us to make an
+end of it, and seek refuge in death.
+
+Hor. You mean self-hatred; for you have said yourself, that a creature
+cannot love what it dislikes.
+
+Cleo. If you turn the prospect, you are in the right: but this
+only proves to us what I have often hinted at, that man is made up
+of contrarieties; otherwise nothing seems to be more certain, than
+that whoever kills himself by choice, must do it to avoid something,
+which he dreads more than that death which he chooses. Therefore,
+how absurd soever a person's reasoning may be, there is in all suicide
+a palpable intention of kindness to one's self.
+
+Hor. I must own that your observations are entertaining. I am very
+well pleased with your discourse, and I see an agreeable glimmering
+of probability that runs through it; but you have said nothing that
+comes up to a half proof on the side of your conjecture, if it be
+seriously considered.
+
+Cleo. I told you before that I would lay no stress upon, nor draw any
+conclusions from it: but whatever nature's design was in bestowing
+this self-liking on creatures, and whether it has been given to
+other animals besides ourselves or not, it is certain, that in our
+own species every individual person likes himself better than he does
+any other.
+
+Hor. It may be so, generally speaking: but that it is not universally
+true, I can assure you, from my own experience; for I have often
+wished my self to be Count Theodati, whom you knew at Rome.
+
+Cleo. He was a very fine person indeed, and extremely well
+accomplished; and therefore you wished to be such another, which is
+all you could mean. Celia has a very handsome face, fine eyes, fine
+teeth; but she has red hair, and is ill made: therefore she wishes
+for Chloe's hair and Belinda's shape; but she would still remain Celia.
+
+Hor. But I wished that I might have been that person, that very
+Theodati.
+
+Cleo. That is impossible.
+
+Hor. What, is it impossible to wish it?
+
+Cleo. Yes, to wish it; unless you wished for annihilation at the
+same time. It is that self we wish well to; and therefore we cannot
+wish for any change in ourselves, but with a proviso, that to self,
+that part of us that wishes, should still remain: for take away that
+consciousness you had of yourself whilst you was wishing, and tell
+me, pray, what part of you it is that could be the better for the
+alteration you wished for?
+
+Hor. I believe you are in the right. No man can wish but to enjoy
+something, which no part of that same man could do, if he was entirely
+another.
+
+Cleo. That he itself, the person wishing, must be destroyed before
+the change could be entire.
+
+Hor. But when shall we come to the origin of politeness?
+
+Cleo. We are at it now, and we need not look for it any further than
+in the self-liking, which I have demonstrated every individual man to
+be possessed of. Do but consider these two things: First, that from
+the nature of that passion, it must follow, that all untaught men
+will ever be hateful to one another in conversation, where neither
+interest nor superiority are considered: for, if of two equals, one
+only values himself more by half, than he does the other, though that
+other should value the first equally with himself, they would both
+be dissatisfied, if their thoughts were known to each other; but if
+both valued themselves more by half, than they did each other, the
+difference between them would still be greater, and a declaration of
+their sentiments would render them both insufferable to each other;
+which, among uncivilized men, would happen every moment, because,
+without a mixture of art and trouble, the outward symptoms of that
+passion are not to be stifled. The second thing I would have you
+consider, is, the effect which, in all human probability, this
+inconveniency, arising from self-liking, would have upon creatures
+endued with a great share of understanding, that are fond of their ease
+to the last degree, and as industrious to procure it. These two things,
+I say, do but duly weigh, and you shall find that the disturbance and
+uneasiness that must be caused by self-liking, whatever strugglings
+and unsuccessful trials to remedy them might precede, must necessarily
+produce, at long run, what we call good manners and politeness.
+
+Hor. I understand you, I believe. Every body in this undisciplined
+state, being affected with the high value he has for himself, and
+displaying the most natural symptoms which you have described, they
+would all be offended at the barefaced pride of their neighbours:
+and it is impossible that this should continue long among rational
+creatures, but the repeated experience of the uneasiness they received
+from such behaviour, would make some of them reflect on the cause of
+it; which, in tract of time, would make them find out, that their own
+barefaced pride, must be as offensive to others, as that of others
+is to themselves.
+
+Cleo. What you say is certainly the philosophical reason of the
+alterations that are made in the behaviour of men, by their being
+civilized: but all this is done without reflection; and men by
+degrees, and great length of time, fall as it were into these things
+spontaneously.
+
+Hor. How is that possible, when it must cost them trouble, and there
+is a palpable self-denial to be seen in the restraint they put upon
+themselves?
+
+Cleo. In the pursuit of self-preservation, men discover a restless
+endeavour to make themselves easy, which insensibly teaches them to
+avoid mischief on all emergencies: and when human creatures once
+submit to government, and are used to live under the restraint
+of laws, it is incredible how many useful cautions, shifts, and
+stratagems they will learn to practise by experience and imitation,
+from conversing together, without being aware of the natural causes
+that oblige them to act as they do, viz. the passions within, that,
+unknown to themselves, govern their will and direct their behaviour.
+
+Hor. You will make men as mere machines as Cartes does brutes.
+
+Cleo. I have no such design: but I am of opinion, that men find out
+the use of their limbs by instinct, as much as brutes do the use of
+theirs; and that, without knowing any thing of geometry or arithmetic,
+even children may learn to perform actions that seem to bespeak great
+skill in mechanics, and a considerable depth of thought and ingenuity
+in the contrivance besides.
+
+Hor. What actions are they which you judge this from?
+
+Cleo. The advantageous postures which they will choose in resisting
+force, in pulling, pushing, or otherwise removing weight; from their
+sleight and dexterity in throwing stones, and other projectiles;
+and the stupendous cunning made use of in leaping.
+
+Hor. What stupendous cunning, I pray?
+
+Cleo. When men would leap or jump a great way, you know, they take
+a run before they throw themselves off the ground. It is certain,
+that, by this means, they jump farther, and with greater force than
+they could do otherwise: the reason likewise is very plain. The body
+partakes of, and is moved by two motions; and the velocity, impressed
+upon it by leaping, must be added to so much, as it retained of the
+velocity it was put into by running: Whereas, the body of a person
+who takes this leap, as he is standing still, has no other motion,
+than what is received from the muscular strength exerted in the act of
+leaping. See a thousand boys, as well as men, jump, and they will make
+use of this stratagem; but you will not find one of them that does it
+knowingly for that reason. What I have said of that stratagem made
+use of in leaping, I desire you would apply to the doctrine of good
+manners, which is taught and practised by millions, who never thought
+on the origin of politeness, or so much as knew the real benefit it is
+of to society. The most crafty and designing will every where be the
+first; that, for interest-sake, will learn to conceal this passion
+of pride, and, in a little time, nobody will show the least symptom
+of it, whilst he is asking favours, or stands in need of help.
+
+Hor. That rational creatures should do all this, without thinking or
+knowing what they are about, is inconceivable. Bodily motion is one
+thing, and the exercise of the understanding is another; and therefore
+agreeable postures, a graceful mien, an easy carriage, and a genteel
+outward behaviour, in general, may be learned and contracted perhaps
+without much thought; but good manners are to be observed every where,
+in speaking, writing, and ordering actions to be performed by others.
+
+Cleo. To men who never turned their thoughts that way, it certainly
+is almost inconceivable to what prodigious height, from next to
+nothing, some arts may be, and have been raised by human industry
+and application, by the uninterrupted labour and joint experience of
+many ages, though none but men of ordinary capacity should ever be
+employed in them. What a noble, as well as beautiful, what a glorious
+machine is a first rate man of war when she is under sail, well rigged,
+and well manned! As in bulk and weight it is vastly superior to any
+other moveable body of human invention, so there is no other that
+has an equal variety of differently surprising contrivance to boast
+of. There are many sets of hands in the nation, that, not wanting
+proper materials, would be able in less than half a-year, to produce,
+fit out, and navigate a first rate: yet it is certain, that this
+task would be impracticable, if it was not divided and subdivided
+into a great variety of different labours; and it is as certain,
+that none of these labours require any other, than working men of
+ordinary capacities.
+
+Hor. What would you infer from this?
+
+Cleo. That we often ascribe to the excellency of man's genius, and
+the depth of his penetration, what is in reality owing to length
+of time, and the experience of many generations, all of them very
+little differing from one another in natural parts and sagacity. And
+to know what it must have cost to bring that art of making ships for
+different purposes, to the perfection in which it is now, we are only
+to consider, in the first place, that many considerable improvements
+have been made in it within these fifty years and less; and, in the
+second, that the inhabitants of this island did build, and make use
+of ships eighteen hundred years ago, and that, from that time to this,
+they have never been without.
+
+Hor. Which altogether make a strong proof of the slow progress that
+art has made to be what it is.
+
+Cleo. The Chevalier Reneau has wrote a book, in which he shows the
+mechanism of sailing, and accounts mathematically for every thing
+that belongs to the working and steering of a ship. I am persuaded,
+that neither the first inventors of ships and sailing, or those who
+have made improvements since in any part of them, ever dreamed of
+those reasons, any more than now the rudest and most illiterate of the
+vulgar do, when they are made sailors, which time and practice will
+do in spite of their teeth. We have thousands of them that were first
+hauled on board, and detained against their wills, and yet, in less
+than three years time, knew every rope and every pully in the ship,
+and without the least scrap of mathematics, had learned the management
+as well as use of them, much better than the greatest mathematician
+could have done in all his lifetime, if he had never been at sea. The
+book I mentioned, among other curious things, demonstrates what angle
+the rudder must make with the keel, to render its influence upon the
+ship the most powerful. This has its merit; but a lad of fifteen, who
+has served a year of his time on board of a hoy, knows every thing that
+is useful in this demonstration, practically. Seeing the poop always
+answering the motion of the helm, he only minds the latter, without
+making the least reflection on the rudder, until in a year or two more
+his knowledge in sailing, and capacity of steering his vessel, become
+so habitual to him, that he guides her, as he does his own body, by
+instinct, though he is half asleep, or thinking on quite another thing.
+
+Hor. If, as you said, and which I now believe to be true, the people
+who first invented, and afterwards improved upon ships and sailing,
+never dreamed of those reasons of Monsieur Reneau, it is impossible
+that they should have acted from them, as motives that induced them
+à priori, to put their inventions and improvements in practice, with
+knowledge and design, which, I suppose, is what you intended to prove.
+
+Cleo. It is; and I verily believe, not only that the raw beginners,
+who made the first essays in either art, good manners as well as
+sailing, were ignorant of the true cause; the real foundation those
+arts are built upon in nature; but likewise that, even now both arts
+are brought to great perfection, the greatest part of those that are
+most expert, and daily making improvements in them, know as little of
+the rationale of them, as their predecessors did at first: though I
+believe, at the same time, Monsieur Reneau's reasons to be very just,
+and yours as good as his; that is, I believe, that there is as much
+truth and solidity in your accounting for the origin of good manners,
+as there is in his for the management of ships. They are very seldom
+the same sort of people, those that invent arts and improvements in
+them, and those that inquire into the reason of things: this latter
+is most commonly practised by such as are idle and indolent, that are
+fond of retirement, hate business, and take delight in speculation;
+whereas, none succeed oftener in the first, than active, stirring,
+and laborious men, such as will put their hand to the plough, try
+experiments, and give all their attention to what they are about.
+
+Hor. It is commonly imagined, that speculative men are best at
+invention of all sorts.
+
+Cleo. Yet it is a mistake. Soap-boiling, grain-drying, and other trades
+and mysteries, are, from mean beginnings, brought to great perfection;
+but the many improvements that can be remembered to have been made in
+them, have, for the generality, been owing to persons, who either were
+brought up to, or had long practised, and been conversant in those
+trades, and not to great proficients in chemistry, or other parts of
+philosophy, whom one would naturally expect those things from. In some
+of these arts, especially grain or scarlet-dying, there are processes
+really astonishing; and, by the mixture of various ingredients, by
+fire and fermentation, several operations are performed, which the
+most sagacious naturalist cannot account for by any system yet known;
+a certain sign that they were not invented by reasoning à priori. When
+once the generality begin to conceal the high value they have for
+themselves, men must become more tolerable to one another. Now, new
+improvements must be made every day, until some of them grow impudent
+enough, not only to deny the high value they have for themselves,
+but likewise to pretend that they have greater value for others, than
+they have for themselves. This will bring in complaisance; and now
+flattery will rush in upon them like a torrent. As soon as they are
+arrived at this pitch of insincerity, they will find the benefit of
+it, and teach it their children. The passion of shame is so general,
+and so early discovered in all human creatures, that no nation can
+be so stupid, as to be long without observing and making use of it
+accordingly. The same may be said of the credulity of infants, which
+is very inviting to many good purposes. The knowledge of parents is
+communicated to their offspring, and every one's experience in life
+being added to what he learned in his youth, every generation after
+this must be better taught than the preceding; by which means, in two
+or three centuries, good manners must be brought to great perfection.
+
+Hor. When they are thus far advanced, it is easy to conceive the rest:
+For improvements, I suppose, are made in good manners, as they are
+in all other arts and sciences. But to commence from savages, men,
+I believe, would make but a small progress in good manners the first
+three hundred years. The Romans, who had a much better beginning,
+had been a nation above six centuries, and were almost masters of
+the world, before they could be said to be a polite people. What I
+am most astonished at, and which I am now convinced of, is, that the
+basis of all this machinery is pride. Another thing I wonder at, is,
+that you chose to speak of a nation that entered upon good manners
+before they had any notions of virtue or religion, which, I believe,
+there never was in the world.
+
+Cleo. Pardon me, Horatio; I have nowhere insinuated that they had none,
+but I had no reason to mention them. In the first place, you asked
+my opinion concerning the use of politeness in this world, abstract
+from the considerations of a future state: Secondly, the art of good
+manners has nothing to do with virtue or religion, though it seldom
+clashes with either. It is a science that is ever built on the same
+steady principle in our nature, whatever the age or the climate may
+be in which it is practised.
+
+Hor. How can any thing be said not to clash with virtue or religion,
+that has nothing to do with either, and consequently disclaims both?
+
+Cleo. This, I confess, seems to be a paradox; yet it is true. The
+doctrine of good manners teaches men to speak well of all virtues,
+but requires no more of them in any age or country, than the outward
+appearance of those in fashion. And as to sacred matters, it is every
+where satisfied with seeming conformity in outward worship; for all
+the religions in the universe are equally agreeable to good manners,
+where they are national; and pray what opinion must we say a teacher
+to be of, to whom all opinions are probably alike? All the precepts
+of good manners throughout the world have the same tendency, and
+are no more than the various methods of making ourselves acceptable
+to others, with as little prejudice to ourselves as is possible: by
+which artifice we assist one another in the enjoyments of life, and
+refining upon pleasure; and every individual person is rendered more
+happy by it in the fruition of all the good things he can purchase,
+than he could have been without such behaviour. I mean happy, in the
+sense of the voluptuous. Let us look back on old Greece, the Roman
+empire, or the great eastern nations that flourished before them,
+and we shall find, that luxury and politeness ever grew up together,
+and were never enjoyed asunder; that comfort and delight upon earth
+have always employed the wishes of the beau monde; and that, as
+their chief study and greatest solicitude, to outward appearance,
+have ever been directed to obtain happiness in this world, so what
+would become of them in the next, seems, to the naked eye, always to
+have been the least of their concern.
+
+Hor. I thank you for your lecture: you have satisfied me in several
+things, which I had intended to ask: But you have said some others,
+that I must have time to consider; after which I am resolved to wait
+upon you again; for I begin to believe, that, concerning the knowledge
+of ourselves, most books are either very defective or very deceitful.
+
+Cleo. There is not a more copious, nor a more faithful volume
+than human nature, to those who will diligently peruse it; and I
+sincerely believe, that I have discovered nothing to you, which, if
+you had thought of it with attention, you would not have found out
+yourself. But I shall never be better pleased with myself, than when
+I can contribute to any entertainment you shall think diverting.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE FOURTH
+                            DIALOGUE
+                            BETWEEN
+                     HORATIO AND CLEOMENES.
+
+
+CLEOMENES.
+
+Your servant.
+
+Hor. What say you now, Cleomenes; is it not this without ceremony?
+
+Cleo. You are very obliging.
+
+Hor. When they told me where you was, I would suffer nobody to tell
+you who it was that wanted you, or to come up with me.
+
+Cleo. This is friendly, indeed!
+
+Hor. You see what a proficient I am: In a little time you will teach
+me to lay aside all good manners.
+
+Cleo. You make a fine tutor of me.
+
+Hor. You will pardon me, I know: this study of yours is a very
+pretty place.
+
+Cleo. I like it, because the sun never enters it.
+
+Hor. A very pretty room!
+
+Cleo. Shall we sit down in it? It is the coolest room in the house.
+
+Hor. With all my heart.
+
+Cleo. I was in hopes to have seen you before now: you have taken a
+long time to consider.
+
+Hor. Just eight days?
+
+Cleo. Have you thought on the novelty I started?
+
+Hor. I have, and think it not void of probability; for that there are
+no innate ideas, and men come into the world without any knowledge
+at all, I am convinced of, and therefore it is evident to me, that
+all arts and sciences must once have had a beginning in somebody's
+brain, whatever oblivion that may now be lost in. I have thought
+twenty times since I saw you last, on the origin of good manners,
+and what a pleasant scene it would be to a man who is tolerably well
+versed in the world, to see among a rude nation those first essays
+they made of concealing their pride from one another.
+
+Cleo. You see by this, that it is chiefly the novelty of things
+that strikes, as well in begetting our aversion, as in gaining our
+approbation; and that we may look upon many indifferently, when they
+come to be familiar to us, though they were shocking when they were
+new. You are now diverting yourself with a truth, which eight days
+ago you would have given an hundred guineas not to have known.
+
+Hor. I begin to believe there is nothing so absurd, that it would
+appear to us to be such, is we had been accustomed to it very young.
+
+Cleo. In a tolerable education, we are so industriously and so
+assiduously instructed, from our most early infancy, in the ceremonies
+of bowing, and pulling off hats, and other rules of behaviour, that
+even before we are men we hardly look upon a mannerly deportment as
+a thing acquired, or think conversation to be a science. Thousand
+things are called easy and natural in postures and motions, as well
+as speaking and writing, that have caused infinite pains to others as
+well as ourselves, and which we know to be the product of art. What
+awkward lumps have I known, which the dancing-master has put limbs to!
+
+Hor. Yesterday morning as I sat musing by myself, an expression of
+yours which I did not so much reflect upon at first, when I heard it,
+came into my head, and made me smile. Speaking of the rudiments of good
+manners in an infant nation, when they once entered upon concealing
+their pride, you said, that improvements would be made every day,
+"till some of them grew impudent enough, not only to deny the high
+value they had for themselves, but likewise to pretend that they had
+greater value for others than they had for themselves."
+
+Cleo. It is certain, that this every where must have been the
+forerunner of flattery.
+
+Hor. When you talk of flattery and impudence, what do you think of
+the first man that had the face to tell his equal, that he was his
+humble servant?
+
+Cleo. If that had been a new compliment, I should have wondered much
+more at the simplicity of the proud man that swallowed, than I would
+have done at the impudence of the knave that made it.
+
+Hor. It certainly once was new: which pray do you believe more ancient,
+pulling off the hat, or saying, your humble servant?
+
+Cleo. They are both of them Gothic and modern.
+
+Hor. I believe pulling off the hat was first, it being the emblem
+of liberty.
+
+Cleo. I do not think so: for he who pulled of his hat the first time,
+could not have been understood, if saying your servant had not been
+practised: and to show respect, a man as well might have pulled off
+one of his shoes, as his hat; if saying, your servant, had not been
+an established and well-known compliment.
+
+Hor. So he might, as you say, and had a better authority for the first,
+than he could have for the latter.
+
+Cleo. And to this day, taking of the hat is a dumb show of a
+known civility in words: Mind now the power of custom, and imbibed
+notions. We both laugh at this Gothic absurdity, and are well assured,
+that it must have had its origin from the basest flattery; yet neither
+of us, walking with our hats on, could meet an acquaintance with whom
+we are not very familiar, without showing this piece of civility;
+nay, it it would be a pain to us not to do it. But we have no reason
+to think, that the compliment of saying, your servant, began among
+equals; but rather that, flatterers having given it to princes, it grew
+afterwards more common: for all those postures and flexions of body
+and limbs, had in all probability their rise from the adulation that
+was paid to conquerors and tyrants; who, having every body to fear,
+were always alarmed at the least shadow of opposition, and never better
+pleased than with submissive and defenceless postures: and you see,
+that they have all a tendency that way; they promise security, and
+are silent endeavours to ease and rid them, not only of their fears,
+but likewise every suspicion of harm approaching them: such as lying
+prostrate on our faces, touching the ground with our heads, kneeling,
+bowing low, laying our hands upon our breasts, or holding them behind
+us, folding our arms together, and all the cringes that can be made
+to demonstrate that we neither indulge our ease, nor stand upon our
+guard. These are evident signs and convincing proofs to a superior,
+that we have a mean opinion of ourselves in respect to him, that we
+are at his mercy, and have no thought to resist, much less to attack
+him; and therefore it is highly probable, that saying, your servant,
+and pulling off the hat, were at first demonstrations of obedience
+to those that claimed it.
+
+Hor. Which in tract of time became more familiar, and were made use
+of reciprocally in the way of civility.
+
+Cleo. I believe so; for as good manners increase, we see, that the
+highest compliments are made common, and new ones to superiors invented
+instead of them.
+
+Hor. So the word grace, which not long ago was a title, that none but
+our kings and queens were honoured with, is devolved upon archbishops
+and dukes.
+
+Cleo. It was the same with highness, which is now given to the
+children, and even the grandchildren of kings.
+
+Hor. The dignity that is annexed to the signification of the word lord,
+has been better preserved with us, than in most countries: in Spanish,
+Italian, high and low Dutch, it is prostituted to almost every body.
+
+Cleo. It has had better fate in France; where likewise the word sire
+has lost nothing of its majesty, and is only used to the monarch:
+whereas, with us, it is a compliment of address, that may be made to
+a cobbler, as well as to a king.
+
+Hor. Whatever alterations may be made in the sense of words, by
+time; yet, as the world grows more polished, flattery becomes less
+barefaced, and the design of it upon man's pride is better disguised
+than it was formerly. To praise a man to his face, was very common
+among the ancients: considering humility to be a virtue particularly
+required of Christians, I have often wondered how the fathers of the
+church could suffer those acclamations and applauses, that were made
+to them whilst they were preaching; and which, though some of them
+spoke against them, many of them appear to have been extremely fond of.
+
+Cleo. Human nature is always the same; where men exert themselves to
+the utmost, and take uncommon pains, that spend and waste the spirits,
+those applauses are very reviving the fathers who spoke against them,
+spoke chiefly against the abuse of them.
+
+Hor. It must have been very odd to hear people bawling out, as often
+the greatest part of an audience did, Sophos, divinitus, non potest
+melius, mirabiliter, acriter, ingeniose: they told the preachers
+likewise that they were orthodox, and sometimes called them, apostolus
+decimus tertius.
+
+Cleo. These words at the end of a period might have passed, but the
+repetitions of them were often so loud and so general, and the noise
+they made with their hands and feet, so disturbing in and out of
+season, that they could not hear a quarter of the the sermon; yet
+several fathers owned that it was highly delightful, and soothing
+human frailty.
+
+Hor. The behaviour at churches is more decent, as it is now.
+
+Cleo. Since paganism has been quite extinct in the old western world,
+the zeal of Christians is much diminished from what it was, when they
+had many opposers: the want of fervency had a great hand in abolishing
+that fashion.
+
+Hor. But whether it was the fashion or not, it must always have
+been shocking.
+
+Cleo. Do you think, that the repeated acclamations, the clapping,
+stamping, and the most extravagant tokens of applause, that are now
+used at our several theatres, were ever shocking to a favourite actor;
+or that the huzzas of the mob, or the hideous shouts of soldiers,
+were ever shocking to persons of the highest distinction, to whose
+honour they were made?
+
+Hor. I have known princes that were very much tired with them.
+
+Cleo. When they had too much of them; but never at first. In working a
+machine, we ought to have regard to the strength of its frame: limited
+creatures are not susceptible of infinite delight; therefore we see,
+that a pleasure protracted beyond its due bounds becomes a pain: but
+where the custom of the country is not broken in upon, no noise, that
+is palpably made in our praise, and which we may hear with decency,
+can ever be ungrateful, if it do not outlast a reasonable time; but
+there is no cordial so sovereign, that it may not become offensive,
+by being taken to excess.
+
+Hor. And the sweeter and more delicious liquors are, the sooner they
+become fulsome, and the less fit they are to sit by.
+
+Cleo. Your simile is not amiss; and the same acclamations that
+are ravishing to a man at first, and perhaps continue to give him
+an unspeakable delight for eight or nine minutes, may become more
+moderately pleasing, indifferent, cloying, troublesome, and even so
+offensive as to create pain, all in less than three hours, if they
+were to continue so long without intermission.
+
+Hor. There must be great witchcraft in sounds, that they should have
+such different effects upon us, as we often see they have.
+
+Cleo. The pleasure we receive from acclamations, is not in the hearing;
+but proceeds from the opinion we form of the cause that produces
+those sounds, the approbation of others. At the theatres all over
+Italy you have heard, that, when the whole audience demands silence
+and attention, which there is an established mark of benevolence and
+applause, the noise they make comes very near, and is hardly to be
+distinguished from our hissing, which with us is the plainest token
+of dislike and contempt: and without doubt the cat-calls to affront
+Faustina were far more agreeable to Cozzoni, than the most artful
+sounds she ever heard from her triumphant rival.
+
+Hor. That was abominable!
+
+Cleo. The Turks show their respects to their sovereigns by a profound
+silence, which is strictly kept throughout the seraglio, and still more
+religiously observed the nearer you come to the Sultan's apartment.
+
+Hor. This latter is certainly the politer way of gratifying one's
+pride.
+
+Cleo. All that depends upon mode and custom.
+
+Hor. But the offerings that are made to a man's pride in silence,
+may be enjoyed without the loss of his hearing, which the other cannot.
+
+Cleo. That is a trifle, in the gratification of that passion: we
+never enjoy higher pleasure, from the appetite we would indulge,
+than when we feel nothing from any other.
+
+Hor. But silence expresses greater homage, and deeper veneration,
+than noise.
+
+Cleo. It is good to sooth the pride of a drone; but an active man
+loves to have that passion roused, and as it were kept awake, whilst
+it is gratified; and approbation from noise is more unquestionable
+than the other: however, I will not determine between them; much
+may be said on both sides. The Greeks and Romans used sounds, to
+stir up men to noble actions, with great success; and the silence
+observed among the Ottomans has kept them very well in the slavish
+submission which their sovereigns require of them: perhaps the one
+does better where absolute power is lodged in one person, and the
+other where there is some show of liberty. Both are proper tools to
+flatter the pride of man, when they are understood and made use of as
+such. I have known a very brave man used to the shouts of war, and
+highly delighted with loud applause, be very angry with his butler,
+for making a little rattling with his plates.
+
+Hor. An old aunt of mine the other day turned away a very clever
+fellow, for not walking upon his toes; and I must own myself, that the
+stamping of footmen, and all unmannerly loudness of servants, are very
+offensive to me; though I never entered into the reason of it before
+now. In our last conversation, when you described the symptoms of
+self-liking, and what the behaviour would be of an uncivilized man,
+you named laughing: I know it is one of the characteristics of our
+species; pray do you take that to be likewise the result of pride?
+
+Cleo. Hobbes is of that opinion, and in most instances it might be
+derived from thence; but there are some phenomena not to be explained
+by that hypothesis; therefore I would choose to say, that laughter is
+a mechanical motion, which we are naturally thrown into when we are
+unaccountably pleased. When our pride is feelingly gratified; when we
+hear or see any thing which we admire or approve of; or when we are
+indulging any other passion or appetite, and the reason why we are
+pleased seems to be just and worthy, we are then far from laughing:
+but when things or actions are odd and out of the way, and happen
+to please us when we can give no just reason why they should do so,
+it is then, generally speaking, that they make us laugh.
+
+Hor. I would rather side with what you said was Hobbes's opinion:
+for the things we commonly laugh at are such as are some way or other
+mortifying, unbecoming, or prejudicial to others.
+
+Cleo. But what will you say to tickling, which will make an infant
+laugh that is deaf and blind?
+
+Hor. Can you account for that by your system?
+
+Cleo. Not to my satisfaction; but I will tell you what might be said
+for it. We know by experience, that the smoother, the softer, and the
+more sensible the skin is, the more ticklish persons are, generally
+speaking: we know likewise, that things rough, sharp, and hard, when
+they touch the skin, are displeasing to us, even before they give
+pain and that, on the contrary, every thing applied to the skin that
+is soft and smooth, and not otherwise offensive, is delightful. It
+is possible that gentle touches being impressed on several nervous
+filaments at once, every one of them producing a pleasing sensation,
+may create that confused pleasure which is the occasion of laughter.
+
+Hor. But how came you to think of mechanic motion, in the pleasure
+of a free agent?
+
+Cleo. Whatever free agency we may pretend to in the forming of ideas,
+the effect of them upon the body is independent of the will. Nothing
+is more directly opposite to laughing than frowning: the one draws
+wrinkles on the fore-head, knits the brows, and keeps the mouth shut:
+the other does quite the reverse; exporrigere frontem, you know,
+is a Latin phrase for being merry. In sighing, the muscles of the
+belly and breast are pulled inward, and the diaphragm is pulled
+upward more than ordinary; and we seem to endeavour, though in vain,
+to squeeze and compress the heart, whilst we draw in our breath in a
+forcible manner; and when, in that squeezing posture, we have taken in
+as much air as we can contain, we throw it out with the same violence
+we sucked it in with, and at the same time give a sudden relaxation to
+all the muscles we employed before. Nature certainly designed this for
+something in the labour for self-preservation which she forces upon
+us. How mechanically do all creatures that can make any sound, cry
+out, and complain in great afflictions, as well as pain and imminent
+danger! In great torments, the efforts of nature are so violent that
+way, that, to disappoint her, and prevent the discovery of what we
+feel by sounds, and which she bids us make, we are forced to draw
+our mouth into a purse, or else suck in our breath, bite our lips,
+or squeeze them close together, and use the most effectual means to
+hinder the air from coming out. In grief we sigh, in mirth we laugh:
+in the latter little stress is laid upon the respiration, and this is
+performed with less regularity than it is at any other time; all the
+muscles without, and every thing within feel loose, and seem to have
+no other motion than what is communicated to them by the convulsive
+shakes of laughter.
+
+Hor. I have seen people laugh till they lost all their strength.
+
+Cleo. How much is all this the reverse of what we observe in
+sighing! When pain or depth of woe make us cry out, the mouth is
+drawn round, or at least into an oval; the lips are thrusted forward
+without touching each other, and the tongue is pulled in, which is
+the reason that all nations, when they exclaim, cry, Oh!
+
+Hor. Why pray!
+
+Cleo. Because whilst the mouth, lips, and tongue, remain in those
+postures, they can sound no other vowel, and no consonant at all. In
+laughing, the lips are pulled back, and strained to draw the mouth
+in its fullest length.
+
+Hor. I would not have you lay a great stress upon that, for it is
+the same in weeping, which is an undoubted sign of sorrow.
+
+Cleo. In great afflictions, where the heart is oppressed, and anxieties
+which we endeavour to resist, few people can weep; but when they
+do, it removes the oppression, and sensibly relieves them: for then
+their resistance is gone; and weeping in distress is not so much a
+sign of sorrow as it is an indication that we can bear our sorrow no
+longer; and therefore it is counted unmanly to weep, because it seems
+to give up our strength, and is a kind of yielding to our grief. But
+the action of weeping itself is not more peculiar to grief than it is
+to joy in adult people; and there are men who show great fortitude in
+afflictions, and bear the greatest misfortunes with dry eyes, that will
+cry heartily at a moving scene in a play. Some are easily wrought upon
+by one thing, others are sooner affected with another; but whatever
+touches us so forcibly, as to overwhelm the mind, prompts us to weep,
+and is the mechanical cause of tears; and therefore, besides grief,
+joy, and pity, there are other things no way relating to ourselves,
+that may have this effect upon us; such as the relations of surprising
+events and sudden turns of Providence in behalf of merit; instances
+of heroism, of generosity; in love, in friendship in an enemy; or
+the hearing or reading of noble thoughts and sentiments of humanity;
+more especially if these things are conveyed to us suddenly, in an
+agreeable manner, and unlooked for, as well as lively expressions. We
+shall observe, likewise, that none are more subject to this frailty
+of shedding tears on such foreign accounts, than persons of ingenuity
+and quick apprehension; and those among them that are most benevolent,
+generous, and open-hearted; whereas, the dull and stupid, the cruel,
+selfish, and designing, are very seldom troubled with it. Weeping,
+therefore, in earnest, is always a sure and involuntary demonstration
+that something strikes and overcomes the mind, whatever that be
+which affects it. We find likewise, that outward violence, as sharp
+winds and smoke, the effluvia of onions, and other volatile salts,
+&c. have the same effect upon the external fibres of the lachrymal
+ducts and glands that are exposed, which the sudden swelling and
+pressure of the spirits has upon those within. The Divine Wisdom
+is in nothing more conspicuous than in the infinite variety of
+living creatures of different construction; every part of them being
+contrived with stupendous skill, and fitted with the utmost accuracy
+for the different purposes they were designed for. The human body,
+above all, is a most astonishing master piece of art: the anatomist
+may have a perfect knowledge of all the bones and their ligaments,
+the muscles and their tendons, and be able to dissect every nerve and
+every membrane with great exactness; the naturalist, likewise, may
+dive a great way into the inward economy, and different symptoms of
+health and sickness: they may all approve of, and admire the curious
+machine; but no man can have a tolerable idea of the contrivance, the
+art, and the beauty of the workmanship itself, even in those things
+he can see, without being likewise versed in geometry and mechanics.
+
+Hor. How long is it ago that mathematics were brought into physic? that
+art, I have heard, is brought to great certainty by them.
+
+Cleo. What you speak of is quite another thing. Mathematics never had,
+nor ever can have, any thing to do with physic, if you mean by it
+the art of curing the sick. The structure and motions of the body,
+may perhaps be mechanically accounted for, and all fluids are under
+the laws of hydrostatics; but we can have no help from any part of the
+mechanics in the discovery of things, infinitely remote from sight,
+and entirely unknown as to their shapes and bulks. Physicians, with
+the rest of mankind, are wholly ignorant of the first principles and
+constituent parts of things, in which all the virtues and properties
+of them consist; and this, as well of the blood and other juices of
+the body, as the simples, and consequently all the medicines they
+make use of. There is no art that has less certainty than theirs,
+and the most valuable knowledge in it arises from observation, and
+is such, as a man of parts and application, who has fitted himself
+for that study, can only be possessed of after a long and judicious
+experience. But the pretence to mathematics, or the usefulness of it
+in the cure of diseases, is a cheat, and as arrant a piece of quackery
+as a stage and a Merry-Andrew.
+
+Hor. But since there is so much skill displayed in the bones, muscles,
+and grosser parts, is it not reasonable to think, that there is no
+less art bestowed on those that are beyond the reach of our senses?
+
+Cleo. I nowise doubt it: Microscopes have opened a new world to us,
+and I am far from thinking, that nature should leave off her work
+where we can trace her no further. I am persuaded that our thoughts,
+and the affections of the mind, have a more certain and more mechanical
+influence upon several parts of the body than has been hitherto or,
+in all human probability, ever will be discovered. The visible effect
+they have on the eyes and muscles of the face, must show the least
+attentive the reason I have for this assertion. When in mens company
+we are upon our guard, and would preserve our dignity, the lips are
+shut and the jaws meet; the muscles of the mouth are gently braced,
+and the rest all over the face are kept firmly in their places: turn
+away from these into another room, where you meet with a fine young
+lady that is affable and easy; immediately, before you think on it,
+your countenance will be strangely altered; and without being conscious
+of having done any thing to your face, you will have quite another
+look; and every body that has observed you, will discover in it more
+sweetness and less severity than you had the moment before. When we
+suffer the lower jaw to sink down, the mouth opens a little: if in
+this posture we look straight before us, without fixing our eyes on
+any thing, we may imitate the countenance of a natural; by dropping,
+as it were, our features, and laying no stress on any muscle of the
+face. Infants, before they have learned to swallow their spittle,
+generally keep their mouths open, and are always drivelling: in
+them, before they show any understanding, and whilst it is yet
+very confused, the muscles of the face are, as it were, relaxed,
+the lower jaw falls down, and the fibres of the lips are unbraced;
+at least, these phenomena we observe in them, during that time, more
+often than we do afterwards. In extreme old age, when people begin
+to doat, those symptoms return; and in most idiots they continue to
+be observed, as long as they live: Hence it is that we say, that a
+man wants a slabbering-bib, when he behaves very sillily or talks
+like a natural fool. When we reflect on all this, on the one hand,
+and consider on the other, that none are less prone to anger than
+idiots, and no creatures are less affected with pride, I would ask,
+whether there is not some degree of self-liking, that mechanically
+influences, and seems to assist us in the decent wearing of our faces.
+
+Hor. I cannot resolve you; what I know very well is, that by these
+conjectures on the mechanism of man, I find my understanding very
+little informed: I wonder how we came upon the subject.
+
+Cleo. You inquired into the origin of risibility, which nobody can
+give an account of, with any certainty; and in such cases every body
+is at liberty to make guesses, so they draw no conclusions from them
+to the prejudice of any thing better established. But the chief design
+I had in giving you these indigested thoughts, was to hint to you,
+how really mysterious the works of nature are; I mean, how replete
+they are every where, with a power glaringly conspicuous, and yet
+incomprehensible beyond all human reach; in order to demonstrate,
+that more useful knowledge may be acquired from unwearied observation,
+judicious experience, and arguing from facts à posteriori, than from
+the haughty attempts of entering into first causes, and reasoning à
+priori. I do not believe there is a man in the world of that sagacity,
+if he was wholly unacquainted with the nature of a spring-watch, that
+he would ever find out by dint of penetration the cause of its motion,
+if he was never to see the inside: but every middling capacity may be
+certain, by seeing only the outside, that its pointing at the hour, and
+keeping to time, proceed from the exactness of some curious workmanship
+that is hid; and that the motion of the hands, what number of resorts
+soever it is communicated by, is originally owing to something else
+that first moves within. In the same manner we are sure, that as
+the effects of thought upon the body are palpable, several motions
+are produced by it, by contact, and consequently mechanically: but
+the parts, the instruments which that operation is performed with,
+are so immensely far remote from our senses; and the swiftness of the
+action is so prodigious, that it infinitely surpasses our capacity
+to trace them.
+
+Hor. But is not thinking the business of the soul? What has mechanism
+to do with that?
+
+Cleo. The soul, whilst in the body, cannot be said to think, otherwise
+than an architect is said to build a house, where the carpenters,
+bricklayers, &c. do the work, which he chalks out and superintends.
+
+Hor. Which part of the brain do you think the soul to be more
+immediately lodged in; or do you take it to be diffused through
+the whole?
+
+Cleo. I know nothing of it more than what I have told you already.
+
+Hor. I plainly feel that this operation of thinking is a labour,
+or at least something that is transacting in my head, and not in my
+leg nor my arm: what insight or real knowledge have we from anatomy
+concerning it?
+
+Cleo. None at all à priori: the most consummate anatomist knows no
+more of it than a butcher's apprentice. We may admire the curious
+duplicate of coats, and close embroidery of veins and arteries
+that environ the brain: but when dissecting it we have viewed the
+several pairs of nerves, with their origin, and taken notice of some
+glands of various shapes and sizes, which differing from the brain
+in substance, could not but rush in view; when these, I say, have
+been taken notice of, and distinguished by different names, some of
+them not very pertinent, and less polite, the best naturalist must
+acknowledge, that even of these large visible parts there are but
+few, the nerves and blood-vessels excepted, at the use of which he
+can give any tolerable guesses: but as to the mysterious structure
+of the brain itself, and the more abstruse economy of it, that he
+knows nothing; but that the whole seems to be a medullary substance,
+compactly treasured up in infinite millions of imperceptible cells,
+that, disposed in an unconceivable order, are cluttered together in a
+perplexing variety of folds and windings. He will add, perhaps, that
+it is reasonable to think this to be the capacious exchequer of human
+knowledge, in which the faithful senses deposit the vast treasure of
+images, constantly, as through their organs they receive them; that it
+is the office in which the spirits are separated from the blood, and
+afterwards sublimed and volatilized into particles hardly corporeal;
+and that the most minute of these are always, either searching for,
+or variously disposing the images retained, and shooting through the
+infinite meanders of that wonderful substance, employ themselves,
+without ceasing, in that inexplicable performance, the contemplation
+of which fills the most exalted genius with amazement.
+
+Hor. These are very airy conjectures; but nothing of all this can be
+proved: The smallness of the parts, you will say, is the reason; but
+if greater improvements were made in optic glasses, and microscopes
+could be invented that magnified objects three or four millions of
+times more than they do now, then certainly those minute particles,
+so immensely remote from the senses you speak of, might be observed,
+if that which does the work is corporeal at all.
+
+Cleo. That such improvements are impossible, is demonstrable; but if
+it was not, even then we could have little help from anatomy. The
+brain of an animal cannot be looked and searched into whilst it is
+alive. Should you take the main spring out of a watch, and leave
+the barrel that contained it standing empty, it would be impossible
+to find out what it had been that made it exert itself, whilst it
+showed the time. We might examine all the wheels, and every other
+part belonging either to the movement or the motion, and, perhaps,
+find out the use of them, in relation to the turning of the hands;
+but the first cause of this labour would remain a mystery for ever.
+
+Hor. The main spring in us is the soul, which is immaterial and
+immortal: but what is that to other creatures that have a brain like
+ours, and no such immortal substance distinct from body? Do not you
+believe that dogs and horses think?
+
+Cleo. I believe they do, though in a degree of perfection far inferior
+to us.
+
+Hor. What is it that superintends thought in them? where must we look
+for it? which is the main spring?
+
+Cleo. I can answer you no otherwise, than life.
+
+Hor. What is life?
+
+Cleo. Every body understands the meaning of the word, though, perhaps,
+nobody knows the principle of life, that part which gives motion to
+all the rest.
+
+Hor. Where men are certain that the truth of a thing is not to be
+known, they will always differ, and endeavour to impose upon one
+another.
+
+Cleo. Whilst there are fools and knaves, they will; but I have not
+imposed upon you: what I said of the labour of the brain, I told you,
+was a conjecture, which I recommend no farther to you than you shall
+think it probable. You ought to expect no demonstration of a thing,
+that from its nature can admit of none. When the breath is gone, and
+the circulation ceased, the inside of an animal is vastly different
+from what it was whilst the lungs played, and the blood and juices were
+in full motion through every part of it. You have seen those engines
+that raise water by the help of fire; the steam you know, is that
+which forces it up; it is as impossible to see the volatile particles
+that perform the labour of the brain, when the creature is dead, as
+in the engine it would be to see the steam (which yet does all the
+work), when the fire is out and the water cold. Yet if this engine was
+shown to a man when it was not at work, and it was explained to him,
+which way it raised the water, it would be a strange incredulity,
+or great dullness of apprehension, not to believe it; if he knew
+perfectly well, that by heat, liquids may be rarified into vapour.
+
+Hor. But do not you think there is a difference in souls; and are
+they all equally good or equally bad?
+
+Cleo. We have some tolerable ideas of matter and motion; or, at least,
+of what we mean by them, and therefore we may form ideas of things
+corporeal, though they are beyond the reach of our senses; and we
+can conceive any portion of matter a thousand times less than our
+eyes, even by the help of the best microscopes, are able to see it:
+but the soul is altogether incomprehensible, and we can determine
+but little about it, that is not revealed to us. I believe that the
+difference of capacities in men, depends upon, and is entirely owing
+to the difference there is between them, either in the fabric itself,
+that is, the greater or lesser exactness in the composure of their
+frame, or else in the use that is made of it. The brain of a child,
+newly born, is carte blanche; and, as you have hinted very justly, we
+have no ideas, which we are not obliged for to our senses. I make no
+question, but that in this rummaging of the spirits through the brain,
+in hunting after, joining, separating, changing, and compounding of
+ideas with inconceivable swiftness, under the superintendency of the
+soul, the action of thinking consists. The best thing, therefore,
+we can do to infants after the first month, besides feeding and
+keeping them from harm, is to make them take in ideas, beginning by
+the two most useful senses, the sight and hearing; and dispose them
+to set about this labour of the brain, and by our example encourage
+them to imitate us in thinking; which, on their side, is very poorly
+performed at first. Therefore the more an infant in health is talked to
+and jumbled about, the better it is for it, at least, for the first
+two years; and for its attendance in this early education, to the
+wisest matron in the world, I would prefer an active young wench,
+whose tongue never stands still, that should run about, and never
+cease diverting and playing with it whilst it was awake; and where
+people can afford it, two or three of them, to relieve one another
+when they are tired, are better than one.
+
+Hor. Then you think children reap great benefit from the nonsensical
+chat of nurses?
+
+Cleo. It is of inestimable use to them, and teaches them to think,
+as well as speak, much sooner and better, than with equal aptitude
+of parts they would do without. The business is to make them exert
+those faculties, and keep infants continually employed about them;
+for the time which is lost then, is never to be retrieved.
+
+Hor. Yet we seldom remember any thing of what we saw or heard, before
+we were two years old: then what would be lost, if children should
+not hear all that impertinence?
+
+Cleo. As iron is to be hammered whilst it is hot and ductile, so
+children are to be taught when they are young: as the flesh and every
+tube and membrane about them, are then tenderer, and will yield sooner
+to slight impressions, than afterwards; so many of their bones are
+but cartilages, and the brain itself is much softer, and in a manner
+fluid. This is the reason, that it cannot so well retain the images
+it receives, as it does afterwards, when the substance of it comes to
+be of a better consistence. But as the first images are lost, so they
+are continually succeeded by new ones; and the brain at first serves
+as a slate to cypher, or a sampler to work upon. What infants should
+chiefly learn, is the performance itself, the exercise of thinking,
+and to contract a habit of disposing, and with ease and agility
+managing the images retained, to the purpose intended; which is never
+attained better than whilst the matter is yielding, and the organs are
+most flexible and supple. So they but exercise themselves in thinking
+and speaking, it is no matter what they think on, or what they say,
+that is inoffensive. In sprightly infants, we soon see by their eyes
+the efforts they are making to imitate us, before they are able;
+and that they try at this exercise of the brain, and make essays to
+think, as well as they do to hammer out words, we may know from the
+incoherence of their actions, and the strange absurdities they utter:
+but as there are more degrees of thinking well, than there are of
+speaking plain, the first is of the greatest consequence.
+
+Hor. I wonder you should talk of teaching, and lay so great a stress
+on a thing that comes so naturally to us, as thinking: no action is
+performed with greater velocity by every body: as quick as thought,
+is a proverb, and in less than a moment a stupid peasant may remove
+his ideas from London to Japan, as easily as the greatest wit.
+
+Cleo. Yet there is nothing, in which men differ so immensely from one
+another, as they do in the exercise of this faculty: the differences
+between them in height, bulk, strength, and beauty, are trifling
+in comparison to that which I speak of; and there is nothing in the
+world more valuable, or more plainly perceptible in persons, than a
+happy dexterity of thinking. Two men may have equal knowledge, and
+yet the one shall speak as well off-hand, as the other can after two
+hours study.
+
+Hor. I take it for granted, that no man would study two hours for
+a speech, if he knew how to make it in less; and therefore I cannot
+see what reason you have to suppose two such persons to be of equal
+knowledge.
+
+Cleo. There is a double meaning in the word knowing, which you seem
+not to attend to. There is a great difference between knowing a violin
+when you see it, and knowing how to play upon it. The knowledge I
+speak of is of the first sort; and if you consider it in that sense,
+you must be of my opinion; for no study can fetch any thing out of
+the brain that is not there. Suppose you conceive a short epistle
+in three minutes, which another, who can make letters and join them
+together as fast as yourself, is yet an hour about, though both of
+you write the same thing, it is plain to me, that the slow person
+knows as much as you do; at least it does not appear that he knows
+less. He has received the same images, but he cannot come at them,
+or at least not dispose them in that order, so soon as yourself. When
+we see two exercises of equal goodness, either in prose or verse, if
+the one is made ex tempore, and we are sure of it, and the other has
+cost two days labour, the author of the first is a person of finer
+natural parts than the other, though their knowledge, for ought we
+know, is the same. You see, then, the difference between knowledge,
+as it signifies the treasure of images received, and knowledge, or
+rather skill, to find out those images when we want them, and work
+them readily to our purpose.
+
+Hor. When we know a thing, and cannot readily think of it, or bring
+it to mind, I thought that was the fault of the memory.
+
+Cleo. So it may be in part: but there are men of prodigious reading,
+that have likewise great memories, who judge ill, and seldom say any
+thing a propos, or say it when it is too late. Among the belluones
+librorum, the cormorants of books, there are wretched reasoners,
+that have canine appetites, and no digestion. What numbers of learned
+fools do we not meet with in large libraries; from whose works it is
+evident, that knowledge must have lain in their heads, as furniture
+at an upholder's; and the treasure of the brain was a burden to them
+instead of an ornament! All this proceeds from a defect in the faculty
+of thinking; an unskilfulness, and want of aptitude in managing,
+to the best advantage, the ideas we have received. We see others,
+on the contrary, that have very fine sense, and no literature at
+all. The generality of women are quicker of invention, and more ready
+at repartee, than the men, with equal helps of education; and it is
+surprising to see, what a considerable figure some of them make in
+conversation, when we consider the small opportunities they have had
+of acquiring knowledge.
+
+Hor. But sound judgment is a great rarity among them.
+
+Cleo. Only for want of practice, application, and assiduity. Thinking
+on abstruse matters, is not their province in life; and as the stations
+they are commonly placed in find them other employment; but there is
+no labour of the brain which women are not as capable of performing,
+at least as well as the men, with the same assistance, if they set
+about, and persevere in it: sound judgment is no more than the result
+of that labour: he that uses himself to take things to pieces, to
+compare them together, to consider them abstractly and impartially;
+that is, he who of two propositions he is to examine seems not to care
+which is true; he that lays the whole stress of his mind on every part
+alike, and puts the same thing in all the views it can be seen in:
+he, I say, that employs himself most often in this exercise, is most
+likely cæteris paribus to acquire what we call a sound judgment. The
+workmanship in the make of women seems to be more elegant, and better
+finished: the features are more delicate, the voice is sweeter, the
+whole outside of them is more curiously wove, than they are in men;
+and the difference in the skin between theirs and ours is the same,
+as there is between fine cloth and coarse. There is no reason to
+imagine, that nature should have been more neglectful of them out of
+sight, than she has where we can trace her; and not have taken the
+same care of them in the formation, of the brain, as to the nicety
+of the structure, and superior accuracy in the fabric, which is so
+visible in the rest of their frame.
+
+Hor. Beauty is their attribute, as strength is ours.
+
+Cleo. How minute soever those particles of the brain are, that contain
+the several images, and are assisting in the operation of thinking,
+there must be a difference in the justness, the symmetry, and exactness
+of them between one person and another, as well as there is in the
+grosser parts: what the women excel us in, then, is the goodness of
+the instrument, either in the harmony or pliableness of the organs,
+which must be very material in the art of thinking, and is the only
+thing that deserves the name of natural parts, since the aptitude I
+have spoke of, depending upon exercise, is notoriously acquired.
+
+Hor. As the workmanship in the brain is rather more curious in women
+than it is in men, so, in sheep and oxen, dogs and horses, I suppose
+it is infinitely coarser.
+
+Cleo. We have no reason to think otherwise,
+
+Hor. But after all, that self, that part of us that wills and wishes,
+that chooses one thing rather than another, must be incorporeal:
+For if it is matter, it must either be one single particle, which I
+can almost feel it is not, or a combination of many, which is more
+than inconceivable.
+
+Cleo. I do not deny what you say; and that the principle of thought
+and action is inexplicable in all creatures I have hinted already: But
+its being incorporeal does not mend the matter, as to the difficulty
+of explaining or conceiving it. That there must be a mutual contact
+between this principle, whatever it is, and the body itself, is what we
+are certain of à posteriori; and a reciprocal action upon each other,
+between an immaterial substance and matter, is as incomprehensible
+to human capacity, as that thought should be the result of matter
+and motion.
+
+Hor. Though many other animals seem to be endued with thought, there
+is no creature we are acquainted with, besides man, that shows or
+seems to feel a consciousness of his thinking.
+
+Cleo. It is not easy to determine what instincts, properties, or
+capacities other creatures are either possessed or destitute of,
+when those qualifications fall not under our senses: But it is highly
+probable, that the principal and most necessary parts of the machine
+are less elaborate in animals, that attain to all the perfection
+they are capable of in three, four, five, or six years at furthest,
+than they are in a creature that hardly comes to maturity, its full
+growth and strength in five and twenty. The consciousness of a man
+of fifty, that he is the same man that did such a thing at twenty,
+and was once the boy that had such and such masters, depends wholly
+upon the memory, and can never be traced to the bottom: I mean,
+that no man remembers any thing of himself, or what was transacted
+before he was two years old, when he was but a novice in the art of
+thinking, and the brain was not yet of a due consistence to retain
+long the images it received: But this remembrance, how far soever it
+may reach, gives us no greater surety of ourselves, than we should
+have of another that had been brought up with us, and never above a
+week or a month out of sight. A mother, when her son is thirty years
+old, has more reason to know that he is the same whom she brought
+into the world than himself; and such a one, who daily minds her son,
+and remembers the alterations of his features from time to time, is
+more certain of him that he was not changed in the cradle, than she
+can be of herself. So that all we can know of this consciousness, is,
+that it consists in, or is the result of the running and rummaging
+of the spirits through all the mazes of the brain, and their looking
+there for facts concerning ourselves: He that has lost his memory,
+though otherwise in perfect health, cannot think better than a fool,
+and is no more conscious that he is the same he was a-year ago, than
+he is of a man whom he has known but a fortnight. There are several
+degrees of losing our memory; but he who has entirely lost it becomes,
+ipso facto, an idiot.
+
+Hor. I am conscious of having been the occasion of our rambling a great
+way from the subject we were upon, but I do not repent of it: What you
+have said of the economy of the brain, and the mechanical influence
+of thought upon the grosser parts, is a noble theme for contemplation
+on the infinite unutterable wisdom with which the various instincts
+are so visibly planted in all animals, to fit them for the respective
+purposes they were designed for; and every appetite is so wonderfully
+interwove with the very substance of their frame. Nothing could be
+more seasonable, after you had showed me the origin of politeness,
+and in the management of self-liking, set forth the excellency of our
+species beyond all other animals so conspicuously in the superlative
+docility and indefatigable industry, by which all multitudes are
+capable of drawing innumerable benefits, as well for the ease and
+comfort, as the welfare and safety of congregate bodies, from a
+most stubborn and an unconquerable passion, which, in its nature,
+seems to be destructive to sociableness and society, and never fails,
+in untaught men, to render them insufferable to one another.
+
+Cleo. By the same method of reasoning from facts à posteriori,
+that has laid open to us the nature and usefulness of self-liking,
+all the rest of the passions may easily be accounted for, and become
+intelligible. It is evident, that the necessaries of life stand not
+every where ready dished up before all creatures; therefore they
+have instincts that prompt them to look out for those necessaries,
+and teach them how to come at them. The zeal and alacrity to gratify
+their appetites, is always proportioned to the strength, and the degree
+of force with which those instincts work upon every creature: But,
+considering the disposition of things upon earth, and the multiplicity
+of animals that have all their own wants to supply, it must be obvious,
+that these attempts of creatures, to obey the different calls of
+nature, will be often opposed and frustrated, and that, in many
+animals, they would seldom meet with success, if every individual
+was not endued with a passion, that, summoning all his strength,
+inspired him with a transporting eagerness to overcome the obstacles
+that hinder him in his great work of self-preservation. The passion
+I describe is called anger. How a creature possessed of this passion
+and self-liking, when he sees others enjoy what he wants, should be
+affected with envy, can likewise be no mystery. After labour, the most
+savage, and the most industrious creature seeks rest: Hence we learn,
+that all of them are furnished, more or less, with a love of ease:
+Exerting their strength tires them; and the loss of spirits, experience
+teaches us, is best repaired by food and sleep. We see that creatures,
+who, in their way of living, must meet with the greatest opposition,
+have the greatest share of anger, and are born with offensive arms. If
+this anger was to employ a creature always, without consideration
+of the danger he exposed himself to, he would soon be destroyed:
+For this reason, they are all endued with fear; and the lion himself
+turns tail, if the hunters are armed, and too numerous. From what
+we observe in the behaviour of brutes, we have reason to think,
+that among the more perfect animals, those of the same species have a
+capacity, on many occasions, to make their wants known to one another;
+and we are sure of several, not only that they understand one another,
+but likewise that they may be made to understand us. In comparing our
+species with that of other animals, when we consider the make of man,
+and the qualifications that are obvious in him, his superior capacity
+in the faculties of thinking and reflecting beyond other creatures,
+his being capable of learning to speak, and the usefulness of his
+hands and fingers, there is no room to doubt, that he is more fit
+for society than any other animal we know.
+
+Hor. Since you wholly reject my Lord Shaftsbury's system, I wish
+you would give me your opinion at large concerning society, and the
+sociableness of man; and I will hearken to you with great attention.
+
+Cleo. The cause of sociableness in man, that is, his fitness for
+society, is no such abstruse matter: A person of middling capacity,
+that has some experience, and a tolerable knowledge of human nature,
+may soon find it out, if his desire of knowing the truth be sincere,
+and he will look for it without prepossession; but most people that
+have treated on this subject, had a turn to serve, and a cause in
+view, which they were resolved to maintain. It is very unworthy of a
+philosopher to say, as Hobbes did, that man is born unfit for society,
+and allege no better reason for it, than the incapacity that infants
+come into the world with; but some of his adversaries have as far
+overshot the mark, when they asserted, that every thing which man can
+attain to, ought to be esteemed as a cause of his fitness for society.
+
+Hor. But is there in the mind of man a natural affection, that prompts
+him to love his species beyond what other animals have for theirs;
+or, are we born with hatred and aversion, that makes us wolves and
+bears to one another?
+
+Cleo. I believe neither. From what appears to us in human affairs,
+and the works of nature, we have more reason to imagine, that the
+desire, as well as aptness of man to associate, do not proceed from
+his love to others, than we have to believe that a mutual affection of
+the planets to one another, superior to what they feel to stars more
+remote, is not the true cause why they keep always moving together
+in the same solar system.
+
+Hor. You do not believe that the stars have any love for one another,
+I am sure: Then why more reason?
+
+Cleo. Because there are no phenomena plainly to contradict this love
+of the planets; and we meet with thousands every day to convince us,
+that man centres every thing in himself, and neither loves nor hates,
+but for his own sake. Every individual is a little world by itself,
+and all creatures, as far as their understanding and abilities will
+let them, endeavour to make that self happy: This, in all of them, is
+the continual labour, and seems to be the whole design of life. Hence
+it follows, that in the choice of things, men must be determined
+by the perception they have of happiness; and no person can commit,
+or set about an action, which, at that then present time, seems not
+to be the best to him.
+
+Hor. What will you then say to, video meliora proboque, deteriora
+sequor?
+
+Cleo. That only shows the turpitude of our inclinations. But men
+may say what they please: Every motion in a free agent, which
+he does not approve of, is either convulsive, or it is not his;
+I speak of those that are subject to the will. When two things are
+left to a person's choice, it is a demonstration that he thinks that
+most eligible which he chooses, how contradictory, impertinent, or
+pernicious soever his reason for choosing it may be: Without this,
+there could be no voluntary suicide; and it would be injustice to
+punish men for their crimes.
+
+Hor. I believe every body endeavours to be pleased; but it is
+inconceivable that creatures of the same species should differ so much
+from one another, as men do in their notions of pleasure; and that some
+of them should take delight in what is the greatest aversion to others:
+All aim at happiness; but the question is, Where is it to be found?
+
+Cleo. It is with complete felicity in this world, as it is with the
+philosopher's stone: Both have been sought after many different ways,
+by wise men as well as fools, though neither of them has been obtained
+hitherto: But in searching after either, diligent inquirers have
+often stumbled by chance on useful discoveries of things they did not
+look for, and which human sagacity, labouring with design à priori,
+never would have detected. Multitudes of our species may, in any
+habitable part of the globe, assist one another in a common defence,
+and be raised into a politic body, in which men shall live comfortably
+together for many centuries, without being acquainted with a thousand
+things, that if known, would every one of them be instrumental to
+render the happiness of the public more complete, according to the
+common notions men have of happiness. In one part of the world, we have
+found great and flourishing nations that knew nothing of ships; and
+in others, traffic by sea had been in use above two thousand years,
+and navigation had received innumerable improvements, before they
+knew how to sail by the help of the loadstone: It would be ridiculous
+to allege this piece of knowledge, either as a reason why man first
+chose to go to sea, or as an argument to prove his natural capacity
+for maritime affairs. To raise a garden, it is necessary that we
+should have a soil and a climate fit for that purpose. When we have
+these, we want nothing besides patience, but the seeds of vegetables
+and proper culture. Fine walks and canals, statues, summer-houses,
+fountains, and cascades, are great improvements on the delights of
+nature; but they are not essential to the existence of a garden. All
+nations must have had mean beginnings; and it is in those, the infancy
+of them, that the sociableness of man is as conspicuous as it can be
+ever after. Man is called a sociable creature chiefly for two reasons:
+First, because it is commonly imagined that he is naturally more fond
+and desirous of society, than any other creature. Secondly, because
+it is manifest, that associating in men turns to better account than
+it possibly could do in other animals, if they were to attempt it.
+
+Hor. But why do you say of the first, that it is commonly imagined;
+is it not true then?
+
+Cleo. I have a very good reason for this caution. All men born in
+society, are certainly more desirous of it than any other animal;
+but whether man be naturally so, that is a question: But, if he was,
+it is no excellency, nothing to brag of: The love man has for his ease
+and security, and his perpetual desire of meliorating his condition,
+must be sufficient motives to make him fond of society, concerning
+the necessitous and helpless condition of his nature.
+
+Hor. Do not you fall into the same error, which, you say, Hobbes
+has been guilty of, when you talk of man's necessitous and helpless
+condition?
+
+Cleo. Not at all; I speak of men and women full grown; and the more
+extensive their knowledge is, the higher their quality, and the greater
+their possessions are, the more necessitous and helpless they are in
+their nature. A nobleman of twenty-five or thirty thousand pounds
+a-year, that has three or four coaches and six, and above fifty
+people to serve him, is in his person considered singly, abstract
+from what he possesses, more necessitous than an obscure man that
+has but fifty pounds a-year, and is used to walk a-foot; so a lady,
+who never stuck a pin in herself, and is dressed and undressed from
+head to foot like a jointed baby by her woman, and the assistance
+of another maid or two, is a more helpless creature than doll the
+diary-maid, who, all the winter long, dresses herself in the dark in
+less time than the other bestows in placing of her patches.
+
+Hor. But is the desire of meliorating our condition which you named,
+so general, that no man is without it?
+
+Cleo. Not one that can be called a sociable creature; and I believe
+this to be as much a characteristic of our species as any can be
+named: For there is not a man in the world, educated in society, who,
+if he could compass it by wishing, would not have something added to,
+taken from, or altered in his person, possessions, circumstances,
+or any part of the society he belongs to. This is what is not to be
+perceived in any creature but man; whose great industry in supplying
+what he calls his wants, could never have been known so well as it is,
+if it had not been for the unreasonableness, as well as multiplicity of
+his desires. From all which, it is manifest, that the most civilized
+people stand most in need of society, and consequently, none less
+than savages. The second reason for which I said man was called
+sociable, is, that associating together turned to better account
+in our species than it would do in any other, if they were to try
+it. To find out the reason of this, we must search into human nature
+for such qualifications as we excel all other animals in, and which
+the generality of men are endued with, taught or untaught: But in
+doing this, we should neglect nothing that is observable in them,
+from their most early youth to their extreme old age.
+
+Hor. I cannot see why you use this precaution, of taking in the whole
+age of man; would it not be sufficient to mind those qualifications
+which he is possessed of, when he is come to the height of maturity,
+or his greatest perfection?
+
+Cleo. A considerable part of what is called docility in creatures,
+depends upon the pliableness of the parts, and their fitness to
+be moved with facility, which are either entirely lost, or very
+much impaired, when they are full grown. There is nothing in which
+our species so far surpasses all others, than in the capacity of
+acquiring the faculty of thinking and speaking well: that this is a
+peculiar property belonging to our nature is very certain, yet it is
+as manifest, that this capacity vanishes, when we come to maturity,
+if till then it has been neglected. The term of life likewise, that
+is commonly enjoyed by our species, being longer than it is in most
+other animals, we have a prerogative above them in point of time;
+and man has a greater opportunity of advancing in wisdom, though
+not to be acquired but by his own experience, than a creature that
+lives but half his age, though it had the same capacity. A man of
+threescore, cæteris paribus, knows better what is to be embraced or
+avoided in life, than a man of thirty. What Mitio, in excusing the
+follies of youth, said to his brother Demea, in the Adelphi, ad omnia
+alia Ætate sapimus rectius, holds among savages, as well as among
+philosophers. It is the concurrence of these, with other properties,
+that together compose the sociableness of man.
+
+Hor. But why may not the love of our species be named, as one of
+these properties?
+
+Cleo. First, because, as I have said already, it does not appear,
+that we have it beyond other animals: secondly, because it is out of
+the question: for if we examine into the nature of all bodies politic,
+we shall find, that no dependance is ever had, or stress laid on any
+such affection, either for the raising or maintaining of them.
+
+Hor. But the epithet itself, the signification of the word, imports
+this love to one another; as is manifest from the contrary. One who
+loves solitude, is averse to company, or of a singular, reserved,
+and sullen temper, is the very reverse of a sociable man.
+
+Cleo. When we compare some men to others, the word, I own, is often
+used in that sense: but when we speak of a quality peculiar to our
+species, and say, that man is a sociable creature, the word implies
+no more, than that in our nature we have a certain fitness, by which
+great multitudes of us cooperating, may be united and formed into one
+body; that endued with, and, able to make use of, the strength, skill
+and prudence of every individual, shall govern itself, and act on all
+emergencies, as if it was animated by one soul, and actuated by one
+will. I am willing to allow, that among the motives that prompt man
+to enter into society, there is a desire which he has naturally after
+company; but he has it for his own sake, in hopes of being the better
+for it; and he would never wish for either company or any thing else,
+but for some advantage or other he proposes to himself from it. What
+I deny is, that man naturally has such a desire, out of a fondness
+of his species, superior to what other animals have for theirs. It
+is a compliment which we commonly pay to ourselves, but there is no
+more reality in it, than in our being one another's humble servants;
+and I insist upon it, that this pretended love of our species, and
+natural affection we are said to have for one another, beyond other
+animals, is neither instrumental to the erecting of societies, nor ever
+trusted to in our prudent commerce with one another when associated,
+any more than if it had no existence. The undoubted basis of all
+societies is government: this truth, well examined into, will furnish
+us with all the reasons of man's excellency as to sociableness. It
+is evident from it, that creatures, to be raised into a community,
+must, in the first place, be governable: This is a qualification
+that requires fear, and some degree of understanding; for a creature
+not susceptible of fear, is never to be governed; and the more sense
+and courage it has, the more refractory and untractable it will be,
+without the influence of that useful passion: and again, fear without
+understanding puts creatures only upon avoiding the danger dreaded,
+without considering what will become of themselves afterwards: so
+wild birds will beat out their brains against the cage, before they
+will save their lives by eating. There is a great difference between
+being submissive, and being governable; for he who barely submits
+to another, only embraces what he dislikes, to shun what he dislikes
+more; and we may be very submissive, and be of no use to the person we
+submit to: but to be governable, implies an endeavour to please, and a
+willingness to exert ourselves in behalf of the person that governs:
+but love beginning every where at home, no creature can labour for
+others, and be easy long, whilst self is wholly out of the question:
+therefore a creature is then truly governable, when reconciled to
+submission, it has learned to construe his servitude to his own
+advantage; and rests satisfied with the account it finds for itself,
+in the labour it performs for others. Several kind of animals are, or
+may, with little trouble, be made thus governable; but there is not
+one creature so tame, that it can be made to serve its own species,
+but man; yet without this he could never have been made sociable.
+
+Hor. But was not man by nature designed for society?
+
+Cleo. We know from revelation that man was made for society.
+
+Hor. But if it had not been revealed, or you had been a Chinese,
+or a Mexican, what would you answer me as a philosopher?
+
+Cleo. That nature had designed man for society, as she has made grapes
+for wine.
+
+Hor. To make wine is an invention of man, as it is to press oil from
+olives and other vegetables, and to make ropes of hemp.
+
+Cleo. And so it is to form a society of independent multitudes;
+and there is nothing that requires greater skill.
+
+Hor. But is not the sociableness of man the work of nature, or rather
+of the author of nature, Divine Providence?
+
+Cleo. Without doubt: But so is the innate virtue and peculiar
+aptitude of every thing; that grapes are fit to make wine, and
+barley and water to make other liquors, is the work of Providence;
+but it is human sagacity that finds out the uses we make of them: all
+the other capacities of man likewise, as well as his sociableness,
+are evidently derived from God, who made him: every thing therefore
+that our industry can produce or compass, is originally owing to
+the Author of our being. But when we speak of the works of nature,
+to distinguish them from those of art, we mean such as were brought
+forth without our concurrence. So nature, in due season produces peas;
+but in England you cannot have them green in January, without art
+and uncommon industry. What nature designs, she executes herself:
+there are creatures, of whom it is visible, that nature has designed
+them for society, as is most obvious in bees, to whom she has given
+instincts for that purpose, as appears from the effects. We owe our
+being and every thing else to the great Author of the universe; but
+as societies cannot subsist without his preserving power, so they
+cannot exist without the concurrence of human wisdom: all of them
+must have a dependance either on mutual compact, or the force of the
+strong exerting itself upon the patience of the weak. The difference
+between the works of art, and those of nature, is so immense, that it
+is impossible not to know them asunder. Knowing, à priori, belongs to
+God only, and Divine Wisdom acts with an original certainty, of which,
+what we call demonstration, is but an imperfect borrowed copy. Amongst
+the works of nature, therefore, we see no trials nor essays; they are
+all complete, and such as she would have them, at the first production;
+and, where she has not been interrupted, highly finished, beyond
+the reach of our understanding, as well as senses. Wretched man,
+on the contrary is sure of nothing, his own existence not excepted,
+but from reasoning, à posteriori. The consequence of this is, that
+the works of art and human invention are all very lame and defective,
+and most of them pitifully mean at first: our knowledge is advanced
+by slow degrees, and some arts and sciences require the experience of
+many ages, before they can be brought to any tolerable perfection. Have
+we any reason to imagine that the society of bees, that sent forth the
+first swarm, made worse wax or honey than any of their posterity have
+produced since? And again the laws of nature are fixed and unalterable:
+in all her orders and regulations there is a stability, no where to
+be met with in things of human contrivance and approbation;
+
+
+    Quid placet aut odio est, quod non mutabile credas?
+
+
+Is it probable, that amongst the bees, there has ever been any other
+form of government than what every swarm submits to now? What an
+infinite variety of speculations, what ridiculous schemes have not been
+proposed amongst men, on the subject of government; what dissentions
+in opinion, and what fatal quarrels has it not been the occasion
+of! and which is the best form of it, is a question to this day
+undecided. The projects, good and bad, that have been stated for the
+benefit, and more happy establishment of society, are innumerable; but
+how short sighted is our sagacity, how fallible human judgment! What
+has seemed highly advantageous to mankind in one age, has often been
+found to be evidently detrimental by the succeeding; and even among
+contemporaries, what is revered in one country, is the abomination
+of another. What changes have ever bees made in their furniture or
+architecture? have they ever made cells that were not sexangular,
+or added any tools to those which nature furnished them with at the
+beginning? What mighty structures have been raised, what prodigious
+works have been performed by the great nations of the world! Toward
+all these nature has only found materials: the quarry yields marble,
+but it is the sculptor that makes a statue of it. To have the infinite
+variety of iron tools that have been invented, nature has given us
+nothing but the oar, which she has hid in the bowels of the earth.
+
+Hor. But the capacity of the workmen, the inventors of arts, and
+those that improved them, has had a great share in bringing those
+labours to perfection; and their genius they had from nature.
+
+Cleo. So far as it depended upon the make of their frame, the
+accuracy of the machine they had, and no further; but this I have
+allowed already; and if you remember what I have said on this head,
+you will find, that the part which nature contributed toward the skill
+and patience of every single person, that had a hand in those works,
+was very inconsiderable.
+
+Hor. If I have not misunderstood you, you would insinuate two things:
+First, that the fitness of man for society, beyond other animals,
+is something real; but that it is hardly perceptible in individuals,
+before great numbers of them are joined together, and artfully
+managed. Secondly, that this real something, this sociableness, is
+a compound that consists in a concurrence of several things, and not
+in any one palpable quality, that man is endued with, and brutes are
+destitute of.
+
+Cleo. You are perfectly right: every grape contains a small quantity
+of juice, and when great heaps of them are squeezed together, they
+yield a liquor, which by skilful management may be made into wine:
+but if we consider how necessary fermentation is to the vinosity of
+the liquor, I mean, how essential is it to its being wine, it will
+be evident to us, that without great impropriety of speech, it cannot
+be said, that in every grape there is wine.
+
+Hor. Vinosity, so far as it is the effect of fermentation, is
+adventitious; and what none of the grapes could ever have received
+whilst they remained single; and, therefore, if you would compare the
+sociableness of man to the vinosity of wine, you must show me, that in
+society there is an equivalent for fermentation; I mean something that
+individual persons are not actually possessed of, whilst they remain
+single, and which likewise is palpably adventitious to multitudes when
+joined together; in the same manner as fermentation is to the juice
+of grapes, and as necessary and essential to the completing of society
+as that is, that same fermentation, to procure the vinosity of wine.
+
+Cleo. Such an equivalent is demonstrable in mutual commerce: for if we
+examine every faculty and qualification, from and for which we judge
+and pronounce man to be a sociable creature beyond other animals, we
+shall find, that a very considerable, if not the greatest part of the
+attribute is acquired, and comes upon multitudes, from their conversing
+with one another. Fabricando fabri simus. Men become sociable, by
+living together in society. Natural affection prompts all mothers to
+take care of the offspring they dare own; so far as to feed and keep
+them from harm, whilst they are helpless: but where people are poor,
+and the women have no leisure to indulge themselves in the various
+expressions of their fondness for their infants, which fondling of them
+ever increases, they are often very remiss in tending and playing with
+them; and the more healthy and quiet such children are, the more they
+are neglected. This want of prattling to, and stirring up the spirits
+in babes, is often the principal cause of an invincible stupidity,
+as well as ignorance, when they are grown up; and we often ascribe to
+natural incapacity, what is altogether owing to the neglect of this
+early instruction. We have so few examples of human creatures, that
+never conversed with their own species, that it is hard to guess, what
+man would be, entirely untaught; but we have good reason to believe,
+that the faculty of thinking would be very imperfect in such a one,
+if we consider, that the greatest docility can be of no use to a
+creature, whilst it has nothing to imitate, nor any body to teach it.
+
+Hor. Philosophers therefore are very wisely employed, when they
+discourse about the laws of nature; and pretend to determine what a
+man in the state of nature would think, and which way he would reason
+concerning himself and the creation, uninstructed.
+
+Cleo. Thinking, and reasoning justly, as Mr. Locke has rightly
+observed, require time and practice. Those that have not used
+themselves to thinking, but just on their present necessities, make
+poor work of it, when they try beyond that. In remote parts, and such
+as are least inhabited, we shall find our species come nearer the
+state of nature, than it does in and near great cities and considerable
+towns, even in the most civilized nations. Among the most ignorant of
+such people, you may learn the truth of my assertion; talk to them
+about any thing, that requires abstract thinking, and there is not
+one in fifty that will understand you, any more than a horse would;
+and yet many of them are useful labourers, and cunning enough to tell
+lies and deceive. Man is a rational creature, but he is not endued
+with reason when he comes into the world; nor can he afterwards put
+it on when he pleases, at once, as he may a garment. Speech likewise
+is a characteristic of our species, but no man is born with it; and a
+dozen generations proceeding from two savages would not produce any
+tolerable language; nor have we reason to believe, that a man could
+be taught to speak after five-and-twenty, if he had never heard others
+before that time.
+
+Hor. The necessity of teaching, whilst the organs are supple, and
+easily yield to impression, which you have spoke of before, I believe
+is of great weight, both in speaking and thinking; but could a dog,
+or a monkey, ever be taught to speak?
+
+Cleo. I believe not; but I do not think, that creatures of another
+species had ever the pains bestowed upon them, that some children have,
+before they can pronounce one word. Another thing to be considered is,
+that though some animals perhaps live longer than we do, there is no
+species that remains young so long as ours; and besides what we owe to
+the superior aptitude to learn, which we have from the great accuracy
+of our frame and inward structure, we are not a little indebted for
+our docility, to the slowness and long gradation of our increase,
+before we are full grown: the organs in other creatures grow stiff,
+before ours are come to half their perfection.
+
+Hor. So that in the compliment we make to our species, of its being
+endued with speech and sociableness, there is no other reality,
+than that by care and industry men may be taught to speak, and be
+made sociable, if the discipline begins when they are very young.
+
+Cleo. Not otherwise. A thousand of our species all grown up, that is
+above five-and-twenty, could never be made sociable, if they had been
+brought up wild, and were all strangers to one another.
+
+Hor. I believe they could not be civilized, if their education began
+so late.
+
+Cleo. But I mean barely sociable, as it is the epithet peculiar to man;
+that is, it would be impossible by art to govern them, any more than
+so many wild horses, unless you had two or three times that number
+to watch and keep them in awe. Therefore it is highly probable,
+that most societies, and beginnings of nations, were formed in the
+manner Sir William Temple supposes it; but nothing near so fast:
+and I wonder how a man of his unquestionable good sense, could form
+an idea of justice, prudence, and wisdom, in an untaught creature;
+or think of a civilized man, before there was any civil society,
+and even before men had commenced to associate.
+
+Hor. I have read it, I am sure, but I do not remember what it is
+you mean.
+
+Cleo. He is just behind you; the third shelf from the bottom; the
+first volume: pray reach it me, it is worth your hearing.----It
+is in his Essay on Government. Here it is. "For if we consider man
+multiplying his kind by the birth of many children, and his cares by
+providing even necessary food for them, until they are able to do it
+for themselves (which happens much later to the generations of men,
+and makes a much longer dependence of children upon parents, than we
+can observe among any other creatures); if we consider not only the
+cares, but the industry he is forced to, for the necessary sustenance
+of his helpless brood, either in gathering the natural fruits, or
+raising those which are purchased with labour and toil: if he be
+forced for supply of this stock, to catch the tamer creatures, and
+hunt the wilder, sometimes to exercise his courage in defending his
+little family, and fighting with the strong and savage beasts (that
+would prey upon him, as he does upon the weak and mild): if we suppose
+him disposing with discretion and order, whatever he gets among his
+children, according to each of their hunger or need; sometimes laying
+up for to-morrow, what was more than enough for to-day; at other times
+pinching himself, rather than suffering any of them should want.----"
+
+Hor. This man is no savage, or untaught creature; he is fit to be a
+justice of peace.
+
+Cleo. Pray let me go on, I shall only read this paragraph: "And
+as each of them grows up, and able to share in the common support,
+teaching them, both by lesson and example, what he is now to do, as
+the son of his family, and what hereafter, as the father of another;
+instructing them all, what qualities are good, and what are ill,
+for their health and life, or common society (which will certainly
+comprehend whatever is generally esteemed virtue or vice among men),
+cherishing and encouraging dispositions to the good, disfavouring and
+punishing those to the ill: And lastly, among the various accidents
+of life, lifting up his eyes to Heaven, when the earth affords him no
+relief; and having recourse to a higher and a greater nature, whenever
+he finds the frailty of his own: we must needs conclude, that the
+children of this man cannot fail of being bred up with a great opinion
+of his wisdom, his goodness, his valour, and his piety. And if they see
+constant plenty in the family, they believe well of his fortune too."
+
+Hor. Did this man spring out of the earth, I wonder, or did he drop
+from the sky?
+
+Cleo. There is no manner of absurdity in supposing----.
+
+Hor. The discussion of this would too far engage us: I am sure,
+I have tired you already with my impertinence.
+
+Cleo. You have pleased me extremely: the questions you have asked have
+all been very pertinent, and such as every man of sense would make,
+that had not made it his business to think on these things. I read that
+passage on purpose to you, to make some use of it; but if you are weary
+of the subject, I will not trespass upon your patience any longer.
+
+Hor. You mistake me; I begin to be fond of the subject: but before we
+talk of it any further, I have a mind to run over that Essay again;
+it is a great while since I read it: and after that I shall be glad to
+resume the discourse; the sooner the better. I know you are a lover
+of fine fruit, if you will dine with me to-morrow, I will give you
+an ananas.
+
+Cleo. I love your company so well, that I can refuse no opportunity
+of enjoying it.
+
+Hor. A revoir then.
+
+Cleo. Your servant.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE FIFTH
+                            DIALOGUE
+                            BETWEEN
+                     HORATIO AND CLEOMENES.
+
+
+CLEOMENES.
+
+It excels every thing; it is extremely rich without being luscious,
+and I know nothing to which I can compare the taste of it: to me it
+seems to be a collection of different fine flavours, that puts me in
+mind of several delicious fruits, which yet are all outdone by it.
+
+Hor. I am glad it pleased you.
+
+Cleo. The scent of it likewise is wonderfully reviving. As you
+was paring it, a fragrancy, I thought, perfumed the room that was
+perfectly cordial.
+
+Hor. The inside of the rhind has an oiliness of no disagreeable smell,
+that upon handling of it sticks to ones fingers for a considerable
+time; for though now I have washed and wiped my hands, the flavour
+of it will not be entirely gone from them by to-morrow morning.
+
+Cleo. This was the third I ever tasted of our own growth; the
+production of them in these northern climates, is no small instance
+of human industry, and our improvements in gardening. It is very
+elegant to enjoy the wholesome air of temperate regions, and at
+the same time be able to raise fruit to its highest maturity, that
+naturally requires the sun of the Torrid Zone.
+
+Hor. It is easy enough to procure heat, but the great art consists
+in finding out, and regulating the degrees of it at pleasure; without
+which it would be impossible to ripen an ananas here, and to compass
+this with that exactness, as it is done by the help of thermometers,
+was certainly a fine invention.
+
+Cleo. I do not care to drink any more.
+
+Hor. Just as you please; otherwise I was going to name a health,
+which would not have come mal à propos.
+
+Cleo. Whose is that, pray?
+
+Hor. I was thinking on the man to whom we are in a great measure
+obliged for the production and culture of the exotic, we were
+speaking of, in this kingdom; Sir Matthew Decker, the first ananas
+or pine-apple, that was brought to perfection in England, grew in
+his garden at Richmond.
+
+Cleo. With all my heart; let us finish with that; he is a beneficent,
+and, I believe, a very honest man.
+
+Hor. It would not be easy to name another, who, with the same knowledge
+of the world, and capacity of getting money, is equally disinterested
+and inoffensive.
+
+Cleo. Have you considered the things we discoursed of yesterday?
+
+Hor. I have thought on nothing else since I saw you: This morning
+I went through the whole Essay, and with more attention than I did
+formerly: I like it very well; only that passage which you read
+yesterday, and some others to the same purpose, I cannot reconcile
+with the account we have of man's origin from the Bible: Since all
+are descendants from Adam, and consequently of Noah and his posterity,
+how came savages into the world?
+
+Cleo. The history of the world, as to very ancient times, is very
+imperfect: What devastations have been made by war, by pestilence,
+and by famine; what distress some men have been drove to, and how
+strangely our race has been dispersed and scattered over the earth
+since the flood, we do not know.
+
+Hor. But persons that are well instructed themselves, never fail of
+teaching their children; and we have no reason to think, that knowing,
+civilized men, as the sons of Noah were, should have neglected their
+offspring; but it is altogether incredible, as all are descendants
+from them, that succeeding generations, instead of increasing in
+experience and wisdom, should learn backward, and still more and more
+abandon their broods in such a manner, as to degenerate at last to
+what you call the state of nature.
+
+Cleo. Whether you intend this as a sarcasm or not, I do not know; but
+you have raised no difficulty that can render the truth of the sacred
+history suspected. Holy writ has acquainted us with the miraculous
+origin of our species, and the small remainder of it after the deluge:
+But it is far from informing us of all the revolutions that have
+happened among mankind since: The Old Testament hardly touches upon
+any particulars that had no relation to the Jews; neither does Moses
+pretend to give a full account of every thing that happened to, or was
+transacted by our first parents: He names none of Adam's daughters,
+and takes no notice of several things that must have happened in the
+beginning of the world, as is evident from Cain's building a city,
+and several other circumstances; from which it is plain, that Moses
+meddled with nothing but what was material, and to his purpose;
+which, in that part of his history, was to trace the descent of the
+Patriarchs, from the first man. But that there are savages is certain:
+Most nations of Europe have met with wild men and women in several
+parts of the world, that were ignorant of the use of letters, and
+among whom they could observe no rule or government.
+
+Hor. That there are savages, I do not question; and from the great
+number of slaves that are yearly fetched from Africa, it is manifest,
+that in some parts there must be vast swarms of people, that have
+not yet made a great hand of their sociableness: But how to derive
+them from all the sons of Noah, I own, is past my skill.
+
+Cleo. You find it as difficult to account for the loss of the many
+fine arts, and useful inventions of the ancients, which the world has
+certainly sustained. But the fault I find with Sir William Temple, is
+in the character of his savage. Just reasoning, and such an orderly
+way of proceeding, as he makes him act in, are unnatural to a wild
+man: In such a one, the passions must be boisterous, and continually
+jostling, and succeeding one another; no untaught man could have a
+regular way of thinking, or pursue any one design with steadiness.
+
+Hor. You have strange notions of our species: But has not a man, by
+the time that he comes to maturity, some notions of right and wrong,
+that are natural?
+
+Cleo. Before I answer your question, I would have you consider,
+that, among savages, there must be always a great difference as
+to the wildness or tameness of them. All creatures naturally love
+their offspring whilst they are helpless, and so does man: But in
+the savage state, men are more liable to accidents and misfortunes
+than they are in society, as to the rearing of their young ones; and,
+therefore, the children of savages must very often be put to their
+shifts, so as hardly to remember, by the time that they are grown up,
+that they had any parents. If this happens too early, and they are
+dropt or lost before they are four or five years of age, they must
+perish; either die for want, or be devoured by beasts of prey, unless
+some other creature takes care of them. Those orphans that survive,
+and become their own masters very young, must, when they are come
+to maturity, be much wilder than others, that have lived many years
+under the tuition of parents.
+
+Hor. But would not the wildest man you can imagine, have from nature
+some thoughts of justice and injustice?
+
+Cleo. Such a one, I believe, would naturally, without much thinking
+in the case, take every thing to be his own that he could lay his
+hands on.
+
+Hor. Then they would soon be undeceived, if two or three of them
+met together.
+
+Cleo. That they would soon disagree and quarrel, is highly probable;
+but I do not believe they ever would be undeceived.
+
+Hor. At this rate, men could never be formed into an aggregate body:
+How came society into the world?
+
+Cleo. As I told you, from private families; but not without great
+difficulty, and the concurrence of many favourable accidents; and
+many generations may pass before there is any likelihood of their
+being formed into a society.
+
+Hor. That men are formed into societies, we see: But if they are
+all born with that false notion, and they can never be undeceived,
+which way do you account for it?
+
+Cleo. My opinion concerning this matter, is this: Self-preservation
+bids all creatures gratify their appetites, and that of propagating
+his kind never fails to affect a man in health, many years before he
+comes to his full growth. If a wild man and a wild woman would meet
+very young, and live together for fifty years undisturbed, in a mild
+wholesome climate, where there is plenty of provisions, they might see
+a prodigious number of descendants: For, in the wild state of nature,
+man multiplies his kind much faster, than can be allowed of in any
+regular society: No male at fourteen would be long without a female,
+if he could get one; and no female of twelve would be refractory,
+if applied to, or remain long uncourted, if there were men.
+
+Hor. Considering that consanguinity would be no bar among these
+people, the progeny of two savages might soon amount to hundreds:
+All this I can grant you; but as parents, no better qualified,
+could teach their children but little, it would be impossible for
+them to govern these sons and daughters when they grew up, if none
+of them had any notions of right or wrong; and society is as far off
+as ever; the false principle, which you say all men are born with,
+is an obstacle never to be surmounted.
+
+Cleo. From that false principle, as you call it, the right men
+naturally claim to every thing they can get, it must follow, that
+man will look upon his children as his property, and make such use
+of them as is most consistent with his interest.
+
+Hor. What is the interest of a wild man that pursues nothing with
+steadiness.
+
+Cleo. The demand of the predominant passion for the time it lasts.
+
+Hor. That may change every moment, and such children would be
+miserably managed.
+
+Cleo. That is true; but still managed they would be; I mean they would
+be kept under, and forced to do as they they were bid, at least till
+they were strong enough to resist. Natural affection would prompt
+a wild man to love and cherish his child; it would make him provide
+food, and other necessaries for his son, till he was ten or twelve
+years old, or perhaps longer: But this affection is not the only
+passion he has to gratify; if his son provokes him by stubbornness,
+or doing otherwise than he would have him, this love is suspended;
+and if his displeasure be strong enough to raise his anger, which is
+as natural to him as any other passion, it is ten to one but he will
+knock him down: If he hurts him very much, and the condition he has
+put his son in, moves his pity, his anger will cease; and, natural
+affection returning, he will fondle him again, and be sorry for what
+he has done. Now, if we consider that all creatures hate and endeavour
+to avoid pain, and that benefits beget love in all that receive them,
+we shall find, that the consequence of this management would be,
+that the savage child would learn to love and fear his father: These
+two passions, together with the esteem which we naturally have for
+every thing that far excels us, will seldom fail of producing that
+compound which we call reverence.
+
+Hor. I have it now; you have opened my eyes, and I see the origin of
+society, as plain as I do that table.
+
+Cleo. I am afraid the prospect is not so clear yet as you imagine.
+
+Hor. Why so? The grand obstacles are removed: Untaught men, it is true,
+when they are grown up, are never to be governed; and our subjection
+is never sincere where the superiority of the governor is not very
+apparent: But both these are obviated; the reverence we have for
+a person when we are young, is easily continued as long as we live;
+and where authority is once acknowledged, and that acknowledgment well
+established, it cannot be a difficult matter to govern. If thus a man
+may keep up his authority over his children, he will do it still with
+greater ease over his grand-children: For a child that has the least
+reverence for his parents, will seldom refuse homage to the person
+to whom he sees his father pay it. Besides, a man's pride would be
+a sufficient motive for him to maintain the authority once gained;
+and, if some of his progeny proved refractory, he would leave no stone
+unturned, by the help of the rest to reduce the disobedient. The old
+man being dead, the authority from him would devolve upon the eldest
+of his children, and so on.
+
+Cleo. I thought you would go on too fast. If the wild man had
+understood the nature of things, and been endued with general
+knowledge, and a language ready made, as Adam was by miracle, what
+you say might have been easy; but an ignorant creature that knows
+nothing but what his own experience has taught him, is no more fit
+to govern than he is fit to teach the mathematics.
+
+Hor. He would not have above one or two children to govern at
+first; and his experience would increase by degrees, as well as his
+family. This would require no such consummate knowledge.
+
+Cleo. I do not say it would: An ordinary capacity of a man tolerably
+well educated, would be sufficient to begin with; but a man who never
+had been taught to curb any of his passions, would be very unfit for
+such a task. He would make his children, as soon as they were able,
+assist him in getting food, and teach them how and where to procure
+it. Savage children, as they got strength, would endeavour to imitate
+every action they saw their parents do, and every sound they heard
+them make; but all the instructions they received, would be confined
+to things immediately necessary. Savage parents would often take
+offence at their children, as they grew up, without a cause; and as
+these increased in years, so natural affection would decrease in the
+other. The consequence would be, that the children would often suffer
+for failings that were not their own. Savages would often discover
+faults in the conduct of what was past; but they would not be able
+to establish rules for future behaviour, which they would approve
+of themselves for any continuance; and want of foresight would be an
+inexhaustible fund for changes in their resolutions. The savage's wife,
+as well as himself, would be highly pleased to see their daughters
+impregnated and bring forth; and they would both take great delight
+in their grand-children.
+
+Hor. I thought, that in all creatures the natural affection of parents
+had been confined to their own young ones.
+
+Cleo. It is so in all but man; there is no species but ours, that
+are so conceited of themselves, as to imagine every thing to be
+theirs. The desire of dominion is a never-failing consequence of the
+pride that is common to all men; and which the brat of a savage is as
+much born with as the son of an emperor. This good opinion we have
+of ourselves, makes men not only claim a right to their children,
+but likewise imagine, that they have a great share of jurisdiction
+over their grandchildren. The young ones of other animals, as soon as
+they can help themselves, are free; but the authority which parents
+pretend to have over their children, never ceases: How general and
+unreasonable this eternal claim is naturally in the heart of man, we
+may learn from the laws; which, to prevent the usurpation of parents,
+and rescue children from their dominion, every civil society is forced
+to make; limiting paternal authority to a certain term of years. Our
+savage pair would have a double title to their grandchildren, from
+their undoubted property in each parent of them; and all the progeny
+being sprung from their own sons and daughters, without intermixture of
+foreign blood, they would look upon the whole race to be their natural
+vassals; and I am persuaded, that the more knowledge and capacity of
+reasoning this first couple acquired, the more just and unquestionable
+their sovereignty over all their descendants would appear to them,
+though they should live to see the fifth or sixth generation.
+
+Hor. Is it not strange that nature should send us all into the world
+with a visible desire after government, and no capacity for it at all?
+
+Cleo. What seems strange to you, is an undeniable instance of Divine
+Wisdom. For, if all had not been born with this desire, all must have
+been destitute of it; and multitudes could never have been formed into
+societies, if some of them had not been possessed of this thirst of
+dominion. Creatures may commit force upon themselves, they may learn
+to warp their natural appetites, and divert them from their proper
+objects: but peculiar instincts, that belong to a whole species,
+are never to be acquired by art or discipline; and those that are
+born without them, must remain destitute of them for ever. Ducks run
+to the water as soon as they are hatched; but you can never make a
+chicken swim any more than you can teach it to suck.
+
+Hor. I understand you very well. If pride had not been innate to
+all men, none of them could ever have been ambitious: And as to the
+capacity of governing, experience shows us, that it is to be acquired;
+but how to bring society into the world, I know no more than the wild
+man himself. What you have suggested to me of his unskilfulness, and
+want of power to govern himself, has quite destroyed all the hopes
+I had conceived of society from this family. But would religion have
+no influence upon them? Pray, how came that into the world?
+
+Cleo. From God, by miracle.
+
+Hor. Obscurum per obscurius. I do not understand miracles, that break
+in upon, and subvert the order of nature; and I have no notion of
+things that come to pass, en dépit de bon sens, and are such; that
+judging from sound reason and known experience, all wise men would
+think themselves mathematically sure that they could never happen.
+
+Cleo. It is certain, that by the word miracle, is meant an
+interposition of the Divine Power, when it deviates from the common
+course of nature.
+
+Hor. As when matters, easily combustible, remain whole and untouched in
+the midst of a fire fiercely burning, or lions in vigour, industriously
+kept hungry, forbear eating what they are most greedy after. These
+miracles are strange things.
+
+Cleo. They are not pretended to be otherwise; the etymology of the
+word imports it; but it is almost as unaccountable, that men should
+disbelieve them, and pretend to be of a religion that is altogether
+built upon miracles.
+
+Hor. But when I asked you that general question, why did you confine
+yourself to revealed religion?
+
+Cleo. Because nothing, in my opinion, deserves the name of religion,
+that has not been revealed: The Jewish was the first that was national,
+and the Christian the next.
+
+Hor. But Abraham, Noah, and Adam himself, were no Jews, and yet they
+had religion.
+
+Cleo. No other than what was revealed to them. God appeared to our
+first parents, and gave them commands immediately after he had created
+them: The same intercourse was continued between the Supreme Being
+and the Patriarchs; but the father of Abraham was an idolater.
+
+Hor. But the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans had religion,
+as well as the Jews.
+
+Cleo. Their gross idolatry, and abominable worship, I call
+superstition.
+
+Hor. You may be as partial as you please, but they all called their
+worship religion, as well as we do ours. You say, man brings nothing
+with him, but his passions; and when I asked you, how religion came
+into the world, I meant what is there in man's nature that is not
+acquired, from which he has a tendency to religion; what is it that
+disposes him to it?
+
+Cleo. Fear.
+
+Hor. How! Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor; Are you of that opinion?
+
+Cleo. No man upon earth less: But that noted Epicurean axiom, which
+irreligious men are so fond of, is a very poor one; and it is silly,
+as well as impious to say, that fear made a God; you may as justly
+say, that fear made grass, or the sun and the moon: but when I am
+speaking of savages, it is not clashing either with good sense, nor
+the Christian religion, to assert, that, whilst such men are ignorant
+of the true Deity, and yet very defective in the art of thinking and
+reasoning, fear is the passion that first gives them an opportunity
+of entertaining some glimmering notions of an invisible Power;
+which afterwards, as by practice and experience they grow greater
+proficients, and become more perfect in the labour of the brain, and
+the exercise of their highest faculty, will infallibly lead them to
+the certain knowledge of an Infinite and Eternal Being; whose power
+and wisdom will always appear the greater, and more stupendous to
+them, the more they themselves advance in knowledge and penetration,
+though both should be carried on to a much higher pitch, than it is
+possible for our limited nature ever to arrive at.
+
+Hor. I beg your pardon for suspecting you; though I am glad it gave
+you an opportunity of explaining yourself. The word fear, without any
+addition, sounded very harsh; and even now I cannot conceive how an
+invisible cause should become the object of a man's fear, that should
+be so entirely untaught, as you have made the first savage: which
+way can any thing invisible, and that affects none of the senses,
+make an impression upon a wild creature?
+
+Cleo. Every mischief and every disaster that happens to him, of which
+the cause is not very plain and obvious; excessive heat and cold;
+wet and drought, that are offensive; thunder and lightning, even
+when they do no visible hurt; noises in the dark, obscurity itself,
+and every thing that is frightful and unknown, are all administering
+and contributing to the establishment of this fear. The wildest
+man that can be conceived, by the time that he came to maturity,
+would be wise enough to know, that fruits and other eatables are
+not to be had, either always, or every where: this would naturally
+put him upon hoarding, when he had good store: his provision might
+be spoiled by the rain: he would see that trees were blasted, and
+yielded not always the same plenty: he might not always be in health,
+or his young ones might grow sick, and die, without any wounds or
+external force to be seen. Some of these accidents might at first
+escape his attention, or only alarm his weak understanding, without
+occasioning much reflection for some time; but as they come often,
+he would certainly begin to suspect some invisible cause; and, as his
+experience increased, be confirmed in his suspicion. It is likewise
+highly probable, that a variety of different sufferings, would make
+him apprehend several such causes; and at last induce him to believe,
+that there was a great number of them, which he had to fear. What
+would very much contribute to this credulous disposition, and naturally
+lead him into such a belief, is a false notion we imbibe very early,
+and which we may observe in infants, as soon as by their looks, their
+gestures, and the signs they make, they begin to be intelligible to us.
+
+Hor. What is that, pray?
+
+Cleo. All young children seem to imagine, that every thing thinks
+and feels in the same manner as they do themselves; and, that they
+generally have this wrong opinion of things inanimate, is evident,
+from a common practice among them; whenever they labour under any
+misfortune, which their own wildness, and want of care have drawn
+upon them. In all such cases, you see them angry at and strike,
+a table, a chair, the floor, or any thing else, that can seem to
+have been accessary to their hurting themselves, or the production of
+any other blunder, they have committed. Nurses we see, in compliance
+to their frailty, seem to entertain the same ridiculous sentiments;
+and actually appease wrathful brats, by pretending to take their part:
+Thus you will often see them very serious, in scolding at and beating,
+either the real object of the baby's indignation, or something else,
+on which the blame of what has happened, may be thrown, with any
+show of probability. It is not to be imagined, that this natural
+folly should be so easily cured in a child, that is destitute of all
+instruction and commerce with his own species, as it is in those
+that are brought up in society, and hourly improved by conversing
+with others that are wiser than themselves; and I am persuaded,
+that a wild man would never get entirely rid of it whilst he lived.
+
+Hor. I cannot think so meanly of human understanding.
+
+Cleo. Whence came the Dryades and Hama-Dryades? How came it ever to
+be thought impious to cut down, or even to wound large venerable oaks
+or other stately trees; and what root did the Divinity spring from,
+which the vulgar, among the ancient heathens, apprehended to be in
+rivers and fountains?
+
+Hor. From the roguery of designing priests, and other impostors,
+that invented those lies, and made fables for their own advantage.
+
+Cleo. But still it must have been want of understanding; and a
+tincture, some remainder of that folly which is discovered in young
+children, that could induce, or would suffer men to believe those
+fables. Unless fools actually had frailties, knaves could not make
+use of them.
+
+Hor. There may be something in it; but, be that as it will, you have
+owned, that man naturally loves those he receives benefits from;
+therefore, how comes it, that man, finding all the good things he
+enjoys to proceed from an invisible cause, his gratitude should not
+sooner prompt him to be religious, than his fear?
+
+Cleo. There are several substantial reasons, why it does not. Man
+takes every thing to be his own, which he has from nature: sowing
+and reaping, he thinks, deserve a crop, and whatever he has the least
+hand in, is always reckoned to be his. Every art, and every invention,
+as soon as we know them, are our right and property; and whatever we
+perform by the assistance of them, is, by the courtesy of the species
+to itself, deemed to be our own. We make use of fermentation, and
+all the chemistry of nature, without thinking ourselves beholden
+to any thing but our own knowledge. She that churns the cream,
+makes the butter; without inquiring into the power by which the
+thin lymphatic particles are forced to separate themselves, and
+slide away from the more unctuous. In brewing, baking, cooking,
+and almost every thing we have a hand in, nature is the drudge that
+makes all the alterations, and does the principal work; yet all,
+forsooth, is our own. From all which, it is manifest, that man,
+who is naturally for making every thing centre in himself, must,
+in his wild state, have a great tendency, and be very prone to look
+upon every thing he enjoys as his due; and every thing he meddles
+with, as his own performance. It requires knowledge and reflection;
+and a man must be pretty far advanced in the art of thinking justly,
+and reasoning consequentially, before he can, from his own light,
+and without being taught, be sensible of his obligations to God. The
+less a man knows, and the more shallow his understanding is, the
+less he is capable either of enlarging his prospect of things,
+or drawing consequences from the little which he does know. Raw,
+ignorant, and untaught men, fix their eyes on what is immediately
+before, and seldom look further than, as it is vulgarly expressed,
+the length of their noses. The wild man, if gratitude moved him, would
+much sooner pay his respects to the tree he gathers his nuts from,
+than he would think of an acknowledgment to him who had planted it;
+and there is no property so well established, but a civilized man
+would suspect his title to it sooner, than a wild one would question
+the sovereignty he has over his own breath. Another reason, why fear
+is an elder motive to religion than gratitude, is, that an untaught
+man would never suspect that the same cause, which he received good
+from, would ever do him hurt; and evil, without doubt, would always
+gain his attention first.
+
+Hor. Men, indeed, seem to remember one ill turn, that is served
+them, better than ten good ones; one month's sickness better than
+ten years health.
+
+Cleo. In all the labours of self-preservation, man is intent on
+avoiding what is hurtful to him; but in the enjoyment of what is
+pleasant, his thoughts are relaxed, and he is void of care: he
+can swallow a thousand delights, one after another, without asking
+questions; but the least evil makes him inquisitive whence it came,
+in order to shun it. It is very material, therefore, to know the
+cause of evil; but to know that of good, which is always welcome,
+is of little use; that is, such a knowledge seems not to promise
+any addition to his happiness. When a man once apprehends such an
+invisible enemy, it is reasonable to think, that he would be glad to
+appease, and make him his friend, if he could find him out; it is
+highly probable, likewise, that in order to this, he would search,
+investigate, and look every where about him; and that finding all
+his inquiries upon earth in vain, he would lift up his eyes to the sky.
+
+Hor. And so a wild man might; and look down and up again long enough
+before he would be the wiser. I can easily conceive, that a creature
+must labour under great perplexities, when it actually fears something,
+of which it knows neither what it is, nor where it is; and that,
+though a man had all the reason in the world to think it invisible, he
+would still be more afraid of it in the dark, than when he could see.
+
+Cleo. Whilst a man is but an imperfect thinker, and wholly employed in
+furthering self preservation in the most simple manner, and removing
+the immediate obstacles he meets with in that pursuit, this affair,
+perhaps, affects him but little; but when he comes to be a tolerable
+reasoner, and has leisure to reflect, it must produce strange chimeras
+and surmises; and a wild couple would not converse together long,
+before they would endeavour to express their minds to one another
+concerning this matter; and, as in time they would invent and agree
+upon, certain sounds of distinction for several things, of which the
+ideas would often occur, so I believe, that this invisible cause would
+be one of the first, which they would coin a name for. A wild man and
+a wild woman would not take less care of their helpless brood than
+other animals; and it is not to imagined, but the children that were
+brought up by them, though without instruction or discipline, would,
+before they were ten years old, observe in their parents this fear of
+an invisible cause. It is incredible likewise, considering, how much
+men differ from one another in features, complexion, and temper,
+that all should form the same idea of this cause; from whence it
+would follow, that as soon as any considerable number of men could
+intelligibly converse together, it would appear, that there were
+different opinions among them concerning the invisible cause: the fear
+and acknowledgment of it being universal, and man always attributing
+his own passions to every thing, which he conceives to think, every
+body would be solicitous to avoid the hatred and ill-will, and, if it
+was possible, to gain the friendship of such a power. If we consider
+these things, and what we know of the nature of man, it is hardly
+to be conceived, that any considerable number of our species could
+have any intercourse together long, in peace or otherwise, but wilful
+lies would be raised concerning this power, and some would pretend to
+have seen or heard it. How different opinions about invisible power,
+may, by the malice and deceit of impostors, be made the occasion of
+mortal enmity among multitudes, is easily accounted for. If we want
+rain very much, and I can be persuaded, that it is your fault we have
+none, there needs greater cause to quarrel; and nothing has happened
+in the world, of priestcraft or inhumanity, folly or abomination,
+on religious accounts, that cannot be solved or explained, with the
+least trouble, from these data, and the principle of fear.
+
+Hor. I think I must yield to you, that the first motive of religion,
+among savages, was fear; but you must allow me in your turn, that
+from the general thankfulness that nations have always paid to
+their gods, for signal benefits and success; the many hecatombs that
+have been offered after victories; and the various institutions of
+games and festivals; it is evident, that when men came to be wiser,
+and more civilized, the greatest part of their religion was built
+upon gratitude.
+
+Cleo. You labour hard, I see, to vindicate the honour of our species;
+but we have no such cause to boast of it: and I shall demonstrate to
+you, that a well-weighed consideration, and a thorough understanding of
+our nature, will give us much less reason to exult in our pride, than
+it will furnish us with, for the exercise of our humility. In the first
+place, there is no difference between the original nature of a savage,
+and that of a civilized man: they are both born with fear, and neither
+of them, if they have their senses about them, can live many years,
+but an invisible Power, will, at one time or other, become the object
+of that fear; and this will happen to every man, whether he be wild
+and alone, or in society, and under the best discipline. We know by
+experience, that empires, states, and kingdoms, may excel in arts and
+sciences, politeness, and all worldly wisdom, and at the same time be
+slaves to the grossest idolatry, and submit to all the inconsistencies
+of a false religion. The most civilized people have been as foolish
+and absurd in sacred worship as it is possible for any savages to be;
+and the first have often been guilty of studied cruelties, which the
+latter would never have thought of. The Carthaginians were a subtle
+flourishing people, an opulent and formidable nation, and Hannibal had
+half conquered the Romans, when still to their idols they sacrificed
+the children of their chief nobility. And, as to private persons,
+there are innumerable instances in the most polite ages of men of
+sense and virtue, that have entertained the most miserable, unworthy,
+and extravagant notions of the Supreme Being. What confused and
+unaccountable apprehensions must not some men have had of Providence,
+to act as they did! Alexander Severus, who succeeded Heliogabalus,
+was a great reformer of abuses, and thought to be as good a prince
+as his predecessor was a bad one: In his palace he had an oratory,
+a cabinet set aside for his private devotion, where he had the images
+of Appollonius Tyanæus, Orpheus, Abraham, Jesus Christ, and such like
+gods, says his historian. What makes you smile?
+
+Hor. To think how industrious priests are in concealing a man's
+failings, when they would have you think well of him. What you say
+of Severus, I had read before; when looking one day for something in
+Moreri, I happened to cast my eye on the article of that emperor,
+where no mention is made either of Orpheus or Appollonius! which,
+remembering the passage in Lampridius, I wondered at; and thinking
+that I might have been mistaken, I again consulted that author, where
+I found it, as you have related it. I do not question but Moreri
+left this out on purpose to repay the civilities of the emperor to
+the Christians, whom, he tells us, Severus had been very favourable to.
+
+Cleo. That is not impossible in a Roman Catholic. But what I would
+speak to, in the second place, is the festivals you mentioned, the
+hecatombs after victories, and the general thankfulness of nations
+to their gods. I desire you would consider, that in sacred matters,
+as well as all human affairs, there are rites and ceremonies, and many
+demonstrations of respect to be seen, that to outward appearance seem
+to proceed from gratitude, which, upon due examination, will be found
+to have been originally the result of fear. At what time the floral
+games were first instituted, is not well known: but they never were
+celebrated every year constantly, before a very unseasonable spring put
+the senate upon the decree that made them annual. To make up the true
+compound of reverence or veneration, love and esteem are as necessary
+ingredients as fear; but the latter alone is capable of making men
+counterfeit both the former; as is evident from the duties that are
+outwardly paid to tyrants, at the same time that inwardly they are
+execrated and hated. Idolators have always behaved themselves to
+every invisible cause they adored, as men do to a lawless arbitrary
+power; when they reckon it as captious, haughty, and unreasonable,
+as they allow it to be sovereign, unlimited, and irresistible. What
+motive could the frequent repetitions of the same solemnities spring
+from, whenever it was suspected that the least holy trifle had been
+omitted? You know, how often the same farce was once acted over again,
+because after every performance there was still room to apprehend
+that something had been neglected. Do but consult, I beg of you,
+and call to mind your own reading; cast your eyes on the infinite
+variety of ideas men have formed to themselves, and the vast multitude
+of divisions they have made of the invisible cause, which every one
+imagines to influence human affairs: run over the history of all ages;
+look into every considerable nation, their straits and calamities,
+as well as victories and successes; the lives of great generals,
+and other famous men, their adverse fortune and prosperity: mind
+at which times their devotion was most fervent; when oracles were
+most consulted, and on what accounts the gods were most frequently
+addressed. Do but calmly consider every thing you can remember
+relating to superstition, whether grave, ridiculous, or execrable,
+and you will find, in the first place, that the heathens, and all that
+have been ignorant of the true Deity, though many of them were persons
+otherwise of great knowledge, fine understanding, and tried probity,
+have represented their gods, not as wise, benign, equitable, and
+merciful; but, on the contrary, as passionate, revengeful, capricious,
+and unrelenting beings; not to mention the abominable vices and gross
+immoralities, the vulgar were taught to ascribe to them: In the second,
+that for every one instance that men have addressed themselves to an
+invisible cause, from a principle of gratitude, there are a thousand in
+every false religion to convince you, that divine worship, and men's
+submission to Heaven, have always proceeded from their fear. The word
+religion itself, and the fear of God, are synonymous; and had man's
+acknowledgment been originally founded in love, as it is in fear,
+the craft of impostors could have made no advantage of the passion;
+and all their boasted acquaintance with gods and goddesses, would
+have been useless to them, if men had worshipped the immortal powers,
+as they called their idols, out of gratitude.
+
+Hor. All lawgivers and leaders of people gained their point, and
+acquired what they expected from those pretences, which is reverence;
+and which to produce, you have owned yourself, love and esteem to be
+as requisite as fear.
+
+Cleo. But from the laws they imposed on men, and the punishments they
+annexed to the breach and neglect of them, it is easily seen which
+of the ingredients they most relied upon.
+
+Hor. It would be difficult to name a king, or other great man, in
+very ancient times, who attempted to govern an infant nation that
+laid no claim to some commerce or other with an invisible power,
+either held by himself or his ancestors. Between them and Moses,
+there is no other difference, than that he alone was a true prophet,
+and really inspired, and all the rest were impostors.
+
+Cleo. What would you infer from this?
+
+Hor. That we can say no more for ourselves, than what men of all
+parties and persuasions have done in all ages, every one for their
+cause, viz. That they alone were in the right, and all that differed
+from them in the wrong.
+
+Cleo. Is it not sufficient that we can say this of ourselves with
+truth and justice, after the strictest examination; when no other
+cause can stand any test, or bear the least inquiry? A man may relate
+miracles that never were wrought, and give an account of things that
+never happened; but a thousand years hence, all knowing men will
+agree, that nobody could have wrote Sir Isaac Newton's Principia,
+unless he had been a great mathematician. When Moses acquainted the
+Israelites with what had been revealed to him, he told them a truth,
+which nobody then upon earth knew but himself.
+
+Hor. You mean the unity of God, and his being the Author of the
+universe.
+
+Cleo. I do so.
+
+Hor. But is not every man of sense capable of knowing this from
+his reason?
+
+Cleo. Yes, when the art of reasoning consequentially is come to that
+perfection, which it has been arrived at these several hundred years,
+and himself has been led into the method of thinking justly. Every
+common sailor could steer a course through the midst of the ocean,
+as soon as the use of the loadstone, and the mariners compass
+were invented. But before that, the most expert navigator would
+have trembled at the thoughts of such an enterprise. When Moses
+acquainted, and imbued the posterity of Jacob with this sublime
+and important truth, they were degenerated into slaves, attached to
+the superstition of the country they dwelled in; and the Egyptians,
+their masters, though they were great proficients in many arts and
+sciences, and more deeply skilled in the mysteries of nature than
+any other nation then was, had the most abject and abominable notions
+of the Deity, which it is possible to conceive; and no savages could
+have exceeded their ignorance and stupidity, as to the Supreme Being,
+the invisible cause that governs the world. He taught the Israelites
+à priori; and their children, before they were nine or ten years old,
+knew what the greatest philosophers did not attain to, by the light
+of nature, till many ages after.
+
+Hor. The advocates for the ancients will never allow, that any modern
+philosophers have either thought or reasoned better, than men did in
+former ages.
+
+Cleo. Let them believe their eyes: What you say every man of sense
+may know, by his own reason, was in the beginning of Christianity
+contested, and denied with zeal and vehemence by the greatest men
+in Rome. Celsus, Symmachus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and other famous
+rhetoricians, and men of unquestionable good sense, wrote in defence of
+idolatry, and strenuously maintained the plurality and multiplicity of
+their gods. Moses lived about fifteen hundred years before the reign
+of Augustus. If in a place where I was very well assured that nobody
+understood any thing of colouring or drawing, a man should tell me,
+that he had acquired the art of painting by inspiration, I should be
+more ready to laugh at him than to believe him; but if I saw him draw
+several fine portraits before my face, my unbelief would cease, and
+I should think it ridiculous any longer to suspect his veracity. All
+the accounts that other lawgivers and founders of nations have given
+of the deities, which they or their predecessors conversed with,
+contained ideas that were unworthy of the Divine Being; and by the
+light of nature only, it is easily proved, that they must have been
+false: But the image which Moses gave the Jews of the Supreme Being,
+that He was One, and had made heaven and earth, will stand all
+tests, and is a truth that will outlast the world. Thus, I think,
+I have fully proved, on the one hand, that all true religion must
+be revealed, and could not have come into the world without miracle;
+and, on the other, that what all men are born with towards religion,
+before they receive any instruction, is fear.
+
+Hor. You have convinced me many ways, that we are poor creatures by
+nature; but I cannot help struggling against those mortifying truths,
+when I hear them started first. I long to hear the origin of society,
+and I continually retard your account of it myself with new questions.
+
+Cleo. Do you remember where we left off?
+
+Hor. I do not think we have made any progress yet; for we have nothing
+towards it but a wild man, and a wild woman, with some children and
+grandchildren, which they are not able either to teach or govern.
+
+Cleo. I thought that the introduction of the reverence, which the
+wildest son must feel, more or less, for the most savage father,
+if he stays with him, had been a considerable step.
+
+Hor. I thought so too, till you destroyed the hopes I had conceived of
+it yourself, by showing me the incapacity of savage parents to make
+use of it: And since we are still as far from the origin of society
+as ever we were, or ever can be, in my opinion, I desire, that before
+you proceed to that main point, you would answer what you have put
+off once already, which is my question concerning the notions of right
+and wrong: I cannot be easy before I have your sentiments on this head.
+
+Cleo. Your demand is very reasonable, and I will satisfy you as well
+as I can. A man of sense, learning, and experience, that has been
+well educated, will always find out the difference between right and
+wrong in things diametrically opposite; and there are certain facts,
+which he will always condemn, and others which he will always approve
+of: To kill a member of the same society that has not offended us,
+or to rob him, will always be bad; and to cure the sick, and be
+beneficent to the public, he will always pronounce to be good actions:
+and for a man to do as he will be done by, he will always say is a
+good rule in life; and not only men of great accomplishments, and
+such as have learned to think abstractly, but all men of middling
+capacities, that have been brought up in society, will agree in this,
+in all countries and in all ages. Nothing likewise seems more true to
+all, that have made any tolerable use of their faculty of thinking,
+than that out of the society, before any division was made, either
+by contract or otherwise, all men would have an equal right to the
+earth: But do you believe that our wild man, if he had never seen
+any other human creature but his savage consort and his progeny,
+would ever have entertained the same notions of right and wrong?
+
+Hor. Hardly; his small capacity in the art of reasoning, would hinder
+him from doing it so justly; and the power he found he had over his
+children, would render him very arbitrary.
+
+Cleo. But without that incapacity, suppose that at threescore he
+was, by a miracle, to receive a fine judgment, and the faculty of
+thinking and reasoning consequentially, in as great a perfection as
+the wisest man ever did, do you think he would ever alter his notion
+of the right he had to every thing he could manage, or have other
+sentiments in relation to himself and his progeny, than from his
+behaviour it appeared he entertained, when he seemed to act almost
+altogether by instinct?
+
+Hor. Without doubt: For, if judgment and reason were given him,
+what could hinder him from making use of those faculties, as well as
+others do?
+
+Cleo. You seem not to consider, that no man can reason but à
+posteriori, from something that he knows, or supposes to be true:
+What I said of the difference between right and wrong, I spoke of
+persons who remembered their education, and lived in society; or,
+at least, such as plainly saw others of their own species, that were
+independent of them, and either their equals or superiors.
+
+Hor. I begin to believe you are in the right: But at second thoughts,
+why might not a man, with great justice, think himself the sovereign
+of a place, where he knew no human creature but his own wife, and
+the descendents of both?
+
+Cleo. With all my heart: But may there not be an hundred such savages
+in the world with large families, that might never meet, nor ever
+hear of one another?
+
+Hor. A thousand, if you will, and then there would be so many natural
+sovereigns.
+
+Cleo. Very well: what I would have you observe, is, that there are
+things which are commonly esteemed to be eternal truths, that an
+hundred or a thousand people of fine sense and judgment, could have
+no notion of. What if it should be true, that every man is born
+with this domineering spirit, and that we cannot be cured of it,
+but by our commerce with others, and the experience of facts, by
+which we are convinced that we have no such right? Let us examine a
+man's whole life, from his infancy to his grave, and see which of
+the two seems to be most natural to him; a desire of superiority,
+and grasping every thing to himself, or a tendency to act according
+to the reasonable notions of right and wrong; and we shall find,
+that, in his early youth, the first is very conspicuous; that nothing
+appears of the second before he has received some instructions, and
+that this latter will always have less influence upon his actions,
+the more uncivilized he remains: From whence I infer, that the notions
+of right and wrong are acquired; for if they were as natural, or if
+they affected us as early as the opinion, or rather the instinct we
+are born with, of taking every thing to be our own, no child would
+ever cry for his eldest brother's play-things.
+
+Hor. I think there is no right more natural, nor more reasonable,
+than that which men have over their children; and what we owe our
+parents can never be repaid.
+
+Cleo. The obligations we have to good parents for their care and
+education, is certainly very great.
+
+Hor. That is the least. We are indebted to them for our being; we
+might be educated by an hundred others, but without them we could
+never have existed.
+
+Cleo. So we could have no malt liquor, without the ground that bears
+the barley: I know no obligations for benefits that never were
+intended. Should a man see a fine parcel of cherries, be tempted
+to eat, and devour them accordingly with great satisfaction, it
+is possible he might swallow some of the stones, which we know
+by experience do not digest: If twelve or fourteen months after,
+he should find a little sprig of a cherry-tree growing in a field,
+where nobody would expect it, if he recollected the time, he had
+been there before, it is not improbable that he might guess at the
+true reason how it came there. It is possible, likewise, that for
+curiosity's sake, this man might take up this plant, and take care
+of it; I am well assured, that whatever became of it afterwards,
+the right he would have to it from the merit of his action, would be
+the same which a savage would have to his child.
+
+Hor. I think there would be a vast difference between the one and
+the other: the cherry-stone was never part of himself, nor mixed with
+his blood.
+
+Cleo. Pardon me; all the difference, as vast as you take it to be,
+can only consist in this, That the cherry-stone was not part of the man
+who swallowed it, so long, nor received so great an alteration in its
+figure, whilst it was, as some other things which the savage swallowed,
+were, and received in their figure, whilst they stayed with him.
+
+Hor. But he that swallowed the cherry-stone, did nothing to it; it
+produced a plant as a vegetable, which it might have done as well
+without his swallowing it.
+
+Cleo. That is true; and I own, that as to the cause to which the plant
+owes its existence, you are in the right: but I plainly spoke as to
+the merit of the action; which in either case could only proceed from
+their intentions as free agents; and the savage might, and would
+in all probability act with as little design, to get a child, as
+the other had eat cherries in order to plant a tree. It is commonly
+said, that our children are our own flesh and blood: but this way
+of speaking is strangely figurative. However, allow it to be just,
+though rhetoricians have no name for it, what does it prove, what
+benevolence in us, what kindness to others in the intention?
+
+Hor. You shall say what you please, but I think, that nothing can
+endear children to their parents more, than the reflection that they
+are their own flesh and blood.
+
+Cleo. I am of your opinion; and it is a plain demonstration of the
+superlative value we have for our own selves, and every thing that
+comes from us, if it be good, and counted laudable; whereas, other
+things that are offensive, though equally our own, are in compliment
+to ourselves, industriously concealed; and, as soon as it is agreed
+upon that any thing is unseemly, and rather a disgrace to us than
+otherwise, presently it becomes ill manners to name, or so much as
+to hint at it. The contents of the stomach are variously disposed
+of, but we have no hand in that; and whether they go to the blood,
+or elsewhere, the last thing we did to them voluntarily, and with our
+knowledge, was swallowing them; and whatever is afterwards performed
+by the animal economy, a man contributes no more to, than he does to
+the going of his watch. This is another instance of the unjust claim
+we lay to every performance we are but in the least concerned in, if
+good comes of it, though nature does all the work; but whoever places
+a merit in his prolific faculty, ought likewise to expect the blame,
+when he has the stone, or a fever. Without this violent principle of
+innate folly, no rational creature would value himself on his free
+agency, and at the same time accept of applause for actions that are
+visibly independent of his will. Life in all creatures is a compound
+action, but the share they have in it themselves, is only passive. We
+are forced to breathe before we know it; and our continuance palpably
+depends upon the guardianship and perpetual tutelage of nature; whilst
+every part of her works, ourselves not excepted, is an impenetrable
+secret to us, that eludes all inquiries. Nature furnishes us with
+all the substance of our food herself, nor does she trust to our
+wisdom for an appetite to crave it; to chew it, she teaches us by
+instinct, and bribes us to it by pleasure. This seeming to be an
+action of choice, and ourselves being conscious of the performance,
+we perhaps may be said to have a part in it; but the moment after,
+nature resumes her care, and again withdrawn from our knowledge,
+preserves us in a mysterious manner, without any help or concurrence
+of ours, that we are sensible of. Since, then, the management of what
+we have eat and drank remains entirely under the direction of nature,
+what honour or shame ought we to receive from any part of the product,
+whether it is to serve as a doubtful means toward generation, or yields
+to vegetation a less fallible assistance? It is nature that prompts us
+to propagate as well as to eat; and a savage man multiplies his kind
+by instinct as other animals do, without more thought or design of
+preserving his species, than a new-born infant has of keeping itself
+alive, in the action of sucking.
+
+Hor. Yet nature gave the different instincts to both, for those
+reasons.
+
+Cleo. Without doubt; but what I mean, is, that the reason of the
+thing is as much the motive of action in the one, as it is in the
+other; and I verily believe, that a wild woman who had never seen,
+or not minded the production of any young animals, would have several
+children before she would guess at the real cause of them; any more
+than if she had the cholic, she would suspect that it proceeded from
+some delicious fruit she had eaten; especially if she had feasted
+upon it for several months, without perceiving any inconveniency
+from it. Children, all the world over, are brought forth with pain,
+more or less, which seems to have no affinity with pleasure; and an
+untaught creature, however docile and attentive, would want several
+clear experiments, before it would believe that the one could produce
+or be the cause of the other.
+
+Hor. Most people marry in hopes, and with a design of having children.
+
+Cleo. I doubt, not; and believe that there are as many that would
+rather not have children, or at least not so fast as often they come,
+as there are that wish for them, even in the state of matrimony;
+but out of it, in the amours of thousands, that revel in enjoyments,
+children are reckoned to be the greatest calamity that can befal them;
+and often what criminal love gave birth to, without thought more
+criminal pride destroys, with purposed and considerate cruelty. But
+all this belongs to people in society, that are knowing, and well
+acquainted with the natural consequences of things; what I urged,
+I spoke of a savage.
+
+Hor. Still the end of love, between the different sexes, in all
+animals, is the preservation of their species.
+
+Cleo. I have allowed that already. But once more the savage is not
+prompted to love from that consideration: he propagates before he
+knows the consequence of it; and I much question, whether the most
+civilized pair, in the most chaste of their embraces, ever acted from
+the care of their species, as a real principle. A rich man may, with
+great impatience, wish for a son to inherit his name and his estate;
+perhaps he may marry from no other motive, and for no other purpose;
+but all the satisfaction he seems to receive, from the flattering
+prospect of an happy posterity, can only arise from a pleasing
+reflection on himself, as the cause of those descendants. How much
+soever this man's posterity might be thought to owe him for their
+being, it is certain, that the motive he acted from, was to oblige
+himself: still here is a wishing for posterity, a thought and design
+of getting children, which no wild couple could have to boast of; yet
+they would be vain enough to look upon themselves, as the principal
+cause of all their offspring and descendants, though they should live
+to see the fifth or sixth generation.
+
+Hor. I can find no vanity in that, and I should think them so myself.
+
+Cleo. Yet, as free agents, it would be plain, that they had contributed
+nothing to the existence of their prosperity.
+
+Hor. Now surely, you have overshot the mark; nothing?
+
+Cleo. No, nothing, even to that of their own children, knowingly;
+if you will allow that men have their appetites from nature. There
+is but one real cause in the universe, to produce that infinite
+variety of stupendous effects, and all the mighty labours that are
+performed in nature, either within, or far beyond the reach of our
+senses. Parents are the efficients of their offspring, with no more
+truth or propriety of speech, than the tools of an artificer, that
+were made and contrived by himself, are the cause of the most elaborate
+of his works. The senseless engine that raises water into the copper,
+and the passive mash-tub, have between them, as great a share in the
+art and action of brewing, as the liveliest male and female ever had
+in the production of an animal.
+
+Hor. You make stocks and stones of us; is it not in our choice to act,
+or not to act?
+
+Cleo. Yes, it is my choice now, either to run my head against the
+wall; or to let it alone; but, I hope, it does not puzzle you much
+to guess which of the two I shall choose.
+
+Hor. But do not we move our bodies as we list; and is not every action
+determined by the will?
+
+Cleo. What signifies that, where there is a passion that manifestly
+sways, and with a strict hand governs that will?
+
+Hor. Still we act with consciousness, and are intelligent creatures.
+
+Cleo. Not in the affair I speak of; where, willing or not willing, we
+are violently urged from within, and in a manner compelled not only
+to assist in, but likewise to long for, and, in spite of our teeth,
+be highly pleased with a performance that infinitely surpasses our
+understanding. The comparison I made is just, in every part of it;
+for the most loving, and, if you will, the most sagacious couple you
+can conceive, are as ignorant in the mystery of generation, nay, must
+remain, after having had twenty children together, as much uninformed,
+and as little conscious of nature's transactions, and what has been
+wrought within them, as inanimate utensils are of the most mystic
+and most ingenious operations they have been employed in.
+
+Hor. I do not know any man more expert in tracing human pride, or more
+severe in humbling it than yourself; but when the subject comes in
+your way, you do not know how to leave it. I wish you would, at once,
+go over to the origin of society; which, how to derive, or bring about
+at all, from the savage family, as we left it, is past my skill. It
+is impossible but those children, when they grew up, would quarrel
+on innumerable occasions: if men had but three appetites to gratify,
+that are the most obvious, they could never live together in peace,
+without government: for though they all paid a deference to the father,
+yet if he was a man void of all prudence, that could give them no good
+rules to walk by, I am persuaded that they would live in a perpetual
+state of war; and the more numerous his offspring grew, the more
+the old savage would be puzzled between his desire and incapacity
+of government. As they increased in numbers, they would be forced
+to extend their limits, and the spot they were born upon would not
+hold them long: nobody would be willing to leave his native vale,
+especially if it was a fruitful one. The more I think upon it, and
+the more I look into such multitudes, the less I can conceive which
+way they could ever be formed into a society.
+
+Cleo. The first thing that could make man associate, would be common
+danger, which unites the greatest enemies: this danger they would
+certainly be in, from wild beasts, considering that no uninhabited
+country is without them, and the defenceless condition in which
+men come into the world. This often must have been a cruel article,
+to prevent the increase of our species.
+
+Hor. The supposition then, that this wild man, with his progeny,
+should for fifty years live undisturbed, is not very probable; and
+I need not trouble myself about our savages being embarrassed with
+too numerous an offspring.
+
+Cleo. You say right; there is no probability, that a man and his
+progeny, all unarmed, should so long escape the ravenous hunger of
+beasts of prey, that are to live upon what animals they can get; that
+leave no place unsearched, nor pains untried, to come at food, though
+with the hazard of their lives. The reason why I made that supposition,
+was to show you, first, the improbability that a wild and altogether
+untaught man should have the knowledge and discretion which Sir William
+Temple gives him; secondly, that children who conversed with their own
+species, though they were brought up by savages, would be governable;
+and consequently, that all such, when come to maturity, would be fit
+for society, how ignorant and unskilful soever their parents might
+have been.
+
+Hor. I thank you for it; for it has shown me, that the very first
+generation of the most brutish savages, was sufficient to produce
+sociable creatures; but that to produce a man fit to govern others,
+much more was required.
+
+Cleo. I return to my conjecture concerning the first motive that
+would make savages associate: it is not possible to know any thing
+with certainty of beginnings, where men were destitute of letters;
+but I think, that the nature of the thing makes it highly probable,
+that it must have been their common danger from beasts of prey;
+as well such sly ones as lay in wait for their children, and the
+defenceless animals, men made use of for themselves, as the more bold,
+that would openly attack grown men and women. What much confirms me
+in this opinion is, the general agreement of all the relations we
+have, from the most ancient times, in different countries: for, in the
+infancy of all nations, profane history is stuffed with the accounts of
+the conflicts men had with wild beasts. It took up the chief labours
+of the heroes of remotest antiquity, and their greatest prowess was
+shown in killing of dragons, and subduing of other monsters.
+
+Hor. Do you lay any stress upon sphinxes, basilisks, flying dragons,
+and bulls that spit fire?
+
+Cleo. As much as I do on modern witches. But I believe that all those
+fictions had their rise from noxious beasts, the mischiefs they did,
+and other realities that struck terror into man; and I believe, that
+if no man had ever been seen on a horse's back, we should never have
+heard of Centaurs. The prodigious force and rage that are apparent
+in some savage animals, and the astonishing power, which, from the
+various poisons of venomous creatures, we are sure must be hid in
+others; the sudden and unexpected assaults of serpents, the variety
+of them; the vast bulk of crocodiles; the irregular and uncommon
+shapes of some fishes, and the wings of others, are all things that
+are capable of alarming man's fear; and it is incredible what chimeras
+that passion alone may produce in a terrified mind: the dangers of the
+day often haunt men at night with addition of terror; and from what
+they remember in their dreams, it is easy to forge realities. If you
+will consider, likewise, that the natural ignorance of man, and his
+hankering after knowledge, will augment the credulity which hope and
+fear first give birth to; the desire the generality have of applause,
+and the great esteem that is commonly had for the merveilleux, and the
+witnesses and relaters of it: If, I say, you will consider all these,
+you will easily discover, how many creatures came to be talked of,
+described, and formally painted, that never had any existence.
+
+Hor. I do not wonder at the origin of monstrous figures, or the
+invention of any fables whatever; but in the reason you gave for the
+first motive, that would make men combine in one interest, I find
+something very perplexing, which I own I never thought of before. When
+I reflect on the condition of man, as you have set it before me, naked
+and defenceless, and the multitude of ravenous animals that thirst
+after his blood, and are superior to him in strength, and completely
+armed by nature, it is inconceivable to me, how our species should
+have subsisted.
+
+Cleo. What you observe is well worthy our attention.
+
+Hor. It is astonishing. What filthy, abominable beasts are lions
+and tigers!
+
+Cleo. I think them to be very fine creatures; there is nothing I
+admire more than a lion.
+
+Hor. We have strange accounts of his generosity and gratitude; but
+do you believe them?
+
+Cleo. I do not trouble my head about them: What I admire is his
+fabric, his structure, and his rage, so justly proportioned to one
+another. There are order, symmetry, and superlative wisdom to be
+observed in all the works of nature; but she has not a machine, of
+which every part more visibly answers the end for which the whole
+was formed.
+
+Hor. The destruction of other animals.
+
+Cleo. That is true; but how conspicuous is that end, without mystery
+or uncertainty! that grapes were made for wine, and man for society,
+are truths not accomplished in every individual: but there is a
+real majesty stamped on every single lion, at the sight of which the
+stoutest animals submit and tremble. When we look upon and examine his
+massy talons, the size of them, and the laboured firmness with which
+they are fixed in, and fastened to that prodigious paw; his dreadful
+teeth, the strength of his jaws, and the width of his mouth equally
+terrible, the use of them is obvious; but when we consider, moreover,
+the make of his limbs, the toughness of his flesh and tendons,
+the solidity of his bones, beyond that of other animals, and the
+whole frame of him, together with his never-ceasing anger, speed,
+and agility; whilst in the desart he ranges king of beasts! When,
+I say, we consider all these things, it is stupidity not to see the
+design of nature, and with what amazing skill the beautiful creature
+is contrived for offensive war and conquest.
+
+Hor. You are a good painter. But after all, why would you judge of
+a creature's nature from what it was perverted to, rather than from
+its original, the state it was first produced in? The lion in Paradise
+was a gentle, loving creature. Hear what Milton says of his behaviour
+before Adam and Eve, "as they sate recline on the soft downy bank,
+damask'd with flowers:"
+
+
+    --------About them frisking play'd
+    All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase
+    In wood or wilderness, forest or den;
+    Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw
+    Dandel'd the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,
+    Gambol'd before them.--------
+
+
+What was it the lion fed upon; what sustenance had all these beasts
+of prey in Paradise?
+
+Cleo. I do not know. Nobody who believes the Bible, doubts, but that
+the whole state of Paradise, and the intercourse between God and the
+first man, were as much preternatural, as the creation out of nothing;
+and, therefore, it cannot be supposed, that they should be accounted
+for by human reason; and if they were, Moses would not be answerable
+for more than he advanced himself. The history which he has given us
+of those times is extremely succinct, and ought not to be charged
+with any thing contained in the glosses and paraphrases that have
+been made upon it by others.
+
+Hor. Milton has said nothing of Paradise, but what he could justify
+from Moses.
+
+Cleo. It is no where to be proved, from Moses, that the state of
+innocence lasted so long, that goats, or any viviparous animals could,
+have bred and brought forth young ones.
+
+Hor. You mean that there could have been no kid. I should never have
+made that cavil in so fine a poem. It was not in my thoughts: what
+I aimed at in repeating those lines, was to show you how superfluous
+and impertinent a lion must have been in Paradise; and that those who
+pretend to find fault with the works of nature, might have censured
+her with justice, for lavishing and throwing away so many excellencies
+upon a great beast, to no purpose. What a fine variety of destructive
+weapons, would they say, what prodigious strength of limbs and sinews
+are here given to a creature! What to do with? to be quiet and dandle
+a kid. I own, that to me, this province, the employment assigned to
+the lion, seems to be as proper and well chosen, as if you would make
+a nurse of Alexander the Great.
+
+Cleo. You might make as many flights upon a lion now, if you saw him
+asleep. Nobody would think that a bull had occasion for horns, who had
+never seen him otherwise than quietly grazing among a parcel of cows;
+but, if one should see him attacked by dogs, by a wolf, or a rival of
+his own species, he would soon find out that his horns were of great
+use and service to him. The lion was not made to be always in Paradise.
+
+Hor. There I would have you. If the lion was contrived for purposes to
+be served and executed out of Paradise, then it is manifest, from the
+very creation, that the fall of man was determined and predestinated.
+
+Cleo. Foreknown it was: nothing could be hid from Omniscience; that
+is certain: But that it was predestinated so as to have prejudiced,
+or anywise influenced the free will of Adam, I utterly deny. But
+that word, predestinated, has made so much noise in the world,
+and the thing itself has been the cause of so many fatal quarrels,
+and is so inexplicable, that I am resolved never to engage in any
+dispute concerning it.
+
+Hor. I cannot make you; but what you have extolled so much, must have
+cost the lives of thousands of our species; and it is a wonder to me
+how men, when they were but few, could possibly defend themselves,
+before they had fire arms, or at least bows and arrows; for what number
+of naked men and women, would be a match for one couple of lions?
+
+Cleo. Yet, here we are; and none of those animals are suffered to
+be wild, in any civilized nation; our superior understanding has got
+the start of them.
+
+Hor. My reason tells me it must be that; but I cannot help observing,
+that when human understanding serves your purpose to solve any thing,
+it is always ready and full grown; but at other times, knowledge and
+reasoning are the work of time, and men are not capable of thinking
+justly, until after many generations. Pray, before men had arms,
+what could their understanding do against lions, and what hindered
+wild beasts from devouring mankind, as soon as they were born?
+
+Cleo. Providence.
+
+Hor. Daniel, indeed, was saved by miracle; but what is that to the
+rest of mankind? great numbers, we know, have, at different times,
+been torn to pieces by savage beasts: what I want to know, is,
+the reason that any of them escaped, and the whole species was not
+destroyed by them; when men had yet no weapons to defend, nor strong
+holds to shelter themselves from the fury of those merciless creatures.
+
+Cleo. I have named it to you already, Providence.
+
+Hor. But which way can you prove this miraculous assistance?
+
+Cleo. You still talk of miracles, and I speak of Providence, or the
+all-governing Wisdom of God.
+
+Hor. If you can, demonstrate to me, how that Wisdom interposed between
+our species and that of lions, in the beginning of the world, without
+miracle, any more than it does at present, eris mihi magnus Apollo:
+for now, I am sure, a wild lion would prey upon a naked man, as soon,
+at least, as he would upon an ox or an horse.
+
+Cleo. Will not you allow me, that all properties, instincts, and what
+we call the nature of things, animate or inanimate, are the produce,
+the effects of that Wisdom?
+
+Hor. I never thought otherwise.
+
+Cleo. Then it will not be difficult to prove this to you. Lions are
+never brought forth wild, but in very hot countries, as bears are the
+product of the cold. But the generality of our species, which loves
+moderate warmth, are most delighted with the middle regions. Men
+may, against their wills, be inured to intense cold, or by use and
+patience, accustom themselves to excessive heat; but a mild air, and
+weather between both extremes, being more agreeable to human bodies,
+the greatest part of mankind would naturally settle in temperate
+climates, and with the same conveniency, as to every thing else,
+never choose any other. This would very much lessen the danger men
+would be in from the fiercest and most irresistible wild beasts.
+
+Hor. But would lions and tigers in hot countries keep so close within
+their bounds, and bears in cold ones, as never to straggle or stray
+beyond them?
+
+Cleo. I do not suppose they would; and men, as well as cattle, have
+often been picked up by lions, far from the places where these were
+whelped. No wild beasts are more fatal to our species, than often we
+are to one another; and men pursued by their enemies have fled into
+climates and countries, which they would never have chose. Avarice
+likewise and curiosity, have, without force or necessity, often
+exposed men to dangers, which they might have avoided, if they had been
+satisfied with what nature required; and laboured for self-preservation
+in that simple manner, which creatures less vain and fantastical
+content themselves with. In all these cases, I do not question,
+but multitudes of our species have suffered from savage beasts, and
+other noxious animals; and on their account only, I verily believe,
+it would have been impossible for any number of men, to have settled
+or subsisted in either very hot or very cold countries, before the
+invention of bows and arrows, or better arms. But all this does
+nothing to overthrow my assertion: what I wanted to prove, is, that
+all creatures choosing by instinct that degree of heat or cold which
+is most natural to them, there would be room enough in the world for
+man to multiply his species, for many ages, without running almost any
+risk of being devoured either by lions or by bears; and that the most
+savage man would find this out, without the help of his reason. This
+I call the work of Providence; by which I mean the unalterable wisdom
+of the Supreme Being, in the harmonious disposition of the universe;
+the fountain of that incomprehensible chain of causes, on which all
+events have their undoubted dependance.
+
+Hor. You have made this out better than I had expected; but I am
+afraid, that what you alleged as the first motive towards society,
+is come to nothing by it.
+
+Cleo. Do not fear that; there are other savage beasts, against which
+men could not guard themselves unarmed, without joining, and mutual
+assistance: in temperate climates, most uncultivated countries abound
+with wolves.
+
+Hor. I have seen them in Germany; they are of the size of a large
+mastiff; but I thought their chief prey had been sheep.
+
+Cleo. Any thing they can conquer is their prey: they are desperate
+creatures, and will fall upon men, cows, and horses, as well as upon
+sheep, when they are very hungry: they have teeth like mastiffs;
+but besides them they have sharp claws to tear with, which dogs have
+not. The stoutest man is hardly equal to them in strength; but what
+is worse, they often come in troops, and whole villages have been
+attacked by them; they have five, six, and more whelps at a litter,
+and would soon over-run a country where they breed, if men did not
+combine against, and make it their business to destroy them. Wild
+boars likewise, are terrible creatures, that few large forests,
+and uninhabited places, in temperate climates, are free from.
+
+Hor. Those tusks of theirs are dreadful weapons.
+
+Cleo. And they are much superior to wolves in bulk and
+strength. History is full of the mischief they have done in ancient
+times, and of the renown that valiant men have gained by conquering
+them.
+
+Hor. That is true; but those heroes that fought monsters in former
+days, were well armed; at least, the generality of them; but what
+could a number of naked men, before they had any arms at all, have to
+oppose to the teeth and claws of ravenous wolves that came in troops;
+and what impression could the greatest blow a man can strike, make
+upon the thick bristly hide of a wild boar?
+
+Cleo. As on the one hand, I have named every thing that man has to
+fear from wild beasts; so, on the other, we ought not to forget the
+things that are in his favour. In the first place, a wild man inured
+to hardship, would far exceed a tame one, in all feats of strength,
+nimbleness and activity; in the second, his anger would sooner and
+more usefully transport and assist him in his savage state, than it
+can do in society; where, from his infancy he is so many ways taught,
+and forced in his own defence, to cramp and stifle with his fears
+the noble gift of nature. In wild creatures we see, that most of
+them, when their own life or that of their young ones is at stake,
+fight with great obstinacy, and continue fighting to the last, and do
+what mischief they can, whilst they have breath, without regard to
+their being overmatched, or the disadvantages they labour under. It
+is observed likewise, that the more untaught and inconsiderate
+creatures are, the more entirely they are swayed by the passion that
+is uppermost: natural affection would make wild men and women too,
+sacrifice their lives, and die for their children; but they would die
+fighting; and one wolf would not find it an easy matter to carry of
+a child from his watchful parents, if they were both resolute, though
+they were naked. As to man's being born defenceless, it is not to be
+conceived, that he should long know the strength of his arms, without
+being acquainted with the articulation of his fingers, or at least,
+what is owing to it, his faculty of grasping and holding fast; and the
+most untaught savage would make use of clubs and staves before he came
+to maturity. As the danger men are in from wild beasts would be of the
+highest consequence, so it would employ their utmost care and industry:
+they would dig holes, and invent other stratagems, to distress their
+enemies, and destroy their young ones: as soon as they found out fire,
+they would make use of that element to guard themselves and annoy
+their foes: by the help of it they would soon learn to sharpen wood,
+which presently would put them upon making spears and other weapons
+that would cut. When men are angry enough with creatures to strike
+them, and these are running away, or flying from them, they are apt
+to throw at what they cannot reach: this, as soon as they had spears,
+would naturally lead them to the invention of darts and javelins. Here,
+perhaps, they may stop a while; but the same chain of thinking would,
+in time, produce bows and arrows: the elasticity of sticks and boughs
+of trees is very obvious; and to make strings of the guts of animals,
+I dare say, is more ancient than the use of hemp. Experience teaches
+us, that men may have all these, and many more weapons, and be very
+expert in the use of them, before any manner of government, except
+that of parents over their children, is to be seen among them: it
+is likewise very well known, that savages furnished with no better
+arms, when they are strong enough in number, will venture to attack,
+and even hunt after the fiercest wild beasts, lions and tigers not
+excepted. Another thing is to be considered, that likewise favours
+our species, and relates to the nature of the creatures, of which
+intemperate climates man has reason to stand in bodily fear of.
+
+Hor. Wolves and wild boars?
+
+Cleo. Yes. That great numbers of our species have been devoured by the
+first, is uncontested; but they most naturally go in quest of sheep
+and poultry; and, as long as they can get carrion, or any thing to fill
+their bellies with, they seldom hunt after men, or other large animals;
+which is the reason, that in the summer our species, as to personal
+insults, have not much to fear from them. It is certain likewise,
+that savage swine will hunt after men, and many of their maws have been
+crammed with human flesh: but they naturally feed on acorns, chestnuts,
+beach-mast, and other vegetables; and they are only carnivorous upon
+occasion, and through necessity, when they can get nothing else; in
+great frosts, when the country is bare, and every thing covered with
+snow. It is evident, then, that human creatures are not in any great
+and immediate danger from either of these species of beasts, but in
+hard winters, which happen but seldom in temperate climates. But as
+they are our perpetual enemies, by spoiling and devouring every thing
+that may serve for the sustenance of man, it is highly necessary, that
+we should not only be always upon our guard against them, but likewise
+never cease to assist one another in routing and destroying them.
+
+Hor. I plainly see, that mankind might subsist and survive to
+multiply, and get the mastery over all other creatures that should
+oppose them; and as this could never have been brought about, unless
+men had assisted one another against savage beasts, it is possible
+that the necessity men were in of joining and uniting together, was
+the first step toward society. Thus far I am willing to allow you to
+have proved your main point: but to ascribe all this to Providence,
+otherwise than that nothing is done without the Divine permission,
+seems inconsistent with the ideas we have of a perfectly good and
+merciful Being. It is possible, that all poisonous animals may have
+something in them that is beneficial to men; and I will not dispute
+with you, whether the most venomous of all the serpents which Lucan
+has made mention of, did not contain some antidote, or other fine
+medicine, still undiscovered: but when I look upon the vast variety
+of ravenous and blood-thirsty creatures, that are not only superior
+to us in strength, but likewise visibly armed by nature, as it were
+on purpose for our destruction; when, I say, I look upon these, I
+can find out no use for them, nor what they could be designed for,
+unless it be to punish us: but I can much less conceive, that the
+Divine Wisdom should have made them the means without which men could
+not have been civilized. How many thousands of our species must have
+been devoured in the conflicts with them!
+
+Cleo. Ten troops of wolves, with fifty in each, would make a terrible
+havoc, in a long winter, among a million of our species with their
+hands tied behind them; but among half that number, one pestilence
+has been known to slaughter more, than so many wolves could have eaten
+in the same time; notwithstanding the great resistance that was made
+against it, by approved of medicines and able physicians. It is owing
+to the principle of pride we are born with, and the high value we all,
+for the sake of one, have for our species, that men imagine the whole
+universe to be principally made for their use; and this error makes
+them commit a thousand extravagancies, and have pitiful and most
+unworthy notions of God and his works. It is not greater cruelty, or
+more unnatural, in a wolf to eat a piece of a man, than it is in a man
+to eat part of a lamb or a chicken. What, or how many purposes wild
+beasts were made for, is not for us to determine; but that they were
+made, we know; and that some of them must have been very calamitous
+to every infant nation, and settlement of men, is almost as certain:
+this you was fully persuaded of; and thought, moreover, that they must
+have been such an obstacle to the very subsistence of our species, as
+was insurmountable: In answer to this difficulty, which you started,
+I showed you, from the different instincts and peculiar tendencies of
+animals, that in nature a manifest provision was made for our species:
+by which, notwithstanding the rage and power of the fiercest beasts,
+we should make a shift, naked and defenceless, to escape their fury,
+so as to be able to maintain ourselves and multiply our kind, till
+by our numbers, and arms acquired by our own industry, we could put
+to flight, or destroy all savage beasts without exception, whatever
+spot of the globe we might have a mind to cultivate and settle on. The
+necessary blessings we receive from the sun, are obvious to a child;
+and it is demonstrable, that without it, none of the living creatures
+that are now upon the earth, could subsist. But if it were of no
+other use, being eight hundred thousand times bigger than the earth
+at least, one thousandth part of it would do our business as well, if
+it was but nearer to us in proportion. From this consideration alone,
+I am persuaded, that the sun was made to enlighten and cherish other
+bodies, besides this planet of ours. Fire and water were designed for
+innumerable purposes; and among the uses that are made of them, some
+are immensely different from others. But whilst we receive the benefit
+of these, and are only intent on ourselves, it is highly probable,
+that there are thousands of things, and perhaps our own machines among
+them, that, in the vast system of the universe, are now serving some
+very wise ends, which we shall never know. According to that plan
+of this globe, I mean the scheme of government, in relation to the
+living creatures that inhabit the earth, the destruction of animals
+is as necessary as the generation of them.
+
+Hor. I have learned that from the Fable of the Bees; and I believe what
+I have read there to be very true; that, if any one species was to
+be exempt from death, it would in time crush all the rest to pieces,
+though the first were sheep, and the latter all lions: but that the
+Supreme Being should have introduced society at the expence of so
+many lives of our species, I cannot believe, when it might have been
+done much better in a milder way.
+
+Cleo. We are speaking of what probably was done, and not of what might
+have been done. There is no question, but the same Power that made
+whales, might have made us seventy feet high, and given us strength
+in proportion. But since the plan of this globe requires, and you
+think it necessary yourself, that in every species some should die
+almost as fast as others are born, why should you take away any of
+the means of dying?
+
+Hor. Are there not diseases enough, physicians and apothecaries,
+as well as wars by sea and land, that may take off more than the
+redundancy of our species?
+
+Cleo. They may, it is true; but in fact they are not always sufficient
+to do this: and in populous nations we see, that war, wild beasts,
+hanging, drowning, and an hundred casualties together, with sickness
+and all its attendants, are hardly a match for one invisible faculty of
+ours, which is the instinct men have to preserve their species. Every
+thing is easy to the Deity; but to speak after an human manner, it is
+evident, that in forming this earth, and every thing that is in it,
+no less wisdom or solicitude was required, in contriving the various
+ways and means, to get rid and destroy animals, than seems to have
+been employed in producing them; and it is as demonstrable, that our
+bodies were made on purpose not to last beyond such a period, as it
+is, that some houses are built with a design not to stand longer than
+such a term of years. But it is death itself to which our aversion by
+nature is universal; as to the manner of dying, men differ in their
+opinions; and I never heard of one yet that was generally liked of.
+
+Hor. But nobody chooses a cruel one. What an unspeakable and infinitely
+excruciating torment must it be, to be torn to pieces, and eat alive
+by a savage beast!
+
+Cleo. Not greater, I can assure you; than are daily occasioned by
+the gout in the stomach, and the stone in the bladder.
+
+Hor. Which way can you give me this assurance; how can you prove it?
+
+Cleo. From our fabric itself, the frame of human bodies, that cannot
+admit of any torment, infinitely excruciating. The degrees of pain, as
+well as of pleasure, in this life are limited, and exactly proportioned
+to every one's strength; whatever exceeds that, takes away the senses;
+and whoever has once fainted away with the extremity of any torture,
+knows the fall extent of what here he can suffer, if he remembers what
+he felt. The real mischief which wild beasts have done to our species,
+and the calamities they have brought upon it, are not to be compared
+to the cruel usage, and the multiplicity of mortal injuries which men
+have received from one another. Set before your eyes a robust warrior,
+that having lost a limb in battle, is afterwards trampled upon by
+twenty horses; and tell me, pray, whether you think, that lying thus
+helpless with most of his ribs broke, and a fractured skull, in the
+agony of death, for several hours, he suffers less than if a lion
+had dispatched him?
+
+Hor. They are both very bad.
+
+Cleo. In the choice of things we are more often directed by the caprice
+of fashions, and the custom of the age, than we are by solid reason,
+or our own understanding. There is no greater comfort in dying
+of a dropsy, and in being eaten by worms, than there is in being
+drowned at sea, and becoming the prey of fishes. But in our narrow
+way of thinking, there is something that subverts and corrupt our
+judgment; how else could persons of known elegancy in their taste,
+prefer rotting and stinking in a loathsome sepulchre, to their being
+burnt in the open air to inoffensive ashes?
+
+Hor. I freely own, that I have an aversion to every thing that is
+shocking and unnatural.
+
+Cleo. What you call shocking, I do not know; but nothing is more
+common to nature, or more agreeable to her ordinary course, than that
+creatures should live upon one another. The whole system of animated
+beings on the earth seems to be built upon this; and there is not
+one species that we know of, that has not another that feeds upon
+it, either alive or dead; and most kind of fish are forced to live
+upon fish. That this in the last-mentioned, was not an omission or
+neglect, is evident from the large provision nature has made for it,
+far exceeding any thing she has done for other animals.
+
+Hor. You mean the prodigious quantity of roe they spawn.
+
+Cleo. Yes; and that the eggs contained in them, receive not their
+fecundity until after they are excluded; by which means the female
+may be filled with as many of them as her belly can hold, and the
+eggs themselves may be more closely crowded together, than would be
+consistent with the admission of any substance from the male: without
+this, one fish could not bring forth yearly such a prodigious shoal.
+
+Hor. But might not the aura seminalis of the male be subtle enough to
+penetrate the whole cluster of eggs, and influence every one of them,
+without taking up any room, as it does in fowls and other oviparous
+animals?
+
+Cleo. The ostrich excepted in the first place: in the second, there
+are no other oviparous animals in which the eggs are so closely
+compacted together, as they are in fish. But suppose the prolific
+power should pervade the whole mass of them; if all the eggs which
+some of the females are crammed with, were to be impregnated whilst
+they are within the fish, it is impossible but the aura seminalis, the
+prolific spirit of the male, though it took up no room itself, would,
+as it does in all other creatures, dilate, and more or less distend
+every egg; and the least expansion of so many individuals would swell
+the whole roe to a bulk that would require a much greater space, than
+the cavity that now contains them. Is not here a contrivance beyond
+imagination fine, to provide for the continuance of a species, though
+every individual of it should be born with an instinct to destroy it!
+
+Hor. What you speak of, is only true at sea, in a considerable part
+of Europe at least: for in fresh water, most kinds of fish do not
+feed on their own species, and yet they spawn in the same manner,
+and are as full of roe as all the rest: among them, the only great
+destroyer with us, is the pike.
+
+Cleo. And he is a very ravenous one: We see in ponds, that where pikes
+are suffered to be, no other fish shall ever increase in number. But in
+rivers, and all waters near any land, there are amphibious fowls, and
+many sorts of them, that live mostly upon fish: Of these water-fowls in
+many places are prodigious quantities. Besides these, there are otters,
+beavers, and many other creatures that live upon fish. In brooks and
+shallow waters, the hearn and bittern will have their share: What is
+taken off by them, perhaps is but little; but the young fry, and the
+spawn that one pair of swans are able to consume in one year, would
+very well serve to stock a considerable river. So they are but eat,
+it is no matter what eats them, either their own species or another:
+What I would prove, is, that nature produces no extraordinary numbers
+of any species, but she has contrived means answerable to destroy
+them. The variety of insects in the several parts of the world, would
+be incredible to any one that has not examined into this matter;
+and the different beauties to be observed in them is infinite: But
+neither the beauty, nor the variety, of them, are more surprising,
+than the industry of nature in the multiplicity of her contrivances
+to kill them; and if the care and vigilance of all other animals in
+destroying them were to cease at once, in two years time the greatest
+part of the earth, which is ours now, would be theirs, and in many
+countries insects would be the only inhabitants.
+
+Hor. I have heard that whales live upon nothing else; that must make
+a fine consumption.
+
+Cleo. That is the general opinion, I suppose, because they never
+find any fish in them; and because there are vast multitudes of
+insects in those seas, hovering on the surface of the water. This
+creature likewise helps to corroborate my assertion, that in the
+numbers produced of every species, the greatest regard is had to
+the consumption of them: This prodigious animal being too big to
+be swallowed, nature in it has quite altered the economy observed
+in all other fish; for they are viviparous, engender like other
+viviparous animals, and have never above two or three young ones at
+a time. For the continuance of every species among such an infinite
+variety of creatures as this globe yields, it was highly necessary,
+that the provision for their destruction should not be less ample,
+than that which was made for the generation of them; and therefore
+the solicitude of nature in procuring death, and the consumption
+of animals, is visibly superior to the care she takes to seed and
+preserve them.
+
+Hor. Prove that pray.
+
+Cleo. Millions of her creatures are starved every year, and doomed
+to perish for want of sustenance; but whenever any die, there is
+always plenty of mouths to devour them. But then, again, she gives
+all she has: nothing is so fine or elaborate, as that she grudges
+it for food; nor is any thing more extensive or impartial than her
+bounty: she thinks nothing too good for the meanest of her broods,
+and all creatures are equally welcome to every thing they can find to
+eat. How curious is the workmanship in the structure of a common fly;
+how inimitable are the celerity of his wings, and the quickness of all
+his motions in hot weather! Should a Pythagorean, that was likewise
+a good master in mechanics, by the help of a microscope, pry into
+every minute part of this changeable creature, and duly consider
+the elegancy of its machinery, would he not think it great pity,
+that thousands of millions of animated beings, so nicely wrought and
+admirably finished, should every day be devoured by little birds and
+spiders, of which we stand in so little need? Nay, do not you think
+yourself, that things would have been managed full as well, is the
+quantity of flies had been less, and there had been no spiders at all?
+
+Hor. I remember the fable of the Acorn and the Pumkin too well to
+answer you; I do not trouble my head about it.
+
+Cleo. Yet you found fault with the means, which I supposed Providence
+had made use of to make men associate; I mean the common danger they
+were in from wild beasts: though you owned the probability of its
+having been the first motive of their uniting.
+
+Hor. I cannot believe that Providence should have no greater regard
+to our species, than it has to flies, and the spawn of fish: or that
+nature has ever sported with the fate of human creatures, as she does
+with the lives of insects, and been as wantonly lavish of the first,
+as she seems to be of the latter. I wonder how you can reconcile this
+to religion; you that are such a stickler for Christianity.
+
+Cleo. Religion has nothing to do with it. But we are so full of our own
+species, and the excellency of it, that we have no leisure seriously
+to consider the system of this earth; I mean the plan on which the
+economy of it is built, in relation to the living creatures that are
+in and upon it.
+
+Hor. I do not speak as to our species, but in respect to the Deity:
+has religion nothing to do with it, that you make God the author of
+so much cruelty and malice?
+
+Cleo. It is impossible, you should speak otherwise, than in
+relation to our species, when you make use of those expressions,
+which can only signify to us the intentions things were done with,
+or the sentiments human creatures have of them; and nothing can be
+called cruel or malicious in regard to him who did it, unless his
+thoughts and designs were such in doing it. All actions in nature,
+abstractly considered, are equally indifferent; and whatever it may be
+to individual creatures, to die is not a greater evil to this earth,
+or the whole universe, than it is to be born.
+
+Hor. This is making the First Cause of things not an intelligent being.
+
+Cleo. Why so? Can you not conceive an intelligent, and even a most
+wise being, that is not only exempt from, but likewise incapable of
+entertaining any malice or cruelty?
+
+Hor. Such a being could not commit, or order things that are malicious
+and cruel.
+
+Cleo. Neither does God. But this will carry us into a dispute
+about the origin of evil; and from thence we must inevitably fall
+on free-will and predestination, which, as I have told you before,
+is an inexplicable mystery I will never meddle with. But I never
+said nor thought any thing irreverent to the Deity: on the contrary,
+the idea I have of the Supreme Being, is as transcendently great,
+as my capacity is able to form one, of what is incomprehensible;
+and I could as soon believe, that he could cease to exist, as that
+he should be the author of any real evil. But I should be glad to
+hear the method, after which you think society might have been much
+better introduced: Pray, acquaint me with that milder way you spoke of.
+
+Hor. You have thoroughly convinced me, that the natural love which
+it is pretended we have for our species, is not greater than what
+many other animals have for theirs: but if nature had actually given
+us an affection for one another, as sincere and conspicuous as that
+which parents are seen to have for their children, whilst they are
+helpless, men would have joined together by choice; and nothing could
+have hindered them from associating, whether their numbers had been
+great or small, and themselves either ignorant or knowing.
+
+Cleo. O mentes hominum cæcas! O Pectora cæca!
+
+Hor. You may exclaim as much as you please; I am persuaded that this
+would have united men in firmer bonds of friendship, than any common
+danger from wild beasts could have tied them with: but what fault
+can you find with it, and what mischief could have befallen us from
+mutual affection?
+
+Cleo. It would have been inconsistent with the scheme, the plan after
+which, it is evident, Providence has been pleased to order and dispose
+of things in the universe. If such an affection had been planted
+in man by instinct, there never could have been any fatal quarrels
+among them, nor mortal hatreds; men could never have been cruel to
+one another: in short, there could have been no wars of any duration;
+and no considerable numbers of our species could ever have been killed
+by one another's malice.
+
+Hor. You would make a rare state-physician, in prescribing war,
+cruelty and malice, for the welfare and maintenance of civil society.
+
+Cleo. Pray, do not misrepresent me: I have done no such thing: but
+if you believe the world is governed by Providence at all, you must
+believe likewise, that the Deity makes use of means to bring about,
+perform, and execute his will and pleasure: As for example, to have
+war kindled, there must be first misunderstandings and quarrels
+between the subjects of different nations, and dissentions among
+the respective princes, rulers, or governors of them: it is evident,
+that the mind of man is the general mint where the means of this sort
+must be coined; from whence I conclude, that if Providence had ordered
+matters after that mild way, which you think would have been the best,
+very little of human blood could have been spilt, if any at all.
+
+Hor. Where would have been the inconveniency of that?
+
+Cleo. You could not have had that variety of living creatures, there
+is now; nay, there would not have been room for man himself, and his
+sustenance: our species alone would have overstocked the earth, if
+there had been no wars, and the common course of Providence had not
+been more interrupted than it has been. Might I not justly say then,
+that this is quite contrary and destructive to the scheme on which it
+is plain this earth was built? This is a consideration which you will
+never give its due weight. I have once already put you in mind of it,
+that you yourself have allowed the destruction of animals to be as
+necessary as the generation of them. There is as much wisdom to be
+seen in the contrivances how numbers of living creatures might always
+be taken off and destroyed, to make room for those that continually
+succeed them, as there is in making all the different sorts of them,
+every one preserve their own species. What do you think is the reason,
+that there is but one way for us to come into the world?
+
+Hor. Because that one is sufficient.
+
+Cleo. Then from a parity of reason, we ought to think, that there
+are several ways to go out of the world, because one would not
+have been sufficient. Now, if for the support and maintenance of
+that variety of creatures which are here that they should die,
+is a postulatum as necessary as it is, that they should be born;
+and you cut off or obstruct the means of dying, and actually stop up
+one of the great gates, through which we see multitudes go to death;
+do you not oppose the scheme, nay, do you mar it less, than if you
+hindered generation! Is there never had been war, and no other means
+of dying, besides the ordinary ones, this globe could not have born,
+or at least not maintained, the tenth part of the people that would
+have been in it. By war, I do not mean only such as one nation has
+had against another, but civil as well as foreign quarrels, general
+massacres, private murders, poison, sword, and all hostile force, by
+which men, notwithstanding their pretence of love to their species,
+have endeavoured to take away one another's lives throughout the world,
+from the time that Cain slew Abel to this day.
+
+Hor. I do not believe, that a quarter of all these mischiefs are upon
+record: but what may be known from history, would make a prodigious
+number of men: much greater, I dare say, than ever was on earth at
+one time: But what would you infer from this? They would not have
+been immortal; and if they had not died in war, they must soon after
+have been slain by diseases. When a man of threescore is killed by
+a bullet in the field, it is odds, that he would not have lived four
+years longer, though he had stayed at home.
+
+Cleo. There are soldiers of threescore perhaps in all armies, but
+men generally go to the war when they are young; and when four or
+five thousand are lost in battle, you will find the greatest number
+to have been under five-and-thirty: consider now, that many men do
+not marry till after that age, who get ten or a dozen children.
+
+Hor. If all that die by the hands of another, were to get a dozen
+children before they die----
+
+Cleo. There is no occasion for that; I suppose nothing, that is either
+extravagant or improbable; but that all such, as have been wilfully
+destroyed by means of their species, should have lived, and taken
+their chance with the rest; that every thing should have befallen
+them, that has befallen those that have not been killed that way;
+and the same likewise to their posterity; and that all of them should
+have been subject to all the casualties as well as diseases, doctors,
+apothecaries, and other accidents, that take away man's life, and
+shorten his days; war, and violence from one another, only excepted.
+
+Hor. But if the earth had been too full of inhabitants, might not
+Providence have sent pestilences and diseases oftener? More children
+might have died when they were young, or more women might have
+proved barren.
+
+Cleo. I do not know whether your mild way would have been more
+generally pleasing; but you entertain notions of the Deity that are
+unworthy of him. Men might certainly have been born with the instinct
+you speak of; but if this had been the Creator's pleasure, there must
+have been another economy; and things on earth, from the beginning,
+would have been ordered in a manner quite different from what they
+are now. But to make a scheme first, and afterwards to mend it, when
+it proves defective, is the business of finite wisdom; it belongs to
+human prudence alone to mend faults, to correct and redress what was
+done amiss before, and to alter the measures which experience teaches
+men, were ill concerted: but the knowledge of God was consummate
+from eternity. Infinite Wisdom is not liable to errors or mistakes;
+therefore all his works are universally good, and every thing is made
+exactly as he would have it: the firmness and liability of his laws
+and councils are everlasting, and therefore his resolutions are as
+unalterable, as his decrees are eternal. It is not a quarter of an hour
+ago, that you named wars among the necessary means to carry off the
+redundancy of our species; how come you now to think them useless? I
+can demonstrate to you, that nature, in the production of our species,
+has amply provided against the losses of our sex, occasioned by wars,
+by repairing them visibly, where they are sustained, in as palpable
+a manner, as she has provided for the great destruction that is made
+of fish, by their devouring one another.
+
+Hor. How is that, pray?
+
+Cleo. By sending more males into the world than females. You will
+easily allow me that our sex bears the brunt of all the toils and
+hazards that are undergone by sea and land; and that by this means a
+far greater number of men must be destroyed than there is of women:
+now if we see, as certainly we do, that of the infants yearly born,
+the number of males is always considerably superior to that of the
+females, is it not manifest, that nature has made a provision for
+great multitudes, which, if they were not destroyed, would be not
+only superfluous, but of pernicious consequence in great nations?
+
+Hor. That superiority in the number of males born is wonderful indeed;
+I remember the account that has been published concerning it, as it
+was taken from the bills of births and burials in the city and suburbs.
+
+Cleo. For fourscore years; in which the number of females born was
+constantly much inferior to that of the males, sometimes by many
+hundreds: and that this provision of nature, to supply the havoc
+that is made of men by wars and navigation, is still greater than
+could be imagined from that difference only, will soon appear, if we
+consider that women, in the first place, are liable to all diseases,
+within a trifle, that are incident to men; and that, in the second,
+they are subject to many disorders and calamities on account of their
+sex, which great numbers die of, and which men are wholly exempt from.
+
+Hor. This could not well be the effect of chance; but it spoils the
+consequence which you drew from my affectionate scheme, in case there
+had been no wars: for your fear that our species would have increased
+beyond all bounds, was entirely built upon the supposition, that those
+who have died in war should not have wanted women if they had lived;
+which, from this superiority in the number of males, it is evident,
+they should and must have wanted.
+
+Cleo. What you observe is true; but my chief aim was to show you how
+disagreeable the alteration you required would have been every way to
+the rest of the scheme, by which it is manifest things are governed
+at present. For, if the provision had been made on the other side;
+and nature, in the production of our species, had continually taken
+care to repair the loss of women that die of calamities not incident to
+men, then certainly there would have been women for all the men that
+have been destroyed by their own species, if they had lived; and the
+earth without war, as I have said, would have been over-stocked; or,
+if nature had ever been the same as she is now, that is, if more males
+had been born than females, and more females had died of diseases than
+males, the world would constantly have had a great superfluity of men,
+if there never had been any wars; and this disproportion between their
+number and that of the women would have caused innumerable mischiefs,
+that are now prevented by no other natural causes, than the small value
+men set upon their species, and their dissentions with one another.
+
+Hor. I can see no other mischief this would produce, than that the
+number of males which die without having ever tried matrimony, would
+be greater than it is now; and whether that would be a real evil or
+not, is a very disputable point.
+
+Cleo. Do not you think, that this perpetual scarcity of women, and
+superfluity of men, would make great uneasiness in all societies,
+how well soever people might love one another; and that the value,
+the price of women, would be so enhanced by it, that none but men in
+tolerable good circumstances would be able to purchase them? This alone
+would make us another world; and mankind could never have known that
+most necessary and now inexhaustible spring, from which all nations,
+where slaves are not allowed of, are constantly supplied with willing
+hands for all the drudgery of hard and dirty labour; I mean the
+children of the poor, the greatest and most extensive of all temporal
+blessings that accrue from society, on which all the comforts of life,
+in the civilized state, have their unavoidable dependance. There
+are many other things, from which it is plain, that such a real love
+of man for his species would have been altogether inconsistent with
+the present scheme; the world must have been destitute of all that
+industry, that is owing to envy and emulation; no society could have
+been easy with being a flourishing people at the expence of their
+neighbours, or enduring to be counted a formidable nation. All men
+would have been levellers; government would have been unnecessary;
+and there could have been no great bustle in the world. Look into
+the men of greatest renown, and the most celebrated achievements of
+antiquity, and every thing that has been cried up and admired in past
+ages by the fashionable part of mankind; if the same labours were to
+be performed over again, which qualification, which help of nature
+do you think would be the most proper means to have them executed;
+that instinct of real affection you required, without ambition or
+the love of glory; or a staunch principle of pride and selfishness,
+acting under pretence to, and assuming the resemblance of that
+affection? Consider, I beseech you, that no men governed by this
+instinct would require services of any of their species, which they
+would not be ready to perform for others; and you will easily see, that
+its being universal would quite alter the scene of society from what
+it is now. Such an instinct might be very suitable to another scheme
+different from this, in another world; where, instead of fickleness,
+and a restless desire after changes and novelty, there was observed
+an universal steadiness, continually preferred by a serene spirit of
+contentment among other creatures of different appetites from ours,
+that had frugality without avarice, and generosity without pride;
+and whose solicitude after happiness in a future state, was as
+active and apparent in life as our pursuits are after the enjoyments
+of this present. But, as to the world we live in, examine into the
+various ways of earthly greatness, and all the engines that are made
+use of to attain to the felicity of carnal men, and you will find,
+that the instinct you speak of must have destroyed the principles,
+and prevented the very existence of that pomp and glory to which
+human societies have been, and are still raised by worldly wisdom.
+
+Hor. I give up my affectionate scheme; you have convinced me that
+there could not have been that stir and variety, nor, upon the whole,
+that beauty in the world, which there have been, if all men had
+been naturally humble, good, and virtuous. I believe that wars of
+all sorts, as well as diseases, are natural means to hinder mankind
+from increasing too fast; but that wild beasts should likewise have
+been designed to thin our species, I cannot conceive; for they can
+only serve this end, when men are but few, and their numbers should
+be increased, instead of lessened; and afterwards, if they were made
+for that purpose, when men are strong enough, they would not answer it.
+
+Cleo. I never said that wild beasts was designed to thin our species. I
+have showed that many things were made to serve a variety of different
+purposes; that in the scheme of this earth, many things must have been
+considered that man has nothing to do with; and that it is ridiculous
+to think that the universe was made for our sake. I have said likewise,
+that as all our knowledge comes, à posteriori, it is imprudent to
+reason otherwise than from facts. That there are wild beasts, and that
+there are savage men, is certain; and that where there are but few
+of the latter, the first must always be very troublesome, and often
+fatal to them, is as certain; and when I reflect on the passions all
+men are born with, and their incapacity whilst they are untaught, I
+can find no cause or motive which is so likely to unite them together,
+and make them espouse the same interest, as that common danger they
+must always be in from wild beasts, in uncultivated countries, whilst
+they live in small families that all shift for themselves, without
+government or dependance upon one another: This first step to society,
+I believe to be an effect, which that same cause, the common danger
+so often mentioned, will never fail to produce upon our species in
+such circumstances: what other, and how many purposes wild beasts
+might have been designed for besides, I do not pretend to determine,
+as I have told you before.
+
+Hor. But whatever other purposes wild beasts were designed for,
+it still follows from your opinion, that the uniting of savages in
+common defence, must have been one; which to me seems clashing with
+our idea of the Divine Goodness.
+
+Cleo. So will every thing seem to do, which we call natural evil; if
+you ascribe human passions to the Deity, and measure Infinite Wisdom
+by the standard of our most shallow capacity; you have been at this
+twice already; I thought I had answered it. I would not make God the
+author of evil, any more than yourself; but I am likewise persuaded,
+that nothing could come by chance, in respect to the Supreme Being;
+and, therefore, unless you imagine the world not to be governed by
+Providence, you must believe that wars, and all the calamities we can
+suffer from man or beast, as well as plagues and all other diseases,
+are under a wise direction that is unfathomable. As there can be no
+effect without a cause, so nothing can be said to happen by chance,
+but in respect to him who is ignorant of the cause of it. I can make
+this evident to you, in an obvious and familiar example. To a man
+who knows nothing of the tennis-court, the skips and rebounds of the
+ball seems to be all fortuitous; as he is not able to guess at the
+several different directions it will receive before it comes to the
+ground; so, as soon as it has hit the place to which it was plainly
+directed at first, it is chance to him where it will fall: whereas,
+the experienced player, knowing perfectly well the journey the ball
+will make, goes directly to the place, if he is not there already,
+where it will certainly come within his reach. Nothing seems to be
+more the effect of chance than a cast of the dice: yet they obey the
+laws of gravity and motion in general, as much as any thing else;
+and from the impressions that are given them, it is impossible they
+should fall otherwise than they do: but the various directions which
+they shall receive in the whole course of the throw being entirely
+unknown, and the rapidity with which they change their situation
+being such, that our slow apprehension cannot trace them, what the
+cast will be is a mystery to human understanding, at fair play. But
+if the same variety of directions was given to two cubes of ten feet
+each, which a pair of dice receive, as well from one another as the
+box, the caster's fingers that cover it, and the table they are flung
+upon, from the time they are taken up until they lie still, the same
+effect would follow; and if the quantity of motion, the force that is
+imparted to the box and dice was exactly known, and the motion itself
+was so much retarded in the performance, that what is done in three
+or four seconds, should take up an hour's time, it would be easy to
+find out the reason of every throw, and men might learn with certainty
+to foretell which side of the cube would be uppermost. It is evident,
+then, that the words fortuitous and casual, have no other meaning than
+what depends upon our want of knowledge, foresight, and penetration;
+the reflection on which will show us, by what an infinity of degrees
+all human capacity falls short of that universal intuitus, with which
+the Supreme Being beholds at once every thing without exception,
+whether to us it be visible or invisible, past, present, or to come.
+
+Hor. I yield: you have solved every difficulty I have been able to
+raise; and I must confess, that your supposition concerning the first
+motive that would make savages associate, is neither clashing with good
+sense, nor any idea we ought to have of the Divine attributes; but,
+on the contrary, in answering my objections, you have demonstrated the
+probability of your conjecture, and rendered the wisdom and power of
+providence, in the scheme of this earth, both as to the contrivance
+and the execution of it, more conspicuous and palpable to me, than
+any thing I ever heard or read, had done before.
+
+Cleo. I am glad you are satisfied; though far from arrogating to
+myself so much merit as your civility would compliment me with.
+
+Hor. It is very clear to me now; that as it is appointed for all
+men to die, so it is necessary there should be means to compass this
+end; that from the number of those means, or causes of death; it is
+impossible to exclude either the malice of men, or the rage of wild
+beasts, and all noxious animals; and that if they had been actually
+designed by nature, and contrived for that purpose, we should have no
+more reason justly to complain of them, than we have to find fault
+with death itself, or that frightful train of diseases which are
+daily and hourly the manifest occasion of it.
+
+Cleo. They are all equally included in the curse, which after the
+fall was deservedly pronounced against the whole earth; and if they
+be real evils, they are to be looked upon as the consequence of
+sin, and a condign punishment, which the transgression of our first
+parents has drawn and entailed upon all their posterity. I am fully
+persuaded, that all the nations in the world, and every individual
+of our species, civilized or savage, had their origin from Seth,
+Sham, or Japhet: and as experience has taught us, that the greatest
+empires have their periods, and the best governed states and kingdoms
+may come to ruin; so it is certain, that the politest people being
+scattered and distressed, may soon degenerate, and some of them by
+accidents and misfortunes, from knowing and well taught ancestors,
+be reduced at last to savages of the first and lowest class.
+
+Hor. If what you are fully persuaded of, be true, the other is
+self-evident, from the savages that are still subsisting.
+
+Cleo. You once seemed to insinuate, that all the danger men were in
+from wild beasts, would entirely cease as soon as they were civilized,
+and lived in large and well-ordered societies; but by this you may
+see, that our species will never be wholly exempt from that danger;
+because mankind will always be liable to be reduced to savages; for,
+as this calamity has actually befallen vast multitudes that were the
+undoubted descendants of Noah; so the greatest prince upon earth,
+that has children, cannot be sure, that the same disaster will never
+happen to any of his posterity. Wild beasts may be entirely extirpated
+in some countries that are duly cultivated; but they will multiply
+in others that are wholly neglected; and great numbers of them range
+now, and are masters in many places, where they had been rooted and
+kept out before. I shall always believe that every species of living
+creatures in and upon this globe, without exception, continues to be,
+as it was at first, under the care of that same Providence that thought
+fit to produce it. You have had a great deal of patience, but I would
+not tire it: This first step towards society, now we have mastered it,
+is a good resting place, and so we will leave off for to-day.
+
+Hor. With all my heart: I have made you talk a great deal; but I long
+to hear the rest, as soon as you are at leisure.
+
+Cleo. I am obliged to dine at Windsor to-morrow; if you are not
+otherwise engaged, I can carry you where the honour of your company
+will be highly esteemed: my coach shall be ready at nine; you know
+you are in my way.
+
+Hor. A fine opportunity, indeed, of three or four hours chat.
+
+Cleo. I shall be all alone without you.
+
+Hor. I am your man, and shall expect you.
+
+Cleo. Adieu.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SIXTH
+                            DIALOGUE
+                            BETWEEN
+                     HORATIO AND CLEOMENES
+
+
+HORATIO.
+
+Now we are off the stones, pray let us lose no time; I expect a great
+deal of pleasure from what I am to hear further.
+
+Cleo. The second step to society is the danger men are in from one
+another: for which we are beholden to that staunch principle of pride
+and ambition, that all men are born with. Different families may
+endeavour to live together, and be ready to join in common danger;
+but they are all of little use to one another, when there is no common
+enemy to oppose. If we consider that strength, agility, and courage
+would, in such a state, be the most valuable qualifications, and
+that many families could not live long together, but some, actuated
+by the principle I named, would strive for superiority: this must
+breed quarrels, in which the most weak and fearful will, for their
+own safety, always join with him of whom they have the best opinion.
+
+Hor. This would naturally divide multitudes into bands and companies,
+that would all have their different leaders, and of which the strongest
+and most valiant would always swallow up the weakest and most fearful.
+
+Cleo. What you say agrees exactly with the accounts we have of the
+uncivilized nations that are still subsisting in the world; and thus
+men may live miserably many ages.
+
+Hor. The very first generation that was brought up under the tuition
+of parents, would be governable: and would not every succeeding
+generation grow wiser than the foregoing?
+
+Cleo. Without doubt they would increase in knowledge and cunning:
+time and experience would have the same effect upon them as it has upon
+others; and in the particular things to which they applied themselves,
+they would become as expert and ingenious as the most civilized
+nations: but their unruly passions, and the discords occasioned by
+them, would never suffer them to be happy; their mutual contentions
+would be continually spoiling their improvements, destroying their
+inventions, and frustrating their designs.
+
+Hor. But would not their sufferings in time bring them acquainted
+with the causes of their disagreement; and would not that knowledge
+put them upon making of contracts, not to injure one another?
+
+Cleo. Very probably they would; but among such ill-bred and
+uncultivated people, no man would keep a contract longer than that
+interest lasted which made him submit to it.
+
+Hor. But might not religion, the fear of an invisible cause, be made
+serviceable to them, as to the keeping of their contracts?
+
+Cleo. It might, without dispute; and would, before many generations
+passed away. But religion could do no more among them, than it does
+among civilized nations; where the Divine vengeance is seldom trusted
+to only, and oaths themselves are thought to be of little service,
+where there is no human power to enforce the obligation, and punish
+perjury.
+
+Hor. But do not think, that the same ambition that made a man aspire
+to be a leader, would make him likewise desirous of being obeyed in
+civil matters, by the numbers he led?
+
+Cleo. I do; and moreover that, notwithstanding this unsettled
+and precarious way communities would live in, after three or four
+generations, human nature would be looked into, and begin to be
+understood: leaders would find out, that the more strife and discord
+there was amongst the people they headed, the less use they could make
+of them: this would put them upon various ways of curbing mankind;
+they would forbid killing and striking one another; the taking away
+by force the wives or children of others in the same community; they
+would invent penalties, and very early find out that nobody ought to
+be a judge in his own cause; and that old men, generally speaking,
+knew more than young.
+
+Hor. When once they have prohibitions and penalties, I should think
+all the difficulty surmounted; and I wonder why you said, that thus
+they might live miserably for many ages.
+
+Cleo. There is one thing of great moment, which has not been named yet;
+and until that comes to pass, no considerable numbers can ever be made
+happy; what signify the strongest contracts when we have nothing to
+show for them; and what dependence can we have upon oral tradition,
+in matters that require exactness; especially whilst the language
+that is spoken is yet very imperfect? Verbal reports are liable to
+a thousand cavils and disputes that are prevented by records, which
+every body knows to be unerring witnesses; and from the many attempts
+that are made to wrest and distort the sense of even written laws,
+we may judge how impracticable the administration of justice must be
+among all societies that are destitute of them. Therefore the third and
+last step to society, is the invention of letters. No multitudes can
+live peaceably without government; no government can subsist without
+laws; and no laws can be effectual long, unless they are wrote down:
+the consideration of this is alone sufficient to give us a great
+insight into the nature of man.
+
+Hor. I do not think so: the reason why no government can subsist
+without laws, is, because there are bad men in all multitudes; but to
+take patterns from them, when we would judge of human nature, rather
+than from the good ones that follow the dictates of their reason,
+is an injustice one would not be guilty of to brute beasts; and it
+would be very wrong in us, for a few vicious horses, to condemn the
+whole species as such, without taking notice of the many fine spirited
+creatures that are naturally tame and gentle.
+
+Cleo. At this rate I must repeat every thing that I have said
+yesterday and the day before: I thought you was convinced, that it
+was with thought as it is with speech; and that though man was born
+with a capacity beyond other animals, to attain to both, yet, whilst
+he remained untaught, and never conversed with any of his species,
+these characteristics were of little use to him. All men uninstructed,
+whilst they are let alone, will follow the impulse of their nature,
+without regard to others; and therefore all of them are bad, that
+are not taught to be good; so all horses are ungovernable that are
+not well broken: for what we call vicious in them, is, when they
+bite or kick, endeavour to break their halter, throw their rider,
+and exert themselves with all their strength to shake off the yoke,
+and recover that liberty which nature prompts them to assert and
+desire. What you call natural, is evidently artificial, and belongs
+to education: no fine-spirited horse was ever tame or gentle, without
+management. Some, perhaps, are not backed until they are four years
+old; but then long before that time, they are handled, spoke to,
+and dressed; they are fed by their keepers, put under restraint,
+sometimes caressed, and sometimes made to smart; and nothing is omitted
+whilst they are young, to inspire them with awe and veneration to
+our species; and make them not only submit to it, but likewise take
+a pride in obeying the superior genius of man. But would you judge
+of the nature of horses in general, as to its fitness to be governed,
+take the foals of the best bred mares and finest stallions, and turn an
+hundred of them loose, fillies and colts together, in a large forest,
+till they are seven years old, and then see how tractable they will be.
+
+Hor. But this is never done.
+
+Cleo. Whose fault is that? It is not at the request of the horses,
+that they are kept from the mares; and that any of them are ever
+gentle or tame, is entirely owing to the management of man. Vice
+proceeds from the same origin in men, as it does in horses; the desire
+of uncontrouled liberty, and impatience of restraint, are not more
+visible in the one than they are in the other; and a man is then called
+vicious, when, breaking the curbs of precepts and prohibitions, he
+wildly follows the unbridled appetites of his untaught or ill-managed
+nature. The complaints against this nature of ours, are every where the
+same: man would have every thing he likes, without considering whether
+he has any right to it or not; and he would do every thing he has a
+mind to do, without regard to the consequence it would be of to others;
+at the same time that he dislikes every body, that acting from the same
+principle, have in all their behaviour not a special regard to him.
+
+Hor. That is, in short, man naturally will not do as he would be
+done by.
+
+Cleo. That is true; and for this, there is another reason in his
+nature: all men are partial in their judgments, when they compare
+themselves to others; no two equals think so well of each other,
+as both do of themselves; and where all men have an equal right
+to judge, there needs no greater cause of quarrel, than a present
+amongst them, with an inscription of detur digniori. Man in his anger
+behaves himself in the same manner as other animals; disturbing, in
+the pursuit self-preservation, those they are angry with; and all of
+them endeavour, according as the degree of their passion is, either
+to destroy, or cause pain and displeasure to their adversaries. That
+these obstacles to society are the faults, or rather properties of our
+nature, we may know by this, that all regulations and prohibitions that
+have been contrived for the temporal happiness of mankind, are made
+exactly to tally with them, and to obviate those complaints, which I
+said were every where made against mankind. The principal laws of all
+countries have the same tendency; and there is not one that does not
+point at some frailty, defect, or unfitness for society, that men are
+naturally subject to; but all of them are plainly designed as so many
+remedies, to cure and disappoint that natural instinct of sovereignty,
+which teaches man to look upon every thing as centring in himself,
+and prompts him to put in a claim to every thing he can lay his hands
+on. This tendency and design to mend our nature, for the temporal
+good of society, is no where more visible, than in that compendious
+as well as complete body of laws, that was given by God himself. The
+Israelites, whilst they were slaves in Egypt, were governed by the
+laws of their masters; and as they were many degrees removed from the
+lowest savages, so they were yet far from being a civilized nation. It
+is reasonable to think, that, before they received the law of God,
+they had regulations and agreements already established, which the
+ten commandments did not abolish; and that they must have had notions
+of right and wrong, and contracts among them against open violence,
+and the invasion of property, is demonstrable.
+
+Hor. How is that demonstrable?
+
+Cleo. From the decalogue itself: all wise laws are adapted to the
+people that are to obey them. From the ninth commandment, for example,
+it is evident, that a man's own testimony was not sufficient to be
+believed in his own affair, and that nobody was allowed to be a judge
+in his own case.
+
+Hor. It only forbids us to bear false witness against our neighbour.
+
+Cleo. That is true; and therefore the whole tenor and design of
+this commandment presupposes, and must imply what I say. But the
+prohibitions of stealing, adultery, and coveting any thing that
+belonged to their neighbours, are still more plainly intimating
+the same; and seem to be additions and amendments, to supply the
+defects of some known regulations and contracts that had been agreed
+upon before. If, in this view, we behold the three commandments last
+hinted at, we shall find them to be strong evidences, not only of that
+instinct of sovereignty within us, which at other times I have called
+a domineering spirit, and a principle of selfishness; but likewise
+of the difficulty there is to destroy, eradicate, and pull it out of
+the heart of man: for, from the eighth commandment it appears, that,
+though we debar ourselves from taking the things of our neighbour
+by force, yet there is danger that this instinct will prompt us to
+get them unknown to him in a clandestine manner, and deceive us with
+the insinuations of an oportet habere. From the foregoing precept,
+it is likewise manifest, that though we agree not to take away,
+and rob a man of the woman that is his own, it is yet to be feared,
+that if we like her, this innate principle that bids us gratify every
+appetite, will advise us to make use of her as if she was our own;
+though our neighbour is at the charge of maintaining her and all the
+children she brings forth. The last more especially is very ample in
+confirming my assertion. It strikes directly at the root of the evil,
+and lays open the real source of the mischiefs that are apprehended
+in the seventh and the eighth commandment: for without first actually
+trespassing against this, no man is in danger of breaking either of
+the former. This tenth commandment, moreover, insinuates very plainly,
+in the first place, that this instinct of ours is of great power, and a
+frailty hardly to be cured; in the second, that there is nothing which
+our neighbour can be possessed of, but, neglecting the consideration
+of justice and property, we may have a desire after it; for which
+reason it absolutely forbids us to covet any thing that is his: The
+Divine Wisdom, well knowing the strength of this selfish principle,
+which obliges us continually to assume every thing to ourselves;
+and that, when once a man heartily covets a thing, this instinct,
+this principle will over-rule and persuade him to leave no stone
+unturned to compass his desires.
+
+Hor. According to your way of expounding the commandments, and making
+them tally so exactly with the frailties of our nature, it should
+follow from the ninth, that all men are born with a strong appetite
+to forswear themselves, which I never heard before.
+
+Cleo. Nor I neither; and I confess that the rebuke there is in this
+smart turn of yours is very plausible; but the censure, how specious
+soever it may appear, is unjust, and you shall not find the consequence
+you hint at, if you will be pleased to distinguish between the natural
+appetites themselves, and the various crimes which they make us commit,
+rather than not be obeyed: For, though we are born with no immediate
+appetite to forswear ourselves, yet we are born with more than one,
+that, if never checked, may in time oblige us to forswear ourselves,
+or do worse, if it be possible, and they cannot be gratified without
+it; and the commandment you mention plainly implies, that by nature we
+are so unreasonably attached to our interest on all emergencies, that
+it is possible for a man to be swayed by it, not only to the visible
+detriment of others, as is manifest from the seventh and the eighth,
+but even though it should be against his own conscience: For nobody
+did ever knowingly bear false witness against his neighbour, but he
+did it for some end or other; this end, whatever it is, I call his
+interest. The law which forbids murder, had already demonstrated to us,
+how immensely we undervalue every thing, when it comes in competition
+with ourselves; for, though our greatest dread be destruction, and
+we know no other calamity equal to the dissolution of our being,
+yet such unequitable judges this instinct of sovereignty is able to
+make of us, that rather than not have our will, which we count our
+happiness, we choose to inflict this calamity on others, and bring
+total ruin on such as we think to be obstacles to the gratification
+of our appetites; and this men do, not only for hindrances that are
+present, or apprehended as to come, but likewise for former offences,
+and things that are past redress.
+
+Hor. By what you said last, you mean revenge, I suppose.
+
+Cleo. I do so; and the instinct of sovereignty which I assert to be
+in human nature, is in nothing so glaringly conspicuous as it is in
+this passion, which no mere man was ever born without, and which
+even the most civilized, as well as the most learned, are seldom
+able to conquer: For whoever pretends to revenge himself, must claim
+a right to a judicature within, and an authority to punish: Which,
+being destructive to the mutual peace of all multitudes, are for
+that reason the first things that in every civil society are snatched
+away out of every man's hands, as dangerous tools, and vested in the
+governing part, the supreme power only.
+
+Hor. This remark on revenge has convinced me more than any thing
+you have said yet, that there is some such thing as a principle of
+sovereignty in our nature; but I cannot conceive yet, why the vices
+of private, I mean particular persons, should be thought to belong
+to the whole species.
+
+Cleo. Because every body is liable to fall into the vices that are
+peculiar to his species; and it is with them, as it is with distempers
+among creatures of different kinds: There are many ailments that horses
+are subject to, which are not incident to cows. There is no vice,
+but whoever commits it had within him before he was guilty of it, a
+tendency towards it, a latent cause that disposed him to it: Therefore,
+all lawgivers have two main points to consider at setting out: First,
+what things will procure happiness to the society under their care:
+Secondly, what passions and properties there are in man's nature,
+that may either promote or obstruct this happiness. It is prudence
+to watch your fish ponds against the insults of hearns and bitterns;
+but the same precaution would be ridiculous against turkeys and
+peacocks, or any other creatures, that neither love fish, nor are
+able to catch them.
+
+Hor. What frailty or defect is it in our nature, that the two first
+commandments have a regard to, or, as you call it, tally with?
+
+Cleo. Our natural blindness and ignorance of the true Deity: For,
+though we all come into the world with an instinct toward religion
+that manifests itself before we come to maturity, yet the fear of an
+invisible cause, or invisible causes, which all men are born with,
+is not more universal, than the uncertainty which all untaught men
+fluctuate in, as to the nature and properties of that cause, or those
+causes: There can be no greater proof of this----
+
+Hor. I want none; the history of all ages is a sufficient witness.
+
+Cleo. Give me leave: There can, I say, be no greater proof of
+this, than the second commandment, which palpably points at all the
+absurdities and abominations which the ill-guided fear of an invisible
+cause had already made, and would still continue to make men commit;
+and in doing this, I can hardly think, that any thing but Divine
+Wisdom could, in so few words, have comprehended the vast extent and
+sum total of human extravagancies, as it is done in that commandment:
+For there is nothing so high or remote in the firmament, nor so low
+or abject upon earth, but some men have worshipped it, or made it
+one way or other the object of their superstition.
+
+
+    Hor.----Crocodilon adorat
+    Pars hæc: illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin.
+    Effigias sacri nitet aurea Cercopitheci.
+
+
+A holy monkey! I own it is a reproach to our species, that ever any
+part of it should have adored such a creature as a god. But that is
+the tip-top of folly, that can be charged on superstition.
+
+Cleo. I do not think so; a monkey is still a living creature, and
+consequently somewhat superior to things inanimate.
+
+Hor. I should have thought mens adoration of the sun or moon infinitely
+less absurd than to have seen them fall down before so vile, so
+ridiculous an animal.
+
+Cleo. Those who have adored the sun and moon never questioned, but they
+were intelligent as well as glorious beings. But when I mentioned the
+word inanimate, I was thinking on what the same poet you quoted said
+of the veneration men paid to leeks and onions, deities they raised
+in their own gardens.
+
+
+    Porrum & cepe nefas violare, & frangere morsu:
+    O sanctas genteis, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
+    Numina!----
+
+
+But this is nothing to what has been done in America fourteen hundred
+years after the time of Juvenal. If the portentous worship of the
+Mexicans had been known in his days, he would not have thought it
+worth his while to take notice of the Egyptians. I have often admired
+at the uncommon pains those poor people must have taken to express the
+frightful and shocking, as well as bizarre and unutterable notions they
+entertained of the superlative malice and hellish implacable nature of
+their vitzliputzli, to whom they sacrificed the hearts of men, cut out
+whilst they were alive. The monstrous figure and laboured deformity of
+that abominable idol, are a lively representation of the direful ideas
+those wretches framed to themselves of an invisible over-ruling power;
+and plainly show us, how horrid and execrable they thought it to be,
+at the same time that they paid it the highest adoration; and at the
+expence of human blood endeavoured, with fear and trembling, if not to
+appease the wrath and rage of it, at least to avert, in some measure,
+the manifold mischiefs they apprehended from it.
+
+Hor. Nothing, I must own, can render declaiming against idolatry more
+seasonable than a reflection upon the second commandment: But as what
+you have been saying required no great attention, I have been thinking
+of something else. Thinking on the purport of the third commandment,
+furnishes me with an objection, and I think a strong one, to what
+you have affirmed about all laws in general, and the decalogue in
+particular. You know I urged that it was wrong to ascribe the faults
+of bad men to human nature in general.
+
+Cleo. I do; and thought I had answered you.
+
+Hor. Let me try only once more. Which of the two, pray, do you think
+profane swearing to proceed from, a frailty in our nature, or an ill
+custom generally contracted by keeping of bad company?
+
+Cleo. Certainly the latter.
+
+Hor. Then it is evident to me, that this law is levelled at the
+bad men only, that are guilty of the vice forbid in it; and not any
+frailty belonging to human nature in general.
+
+Cleo. I believe you mistake the design of this law; and am of opinion,
+that it has a much higher aim than you seem to imagine. You remember
+my saying, that reverence to authority was necessary, to make human
+creatures governable.
+
+Hor. Very well; and that reverence was a compound of fear, love,
+and esteem.
+
+Cleo. Now let us take a view of what is done in the decalogue: In
+the short preamble to it, expressly made that the Israelites should
+know who it was that spoke to them, God manifests himself to those
+whom he had chosen for his people, by a most remarkable instance of
+his own great power, and their strong obligation to him, in a fact,
+that none of them could be ignorant of. There is a plainness and
+grandeur withal in this sentence, than which nothing can be more
+truly sublime or majestic; and I defy the learned world to show me
+another as comprehensive, and of equal weight and dignity, that so
+fully executes its purpose, and answers its design with the same
+simplicity of words. In that part of the second commandment, which
+contains the motives and inducements why men should obey the Divine
+laws, are set forth in the most emphatical manner: First, God's wrath
+on those that hate him, and the continuance of it on their posterity:
+Secondly, the wide extent of his mercy to those who love him and keep
+his commandments. If we duly consider these passages, we shall find,
+that fear, as well as love, and the highest esteem, are plainly and
+distinctly inculcated in them; and that the best method is made use of
+there, to inspire men with a deep sense of the three ingredients that
+make up the compound of reverence. The reason is plain: If people were
+to be governed by that body of laws, nothing was more necessary to
+enforce their obedience to them, than their awful regard and utmost
+veneration to him, at whose command they were to keep them, and to
+whom they were accountable for the breaking of them.
+
+Hor. What answer is all this to my objection?
+
+Cleo. Have a moment's patience; I am coming to it. Mankind are
+naturally fickle, and delight in change and variety; they seldom
+retain long the same impression of things they received at first,
+when they were new to them; and they are apt to undervalue, if not
+despise the best, when they grow common. I am of opinion, that the
+third commandment points at this frailty, this want of steadiness
+in our nature; the ill consequences of which, in our duty to the
+Creator, could not be better prevented than by a strict observance
+of this law, in never making use of his name, but in the most solemn
+manner, on necessary occasions, and in matters of high importance. As
+in the foregoing part of the decalogue, care had been already taken,
+by the strongest motives, to create and attract reverence, so nothing
+could be more wisely adapted to strengthen, and make it everlasting,
+than the contents of this law: For as too much familiarity breeds
+contempt, so our highest regard due to what is most sacred, cannot
+be kept up better than by a quite contrary practice.
+
+Hor. I am answered.
+
+Cleo. What weight reverence is thought to be of to procure
+obedience, we may learn from the same body of laws in another
+commandment. Children have no opportunity of learning their duty but
+from their parents and those who act by their authority or in their
+stead: Therefore, it was requisite, that men should not only stand
+in great dread of the law of God, but likewise have great reverence
+for those who first inculcated it, and communicated to them that this
+was the law of God.
+
+Hor. But you said, that the reverence of children to parents was a
+natural consequence of what they first experienced from the latter.
+
+Cleo. You think there was no occasion for this law, if man would do
+what is commanded in it of his own accord: But I desire you would
+consider, that though the reverence of children to parents is a
+natural consequence, partly of the benefits and chastisements they
+receive from them, and partly of the great opinion they form of the
+superior capacity they observe in them; experience teaches us, that
+this reverence may be over-ruled by stronger passions; and therefore
+it being of the highest moment to all government and sociableness
+itself, God thought fit to fortify and strengthen it in us, by a
+particular command of his own; and, moreover, to encourage it, by
+the promise of a reward for the keeping of it. It is our parents that
+first cure us of our natural wildness, and break in us the spirit of
+independency we are all born with: It is to them we owe the first
+rudiments of our submission; and to the honour and deference which
+children pay to parents, all societies are obliged for the principle
+of human obedience. The instinct of sovereignty in our nature, and
+the waywardness of infants, which is the consequence of it, discover
+themselves with the least glimmering of our understanding, and before
+children that have been most neglected, and the least taught, are
+always the most stubborn and obstinate; and none are more unruly,
+and fonder of following their own will, than those that are least
+capable of governing themselves.
+
+Hor. Then this commandment you think not obligatory, when we come to
+years of maturity.
+
+Cleo. Far from it: for though the benefit politically intended by this
+law be chiefly received by us, whilst we are under age and the tuition
+of parents; yet, for that very reason, ought the duty commanded in
+it, never to cease. We are fond of imitating our superiors from our
+cradle, and whilst this honour and reverence to parents continue to
+be paid by their children, when they are grown men and women, and
+act for themselves, the example is of singular use to all minors,
+in teaching them their duty, and not to refuse what they see others,
+that are older and wiser, comply with by choice: For, by this means,
+as their understanding increases, this duty, by degrees, becomes a
+fashion, which at last their pride will not suffer them to neglect.
+
+Hor. What you said last is certainly the reason, that among fashionable
+people, even the most vicious and wicked do outward homage, and pay
+respect to parents, at least before the world; though they act against,
+and in their hearts hate them.
+
+Cleo. Here is another instance to convince us, that good manners are
+not inconsistent with wickedness; and that men may be strict observers
+of decorums, and take pains to seem well-bred, and at the same time
+have no regard to the laws of God, and live in contempt of religion:
+and therefore to procure an outward compliance with this fifth
+commandment, no lecture can be of such force, nor any instruction
+so edifying to youth, among the modest sort of people, as the sight
+of a strong and vigorous, as well as polite and well dressed man,
+in a dispute giving way and submitting to a decrepit parent.
+
+Hor. But do you imagine that all the divine laws, even those that seem
+only to relate to God himself, his power and glory, and our obedience
+to his will, abstract from any consideration of our neighbour, had
+likewise a regard to the good of society, and the temporal happiness
+of his people?
+
+Cleo. There is no doubt of that; witness the keeping of the Sabbath.
+
+Hor. We have seen that very handsomely proved in one of the Spectators.
+
+Cleo. But the usefulness of it in human affairs, is of far greater
+moment, than that which the author of that paper chiefly takes notice
+of. Of all the difficulties that mankind have laboured under in
+completing society, nothing has been more puzzling or perplexing than
+the division of time. Our annual course round the sun, not answering
+exactly any number of complete days or hours, has been the occasion
+of immense study and labour: and nothing has more racked the brain of
+man, than the adjusting the year to prevent the confusion of seasons:
+but even when the year was divided into lunar months, the computation
+of time must have been impracticable among the common people: To
+remember twenty-nine, or thirty days, where feasts are irregular,
+and all other days show alike, must have been a great burden to the
+memory, and caused a continual confusion among the ignorant; whereas,
+a short period soon returning is easily remembered, and one fixed day
+in seven, so remarkably distinguished from the rest, must rub up the
+memory of the most unthinking.
+
+Hor. I believe that the Sabbath is a considerable help in the
+computation of time, and of greater use in human affairs, than can
+be easily imagined by those, who never knew the want of it.
+
+Cleo. But what is most remarkable in this fourth commandment, is God's
+revealing himself to his people, and acquainting an infant nation with
+a truth, which the rest of the world remained ignorant of for many
+ages. Men were soon made sensible of the sun's power, observed every
+meteor in the sky, and suspected the influence of the moon and other
+stars: but it was a long time, and man was far advanced in sublime
+notions, before the light of nature could raise mortal thought to
+the contemplation of an Infinite Being that is the author of the whole.
+
+Hor. You have descanted on this sufficiently when you spoke of Moses:
+pray let us proceed to the further establishment of society. I am
+satisfied that the third step towards it is the invention of letters;
+that without them no laws can be long effectual, and that the principal
+laws of all countries are remedies against human frailties; I mean,
+that they are designed as antidotes, to prevent the ill consequences of
+some properties, inseparable from our nature; which yet in themselves,
+without management or restraint, are obstructive and pernicious to
+society: I am persuaded likewise, that these frailties are palpably
+pointed at in the decalogue; that it was wrote with great wisdom,
+and that there is not one commandment in it, that has not a regard
+to the temporal good of society, as well as matters of higher moment.
+
+Cleo. These are the things, indeed, that I have endeavoured to prove;
+and now all the great difficulties and chief obstructions, that can
+hinder a multitude from being formed into a body politic, are removed:
+when once men come to be governed by written laws, all the rest comes
+on a-pace. Now property, and safety of life and limb may be secured:
+this naturally will forward the love of peace, and make it spread. No
+number of men, when once they enjoy quiet, and no man needs to fear
+his neighbour, will be long without learning to divide and subdivide
+their labour.
+
+Hor. I do not understand you.
+
+Cleo. Man, as I have hinted before, naturally loves to imitate what
+he sees others do, which is the reason that savage people all do
+the same thing: this hinders them from meliorating their condition,
+though they are always wishing for it: but if one will wholly apply
+himself to the making of bows and arrows, whilst another provides food,
+a third builds huts, a fourth makes garments, and a fifth utensils:
+they not only become useful to one another, but the callings and
+employments themselves will in the same number of years receive much
+greater improvements, than if all had been promiscuously followed by
+every one of the five.
+
+Hor. I believe you are perfectly right there; and the truth of what
+you say is in nothing so conspicuous, as it is in watch-making,
+which is come to a higher degree of perfection, than it would have
+been arrived at yet, if the whole had always remained the employment
+of one person; and I am persuaded, that even the plenty we have of
+clocks and watches, as well as the exactness and beauty they may be
+made of, are chiefly owing to the division that has been made of that
+art into many branches.
+
+Cleo. The use of letters must likewise very much improve speech itself,
+which before that time cannot but be very barren and precarious.
+
+Hor. I am glad to hear you mention speech again: I would not interrupt
+you when you named it once before: Pray what language did your wild
+couple speak, when first they met?
+
+Cleo. From what I have said already, it is evident, that they could
+have had none at all; at least, that it is my opinion.
+
+Hor. Then wild people must have an instinct to understand one another,
+which they lose when they are civilized.
+
+Cleo. I am persuaded that nature has made all animals of the same
+kind, in their mutual commerce, intelligible to one another, as far
+as is requisite for the preservation of themselves and their species:
+and as to my wild couple, as you call them, I believe there would be
+a very good understanding before many sounds passed between them. It
+is not without some difficulty, that a man born in society can form
+an idea of such savages, and their condition; and unless he has used
+himself to abstract thinking, he can hardly represent to himself such
+a state of simplicity, in which man can have so few desires, and no
+appetites roving beyond the immediate call of untaught nature: to me
+it seems very plain, that such a couple would not only be destitute of
+language, but likewise never find out, or imagine that they stood in
+need of any; or that the want of it was any real inconvenience to them.
+
+Hor. Why do you think so?
+
+Cleo. Because it is impossible that any creatures should know the want
+of what it can have no idea of: I believe, moreover, that if savages,
+after they are grown men and women, should hear others speak, be made
+acquainted with the usefulness of speech, and consequently become
+sensible of the want of it in themselves, their inclination to learn
+it would be as inconsiderable as their capacity; and if they should
+attempt it, they would find it an immense labour, a thing not to be
+surmounted; because the suppleness and flexibility in the organs of
+speech, that children are endued with, and which I have often hinted
+at, would be lost in them; and they might learn to play masterly
+upon the violin, or any other the most difficult musical instrument,
+before they could make any tolerable proficiency in speaking.
+
+Hor. Brutes make several distinct sounds to express different
+passions by: as for example, anguish, and great danger, dogs of
+all sorts express with another noise than they do rage and anger;
+and the whole species express grief by howling.
+
+Cleo. This is no argument to make us believe, that nature has endued
+man with speech; there are innumerable other privileges and instincts
+which some brutes enjoy, and men are destitute of: chickens run about
+as soon as they are hatched; and most quadrupeds can walk without help,
+as soon as they are brought forth. If ever language came by instinct,
+the people that spoke it must have known every individual word in
+it; and a man in the wild state of nature would have no occasion
+for a thousandth part of the most barren language that ever had a
+name. When a man's knowledge is confined within a narrow compass, and
+he has nothing to obey, but the simple dictates of nature, the want
+of speech is easily supplied by dumb signs; and it is more natural
+to untaught men to express themselves by gestures, than by sounds;
+but we are all born with a capacity of making ourselves understood,
+beyond other animals, without speech: to express grief, joy, love,
+wonder and fear, there are certain tokens that are common to the
+whole species. Who doubts that the crying of children was given them
+by nature, to call assistance and raise pity, which latter it does
+so unaccountably beyond any other sound?
+
+Hor. In mothers and nurses, you mean.
+
+Cleo. I mean in the generality of human creatures. Will you allow
+me, that warlike music generally rouses and supports the spirits,
+and keeps them from sinking.
+
+Hor. I believe I must.
+
+Cleo. Then I will engage, that the crying (I mean the vagitus)
+of helpless infants will stir up compassion in the generality of
+our species, that are within the hearing of it, with much greater
+certainty than drums and trumpets will dissipate and chase away
+fear, in those they are applied to. Weeping, laughing, smiling,
+frowning, sighing, exclaiming, we spoke of before. How universal,
+as well as copious, is the language of the eyes, by the help of
+which the remotest nations understand one another at first sight,
+taught or untaught, in the weightiest temporal concern that belongs
+to the species? and in that language our wild couple would at their
+first meeting intelligibly say more to one another without guile,
+than any civilized pair would dare to name without blushing.
+
+Hor. A man, without doubt, may be as impudent with his eyes, as he
+can be with his tongue.
+
+Cleo. All such looks, therefore, and several motions, that are natural,
+are carefully avoided among polite people, upon no other account,
+than that they are too significant: it is for the same reason that
+stretching ourselves before others, whilst we are yawning, is an
+absolute breach of good manners, especially in mixed company of
+both sexes. As it is indecent to display any of these tokens, so
+it is unfashionable to take notice of, or seem to understand them:
+this disuse and neglect of them is the cause, that whenever they
+happen to be made, either through ignorance or wilful rudeness,
+many of them are lost and really not understood, by the beau monde,
+that would be very plain to savages without language, who could have
+no other means of conversing than by signs and motions.
+
+Hor. But if the old stock would never either be able or willing to
+acquire speech, it is possible they could teach it their children: then
+which way could any language ever come into the world from two savages?
+
+Cleo. By slow degrees, as all other arts and sciences have done,
+and length of time; agriculture, physic, astronomy, architecture,
+painting, &c. From what we see in children that are backward with
+their tongues, we have reason to think, that a wild pair would make
+themselves intelligible to each other by signs and gestures, before
+they would attempt it by sounds: but when they lived together for
+many years, it is very probable, that for the things they were most
+conversant with they would find out sounds, to stir up in each other
+the ideas of such things, when they were out of sight; these sounds
+they would communicate to their young ones; and the longer they lived
+together the greater variety of sounds they would invent, as well for
+actions as the things themselves: they would find that the volubility
+of tongue, and flexibility of voice, were much greater in their young
+ones, than they could remember it ever to have been in themselves: it
+is impossible, but some of these young ones would either by accident
+or design, make use of this superior aptitude of the organs at one
+time or other; which every generation would still improve upon; and
+this must have been the origin of all languages, and speech itself,
+that were not taught by inspiration. I believe moreover, that after
+language (I mean such as is of human invention) was come to a great
+degree of perfection, and even when people had distinct words for
+every action in life, as well as every thing they meddled or conversed
+with, signs and gestures still continued to be made for a great while,
+to accompany speech; because both are intended for the same purpose.
+
+Hor. The design of speech is to make our thoughts known to others.
+
+Cleo. I do not think so.
+
+Hor. What! do not men speak to be understood?
+
+Cleo. In one sense they do; but there is a double meaning in those
+words, which I believe you did not intend: if by man's speaking to
+be understood you mean, that when men speak, they desire that the
+purport of the sounds they utter should be known and apprehended by
+others, I answer in the affirmative: but if you mean by it, that men
+speak, in order that their thoughts may be known, and their sentiments
+laid open and seen through by others, which likewise may be meant by
+speaking to be understood, I answer in the negative. The first sign
+or sound that ever man made, born of a woman, was made in behalf,
+and intended for the use of him who made it; and I am of opinion,
+that the first design of speech was to persuade others, either to give
+credit to what the speaking person would have them believe; or else to
+act or suffer such things, as he would compel them to act or suffer,
+if they were entirely in his power.
+
+Hor. Speech is likewise made use of to teach, advise, and inform others
+for their benefit, as well as to persuade them in our own behalf.
+
+Cleo. And so by the help of it men may accuse themselves and own their
+crimes; but nobody would have invented speech for those purposes; I
+speak of the design, the first motive and intention that put man upon
+speaking. We see in children that the first things they endeavour to
+express with words are their wants and their will; and their speech
+is but a confirmation of what they asked, denied, or affirmed, by
+signs before.
+
+Hor. But why do you imagine that people would continue to make use of
+signs and gestures, after they could sufficiently express themselves
+in words?
+
+Cleo. Because signs confirm words, as much as words do signs; and
+we see, even in polite people, that when they are very eager they
+can hardly forbear making use of both. When an infant, in broken
+imperfect gibberish, calls for a cake or a play-thing, and at the
+same time points at and reaches after it, this double endeavour
+makes a stronger impression upon us, than if the child had spoke its
+wants in plain words, without making any signs, or else looked at and
+reached after the thing wanted, without attempting to speak. Speech
+and action assist and corroborate one another, and experience teaches
+us that they move us much more, and are more persuasive jointly than
+separately; vis unita fortior; and when an infant makes use of both,
+he acts from the same principle that an orator does when he joins
+proper gestures to an elaborate declamation.
+
+Hor. From what you have said it should seem that action is not only
+more natural, but likewise more ancient than speech itself, which
+before I should have thought a paradox.
+
+Cleo. Yet it is true; and you shall always find that the most forward,
+volatile, and fiery tempers make more use of gestures when they speak,
+than others that are more patient and sedate.
+
+Hor. It is a very diverting scene to see how this is overdone among
+the French, and still more among the Portuguese: I have often been
+amazed to see what distortions of face and body, as well as other
+strange gesticulations with hands and feet, some of them will make in
+their ordinary discourses: But nothing was more offensive to me, when
+I was abroad, than the loudness and violence which most foreigners
+speak with, even among persons of quality, when a dispute arises,
+or any thing is to be debated: before I was used to it, it put me
+always upon my guard; for I did not question but they were angry;
+and I often recollected what had been said in order to consider
+whether it was not something I ought to have resented.
+
+Cleo. The natural ambition and strong desire men have to triumph over,
+as well as persuade others, are the occasion of all this. Heightening
+and lowering the voice at proper seasons, is a bewitching engine
+to captivate mean understandings; and loudness is an assistant to
+speech, as well as action is: uncorrectness, false grammar, and even
+want of sense, are often happily drowned in noise and great bustle;
+and many an argument has been convincing, that had all its force from
+the vehemence it was made with: the weakness of the language itself
+may be palliatively cured by strength of elocution.
+
+Hor. I am glad that speaking low is the fashion among well-bred people
+in England; for bawling and impetuosity I cannot endure.
+
+Cleo. Yet this latter is more natural; and no man ever gave in to
+the contrary practice, the fashion you like, that was not taught it
+either by precept or example: and if men do not accustom themselves
+to it whilst they are young, it is very difficult to comply with it
+afterwards: but it is the most lovely, as well as most rational piece
+of good manners that human invention has to boast of in the art of
+flattery; for when a man addresses himself to me in a calm manner,
+without making gestures or other motions with head or body, and
+continues his discourse in the same submissive strain and composure
+of voice, without exalting or depressing it, he, in the first place,
+displays his own modesty and humility in an agreeable manner; and,
+in the second, makes me a great compliment in the opinion which
+he seems to have of me; for by such a behaviour he gives me the
+pleasure to imagine that he thinks me not influenced by my passions,
+but altogether swayed by my reason: he seems to lay his stress on my
+judgment, and therefore to desire, that I should weigh and consider
+what he says without being ruffled or disturbed: no man would do
+this unless he trusted entirely to my good sense, and the rectitude
+of my understanding.
+
+Hor. I have always admired this unaffected manner of speaking, though
+I never examined so deeply into the meaning of it.
+
+Cleo. I cannot help thinking, but that, next to the laconic and manly
+spirit that runs through the nation, we are very much beholden for the
+strength and beauty of our language to this tranquillity in discourse,
+which for many years has been in England, more than any where else,
+a custom peculiar to the beau monde, who, in all countries, are the
+undoubted refiners of language.
+
+Hor. I thought that it was the preachers, play-wrights, orators,
+and fine writers that refined upon language.
+
+Cleo. They make the best of what is ready coined to their hands;
+but the true and only mint of words and phrases is the court; and
+the polite part of every nation are in possession of the jus et norma
+loquendi. All technic words indeed, and terms of art, belong to the
+respective artists and dealers, that primarily and literally make
+use of them in their business; but whatever is borrowed from them
+for metaphorical use, or from other languages, living or dead, must
+first have the stamp of the court, and the approbation of beau monde
+before it can pass for current; and whatever is not used among them,
+or comes abroad without their sanction, is either vulgar, pedantic,
+or obsolete. Orators therefore, historians, and all wholesale dealers
+in words, are confined to those that have been already well received,
+and from that treasure they may pick and choose what is most for
+their purpose; but they are not allowed to make new ones of their own,
+any more than bankers are suffered to coin.
+
+Hor. All this while I cannot comprehend what advantage or disadvantage
+speaking loud or low can be of to the language itself; and if what
+I am saying now was set down, it must be a real conjurer that, half
+a year hence, should be able to tell by the writing, whether it had
+been bawled out or whispered.
+
+Cleo. I am of opinion that when people of skill and address accustom
+themselves to speak in the manner aforesaid, it must in time have an
+influence upon the language, and render it strong and expressive.
+
+Hor. But your reason?
+
+Cleo. When a man has only his words to trust to, and the hearer is not
+to be affected by the delivery of them, otherwise than if he was to
+read them himself, it will infallibly put men upon studying not only
+for nervous thoughts and perspicuity, but likewise for words of great
+energy, for purity of diction, compactness of style, and fullness,
+as well as elegancy of expressions.
+
+Hor. This seems to be far fetched, and yet I do not know but there
+may be something in it.
+
+Cleo. I am sure you will think so, when you consider that men that do
+speak are equally desirous and endeavouring to persuade and gain the
+point they labour for, whether they speak loud or low, with gestures
+or without.
+
+Hor. Speech, you say, was invented to persuade; I am afraid you lay
+too much stress upon that: it certainly is made use of likewise for
+many other purposes.
+
+Cleo. I do not deny that.
+
+Hor. When people scold, call names, and pelt one another with
+scurrilities, what design is that done with? If it be to persuade
+others, to have a worse opinion of themselves than they are supposed
+to entertain, I believe it is seldom done with success.
+
+Cleo. Calling names is showing others, and showing them with pleasure
+and ostentation, the vile and wretched opinion we have of them; and
+persons that make use of opprobrious language, are often endeavouring
+to make those whom they give it to, believe that they think worse of
+them than they really do.
+
+Hor. Worse than they do! Whence does that ever appear?
+
+Cleo. From the behaviour and the common practice of those that scold
+and call names. They rip up and exaggerate not only the faults and
+imperfections of their adversary himself, but likewise every thing
+that is ridiculous or contemptible in his friends or relations:
+They will fly to, and reflect upon every thing which he is but in
+the least concerned in, if any thing can possibly be said of it that
+is reproachful; the occupation he follows, the party he sides with,
+or the country he is of. They repeat with joy the calamities and
+misfortunes that have befallen him or his family: They see the justice
+of Providence in them, and they are sure they are punishments he has
+deserved. Whatever crime he has been suspected of, they charge him
+with, as if it had been proved upon him. They call in every thing to
+their assistance; bare surmises, loose reports, and known calumnies;
+and often upbraid him with what they themselves, at other times,
+have owned not to believe.
+
+Hor. But how comes the practice of scolding and calling names to
+be so common among the vulgar all the world over? there must be a
+pleasure in it, though I cannot conceive it: I ask to be informed;
+what satisfaction or other benefit is it, that men receive or expect
+from it? what view is it done with?
+
+Cleo. The real cause and inward motive men act from, when they use
+ill language, or call names in earnest, is, in the first place,
+to give vent to their anger, which it is troublesome to stifle and
+conceal. Secondly, to vex and afflict their enemies with greater hopes
+of impunity than they could reasonably entertain, if they did them any
+more substantial mischief, which the law would revenge: but this never
+comes to be a custom, nor is thought of, before language is arrived to
+great perfection, and society is carried to some degree of politeness.
+
+Hor. That is merry enough, to assert that scurrility is the effect
+of politeness.
+
+Cleo. You shall call it what you please, but in its original it is
+a plain shift to avoid fighting, and the ill consequences of it;
+for nobody ever called another rogue and rascal, but he would have
+struck him if it had been in his own power, and himself had not
+been withheld by the fear of something or other: therefore, where
+people call names without doing further injury, it is a sign not
+only that they have wholesome laws amongst them against open force
+and violence, but likewise that they obey and stand in awe of them;
+and a man begins to be a tolerable subject, and is nigh half civilized,
+that in his passion will take up and content himself with this paultry
+equivalent; which never was done without great self-denial at first:
+for otherwise the obvious, ready, and unstudied manner of venting
+and expressing anger, which nature teaches, is the same in human
+creatures that it is in other animals, and is done by fighting; as we
+may observe in infants of two or three months old, that never yet saw
+any body out of humour; for even at that age they will scratch, fling,
+and strike with their heads as well as arms and legs, when any thing
+raises their anger, which is easily, and at most times unaccountably
+provoked; often by hunger, pain, and other inward ailments. That they
+do this by instinct, something implanted in the frame, the mechanism
+of the body before any marks of wit or reason are to be seen in them,
+I am fully persuaded; as I am likewise, that nature teaches them the
+manner of fighting peculiar to their species; and children strike
+with their arms as naturally as horses kick, dogs bite, and bulls
+push with their horns. I beg your pardon for this digression.
+
+Hor. It was natural enough, but if it had been less so, you would
+not have slipt the opportunity of having a fling at human nature,
+which you never spare.
+
+Cleo. We have not a more dangerous enemy than our own inborn pride:
+I shall ever attack, and endeavour to mortify it when it is in my
+power: For the more we are persuaded that the greatest excellencies
+the best men have to boast of, are acquired, the greater stress it
+will teach us to lay upon education; and the more truly solicitous
+it will render us about it: And the absolute necessity of good and
+early instructions, can be no way more clearly demonstrated, than by
+exposing the deformity as well as the weakness of our untaught nature.
+
+Hor. Let us return to speech: if the chief design of it is to persuade,
+the French have got the start of us a great way; theirs is really a
+charming language.
+
+Cleo. So it is without doubt to a Frenchman.
+
+Hor. And every body else, I should think, that understands it, and
+has any taste: do not you think it to be very engaging?
+
+Cleo. Yes, to one that loves his belly; for it is very copious in the
+art of cookery, and every thing that belongs to eating and drinking.
+
+Hor. But without banter, do not you think that the French tongue is
+more proper, more fit to persuade in, than ours?
+
+Cleo. To coax and wheedle in, I believe it may.
+
+Hor. I cannot conceive what nicety it is you aim at, in that
+distinction.
+
+Cleo. The word you named includes no idea of reproach or disparagement;
+the greatest capacities may, without discredit to them, yield to
+persuasion, as well as the least; but those who can be gained by
+coaxing and wheedling, are commonly supposed to be persons of mean
+parts and weak understandings.
+
+Hor. But pray come to the point: which of the two do you take to be
+the finest language?
+
+Cleo. That is hard to determine: Nothing is more difficult than to
+compare the beauties of two languages together, because what is very
+much esteemed in the one, is often not relished at all in the other:
+In this point, the Pulchrum & Honestum varies, and is different every
+where, as the genius of the people differs. I do not set up for a
+judge, but what I have commonly observed in the two languages, is
+this: All favourite expressions in French, are such as either sooth
+or tickle; and nothing is more admired in English than what pierces
+or strikes.
+
+Hor. Do you take yourself to be entirely impartial now?
+
+Cleo. I think so; but if I am not, I do not know how to be sorry for
+it: There are some things in which it is the interest of the society
+that men should be biassed; and I do not think it amiss, that men
+should be inclined to love their own language, from the same principle
+that they love their country. The French call us barbarous, and we
+say they are fawning: I will not believe the first, let them believe
+what they please. Do you remember the six lines in the Cid, which
+Corneille is said to have had a present of six thousand livres for?
+
+Hor. Very well.
+
+
+    Mon Pere est mort, Elvire, & la premiere Espee
+    Dont s'est arme Rodrigue a sa trame coupee.
+    Pleures, pleures mes yeux, & fondes vous en eau,
+    La moitie de ma vie a mis l'autre au tombeau;
+    Et m'oblige a venger, apres ce coup funeste,
+    Cell qui je n'ay plus sur celle qui me reste.
+
+
+Cleo. The same thought expressed in our language, to all the advantage
+it has in the French, would be hissed by an English audience.
+
+Hor. That is no compliment to the taste of your country.
+
+Cleo. I do not know that: Men may have no bad taste, and yet not be
+so ready at conceiving, which way one half of one's life can put the
+other into the grave: To me, I own it is puzzling, and it has too
+much the air of a riddle to be seen in heroic poetry.
+
+Hor. Can you find no delicacy at all in the thought?
+
+Cleo. Yes; but it is too fine spun; it is the delicacy of a cobweb;
+there is no strength in it.
+
+Hor. I have always admired these lines; but now you have made me out of
+conceit with them: Methinks I spy another fault that is much greater.
+
+Cleo. What is that?
+
+Hor. The author makes his heroine say a thing which was false in fact:
+One half, says Chimene, of my life has put the other into the grave,
+and obliges me to revenge, &c. Which is the nominative of the verb
+obliges?
+
+Cleo. One half of my life.
+
+Hor. Here lies the fault; it is this, which I think is not true;
+for the one half of her life, here mentioned, is plainly that half
+which was left; it is Rodrigues her lover: Which way did he oblige
+her to seek for revenge?
+
+Cleo. By what he had done, killing her father.
+
+Hor. No, Cleomenes, this excuse is insufficient. Chimene's calamity
+sprung from the dilemma she was in between her love and her duty;
+when the latter was inexorable, and violently pressing her to solicit
+the punishment, and employ with zeal all her interest and eloquence to
+obtain the death of him, whom the first had made dearer to her than
+her own life; and therefore it was the half that was gone, that was
+put in the grave, her dead father, and not Rodrigues which obliged
+her to sue for justice: Had the obligation she lay under come from
+this quarter, it might soon have been cancelled, and herself released
+without crying out her eyes.
+
+Cleo. I beg pardon for differing from you, but I believe the poet is
+in the right.
+
+Hor. Pray, consider which it was that made Chimene prosecute Rodrigues,
+love, or honour.
+
+Cleo. I do; but still I cannot help thinking, but that her lover,
+by having killed her father, obliged Chimene to prosecute him, in the
+same manner as a man, who will give no satisfaction to his creditors,
+obliges them to arrest him; or as we would say to a coxcomb, who is
+offending us with his discourse, If you go on thus, Sir, you will
+oblige me to treat you ill: Though all this while the debtor might
+be as little desirous of being arrested, and the coxcomb of being
+ill treated, as Rodrigues was of being prosecuted.
+
+Hor. I believe you are in the right, and I beg Corneille's pardon. But
+now I desire you would tell me what you have further to say of society:
+What other advantages do multitudes receive from the invention of
+letters, besides the improvements it makes in their laws and language?
+
+Cleo. It is an encouragement to all other inventions in general,
+by preserving the knowledge of every useful improvement that is
+made. When laws begin to be well known, and the execution of them is
+facilitated by general approbation, multitudes may be kept in tolerable
+concord among themselves: It is then that it appears, and not before,
+how much the superiority of man's understanding beyond other animals,
+contributes to his sociableness, which is only retarded by it in his
+savage state.
+
+Hor. How so, pray; I do not understand you.
+
+Cleo. The superiority of understanding, in the first place, makes man
+sooner sensible of grief and joy, and capable of entertaining either
+with greater difference as to the degrees, than they are felt in
+other creatures: Secondly, it renders him more industrious to please
+himself; that is, it furnishes self-love with a greater variety of
+shifts to exert itself on all emergencies, than is made use of by
+animals of less capacity. Superiority of understanding likewise gives
+us a foresight, and inspires us with hopes, of which other creatures
+have little, and that only of things immediately before them. All
+these things are so many tools, arguments, by which self-love reasons
+us into content, and renders us patient under many afflictions, for
+the sake of supplying those wants that are most pressing: this is
+of infinite use to a man, who finds himself born in a body politic,
+and it must make him fond of society; whereas, the same endowment
+before that time, the same superiority of understanding in the state
+of nature, can only serve to render man incurably averse to society,
+and more obstinately tenacious of his savage liberty, than any other
+creature would be, that is equally necessitous.
+
+Hor. I do not know how to refute you: there is a justness of thought
+in what you say, which I am forced to assent to; and yet it seems
+strange: How come you by this insight into the heart of man, and
+which way is that skill of unravelling human nature to be obtained?
+
+Cleo. By diligently observing what excellencies and qualifications
+are really acquired in a well-accomplished man; and having done this
+impartially, we may be sure that the remainder of him is nature. It
+is for want of duly separating and keeping asunder these two things,
+that men have uttered such absurdities on this subject; alleging as
+the causes of man's fitness for society, such qualifications as no
+man ever was endued with, that was not educated in a society, a civil
+establishment, of several hundred years standing. But the flatterers
+of our species keep this carefully from our view: instead of separating
+what is acquired from what is natural, and distinguishing between them,
+they take pains to unite and confound them together.
+
+Hor. Why do they? I do not see the compliment; since the acquired,
+as well as natural parts, belong to the same person; and the one is
+not more inseparable from him than the other.
+
+Cleo. Nothing is so near to a man, nor so really and entirely his own,
+as what he has from nature; and when that dear self, for the sake of
+which he values or despises, loves or hates every thing else, comes to
+be stript and abstracted from all foreign acquisitions, human nature
+makes a poor figure: it shows a nakedness, or at least an undress,
+which no man cares to be seen in. There is nothing we can be possessed
+of that is worth having, which we do not endeavour, closely to annex,
+and make an ornament of to ourselves; even wealth and power, and all
+the gifts of fortune, that are plainly adventitious, and altogether
+remote from our persons; whilst they are our right and property, we
+do not love to be considered without them. We see likewise that men,
+who are come to be great in the world from despicable beginnings,
+do not love to hear of their origin.
+
+Hor. That is no general rule.
+
+Cleo. I believe it is, though there may be exceptions from it; and
+these are not without reasons. When a man is proud of his parts,
+and wants to be esteemed for his diligence, penetration, quickness
+and assiduity, he will make perhaps an ingenuous confession, even to
+the exposing of his parents; and in order to set off the merit that
+raised him, bespeaking himself of his original meanness. But this is
+commonly done before inferiors, whose envy will be lessened by it,
+and who will applaud his candour and humility in owning this blemish:
+but not a word of this before his betters, who value themselves upon
+their families; and such men could heartily wish that their parentage
+was unknown, whenever they are with those that are their equals in
+quality, though superior to them in birth; by whom they know that they
+are hated for their advancement, and despised for the lowness of their
+extraction. But I have a shorter way of proving my assertion. Pray,
+is it good manners to tell a man that he is meanly born, or to hint
+at his descent, when it is known to be vulgar?
+
+Hor. No: I do not say it is.
+
+Cleo. That decides it, by showing the general opinion about it. Noble
+ancestors, and every thing else that is honourable and esteemed,
+and can be drawn within our sphere, are an advantage to our persons,
+and we all desire they should be looked upon as our own.
+
+Hor. Ovid did not think so, when he said, Nam genus & proavos &
+quæ non fecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco.
+
+Cleo. A pretty piece of modesty in a speech, where a man takes pains to
+prove that Jupiter was his great grandfather. What signifies a theory,
+which a man destroys by his practice? Did you ever know a person of
+quality pleased with being called a bastard, though he owed his being,
+as well as his greatness, chiefly to his mother's impudicity?
+
+Hor. By things acquired, I thought you meant learning and virtue;
+how come you to talk of birth and descent?
+
+Cleo. By showing you, that men are unwilling to have any thing that is
+honourable separated from themselves, though it is remote from, and has
+nothing to do with their persons: I would convince you of the little
+probability there is, that we should be pleased with being considered,
+abstract from what really belongs to us; and qualifications, that in
+the opinion of the best and wisest are the only things for which we
+ought to be valued. When men are well-accomplished, they are ashamed
+of the lowest steps from which they rose to that perfection; and the
+more civilized they are, the more they think it injurious to have
+their nature seen, without the improvements that have been made upon
+it. The most correct authors would blush to see every thing published,
+which in the composing of their works they blotted out and stifled;
+and which yet it is certain they once conceived: for this reason
+they are justly compared to architects, that remove the scaffolding
+before they show their buildings. All ornaments bespeak the value we
+have for the things adorned. Do not you think, that the first red or
+white that ever was laid upon a face, and the first false hair that
+was wore, were put on with great secrecy, and with a design to deceive?
+
+Hor. In France, painting is now looked upon as part of a woman's dress;
+they make no mystery of it.
+
+Cleo. So it is with all the impositions of this nature, when they come
+to be so gross that they can be hid no longer; as men's perukes all
+over Europe: but if these things could be concealed, and were not
+known, the tawny coquette would heartily wish that the ridiculous
+dawbing she plasters herself with might pass for complexion; and the
+bald-pated beau would be as glad to have his full-bottomed wig looked
+upon as a natural head of hair. Nobody puts in artificial teeth,
+but to hide the loss of his own.
+
+Hor. But is not a man's knowledge a real part of himself?
+
+Cleo. Yes, and so is his politeness; but neither of them belong
+to his nature, any more than his gold watch or his diamond ring;
+and even from these he endeavours to draw a value and respect to
+his person. The most admired among the fashionable people that
+delight in outward vanity, and know how to dress well, would be
+highly displeased if their clothes, and skill in putting them on,
+should be looked upon otherwise than as part of themselves; nay,
+it is this part of them only, which, whilst they are unknown, can
+procure them access to the highest companies, the courts of princes;
+where it is manifest, that both sexes are either admitted or refused,
+by no other judgment than what is formed of them from their dress,
+without the least regard to their goodness, or their understanding.
+
+Hor. I believe I apprehend you. It is our fondness of that self, which
+we hardly know what it consists in, that could first make us think of
+embellishing our persons; and when we have taken pains in correcting,
+polishing, and beautifying nature, the same self-love makes us
+unwilling to have the ornaments seen separately from the thing adorned.
+
+Cleo. The reason is obvious. It is that self we are in love with,
+before it is adorned, as well as after, and every thing which is
+confessed to be acquired, seems to point at our original nakedness,
+and to upbraid us with our natural wants; I would say, the meanness
+and deficiency of our nature. That no bravery is so useful in war, as
+that which is artificial, is undeniable; yet the soldier, that by art
+and discipline has manifestly been tricked and wheedled into courage,
+after he has behaved himself in two or three battles with intrepidity,
+will never endure to hear that he has not natural valour; though all
+his acquaintance, as well as himself, remember the time that he was
+an arrant coward.
+
+Hor. But since the love, affection, and benevolence we naturally have
+for our species, is not greater than other creatures have for theirs,
+how comes it, that man gives more ample demonstrations of this love
+on thousand occasions, than any other animal?
+
+Cleo. Because no other animal has the same capacity or opportunity to
+do it. But you may ask the same of his hatred: the greater knowledge
+and the more wealth and power a man has, the more capable he is
+of rendering others sensible of the passion he is affected with,
+as well when he hates as when he loves them. The more a man remains
+uncivilized, and the less he is removed from the state of nature,
+the less his love is to be depended upon.
+
+Hor. There is more honesty and less deceit among plain, untaught
+people, than there is among those that are more artful; and therefore I
+should have looked for true love and unfeigned affection among those
+that live in a natural simplicity, rather than any where else.
+
+Cleo. You speak of sincerity; but the love which I said was less to
+be depended upon in untaught than in civilized people, I supposed to
+be real and sincere in both. Artful people may dissemble love, and
+pretend to friendship, where they have none; but they are influenced by
+their passions and natural appetites as well as savages, though they
+gratify them in another manner: well-bred people behave themselves in
+the choice of diet and the taking of their repasts, very differently
+from savages; so they do in their amours; but hunger and lust are the
+same in both. An artful man, nay, the greatest hypocrite, whatever
+his behaviour is abroad, may love his wife and children at his heart,
+and the sincerest man can do no more. My business is to demonstrate
+to you, that the good qualities men compliment our nature and the
+whole species with, are the result of art and education. The reason
+why love is little to be depended upon in those that are uncivilized,
+is because the passions in them are more fleeting and inconstant;
+they oftener jostle out and succeed one another, than they are and
+do in well-bred people, persons that are well educated, have learned
+to study their ease and the comforts of life; to tie themselves
+up to rules and decorums for their own advantage, and often to
+submit to small inconveniencies to avoid greater. Among the lowest
+vulgar, and those of the meanest education of all, you seldom see a
+lasting harmony: you shall have a man and his wife that have a real
+affection for one another, be full of love one hour, and disagree
+the next for a trifle; and the lives of many are made miserable
+from no other faults in themselves, than their want of manners and
+discretion. Without design they will often talk imprudently, until
+they raise one another's anger; which neither of them being able to
+stifle, she scolds at him; he beats her; she bursts out into tears;
+this moves him, he is sorry; both repent, and are friends again:
+and with all the sincerity imaginable resolve never to quarrel for
+the future, as long as they live: all this will pass between them
+in less than half a day, and will perhaps be repeated once a month,
+or oftener, as provocations offer, or either of them is more or less
+prone to anger. Affection never remained long uninterrupted between
+two persons without art; and the best friends, if they are always
+together, will fall out, unless great discretion be used on both sides.
+
+Hor. I have always been of your opinion, that the more men were
+civilized the happier they were; but since nations can never be
+made polite but by length of time, and mankind must have been always
+miserable before they had written laws, how come poets and others to
+launch out so much in praise of the golden age, in which they pretend
+there was so much peace, love, and sincerity?
+
+Cleo. For the same reason that heralds compliment obscure men of
+unknown extraction with illustrious pedigrees: as there is no mortal
+of high descent, but who values himself upon his family, so extolling
+the virtue and happiness of their ancestors, can never fail pleasing
+every member of a society: but what stress would you lay upon the
+fictions of poets?
+
+Hor. You reason very clearly, and with great freedom, against all
+heathen superstition, and never suffer yourself to be imposed upon
+by any fraud from that quarter; but when you meet with any thing
+belonging to the Jewish or Christian religion, you are as credulous
+as any of the vulgar.
+
+Cleo. I am sorry you should think so.
+
+Hor. What I say is fact. A man that contentedly swallows every thing
+that is said of Noah and his ark, ought not to laugh at the story of
+Deucalion and Pyrrha.
+
+Cleo. Is it as credible, that human creatures should spring from
+stones, because an old man and his wife threw them over their heads,
+as that a man and his family, with a great number of birds and beasts,
+should be preserved in a large ship, made convenient for that purpose?
+
+Hor. But you are partial: what odds is there between a stone and
+a lump of earth, for either of them to become a human creature? I
+can as easily conceive how a stone should be turned into a man or
+a woman, as how a man or a woman should be turned into a stone; and
+I think it not more strange, that a woman should be changed into a
+tree, as was Daphne, or into marble as Niobe, than that she should
+be transformed into a pillar of salt, as the wife of Lot was. Pray
+suffer me to catechise you a little.
+
+Cleo. You will hear me afterwards, I hope.
+
+Hor. Yes, yes. Do you believe Hesiod?
+
+Cleo. No.
+
+Hor. Ovid's Metamorphosis?
+
+Cleo. No.
+
+Hor. But you believe the story of Adam and Eve, and Paradise.
+
+Cleo. Yes.
+
+Hor. That they were produced at once, I mean at their full growth;
+he from a lump of earth, and she from one of his ribs?
+
+Cleo. Yes.
+
+Hor. And that as soon as they were made, they could speak, reason,
+and were endued with knowledge?
+
+Cleo. Yes.
+
+Hor. In short, you believe the innocence, the delight, and all the
+wonders of Paradise, that are related by one man; at the same time that
+you will not believe what has been told us by many, of the uprightness,
+the concord, and the happiness of a golden age.
+
+Cleo. That is very true.
+
+Hor. Now give me leave to show you, how unaccountable, as well as
+partial, you are in this. In the first place, the things naturally
+impossible, which you believe, are contrary to your own doctrine,
+the opinion you have laid down, and which I believe to be true:
+for you have proved, that no man would ever be able to speak, unless
+he was taught it; that reasoning and thinking come upon us by slow
+degrees; and that we can know nothing that has not from without been
+conveyed to the brain, and communicated to us through the organs of
+the senses. Secondly, in what you reject as fabulous, there is no
+manner of improbability. We know from history, and daily experience
+teaches us, that almost all the wars and private quarrels that have at
+any time disturbed mankind, have had their rise from the differences
+about superiority, and the meum & tuum: therefore before cunning,
+covetousness and deceit, crept into the world; before titles of honour,
+and the distinction between servant and master were known; why might
+not moderate numbers of people have lived together in peace and amity,
+when they enjoyed every thing in common; and have been content with
+the product of the earth in a fertile soil and a happy climate? Why
+cannot you believe this?
+
+Cleo. Because it is inconsistent with the nature of human creatures,
+that any number of them should ever live together in tolerable concord,
+without laws or government, let the soil, the climate, and their plenty
+be whatever the most luxuriant imagination shall be pleased to fancy
+them. But Adam was altogether the workmanship of God; a preternatural
+production: his speech and knowledge, his goodness and innocence were
+as miraculous, as every other part of his frame.
+
+Hor. Indeed, Cleomenes, this is insufferable; when we are talking
+philosophy you foist in miracles: why may not I do the same, and lay
+that the people of the golden age were made happy by miracle?
+
+Cleo. It is more probable that one miracle should, at a stated time,
+have produced a male and female, from whom all the rest of mankind are
+descended in a natural way; than that by a continued series of miracles
+several generations of people should have all been made to live and
+act contrary to their nature; for this must follow from the account we
+have of the golden and silver ages. In Moses, the first natural man,
+the first that was born of a woman, by envying and slaying his brother,
+gives an ample evidence of the domineering spirit, and the principle
+of sovereignty, which I have asserted to belong to our nature.
+
+Hor. You will not be counted credulous, and yet you believe all those
+stories, which even some of our divines have called ridiculous,
+if literally understood. But I do not insist upon the golden age,
+if you will give up Paradise: a man of sense, and a philosopher,
+should believe neither.
+
+Cleo. Yet you have told me that you believed the Old and New Testament.
+
+Hor. I never said that I believed every thing that is in them, in a
+literal sense. But why should you believe miracles at all?
+
+Cleo. Because I cannot help it: and I promise never to mention the name
+to you again, if you can show me the bare possibility that man could
+ever have been produced, brought into the world without miracle. Do
+you believe there ever was a man who had made himself?
+
+Hor. No: that is a plain contradiction.
+
+Cleo. Then it is manifest the first man must have been made by
+something; and what I say of man, I may say of all matter and motion
+in general. The doctrine of Epicurus, that every thing is derived
+from the concourse and fortuitous jumble of atoms, is monstrous and
+extravagant beyond all other follies.
+
+Hor. Yet there is no mathematical demonstration against it.
+
+Cleo. Nor is there one to prove, that the sun is not in love with
+the moon, if one had a mind to advance it; and yet I think it a
+greater reproach to human understanding to believe either, than it
+is to believe the most childish stories that are told of fairies
+and hobgoblins.
+
+Hor. But there is an axiom very little inferior to a mathematical
+demonstration, ex nihilo nihil fit, that is directly clashing with,
+and contradicts the creation out of nothing. Do you understand how
+something can come from nothing?
+
+Cleo. I do not, I confess, any more than I can comprehend eternity, or
+the Deity itself: but when I cannot comprehend what my reason assures
+me must necessarily exist, there is no axiom or demonstration clearer
+to me, than that the fault lies in my want of capacity, the shallowness
+of my understanding. From the little we know of the sun and stars,
+their magnitudes, distances, and motion; and what we are more nearly
+acquainted with, the gross visible parts in the structure of animals
+and their economy, it is demonstrable, that they are the effects of an
+intelligent cause, and the contrivance of a Being infinite in wisdom
+as well as power.
+
+Hor. But let wisdom be as superlative, and power as extensive as it
+is possible for them to be, still it is impossible to conceive how
+they should exert themselves, unless they had something to act upon.
+
+Cleo. This is not the only thing which, though it be true, we are not
+able to conceive: How came the first man to exist? and yet here we
+are. Heat and moisture are the plain effects from manifest causes,
+and though they bear a great sway, even in the mineral as well as
+the animal and vegetable world, yet they cannot produce a sprig of
+grass without a previous seed.
+
+Hor. As we ourselves, and every thing we see, are the undoubted parts
+of some one whole, some are of opinion, that this all, the to pan,
+the universe, was from all eternity.
+
+Cleo. This is not more satisfactory or comprehensible than the
+system of Epicurus, who derives every thing from wild chance, and an
+undesigned struggle of senseless atoms. When we behold things which
+our reason tells us could not have been produced without wisdom and
+power, in a degree far beyond our comprehension, can any thing be more
+contrary to, or clashing with that same reason, than that the things
+in which that high wisdom and great power are visibly displayed,
+should be coeval with the wisdom and power themselves that contrived
+and wrought them? Yet this doctrine which is spinosism in epitome,
+after having been neglected many years, begins to prevail again,
+and the atoms lose ground: for of atheism, as well as superstition,
+there are different kinds that have their periods and returns, after
+they have been long exploded.
+
+Hor. What makes you couple together two things so diametrically
+opposite?
+
+Cleo. There is greater affinity between them than you imagine: they
+are of the same origin.
+
+Hor. What, atheism and superstition!
+
+Cleo. Yes, indeed; they both have their rise from the same cause,
+the same defect in the mind of man, our want of capacity in discerning
+truth, and natural ignorance of the Divine essence. Men that from their
+most early youth have not been imbued with the principles of the true
+religion, and have not afterwards continued to be strictly educated
+in the same, are all in great danger of falling either into the one
+or the other, according to the difference there is in the temperament
+and complexion they are of, the circumstances they are in, and the
+company they converse with. Weak minds, and those that are brought
+up in ignorance, and a low condition, such as are much exposed to
+fortune, men of slavish principles, the covetous and mean-spirited,
+are all naturally inclined to, and easily susceptible of superstition;
+and there is no absurdity so gross, nor contradiction so plain, which
+the dregs of the people, most gamesters, and nineteen women in twenty,
+may not be taught to believe, concerning invisible causes. Therefore
+multitudes are never tainted with irreligion; and the less civilized
+nations are, the more boundless is their credulity. On the contrary,
+men of parts and spirit, of thought and reflection, the assertors
+of liberty, such as meddle with mathematics and natural philosophy,
+most inquisitive men, the disinterested that live in ease and plenty;
+if their youth has been neglected, and they are not well-grounded
+in the principles of the true religion, are prone to infidelity;
+especially such amongst them, whose pride and sufficiency are
+greater than ordinary; and if persons of this sort fall into hands
+of unbelievers, they run great hazard of becoming atheists or sceptics.
+
+Hor. The method of education you recommend, in pinning men down to
+an opinion, may be very good to make bigots, and raise a strong party
+to the priests; but to have good subjects, and moral men, nothing is
+better than to inspire youth with the love of virtue, and strongly to
+imbue them with sentiments of justice and probity, and the true notions
+of honour and politeness. These are the true specifics to cure man's
+nature, and destroy in him the savage principles of sovereignty and
+selfishness, that infest and are so mischievous to it. As to religious
+matters, prepossessing the mind, and forcing youth into a belief,
+is more partial and unfair, than it is to leave them unbiassed, and
+unprejudiced till they come to maturity, and are fit to judge as well
+as choose for themselves.
+
+Cleo. It is this fair and impartial management you speak in praise
+of, that will ever promote and increase unbelief; and nothing has
+contributed more to the growth of deism in this kingdom, than the
+remissness of education in sacred matters, which for some time has
+been in fashion among the better sort.
+
+Hor. The public welfare ought to be our principal care; and I am well
+assured, that it is not bigotry to a sect or persuasion; but common
+honesty, uprightness in all dealings, and benevolence to one another,
+which the society stands most in need of.
+
+Cleo. I do not speak up for bigotry; and where the Christian religion
+is thoroughly taught as it should be, it is impossible, that honesty,
+uprightness or benevolence should ever be forgot; and no appearances
+of those virtues are to be trusted to, unless they proceed from that
+motive; for without the belief of another world, a man is under no
+obligation for his sincerity in this: his very oath is no tie upon him.
+
+Hor. What is it upon an hypocrite that dares to be perjured?
+
+Cleo. No man's oath is ever taken, if it is known that once he has
+been forsworn; nor can I ever be deceived by an hypocrite, when he
+tells me that he is one; and I shall never believe a man to be an
+atheist, unless he owns it himself.
+
+Hor. I do not believe there are real atheists in the world.
+
+Cleo. I will not quarrel about words; but our modern deism is no
+greater security than atheism: for a man's acknowledging the being
+of a God, even an intelligent first Cause, is of no use, either to
+himself or others, if he denies, a Providence and a future state.
+
+Hor. After all, I do not think that virtue has any more relation to
+credulity, than it has to want of faith.
+
+Cleo. Yet it would and ought to have, if we were consistent with
+ourselves; and if men were swayed in their actions by the principles
+they side with, and the opinion they profess themselves to be of,
+all atheists would be devils, and superstitious men saints: but this
+is not true; there are atheists of good morals, and great villains
+superstitious: nay, I do not believe there is any wickedness that the
+worst atheist can commit, but superstitious men may be guilty of it;
+impiety not excepted; for nothing is more common amongst rakes and
+gamesters, than to hear men blaspheme, that believe in spirits, and
+are afraid of the devil. I have no greater opinion of superstition
+than I have of atheism; what I aimed at, was to prevent and guard
+against both; and I am persuaded that there is no other antidote
+to be obtained by human means, so powerful and infallible against
+the poison of either, as what I have mentioned. As to the truth of
+our descent from Adam, I would not be a believer, and cease to be a
+rational creature: what I have to say for it, is this. We are convinced
+that human understanding is limited; and by the help of every little
+reflection, we may be as certain that the narrowness of its bounds,
+its being so limited, is the very thing, the sole cause, which palpably
+hinders us from diving into our origin by dint of penetration: the
+consequence is, that to come at the truth of this origin, which is
+of very great concern to us, something is to be believed: but what
+or whom to believe is the question. If I cannot demonstrate to you
+that Moses was divinely inspired, you will be forced to confess,
+that there never was any thing more extraordinary in the world,
+than that, in a most superstitious age, one man brought up among the
+grossest idolaters, that had the vilest and most abominable notions
+of the Godhead, should, without help, as we know of, find out the
+most hidden and most important truths by his natural capacity only;
+for, besides the deep insight he had in human nature, as appears
+from the decalogue, it is manifest that he was acquainted with the
+creation out of nothing, the unity and immense greatness of that
+Invisible Power that has made the universe; and that he taught this
+to the Israelites, fifteen centuries before any other nation upon
+earth was so far enlightened: it is undeniable, moreover, that the
+history of Moses, concerning the beginning of the world and mankind,
+is the most ancient and least improbable of any that are extant; that
+others, who have wrote after him on the same subject, appear most of
+them to be imperfect copiers of him; and that the relations which
+seem not to have been borrowed from Moses, as the accounts we have
+of Sommona-codam, Confucius, and others, are less rational, and fifty
+times more extravagant and incredible, than any thing contained in the
+Pentateuch. As to the things revealed, the plan itself, abstract from
+faith and religion; when we have weighed every system that has been
+advanced, we shall find; that, since we must have had a beginning,
+nothing is more rational or more agreeable to good sense, than to
+derive our origin from an incomprehensible creative Power, that was
+the first Mover and Author of all things.
+
+Hor. I never heard any body entertain higher notions, or more noble
+sentiments of the Deity, than at different times I have heard from
+you; pray, when you read Moses, do not you meet with several things in
+the economy of Paradise, and the conversation between God and Adam,
+that seem to be low, unworthy, and altogether inconsistent with the
+sublime ideas you are used to form of the Supreme Being.
+
+Cleo. I freely own, not only that I have thought so, but likewise
+that I have long stumbled at it: but when I consider, on the one
+hand, that the more human knowledge increases, the more consummate
+and unerring the Divine Wisdom appears to be, in every thing we can
+have any insight into; and on the other, that the things hitherto
+detected, either by chance or industry, are very inconsiderable both
+in number and value, if compared to the vast multitude of weightier
+matters that are left behind and remain still undiscovered: When,
+I say, I consider these things, I cannot help thinking, that there
+may be very wise reasons for what we find fault with, that are,
+and perhaps ever will be, unknown to men as long the world endures.
+
+Hor. But why should he remain labouring under difficulties we can
+easily solve, and not say with Dr. Burnet, and several others, that
+those things are allegories, and to be understood in a figurative
+sense?
+
+Cleo. I have nothing against it; and shall always applaud the ingenuity
+and good offices of men, who endeavour to reconcile religious mysteries
+to human reason and probability; but I insist upon it, that nobody
+can disprove any thing that is said in the Pentateuch, in the most
+literal sense; and I defy the wit of man to frame or contrive a story,
+the best concerted fable they can invent, how man came into the world,
+which I shall not find as much fault with, and be able to make as
+strong objections to, as the enemies of religion have found with, and
+raised against the account of Moses: If I may be allowed to take the
+same liberty with their known forgery, which they take with the Bible,
+before they have brought one argument against the veracity of it.
+
+Hor. It may be so. But as first I was the occasion of this long
+digression, by mentioning the golden age; so now, I desire we may
+return to our subject. What time, how many ages do you think it
+would require to have a well-civilized nation from such a savage pair
+as yours?
+
+Cleo. That is very uncertain; and I believe it impossible, to determine
+any thing about it. From what has been said, it is manifest, that the
+family descending from such a stock, would be crumbled to pieces,
+reunited, and dispersed again several times, before the whole of
+any part of it could be advanced to any degree of politeness. The
+best forms of government are subject to revolutions, and a great many
+things must concur to keep a society of men together, till they become
+a civilized nation.
+
+Hor. Is not a vast deal owing, in the raising of a nation, to the
+difference there is in the spirit and genius of people?
+
+Cleo. Nothing, but what depends upon climates, which is soon
+over-balanced by skilful government. Courage and cowardice, in all
+bodies of men, depend entirely upon exercise and discipline. Arts
+and sciences seldom come before riches, and both flow in faster or
+slower, according to the capacity of the governors, the situation of
+the people, and the opportunities they have of improvements; but the
+first is the chief: to preserve peace and tranquillity among multitudes
+of different views, and make them all labour for one interest, is a
+great task; and nothing in human affairs requires greater knowledge,
+than the art of governing.
+
+Hor. According to your system, it should be little more, than guarding
+against human nature.
+
+Cleo. But it is a great while before that nature can be rightly
+understood; and it is the work of ages to find out the true use of
+the passions, and to raise a politician that can make every frailty of
+the members add strength to the whole body, and by dextrous management
+turn private Vices into public Benefits.
+
+Hor. It must be a great advantage to an age, when many extraordinary
+persons are born in it.
+
+Cleo. It is not genius, so much as experience, that helps men to
+good laws: Solon, Lycurgus, Socrates and Plato, all travelled for
+their knowledge, which they communicated to others. The wisest laws
+of human invention are generally owing to the evasions of bad men,
+whose cunning had eluded the force of former ordinances that had been
+made with less caution.
+
+Hor. I fancy that the invention of iron, and working the oar into
+a metal, must contribute very much to the completing of society;
+because men can have no tools nor agriculture without it.
+
+Cleo. Iron is certainly very useful; but shells and flints, and
+hardening of wood by fire, are substitutes that men make a shift with;
+if they can but have peace, live in quiet, and enjoy the fruits of
+their labour. Could you ever have believed, that a man without hands
+could have shaved himself, wrote good characters, and made use of a
+needle and thread with his feet? Yet this we have seen. It is said
+by some men of reputation, that the Americans in Mexico and Peru
+have all the signs of an infant world; because, when the Europeans
+first came among them, they wanted a great many things, that seem to
+be of easy invention. But considering that they had nobody to borrow
+from, and no iron at all, it is amazing which way they could arrive
+at the perfection we found them in. First, it is impossible to know,
+how long multitudes may have been troublesome to one another, before
+the invention of letters came among them, and they had any written
+laws. Secondly, from the many chasms in history, we know by experience,
+that the accounts of transactions and times in which letters are
+known, may be entirely lost. Wars and human discord may destroy
+the most civilized nations, only by dispersing them; and general
+devastations spare arts and sciences no more than they do cities and
+palaces. That all men are born with a strong desire, and no capacity at
+all to govern, has occasioned an infinity of good and evil. Invasions
+and persecutions, by mixing and scattering our species, have made
+strange alterations in the world. Sometimes large empires are divided
+into several parts, and produce new kingdoms and principalities;
+at others, great conquerors in few years bring different nations
+under one dominion. From the decay of the Roman empire alone we may
+learn, that arts and sciences are more perishable, much sooner lost,
+than buildings or inscriptions; and that a deluge of ignorance may
+overspread countries, without their ceasing to be inhabited.
+
+Hor. But what is it at last, that raises opulent cities and powerful
+nations from the smallest beginnings?
+
+Cleo. Providence.
+
+Hor. But Providence makes use of means that are visible; I want to
+know the engines it is performed with.
+
+Cleo. All the ground work that is required to aggrandize nations,
+you have seen in the Fable of the Bees. All sound politics, and the
+whole art of governing, are entirely built upon the knowledge of human
+nature. The great business in general of a politician is to promote,
+and, if he can, reward all good and useful actions on the one hand;
+and on the other, to punish, or at least discourage every thing that
+is destructive or hurtful to society. To name particulars would be an
+endless task. Anger, lust, and pride, may be the causes of innumerable
+mischiefs, that are all carefully to be guarded against: but setting
+them aside, the regulations only that are required to defeat and
+prevent all the machinations and contrivances that avarice and envy
+may put man upon, to the detriment of his neighbour, are almost
+infinite. Would you be convinced of these truths, do but employ
+yourself for a month or two, in surveying and minutely examining
+into every art and science, every trade, handicraft and occupation,
+that are professed and followed in such a city as London; and all
+the laws, prohibitions, ordinances and restrictions that have been
+found absolutely necessary, to hinder both private men and bodies
+corporate, in so many different stations, first from interfering
+with the public peace and welfare; secondly, from openly wronging
+and secretly over-reaching, or any other way injuring one another:
+if you will give yourself this trouble, you will find the number of
+clauses and provisos, to govern a large flourishing city well, to be
+prodigious beyond imagination; and yet every one of them tending to
+the same purpose, the curbing, restraining, and disappointing the
+inordinate passions, and hurtful frailties of man. You will find,
+moreover, which is still more to be admired, the greater part of the
+articles in this vast multitude of regulations, when well understood,
+to be the result of consummate wisdom.
+
+Hor. How could these things exist, if there had not been men of very
+bright parts and uncommon talents?
+
+Cleo. Among the things I hint at, there are very few that are
+the work of one man, or of one generation; the greatest part of
+them are the product, the joint labour of several ages. Remember
+what in our third conversation I told you, concerning the arts of
+ship-building and politeness. The wisdom I speak of, is not the
+offspring of a fine understanding, or intense thinking, but of sound
+and deliberate judgment, acquired from a long experience in business,
+and a multiplicity of observations. By this sort of wisdom, and length
+of time, it may be brought about, that there shall be no greater
+difficulty in governing a large city, than (pardon the lowness of
+the simile) there is in weaving of stockings.
+
+Hor. Very low indeed.
+
+Cleo. Yet I know nothing to which the laws and established
+economy of a well ordered city may be more justly compared, than
+the knitting-frame. The machine, at first view, is intricate and
+unintelligible; yet the effects of it are exact and beautiful; and
+in what is produced by it, there is a surprising regularity: but
+the beauty and exactness in the manufacture are principally, if not
+altogether, owing to the happiness of the invention, the contrivance
+of the engine. For the greatest artist at it can furnish us with no
+better work, than may be made by almost any scoundrel after half a
+year's practice.
+
+Hor. Though your comparison be low, I must own that it very well
+illustrates your meaning.
+
+Cleo. Whilst you spoke, I have thought of another, which is better. It
+is common now, to have clocks that are made to play several tunes
+with great exactness: the study and labour, as well as trouble of
+disappointments, which, in doing and undoing, such a contrivance
+must necessarily have cost from the beginning to the end, are not
+to be thought of without astonishment; there is something analogous
+to this in the government of a flourishing city, that has lasted
+uninterrupted for several ages: there is no part of the wholesome
+regulations belonging to it, even the most trifling and minute,
+about which great pains and consideration have not been employed,
+as well as length of time; and if you will look into the history
+and antiquity of any such city, you will find that the changes,
+repeals, additions and amendments, that have been made in and to the
+laws and ordinances by which it is ruled, are in number prodigious:
+but that when once they are brought to as much perfection as art and
+human wisdom can carry them, the whole machine may be made to play
+of itself, with as little skill as it required to wind up a clock;
+and the government of a large city once put into good order, the
+magistrates only following their noses, will continue to go right for
+a while, though there was not a wise man in it; provided that the care
+of Providence was to watch over it in the same manner as it did before.
+
+Hor. But supposing the government of a large city, when it is once
+established, to be very easy, it is not so with whole states and
+kingdoms: is it not a great blessing to a nation, to have all places
+of honour and great trust filled with men of parts and application,
+of probity and virtue?
+
+Cleo. Yes; and of learning, moderation, frugality, candour and
+affability: look out for such as fast as you can; but in the mean time
+the places cannot stand open, the offices must be served by such as
+you can get.
+
+Hor. You seem to insinuate, that there is a great scarcity of good
+men in the nation.
+
+Cleo. I do not speak of our nation in particular, but of all states
+and kingdoms in general. What I would say, is, that it is the interest
+of every nation to have their home government, and every branch of the
+civil administration so wisely contrived, that every man of middling
+capacity and reputation may be fit for any of the highest posts.
+
+Hor. That is absolutely impossible, at least in such a nation as ours:
+for what would you do for judges and chancellors?
+
+Cleo. The study of the law is very crabbed and very tedious; but the
+profession of it is as gainful, and has great honours annexed to it:
+the consequence of this is, that few come to be eminent in it, but
+men of tolerable parts and great application. And whoever is a good
+lawyer, and not noted for dishonesty, is always fit to be a judge, as
+soon as he is old and grave enough. To be a lord chancellor, indeed,
+requires higher talents; and he ought not only to be a good lawyer
+and an honest man, but likewise a person of general knowledge and
+great penetration. But this is but one man: and considering what I
+have said of the law, and the power which ambition and the love of
+gain have upon mankind, it is morally impossible, that, in the common
+course of things among the practitioners in chancery, there should
+not at all times be one or other fit for the seals.
+
+Hor. Must not every nation have men that are fit for public
+negotiations, and persons of great capacity to serve for envoys,
+ambassadors and plenipotentiaries? must they not have others at home,
+that are likewise able to treat with foreign ministers?
+
+Cleo. That every nation must have such people, is certain; but
+I wonder that the company you have kept both at home and abroad,
+have not convinced you that the things you speak of require no such
+extraordinary qualifications. Among the people of quality that are
+bred up in courts of princes, all middling capacities must be persons
+of address, and a becoming boldness, which are the most useful talents
+in all conferences and negotiations.
+
+Hor. In a nation so involved in debts of different kinds, and loaded
+with such a variety of taxes as ours is, to be thoroughly acquainted
+with all the funds, and the appropriations of them, must be a science
+not to be attained to without good natural parts and great application;
+and therefore the chief management of the treasury must be a post of
+the highest trust, as well as endless difficulty.
+
+Cleo. I do not think so: most branches of the public administration are
+in reality less difficult to those that are in them, than they seem to
+be to those that are out of them, and are strangers to them. If a jack
+and the weights of it were out of sight, a sensible man unacquainted
+with that matter, would be very much puzzled, if he was to account
+for the regular turning of two or three spits well loaded, for hours
+together; and it is ten to one, but he would have a greater opinion
+of the cook or the scullion, than either of them deserved. In all
+business that belong to the exchequer, the constitution does nine
+parts in ten; and has taken effectual care, that the happy person
+whom the king shall be pleased to favour with the superintendency
+of it, should never be greatly tired or perplexed with his office;
+and likewise that the trust, the confidence that must be reposed in
+him, should be very near as moderate as his trouble. By dividing
+the employments in a great office, and subdividing them into many
+parts, every man's business may be made so plain and certain, that,
+when he is a little used to it, it is hardly possible for him to make
+mistakes: and again, by careful limitations of every man's power, and
+judicious checks upon every body's trust, every officer's fidelity
+may be placed in so clear a light, that the moment he forfeits it,
+he must be detected. It is by these arts that the weightiest affairs,
+and a vast multiplicity of them, may be managed with safety as well as
+dispatch, by ordinary men, whose highest good is wealth and pleasure;
+and that the utmost regularity may be observed in a great office,
+and every part of it; at the same time, that the whole economy of
+it seems to be intricate and perplexed to the last degree, not only
+to strangers, but the greatest part of the very officers that are
+employed in it.
+
+Hor. The economy of our exchequer, I own, is an admirable contrivance
+to prevent frauds and encroachments of all kinds; but in the office,
+which is at the head of it, and gives motion to it, there is greater
+latitude.
+
+Cleo. Why so? A lord treasurer, or if his office be executed by
+commissioners, the chancellor of the exchequer, are no more lawless,
+and have no greater power with impunity to embezzle money, than the
+meanest clerk that is employed under them.
+
+Hor. Is not the king's warrant their discharge?
+
+Cleo. Yes; for sums which the king has a right to dispose of, or
+the payment of money for uses directed by parliament; not otherwise;
+and if the king, who can do no wrong, should be imposed upon, and his
+warrant be obtained for money at random, whether it is appropriated
+or not, contrary to, or without a direct order of the legislature,
+the treasurer obeys at his peril.
+
+Hor. But there are other posts, or at least there is one still of
+higher moment, and that requires a much greater, and more general
+capacity than any yet named.
+
+Cleo. Pardon me: as the lord chancellor's is the highest office in
+dignity, so the execution of it actually demands greater, and more
+uncommon abilities than any other whatever.
+
+Hor. What say you to the prime minister who governs all, and acts
+immediately under the king?
+
+Cleo. There is no such officer belonging to our constitution; for
+by this, the whole administration is, for very wise reasons, divided
+into several branches.
+
+Hor. But who must give orders and instructions to admirals, generals,
+governors, and all our ministers in foreign courts? Who is to take
+care of the king's interest throughout the kingdom, and of his safety?
+
+Cleo. The king and his council, without which, royal authority is not
+supposed to act, superintend, and govern all; and whatever the monarch
+has not a mind immediately to take care of himself, falls in course
+to that part of the administration it belongs to, in which every body
+has plain laws to walk by. As to the king's interest, it is the same
+with that of the nation; his guards are to take care of his person;
+and there is no business of what nature soever, that can happen in
+or to the nation, which is not within the province, and under the
+inspection of some one or other of the great officers of the crown,
+that are all known, dignified, and distinguished by their respective
+titles; and amongst them, I can assure you, there is no such name as
+prime minister.
+
+Hor. But why will you prevaricate with me after this manner? You
+know yourself, and all the world knows and sees, that there is such
+a minister; and it is easily proved, that there always have been
+such ministers: and in the situation we are, I do not believe a king
+could do without. When there are a great many disaffected people in
+the kingdom, and parliament-men are to be chosen, elections must be
+looked after with great care, and a thousand things are to be done,
+that are necessary to disappoint the sinister ends of malecontents,
+and keep out the Pretender; things of which the management often
+requires great penetration, and uncommon talents, as well as secrecy
+and dispatch.
+
+Cleo. How sincerely soever you may seem to speak in defence of these
+things, Horatio, I am sure, from your principles, that you are not
+in earnest. I am not to judge of the exigency of our affairs: But
+as I would not pry into the conduct, or scan the actions of princes,
+and their ministers, so I pretend to justify or defend no wisdom but
+that of the constitution itself.
+
+Hor. I do not desire you should: Only tell me, whether you do not
+think, that a man, who has and can carry this vast burden upon his
+shoulders, and all Europe's business in his breast, must be a person
+of a prodigious genius, as well as general knowledge, and other
+great abilities.
+
+Cleo. That a man, invested with so much real power, and an authority so
+extensive, as such ministers generally have, must make a great figure,
+and be considerable above all other subjects, is most certain: But
+it is my opinion, that there are always fifty men in the kingdom,
+that, if employed, would be fit for this post, and, after a little
+practice, shine in it, to one who is equally qualified to be a
+Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. A prime minster has a vast,
+an unspeakable advantage barely by being so, and by every body's
+knowing him to be, and treating him as such: A man who in every office,
+and every branch of it throughout the administration, has the power,
+as well as the liberty, to ask and see whom and what he pleases, has
+more knowledge within his reach, and can speak of every thing with
+greater exactness than any other man, that is much better versed in
+affairs, and has ten times greater capacity. It is hardly possible,
+than an active man, of tolerable education, that is not destitute
+of a spirit nor of vanity, should fail of appearing to be wise,
+vigilant, and expert, who has the opportunity whenever he thinks fit,
+to make use of all the cunning and experience, as well as diligence and
+labour of every officer in the civil administration; and if he has but
+money enough, and will employ men to keep up a strict correspondence
+in every part of the kingdom, he can remain ignorant of nothing;
+and there is hardly any affair or transaction, civil or military,
+foreign or domestic, which he will not be able greatly to influence,
+when he has a mind either to promote or obstruct it.
+
+Hor. There seems to be a great deal in what you say, I must confess;
+but I begin to suspect, that what often inclines me to be of your
+opinion, is your dexterity in placing things in the light you would
+have seen them in, and the great skill you have in depreciating what
+is valuable, and detracting from merit.
+
+Cleo. I protest that I speak from my heart.
+
+Hor. When I reflect on what I have beheld with my own eyes, and
+what I still see every day of the transactions between statesmen
+and politicians, I am very well assured you are in the wrong: When I
+consider all the stratagems, and the force as well as finesse that are
+made use of to supplant and undo prime ministers, the wit and cunning,
+industry and address, that are employed to misrepresent all their
+actions, the calumnies and false reports that are spread of them,
+the ballads and lampoons that are published, the set speeches and
+studied invectives that are made against them; when I consider, I say,
+and reflect on these things, and every thing else that is said and
+done, either to ridicule or to render them odious, I am convinced,
+that to defeat so much art and strength, and disappoint so much
+malice and envy as prime ministers are generally attacked with,
+require extraordinary talents: No man of only common prudence and
+fortitude could maintain himself in that post for a twelvemonth,
+much less for many years together, though he understood the world
+very well, and had all the virtue, faithfulness, and integrity in it;
+therefore, there must be some fallacy in your assertion.
+
+Cleo. Either I have been deficient in explaining myself or else
+I have had the misfortune to be misunderstood. When I insinuated
+that men might be prime ministers without extraordinary endowments,
+I spoke only in regard to the business itself, that province, which,
+if there was no such minister, the king and council would have the
+trouble of managing.
+
+Hor. To direct and manage the whole machine of government, he must
+be a consummate statesman in the first place.
+
+Cleo. You have too sublime a notion of that post. To be a consummate
+statesman, is the highest qualification human nature is capable of
+possessing. To deserve that name, a man must be well versed in ancient
+and modern history, and thoroughly acquainted with all the courts of
+Europe, that he may know not only the public interest in every nation,
+but likewise the private views, as well as inclinations, virtues,
+and vices of princes and ministers: Of every country in Christendom,
+and the borders of it, he ought to know the product and geography,
+the principal cities and fortresses; and of these their trade and
+manufactures, their situation, natural advantages, strength, and
+number of inhabitants; he must have read men as well as books, and
+perfectly well understand human nature, and the use of the passions:
+He must, moreover, be a great master in concealing the sentiments
+of his heart, have an entire command over his features, and be well
+skilled in all the wiles and stratagems to draw out secrets from
+others. A man, of whom all this, or the greatest part of it, may not
+be said with truth, and that he has had great experience in public
+affairs, cannot be called a consummate statesman; but he may be fit
+to be a prime minister, though he had not a hundredth part of those
+qualifications. As the king's favour creates prime ministers, and
+makes their station the post of the greatest power as well as profit,
+so the same favour is the only bottom which those that are in it have
+to stand upon: The consequence is, that the most ambitious men in all
+monarchies are ever contending for this post as the highest prize,
+of which the enjoyment is easy, and all the difficulty in obtaining
+and preserving it. We see accordingly, that the accomplishments I
+spoke of to make a statesman are neglected, and others aimed at
+and studied, that are more useful and more easily acquired. The
+capacities you observe in prime ministers are of another nature, and
+consist in being finished courtiers, and thoroughly understanding the
+art of pleasing and cajoling with address. To procure a prince what
+he wants, when it is known, and to be diligent in entertaining him
+with the pleasures he calls for, are ordinary services: Asking is no
+better than complaining; therefore, being forced to ask, is to have
+cause of complaint, and to see a prince submit to the slavery of it,
+argues great rusticity in his courtiers; a polite minister penetrates
+into his master's wishes, and furnishes him with what he delights in,
+without giving him the trouble to name it. Every common flatterer
+can praise and extol promiscuously every thing that is said or done,
+and find wisdom and prudence in the most indifferent actions; but
+it belongs to the skilful courtier to set fine glosses upon manifest
+imperfections, and make every failing, every frailty of his prince,
+have the real appearance of the virtues that are the nearest, or, to
+speak more justly, the least opposite to them. By the observance of
+these necessary duties, it is that the favour of princes may be long
+preserved, as well as obtained. Whoever can make himself agreeable
+at a court, will seldom fail of being thought necessary; and when
+a favourite has once established himself in the good opinion of his
+master, it is easy for him to make his own family engross the king's
+ear, and keep every body from him but his own creatures: Nor is it
+more difficult, in length of time, to turn out of the administration
+every body that was not of his own bringing in, and constantly be
+tripping up the heels of those who attempt to raise themselves by any
+other interest or assistance. A prime minister has by his place great
+advantages over all that oppose him; one of them is, that nobody,
+without exception, ever filled that post but who had many enemies,
+whether he was a plunderer or a patriot: Which being well known, many
+things that are laid to a prime minister's charge are not credited
+among the impartial and more discreet part of mankind, even when
+they are true. As to the defeating and disappointing all the envy and
+malice they are generally attacked with, if the favourite was to do all
+that himself, it would certainly, as you say, require extraordinary
+talents and a great capacity, as well as continual vigilance and
+application; but this is the province of their creatures, a task
+divided into a great number of parts; and every body that has the
+least dependence upon, or has any thing to hope from the minister,
+makes it his business and his study, as it is his interest, on the one
+hand, to cry up their patron, magnify his virtues and abilities, and
+justify his conduct; on the other, to exclaim against his adversaries,
+blacken their reputation, and play at them every engine, and the same
+stratagems that are made use of to supplant the minister.
+
+Hor. Then every well-polished courtier is fit to be a prime minister,
+without learning or languages, skill in politics, or any other
+qualification besides.
+
+Cleo. No other than what are often and easily met with: It is necessary
+that he should be a man, at least, of plain common sense, and not
+remarkable for any gross frailties or imperfections; and of such,
+there is no scarcity almost in any nation: He ought to be a man of
+tolerable health and constitution, and one who delights in vanity,
+that he may relish, as well as be able to bear the gaudy crowds
+that honour his levees, the constant addresses, bows, and cringes
+of solicitors, and the rest of the homage that is perpetually paid
+him. The accomplishment he stands most in need of, is to be bold and
+resolute, so as not to be easily shocked or ruffled; if he be thus
+qualified, has a good memory, and is, moreover, able to attend a
+multiplicity of business, if not with a continual presence of mind,
+at least seemingly without hurry or perplexity, his capacity can
+never fail of being extolled to the skies.
+
+Hor. You say nothing of his virtue nor his honesty; there is a vast
+trust put in a prime minister: If he should be covetous, and have no
+probity, nor love for his country, he might make strange havoc with
+the public treasure.
+
+Cleo. There is no man that has any pride, but he has some value for
+his reputation; and common prudence is sufficient to hinder a man
+of very indifferent principles from stealing, where he would be in
+great danger of being detected, and has no manner of security that
+he shall not be punished for it.
+
+Hor. But great confidence is reposed in him where he cannot be traced;
+as in the money for secret services, of which, for reasons of state,
+it may be often improper even to mention, much more to scrutinize
+into the particulars; and in negotiations with other courts, should
+he be only swayed by selfishness and private views, without regard to
+virtue of the public, is it not in his power to betray his country,
+sell the nation, and do all manner of mischief?
+
+Cleo. Not amongst us, where parliaments are every year sitting. In
+foreign affairs nothing of moment can be transacted but what all the
+world must know; and should any thing be done or attempted that would
+be palpably ruinous to the kingdom, and in the opinion of natives
+and foreigners grossly and manifestly clashing with our interest, it
+would raise a general clamour, and throw the minister into dangers,
+which no man of the least prudence, who intends to stay in his
+country, would ever run into. As to the money for secret services,
+and perhaps other sums, which ministers have the disposal of, and
+where they have great latitudes, I do not question but they have
+opportunities of embezzling the nation's treasure: but to do this
+without being discovered, it must be done sparingly, and with great
+discretion: The malicious overlookers that envy them their places, and
+watch all their motions, are a great awe upon them: the animosities
+between those antagonists, and the quarrels between parties, are a
+considerable part of the nation's security.
+
+Hor. But would it not be a greater security to have men of honour,
+of sense and knowledge, of application and frugality, preferred to
+public employments?
+
+Cleo. Yes, without doubt.
+
+Hor. What confidence can we have in the justice or integrity of men;
+that, on the one hand, show themselves on all occasions mercenary and
+greedy after riches; and on the other, make it evident, by their manner
+of living, that no wealth or estate could ever suffice to support
+their expences, or satisfy their desires! besides, would it not be a
+great encouragement to virtue and merit, if from the posts of honour
+and profit all were to be debarred and excluded, that either wanted
+capacity or were enemies to business; all the selfish, ambitious,
+vain, and voluptuous?
+
+Cleo. Nobody disputes it with you; and if virtue, religion, and future
+happiness were sought after by the generality of mankind, with the
+same solicitude, as sensual pleasure, politeness, and worldly glory
+are, it would certainly be best that none but men of good lives,
+and known ability, should have any place in the government whatever:
+but to expert that this ever should happen, or to live in hopes of
+it in a large, opulent, and flourishing kingdom, is to betray great
+ignorance in human affairs? and whoever reckons a general temperance,
+frugality, and disinterestedness among the national blessings, and at
+the same time solicits Heaven for ease and plenty, and the increase
+of trade, seems to me, little to understand what he is about. The
+best of all, then, not being to be had, let us look out for the next
+best, and we shall find, that of all possible means to secure and
+perpetuate to nations their establishment, and whatever they value,
+there is no better method than with wise laws to guard and entrench
+their constitution, and contrive such forms of administration that the
+commonweal can receive no great detriment from the want of knowledge or
+probity of ministers, if any of them should prove less able or honest,
+than they could wish them. The public administration must always go
+forward; it is a ship that can never lie at anchor: the most knowing,
+the most virtuous, and the least self-interested ministers are the
+best; but, in the mean time there must be ministers. Swearing and
+drunkenness are crying sins among seafaring men, and I should think
+it a very desirable blessing to the nation, if it was possible to
+reform them: but all this while we must have sailors; and if none
+were to be admitted on board of any of his majesty's ships, that had
+sworn above a thousand oaths, or had been drunk above ten times in
+their lives, I am persuaded that the service would suffer very much
+by the well-meaning regulation.
+
+Hor. Why do not you speak more openly, and say that there is no
+virtue or probity in the world? for all the drift of your discourse
+is tending to prove that.
+
+Cleo. I have amply declared myself upon this subject already in a
+former conversation; and I wonder you will lay again to my charge
+what I once absolutely denied: I never thought that there were no
+virtuous or religious men; what I differ in with the flatterers of
+our species, is about the numbers which they contend for; and I am
+persuaded that you yourself, in reality, do not believe that there
+are so many virtuous men as you imagine you do.
+
+Hor. How come you to know my thoughts better than I do myself?
+
+Cleo. You know I have tried you upon this head already, when I
+ludicrously extolled and set a fine gloss on the merit of several
+callings and professions in the society, from the lowest stations of
+life to the highest: it then plainly appeared, that, though you have a
+very high opinion of mankind in general, when we come to particulars,
+you was as severe, and every whit as censorious as myself. I must
+observe one thing to you, which is worth consideration. Most, if
+not all people, are desirous of being thought impartial; yet nothing
+is more difficult than to preserve our judgment unbiassed, when we
+are influenced either by our love or our hatred; and how just and
+equitable soever people are, we see that their friends are seldom so
+good, or their enemies so bad as they represent them, when they are
+angry with the one, or highly pleased with the other. For my part,
+I do not think that, generally speaking, prime ministers are much
+worse than their adversaries, who for their own interest defame them,
+and at the same time, move Heaven and earth to be in their places. Let
+us look out for two persons of eminence in any court of Europe, that
+are equal in merit and capacity, and as well matched in virtues and
+vices, but of contrary parties; and whenever we meet with two such,
+one in favour and the other neglected, we shall always find that
+whoever is uppermost, and in great employ, has the applause of his
+party; and if things go tolerably well, his friends will attribute
+every good success to his conduct, and derive all his actions from
+laudable motives: the opposite side can discover no virtues in him;
+they will not allow him to act from any principles but his passions;
+and if any thing be done amiss, are very sure that it would not have
+happened if their patron had been in the same post. This is the way of
+the world. How immensely do often people of the same kingdom differ in
+the opinion they have of their chiefs and commanders, even when they
+are successful to admiration! we have been witnesses ourselves that one
+part of the nation has ascribed the victories of a general entirely
+to his consummate knowledge in martial affairs, and superlative
+capacity in action; and maintained that it was impossible for a man
+to bear all the toils and fatigues he underwent with alacrity, or to
+court the dangers he voluntarily exposed himself to, if he had not
+been supported, as well as animated, by the true spirit of heroism,
+and a most generous love for his country: these, you know, were the
+sentiments of one part of the nation, whilst the other attributed
+all his successes to the bravery of his troops, and the extraordinary
+care that was taken at home to supply his army; and insisted upon it,
+that from the whole course of his life, it was demonstrable, that
+he had never been buoyed up or actuated by any other principles than
+excess of ambition, and an unsatiable greediness after riches.
+
+Hor. I do not know but I may have said so myself. But after all,
+the Duke of Marlborough was a very great man, an extraordinary genius.
+
+Cleo. Indeed was he, and I am glad to hear you own it at last.
+
+
+    Virtutem incolumem odimus,
+    Sublatum ex oculis quærimus invidi.
+
+
+Hor. A propos. I wish you would bid them stop for two or three minutes:
+some of the horses perhaps may stale the while.
+
+Cleo. No excuses, pray. You command here. Besides, we have time
+enough.----Do you want to go out?
+
+Hor. No; but I want to set down something, now I think of it, which
+I have heard you repeat several times. I have often had a mind to
+ask you for it, and it always went out of my head again. It is the
+epitaph which your friend made upon the Duke.
+
+Cleo. Of Marlborough? with all my heart. Have you paper?
+
+Hor. I will write it upon the back of this letter; and as it happens,
+I mended my pencil this morning. How does it begin?
+
+Cleo. Qui belli, aut paucis virtutibus astra petebant.
+
+Hor. Well.
+
+Cleo. Finxerunt homines sæcula prisca Deos.
+
+Hor. I have it. But tell me a whole distich at a time; the sense
+is clearer.
+
+
+    Cleo. Quae martem sine patre tulit, sine matre Minervam,
+          Illustres mendax Græcia jactet avos.
+
+
+Hor. That is really a happy thought. Courage and conduct: just the
+two qualifications he excelled in. What is the next?
+
+
+    Cleo. Anglia quem genuit jacet hac, Homo, conditus Urna,
+          Antiqui, qualem non habuere Deum.
+
+
+Hor.----I thank you. They may go on now. I have seen several things
+since first I heard this epitaph of you, that are manifestly borrowed
+from it. Was it never published?
+
+Cleo. I believe not. The first time I saw it was the day the Duke
+was buried, and ever since it has been handed about in manuscript;
+but I never met with it in print yet.
+
+Hor. It is worth all his Fable of the Bees, in my opinion.
+
+Cleo. If you like it so well, I can show you a translation of it,
+lately done by a gentleman of Oxford, if I have not lost it. It only
+takes in the first and last distich, which indeed contain the main
+thought: The second does not carry it on, and is rather a digression.
+
+Hor. But it demonstrates the truth of the first in a very convincing
+manner; and that Mars had no father, and Minerva no mother, is the
+most fortunate thing a man could wish for, who wanted to prove that
+the account we have of them is fabulous.
+
+Cleo. Oh, here it is. I do not know whether you can read it; I copied
+it in haste.
+
+Hor. Very well.
+
+
+    The grateful ages past a God declar'd,
+    Who wisely council'd, or who bravely war'd:
+    Hence Greece her Mars and Pallas deify'd;
+    Made him the heroe's, her the patriot's guide.
+    Ancients, within this urn a mortal lies
+    Shew me his peer among your deities.
+
+
+It is very good.
+
+Cleo. Very lively; and what is aimed at in the Latin, is rather more
+clearly expressed in the English.
+
+Hor. You know I am fond of no English verse but Milton's. But do not
+let this hinder our conversation.
+
+Cleo. I was speaking of the partiality of mankind in general, and
+putting you in mind how differently men judged of actions, according
+as they liked or disliked the persons that performed them.
+
+Hor. But before that you was arguing against the necessity, which I
+think there is, for men of great accomplishments and extraordinary
+qualifications in the administration of public affairs. Had you any
+thing to add?
+
+Cleo. No; at least I do not remember that I had.
+
+Hor. I do not believe you have an ill design in advancing these
+notions; but supposing them to be true, I cannot comprehend that
+divulging them can have any other effect than the increase of sloth and
+ignorance; for if men may fill the highest places in the government
+without learning or capacity, genius or knowledge, there is an end
+of all the labour of the brain, and the fatigue of hard study.
+
+Cleo. I have made no such general assertion; but that an artful man may
+make a considerable figure in the highest post of the administration,
+and other great employments, without extraordinary talents, is certain:
+as to consummate statesmen, I do not believe there ever were three
+persons upon earth at the same time, that deserved that name. There
+is not a quarter of the wisdom, solid knowledge, or intrinsic worth
+in the world that men talk of and compliment one another with; and
+of virtue or religion there is not an hundredth part in reality of
+what there is in appearance.
+
+Hor. I allow that those who set out from no better motives, than
+avarice and ambition, aim at no other ends but wealth and honour;
+which, if they can but get anywise they are satisfied; but men who
+act from principles of virtue and a public spirit, take pains with
+alacrity to attain the accomplishments that will make them capable
+of serving their country: and if virtue be so scarce, how come there
+to be men of skill in their professions? for that there are men of
+learning and men of capacity, is most certain.
+
+Cleo. The foundation of all accomplishments must be laid in our
+youth, before we are able or allowed to choose for ourselves, or to
+judge, which is the most profitable way of employing our time. It
+is to good discipline, and the prudent care of parents and masters,
+that men are beholden for the greatest part of their improvements;
+and few parents are so bad as not to wish their offspring might be
+well accomplished: the same natural affection that makes men take
+pains to leave their children rich, renders them solicitous about
+their education. Besides, it is unfashionable, and consequently a
+disgrace to neglect them. The chief design of parents in bringing
+up their children to a calling or profession, is to procure them a
+livelihood. What promotes and encourages arts and sciences, is the
+reward, money and honour; and thousands of perfections are attained
+to, that would have had no existence, if men had been less proud
+or less covetous. Ambition, avarice, and often necessity, are great
+spurs to industry and application; and often rouse men from sloth and
+indolence, when they are grown up, whom no persuasions or chastisement
+of fathers or tutors, made any impression upon in their youth. Whilst
+professions are lucrative, and have great dignities belonging to them,
+there will always be men that excel in them. In a large polite nation,
+therefore, all sorts of learning will ever abound, whilst the people
+flourish. Rich parents, and such as can afford it, seldom fail bringing
+up their children to literature: from this inexhaustible spring it
+is, that we always draw much larger supplies than we stand in need
+of, for all the callings and professions where the knowledge of the
+learned languages is required. Of those that are brought up to letters,
+some neglect them, and throw by their books as soon as they are their
+own masters; others grow fonder of study, as they increase in years;
+but the greatest part will always retain a value for what has cost
+them pains to acquire. Among the wealthy, there will be always lovers
+of knowledge, as well as idle people: every science will have its
+admirers, as men differ in their tastes and pleasures; and there
+is no part of learning but somebody or other will look into it,
+and labour at it, from no better principles than some men are fox
+hunters, and others take delight in angling. Look upon the mighty
+labours of antiquaries, botanists, and the vertuosos in butterflies,
+cockle-shells, and other odd productions of nature; and mind the
+magnificent terms they all make use of in their respective provinces,
+and the pompous names they often give to what others, who have no
+taste that way, would not think worth any mortal's notice. Curiosity
+is often as bewitching to the rich, as lucre is to the poor; and what
+interest does in some, vanity does in others; and great wonders are
+often produced from a happy mixture of both. Is it not amazing, that a
+temperate man should be at the expence of four or five thousand a-year,
+or, which is much the same thing, be contented to lose the interest
+of above a hundred thousand pounds, to have the reputation of being
+the possessor and owner of rarities and knicknacks in a very great
+abundance, at the same time that he loves money, and continues slaving
+for it in his old age! It is the hopes either of gain or reputation,
+of large revenues and great dignities that promote learning; and
+when we say that any calling, art or science, is not encouraged,
+we mean no more by it, than that the masters or professors of it
+are not sufficiently rewarded for their pains, either with honour or
+profit. The most holy functions are no exception to what I say; and
+few ministers of the gospel are so disinterested as to have a less
+regard to the honours and emoluments that are or ought to be annexed
+to their employment, than they have to the service and benefit they
+should be of to others; and among those of them that study hard and
+take uncommon pains, it is not easily proved that many are excited
+to their extraordinary labour by a public spirit or solicitude for
+the spiritual welfare of the laity: on the contrary, it is visible,
+in the greatest part of them, that they are animated by the love of
+glory and the hopes of preferment; neither is it common to see the
+most useful parts of learning neglected for the most trifling, when,
+from the latter, men have reason to hope that they shall have greater
+opportunities of showing their parts, than offer themselves from the
+former. Ostentation and envy have made more authors than virtue and
+benevolence. Men of known capacity and erudition are often labouring
+hard to eclipse and ruin one another's glory. What principle must we
+say two adversaries act from, both men of unquestionable good sense
+and extensive knowledge, when all the skill and prudence they are
+masters of are not able to stifle, in their studied performances,
+and hide from the world, the rancour of their minds, the spleen and
+animosity they both write with against one another.
+
+Hor. I do not say that such act from principles of virtue.
+
+Cleo. Yet you know an instance of this in two grave divines, men
+of fame and great merit, of whom each would think himself very much
+injured, should his virtue be called in question.
+
+Hor. When men have an opportunity, under pretence of zeal for
+religion, or the public good, to vent their passion, they take great
+liberties. What was the quarrel?
+
+Cleo. De lana caprina.
+
+Hor. A trifle. I cannot guess yet.
+
+Cleo. About the metre of the comic poets among the ancients.
+
+Hor. I know what you mean now; the manner of scanding and chanting
+those verses.
+
+Cleo. Can you think of any thing belonging to literature, of less
+importance, or more useless?
+
+Hor. Not readily.
+
+Cleo. Yet the great contest between them, you see, is which of them
+understands it best, and has known it the longest. This instance,
+I think, hints to us how highly improbable it is, though men should
+act from no better principles than envy, avarice, and ambition,
+that when learning is once established, any part of it, even the
+most unprofitable, should ever be neglected in such a large opulent
+nation as ours is; where there are so many places of honour, and
+great revenues to be disposed of among scholars.
+
+Hor. But since men are fit to serve in most places with so little
+capacity, as you insinuate, why should they give themselves that
+unnecessary trouble of studying hard, and acquiring more learning
+than there is occasion for?
+
+Cleo. I thought I had answered that already; a great many, because
+they take delight in study and knowledge.
+
+Hor. But there are men that labour at it with so much application,
+as to impair their healths, and actually to kill themselves with the
+fatigue of it.
+
+Cleo. Not so many as there are that injure their healths, and actually
+kill themselves with hard drinking, which is the most unreasonable
+pleasure of the two, and a much greater fatigue. But I do not deny that
+there are men who take pains to qualify themselves in order to serve
+their country; what I insist upon is, that the number of those who do
+the same thing to serve themselves with little regard to their country,
+is infinitely greater. Mr. Hutcheson, who wrote the Inquiry into the
+Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, seems to be very expert
+at weighing and measuring the quantities of affection, benevolence,
+&c. I wish that curious metaphysician would give himself the trouble,
+at his leisure, to weigh two things separately: First, the real love
+men have for their country, abstracted from selfishness. Secondly,
+the ambition they have of being thought to act from that love, though
+they feel none. I wish, I say, that this ingenious gentleman would once
+weigh these two asunder; and afterwards, having taken in impartially
+all he could find of either, in this or any other nation, show us in
+his demonstrative way, what proportion the quantities bore to each
+other.--Quisque sibi commissus est, says Seneca; and certainly, it
+is not the care of others, but the care of itself, which nature has
+trusted and charged every individual creature with. When men exert
+themselves in an extraordinary manner, they generally do it to be
+the better for it themselves; to excel, to be talked of, and to be
+preferred to others, that follow the same business, or court the
+same favours.
+
+Hor. Do you think it more probable, that men of parts and learning
+should be preferred, than others of less capacity?
+
+Cleo. Cæteris paribus, I do.
+
+Hor. Then you must allow that there is virtue at least in those who
+have the disposal of places.
+
+Cleo. I do not say there is not; but there is likewise glory and
+real honour accruing to patrons for advancing men of merit; and if
+a person who has a good living in his gift, bestows it upon a very
+able man, every body applauds him, and every parishioner is counted
+to be particularly obliged to him. A vain man does not love to have
+his choice disapproved of, and exclaimed against by all the world, any
+more than a virtuous man; and the love of applause, which is innate to
+our species, would alone be sufficient to make the generality of men,
+and even the greatest part of the most vicious, always choose the most
+worthy, out of any number of candidates; if they knew the truth, and
+no stronger motive arising from consanguinity, friendship, interest,
+or something else, was to interfere with the principle I named.
+
+Hor. But, methinks, according to your system, those should be soonest
+preferred that can best coax and flatter.
+
+Cleo. Among the learned there are persons of art and address, that can
+mind their studies without neglecting the the world: these are the
+men that know how to ingratiate themselves with persons of quality;
+employing to the best advantage all their parts and industry for
+that purpose. Do but look into the lives and the deportment of such
+eminent men, as we have been speaking of, and you will soon discover
+the end and advantages they seem to propose to themselves from their
+hard study and severe lucubrations. When you see men in holy orders,
+without call or necessity, hovering about the courts of princes; when
+you see them continually addressing and scraping acquaintance with the
+favourites; when you hear them exclaim against the luxury of the age,
+and complain of the necessity they are under of complying with it;
+and at the same time you see, that they are forward, nay eager and
+take pains with satisfaction, in the way of living, to imitate the
+beau monde, as far as it is in their power: that no sooner they are
+in possession of one preferment, but they are ready, and actually
+soliciting for another, more gainful and more reputable; and that on
+all emergencies, wealth, power, honour and superiority are the things
+they grasp at, and take delight in; when, I say, you see these things,
+this concurrence of evidences, is it any longer difficult to guess
+at, or rather is there room to doubt of the principles they act from,
+or the tendency of their labours?
+
+Hor. I have little to say to priests, and do not look for virtue from
+that quarter.
+
+Cleo. Yet you will find as much of it among divines, as you will among
+any other class of men; but every where less in reality, than there is
+in appearance. Nobody would be thought insincere, or to prevaricate;
+but there are few men, though they are so honest as to own what they
+would have, that will acquaint us with the true reason why they would
+have it: therefore the disagreement between the words and actions
+of men is at no time more conspicuous, than when we would learn from
+them their sentiments, concerning the real worth of things. Virtue, is
+without doubt, the most valuable treasure which man can be possessed
+of; it has every body's good word; but where is the country in which
+it is heartily embraced, præmia si tollas? Money, on the other hand,
+is deservedly called the root of all evil: there has not been a
+moralist nor a satirist of note, that has not had a fling at it;
+yet what pains are taken, and what hazards are run to acquire it,
+under various pretences of designing to do good with it! As for my
+part, I verily believe, that as an accessary cause, it has done more
+mischief in the world than any one thing besides: yet it is impossible
+to name another, that is so absolutely necessary to the order, economy,
+and the very existence of the civil society; for as this is entirely
+built upon the variety of our wants, so the whole superstructure is
+made up of the reciprocal services which men do to each other. How
+to get these services performed by others, when we have occasion for
+them, is the grand and almost constant solicitude in life of every
+individual person. To expect that others should serve us for nothing,
+is unreasonable; therefore all commerce that men can have together,
+must be a continual bartering of one thing for another. The feller
+who transfers the property of a thing, has his own interest as much
+at heart as the buyer who purchases that property: and, if you want
+or like a thing, the owner of it, whatever stock or provision he may
+have of the same, or how greatly soever you may stand in need of it,
+will never part with it, but for a consideration which he likes better
+than he does the thing you want. Which way shall I persuade a man to
+serve me, when the service I can repay him in, is such as he does not
+want or care for? Nobody who is at peace, and has no contention with
+any of the society, will do any thing for a lawyer; and a physician
+can purchase nothing of a man, whose whole family is in perfect
+health. Money obviates and takes away all those difficulties, by being
+an acceptable reward for all the services men can do to one another.
+
+Hor. But all men valuing themselves above their worth, every body
+will over-rate his labour. Would not this follow from your system?
+
+Cleo. It certainly would, and does. But what is to be admired is,
+that the larger the numbers are in a society, the more extensive they
+have rendered the variety of their desires, and the more operose
+the gratification of them is become among them by custom; the less
+mischievous is the consequence of that evil, where they have the use of
+money: whereas, without it, the smaller the number was of a society,
+and the more strictly the members of it, in supplying their wants,
+would confine themselves to those only that were necessary for their
+subsistence, the more easy it would be for them to agree about the
+reciprocal services I spoke of. But to procure all the comforts of
+life, and what is called temporal happiness, in a large polite nation,
+would be every whit as practicable without speech, as it would be
+without money, or an equivalent to be used instead of it. Where this
+is not wanting, and due care is taken of it by the legislature, it
+will always be the standard, which the worth of every thing will be
+weighed by. There are great blessings that arise from necessity; and
+that every body is obliged to eat and drink, is the cement of civil
+society. Let men set what high value they please upon themselves,
+that labour which most people are capable of doing, will ever be
+the cheapest. Nothing can be dear of which there is great plenty,
+how beneficial soever it may be to man; and scarcity enhances the
+price of things much oftener than the usefulness of them. Hence it is
+evident why those arts and sciences will always be the most lucrative,
+that cannot be attained to, but in great length of time, by tedious
+study and close application; or else require a particular genius,
+not often to be met with. It is likewise evident, to whose lot, in
+all societies, the hard and dirty labour, which nobody would meddle
+with, if he could help it, will ever fall: but you have seen enough
+of this in the Fable of the Bees.
+
+Hor. I have so, and one remarkable saying I have read there on this
+subject, which I shall never forget. "The poor," says the author,
+"have nothing to stir them up to labour, but their wants, which it
+is wisdom to relieve, but folly to cure."
+
+Cleo. I believe the maxim to be just, and that it is not less
+calculated for the real advantage of the poor, than it appears to
+be for the benefit of the rich. For, among the labouring people,
+those will ever be the least wretched as to themselves, as well as
+most useful to the public, that being meanly born and bred, submit to
+the station they are in with cheerfulness; and contented, that their
+children should succeed them in the same low condition, inure them
+from their infancy to labour and submission, as well as the cheapest
+diet and apparel; when, on the contrary, that sort of them will always
+be the least serviceable to others, and themselves the most unhappy,
+who, dissatisfied with their labour, are always grumbling and repining
+at the meanness of their condition; and, under pretence of having a
+great regard for the welfare of their children, recommend the education
+of them to the charity of others; and you shall always find, that of
+this latter class of poor, the greatest part are idle sottish people,
+that, leading dissolute lives themselves, are neglectful to their
+families, and only want, as far as it is in their power, to shake
+off that burden of providing for their brats from their own shoulders.
+
+Hor. I am no advocate for charity schools; yet I think it is barbarous,
+that the children of the labouring poor, should be for ever pinned
+down, they, and all their posterity, to that slavish condition; and
+that those who are meanly born, what parts or genius soever they might
+be of, should be hindered and debarred from raising themselves higher.
+
+Cleo. So should I think it barbarous, if what you speak of was done
+any where, or proposed to be done. But there is no degree of men
+in Christendom that are pinned down, they and their posterity, to
+slavery for ever. Among the very lowest sort, there are fortunate men
+in every country; and we daily see persons, that without education,
+or friends, by their own industry and application, raise themselves
+from nothing to mediocrity, and sometimes above it, if once they
+come rightly to love money and take delight in saving it: and this
+happens more often to people of common and mean capacities, than it
+does to those of brighter parts. But there is a prodigious difference
+between debarring the children of the poor from ever rising higher
+in the world, and refusing to force education upon thousands of them
+promiscuously, when they should be more usefully employed. As some
+of the rich must come to be poor, so some of the poor will come to be
+rich in the common course of things. But that universal benevolence,
+that should every where industriously lift up the indigent labourer
+from his meanness, would not be less injurious to the whole kingdom
+than a tyrannical power, that should, without a cause, cast down the
+wealthy from their ease and affluence. Let us suppose, that the hard
+and dirty labour throughout the nation requires three millions of
+hands, and that every branch of it is performed by the children of the
+poor. Illiterate, and such as had little or no education themselves;
+it is evident, that if a tenth part of these children, by force and
+design, were to be exempt from the lowest drudgery, either there must
+be so much work left undone, as would demand three hundred thousand
+people; or the defect, occasioned by the numbers taken off, must be
+supplied by the children of others, that had been better bred.
+
+Hor. So that what is done at first out of charity to some, may,
+at long run, prove to be cruelty to others.
+
+Cleo. And will depend upon it. In the compound of all nations,
+the different degrees of men ought to bear a certain proportion
+to each other, as to numbers, in order to render the whole a well
+proportioned mixture. And as this due proportion is the result and
+natural consequence of the difference there is in the qualifications of
+men, and the vicissitudes that happen among them, so it is never better
+attained to, or preserved, than when nobody meddles with it. Hence we
+may learn, how the short-sighted wisdom of perhaps well-meaning people,
+may rob us of a felicity that would flow spontaneously from the nature
+of every large society, if none were to divert or interrupt the stream.
+
+Hor. I do not care to enter into these abstruse matters; what have
+you further to say in praise of money?
+
+Cleo. I have no design to speak either for or against it; but be it
+good or bad, the power and dominion of it are both of vast extent,
+and the influence of it upon mankind has never been stronger or more
+general in any empire, state, or kingdom, than in the most knowing
+and politest ages, when they were in their greatest grandeur and
+prosperity; and when arts and sciences were the most flourishing in
+them: Therefore, the invention of money seems to me to be a thing more
+skilfully adapted to the whole bent of our nature, than any other
+or human contrivance. There is no greater remedy against sloth or
+stubbornness; and with astonishment I have beheld the readiness and
+alacrity with which it often makes the proudest men pay homage to
+their inferiors: It purchases all services, and cancels all debts;
+nay, it does more, for when a person is employed in his occupation,
+and he who sets him to work, a good paymaster, how laborious, how
+difficult or irksome soever the service be, the obligation is always
+reckoned to lie upon him who performs it.
+
+Hor. Do not you think, that many eminent men in the learned professions
+would dissent from you in this?
+
+Cleo. I know very well, that none ought to do it, if ever they courted
+business, or hunted after employment.
+
+Hor. All you have said is true among mercenary people; but upon noble
+minds that despise lucre, honour has far greater efficacy than money.
+
+Cleo. The highest titles, and the most illustrious births, are no
+security against covetousness; and persons of the first quality, that
+are actually generous and munificent are often as greedy after gain,
+when it is worth their while, as the most sordid mechanics are for
+trifles: The year twenty has taught us, how difficult it is to find
+out those noble minds that despise lucre, when there is a prospect of
+getting vastly. Besides, nothing is more universally charming than
+money; it suits with every station, the high, the low, the wealthy,
+and the poor: whereas, honour has little influence on the mean, slaving
+people, and rarely affects any of the vulgar; but if it does, money
+will almost every where purchase honour; nay, riches of themselves are
+an honour to all those who know how to use them fashionably. Honour,
+on the contrary, wants riches for its support; without them it is a
+dead weight that oppresses its owner; and titles of honour, joined
+to a necessitous condition, are a greater burden together than the
+same degree of poverty is alone: for the higher a man's quality is,
+the more considerable are his wants in life; but the more money
+he has, the better he is able to supply the greatest extravagancy
+of them. Lucre is the best restorative in the world, in a literal
+sense, and works upon the spirits mechanically; for it is not only
+a spur that excites men to labour, and makes them in love with it,
+but it likewise gives relief in weariness, and actually supports men
+in all fatigues and difficulties. A labourer of any sort, who is paid
+in proportion to his diligence, can do more work than another who is
+paid by the day or the week, and has standing wages.
+
+Hor. Do not you think, then, that there are men in laborious offices,
+who, for a fixed salary, discharge their duties with diligence and
+assiduity?
+
+Cleo. Yes, many; but there is no place or employment in which there
+are required or expected, that continual attendance and uncommon
+severity of application, that some men harass and punish themselves
+with by choice, when every fresh trouble meets with a new recompence;
+and you never saw men so entirely devote themselves to their calling,
+and pursue business with that eagerness, dispatch, and perseverance in
+any office of preferment, in which the yearly income is certain and
+unalterable, as they often do in those professions where the reward
+continually accompanies the labour, and the fee immediately either
+precedes the service they do to others, as it is with the lawyers,
+or follows it, as it is with the physicians. I am sure you have hinted
+at this in our first conversation yourself.
+
+Hor. Here is the castle before us.
+
+Cleo. Which I suppose you are not sorry for.
+
+Hor. Indeed I am, and would have been glad to have heard you speak
+of kings and other sovereigns with the same candour, as well as
+freedom, with which you have treated prime ministers, and their envious
+adversaries. When I see a man entirely impartial, I shall always do him
+that justice, as to think, that if he is not in the right in what he
+says, at least he aims at truth. The more I examine your sentiments, by
+what I see in the world, the more I am obliged to come into them; and
+all this morning I have said nothing in opposition to you, but to be
+better informed, and to give you an opportunity to explain yourself
+more amply. I am your convert, and shall henceforth look upon the
+Fable of the Bees very differently from what I did; for though,
+in the Characteristics, the language and the diction are better,
+the system of man's sociableness is more lovely and more plausible,
+and things are set off with more art and learning; yet in the other
+there is certainly more truth, and nature is more faithfully copied
+in it almost every where.
+
+Cleo. I wish you would read them both once more, and, after that, I
+believe you will say that you never saw two authors who seem to have
+wrote with more different views. My friend, the author of the Fable,
+to engage and keep his readers in good humour, seems to be very merry,
+and to do something else, whilst he detects the corruption of our
+nature; and having shown man to himself in various lights, he points
+indirectly at the necessity, not only of revelation and believing,
+but likewise of the practice of Christianity manifestly to be seen
+in mens lives.
+
+Hor. I have not observed that: Which way has he done it indirectly?
+
+Cleo. By exposing, on the one hand, the vanity of the world, and the
+most polite enjoyments of it; and, on the other, the insufficiency of
+human reason and heathen virtue to procure real felicity: for I cannot
+see what other meaning a man could have by doing this in a Christian
+country, and among people that all pretend to seek after happiness.
+
+Hor. And what say you of Lord Shaftsbury?
+
+Cleo. First, I agree with you that he was a man of erudition, and
+a very polite writer; he has displayed a copious imagination, and a
+fine turn of thinking, in courtly language and nervous expressions:
+But, as on the one hand, it must be confessed, that his sentiments on
+liberty and humanity are noble and sublime, and that there is nothing
+trite or vulgar in the Characteristics; so, on the other, it cannot be
+denied, that the ideas he had formed of the goodness and excellency of
+our nature, were as romantic and chimerical as they are beautiful and
+amiable; that he laboured hard to unite two contraries that can never
+be reconciled together, innocence of manners, and worldly greatness;
+that to compass this end, he favoured deism, and, under pretence of
+lashing priestcraft and superstition, attacked the Bible itself; and,
+lastly, that by ridiculing many passages of Holy Writ, he seems to
+have endeavoured to sap the foundation of all revealed religion, with
+design of establishing Heathen virtue on the ruins of Christianity.
+
+
+                                 FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] This was wrote in 1714.
+
+[2] This was wrote in 1714.
+
+[3] P. 212, 213. First Edit. 175, 176.
+
+[4] P. 215. First Edit. 178.
+
+[5] P. 106. First Edit. 77.
+
+[6] P. 116. First Edit. 87.
+
+[7] P. 115, 116. First Edit. 86, 87.
+
+[8] Quis est tam vecors qui non intelligat, numine hoc tantum imperium
+esse natum, actum, et retentum? Cic. Orat. de Harush. Resp.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fable of the Bees, by 
+Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733)
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57260 ***