 section 46 of the Fable of the Bees by Bernard Mandeville. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Horatio. 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, than the true notions of honor and politeness. These are the true specifics to cura 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 unbiased and unprejudiced till they come to maturity, and are fit to judge as well as choose for themselves. Cleomenes. It is this fair and impartial judgment you speak in praise of that will ever promote an increased 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. Horatio. The public welfare ought to be our principal care, and I am well assured that it is not bigotry to assect or persuasion, but common honesty, uprightness in all dealings, and benevolence to one another, which the society stands most in need of. Cleomenes. 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. Horatio. What is it upon an hypocrite that dares to be perjured? Cleomenes. No man's oath is ever taken if it is known that once he has been foresworn, 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. Horatio. I do not believe there are real atheists in the world. Cleomenes. 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. Horatio. After all, I do not think that virtue has any more relation to credulity than it has to want of faith. Cleomenes. 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 accepted, for nothing is more common amongst rakes and game-sters 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 ether 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, 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 a 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 anything 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 Soma Nakodam, Confucius, and others, are less rational and fifty times more extravagant and incredible than anything 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. Horatio, I never heard anybody 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 you not meet up 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? Cleomenes, 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 everything 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 as the world endures. Horatio, but why should he remain laboring under difficulties we can easily solve, and not say with Dr. Bernay and several others that those things are allegories, and to be understood in a figurative sense? Cleomenes, I have nothing against it, and shall always applaud the ingenuity and good offices of men who endeavor to reconcile religious mysteries to human reason and probability. But I insist upon it that nobody can disprove anything 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 too 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. Horatio, 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? Cleomenes, that is very uncertain, and I believe it impossible to determine anything 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. Horatio, is not a vast deal owing in the raising of a nation to the difference there is in the spirit and genius of people? Cleomenes, nothing but what depends upon climates, which is soon overbalanced by skillful 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 tranquility among multitudes of different views, and to make them all a labor for one interest is a great task, and nothing in human affairs requires greater knowledge than the art of governing. Horatio, according to your system it should be little more than guarding against human nature. Cleomenes, 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 dexterous management turn private vices into public benefits. Horatio, it must be a great advantage to an age when many extraordinary persons are born in it. Cleomenes, it is not genius so much as experience that helps men to good laws. Solon, Lycurgus, Socrates, and Plato all traveled 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. Horatio, I fancy that the invention of iron and working the ore into a metal must contribute very much to the completing of society, because men can have no tools or agriculture without it. Cleomenes, 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 labor. 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 seemed 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 devastation 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 daily use of ignorance may overspread countries without their ceasing to be inhabited. Horatio. But what is it at last that raises opulent cities and powerful nations from the smallest beginnings? Cleomenes. Providence. Horatio. But Providence makes use of means that are visible. I want to know the engines it is performed with. Cleomenes. All the groundwork 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 everything 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 neighbor 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 overreaching 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. 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. Horatio, how could these things exist if there had not been men of very bright parts and uncommon talents? Cleomenes, 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 labor of several ages. Remember what in our third conversation I told you concerning the arts of shipbuilding 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, pardoned aloneness of the simile, there is in weaving of stockings. Horatio, very low indeed. Cleomenes, 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. Horatio, though your comparison below, I must own that it very well illustrates your meaning. Cleomenes, 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 labor, 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 a 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 is 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. Horatio, 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 honor and great trust filled with men of parts and application, of probity and virtue? Cleomenies, yes, and of learning, moderation, frugality, candor and affability. Look out for such as fast as you can, but in the meantime the places cannot stand open, the offices must be served by such as you can get. Horatio, you seem to insinuate that there is a great scarcity of good men in the nation. Cleomenies, 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. Horatio, that is absolutely impossible, at least in such a nation as ours, for what would you do for judges and chancellors? Cleomenies, the study of the law is very craved and very tedious, but the profession of it is as gainful and has great honors 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 and chancery, there should not at all times be one or the other fit for the seals. Horatio, 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? Cleomenes, that every nation must have such people is certain, but I wonder that the company you have kept to 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. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, 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 strangers to them. If a jack and the weights of it were out of sight, a sensible man unacquainted with the 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 businesses that belong to the ex checker, the Constitution does nine parts in ten, and has taken effectual care that the happy person whom the king shall be pleased to favor with the superintendency of it should never be greatly tired or perplexed with his office, and likewise at the trust the confidence that must be reposed in him should be very near as moderate as his trouble. By dividing the employment 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 everybody'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. Horatio, the economy of our ex-checker 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. Cleomenes, why so? A Lord Treasurer, or if his office be executed by commissioners, the Chancellor of the ex-checker, are no more lawless and have no greater power with impunity to embezzle money than the meanest clerk that is employed under them. Horatio, is not the king's warrant their discharge? Cleomenes, yes, for some's 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. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, 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. Horatio, what say you to the Prime Minister who governs all, and acts immediately under the king? Cleomenes, there is no such officer belonging to our constitution, for by this the whole administration is, for very wise reasons, divided into several branches. Horatio, 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 interests throughout the kingdom, and of his safety? Cleomenes, the king and his council, without which royal authority is not supposed to act, super intend, 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 everybody 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 so ever 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 the respective titles, and amongst them I can assure you there is no such name as Prime Minister. Horatio, 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 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 malcontents, and keep out the pretender, things of which the management often requires great penetration, and uncommon talents, as well as secrecy and dispatch. Cleomenes, how sincerely so ever you may seem to speak in defense of these things, Horatio, I am sure from your principles that you are not an 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. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, that a man invested with so much real power, and 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 minister has a vast and unspeakable advantage, barely by being so, and by everybody'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 everything with greater exactness than any other man, that is much better versed in affairs, and has ten times greater capacity. It is hardly possible that an active man of tolerable education, that is not destitute of a spirit nor a 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 labor 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. Horatio, 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 them seen in, and the great skill you have in depreciating what is valuable and attracting from merit. Cleomenes, I protest that I speak from my heart. Horatio, 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 calamities 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 everything 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 twelve-month, 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. Cleomenies, 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. Horatio, to direct and manage the whole machine of government, he must be a consummate statesman in the first place. Cleomenies, you have to 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 manufacturers, their situation, natural advantages, strength, and number of inhabitants. He must have read men as well as books, and perfectly well understood 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 favor creates prime ministers and makes their station the post of greatest power as well as profit. So the same favor 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 everything that is said or done, and find wisdom and prudence in the most indifferent actions. But it belongs to the skillful courtier to set fine glosses upon manifest imperfections, and to 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 favor 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 favor it 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 everybody from him but his own creatures. Nor is it more difficult, in length of time, to turn out of the administration everybody that was not of his own bringing in, and constantly be tripping up the heels of those who would 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 favorite 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 everybody that has the least dependence upon, or has anything 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. Horatio, then every well-polished courtier is fit to be a prime minister, without learning or languages, skill in politics, or any other qualification besides. Cleomenes, 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 honor his levies, 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 continual presence of mind, at least seemingly without hurry or perplexity, his capacity can never fail of being extolled to the skies. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes. 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. Horatio. 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? Cleomenes. 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 anything 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. Horatio. 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? Cleomenes. Yes, without doubt. Horatio. 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 expenses, 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. Cleomenes. 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 no nobility should have any place in the government whatever, but to expect that this should ever 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 common wheel 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 meantime there must be ministers, swearing in drunkenness, or crying sins among seafaring men, and I should think at 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. End of section 46 section 47 of The Fable of the Bees by Bernard Mandeville the Libervox recording is in the public domain Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, I have amply declared myself upon the 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. Horatio, how come you to know my thoughts better than I do myself? Cleomenes, 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 wit as sensorious 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 unbiased 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 interests 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 in 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 favor 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 anything 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 maintain 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. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, indeed was he, and I am glad to hear you own it at last. Virtutem incoliumen odimus soblatem ex oculus querimus invidi. Horatio, apropos. I wish you would bid them stop for two or three minutes. Some of the horses perhaps may stale the while. Cleomenes, no excuses pray. You command here. Besides, we have time enough. Stroke, do you want to go out? Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, of Marlborough, with all my heart. Have you paper? Horatio, I will write it upon the back of this letter, and as it happens, I mended my pencil this morning. How does it begin? Cleomenes, qui belli alt posis vertutibus astra peteban. Horatio, well. Cleomenes, finxerut homines secula prisca deus. Horatio, I have it. But tell me a whole dystic at a time. The sense is clearer. Cleomenes, qui martem sine patre tulit sine matri minevam. Illustris mendax gracia giaktet avos. Horatio, that is really a happy thought. Courage and conduct. Just the two qualifications he excelled in. What is the next? Cleomenes, anglia quem genuit jasset haq homo conditus urna. Antiqui qualem non habuere deum. Horatio, stroke. 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? Cleomenes, 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. Horatio, it is worth all his fable of the bees, in my opinion. Cleomenes, 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 dystic, which indeed contained the main thought. The second does not carry it on, and is rather a digression. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, oh, here it is. I do not know whether you can read it. I copied it in haste. Horatio, very well. The grateful ages past a god declared, who wisely counseled, or who bravely warred. Hence, Greece, her Mars, and palace deified, made him the heroes her the Patriots' guide. Ancients, within this urn immortalize, show me his peer among your deities. It is very good. Cleomenes, very lively, and what is aimed at in the Latin, is rather more clearly expressed in the English. Horatio, you know I am fond of no English verse but Milton's, but do not let this hinder our conversation. Cleomenes, 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. Horatio, 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 anything to add? Cleomenes, no, at least I do not remember that I had. Horatio, 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. Cleomenes, 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 was 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 a hundredth part in reality of what there is in appearance. Horatio, 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? Cleomenes, 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 honor, 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 labor at it from no better principles than some men or fox hunters, and others take delight in angling. Look upon the mighty labours of antiquaries, botanists, and virtuosos in butterflies, cockleshells, 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 expense 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 knickknacks 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 honor 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 honors 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 labor 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 performant. Neither is it common to see the most useful parts of learning neglected for the most trifling, when from the latter men have reasoned the 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 laboring 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 rancor of their minds, the spleen and animosity they both write with against one another. Horatio, I do not say that such act from principles of virtue. Cleomenes, yet you know an instance of this and two grave divines, men of fame and great merit, of whom each would think himself very much injured, should his virtue be called into question. Horatio, when men have an opportunity under pretense of zeal for religion, or the public good, to vent their passion, they take great liberties. What was the quarrel? Cleomenes, de la na caprina. Horatio, a trifle I cannot guess yet. Cleomenes, about the meter of the comic poets among the ancients. Horatio, I know what you mean now, the manner of scanning and chanting those verses. Cleomenes, can you think of anything belonging to literature of less importance or more useless? Horatio, not readily. Cleomenes, 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 honor and great revenues to be disposed of among scholars. Horatio, 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? Cleomenes, I thought I had answered that already, a great many because they take delight and study and knowledge. Horatio, but there are men that labor at it with so much application as to impair their healths and actually to kill themselves with the fatigue of it. Cleomenes, 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. Hutchison, 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, etc. 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 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. Quiscue Sibi Comisus 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 favors. Horatio, do you think it more probable that men of parts and learning should be preferred than others of less capacity? Cleomenes, Ceteris Paribus, I do. Horatio, then you must allow that there is virtue at least in those who have the disposal of places. Cleomenes, I do not say there is not, but there is likewise glory and real honor 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, everybody 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, and 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. Horatio, but me thinks, according to your system, those should be soonest preferred that can best coax and flatter. Cleomenes, among the learned there are persons of art and address that can mine their studies without neglecting 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 favorites, 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 Beaumont 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, honor 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 labors? Horatio, I have little to say to priests and do not look for virtue from that quarter. Cleomenes, yet you will find as much of it among divines as you will among any other class of men, but everywhere less in reality than there is in appearance. Nobody would be thought insecure or to pre-vericate, but there are few men, though they are so honest as to own what they would have, that will acquaint us with the true reasons 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 everybody's good word, but where is the country in which it is heartily embraced? Premia Cetolas. 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 pretenses of designing to do good with it? As for my part, I verily believe that as an accessory 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 seller 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 so ever 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 as 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 anything for a lawyer, and a physician can purchase nothing of a man whose 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. Horatio, but all men valuing themselves above their worth, everybody will overrate his labor. Would not this follow from your system? Cleomenes, 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 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 wit 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 everything will be weighed by. There are great blessings that arise from necessity and that everybody is obliged to eat and drink is the cement of civil society. Let men set what high value they please upon themselves, that labor which most people are capable of doing will ever be the cheapest. Nothing can be dear of which there is great plenty, how beneficial so ever 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 labor 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. Horatio, 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 labor but their wants which it is wisdom to relieve but folly to cure. Cleomenes, 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 laboring 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 endure them from their infancy to labor 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 labor are always grumbling and repining at the meanness of their condition and under pretense 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 the poor the greatest part are idle sautish people that leading disillute 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 Horatio I am no advocate for charity schools yet I think it is barbarous that the children of the laboring poor should be forever pinned down they and all their posterity to that slavish condition and that those who are meanly born what parts are genius so ever they might be of should be hindered and debarred from raising themselves higher Cleomenes so should I think it barbarous if what you speak of was done anywhere or proposed to be done but there is no degree of men in Christendom that are pinned down they and their posterity to slavery forever 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 everywhere industriously lift up the indigent laborer 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 hardened dirty labor 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 Horatio so that what is done at first out of charity to some may at long run prove to be cruelty to others Cleomenes 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 to the stream Horatio I do not care to enter into these abstruse matters what have you further to say in praise of money Cleomenes 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 a 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 polite 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 skillfully adapted to the whole bent of our nature than any other 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 so ever the service be the obligation is always reckoned to lie upon him who performs it Horatio do you not think that many eminent men in the learned professions would dissent from you in this? Cleomenes I know very well that none ought to do it if ever they courted business or hunted after employment Horatio all you have said is true among mercenary people but upon noble minds that despise lucre honor has far greater efficacy than money Cleomenes 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 honor has little influence on the mean slaving people and rarely affects any of the vulgar but if it does money will almost everywhere purchase honor nay riches themselves are in honor to all those who know how to use them fashionably honor on the contrary wants riches for its support without them it is a dead weight that oppresses its owner and titles of honor 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 labor and makes them in love with it but it likewise gives relief and weariness and actually supports men in all fatigues and difficulties a laborer 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 peratio do you not think then that there are men in laborious offices who for a fixed salary discharge their duties with diligence and assiduity cleomenies 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 recompense 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 labor 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 peratio here is the castle before us cleomenies which I suppose you are not sorry for peratio indeed I am and would have been glad to have heard you speak of kings and other sovereigns with the same candor 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 although 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 everywhere Cleomenes 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 humor 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 men's lives Horatio I have not observed that which way has he done it indirectly Cleomenes 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 done by doing this in a Christian country and among people that all pretend to seek after happiness Horatio and what say you of Lord Shaftesbury Cleomenes 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 the goodness and excellency of our nature were as romantic and chimerical as they are beautiful and amiable that he labored hard to unite two contraries that can never be reconciled together innocence of manners and worldly greatness that to compass this end he favored deism and under pretense of lashing priestcraft and superstition attacked the bible itself and lastly that by ridiculing many passages of holy writ he seems to have endeavored to sap the foundation of all revealed religion with design of establishing heathen virtue on the ruins of Christianity finis end of section 47 end of The Fable of the Bees by Bernard Mandeville