I own, Sir, it is my Opinion, and I have endeavour'd to prove, that Luxury, tho' depending upon the Vices of Man, is absolutely necessary to render a great Nation formidable, opulent and polite at the same Time. But before you pass any Judgment upon me for this, give me Leave to put you in Mind of Two Things, which I take to be undeniably true. The First is, that the Kingdom of _Christ_ is not of this World; and that the last-named is the very Thing a true Christian ought to renounce: I mean, that when we speak of the World in a figurative Sense, as the Knowledge of the World, the Glory of the World; or in _French, Le beau Monde, le grand Monde_; and when in a Man's Praise we say, that he understands the World very well; that, I say, when we use the Word in this Manner, it signifies, and we understand by it that same World which the Gospel gives us so many Cautions and pronounces so severely against. The Second is, that I have wrote in an Age and a Nation, where the greatest Part of the Fashionable, and what we call the better Sort of People, seem to be far more delighted with Temporal, than they are with Spiritual Enjoyments, at the same Time that they profess themselves to be Christians; and that whatever they may talk, preach or write of a Future State and eternal Felicity, they are all closely attach'd to this wicked World; or at least, that the Generality, in their Actions and Endeavours, seem to be infinitely more sollicitous about the one, than they are about the other. If you will consider these Two Things, you'll find, that I have supposed no Necessity of Vice, but among those by whom worldly Greatness is in Esteem and thought necessary to Happiness. The more curious and operose Manufactures are, the more Hands they employ; and that with the Variety of them, the Number of Workmen must still encrease, wants no Proof. It is evident likewise, that Foreign Traffick consists in changing of Commodities, and removing them from one Place to another. No Nation, that has no Gold or Silver of their own Growth, can purchase our Product long, unless we, or Some body else, will buy theirs. The Epithets of polite and flourishing are never given to Countries, before they are arriv'd at a considerable Degree of Luxury; and a flourishing Nation without it, is Bread without Corn, a Perriwig without Hair, or a Library without Books.