This is suggested by Plato in the “Phædrus”--an allegory of the soul, wherein the spirit of man is depicted as a chariot to which are attached a white and black horse. The first typifies our higher and the latter our lower passions. Mr. Lecky writes in his “History of Morals,” that in society certain defects necessarily accompany certain excellencies of character. He remarks, “Had the Irish peasants been less chaste they would have been more prosperous.” “Habitual liars and habitual cheats have been industrious, amiable and prudent.” “Civilization is not favorable to self-sacrifice, reverence, enthusiasm or chastity.” He declares of the gambling table, “that it fosters a moral nerve and calmness scarcely exhibited in equal perfection in any other sphere--a fact which Bret Harte has finely illustrated in his character of Mr. John Oakhurst, in the ‘Outcasts of Poker Flat.’” This thought is boldly illustrated by Mandeville, in his “Fable of the Bees:” “These were called knaves, but, bar the name, The grave industrious were the same: All trades and places knew some cheat, No calling was without deceit. The root of evil, avarice, That damn’d, ill-natured, baneful vice, Was slave to prodigality, _That noble sin_; whilst luxury Employed a million of the poor, And odious pride a million more: Envy, itself, and vanity Were ministers of industry, Their darling folly, fickleness, In diet, furniture and dress, That strange, ridiculous vice, was made The very wheel that turned the trade.” The author of this unique production announced that his main design was to indicate 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 folly and unreasonableness of those that, desirous of being an opulent and flourishing people, are wonderfully greedy after all the benefits they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring against those vices and inconveniences, that from the beginning of the world to the present day, have been inseparable from all the kingdoms and states that ever were formed for strength, riches and politeness.”