The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public BenefitsMandeville, Bernard
Philosophy
The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits
Mandeville, Bernard
Charity-schools -- Early works to 1800; Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Virtue -- Early works to 1800
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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