The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits

Name: The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits
Author: Mandeville, Bernard

Mandeville, Bernard

Charity-schools -- Early works to 1800; Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Virtue -- Early works to 1800

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,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits

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