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B. It must.

I

A And what fupply of thefe wants fhall we esteem the meaneft, which we can conceive?. Would it not be fomething like this? Had we nothing beyond acorns for food; beyond a rude skin for raiment; or beyond a cavern or hollow tree, to provide us with a dwelling?

B. Indeed, this would be bad enough.

A. And do you not imagine, as far as this, we might each fupply ourselves, tho' we lived in woods, mere folitary savages?

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A. Suppose then, that our fupplies were to be mended for inftance, that we were to exchange

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acorns for bread would our favage character be fuf. ficient here? Muft we not be a little better difciplined? Would not some art be requifite? The baker's, for

example.

B. It would."

A. And previously to the baker's, that of the miller?

B. It would.

A. And previously to the miller's, that of the husbandman?

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A. Three arts, then appear necellary, even upon the lowest estimation.

B. 'Tis admitted. c.dbmx bf &

A. But a queftion farther. Can the husbandman work, think you, without his tools? Muft he not have his plough, his harrow, his reap- hook, and the like?

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B.

B. He must.

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A. And muft not those other artists too be furnished in the fame manner?

B. They must.

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A. And whence muft they be furnished? From their own arts? Or are not the making tools, and the ufing them, two different occupations?

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B. I believe, they are.

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A. You may be convinced by fmall recollection. Does Agriculture make its own plough, its own harrow? Or does it not apply to other arts, for all neceffaries of this kind?

C B. It does.

A. Again

Does the baker build his own oven;

or the miller frame his own mill?.,

B. It appears no part of their business.

C

A. What a tribe of Mechanics then are advancing upon us! Smiths, carpenter, mafons, mill-wrights and all these to provide the fingle necessary of bread. Not less than seven or eight arts, we find, are wanting at the fewest.

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A. And what if to the providing a comfortable cottage, and raiment suitable to an industrious hind, we allow a dozen arts more? It would be ealy, by the fame reasoning, to prove the number double.

B. I admit the number mentioned.

A. If fo, it fhould feem, that towards a tolerable fupply of the three primary and common neceffaries, food, raiment, and a dwelling, not less than twenty arts were, on the lowest account, requifite.

` · B.

B. It appears. fo.

A. And is one man equal," think you, to the exercise of these twenty arts? If he had even genius, which we can scarce imagine, is it poffible, he should find leisure?..

B. I think not.

A. If so, then a solitary, unsocial state can never fupply tolerably the common neceffaries of life.

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A. But what if we pass from the necessaries of life to the elegancies? To Mufic, Sculpture, Painting and Poetry? What if we pafs from all arts, whether neceflary or elegant, to the large and various tribe of Iciences? To Logic, Mathematics, Aftronomy, Phyfics? Can one Man, imagine you, master all this?

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B. Abfurd, impossible.

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A. And yet in this Cycle of fciences and arts feem includeed all the Comforts, as well as Ornaments of Life; included all conducive, either to Being, or to Well-Being.

B. It must be confessed it has the appearance.

A. What then must be done? In what manner muft we be supplied?

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B. I know not, unless we make a Distribution

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Let one exercise one art; and another a different Let this Man study fuch a science; and that Man, another Thus the whole Cycle (as you call it) may be carried easily into Perfection.

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A. 'Tis true, it may; and every Individual, as far as his own art or fcience, might be fupplied completely, and as well as he could wifh. But what avails a fupply

a fupply in a fingle Inftance? What in this cafe are to become of all his numerous other wants?

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B. You conceive what I would have said, but partially. My meaning was, that artift trade with artift; each fupply where he is deficient, by exchan ging where he abounds; so that a portion of every thing may be disperfed throughout all.

A. You intend then a State of Commutation and Traffic.

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B. I do.

A. If fo, I fee a new face of things. The sava: with their skins and their caverns, disappear. ges, In their place I behold a fair Community rifing. No longer, woods, no longer folitude, but all is focial, civil, and cultivated. And can we doubt any farther, whether fociety be natural? Is not this evidently the state, which can best supply the primary wants?

B. It appeares fo.

A. And did we not agree some time fince, that this ftate, whatever we found it, would be certainly of all others the most agreeable to our nature?

B. 'We did end

A. And have we not added, fince this, to weight of our argument, be passing from the necessary arts to the elegant; from the elegant, to the fciences?

B. We have.

A. The more we confider, the more fhall we be convinced, that all these, the nobleft honours and or naments of the human mind, without that leisure, that experience, that emulation, that reward, which the focial state alone we know is able to provide them, could never have found existence, or been in the least recognized.

B.

B. Indeed I believe not.

A. Let it not be forgot then, in favour of society, that to it we owe, not only the beginning and continuation, but the well-being, and (if I may use the expression) the very elegance, and rationality of existence.

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A. And what then If society be thus agreeable to our nature, is there nothing, think you, within us, to excite and lead us to it? No impulfe, no preparation of faculties?

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B. It would be strange if there fhould not.

A. 'Twoud be a fingular exception, with respect to all other herding species Let us however examine Pity, benevolence, friendship, love, the general dislike of folitude, and defire of company, are they natural affections, which come of themselves; or are they taught us by art, like Mufic and Arithmetic ?

B. I should think, they were natural, because in every degree of inen some traces of them may be discovered.

A. And are not the powers and capacities of speech the same? Are not all inen naturaly formed, to exprefs their fentiments by some kind of language?

B. They are.

A. If then these several powers, and dispositions are natural, fo fhould feem to their exercise.

B. Admit it.

A. And if their exercise, then fo too that state, where alone they can be exercised.

B. Admit it.

Meifp. Samml. 8. Bd. 1. Abth.

A.

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