our imagination with the order, the regular and harmonious movement of the system, the machine or œconomy by means of which it is produced. The pleasures of wealth and greatnefs, when confidered in this complex view, ftrike the imagination as fomething grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it.

And it is well that nature imposes upon us in this manner. It is this deception which roufes and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind. It is this which first prompted them to cultivate the ground, to build houses, to found cities and commonwealths, and to invent and improve all the fciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life; which have entirely changed the whole face of the globe, have turned the rude forefts of nature into agreeable and fertile plains, and made the tracklefs and barren ocean a new fund of subfiftence, and the great high road of communication to the different nations of the

earth.

earth. The earth by these labours of mankind has been obliged to redouble her natural fertility, and to maintain a greater multitude of inhabitants. It is to no purpose, that the proud and unfeeling landlord views his extenfive fields, and without a thought for the wants of his brethren, in imagination confumes himself the whole harvest that grows upon them. The homely and vulgar proverb, that the eye is larger than the belly, never was more fully verified than with regard to him. The capacity of his ftomach bears no proportion to the immensity of his defires, and will receive no more than that of the meanest peasant. The reft he is obliged to diftribute among thofe, who prepare, in the niceft nanner, that little which he himself makes use of, among thofe who fit up the palace in which this little is to be confumed, among those who provide and keep in order all the different baubles and trinkets, which are employed in the economy of greatnefs; all of whom thus derive from his luxury and caprice, that fhare of the neceffaries of life, which they would in vain

VOL. I.

HH.

have

have expected from his humanity or his juftice. The produce of the foil maintains at all times nearly that number of inhabitants which it is capable of maintaining. The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They confume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency, though the fole end which they propofe from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and infatiable

defires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the fame diftribution of the neceffaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants; and thus, without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species. When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly mafters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left

out

out in the partition. These laft too enjoy their share of all that it produces. In what conftitutes the real happiness of human life, they are in no respect inferior to those who would feem fo much above them. In eafe of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who funs himself by the fide of the highway, poffeffes that fecurity which kings are fighting for.

The fame principle, the fame love of fyftem, the fame regard to the beauty of order, of art and contrivance, frequently ferves to recommend those institutions which tend to promote the public welfare. When a patriot exerts himself for the improvement of any part of the public police, his conduct does not always arise from pure fympathy with the happiness of those who are to reap the benefit of it. It is not commonly from a fellow-feeling with carriers and waggoners that a public-spirited man encourages the mending of high roads. When the legislature establishes premiums and other encouragements to ad

vance the linen or woollen manufactures, its conduct feldom proceeds from pure fympathy with the wearer of cheap or fine cloth, and much lefs from that with the manufacturer or merchant. The perfection of police, the extenfion of trade and manufactures, are noble and magnificent objects. The contemplation' of them pleases us, and we are interested in whatever can tend to advance them. They make part of the great fyftem of government, and the wheels of the political machine feem to move with more harmony and ease by means of them. We take pleasure in beholding the perfection of so beautiful and grand a fyftem, and we are uneafy till we remove any obftruction that can in the leaft disturb or encumber the regularity of its motions. All conftitutions of government, however, are valued only in proportion as they tend to promote the happiness of those who live under them. This is their fole use and end. From a certain fpirit of system, however, from a certain love of art and contrivance, we fometimes feem to value the means more than the end, and

to