And statesmen boast
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here is no real wealth but the labour of man. Were the mountains ofgold and the valleys of silver, the world would not be one grain of cornthe richer; no one comfort would be added to the human race. Inconsequence of our consideration for the precious metals, one man isenabled to heap to himself luxuries at the expense of the necessaries ofhis neighbour; a system admirably fitted to produce all the varieties ofdisease and crime, which never fail to characterize the two extremes ofopulence and penury. A speculator takes pride to himself as the promoterof his country's prosperity, who employs a number of hands in themanufacture of articles avowedly destitute of use, or subservient onlyto the unhallowed cravings of luxury and ostentation. The nobleman, whoemploys the peasants of his neighbourhood in building his palaces, until'jam pauca aratro jugera regiae moles relinquunt,' flatters himself thathe has gained the title of a patriot by yielding to the impulses ofvanity. The show and pomp of courts adduce the same apology for itscontinuance; and many a fete has been given, many a woman has eclipsedher beauty by her dress, to benefit the labouring poor and to encouragetrade. Who does not see that this is a remedy which aggravates whilst itpalliates the countless diseases of society? The poor are set tolabour,--for what? Not the food for which they famish: not the blanketsfor want of which their babes are frozen by the cold of their miserablehovels: not those comforts of civilization without which civilized manis far more miserable than the meanest savage; oppressed as he is by allits insidious evils, within the daily and taunting prospect of itsinnumerable benefits assiduously exhibited before him:--no; for thepride of power, for the miserable isolation of pride, for the falsepleasures of the hundredth part of society. No greater evidence isafforded of the wide extended and radical mistakes of civilized man thanthis fact: those arts which are essential to his very being are held inthe greatest contempt; employments are lucrative in an inverse ratio totheir usefulness (See Rousseau, "De l'Inegalite parmi les Hommes", note7.): the jeweller, the toyman, the actor gains fame and wealth by theexercise of his useless and ridiculous art; whilst the cultivator of theearth, he without whom society must cease to subsist, struggles throughcontempt and penury, and perishes by that famine which but for hisunceasing exertions would annihilate the rest of mankind. I will not insult common sense by insisting on the doctrine of thenatural equality of man. The question is not concerning itsdesirableness, but its practicability: so far as it is practicable, itis desirable. That state of human society which approaches nearer to anequal partition of its benefits and evils should, caeteris paribus, bepreferred: but so long as we conceive that a wanton expenditure of humanlabour, not for the necessities, not even for the luxuries of the massof society, but for the egotism and ostentation of a few of its members,is defensible on the ground of public justice, so long we neglect toapproximate to the redemption of the human race. Labour is required for physical, and leisure for moral improvement: fromthe former of these advantages the rich, and from the latter the poor,by the inevitable conditions of their respective situations, areprecluded. A state which should combine the advantages of both would besubjected to the evils of neither. He that is deficient in firm health,or vigorous intellect, is but half a man: hence it follows that tosubject the labouring classes to unnecessary labour is wantonlydepriving them of any opportunities of intellectual improvement; andthat the rich are heaping up for their own mischief the disease,lassitude, and ennui by which their existence is rendered an intolerableburthen. English reformers exclaim against sinecures,--but the true pension listis the rent-roll of the landed proprietors: wealth is a power usurped bythe few, to compel the many to labour for their benefit. The laws whichsupport this system derive their force from the ignorance and credulityof its victims: they are the result of a conspiracy of the few againstthe many, who are themselves obliged to purchase this pre-eminence bythe loss of all real comfort. 'The commodities that substantially contribute to the subsistence of thehuman species form a very short catalogue: they demand from us but aslender portion of industry. If these only were produced, andsufficiently produced, the species of man would be continued. If thelabour necessarily required to produce them were equitably divided amongthe poor, and, still more, if it were equitably divided among all, eachman's share of labour would be light, and his portion of leisure wouldbe ample. There was a time when this leisure would have been of smallcomparative value: it is to be hoped that the time will come when itwill be applied to the most important purposes. Those hours which arenot required for the production of the necessaries of life may bedevoted to the cultivation of the understanding, the enlarging our stockof knowledge, the refining our taste, and thus opening to us new andmore exquisite sources of enjoyment. ... 'It was perhaps necessary that a period of monopoly and oppressionshould subsist, before a period of cultivated equality could subsist.Savages perhaps would never have been excited to the discovery of truthand the invention of art but by the narrow motives which such a periodaffords. But surely, after the savage state has ceased, and men have setout in the glorious career of discovery and invention, monopoly andoppression cannot be necessary to prevent them from returning to a stateof barbarism.'--Godwin's "Enquirer", Essay 2. See also "Pol. Jus.", book8, chapter 2. It is a calculation of this admirable author, that all the conveniencesof civilized life might be produced, if society would divide the labourequally among its members, by each individual being employed in labourtwo hours during the day. 5. 112, 113:-- or religionDrives his wife raving mad. I am acquainted with a lady of considerable accomplishments, and themother of a numerous family, whom the Christian religion has goaded toincurable insanity. A parallel case is, I believe, within the experienceof every physician. Nam iam saepe homines patriam, carosquo parentesProdiderunt, vitare Acherusia templa petentes.--Lucretius. 5. 189:--
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