122 STUDIES OF NATURE, 



cation, and which inanifefts itfelf in literature, in 

 fyftems, and in puppet-Qiovvs. There is a fanner 

 reafon to be affigned for thefe clamours : it is the 

 fame reafon which fets them a-ta!king for the ag- 

 grandizement of commerce, and filences them on 

 the fubjeft of agriculture, which is, from it's very 

 natnre, the moft noble of all occupations. It is, fmce 

 we muftfpeak out,becaufe rich merchants, and great 

 proprietors, give fplendid fuppers, which are at- 

 tended by fine women, who build up and deflroy re- 

 putations at their pleafure, whereas the tillers of the 

 ground, and perfons ftarved into exile, give none. 

 The table is now-a-days the main-fpring of the ari- 

 ftocracy of the opulent. By means of this engine 

 it is, that an opinion, which may fometimes in- 

 volve the ruin of a State, acquires preponderanc)'". 

 There, too, it is, that the honour of a foldier, oi 

 a bidiop, of a magiftrate, of a man of letters, is 

 frequently blafted by a woman who has forfeited 

 her own. 



Modern politics have advanced another very 

 grofs error, in alleging that riches always find their 

 level in a ftate. When the indigent are once mul- 

 tiplied in it to a certain point, a wretched emula- 

 tion is produced among thofe poor people, who 

 fhall give himfelf away the cheapeft. Whilft, on 

 the one han 1, the rich man, teized by his famill^ed 

 compatriots for employment, over-rates the value 



of 



