24 



wealth rests in itself, and is its own reward, or rather its 

 own pnnishment. It does not bring increase of gratifica- 

 tion, but increase of uneasiness. Wealth does not prod-uce 

 an exhibition of magnificence, or an appearance <jf opu- 

 lence; since, under arbitrary governments, the reputation 

 of wealth is too frequently a state crime. In the East, 

 the possession of riches is concealed, with the same care, 

 that, in other countries, which enjoy a free govermnent, it 

 is displayed. There perpetual instances occur, of people 

 burying their riches, while they live in apparent poverty. 

 Riches, under such governments, do not confer power; on 

 the contrary, they make the miserable owner a mark for 

 oppression; they give him the fatal privilege of being in 

 hourly apprehensions of torture and death.* This involun- 

 tary sumptuary law of fear, in states, where the safety of 

 the individual requires the afiectation of poverty, is mani- 

 festly inauspicious to the arts of elegance and refinement. 

 In such a state, also, the maxims, both of pohtical and 

 private ojconomy, are little known; the science of govern- 

 ment is at the lowest ebb; there is no such thing as the 

 patronage of arts, or the encouragement of commerce, by 

 the state. We find, that a number of travellers all con- 

 cur, in an extraordinary manner, in their description of 

 the degraded state of the ai'ts, in countries where they 



once 



* Under the old government of France, the farmers were driven to go 

 b»re-foot, and to affect the appearance of .poverty, to avoid certain taxes, 

 in the nature of tithes. 



