Chap. in. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 7^ 



incrcafed within thefc few yearso Btu, has the poor's rate decreaf- 

 ed? So far from that, the poor's rate, which, as I am informed, was 

 10 or 12 years ago, no more thanyo//r milhons, is now J/x, and ftill 

 increafmg : So that it is become a very great burden upon the 

 country; and, there are many, who pay to the poor more than to 

 both church and king. 



Thus it appears, that both the acquifition and enjoyment of wealth 

 not only deftroy a great number of men, but, what appears very 

 extraordinary, make the poor ftill poorer j and often the rich poor, 

 by increafmg their vanity and luxury. 



As luxury appears to be infeparably joined with wealth in a na- 

 tion, and, as luxury, when it goes to any excefs, naturally produces 

 poverty, it is not improper to confider here, what the effed of po- 

 verty and luxury, joined together, may produce upon the great men 

 of a nation. The defire of money is, as I have faid, infinite and 

 infatiable ; and fo is luxury, efpecially when vanity is joined to 

 it. Now, thefe two infatiable pafFions, joined together in l/js 

 great of a nation, muft produce extraordinaiy effects; efpecially 

 if the great be what they ought to be by their birth; — hii:;h mind- 

 ed men, and therefore unable to ftoop to poverty, and to the 

 meannefs which accompanies it. And here we may obferve the dif- 

 ference betwixt the mifer and the prodigal: The mifer loves mo- 

 ney for its own fake, and onlydefires to accumulate it: Whereas the 

 prodigal defires it in order to gratify his luxury, which, as I 

 have faid, has no bounds; fo that he is under the dominion of two 

 paftions equally infatiable, while the mifer is under the dominion 

 of one pafFion only, the love of money. When, therefore, he firfl 

 begins to accumulate money, he propofes only to fecurc himfclf 

 againft want. It is time, indeed, when that is done, and when lie 

 has got together fo much money, that it is impoffible he can be afraid 



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