Cli. xiii. Principles on this iSuhJcct. 427 



and national happiness ; and what Paley considers 

 as the true evil and proper danger of luxury, I 

 should be disposed to consider as its true good 

 and peculiar advantage. If, indeed, it be al- 

 lowed that in every society, not in the state of a 

 new colony, some powerful check to population 

 must prevail; and if it be observed that a taste 

 for the comforts and conveniences of life will pre- 

 vent people from marrying, under the certainty 

 of being deprived of these advantages ; it must 

 be allowed that we can hardly expect to find any 

 check to marriage so little prejudicial to the hap- 

 piness and virtue of society as the general preva- 

 lence of such a taste; and consequently, that the 

 extension of luxury in this sense of the term is 

 particularly desirable, and one of the best means 

 of raising that standard of wretchedness alluded 

 to in a former chapter. 



It has been generally found that the middle parts 

 of society are most favourable to virtuous and in- 

 dustrious habits, and to the growth of all kinds of 

 talents. But it is evident that all cannot be in 

 the middle. Superior and inferior parts are in the 

 nature of things absolutely necessary; and not 

 only necessary, but strikingly beneficial. If no 

 man could hope to rise, or fear to fall in society ; 

 if industry did not bring with it its reward, and 

 indolence its punishment ; we could not expect to 

 see that animated activity in bettering our condi- 

 tion, which now forms the master-spring of public 

 prosperity. But in contemplating the different 

 states of Europe, we observe a Vjcry considerable 



