rol.) 
ways of procuring it, create avgreat diffe- 
~rence between animalsas to their mode of 
life, and caufe them to affociate in nume- 
rous bodies or to live folitary. The fame 
is the cafe with men. 
Some of therh—-and thefe are the leaft 
employed—are paftoral tribes: they qui- 
etly enjoy the food with which they are 
eafily {applied by tame animals + as their 
herds are obliged to move from one place 
to another for the fake of finding good 
pafturage, they are neceffitated to follow 
them, and thus may-be faid to’cultivate a 
fort of living’ farm.—Others, according to 
the fituation which they occupy, derive 
their fupport from the fihhery, the chale, 
fruits, or plunder. ‘i 
Nature takes care of all animals from 
the moment of their birth: the, vivipa- 
sous fpecies have the milk of their: dams, 
the oviparous come into the world:accom- 
panied. by their food. _ She beftows, equal 
attention on them when they are formed. 
The acquifition of wealth is. feen to 
take place in the domeftic affociation, of 
which the ceconomic art is a branch. 
The articles neceflary for the {upport 
and comfort of life are circumfcribed by 
natrow Jimits; and. thofe are the real 
riches. ‘There is another mode of acquir- 
ing them. An exchange of produétions 
may be made. Whoever in that manner 
barters a pair of fhoes, does not, in the 
firiétnefs of the term, ufe them according 
to their original deflination. 
At firft all things were enjoyed in com- 
mon; nor did exchariges take place until, 
on the increafe of the fociety, the families 
#eparated, and the different productions of 
nature lay in unequal proportions in the 
hands of their poffeflors. The fupply of 
their wants was the limit of their ex- 
changes ; whence we fee that commerce, 
which has for its objeét the accumulation 
of wealth, is the work of art. 
The practice of exchanges introduced 
in time the ufe of a metal, asa reprefenta- 
‘tive fign of wealth: the reafon for having 
recourle to it may have been the diftance of 
places, as the articles of greateft utility are 
not always thofe of moft eafy conveyance. 
Eftimated at firft by weight, the metal af- 
terward received an impreffion to fave that 
trouble. 
Bitaubé on the Policy of the Anciepts. 
2, 
©. Money,:the element and, inftrument..of 
commerce, has become its end. Domettic, 
ceconomy is a fource of real riches; but 
theyyhave-certaimbounds.. It were tojbe 
defired that limits;could equally be affign.- 
ed) to.the accumulation of money: but 
thofe perfons who acquire fome.of, ut feel a 
boundlefs thirft for more. The'eesconomift 
feeks opulence in the poffeffion of necefla~ 
ries, the! merchant-in’ the. increafe of; his 
treafure.”. Thus avidity, which has no li. 
mits, purfuds an object equally, unlimit- 
ed——money.’ Ve 
This zbufe may creep into. the ftate of 
the ceconomift; lying’ near)to that of | the, 
merchant): the ceconomitt then, thinks, ra- 
then of, barely living than of living well. 
The natural,riches are the, fruits, of the: 
earth, and animals—riches, which may be 
employed either for the fole advantage of 
his family, or for the acquifition- and ac- 
cumulation of gold... Without abfolutely 
profcribing that acquifition, which has not 
its origin in nature and is only a human 
inftitution, we condemn its abufes. “A ftill 
farther deviation from nature is the prac- 
tice of ufury,.in which money itfelf, in. 
ftead of the article that iswas inttituted to 
reprefent, is the object of traffic. 
There are cccafions in, which policy 
may employ monopoly for the fake of en- 
larging the commerce ofa flate. The 
fiory of Thales, who enriched himfelf by 
that mean, is well known. Forefeeing 
that the year would be fertile of olives, he 
fecured for himfelf beforehand a command 
of the crop; and, in the fortune thus ac= 
quired by his obfervant fagacity, he exhi- 
bited to the haughty poffeffors of riches the 
only apology for philofophy whichthey were - 
capable of underftanding. © There was’ in 
Sicily a man who doubled his wealth by 
engroffing all the iron that’ he could find. 
Dionyfius defired him to take away his 
gold, and banifhed him. ' 
The meaneft arts are thofe which impair 
the form or ftrength of the body ; the moft 
fervile, thofe in which corporal ftrength is 
the principal requifite; the leaft liberal, thofe 
which require little induftry ; the moft ex- 
cellent, rhefe over which chance has the 
leaft control. 
There moreover exifts in the family the 
power of the hufband and of the father. 
This inftitution increafed the means of The former is founded on the fuperiority 
acquifition, and facilitated commerce: but 
a circumftance which fhows that metal con- 
ftitutes only a faétitious wealth, is that 
public opinion can ftrip it of the whole or 
the chief part of its value, and that, like 
Midas in the fable, a man may abound 
with gold, and yet be deftitute of food, 
* Montuity Mag. No. 70, 
commonly poffeffed by the hufband, as the 
paternal power is founded on that of rea- 
fon and age. . 
The power of the hufband is limited, 
as the women conftitute a moiety of the 
clafs of free perfons. ‘The children are 
the {fcions deftined to bloom in the fuc- 
ceeding 
¢ 
