The Online Library of Liberty

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• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book V.: Of Legislative and Executive Power
• Chap. I.: Introduction
• Chap. II.: Of Education, the Education of a Prince.
• Chap. III.: Private Life of a Prince.
• Chap. IV.: Of a Virtuous Despotism.
• Chap. V.: Of Courts and Ministers.
• Chap. VI.: Of Subjects.
• Chap. VII.: Of Elective Monarchy.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Limited Monarchy.
• Chap. IX.: Of a President With Regal Powers.
• Chap. X.: Of Hereditary Distinction.
• Chap. XI.: Moral Effects of Aristocracy.
• Chap. XII.: Of Titles.
• Chap. XIII.: Of the Aristocratical Character.
• Chap. XIV.: General Features of Democracy.
• Chap. XV.: Of Political Imposture.
• Chap. XVI.: Of the Causes of War.
• Chap. XVII.: Of the Object of War.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Conduct of War.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Military Establishments and Treaties.
• Chap. XX.: Of Democracy As Connected With the Transactions of War.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Composition of Government
• Chap. XXII.: Of the Future History of Political Societies
• Chap. XXIII.: Of National Assemblies
• Chap. XXIV.: Of the Dissolution of Government
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
• Book VI.: Of Opinion Considered As a Subject of Political Institution.
• Chap. I: General Effects of the Political Superintendence of Opinion.
• Chap. II.: Of Religious Establishments
• Chap. III.: Of the Suppression of Erroneous Opinion In Religion and Government.
• Chap. IV.: Of Tests.
• Chap. V.: Of Oaths.
• Chap. VI.: Of Libels.
• Chap. VII.: Of Constitutions.
• Chap. VIII.: Of National Education.
• Chap. IX.: Of Pensions and Salaries.
• Chap. X.: Of the Modes of Deciding a Question On the Part of the Community.
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book VII.: Of Legislative and Executive Power
• Chap. I.: Limitations of the Doctrine of Punishment Which Result From the Principles of Morality.
• Chap. II.: General Disadvantages of Coercion.
• Chap. III.: Of the Purposes of Coercion.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Application of Coercion.
• Chap. V.: Of Coercion Considered As a Temporary Expedient.
• Chap. VI.: Scale of Coercion.
• Chap. VII.: Of Evidence.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Law.
• Chap. IX.: Of Pardons.
• An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
• Book VIII.: Of Property.
• Chap. I.: Genuine System of Property Delineated.
• Chap. II.: Benefits Arising From the Genuine System of Property.
• Chap. III.: Of the Objection to This System From the Admirable Effects of Luxury.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Objection to This System From the Allurements of Sloth.
• Chap. V.: Of the Objection to This System From the Impossibility of Its Being Rendered Permanent.
• Chap. VI.: Of the Objection to This System From the Inflexibility of Its Restrictions.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Objection to This System From the Principle of Population.
• Chap. VIII.: Of the Means of Introducing the Genuine System of Property.
• Errata.
• Vol. I.
• Vol. II.
• Direction to the Binder.

CHAP. III.

of the objection to this system from the admirable effects of luxury.

book viii. chap. iii.These ideas of justice and improvement are as old as literature and reflexion themselves. They have suggested themselves in detached parts to the inquisitive in all ages, though they have perhaps never been brought together so as sufficiently to strike the mind with their consistency and beauty. But, after having furnished an agreeable dream, they have perpetually been laid aside as impracticable. We will proceed to examine the objections upon which this supposed impracticability has been founded; and the answer to these objections will gradually lead us to such a development of the proposed system, as by its completeness and the regular adjustment of its parts will be calculated to carry conviction to the most prejudiced mind.

Nature of the objection. There is one objection that has chiefly been cultivated on English ground, and to which we will give the priority of examination. It has been affirmed “that private vices are public benefits.”book viii. chap. iii. But this principle, thus coarsely stated by one of its original advocates* , was remodelled by his more elegant successors† . They observed, “that the true measure of virtue and vice was utility, and consequently that it was an unreasonable calumny to state luxury as a vice. Luxury,” they said, “whatever might be the prejudices that cynics and ascetics had excited against it, was the rich and generous soil that brought to perfection the true prosperity of mankind. Without luxury men must always have remained solitary savages. It is luxury by which palaces are built and cities peopled. How could there have been high population in any country, without the various arts in which the swarms of its inhabitants are busied? The true benefactor of mankind is not the scrupulous devotee who by his charities encourages insensibility and sloth; is not the surly philosopher who reads them lectures of barren morality; but the elegant voluptuary who employs thousands in sober and healthful industry to procure dainties for his table, who unites distant nations in commerce to supply him with furniture, and who encourages the fine arts and all the sublimities of invention to furnish decorations for his residence.”

Luxury not necessary, either to population: I have brought forward this objection, rather that nothing material book viii. chap. iii. might appear to be omitted, than because it requires a separate answer. The true answerhas been anticipated. It has been seen that the population of any country ismeasured by its cultivation. If therefore sufficient motives can be furnishedto excite men to agriculture, there is no doubt, that population may be carriedon to any extent that the land can be made to maintain. But agriculture, whenonce begun, is never found to stop in its career, but from positive discountenance. It is territorial monopoly that obliges men unwillingly to see vast tracts ofland lying waste, or negligently and imperfectly cultivated, while they are subjectedto the miseries of want. If land were perpetually open to him who was willingto cultivate it, it is not to be believed but that it would be cultivated inproportion to the wants of the community, nor by the same reason would therebe any effectual check to the increase of population.

or to the improvement of the mind. Undoubtedly the quantity of manual labour would be greatly inferior to that which is now performed by the inhabitants of any civilised country, since at present perhaps one twentieth part of the inhabitants performs the agriculture which supports the whole. But it is by no means to be admitted that this leisure would be found a real calamity.

Its true character. As to what sort of a benefactor the voluptuary is to mankind, this was sufficiently seen when we treated of the effects of dependence and injustice. To this species of benefit all the crimes and moral evils of mankind are indebted for their perpetuity. Ifbook viii. chap. iii. mind be to be preferred to mere animal existence, if it ought to be the wish of every reasonable enquirer, not merely that man, but that happiness should be propagated, then is the voluptuary the bane of the human species.

[*]Mandeville; Fable of the Bees.

[†]Coventry, in a treatise entitled, Philemon to Hydaspes: Hume; Essays, Part II, Essay II.