'
[854] Mandeville describes with great force the misery caused by gin--
'liquid poison' he calls it--'which in the fag-end and outskirts of the
town is sold in some part or other of almost every house, frequently
in cellars, and sometimes in the garret.' He continues:--'The
short-sighted vulgar in the chain of causes seldom can see further than
one link; but those who can enlarge their view may in a hundred places
see good spring up and pullulate from evil, as naturally as chickens do
from eggs.' He instances the great gain to the revenue, and to all
employed in the production of the spirit from the husbandman upwards.
_Fable of the Bees_, p. 89.
[855] 'If a miser, who is almost a plum (i.e. worth L100,000, _Johnson's
Dictionary_), and spends but fifty pounds a year, should be robbed of a
thousand guineas, it is certain that as soon as this money should come
to circulate, the nation would be the better for the robbery; yet
justice and the peace of the society require that the robber should be
hanged.' _Ib_. p. 83.
[856] Johnson, in his political economy, seems to have been very much
under Mandeville's influence. Thus in attacking Milton's position
that 'a popular government was the most frugal; for the trappings of a
monarchy would set up our ordinary commonwealth,' he says, 'The support
and expense of a court is, for the most part, only a particular kind of
traffick, by which money is circulated, without any national
impoverishment.
Pages:
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869