days but beginning to relish indolent retirement, business grows irksome, he trufts all to his clerks, lofes the thread of his affairs, fees no longer with his own eyes, and is now in the high way to perdition. Every cross accident makes him totter; and in labouring circumstances, he is tempted to venture all in hopes of re-eftablishment. He falls at laft to downright gaming; which, fetting confciénce afide, is a prudent measure: he risks only the money of his creditors, for he himself has nothing to lofe: it is now with him, Cafar aut nibil*. Such a man never falls without involving many in his ruin.

The bad effects of luxury above difplayed, are not the whole, nor indeed the most destructive. In all times luxury has been the ruin of every state where it prevailed. Nations originally are poor and virtuous. They advance to industry, commerce, and perhaps to conqueft and empire. But this ftate is never permanent : great opulence opens a wide door to indolence, fenfuality, corruption, profstitution,

« Cæfar or nothing." VOL. II.

U

perdition,

perdition. But that more important branch of the subject is referved to particular fketches, where it will make a better figure.

In the favage ftate, man is almost all body, with a very fmall proportion of mind. In the maturity of civil society, he is complete both in mind and body. In a state of degeneracy by luxury and voluptuoufness, he has neither mind nor body *.

In ancient Egypt, execution against the perfon of a debtor was prohibited. Such a law could not obtain but among a temperate people, where bankruptcy happens by misfortune, and seldom by luxury or extravagance. In Switzerland, not only a bankrupt but even his fons are excluded from public office till all the family debts be paid.

SKETCHES

PREFACE.

IN the courfe of explaining this subject, no opportunity is omitted of fuggefting an important doctrine, That patriotism is the corner-ftone of civil fociety; that no nation ever became great and powerful without it and, when extinguished, that the most powerful nation will totter and become a ruin. But I profefs only to ftate facts. From thefe the reader will not fail to draw the obfervation: and what he himself obferves will fink deeper, than what is inculcated by an author, however pathetically.

SKETCH

SKETCH I.

Appetite for Society.-Origin of National

T

Societies.

HAT there is in man an appetite for fociety, never was called in queftion But to what end the appetite ferves, whether it embrace the whole fpecies or be in any manner limited, whether

This appetite is not denied by Vitruvius; but it feems to have been overlooked in the account he gives (book 2. ch. 1.) of the commencement of fociety, which is as follows. "In ancient times, men, like "wild beafts, lived in caves and woods, feeding on "wild food. In a certain place it happened, that the "trees, put in motion by tempeftuous winds, and rub"bing their branches one against another took fire. "Those in the neighbourhood fled for fear: but as

the flame abated, they approached; and finding the "heat comfortable, they threw wood into the fire, "and preferved it from being extinguifhed. They "then invited others to take benefit of the fire. Men, "thus affembled, endeavoured to express their thoughts by articulate founds; and by daily practice, certain

"founds

whether men be naturally qualified for being useful members of civil fociety, and whether they are fitted for being happy in it, are queftions that open extensive views into human nature, and yet have been little attended to by writers. I grieve at the ne

"founds fignifying things in frequent ufe, came to be "eftablished. From that cafual event, language a"rofe. And thus, fire having attracted many to one' "place, they foon discovered that they were by na"ture superior to other animals, differing from them "not only in an erect posture, which gave them op"portunity to behold the beauties of the heavens as "well as of the earth; but also in their hands and fingers, fitted for executing whatever they could in"vent. They therefore began to cover their habita"tions with the boughs of trees: some dug caves in "the mountains; and, in imitation of a swallow's neft, "fome fheltered themselves with fprigs and loam. "Thus, by obferving each other's work, and turning "their thoughts to invention, they by degrees impro"ved their habitations, and became daily more and "more skilful.” Diodorus Siculus (lib. 1.) fays, that men originally led a favage life, without any society; that fear made them join for mutual defence against beasts of prey; that cuftom by degrees made them focial; and that each fociety formed a language to itself. Has not the celebrated Rouffeau been guilty of the fame oversight in his essay on the inequality of men? These authors fuggeft to me the butcher, who made diligent fearch for his knife, which he held in his teeth.

glect,