The fable of the bees: or, private vices, publick benefits / With an essay on charity and charity-schools, and a search into the nature of society.

  • Mandeville, Bernard, 1670-1733.
Date:
1725
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fable of the bees: or, private vices, publick benefits / With an essay on charity and charity-schools, and a search into the nature of society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the Dignity of fuch fublime Creatures to be follicitous about gratifying thofe Appetites, which they had in common with Brutes, and at the fame time unmindful of thofe higher Qualities that gave them the pre-eminence o- ver all vifible Beings. They indeed confefs’d, that thole impulfes of Nature were very pref¬ ling; that it was troublefome to refill, and very difficult wholly to fubdue them. But this they only ufed as an Argument to de- monftrate, how glorious the Conquell of them was on the one hand, and how fcanda- lous on the other not to attempt it. To introduce moreover an Emulation a- mongft Men, they divided the whole Species in two Clafies, vallly differing from one ano¬ ther : The one confifted of abjeft, low-mind¬ ed People, that always hunting after immedi¬ ate Enjoyment, were wholly incapable of Self-denial, and without regard to the good of others, had no higher Aim than their private Advantage; fuch as being enllaved byVolup- tuoufnefs, yielded without Refinance to every grofs defire, and made no ufe of their Ratio¬ nal Faculties but to heighten their Senfual Plea- lure. Thefe vile grov’iing Wretches, they faid, were the Drois of their kind, and having only the Shape of Men, differ’d from Brutes in no¬ thing but their outward Figure. But the other Oafs was made up of lofty high-fpirited Crea¬ tures, that free from fordid Selfilhnefs, eileem’d the Improvements of the Mind to be their faireft Polfeflions;