Texts - Essays and Treatises On Several Subjects, Vol

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Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)
E S S A Y S
and
T R E A T I S E S
on
S E V E R A L S U B J E C T S.
In TWO VOLUM ES.
By D A V I D H U M E, Esq;
V O L. I.
containing
ESSAYS, MORAL, POLITICAL, and LITERARY.
A N E W E D I T I O N.
L O N D O N:
Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand: and
A. Donaldson, and W. Creech, at Edinburgh.
MDCCLXXVII.
www.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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Mil 3
E S S A Y I.
Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion.
OME People are subject to a certain delicacy of passion,

which makes them extremely sensible to all the
accidents of life, and gives them a lively joy upon every
prosperous event, as well as a piercing grief, when they
meet with misfor-
Mil 4
tunes and adversity. Favours and good offices easily engage

their friendship; while the smallest injury provokes their
resentment. Any honour or mark of distinction elevates
them above measure; but they are as sensibly touched with
contempt. People of this character have, no doubt, more
lively enjoyments, as well as more pungent sorrows, than
men of cool and sedate tempers: But, I believe, when every
thing is balanced, there is no one, who would not rather be
of the latter character, were he entirely master of his own
disposition. Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal:
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And when a person, that has this sensibility of temper,

meets with any misfortune, his sorrow or resentment takes
entire possession of him, and deprives him of all relish in
the common occurrences of life; the right enjoyment of
which forms the chief part of our happiness. Great pleasures
are much less frequent than great pains; so that a sensible
temper must meet with fewer trials in the former way than
in the latter. Not to mention, that men of such lively
passions are apt to be transported beyond all bounds of
prudence and discretion, and to take false steps in the
conduct of life, which are often irretrievable.
There is a delicacy of taste observable in some men,
which very much resembles this delicacy of passion, and
produces the same sensibility to beauty and deformity of
every kind, as that does to prosperity and adversity,
obligations and injuries. When you present a poem or a
picture to a man possessed of this talent, the delicacy of his
feeling makes him be sensibly touched with every part of it;
nor are the masterly strokes perceived with more exquisite
relish and satisfaction, than the negligences or absurdities
with disgust and uneasiness. A polite and judicious
conversation affords him the highest enter-
Mil 5
tainment; rudeness or impertinence is as great a punishment

to him. In short, delicacy of taste has the same effect as
delicacy of passion: It enlarges the sphere both of our
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happiness and misery, and makes us sensible to pains as well

as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind.
I believe, however, every one will agree with me, that,
notwithstanding this resemblance, delicacy of taste is as
much to be desired and cultivated as delicacy of passion is to
be lamented, and to be remedied, if possible. The good or
ill accidents of life are very little at our disposal; but we are
pretty much masters what books we shall read, what
diversions we shall partake of, and what company we shall
keep. Philosophers have endeavoured to render happiness
entirely independent of every thing external. That degree
of perfection is impossible to be attained: But every wise
man will endeavour to place his happiness on such objects
chiefly as depend upon himself: and that is not to be attained
so much by any other means as by this delicacy of sentiment.
When a man is possessed of that talent, he is more happy by
what pleases his taste, than by what gratifies his appetites,
and receives more enjoyment from a poem or a piece of
reasoning than the most expensive luxury can afford.
Whatever connexion there may be originally between
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these two species of delicacy, I am persuaded, that nothing

is so proper to cure us of this delicacy of passion, as the
cultivating of that higher and more refined taste, which
enables us to judge of the characters of men, of
compositions of genius, and of the productions of the
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nobler arts. A greater or less relish for those obvious

beauties, which strike the senses, depends entirely upon the
greater or less sensibility of the temper: But with regard to
the sciences and liberal arts, a fine taste is, in some measure,
the same with strong sense, or at least depends so much
upon it, that they are inseparable. In order to judge aright
of a composition of genius, there are so many views to be
taken in, so many circumstances to be compared, and such a
knowledge of human nature requisite, that no man, who is
not possessed of the soundest judgment, will ever make a
tolerable critic in such performances. And this is a new
reason for cultivating a relish in the liberal arts. Our
judgment will strengthen by this exercise: We shall form
juster notions of life: Many things, which please or afflict
others, will appear to us too frivolous to engage our
attention: And we shall lose by degrees that sensibility and
delicacy of passion, which is so incommodious.
But perhaps I have gone too far in saying, that a
cultivated taste for the polite arts extinguishes the passions,
and renders us indifferent to those objects, which are so
fondly pursued by the rest of mankind. On farther
reflection, I find, that it rather improves our sensibility for
all the tender and agreeable passions; at the same time that
it renders the mind incapable of the rougher and more
boisterous emotions.
Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes,
Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.
For this, I think there may be assigned two very natural
reasons. In the first place, nothing is so improving to the
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temper as the study of the beauties, either of poetry,

eloquence, music, or painting. They give a certain elegance
of sentiment to which the rest of mankind are strangers.
The emotions which they excite are soft and tender. They
draw off the mind from the hurry of business and interest;
cherish reflection; dispose to tranquillity; and produce an
agreeable melancholy, which, of all dispositions of the
mind, is the best suited to love and friendship.
In the second place, a delicacy of taste is favourable to
love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people,
and making us indifferent to the company and conversation
of the greater part of men. You will seldom find, that mere
men of the world, whatever strong sense they may be
endowed with, are very nice in distinguishing characters, or
in marking those insensible differences and gradations,
which make one man preferable to another. Any one, that
has competent sense, is sufficient for their entertainment:
They talk to him, of their pleasure and affairs, with the
same frankness that they would to another; and finding
many, who are fit to supply his place, they never feel any
vacancy or want in his absence. But to make use of the
allusion of a celebrated French 1 author, the judgment may
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be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary

machine is sufficient to tell the hours; but the most
elaborate alone can point out the minutes and seconds, and
distinguish the smallest differences of time. One that has
well digested his knowledge both of books and men, has
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little enjoyment but in the company of a few select

companions. He feels too sensibly, how much all the rest of
mankind fall short of the notions which he has entertained.
And, his affections
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being thus confined within a narrow circle, no wonder he

carries them further, than if they were more general and
undistinguished. The gaiety and frolic of a bottle
companion improves with him into a solid friendship: And
the ardours of a youthful appetite become an elegant
passion.
N O T E S.
1. Mons. Fontenelle, Pluralit des Mondes. Soir. 6.
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E S S A Y II.
Of the Liberty of the Press.
OTHING is more apt to surprize a foreigner, than

the extreme liberty, which we enjoy in this country,
of communicating whatever we please to the public, and of
openly censuring every measure, entered into by the king
or his ministers. If the administration resolve upon war, it is
affirmed, that, either wilfully or ignorantly, they mistake
the interests of the nation, and that peace, in the present
situation of affairs, is infinitely preferable. If the passion of
the ministers lie towards peace, our political writers breathe
nothing but war and devastation, and represent the pacific
conduct of the government as mean and pusillanimous. As
this liberty is not indulged in any other government, either
republican or monarchical; in Holland and Venice, more
than in France
Mil 10
or Spain; it may very naturally give occasion to a question,

How it happens that Great Britain alone enjoys this peculiar
privilege?
The reason, why the laws indulge us in such a liberty
seems to be derived from our mixed form of government,
which is neither wholly monarchical, nor wholly republican.
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It will be found, if I mistake not, a true observation in

politics, that the two extremes in government, liberty and
slavery, commonly approach nearest to each other; and that,
as you depart from the extremes, and mix a little of
monarchy with liberty, the government becomes always the
more free; and on the other hand, when you mix a little of
liberty with monarchy, the yoke becomes always the more
grievous and intolerable. In a government, such as that of
France, which is absolute, and where law, custom, and
religion concur, all of them, to make the people fully
satisfied with their condition, the monarch cannot entertain
any jealousy against his subjects, and therefore is apt to
indulge them in great liberties both of speech and action. In
a government altogether republican, such as that of
Holland, where there is no magistrate so eminent as to give
jealousy to the state, there is no danger in intrusting the
magistrates with large discretionary powers; and though
many advantages result from such powers, in preserving
peace and order, yet they lay a considerable restraint on
mens actions, and make every private citizen pay a great
respect to the government. Thus it seems evident, that the
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two extremes of absolute monarchy and of a republic,

approach near to each other in some material circumstances.
In the first, the magistrate has no jealousy of the people: in
the second, the people have none of the magistrate: Which
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want of jealousy begets a mutual confidence and trust in

both cases, and produces a species of liberty in monarchies,
and of arbitrary power in republics.
To justify the other part of the foregoing observation,
that, in every government, the means are most wide of each
other, and that the mixtures of monarchy and liberty render
the yoke either more easy or more grievous; I must take
notice of a remark in Tacitus with regard to the Romans
under the emperors, that they neither could bear total
slavery nor total liberty, Nec totam servitutem, nec totam
libertatem pati possunt. This remark a celebrated poet has
translated and applied to the English, in his lively
description of queen Elizabeths policy and government,
Et fit aimer son joug a lAnglois indompt,
Qui ne peut ni servir, ni vivre en libert,
Henriade, liv. I.
According to these remarks, we are to consider the
Roman government under the emperors as a mixture of
despotism and liberty, where the despotism prevailed; and
the English government as a mixture of the same kind,
where the liberty
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predominates. The consequences are conformable to the

foregoing observation; and such as may be expected from
those mixed forms of government, which beget a mutual
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watchfulness and jealousy. The Roman emperors were,

many of them, the most frightful tyrants that ever disgraced
human nature; and it is evident, that their cruelty was
chiefly excited by their jealousy, and by their observing that
all the great men of Rome bore with impatience the
dominion of a family, which, but a little before, was no wise
superior to their own. On the other hand, as the republican
part of the government prevails in England, though with a
great mixture of monarchy, it is obliged, for its own
preservation, to maintain a watchful jealousy over the
magistrates, to remove all discretionary powers, and to
secure every ones life and fortune by general and inflexible
laws. No action must be deemed a crime but what the law
has plainly determined to be such: No crime must be
imputed to a man but from a legal proof before his judges;
and even these judges must be his fellow-subjects, who are
obliged, by their own interest, to have a watchful eye over
the encroachments and violence of the ministers. From
these causes it proceeds, that there is as much liberty, and
even, perhaps, licentiousness in Great Britain, as there
were formerly slavery and tyranny in Rome.
These principles account for the great liberty of the
press in these kingdoms, beyond what is indulged in any
other government. It is apprehended, that arbitrary power
would steal in upon us, were we not careful to prevent its
progress, and were there not an easy method of conveying
the alarm from one end of the kingdom to the other. The
spirit of the people must frequently be rouzed, in order to
curb the ambition of the court; and the dread of rouzing
this spirit must be employed to prevent that ambition.
Nothing so effectual to this purpose as the liberty of the
press, by which all the learning, wit, and genius of the
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nation may be employed on the side of freedom, and every

one be animated to its defence. As long, therefore, as the
republican part of our government can maintain itself
against the monarchical, it will natu-
Mil 13
rally be careful to keep the press open, as of importance to

its own preservation.
It must however be allowed, that the unbounded
liberty of the press, though it be difficult, perhaps
impossible, to propose a suitable remedy for it, is one of the
evils, attending those mixt forms of government.
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E S S A Y III.
That Politics may be reduced to a Science.
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T is a question with several, whether there be any

essential difference between one form of government
and another? and, whether every form may not become
good or bad, according as it is well or ill administered 1?
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Were it once admitted, that all governments are alike, and

that the only difference consists in the character and
conduct of the governors, most political disputes would be
at an end, and all Zeal for one
Mil 15
constitution above another, must be esteemed mere bigotry

and folly. But, though a friend to moderation, I cannot
forbear condemning this sentiment, and should be sorry to
think, that human affairs admit of no greater stability, than
what they receive from the casual humours and characters of
particular men.
It is true; those who maintain, that the goodness of all
government consists in the goodness of the administration,
may cite many particular instances in history, where the very
same government, in different hands, has varied suddenly
into the two opposite extremes of good and bad. Compare
the French government under Henry III. and under
Henry IV. Oppression, levity, artifice on the part of the
rulers; faction, sedition, treachery, rebellion, disloyalty on
the part of the subjects: These compose the character of the
former miserable aera. But when the patriot and heroic
prince, who succeeded, was once firmly seated on the
throne, the government, the people, every thing seemed to
be totally changed; and all from the difference of the
temper and conduct of these two sovereigns. Instances of
this kind may be multiplied, almost without number, from
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ancient as well as modern history, foreign as well as

domestic.
But here it may be proper to make a distinction. All
absolute governments must very much depend on the
administration; and this is one of the great inconveniences
attending that form of government. But a republican and
free government would be an obvious absurdity, if the
particular checks and controuls, provided by the
constitution, had really no
Mil 16
influence, and made it not the interest, even of bad men, to

act for the public good. Such is the intention of these forms
of government, and such is their real effect, where they are
wisely constituted: As on the other hand, they are the
source of all disorder, and of the blackest crimes, where
either skill or honesty has been wanting in their original
frame and institution.
So great is the force of laws, and of particular forms of
government, and so little dependence have they on the
humours and tempers of men, that consequences almost as
general and certain may sometimes be deduced from them,
as any which the mathematical sciences afford us.
The constitution of the Roman republic gave the whole
legislative power to the people, without allowing a negative
voice either to the nobility or consuls. This unbounded
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power they possessed in a collective, not in a representative

body. The consequences were: When the people, by success
and conquest, had become very numerous, and had spread
themselves to a great distance from the capital, the citytribes, though the most contemptible, carried almost every
vote: They were, therefore, most cajoled by every one that
affected popularity: They were supported in idleness by the
general distribution of corn, and by particular bribes, which
they received from almost every candidate: By this means,
they became every day more licentious, and the Campus
Martius was a perpetual scene of tumult and sedition:
Armed slaves were introduced among these rascally citizens;
so that the whole government fell into anarchy, and the
greatest happiness, which the Romans could look for, was
the despotic power of the Caesars. Such are the effects of
democracy without a representative.
It is possible so to constitute a free government, as that
a single person, call him doge, prince, or king, shall possess
a
Mil 18
large share of power, and shall form a proper balance or

counterpoise to the other parts of the legislature. This chief
magistrate may be either elective or hereditary; and though
the former institution may, to a superficial view, appear the
most advantageous; yet a more accurate inspection will
discover in it greater inconveniencies than in the latter, and
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such as are founded on causes and principles eternal and

immutable. The filling of the throne, in such a government,
is a point of too great and too general interest, not to divide
the whole people into factions: Whence a civil war, the
greatest of ills, may be apprehended, almost with certainty,
upon every vacancy. The prince elected must be either a
Foreigner or a Native: The former will be ignorant of the
people whom he is to govern; suspicious of his new subjects,
and suspected by them; giving his confidence entirely to
strangers, who will have no other care but of enriching
themselves in the quickest manner, while their masters
favour and authority are able to support them. A native will
carry into the throne all his private animosities and
friendships, and will never be viewed in his elevation,
without exciting the sentiment of envy in those, who
formerly considered him as their equal. Not to mention that
a crown is too high a reward ever to be given to merit alone,
and will always induce the candidates to employ force, or
money, or intrigue, to procure the votes of the electors: So
that such an election will give no better chance for superior
merit in the prince, than if the state had trusted to birth
alone for determining their sovereign.
It may therefore be pronounced as an universal axiom
in politics, That an hereditary prince, a nobility without vassals,
and a people voting by their representatives, form the best
Momarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy. But in order to
prove more fully, that politics admit of general truths,
which are invariable by the humour or education either of
subject or sovereign, it may not be amiss to observe some
other principles of this science, which may seem to deserve
that character.
It may easily be observed, that, though free
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governments have been commonly the most happy for those

who partake of their freedom; yet are they the most ruinous
and oppressive to
Mil 19
their provinces: And this observation may, I believe, be

fixed as a maxim of the kind we are here speaking of. When
a monarch extends his dominions by conquest, he soon
learns to consider his old and his new subjects as on the same
footing; because, in reality, all his subjects are to him the
same, except the few friends and favourites, with whom he
is personally acquainted. He does not, therefore, make any
distinction between them in his general laws; and, at the same
time, is careful to prevent all particular acts of oppression on
the one as well as on the other. But a free state necessarily
makes a great distinction, and must always do so, till men
learn to love their neighbours as well as themselves. The
conquerors, in such a government, are all legislators, and
will be sure to contrive matters, by restrictions on trade, and
by taxes, so as to draw some private, as well as public,
advantage from their conquests. Provincial governors have
also a better chance, in a republic, to escape with their
plunder, by means of bribery or intrigue; and their fellowcitizens, who find their own state to be enriched by the
spoils of the subject provinces, will be the more inclined to
tolerate such abuses. Not to mention, that it is a necessary
precaution in a free state to change the governors
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frequently; which obliges these temporary tyrants to be

more expeditious and rapacious, that they may accumulate
sufficient wealth before they give place to their successors.
What cruel tyrants were the Romans over the world during
the time of their commonwealth! It is true, they had laws to
prevent oppression in their provincial magistrates; but
Cicero informs us, that the Romans could not better
consult the interests of the provinces than by repealing
these very laws. For, in that case, says he, our magistrates,
having entire impunity, would plunder no more than would
satisfy their own rapaciousness; whereas, at present, they
must also satisfy that of their judges, and of all the great
men in Rome, of whose protection they stand in need. Who
can read of the cruelties and oppressions of Verres without
horror and astonishment?
Mil 20
And who is not touched with indignation to hear, that, after

Cicero had exhausted on that abandoned criminal all the
thunders of his eloquence, and had prevailed so far as to get
him condemned to the utmost extent of the laws; yet that
cruel tyrant lived peaceably to old age, in opulence and
ease, and, thirty years afterwards, was put into the
proscription by Mark Anthony, on account of his
exorbitant wealth, where he fell with Cicero himself, and
all the most virtuous men of Rome? After the dissolution of
the commonwealth, the Roman yoke became easier upon
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2*
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the provinces, as Tacitus informs us 2*; and it may be

observed, that many of the worst emperors, Domitian 3,
for instance, were careful to prevent all oppression on the
provinces. In 4 Tiberiuss time, Gaul was esteemed richer
than Italy itself: Nor, do I find, during the whole time of
the Roman monarchy, that the empire became less rich or
populous in any of its provinces; though indeed its valour
and military discipline were always upon the
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decline. The oppression and tyranny of the Carthaginians

over their subject states in Africa went so far, as we learn
from Polybius 5, that, not content with exacting the half of
all the produce of the land, which of itself was a very high
rent, they also loaded them with many other taxes. If we
pass from ancient to modern times, we shall still find the
observation to hold. The provinces of absolute monarchies
are always better treated than those of free states. Compare
the Pas conquis of France with Ireland, and you will be
convinced of this truth; though this latter kingdom, being,
in a good measure, peopled from England, possesses so
many rights and privileges as should naturally make it
challenge better treatment than that of a conquered
province. Corsica is also an obvious instance to the same
purpose.
There is an observation in Machiavel, with regard to
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the conquests of Alexander the Great, which I think, may

be regarded as one of those eternal political truths, which
no time nor accidents can vary. It may seem strange, says
that politician, that such sudden conquests, as those of
Alexander, should be possessed so peaceably by his
successors, and that the Persians, during all the confusions
and civil wars among the Greeks, never made the smallest
effort towards the recovery of their former independent
government. To satisfy us concerning the cause of this
remarkable event, we may
Mil 22
consider, that a monarch may govern his subjects in two

different ways. He may either follow the maxims of the
eastern princes, and stretch his authority so far as to leave
no distinction of rank among his subjects, but what proceeds
immediately from himself; no advantages of birth; no
hereditary honours and possessions; and, in a word, no
credit among the people, except from his commission alone.
Or a monarch may exert his power after a milder manner,
like other European princes; and leave other sources of
honour, beside his smile and favour: Birth, titles,
possessions, valour, integrity, knowledge, or great and
fortunate atchievements. In the former species of
government, after a conquest, it is impossible ever to shake
off the yoke; since no one possesses, among the people, so
much personal credit and authority as to begin such an
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enterprize: Whereas, in the latter, the least misfortune, or

discord among the victors, will encourage the vanquished to
take arms, who have leaders ready to prompt and conduct
them in every undertaking 6.
Mil 23
Such is the reasoning of Machiavel, which seems solid

and conclusive; though I wish he had not mixed falsehood
with truth, in asserting, that monarchies, governed
according to eastern policy, though more easily kept when
once subdued, yet are the most difficult to subdue; since
they cannot contain any powerful subject, whose discontent
and faction may facilitate the enterprizes of an enemy. For
besides, that such a tyrannical government enervates the
courage of men, and renders them indifferent towards the
fortunes of their sovereign; besides this, I say, we find by
experience, that even the temporary and delegated
authority of the generals and
Mil 24
magistrates; being always, in such governments, as absolute

within its sphere, as that of the prince himself; is able, with
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barbarians, accustomed to a blind submission, to produce

the most dangerous and fatal revolutions. So that, in every
respect, a gentle government is preferable, and gives the
greatest security to the sovereign as well as to the subject.
Legislators, therefore, ought not to trust the future
government of a state entirely to chance, but ought to
provide a system of laws to regulate the administration of
public affairs to the latest posterity. Effects will always
correspond to causes; and wise regulations in any
commonwealth are the most valuable legacy that can be left
to future ages. In the smallest court or office, the stated
forms and methods, by which business must be conducted,
are found to be a considerable check on the natural
depravity of mankind. Why should not the case be the same
in public affairs? Can we ascribe the stability and wisdom of
the Venetian government, through so many ages, to any
thing but the form of government? And is it not easy to
point out those defects in the original constitution, which
produced the tumultuous governments of Athens and
Rome, and ended at last in the ruin of these two famous
republics? And so little dependance has this affair on the
humours and education of particular men, that one part of
the same republic may be wisely conducted, and another
weakly, by the very same men, merely on account of the
difference of the forms and institutions, by which these
parts are regulated. Historians inform us that this was
actually the case with Genoa. For while the state was always
full of sedition, and tumult, and disorder, the bank of St.
George, which had become a considerable part of the
people, was conducted, for several ages, with the utmost
integrity and wisdom 7*.
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Mil 25
The ages of greatest public spirit are not always most

eminent for private virtue. Good laws may beget order and
moderation in the government, where the manners and
customs have instilled little humanity or justice into the
tempers of men. The most illustrious period of the Roman
history, considered in a political view, is that between the
beginning of the first and end of the last Punic war; the due
balance between the nobility and the people being then
fixed by the contests of the tribunes, and not being yet lost
by the extent of conquests. Yet at this very time, the horrid
practice of poisoning was so common, that, during part of a
season, a Praetor punished capitally for this crime above
three thousand 8 persons in a part of Italy; and found
0
informations of this nature still multiplying upon him.

There is a similar, or rather
Mil 26
a worse instance 9, in the more early times of the

commonwealth. So depraved in private life were that
people, whom in their histories we so much admire. I doubt
not but they were really more virtuous during the time of
0
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the two Triumvirates; when they were tearing their common

country to pieces, and spreading slaughter and desolation
over the face of the earth, merely for the choice of
tyrants 10*.
Here, then, is a sufficient inducement to maintain,
with the utmost Zeal, in every free state, those forms and
institutions, by which liberty is secured, the public good
consulted, and the avarice or ambition of particular men
restrained and punished. Nothing does more honour to
human nature, than to see it susceptible of so noble a
passion; as nothing can be a greater indication of meanness
of heart in any man, than to see him destitute of it. A man
who loves only himself, without regard to friendship and
desert, merits the severest blame;
Mil 27
and a man, who is only susceptible of friendship, without

public spirit, or a regard to the community, is deficient in
the most material part of virtue.
But this is a subject which needs not be longer insisted
on at present. There are enow of zealots on both sides who
kindle up the passions of their partizans, and under
pretence of public good, pursue the interests and ends of
their particular faction. For my part, I shall always be more
fond of promoting moderation than zeal; though perhaps
the surest way of producing moderation in every party is to
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increase our zeal for the public. Let us therefore try, if it

be possible, from the foregoing doctrine, to draw a lesson
of moderation with regard to the parties, into which our
country is at presentg divided; at the same time, that we
allow not this moderation to abate the industry and passion,
with which every individual is bound to pursue the good of
his country.
Those who either attack or defend a minister in such a
government as ours, where the utmost liberty is allowed,
always carry matters to an extreme, and exaggerate his merit
or demerit with regard to the public. His enemies are sure
to charge him with the greatest enormities, both in
domestic and
Mil 28
foreign management; and there is no meanness or crime, of

which, in their account, he is not capable. Unnecessary
wars, scandalous treaties, profusion of public treasure,
oppressive taxes, every kind of mal-administration is
ascribed to him. To aggravate the charge, his pernicious
conduct, it is said, will extend its baleful influence even to
posterity, by undermining the best constitution in the
world, and disordering that wise system of laws, institutions,
and customs, by which our ancestors, during so many
centuries, have been so happily governed. He is not only a
wicked minister in himself, but has removed every security
provided against wicked ministers for the future.
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On the other hand, the partizans of the minister make

his panegyric run as high as the accusation against him, and
celebrate his wise, steady, and moderate conduct in every
part of his administration. The honour and interest of the
nation supported abroad, public credit maintained at home,
persecution restrained, faction subdued; the merit of all
these blessings is ascribed solely to the minister. At the same
time, he crowns all his other merits by a religious care of
the best constitution in the world, which he has preserved in
all its parts, and has transmitted entire, to be the happiness
and security of the latest posterity.
When this accusation and panegyric are received by the
partizans of each party, no wonder they beget an
extraordinary ferment on both sides, and fill the nation with
violent animosities. But I would fain persuade these partyzealots, that there is a flat contradiction both in the
accusation and panegyric, and that it were impossible for
either of them to run so high, were it not for this
contradiction. If our constitution be really that noble fabric,
the pride of Britain, the envy of our neighbours, raised by the labour
of so many centuries, repaired at the expence of so many millions, and
cemented by such a profusion of blood 11*; I say, if our constitution
0
does in any degree deserve
Mil 29
these eulogies, it would never have suffered a wicked and

weak minister to govern triumphantly for a course of
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twenty years, when opposed by the greatest geniuses in the

nation, who exercised the utmost liberty of tongue and pen,
in parliament, and in their frequent appeals to the people.
But, if the minister be wicked and weak, to the degree so
strenuously insisted on, the constitution must be faulty in its
original principles, and he cannot consistently be charged
with undermining the best form of government in the
world. A constitution is only so far good, as it provides a
remedy against mal-administration; and if the British,
when in its greatest vigour, and repaired by two such
remarkable events, as the Revolution and Accession, by which
our ancient royal family was sacrificed to it; if our
constitution, I say, with so great advan-
Mil 30
tages, does not, in fact, provide any such remedy, we are

rather beholden to any minister who undermines it, and
affords us an opportunity of erecting a better in its place.
I would employ the same topics to moderate the zeal of
those who defend the minister. Is our constitution so excellent?
Then a change of ministry can be no such dreadful event;
since it is essential to such a constitution, in every ministry,
both to preserve itself from violation, and to prevent all
enormities in the administration. Is our constitution very bad?
Then so extraordinary a jealousy and apprehension, on
account of changes, is ill placed; and a man should no more
be anxious in this case, than a husband, who had married a
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woman from the stews, should be watchful to prevent her

infidelity. Public affairs, in such a government, must
necessarily go to confusion, by whatever hands they are
conducted; and the zeal of patriots is in that case much less
requisite than the patience and submission of philosophers.
The virtue and good intentions of Cato and Brutus are
highly laudable; but, to what purpose did their zeal serve?
Only to hasten the fatal period of the Roman government,
and render its convulsions and dying agonies more violent
and painful.
I would not be understood to mean, that public affairs
deserve no care and attention at all. Would men be
moderate and consistent, their claims might be admitted; at
least might be examined. The country-party might still assert,
that our constitution, though excellent, will admit of maladministration to a certain degree; and therefore, if the
minister be bad, it is proper to oppose him with a suitable
degree of zeal. And, on the other hand, the court-party may
be allowed, upon the
Mil 31
supposition that the minister were good, to defend, and

with some zeal too, his administration. I would only persuade
men not to contend, as if they were fighting pro aris & focis,
and change a good constitution into a bad one, by the
violence of their factions.
I have not here considered any thing that is personal in
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the present controversy. In the best civil constitution, where

every man is restrained by the most rigid laws, it is easy to
discover either the good or bad intentions of a minister, and
to judge, whether his personal character deserve love or
hatred. But such questions are of little importance to the
public, and lay those, who employ their pens upon them,
under a just suspicion either of malevolence or of flattery.
N O T E S.
1. For forms of government let fools contest,
Whateer is best administerd is best.
Essay on Man, Book 3.
*2. Ann. lib. I. cap. 2.
3. Suet. in vita Domit.
4. Egregium resumendae libertati tempus, si ipsi florentes, quam inops
Italia, quam imbellis urbana plebs, nihil validum in exercitibus, nisi quod
externum cogitarent. Tacit. Ann. lib. 3.
5. Lib. I. cap. 72.
6. See NOTE [A].
*7. Essempio veramente raro, & da Filosofi intante loro imaginate &
vedute Republiche mai non trovato, vedere dentro ad un medesimo cerchio, fra
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medesimi cittadini, la liberta, & la tirannide, la vita civile & la corotta, la

giustitia & la licenza; perche quello ordine solo mantiere quella citta piena di
costumi antichi & venerabili. E segli auvenisse (che col tempo in ogni modo
auverr) que San
[Mil 25]
Giorgio tutta quel la citt occupasse, sarrebbe
quella una Republica piu dalla Venetiana memorabile. Della Hist.

Florentin, lib. 8.
8. T. Livii, lib. 40. cap. 43.
9. Id. lib. 8. cap. 18.
*10. LAigle contre LAigle, Romains contre Romains,
Combatans seulement pour le choix de tyrans.
Corneille.
*11. Dissertation on parties, Letter 10.
NOTE [A], p. 20. [Mil 22.]
Have taken it for granted, according to the supposition

of Machiavel, that the ancient Persians had no nobility;
though there is reason to suspect, that the Florentine
secretary, who seems to have been better acquainted with
the Roman than the Greek authors, was mistaken in this
particular. The more ancient Persians, whose manners are
described by Xenophon, were a free people, and had
nobility. Their were preserved even after the
extending of their conquests and the consequent change of
their government. Arrian mentions them in Dariuss time,
De exped. Alex. lib. ii. Historians also speak often of the
persons in command as men of family. Tygranes, who was
general of the Medes under Xerxes, was of the race of
Achmaenes, Herod. lib. vii. cap. 62. Artachaeas, who
directed the cutting of the canal about mount Athos, was of
the same family. Id. cap. 117. Megabyzus was one of the
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seven eminent Persians who conspired against the Magi. His

son, Zopyrus, was in the highest command under Darius,
and delivered Babylon to him. His grandson, Megabyzus,
commanded the army, defeated at Marathon. His greatgrandson, Zopyrus, was also eminent, and was banished
from Persia. Herod. lib. iii. Thuc. lib. i. [Mil 23] Rosaces, who
commanded an army in Egypt under Artaxerxes, was also
descended from one of the seven conspirators, Diod. Sic.
lib. xvi. Agesilaus, in Xenophon, Hist. Graec. lib. iv.
being desirous of making a marriage betwixt king Cotys his
ally, and the daughter of Spithridates, a Persian of rank,
who had deserted to him, first asks Cotys what family
Spithridates is of. One of the most considerable in Persia,
says Cotys. Ariaeus, when offered the sovereignty by
Clearchus and the ten thousand Greeks, refused it as of
too low a rank, and said, that so many eminent Persians
would never endure his rule. Id. de exped. lib. ii. Some of the
families
descended
from
the
seven
Persians
abovementioned remained during all Alexanders
successors; and Mithirdates, in Antiochuss time, is said by
Polybius to be descended from one of them, lib. v. cap. 43.
Artabazus was esteemed, as Arrian says,
lib. iii. And when Alexander married in one day 80
of his captains to Persian women, his intention plainly was
to ally the Macedonians with the most eminent Persian
families. Id. lib. vii. Diodorus Siculus says they were of the
most noble birth in Persia, lib. xvii. The government of
Persia was despotic, and conducted in many respects, after
the eastern manner, but was not carried so far as to extirpate
all nobility, and confound all ranks and orders. It left men
who were still great, by themselves and their family,
independent of their office and commission. And the reason
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why the Macedonians kept so easily dominion over them

was owing to other causes easy to be found in the historians;
though it must be owned that Machiavels reasoning is, in
itself, just, however doubtful its application to the present
case.
Mil 32
E S S A Y IV.
Of the First Principles of Government.
OTHING appears more surprizing to those, who

consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than
the easiness with which the many are governed by the few;
and the implicit submission, with which men resign their
own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When
we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall
find, that, as Force is always on the side of the governed,
the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It
is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded;
and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most
military governments, as well as to the most free and most
popular. The soldan of Egypt, or the emperor of Rome,
might drive his harmless subjects, like brute beasts, against
their sentiments and inclination: But
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Mil 33
he must, at least, have led his mamalukes, or praetorian bands,

like men, by their opinion.
Opinion is of two kinds, to wit, opinion of interest,
and opinion of right. By opinion of interest, I chiefly
understand the sense of the general advantage which is
reaped from government; together with the persuasion, that
the particular government, which is established, is equally
advantageous with any other that could easily be settled.
When this opinion prevails among the generality of a state,
or among those who have the force in their hands, it gives
great security to any government.
Right is of two kinds, right to Power and right to
Property. What prevalence opinion of the first kind has
over mankind, may easily be understood, by observing the
attachment which all nations have to their ancient
government, and even to those names, which have had the
sanction of antiquity. Antiquity always begets the opinion of
right; and whatever disadvantageous sentiments we may
entertain of mankind, they are always found to be prodigal
both of blood and treasure in the maintenance of public
justice. There is, indeed, no particular, in which, at first
sight, there may appear a greater contradiction in the frame
of the human mind than the present. When men act in a
faction, they are apt, without shame or remorse, to neglect
all the ties of honour and morality, in order to serve their
party; and yet, when a faction is formed upon a point of
right or principle, there is no occasion, where men discover
a greater obstinacy, and a more determined sense of justice
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and equity. The same social disposition of mankind is the

cause of these contradictory appearances.
It is sufficiently understood, that the opinion of right
to property is of moment in all matters of government. A
noted author has made property the foundation of all
government;
Mil 34
and most of our political writers seem inclined to follow

him in that particular. This is carrying the matter too far;
but still it must be owned, that the opinion of right to
property has a great influence in this subject.
Upon these three opinions, therefore, of public
interest, of right to power, and of right to property, are all
governments founded, and all authority of the few over the
many. There are indeed other principles, which add force to
these, and determine, limit, or alter their operation; such as
self-interest, fear, and affection: But still we may assert, that
these other principles can have no influence alone, but
suppose the antecedent influence of those opinions abovementioned. They are, therefore, to be esteemed the
secondary, not the original principles of government.
For, first, as to self-interest, by which I mean the
expectation of particular rewards, distinct from the general
protection which we receive from government, it is evident
that the magistrates authority must be antecedently
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established, at least be hoped for, in order to produce this

expectation. The prospect of reward may augment his
authority with regard to some particular persons; but can
never give birth to it, with regard to the public. Men
naturally look for the greatest favours from their friends
and acquaintance; and therefore, the hopes of any
considerable number of the state would never center in any
particular set of men, if these men had no other title to
magistracy, and had no separate influence over the opinions
of mankind. The same observation may be extended to the
other two principles of fear and affection. No man would have
any reason to fear the fury of a tyrant, if he had no authority
over any but from fear; since, as a single man, his bodily
force can reach but a small way, and all the farther power he
possesses must be founded either on our own opinion, or on
the presumed opinion of others. And though affection to
wisdom and virtue in a sovereign extends very far, and has
great influence; yet he must antecedently be supposed
invested with a public character, otherwise the public
esteem will serve him in no stead, nor will his virtue have
any influence beyond a narrow sphere.
Mil 35
A Government may endure for several ages, though the

balance of power, and the balance of property do not
coincide. This chiefly happens, where any rank or order of
the state has acquired a large share in the property; but
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from the original constitution of the government, has no

share in the power. Under what pretence would any
individual of that order assume authority in public affairs?
As men are commonly much attached to their ancient
government, it is not to be expected, that the public would
ever favour such usurpations. But where the original
constitution allows any share of power, though small, to an
order of men, who possess a large share of the property, it is
easy for them gradually to stretch their authority, and bring
the balance of power to coincide with that of property. This
has been the case with the house of commons in England.
Most writers, that have treated of the British
government, have supposed, that, as the lower house
represents all the commons of Great Britain, its weight in
the scale is proportioned to the property and power of all
whom it represents. But this principle must not be received
as absolutely true. For though the people are apt to attach
themselves more to the house of commons, than to any
other member of the constitution; that house being chosen
by them as their representatives, and as the public guardians
of their liberty; yet are there instances where the house,
even when in opposition to the crown, has not been
followed by the people; as we may particularly observe of
the tory house of commons in the reign of king William.
Were the members obliged to receive instructions from
their constituents, like the Dutch deputies,
Mil 36
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this would entirely alter the case; and if such immense

power and riches, as those of all the commons of Great
Britain, were brought into the scale, it is not easy to
conceive, that the crown could either influence that
multitude of people, or withstand that overbalance of
property. It is true, the crown has great influence over the
collective body in the elections of members; but were this
influence, which at present is only exerted once in seven
years, to be employed in bringing over the people to every
vote, it would soon be wasted; and no skill, popularity, or
revenue, could support it. I must, therefore, be of opinion,
that an alteration in this particular would introduce a total
alteration in our government, and would soon reduce it to a
pure republic; and, perhaps, to a republic of no
inconvenient form. For though the people, collected in a
body like the Roman tribes, be quite unfit for government,
yet when dispersed in small bodies, they are more
susceptible both of reason and order; the force of popular
currents and tides is, in a great measure, broken; and the
public interest may be pursued with some method and
constancy. But it is needless to reason any farther
concerning a form of government, which is never likely to
have place in Great Britains, and which seems not to be
the aim of any party amongst us. Let us cherish and improve
our ancient government as much as possible, without
encouraging a passion for such dangerous novelties.
Mil 37
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E S S A Y V.
Of the Origin of Government.
AN, born in a family, is compelled to maintain

society, from necessity, from natural inclination,
and from habit. The same creature, in his farther progress,
is engaged to establish political society, in order to
administer justice; without which there can be no peace
among them, nor safety, nor mutual intercourse. We are,
therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our
government, as having ultimately no other object or
purpose but the distribution of justice, or, in other words,
the support of the twelve judges. Kings and parliaments,
fleets and armies, officers of the court and revenue,
ambassadors, ministers, and privy-counsellors, are all
subordinate in their end to this part of administration. Even
the clergy, as their duty leads them to inculcate morality,
may
Mil 38
justly be thought, so far as regards this world, to have no

other useful object of their institution.
All men are sensible of the necessity of justice to
maintain peace and order; and all men are sensible of the
necessity of peace and order for the maintenance of society.
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Yet, notwithstanding this strong and obvious necessity, such

is the frailty or perverseness of our nature! it is impossible
to keep men, faithfully and unerringly, in the paths of
justice. Some extraordinary circumstances may happen, in
which a man finds his interests to be more promoted by
fraud or rapine, than hurt by the breach which his injustice
makes in the social union. But much more frequently, he is
seduced from his great and important, but distant interests,
by the allurement of present, though often very frivolous
temptations. This great weakness is incurable in human
nature.
Men must, therefore, endeavour to palliate what they
cannot cure. They must institute some persons, under the
appellation of magistrates, whose peculiar office it is, to
point out the decrees of equity, to punish transgressors, to
correct fraud and violence, and to oblige men, however
reluctant, to consult their own real and permanent interests.
In a word, Obedience is a new duty which must be invented
to support that of Justice; and the tyes of equity must be
corroborated by those of allegiance.
But still, viewing matters in an abstract light, it may be
thought, that nothing is gained by this alliance, and that the
factitious duty of obedience, from its very nature, lays as
feeble a hold of the human mind, as the primitive and
natural duty of justice. Peculiar interests and present
temptations may overcome the one as well as the other.
They are equally exposed to the same inconvenience. And
the man, who is inclined to be a bad neighbour, must be led
by the same motives, well or ill understood, to be a bad
citizen and subject. Not to mention, that the magistrate
himself may often be negligent, or partial, or unjust in his
administration.
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Experience, however, proves, that there is a great

difference between the cases. Order in society, we find, is
much
Mil 39
better maintained by means of government; and our duty to

the magistrate is more strictly guarded by the principles of
human nature, than our duty to our fellow-citizens. The
love of dominion is so strong in the breast of man, that
many, not only submit to, but court all the dangers, and
fatigues, and cares of government; and men, once raised to
that station, though often led astray by private passions,
find, in ordinary cases, a visible interest in the impartial
administration of justice. The persons, who first attain this
distinction by the consent, tacit or express, of the people,
must be endowed with superior personal qualities of valour,
force, integrity, or prudence, which command respect and
confidence: and after government is established, a regard to
birth, rank, and station has a mighty influence over men,
and enforces the decrees of the magistrate. The prince or
leader exclaims against every disorder, which disturbs his
society. He summons all his partizans and all men of probity
to aid him in correcting and redressing it: and he is readily
followed by all indifferent persons in the execution of his
office. He soon acquires the power of rewarding these
services; and in the progress of society, he establishes
subordinate ministers and often a military force, who find
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an immediate and a visible interest, in supporting his

authority. Habit soon consolidates what other principles of
human nature had imperfectly founded; and men, once
accustomed to obedience, never think of departing from
that path, in which they and their ancestors have constantly
trod, and to which they are confined by so many urgent and
visible motives.
But though this progress of human affairs may appear
certain and inevitable, and though the support which
allegiance brings to justice, be founded on obvious
principles of human nature, it cannot be expected that men
should beforehand be able to discover them, or foresee
their operation. Government commences more casually and
more imperfectly. It is probable, that the first ascendant of
one man over multitudes begun during a state of war; where
the superiority of courage and of genius discovers itself
most visibly, where unanimity and con-
Mil 40
cert are most requisite, and where the pernicious effects of

disorder are most sensibly felt. The long continuance of
that state, an incident common among savage tribes, enured
the people to submission; and if the chieftain possessed as
much equity as prudence and valour, he became, even
during peace, the arbiter of all differences, and could
gradually, by a mixture of force and consent, establish his
authority. The benefit sensibly felt from his influence,
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made it be cherished by the people, at least by the

peaceable and well disposed among them; and if his son
enjoyed the same good qualities, government advanced the
sooner to maturity and perfection; but was still in a feeble
state, till the farther progress of improvement procured the
magistrate a revenue, and enabled him to bestow rewards on
the several instruments of his administration, and to inflict
punishments on the refractory and disobedient. Before that
period, each exertion of his influence must have been
particular, and founded on the peculiar circumstances of the
case. After it, submission was no longer a matter of choice
in the bulk of the community, but was rigorously exacted by
the authority of the supreme magistrate.
In all governments, there is a perpetual intestine
struggle, open or secret, between Authority and Liberty;
and neither of them can ever absolutely prevail in the
contest. A great sacrifice of liberty must necessarily be
made in every government; yet even the authority, which
confines liberty, can never, and perhaps ought never, in any
constitution, to become quite entire and uncontroulable.
The sultan is master of the life and fortune of any
individual; but will not be permitted to impose new taxes on
his subjects: a French monarch can impose taxes at pleasure;
but would find it dangerous to attempt the lives and
fortunes of individuals. Religion also, in most countries, is
commonly found to be a very intractable principle; and
other principles or prejudices frequently resist all the
authority of the civil magistrate; whose power, being
founded on opinion, can never subvert other opinions,
equally rooted with that of his title to dominion. The
government, which, in common appellation, receives the
appellation of
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Mil 41
free, is that which admits of a partition of power among

several members, whose united authority is no less, or is
commonly greater than that of any monarch; but who, in
the usual course of administration, must act by general and
equal laws, that are previously known to all the members
and to all their subjects. In this sense, it must be owned, that
liberty is the perfection of civil society; but still authority
must be acknowledged essential to its very existence: and in
those contests, which so often take place between the one
and the other, the latter may, on that account, challenge the
preference. Unless perhaps one may say (and it may be said
with some reason) that a circumstance, which is essential to
the existence of civil society, must always support itself, and
needs be guarded with less jealousy, than one that
contributes only to its perfection, which the indolence of
men is so apt to neglect, or their ignorance to overlook.
Mil 42
E S S A Y VI.
Of the Independency of Parliament.
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OLITICAL writers have established it as a maxim,

that, in contriving any system of government, and
fixing the several checks and controuls of the constitution,
every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no
other end, in all his actions, than private interest. By this
interest we must govern him, and, by means of it, make him,
notwithstanding his insatiable avarice and ambition, cooperate to public good. Without this, say they, we shall in
vain boast of the advantages of any constitution, and shall
find, in the end, that we have no security for our liberties or
possessions, except the good-will of our rulers; that is, we
shall have no security at all.
It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must
be supposed a knave: Though at the same time, it appears
Mil 43
somewhat strange, that a maxim should be true in politics,

which is false in fact. But to satisfy us on this head, we may
consider, that men are generally more honest in their
private than in their public capacity, and will go greater
lengths to serve a party, than when their own private
interest is alone concerned. Honour is a great check upon
mankind: But where a considerable body of men act
together, this check is, in a great measure, removed; since a
man is sure to be approved of by his own party, for what
promotes the common interest; and he soon learns to
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despise the clamours of adversaries. To which we may add,

that every court or senate is determined by the greater
number of voices; so that, if self-interest influences only
the majority, (as it will always do) the whole senate follows
the allurements of this separate interest, and acts as if it
contained not one member, who had any regard to public
interest and liberty.
When there offers, therefore, to our censure and
examination, any plan of government, real or imaginary,
where the power is distributed among several courts, and
several orders of men, we should always consider the
separate interest of each court, and each order; and, if we
find that, by the skilful division of power, this interest must
necessarily, in its operation, concur with public, we may
pronounce that government to be wise and happy. If, on the
contrary, separate interest be not checked, and be not
directed to the public, we ought to look for nothing but
faction, disorder, and tyranny from such a government. In
this opinion I am justified by experience, as well as by the
authority of all philosophers and politicians, both antient
and modern.
How much, therefore, would it have surprised such a
genius as Cicero, or Tacitus, to have been told, that, in a
future age, there should arise a very regular system of mixed
government, where the authority was so distributed, that
one rank, whenever it pleased, might swallow up all the rest,
and engross the whole power of the constitution. Such a
government, they would say, will not be a mixed
government. For so great is the natural ambition of men,
that they are never satis-
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Mil 44
fied with power; and if one order of men, by pursuing its

own interest, can usurp upon every other order, it will
certainly do so, and render itself, as far as possible, absolute
and uncontroulable.
But, in this opinion, experience shews they would have
been mistaken. For this is actually the case with the British
constitution. The share of power, allotted by our
constitution to the house of commons, is so great, that it
absolutely commands all the other parts of the government.
The kings legislative power is plainly no proper check to it.
For though the king has a negative in framing laws; yet this,
in fact, is esteemed of so little moment, that whatever is
voted by the two houses, is always sure to pass into a law,
and the royal assent is little better than a form. The
principal weight of the crown lies in the executive power.
But besides that the executive power in every government is
altogether subordinate to the legislative; besides this, I say,
the exercise of this power requires an immense expence;
and the commons have assumed to themselves the sole right
of granting money. How easy, therefore, would it be for
that house to wrest from the crown all these powers, one
after another; by making every grant conditional, and
choosing their time so well, that their refusal of supply
should only distress the government, without giving foreign
powers any advantage over us? Did the house of commons
depend in the same manner on the king, and had none of
the members any property but from his gift, would not he
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command all their resolutions, and be from that moment

absolute? As to the house of lords, they are a very powerful
support to the Crown, so long as they are, in their turn,
supported by it; but both experience and reason shew, that
they have no force or authority sufficient to maintain
themselves alone, without such support.
How, therefore, shall we solve this paradox? And by
what means is this member of our constitution confined
within the proper limits; since, from our very constitution,
it must necessarily have as much power as it demands, and
can only be confined by itself? How is this consistent with
our experience
Mil 45
of human nature? I answer, that the interest of the body is

here restrained by that of the individuals, and that the house
of commons stretches not its power, because such an
usurpation would be contrary to the interest of the majority
of its members. The crown has so many offices at its
disposal, that, when assisted by the honest and disinterested
part of the house, it will always command the resolutions of
the whole so far, at least, as to preserve the antient
constitution from danger. We may, therefore, give to this
influence what name we please; we may call it by the
invidious appellations of corruption and dependence; but some
degree and some kind of it are inseparable from the very
nature of the constitution, and necessary to the preservation
0
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of our mixed government.

Instead then of asserting 1 absolutely, that the
dependence of parliament, in every degree, is an
infringement of British liberty, the country-party should
have made some concessions to their adversaries, and have
only examined what was the proper degree of this
dependence, beyond which it became dangerous to liberty.
But such a moderation is not to be expected in party-men
of any kind. After a concession of this nature, all
declamation must be abandoned; and a calm enquiry into
the proper degree of court-influence and parliamentary
dependence would have been expected by the readers. And
though the advantage, in such a controversy, might possibly
remain to the country-party; yet the victory would not be so
compleat as they wish for, nor would a true patriot have
given an entire loose to his zeal, for fear of running matters
into a contrary extreme, by diminishing too 2 far the
0
influence
Mil 46
of the crown. It was, therefore, thought best to deny, that

this extreme could ever be dangerous to the constitution, or
that the crown could ever have too little influence over
members of parliament.
All questions concerning the proper medium between
extremes are difficult to be decided; both because it is not
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easy to find words proper to fix this medium, and because

the good and ill, in such cases, run so gradually into each
other, as even to render our sentiments doubtful and
uncertain. But there is a peculiar difficulty in the present
case, which would embarrass the most knowing and most
impartial examiner. The power of the crown is always
lodged in a single person, either king or minister; and as
this person may have either a greater or less degree of
ambition, capacity, courage, popularity, or fortune, the
power, which is too great in one hand, may become too
little in another. In pure republics, where the authority is
distributed among several assemblies or senates, the checks
and controuls are more regular in their operation; because
the members of such numerous assemblies may be presumed
to be always nearly equal in capacity and virtue; and it is
only their number, riches, or authority, which enter into
consideration. But a limited monarchy admits not of any
such stability; nor is it possible to assign to the crown such a
determinate degree of power, as will, in every hand, form a
proper counterbalance to the other parts of the
constitution. This is an unavoidable disadvantage, among
the many advantages, attending that species of government.
N O T E S.
1. See Dissertation on Parties, throughout.
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2. See NOTE [B].
NOTE [B], p. 45. [Mil 45.]
Y that influence of the crown, which I would justify, I

mean only that which arises from the offices and
honours that are at the disposal of the crown. As to private
bribery, it may be considered in the same light as the practice
of employing spies, which is scarcely justifiable in a good
minister, and is [Mil 46] infamous in a bad one: But to be a spy,
or to be corrupted, is always infamous under all ministers,
and is to be regarded as a shameless prostitution. Polybius
justly esteems the pecuniary influence of the senate and
censors to be one of the regular and constitutional weights,
which preserved the balance of the Roman government.
Lib. vi. cap. 15.
Mil 47
E S S A Y VII.
Whether the British Government inclines
more to Absolute Monarchy, or to a
Republic.
T affords a violent prejudice against almost every

science, that no prudent man, however sure of his
principles, dares prophesy concerning any event, or foretel
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the remote consequences of things. A physician will not

venture to pronounce concerning the condition of his
patient a fortnight or month after: And still less dares a
politician foretel the situation of public affairs a few years
hence. Harrington thought himself so sure of his general
principle, that the balance of power depends on that of property, that
he ventured to pronounce it impossible ever to re-establish
monarchy in England: But his book was scarcely published
when the king was restored; and we see, that monarchy has
ever since subsisted upon the
Mil 48
same footing as before. Notwithstanding this unlucky

example, I will venture to examine an important question,
to wit, Whether the British government inclines more to absolute
monarchy, or to a republic; and in which of these two species of
government it will most probably terminate? As there seems not to
be any great danger of a sudden revolution either way, I
shall at least escape the shame attending my temerity, if I
should be found to have been mistaken.
Those who assert, that the balance of our government
inclines towards absolute monarchy, may support their
opinion by the following reasons. That property has a great
influence on power cannot possibly be denied; but yet the
general maxim, that the balance of one depends on the balance of the
other, must be received with several limitations. It is evident,
that much less property in a single hand will be able to
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counterbalance a greater property in several; not only

because it is difficult to make many persons combine in the
same views and measures; but because property, when
united, causes much greater dependence, than the same
property, when dispersed. A hundred persons, of 1000l. a
year a-piece, can consume all their income, and no body
shall ever be the better for them, except their servants and
tradesmen, who justly regard their profits as the product of
their own labour. But a man possessed of 100,000l. a year, if
he has either any generosity or any cunning, may create a
great dependence by obligations, and still a greater by
expectations. Hence we may observe, that, in all free
governments, any subject exorbitantly rich has always
created jealousy, even though his riches bore no proportion
to
Mil 49
those of the state. Crassuss fortune, if I remember well,

amounted only to about two millions and a half of our
money; yet we find, that, though his genius was nothing
extraordinary, he was able, by means of his riches alone, to
counterbalance, during his lifetime, the power of Pompey as
well as that of Caesar, who afterwards became master of
the world. The wealth of the Medici made them masters of
Florence; though, it is probable, it was not considerable,
compared to the united property of that opulent republic.
These considerations are apt to make one entertain a
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magnificent idea of the British spirit and love of liberty;

since we could maintain our free government, during so
many centuries, against our sovereigns, who, besides the
power and dignity and majesty of the crown, have always
been possessed of much more property than any subject has
ever enjoyed in any commonwealth. But it may be said, that
this spirit, however great, will never be able to support
itself against that immense property, which is now lodged in
the king, and which is still encreasing. Upon a moderate
computation, there are near three millions a year at the
disposal of the crown. The civil list amounts to near a
million; the collection of all taxes to another; and the
employments in the army and navy, together with
ecclesiastical preferments, to above a third million: An
enormous sum, and what may fairly be computed to be more
than a thirtieth part of the whole income and labour of the
kingdom. When we add to this great property, the
encreasing luxury of the nation, our proneness to
corruption, together with the great power and prerogatives
of the crown, and the
Mil 50
command of military force, there is no one but must despair

of being able, without extraordinary efforts, to support our
free government much longer under these disadvantages.
On the other hand, those who maintain, that the byass
of the British government leans towards a republic, may
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support their opinion by specious arguments. It may be said,

that, though this immense property in the crown, be joined
to the dignity of first magistrate, and to many other legal
powers and prerogatives, which should naturally give it
greater influence; yet it really becomes less dangerous to
liberty upon that very account. Were England a republic,
and were any private man possessed of a revenue, a third, or
even a tenth part as large as that of the crown, he would
very justly excite jealousy; because he would infallibly have
great authority, in the government: And such an irregular
authority, not avowed by the laws, is always more dangerous
than a much greater authority, derived from them. A man,
possessed of usurped power, can set no bounds to his
pretensions: His partizans have liberty to hope for every
thing in his favour: His enemies provoke his ambition, with
his fears, by the violence of their opposition: And the
government being thrown into a ferment, every corrupted
humour in the state naturally gathers to him. On the
contrary, a legal authority, though great, has always some
bounds, which terminate both the hopes and pretensions of
the person possessed of it: The laws must have provided a
remedy against its excesses: Such an eminent magistrate has
much to fear, and little to hope from his usurpations: And as
his legal authority is quietly submitted to, he has small
temptation and small opportunity of extending it farther.
Besides, it happens, with regard to ambitious aims and
projects, what may be observed with regard to sects of
philosophy and religion. A new sect excites such a ferment,
and is both opposed and defended with such vehemence,
that it always spreads faster, and multiplies its partizans with
greater rapidity, than any old established opinion,
recommended by the sanction of the laws and of antiquity.
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Such is the nature of novelty, that, where any thing pleases,

it be-
Mil 51
comes doubly agreeable, if new; but if it displeases, it is

doubly displeasing, upon that very account. And, in most
cases, the violence of enemies is favourable to ambitious
projects, as well as the zeal of partizans.
It may farther be said, that, though men be much
governed by interest; yet even interest itself, and all human
affairs, are entirely governed by opinion. Now, there has
been a sudden and sensible change in the opinions of men
within these last fifty years, by the progress of learning and
of liberty. Most people, in this island, have divested
themselves of all superstitious reverence to names and
authority: The clergy have much lost their credit: Their
pretensions and doctrines have been ridiculed; and even
religion can scarcely support itself in the world. The mere
name of king commands little respect; and to talk of a king
as GODs vicegerent on earth, or to give him any of those
magnificent titles, which formerly dazzled mankind, would
but excite laughter in every one. Though the crown, by
means of its large revenue, may maintain its authority in
times of tranquillity, upon private interest and influence;
yet, as the least shock or convulsion must break all these
interests to pieces, the royal power, being no longer
supported by the settled principles and opinions of men,
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will immediately dissolve. Had men been in the same

disposition at the revolution, as they are at present, monarchy
would have run a great risque of being entirely lost in this
island.
Durst I venture to deliver my own sentiments amidst
these opposite arguments, I would assert, that, unless there
happen some extraordinary convulsion, the power of the
crown, by means of its large revenue, is rather upon the
encrease; though, at the same time I own, that its progress
seems very slow, and almost insensible. The tide has run
long, and with some rapidity, to the side of popular
government, and is just beginning to turn towards
monarchy.
It is well known, that every government must come to a
period, and that death is unavoidable to the political as well
as to the animal body. But, as one kind of death may be
preferable to another, it may be enquired, whether it be
more
Mil 52
desirable for the British constitution to terminate in a

popular government, or in absolute monarchy? Here I
would frankly declare, that, though liberty be preferable to
slavery, in almost every case; yet I should rather wish to see
an absolute monarch than a republic in this island. For, let
us consider, what kind of republic we have reason to expect.
The question is not concerning any fine imaginary republic,
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of which a man may form a plan in his closet. There is no

doubt, but a popular government may be imagined more
perfect than absolute monarchy, or even than our present
constitution. But what reason have we to expect that any
such government will ever be established in Great Britain,
upon the dissolution of our monarchy? If any single person
acquire power enough to take our constitution to pieces,
and put it up a-new, he is really an absolute monarch; and
we have already had an instance of this kind, sufficient to
convince us, that such a person will never resign his power,
or establish any free government. Matters, therefore, must
be trusted to their natural progress and operation; and the
house of commons, according to its present constitution,
must be the only legislature in such a popular government.
The inconveniencies attending such a situation of affairs,
present themselves by thousands. If the house of commons,
in such a case, ever dissolve itself, which is not to be
expected, we may look for a civil war every election. If it
continue itself, we shall suffer all the tyranny of a faction,
subdivided into new factions. And, as such a violent
government cannot long subsist,
Mil 53
we shall, at last, after many convulsions, and civil wars, find

repose in absolute monarchy, which it would have been
happier for us to have established peaceably from the
beginning. Absolute monarchy, therefore, is the easiest
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death, the true Euthanasia of the British constitution.

Thus, if we have reason to be more jealous of
monarchy, because the danger is more imminent from that
quarter; we have also reason to be more jealous of popular
government, because that danger is more terrible. This may
teach us a lesson of moderation in all our political
controversies.
Mil 54
E S S A Y VIII.
Of Parties in General.
F all men, that distinguish themselves by memorable

atchievements, the first place of honour seems due to
Legislators and founders of states, who transmit a system
of laws and institutions to secure the peace, happiness, and
liberty of future generations. The influence of useful
inventions in the arts and sciences may, perhaps, extend
farther than that of wise laws, whose effects are limited
both in time and place; but the benefit arising from the
former, is not so sensible as that which results from the
latter. Speculative sciences do, indeed, improve the mind;
but this advantage reaches only to a few persons, who have
leisure to apply themselves to them. And as to practical arts,
which encrease the commodities and enjoyments of life, it is
well known, that
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Mil 55
mens happiness consists not so much in an abundance of

these, as in the peace and security with which they possess
them; and those blessings can only be derived from good
government. Not to mention, that general virtue and good
morals in a state, which are so requisite to happiness, can
never arise from the most refined precepts of philosophy,
or even the severest injunctions of religion; but must
proceed entirely from the virtuous education of youth, the
effect of wise laws and institutions. I must, therefore,
presume to differ from Lord Bacon in this particular, and
must regard antiquity as somewhat unjust in its distribution
of honours, when it made gods of all the inventors of useful
arts, such as Ceres, Bacchus, AEsculapius; and dignify
legislators, such as Romulus and Theseus, only with the
appellation of demigods and heroes.
As much as legislators and founders of states ought to
be honoured and respected among men, as much ought the
founders of sects and factions to be detested and hated;
because the influence of faction is directly contrary to that
of laws. Factions subvert government, render laws impotent,
and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same
nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection
to each other. And what should render the founders of
parties more odious is, the difficulty of extirpating these
weeds, when once they have taken root in any state. They
naturally propagate themselves for many centuries, and
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seldom end but by the total dissolution of that government,

in which they are sown. They are, besides, plants which
grow most plentifully in the richest soil; and though
absolute governments be not wholly free from them, it must
be confessed, that they rise more easily, and propagate
themselves faster in free govern-
Mil 56
ments, where they always infect the legislature itself, which

alone could be able, by the steady application of rewards
and punishments, to eradicate them.
Factions may be divided into Personal and Real; that
is, into factions, founded on personal friendship or
animosity among such as compose the contending parties,
and into those founded on some real difference of
sentiment or interest. The reason of this distinction is
obvious; though I must acknowledge, that parties are
seldom found pure and unmixed, either of the one kind or
the other. It is not often seen, that a government divides
into factions, where there is no difference in the views of
the constituent members, either real or apparent, trivial or
material: And in those factions, which are founded on the
most real and most material difference, there is always
observed a great deal of personal animosity or affection.
But notwithstanding this mixture, a party may be
denominated either personal or real, according to that
principle which is predominant, and is found to have the
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greatest influence.
Personal factions arise most easily in small republics.
Every domestic quarrel, there, becomes an affair of state.
Love, vanity, emulation, any passion, as well as ambition
and resentment, begets public division. The Neri and
Bianchi of Florence, the Fregosi and Adorni of Genoa,
the Colonesi and Orsini of modern Rome, were parties of
this kind.
Men have such a propensity to divide into personal
factions, that the smallest appearance of real difference will
pro-
Mil 57
duce them. What can be imagined more trivial than the

difference between one colour of livery and another in
horse races? Yet this difference begat two most inveterate
factions in the Greek empire, the Prasini and Veneti, who
never suspended their animosities, till they ruined that
unhappy government.
0
We find in the Roman history a remarkable dissension

between two tribes, the Pollia and Papiria, which continued
for the space of near three hundred years, and discovered
itself in their suffrages at every election of magistrates 1*.
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Mil 58
This faction was the more remarkable, as it could continue

for so long a tract of time; even though it did not spread
itself, nor draw any of the other tribes into a share of the
quarrel. If mankind had not a strong propensity to such
divisions, the indifference of the rest of the community
must have suppressed this foolish animosity, that had not
any aliment of new benefits and injuries, of general
sympathy and antipathy, which never fail to take place,
when the whole state is rent into two equal factions.
Nothing is more usual than to see parties, which have
begun upon a real difference, continue even after that
difference is lost. When men are once inlisted on opposite
sides, they contract an affection to the persons with whom
they are united, and an animosity against their antagonists:
And these passions they often transmit to their posterity.
The real difference between Guelf and Ghibbelline was
long lost in Italy, before these factions were extinguished.
The Guelfs adhered to the pope, the Ghibbellines to the
emperor; yet the family of Sforza, who were in alliance
with the emperor, though they were Guelfs, being
expelled Milan by the king 2 of France, assisted by
0
Jacomo Trivulzio and the Ghibbellines, the pope

concurred with the latter, and they formed leagues with the
pope against the emperor.
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Mil 59
The civil wars which arose some few years ago in

Morocco, between the blacks and whites, merely on account
of their complexion, are founded on a pleasant difference.
We laugh at them; but I believe, were things rightly
examined, we afford much more occasion of ridicule to the
Moors. For, what are all the wars of religion, which have
prevailed in this polite and knowing part of the world?
They are certainly more absurd than the Moorish civil wars.
The difference of complexion is a sensible and a real
difference: But the controversy about an article of faith,
which is utterly absurd and unintelligible, is not a
difference in sentiment, but in a few phrases and
expressions, which one party accepts of, without
understanding them; and the other refuses in the same
manner.
Real factions may be divided into those from interest,
from principle, and from affection. Of all factions, the first are
the most reasonable, and the most excusable. Where two
orders of men, such as the nobles and people, have a distinct
authority in a government, not very accurately balanced and
modelled, they naturally follow a distinct interest; nor can
we reasonably expect a different conduct, considering that
degree of selfishness implanted in human nature. It requires
great skill in a legislator to prevent such parties; and many
philosophers are of opinion, that this secret, like the grand
elixir, or perpetual motion, may amuse men in theory, but can
never possibly be reduced to practice. In despotic
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governments, indeed, fac-
Mil 60
tions often do not appear; but they are not the less real; or
rather, they are more real and more pernicious, upon that
very account. The distinct orders of men, nobles and
people, soldiers and merchants, have all a distinct interest;
but the more powerful oppresses the weaker with impunity,
and without resistance; which begets a seeming tranquillity
in such governments.
There has been an attempt in England to divide the
landed and trading part of the nation; but without success.
The interests of these two bodies are not really distinct, and
never will be so, till our public debts encrease to such a
degree, as to become altogether oppressive and intolerable.
Parties from principle, especially abstract speculative
principle, are known only to modern times, and are,
perhaps, the most extraordinary and unaccountable
phaenomenon, that has yet appeared in human affairs. Where
different principles beget a contrariety of conduct, which is
the case with all different political principles, the matter
may be more easily explained. A man, who esteems the true
right of government to lie in one man, or one family,
cannot easily agree with his fellow-citizen, who thinks that
another man or family is possessed of this right. Each
naturally wishes that right may take place, according to his
own notions of it. But where the difference of principle is
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attended with no contrariety of action, but every one may

follow his own way, without interfering with his neighbour,
as happens in all religious controversies; what madness, what
fury can beget such unhappy and such fatal divisions?
Two men travelling on the highway, the one east, the
other west, can easily pass each other, if the way be broad
enough: But two men, reasoning upon opposite principles
of religion, cannot so easily pass, without shocking; though
one should think, that the way were also, in that case,
sufficiently broad, and that each might proceed, without
interruption, in his own course. But such is the nature of the
human mind, that it always lays hold on every mind that
approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified by an
unanimity of sentiments, so is
Mil 61
it shocked and disturbed by any contrariety. Hence the

eagerness, which most people discover in a dispute; and
hence their impatience of opposition, even in the most
speculative and indifferent opinions.
This principle, however frivolous it may appear, seems
to have been the origin of all religious wars and divisions.
But as this principle is universal in human nature, its effects
would not have been confined to one age, and to one sect of
religion, did it not there concur with other more accidental
causes, which raise it to such a height, as to produce the
greatest misery and devastation. Most religions of the
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ancient world arose in the unknown ages of government,

when men were as yet barbarous and uninstructed, and the
prince, as well as peasant, was disposed to receive, with
implicit faith, every pious tale or fiction, which was offered
him. The magistrate embraced the religion of the people,
and entering cordially into the care of sacred matters,
naturally acquired an authority in them, and united the
ecclesiastical with the civil power. But the Christian religion
arising, while principles directly opposite to it were firmly
established in the polite part of the world, who despised the
nation that first broached this novelty; no wonder, that, in
such circumstances, it was but little countenanced by the
civil magistrate, and that the priesthood was allowed to
engross all the authority in the new sect. So bad a use did
they make of this power, even in those early times, that the
primitive persecutions may, perhaps, in part 3*, be
0
Mil 62
ascribed to the violence instilled by them into their

followers. And the same principles of priestly government
continuing, after Christianity became the established
religion, they have engendered a spirit of persecution,
which has ever since been the poison of human society, and
the source of the most inveterate factions in every
government. Such divisions, therefore, on the part of the
people, may justly be esteemed factions of principle; but, on
the part of the priests, who are the prime movers, they are
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really factions of interest.

There is another cause (beside the authority of the
priests, and the separation of the ecclesiastical and civil
powers) which has contributed to render Christendom the
scene of religious wars and divisions. Religions, that arise in
ages totally ignorant and barbarous, consist mostly of
traditional tales and fictions, which may be different in
every sect, without being contrary to each other; and even
when they are contrary, every one adheres to the tradition
of his own sect, without much reasoning or disputation. But
as philosophy was widely spread over the world, at the time
when Christianity arose, the teachers of the new sect were
obliged to form a system of speculative opinions; to divide,
with some accuracy, their articles of faith; and to explain,
comment, confute, and defend with all the subtilty of
argument and science. Hence naturally arose keenness in
dispute, when the Christian religion came to be
Mil 63
split into new divisions and heresies: And this keenness

assisted the priests in their policy, of begetting a mutual
hatred and antipathy among their deluded followers. Sects
of philosophy, in the ancient world, were more zealous than
parties of religion; but in modern times, parties of religion
are more furious and enraged than the most cruel factions
that ever arose from interest and ambition.
I have mentioned parties from affection as a kind of real
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parties, beside those from interest and principle. By parties

from affection, I understand those which are founded on
the different attachments of men towards particular families
and persons, whom they desire to rule over them. These
factions are often very violent; though, I must own, it may
seem unaccountable, that men should attach themselves so
strongly to persons, with whom they are no wise acquainted,
whom perhaps they never saw, and from whom they never
received, nor can ever hope for any favour. Yet this we
often find to be the case, and even with men, who, on other
occasions, discover no great generosity of spirit, nor are
found to be easily transported by friendship beyond their
own interest. We are apt to think the relation between us
and our sovereign very close and intimate. The splendour of
majesty and power bestows an importance on the fortunes
even of a single person. And when a mans good-nature
does not give him this imaginary interest, his ill-nature will,
from spite and opposition to persons whose sentiments are
different from his own.
N O T E S.
*1. As this fact has not been much observed by antiquaries or
politicians, I shall deliver it in the words of the Roman historian.
Populus Tusculanus cum conjugibus ac liberis Romam venit: Ea
multitudo, veste mutata, & specie reorum tribus circuit, genibus se omnium
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advolvens. Plus itaque misericordia ad poenae veniam impetrandam, quam

causa ad crimen purgandum valuit. Tribus omnes praeter Polliam,
antiquarunt legem. Polliae sententia fuit, puberes verberatos necari, liberos
conjugesque sub corona lege belli venire: Memoriamque ejus irae
Tusculanis in poenae tam atrocis auctores mansisse ad patris aetatem
constat; nec quemquam fere ex Pollia tribu candidatum Papiram ferre
solitam, T. Livii, lib. 8. [Mil 58] The Castelani and Nicolloti are two
mobbish factions in Venice, who frequently box together, and
then lay aside their quarrels presently.
2. Lewis XII.
*3. See NOTE [C].
NOTE [C], p. 61. [Mil 61.]
Say, in part; For it is a vulgar error to imagine, that the

ancients were as great friends to toleration as the
English or Dutch are at present. The laws against external
superstition, amongst the Romans, were as anciente as the
time of the twelve tables; and the Jews as well as Christians
were sometimes punished by them; though, in general,
these laws were not rigorously executed. Immediately after
the conquest of Gaul, they forbad all but the natives to be
initiated into the religion of the Druids; and this was a kind
of persecution. In about a century after this conquest, the
emperor, Claudius, quite abolished that superstition by
penal laws; which would have been a very grievous
persecution, if the imitation [Mil 62] of the Roman manners
had not, before-hand, weaned the Gauls from their ancient
prejudices. Suetonius in vita Claudii. Pliny ascribes the
abolition of the Druidical superstitions to Tiberius,
probably because that emperor had taken some steps
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towards restraining them (lib. xxx. cap. i.). This is an instance

of the usual caution and moderation of the Romans in such
cases; and very different from their violent and sanguinary
method of treating the Christians. Hence we may entertain a
suspicion, that those furious persecutions of Christianity
were in some measure owing to the imprudent zeal and
bigotry of the first propagators of that sect; and
Ecclesiastical history affords us many reasons to confirm
this suspicion.
Mil 64
E S S A Y IX.
Of the Parties of Great Britain.
ERE the British government proposed as a subject

of speculation, one would immediately perceive in
it a source of division and party, which it would be almost
impossible for it, under any administration, to avoid. The
just balance between the republican and monarchical part of
our constitution is really, in itself, so extremely delicate and
uncertain, that, when joined to mens passions and
prejudices, it is impossible but different opinions must arise
concerning it, even among persons of the best
understanding. Those of mild tempers, who love peace and
order, and detest sedition and civil wars, will always
entertain more favourable sentiments of monarchy, than
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men of bold and generous spirits, who are passionate lovers

of liberty, and think no evil comparable to
Mil 65
subjection and slavery. And though all reasonable men agree

in general to preserve our mixed government; yet, when
they come to particulars, some will incline to trust greater
powers to the crown, to bestow on it more influence, and to
guard against its encroachments with less caution, than
others who are terrified at the most distant approaches of
tyranny and despotic power. Thus are there parties of
Principle involved in the very nature of our constitution,
which may properly enough be denominated those of
Court and Country. The strength and violence of each of
these parties will much depend upon the particular
administration. An administration may be so bad, as to
throw a great majority into the opposition; as a good
administration will reconcile to the court many of the most
passionate lovers of liberty. But however the nation may
fluctuate between them, the parties themselves will always
subsist, so long as we are governed by a limited monarchy.
But, besides this difference of Principle, those parties
are very much fomented by a difference of Interest,
without which they could scarcely ever be dangerous or
violent. The crown will naturally bestow all trust and power
upon those, whose principles, real or pretended, are most
favourable to monarchical government; and this temptation
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will naturally engage them to go greater lengths than their

principles would otherwise carry them. Their antagonists,
who are disappointed in their ambitious aims, throw
themselves into the party whose sentiments incline them to
be most jealous of royal power, and naturally carry those
sentiments to a greater height than sound politics will
justify. Thus Court and Country, which are the genuine
offspring of the British government, are a kind of mixed
parties, and are influenced both by principle and by
interest. The heads of the factions are commonly most
governed by the latter motive; the inferior members of
them by the former.
As to ecclesiastical parties; we may observe, that, in all
ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty;c and
it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have
been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition.
Liberty of
Mil 66
thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to

priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is
commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which
prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never
be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free
government. Hence it must happen, in such a constitution as
that of Great Britain, that the established clergy, while
things are in their natural situation, will always be of the
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Court-party; as, on the contrary, dissenters of all kinds will

be of the Country-party; since they can never hope for that
toleration, which they stand in need of, but by means of our
free government. All princes, that have aimed at despotic
power, have known of what importance it was to gain the
established clergy: As the clergy, on their part, have shewn a
great facility in entering into the views of such princes 1*.
0
Gustavus Vaza was, perhaps, the only ambitious monarch,

that ever depressed the church, at the same time that he
discouraged liberty. But the exorbitant power of the
bishops in Sweden, who, at that time, overtopped the crown
itself, together with their attachment to a foreign family,
was the reason of his embracing such an unusual system of
politics.
Mil 67
This observation, concerning the propensity of priests

to the government of a single person, is not true with
regard to one sect only. The Presbyterian and Calvinistic
clergy in Holland were professed friends to the family of
Orange; as the Arminians, who were esteemed heretics,
were of the Louvestein faction, and zealous for liberty.
But if a prince have the choice of both, it is easy to see, that
he will prefer the episcopal to the presbyterian form of
government, both because of the greater affinity between
monarchy and episcopacy, and because of the facility, which
he will find, in such a government, of ruling the clergy, by
0
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means of their ecclesiastical superiors 2.
If we consider the first rise of parties in England,

during the great rebellion, we shall observe, that it was
conformable to this general theory, and that the species of
government gave birth to them, by a regular and infallible
operation. The English constitution, before that period,
had lain in a kind of confusion; yet so, as that the subjects
possessed many noble privileges, which, though not exactly
bounded and secured by
Mil 68
law, were universally deemed, from long possession, to

belong to them as their birth-right. An ambitious, or rather
a misguided, prince arose, who deemed all these privileges
to be concessions of his predecessors, revokeable at
pleasure; and, in prosecution of this principle, he openly
acted in violation of liberty, during the course of several
years. Necessity, at last, constrained him to call a
parliament: The spirit of liberty arose and spread itself: The
prince, being without any support, was obliged to grant
every thing required of him: And his enemies, jealous and
implacable, set no bounds to their pretensions. Here then
began those contests, in which it was no wonder, that men
of that age were divided into different parties; since, even
at this day, the impartial are at a loss to decide concerning
the justice of the quarrel. The pretensions of the
parliament, if yielded to, broke the balance of the
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constitution, by rendering the government almost entirely

republican. If not yielded to, the nation was, perhaps, still
in danger of absolute power, from the settled principles and
inveterate habits of the king, which had plainly appeared in
every concession that he had been constrained to make to
his people. In this question, so delicate and uncertain, men
naturally fell to the side which was most conformable to
their usual principles; and the more passionate favourers of
monarchy declared for the king, as the zealous friends of
liberty sided with the parliament. The hopes of success
being nearly equal on both sides, interest had no general
influence in this contest: So that Round-head and Cavalier
were merely parties of principle; neither of
Mil 69
which disowned either monarchy or liberty; but the former

party inclined most to the republican part of our
government, the latter to the monarchical. In this respect,
they may be considered as court and country-party,
enflamed into a civil war, by an unhappy concurrence of
circumstances, and by the turbulent spirit of the age. The
commonwealths men, and the partizans of absolute power,
lay concealed in both parties, and formed but an
inconsiderable part of them.
The clergy had concurred with the kings arbitrary
designs; and, in return, were allowed to persecute their
adversaries, whom they called heretics and schismatics. The
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established clergy were episcopal; the non-conformists

presbyterian: So that all things concurred to throw the
former, without reserve, into the kings party; and the latter
into that of the parliament.
Every one knows the event of this quarrel; fatal to the
king first, to the parliament afterwards. After many
confusions and revolutions, the royal family was at last
restored, and the ancient government re-established.
Charles II. was not made wiser by the example of his
father; but prosecuted the same measures, though at first,
with more secrecy and caution. New parties arose, under
the appellation of Whig and Tory, which have continued
ever since to confound and distract our government. To
determine the nature of these parties is, perhaps, one of the
most difficult problems, that can be met with, and is a proof
that history may contain questions, as uncertain as any to be
found in the most abstract sciences. We have seen the
conduct of the two parties, during the course of seventy
Mil 70
years, in a vast variety of circumstances, possessed of power,

and deprived of it, during peace, and during war: Persons,
who profess themselves of one side or other, we meet with
every hour, in company, in our pleasures, in our serious
occupations: We ourselves are constrained, in a manner, to
take party; and living in a country of the highest liberty,
every one may openly declare all his sentiments and
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opinions: Yet are we at a loss to tell the nature, pretensions,

and principles of the different factions.
When we compare the parties of Whig and Tory with
those of Round-head and Cavalier, the most obvious
difference, that appears between them, consists in the
principles of passive obedience, and indefeasible right, which
were but little heard of among the Cavaliers, but became
the universal doctrine, and were esteemed the true
characteristic of a Tory. Were these principles pushed into
their most obvious consequences, they imply a formal
renunciation of all our liberties, and an avowal of absolute
monarchy; since nothing can be a greater absurdity than a
limited power, which must not be resisted, even when it
exceeds its limitations. But as the most rational principles
are often but a weak counterpoise to passion; it is no
wonder that these absurd principlesh were found too weak
for that effect. The Tories, as men, were enemies to
oppression; and also as Englishmen, they were enemies to
arbitrary power. Their zeal for liberty, was, perhaps, less
fervent than that of their antagonists; but was sufficient to
make them forget all their general principles, when they
saw themselves openly threatened with a subversion of the
ancient government. From these sentiments arose the
revolution; an event of mighty consequence, and the firmest
foundation of British liberty. The conduct of the Tories,
during that event, and after it, will afford us a true insight
into the nature of that party.
In the first place, they appear to have had the genuine
sentiments of Britons in their affection for liberty, and in
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Mil 71
their determined resolution not to sacrifice it to any

abstract principle whatsoever, or to any imaginary rights of
princes. This part of their character might justly have been
doubted of before the revolution, from the obvious tendency
of their avowed principles, and from theiri compliances
with a court, which seemed to make little secret of its
arbitrary designs. The revolution shewed them to have been,
in this respect, nothing, but a genuine court-party, such as
might be expected in a British government: That is, Lovers
of liberty, but greater lovers of monarchy. It must, however, be
confessed, that they carried their monarchical principles
farther, even in practice, but more so in theory, than was, in
any degree, consistent with a limited government.
Secondly, Neither their principles nor affections
concurred, entirely or heartily, with the settlement made at
the revolution, or with that which has since taken place. This
part of their character may seem opposite to the former;
since any other settlement, in those circumstances of the
nation, must probably have been dangerous, if not fatal to
liberty. But the heart of man is made to reconcile
contradictions; and this contradiction is not greater than
that between passive obedience, and the resistance employed at
the revolution. A Tory, therefore, since the revolution, may
be defined in a few words, to be a lover of monarchy, though
without abandoning liberty; and a partizan of the family of Stuart.
As a Whig may be defined to be a lover of liberty though without
renouncing monarchy; and a friend to the settlement in the
Protestant line.
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These different views, with regard to the settlement of

the crown, were accidental, but natural additions to the
principles of the court and country parties, which are the
genuine divisions in the British government. A passionate
lover of monarchy is apt to be displeased at any change of
the succession; as savouring too much of a commonwealth:
A passionate lover of liberty is apt to think that every part
of the government ought to be subordinate to the interests
of liberty.
Some, who will not venture to assert, that the real
difference between Whig and Tory was lost at the
revolution,
Mil 72
seem inclined to think, that the difference is now abolished,

and that affairs are so far returned to their natural state,
that there are at present no other parties among us but court
and country; that is, men, who, by interest or principle, are
attached either to monarchy or liberty. The Tories have
been so long obliged to talk in the republican stile, that
they seem to have made converts of themselves by their
hypocrisy, and to have embraced the sentiments, as well as
language of their adversaries. There are, however, very
considerable remains of that party in England, with all
their old prejudices; and a proof that court and country are
not our only parties, is, that almost all the dissenters side
with the court, and the lower clergy, at least, of the church
0
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of England, with the opposition. This may convince us, that

some biass still hangs upon our constitution, some extrinsic
weight, which turns it from its natural course, and causes a
confusion in our parties 3*.
N O T E S.
*1. Judaei sibi ipsi reges imposuere; qui mobilitate vulgi
expulsi, resumpta per arma dominatione; fugas civium, urbium
eversiones, fratrum, conjugum, parentum neces, aliaque solita
regibus ausi, superstitionem fovebant; quia honor sacerdotii
firmamentum potentiae assumebatur. Tacit. hist. lib. v.
2. Populi imperium juxta libertatem: paucorum dominatio
regiae libidini proprior est. Tacit. Ann. lib. vi.
*3. Some of the opinions delivered in these Essays, with regard
to the public transactions in the last century, the Author, on more
accurate examination, found reason to retract in his History of
Great Britain. And as he would not enslave himself to the
systems of either party, neither would he fetter his judgment by
his own preconceived opinions and principles; nor is he ashamed to
acknowledge his mistakes. These mistakes were indeed, at that
time, almost universal in this kingdom.
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Mil 73
E S S A Y X.
Of Superstition and Enthusiasm.
HAT the corruption of the best things produces the worst, is

grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among
other instances, by the pernicious effects of superstition and
enthusiasm, the corruptions of true religion.
These two species of false religion, though both
pernicious, are yet of a very different, and even of a
contrary nature. The mind of man is subject to certain
unaccountable terrors and apprehensions, proceeding either
from the unhappy situation of private or public affairs,
from ill health, from a gloomy and melancholy disposition,
or from the concurrence of all these circumstances. In such
a state of mind, infinite unknown evils are dreaded from
unknown agents; and where real objects of terror are
wanting, the soul, active to its
Mil 74
own prejudice, and fostering its predominant inclination,

finds imaginary ones, to whose power and malevolence it
sets no limits. As these enemies are entirely invisible and
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unknown, the methods taken to appease them are equally

unaccountable, and consist in ceremonies, observances,
mortifications, sacrifices, presents, or in any practice,
however absurd or frivolous, which either folly or knavery
recommends to a blind and terrified credulity. Weakness,
fear, melancholy, together with ignorance, are, therefore,
the true sources of Superstition.
But the mind of man is also subject to an unaccountable
elevation and presumption, arising from prosperous success,
from luxuriant health, from strong spirits, or from a bold
and confident disposition. In such a state of mind, the
imagination swells with great, but confused conceptions, to
which no sublunary beauties or enjoyments can correspond.
Every thing mortal and perishable vanishes as unworthy of
attention. And a full range is given to the fancy in the
invisible regions or world of spirits, where the soul is at
liberty to indulge itself in every imagination, which may
best suit its present taste and disposition. Hence arise
raptures, transports, and surprising flights of fancy; and
confidence and presumption still encreasing, these raptures,
being altogether unaccountable, and seeming quite beyond
the reach of our ordinary faculties, are attributed to the
immediate inspiration of that Divine Being, who is the
object of devotion. In a little time, the inspired person
comes to regard himself as a distinguished favourite of the
Divinity; and when this frenzy once takes place, which is
the summit of enthusiasm, every whimsy is consecrated:
Human reason, and even morality are rejected as fallacious
guides: And the fanatic madman delivers himself over,
blindly, and without reserve, to the supposed illapses of the
spirit, and to inspiration from above. Hope, pride,
presumption, a warm imagination, together with ignorance,
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are, therefore, the true sources of Enthusiasm.

These two species of false religion might afford
occasion to many speculations; but I shall confine myself, at
present, to a
Mil 75
few reflections concerning their different influence on

government and society.
My first reflection is, That superstition is favourable to
priestly power, and enthusiasm not less or rather more contrary to it,
than sound reason and philosophy. As superstition is founded on
fear, sorrow, and a depression of spirits, it represents the
man to himself in such despicable colours, that he appears
unworthy, in his own eyes, of approaching the divine
presence, and naturally has recourse to any other person,
whose sanctity of life, or, perhaps, impudence and cunning,
have made him be supposed more favoured by the Divinity.
To him the superstitious entrust their devotions: To his care
they recommend their prayers, petitions, and sacrifices: And
by his means, they hope to render their addresses acceptable
to their incensed Deity. Hence the origin of Priests, who
may justly be regarded as an invention of a timorous and
abject superstition, which, ever diffident of itself, dares not
offer up its own devotions, but ignorantly thinks to
recommend itself to the Divinity, by the mediation of his
supposed friends and servants. As superstition is a
considerable ingredient in almost all religions, even the
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most fanatical; there being nothing but philosophy able

entirely to conquer these unaccountable terrors; hence it
proceeds, that in almost every sect of religion there are
priests to be found: But the stronger mixture there is of
superstition, the higher is the authority of the priesthood.
On the other hand, it may be observed, that all
enthusiasts have been free from the yoke of ecclesiastics,
and have expressed great independence in their devotion;
with a contempt of forms, ceremonies, and traditions. The
quakers are the most egregious, though, at the same time, the
most inno-
Mil 76
cent enthusiasts that have yet been known; and are, perhaps,
the only sect, that have never admitted priests amongst
them. The independents, of all the English sectaries,
approach nearest to the quakers in fanaticism, and in their
freedom from priestly bondage. The presbyterians follow
after, at an equal distance in both particulars. In short this
observation is founded in experience; and will also appear
to be founded in reason, if we consider, that, as enthusiasm
arises from a presumptuous pride and confidence, it thinks
itself sufficiently qualified to approach the Divinity, without
any human mediator. Its rapturous devotions are so fervent,
that it even imagines itself actually to approach him by the way
of contemplation and inward converse; which makes it
neglect all those outward ceremonies and observances, to
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which the assistance of the priests appears so requisite in the

eyes of their superstitious votaries. The fanatic consecrates
himself, and bestows on his own person a sacred character,
much superior to what forms and ceremonious institutions
can confer on any other.
My second reflection with regard to these species of
false religion is, that religions, which partake of enthusiasm are, on
their first rise, more furious and violent than those which partake of
superstition; but in a little time become more gentle and moderate.
The violence of this species of religion, when excited by
novelty, and animated by opposition, appears from number-
Mil 77
less instances; of the anabaptists in Germany, the camisars in

France, the levellers and other fanatics in England, and the
covenanters in Scotland. Enthusiasm being founded on
strong spirits, and a presumptuous boldness of character, it
naturally begets the most extreme resolutions; especially
after it rises to that height as to inspire the deluded fanatic
with the opinion of divine illuminations, and with a
contempt for the common rules of reason, morality, and
prudence.
It is thus enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders
in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and
tempest, which exhaust themselves in a little time, and leave
the air more calm and serene than before. When the first
fire of enthusiasm is spent, men naturally, in all fanatical
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sects, sink into the greatest remissness and coolness in

sacred matters; there being no body of men among them,
endowed with sufficient authority, whose interest is
concerned to support the
Mil 78
religious spirit: No rites, no ceremonies, no holy

observances, which may enter into the common train of life,
and preserve the sacred principles from oblivion.
Superstition, on the contrary, steals in gradually and
insensibly; renders men tame and submissive; is acceptable
to the magistrate, and seems inoffensive to the people: Till
at last the priest, having firmly established his authority,
becomes the tyrant and disturber of human society, by his
endless contentions, persecutions, and religious wars. How
smoothly did the Romish church advance in her acquisition
of power? But into what dismal convulsions did she throw
all Europe, in order to maintain it? On the other hand, our
sectaries, who were formerly such dangerous bigots, are
now become very free reasoners; and the quakers seem to
approach nearly the only regular body of deists in the
universe, the literati, or the disciples of Confucius in
China 1*.
0
My third observation on this head is, that superstition is an

enemy to civil liberty, and enthusiasm a friend to it. As superstition
groans under the dominion of priests, and enthusiasm is
destructive of all ecclesiastical power, this sufficiently
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accounts for the present observation. Not to mention, that

enthusiasm, being the infirmity of bold and ambitious
tempers, is naturally accompanied with a spirit of liberty; as
superstition, on the contrary, renders men tame and abject,
and fits them for slavery. We learn from English history,
that, during the civil wars, the independents and deists, though
the most opposite in their religious principles; yet were
united in their
Mil 79
political ones, and were alike passionate for a

commonwealth. And since the origin of whig and tory, the
leaders of the whigs have either been deists or profest
latitudinarians in their principles; that is, friends to
toleration, and indifferent to any particular sect of christians:
While the sectaries, who have all a strong tincture of
enthusiasm, have always, without exception, concurred with
that party, in defence of civil liberty. The resemblance in
their superstitions long united the high-church tories, and
the Roman catholics, in support of prerogative and kingly
power; though experience of the tolerating spirit of the
whigs seems of late to have reconciled the catholics to that
party.
The molinists and jansenists in France have a thousand
unintelligible disputes, which are not worthy the reflection
of a man of sense: But what principally distinguishes these
two sects, and alone merits attention, is the different spirit
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of their religion. The molinists conducted by the jesuits, are

great friends to superstition, rigid observers of external
forms and ceremonies, and devoted to the authority of the
priests, and to tradition. The jansenists are enthusiasts, and
zealous promoters of the passionate devotion, and of the
inward life; little influenced by authority; and, in a word,
but half catholics. The consequences are exactly
conformable to the foregoing reasoning. The jesuits are the
tyrants of the people, and the slaves of the court: And the
jansenists preserve alive the small sparks of the love of
liberty, which are to be found in the French nation.
N O T E S.
*1. The Chinese Literati have no priests or ecclesiastical
establishment.
Mil 80
E S S A Y XI.
Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human
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Nature.
HERE are certain sects, which secretly form

themselves in the learned world, as well as factions in
the political; and though sometimes they come not to an
open rupture, they give a different turn to the ways of
thinking of those who have taken part on either side. The
most remarkable of this kind are the sects, founded on the
different sentiments with regard to the dignity of human
nature; which is a point that seems to have divided
philosophers and poets, as well as divines, from the
beginning of the world to this day. Some exalt our species
to the skies, and represent man as a kind of human demigod,
who derives his origin from heaven, and retains evident
marks of his lineage and descent. Others insist upon the
blind sides of human nature, and can discover nothing,
except vanity, in
Mil 81
which man surpasses the other animals, whom he affects so

much to despise. If an author possess the talent of rhetoric
and declamation, he commonly takes part with the former:
If his turn lie towards irony and ridicule, he naturally
throws himself into the other extreme.
I am far from thinking, that all those, who have
depreciated our species, have been enemies to virtue, and
have exposed the frailties of their fellow creatures with any
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bad intention. On the contrary, I am sensible that a delicate

sense of morals, especially when attended with a splenetic
temper, is apt to give a man a disgust of the world, and to
make him consider the common course of human affairs
with too much indignation. I must, however, be of opinion,
that the sentiments of those, who are inclined to think
favourably of mankind, are more advantageous to virtue,
than the contrary principles, which give us a mean opinion
of our nature. When a man is prepossessed with a high
notion of his rank and character in the creation, he will
naturally endeavour to act up to it, and will scorn to do a
base or vicious action, which might sink him below that
figure which he makes in his own imagination. Accordingly
we find, that all our polite and fashionable moralists insist
upon this topic, and endeavour to represent vice as
unworthy of man, as well as odious in itself.
We find few disputes, that are not founded on some
ambiguity in the expression; and I am persuaded, that the
present dispute, concerning the dignity or meanness of
human nature, is not more exempt from it than any other. It
may, therefore, be worth while to consider, what is real, and
what is only verbal, in this controversy.
That there is a natural difference between merit and
demerit, virtue and vice, wisdom and folly, no reasonable
man will deny: Yet is it evident, that in affixing the term,
which denotes either our approbation or blame, we are
commonly more influenced by comparison than by any
fixed unalterable standard in the nature of things. In like
manner, quantity, and extension, and bulk, are by every one
acknowledged to be real things: But when we call any
animal great or little, we always
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Mil 82
form a secret comparison between that animal and others of

the same species; and it is that comparison which regulates
our judgment concerning its greatness. A dog and a horse
may be of the very same size, while the one is admired for
the greatness of its bulk, and the other for the smallness.
When I am present, therefore, at any dispute, I always
consider with myself, whether it be a question of
comparison or not that is the subject of the controversy; and
if it be, whether the disputants compare the same objects
together, or talk of things that are widely different.
In forming our notions of human nature, we are apt to
make a comparison between men and animals, the only
creatures endowed with thought that fall under our senses.
Certainly this comparison is favourable to mankind. On the
one hand, we see a creature, whose thoughts are not limited
by any narrow bounds, either of place or time; who carries
his researches into the most distant regions of this globe,
and beyond this globe, to the planets and heavenly bodies;
looks backward to consider the first origin, at least, the
history of human race; casts his eye forward to see the
influence of his actions upon posterity, and the judgments
which will be formed of his character a thousand years
hence; a creature, who traces causes and effects to a great
length and intricacy; extracts general principles from
particular appearances; improves upon his discoveries;
corrects his mistakes; and makes his very errors profitable.
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On the other hand, we are presented with a creature the

very reverse of this; limited in its observations and
reasonings to a few sensible objects which surround it;
without curiosity, without foresight; blindly conducted by
instinct, and attaining, in a short time, its utmost perfection,
beyond which it is never able to advance a single step. What
a wide difference is there between these creatures! And how
exalted a notion must we entertain of the former, in
comparison of the latter!
There are two means commonly employed to destroy
this conclusion: First, By making an unfair representation of
the case, and insisting only upon the weaknesses of human
na-
Mil 83
ture. And secondly, By forming a new and secret comparison

between man and beings of the most perfect wisdom.
Among the other excellencies of man, this is one, that he
can form an idea of perfections much beyond what he has
experience of in himself; and is not limited in his
conception of wisdom and virtue. He can easily exalt his
notions and conceive a degree of knowledge, which, when
compared to his own, will make the latter appear very
contemptible, and will cause the difference between that
and the sagacity of animals, in a manner, to disappear and
vanish. Now this being a point, in which all the world is
agreed, that human understanding falls infinitely short of
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perfect wisdom; it is proper we should know when this

comparison takes place, that we may not dispute where
there is no real difference in our sentiments. Man falls
much more short of perfect wisdom, and even of his own
ideas of perfect wisdom, than animals do of man; yet the
latter difference is so considerable, that nothing but a
comparison with the former can make it appear of little
moment.
It is also usual to compare one man with another; and
finding very few whom we can call wise or virtuous, we are
apt to entertain a contemptible notion of our species in
general. That we may be sensible of the fallacy of this way
of reasoning, we may observe, that the honourable
appellations of wise and virtuous, are not annexed to any
particular degree of those qualities of wisdom and virtue; but
arise altogether from the comparison we make between one
man and another. When we find a man, who arrives at such a
pitch of wisdom as is very uncommon, we pronounce him a
wise man: So that to say, there are few wise men in the
world, is really to say nothing; since it is only by their
scarcity, that they merit that appellation. Were the lowest
of our species as wise as Tully, or lord Bacon, we should
still have reason to say, that there are
Mil 84
few wise men. For in that case we should exalt our notions
of wisdom, and should not pay a singular honour to any one,
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who was not singularly distinguished by his talents. In like

manner, I have heard it observed by thoughtless people,
that there are few women possessed of beauty, in
comparison of those who want it; not considering, that we
bestow the epithet of beautiful only on such as possess a
degree of beauty, that is common to them with a few. The
same degree of beauty in a woman is called deformity,
which is treated as real beauty in one of our sex.
As it is usual, in forming a notion of our species, to
compare it with the other species above or below it, or to
compare the individuals of the species among themselves; so
we often compare together the different motives or
actuating principles of human nature, in order to regulate
our judgment concerning it. And, indeed, this is the only
kind of comparison, which is worth our attention, or
decides any thing in the present question. Were our selfish
and vicious principles so much predominant above our social
and virtuous, as is asserted by some philosophers, we ought
undoubtedly to entertain a contemptible notion of human
nature.
There is much of a dispute of words in all this
controversy. When a man denies the sincerity of all public
spirit or affection to a country and community, I am at a
loss what to think of him. Perhaps he never felt this passion
in so clear and distinct a manner as to remove all his doubts
concerning its force and reality. But when he proceeds
afterwards to reject all private friendship, if no interest or
self-love intermix itself; I am then confident that he abuses
terms, and confounds the ideas of things; since it is
impossible for any one to be so selfish, or rather so stupid,
as to make no difference between one man and another, and
give no preference to qualities, which engage his
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approbation and esteem. Is he also, say I, as
Mil 85
insensible to anger as he pretends to be to friendship? And

does injury and wrong no more affect him than kindness or
benefits? Impossible: He does not know himself: He has
forgotten the movements of his heart; or rather he makes
use of a different language from the rest of his countrymen,
and calls not things by their proper names. What say you of
natural affection? (I subjoin) Is that also a species of selflove? Yes: All is self-love. Your children are loved only
because they are yours: Your friend for a like reason: And
your country engages you only so far as it has a connexion
with yourself: Were the idea of self removed, nothing would
affect you: You would be altogether unactive and
insensible: Or, if you ever gave yourself any movement, it
would only be from vanity, and a desire of fame and
reputation to this same self. I am willing, reply I, to receive
your interpretation of human actions, provided you admit
the facts. That species of self-love, which displays itself in
kindness to others, you must allow to have great influence
over human actions, and even greater, on many occasions,
than that which remains in its original shape and form. For
how few are there, who, having a family, children, and
relations, do not spend more on the maintenance and
education of these than on their own pleasures? This,
indeed, you justly observe, may proceed from their selfwww.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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love, since the prosperity of their family and friends is one,

or the chief of their pleasures, as well as their chief honour.
Be you also one of these selfish men, and you are sure of
every ones good opinion and good will; or not to shock
your ears with these expressions, the self-love of every one,
and mine among the rest, will then incline us to serve you,
and speak well of you.
In my opinion, there are two things which have led
astray those philosophers, that have insisted so much on the
selfishness of man. In the first place, they found, that every
act of virtue or friendship was attended with a secret
pleasure; whence they concluded, that friendship and virtue
could not be disinterested. But the fallacy of this is obvious.
The virtuous sentiment or passion produces the pleasure,
and does not arise from it. I feel a pleasure in doing good to
my friend,
Mil 86
because I love him; but do not love him for the sake of that
pleasure.
In the second place, it has always been found, that the
virtuous are far from being indifferent to praise; and
therefore they have been represented as a set of vainglorious men, who had nothing in view but the applauses of
others. But this also is a fallacy. It is very unjust in the
world, when they find any tincture of vanity in a laudable
action, to depreciate it upon that account, or ascribe it
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entirely to that motive. The case is not the same with vanity,
as with other passions. Where avarice or revenge enters into
any seemingly virtuous action, it is difficult for us to
determine how far it enters, and it is natural to suppose it
the sole actuating principle. But vanity is so closely allied to
virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches
so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that
these passions are more capable of mixture, than any other
kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the
latter without some degree of the former. Accordingly, we
find, that this passion for glory is always warped and varied
according to the particular taste or disposition of the mind
on which it falls. Nero had the same vanity in driving a
chariot, that Trajan had in governing the empire with
justice and ability. To love the glory of virtuous deeds is a
sure proof of the love of virtue.
Mil 87
E S S A Y XII.
Of Civil Liberty.
HOSE who employ their pens on political subjects,

free from party-rage, and party-prejudices, cultivate
a science, which, of all others, contributes most to public
utility, and even to the private satisfaction of those who
addict themselves to the study of it. I am apt, however, to
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entertain a suspicion, that the world is still too young to fix

many general truths in politics, which will remain true to
the latest posterity. We have not as yet had experience of
three thousand years; so that not only the art of reasoning is
still imperfect in this science, as in all others, but we even
want sufficient materials upon which we can reason. It is not
fully known, what degree of refinement, either in virtue or
vice, human nature is susceptible of; nor what may be
expected of mankind
Mil 88
from any great revolution in their education, customs, or

principles. Machiavel was certainly a great genius; but
having confined his study to the furious and tyrannical
governments of ancient times, or to the little disorderly
principalities of Italy, his reasonings especially upon
monarchical government, have been found extremely
defective; and there scarcely is any maxim in his prince,
which subsequent experience has not entirely refuted. A
weak prince, says he, is incapable of receiving good counsel; for if he
consult with several, he will not be able to choose among their different
counsels. If he abandon himself to one, that minister may, perhaps,
have capacity; but he will not long be a minister: He will be sure to
dispossess his master, and place himself and his family upon the throne.
I mention this, among many instances of the errors of that
politician, proceeding, in a great measure, from his having
lived in too early an age of the world, to be a good judge of
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political truth. Almost all the princes of Europe are at

present governed by their ministers; and have been so for
near two centuries; and yet no such event has ever
happened, or can possibly happen. Sejanus might project
dethroning the Caesars; but Fleury, though ever so
vicious, could not, while in his senses, entertain the least
hopes of dispossessing the Bourbons.
0
Trade was never esteemed an affair of state till the last

century; and there scarcely is any ancient writer on politics,
who has made mention of it 1. Even the Italians have kept
a
Mil 89
profound silence with regard to it, though it has now

engaged the chief attention, as well of ministers of state, as
of speculative reasoners. The great opulence, grandeur, and
military achievements of the two maritime powers seem first
to have instructed mankind in the importance of an
extensive commerce.
Having, therefore, intended in this essay to make a full
comparison of civil liberty and absolute government, and to
show the great advantages of the former above the latter; I
began to entertain a suspicion, that no man in this age was
sufficiently qualified for such an undertaking; and that
whatever any one should advance on that head would, in all
probability, be refuted by further experience, and be
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rejected by posterity. Such mighty revolutions have

happened in human affairs, and so many events have arisen
contrary to the expectation of the ancients, that they are
sufficient to beget the suspicion of still further changes.
It had been observed by the ancients, that all the arts
and sciences arose among free nations; and, that the
Persians and Egyptians, notwithstanding their ease,
opulence, and luxury, made but faint efforts towards a
relish in those finer pleasures, which were carried to such
perfection by the Greeks, amidst continual wars, attended
with poverty, and the greatest simplicity of life and
manners. It had also been observed, that, when the Greeks
lost their liberty, though they increased mightily in riches,
by means of the conquests of Alexander; yet the arts, from
that moment, declined among them, and have never since
been able to raise their head in that climate. Learning was
transplanted to Rome, the only free nation at that time in
the universe; and having met with so favourable a soil, it
made prodigious shoots for above a century; till the decay
of liberty produced also the decay of letters, and spread a
total barbarism over the world. From these two
experiments, of which each was double in its kind, and
shewed the fall of learning in absolute governments, as
Mil 90
well as its rise in popular ones, Longinus thought himself

sufficiently justified, in asserting, that the arts and sciences
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could never flourish, but in a free government: And in this

opinion, he has been followed by several eminent writers 2
in our own country, who either confined their view merely
to ancient facts, or entertained too great a partiality in
favour of that form of government, established amongst us.
But what would these writers have said, to the instances
of modern Rome and of Florence? Of which the former
carried to perfection all the finer arts of sculpture,
painting, and music, as well as poetry, though it groaned
under tyranny, and under the tyranny of priests: While the
latter made its chief progress in the arts and sciences, after
it began to lose its liberty by the usurpation of the family of
Medici. Ariosto, Tasso, Galileo, more than Raphael, and
Michael Angelo, were not born in republics. And though
the Lombard school was famous as well as the Roman, yet
the Venetians have had the smallest share in its honours,
and seem rather inferior to the other Italians, in their
genius for the arts and sciences. Rubens established his
school at Antwerp, not at Amsterdam: Dresden, not
Hamburgh, is the centre of politeness in Germany.
But the most eminent instance of the flourishing of
learn-
Mil 91
ing in absolute governments, is that of France, which

scarcely ever enjoyed any established liberty, and yet has
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carried the arts and sciences as near perfection as any other

nation. The English are, perhaps, greater philosophers; the
Italians better painters and musicians; the Romans were
greater orators: But the French are the only people, except
the Greeks, who have been at once philosophers, poets,
orators, historians, painters, architects, sculptors, and
musicians. With regard to the stage, they have excelled even
the Greeks, who far excelled the English. And, in common
life, they have, in a great measure, perfected that art, the
most useful and agreeable of any, lArt de Vivre, the art of
society and conversation.
If we consider the state of the sciences and polite arts
in our own country, Horaces observation, with regard to
the Romans, may, in a great measure, be applied to the
British.
Sed in longum tamen aevum
Manserunt, hodieque manent vestigia ruris.
The elegance and propriety of style have been very

much neglected among us. We have no dictionary of our
language, and scarcely a tolerable grammar. The first polite
prose we have, was writ by a man who is still alive 3*. As to
Sprat, Locke and, evenLocke, and even Temple, they
knew too little of the rules of art to be esteemed elegant
writers. The prose of Bacon,
Mil 92
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Harrington, and Milton, is altogether stiff and pedantic;

though their sense be excellent. Men, in this country, have
been so much occupied in the great disputes of Religion,
Politics, and Philosophy, that they had no relish for the
seemingly minute observations of grammar and criticism.
And though this turn of thinking must have considerably
improved our sense and our talent of reasoning; it must be
confessed, that, even in those sciences above-mentioned, we
have not any standard-book, which we can transmit to
posterity: And the utmost we have to boast of, are a few
essays towards a more just philosophy; which, indeed,
promise well, but have not, as yet, reached any degree of
perfection.
It has become an established opinion, that commerce
can never flourish but in a free government; and this
opinion seems to be founded on a longer and larger
experience than the foregoing, with regard to the arts and
sciences. If we trace commerce in its progress through
Tyre, Athens, Syracuse, Carthage, Venice, Florence,
Genoa, Antwerp, Holland, England, &c. we shall always
find it to have fixed its seat in free governments. The three
greatest trading towns now in Europe, are London,
Amsterdam, and Hamburgh; all free cities, and protestant
cities; that is, enjoying a double liberty. It must, however,
be observed, that the great jealousy entertained of late, with
regard to the commerce of France, seems to prove, that this
maxim is no more certain and infallible than the foregoing,
and that the subjects of an absolute prince may become our
rivals in commerce, as well as in learning.
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Durst I deliver my opinion in an affair of so much

uncertainty, I would assert, that, notwithstanding the
efforts of the French, there is something hurtful to
commerce inherent in the very nature of absolute
government, and inseparable from it: Though the reason I
should assign for this opinion, is somewhat different from
that which is commonly insisted on. Private property seems
to me almost as secure in
Mil 93
a civilized European monarchy, as in a republic; nor is

danger much apprehended in such a government, from the
violence of the sovereign; more than we commonly dread
harm from thunder, or earthquakes, or any accident the
most unusual and extraordinary. Avarice, the spur of
industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through
so many real dangers and difficulties, that it is not likely to
be scared by an imaginary danger, which is so small, that it
scarcely admits of calculation. Commerce, therefore, in my
opinion, is apt to decay in absolute governments, not
because it is there less secure, but because it is less honourable.
A subordination of ranks is absolutely necessary to the
support of monarchy. Birth, titles, and place, must be
honoured above industry and riches. And while these
notions prevail, all the considerable traders will be tempted
to throw up their commerce, in order to purchase some of
those employments, to which privileges and honours are
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annexed.
Since I am upon this head, of the alterations which
time has produced, or may produce in politics, I must
observe, that all kinds of government, free and absolute,
seem to have undergone, in modern times, a great change
for the better, with regard both to foreign and domestic
management. The balance of power is a secret in politics, fully
known only to the present age; and I must add, that the
internal Police of states has also received great
improvements within the last century. We are informed by
Sallust, that Catilines army was much augmented by the
accession of the highwaymen about Rome; though I believe,
that all of that profession, who are at present dispersed over
Europe, would not amount to a regiment. In Ciceros
pleadings for Milo, I find this argument, among others,
made use of to prove, that his client had not assassinated
Clodius. Had Milo, said he, intended to have killed
Clodius, he had not attacked him in the day-time, and at
such a distance from the city: He had way-laid
Mil 94
him at night, near the suburbs, where it might have been

pretended, that he was killed by robbers; and the frequency
of the accident would have favoured the deceit. This is a
surprizing proof of the loose police of Rome, and of the
number and force of these robbers; since Clodius 4 was at
that time attended by thirty slaves, who were compleatly
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armed, and sufficiently accustomed to blood and danger in

the frequent tumults excited by that seditious tribune.
But though all kinds of government be improved in
modern times, yet monarchical government seems to have
made the greatest advances towards perfection. It may now
be affirmed of civilized monarchies, what was formerly said
in praise of republics alone, that they are a government of Laws,
not of Men. They are found susceptible of order, method,
and constancy, to a surprizing degree. Property is there
secure; industry encouraged; the arts flourish; and the
prince lives secure among his subjects, like a father among
his children. There are perhaps, and have been for two
centuries, near two hundred absolute princes, great and
small, in Europe; and allowing twenty years to each reign,
we may suppose, that there have been in the whole two
thousand monarchs or tyrants, as the Greeks would have
called them: Yet of these there has not been one, not even
Philip II. of Spain, so bad as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, or
Domittan, who were four in twelve amongst the Roman
emperors. It must, however, be confessed, that, though
monarchical governments have approached nearer to
popular ones, in gentleness and stability; they are still
inferior. Our modern education and customs instil more
humanity and moderation than the ancient; but have not as
yet been able to overcome entirely the disadvantages of that
form of government.
But here I must beg leave to advance a conjecture,
which seems probable, but which posterity alone can fully
judge of.
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Mil 95
I am apt to think, that, in monarchical governments there is

a source of improvement, and in popular governments a
source of degeneracy, which in time will bring these species
of civil polity still nearer an equality. The greatest abuses,
which arise in France, the most perfect model of pure
monarchy, proceed not from the number or weight of the
taxes, beyond what are to be met with in free countries; but
from the expensive, unequal, arbitrary, and intricate
method of levying them, by which the industry of the poor,
especially of the peasants and farmers, is, in a great
measure, discouraged, and agriculture rendered a beggarly
and slavish employment. But to whose advantage do these
abuses tend? If to that of the nobility, they might be
esteemed inherent in that form of government; since the
nobility are the true supports of monarchy; and it is natural
their interest should be more consulted, in such a
constitution, than that of the people. But the nobility are,
in reality, the chief losers by this oppression; since it ruins
their estates, and beggars their tenants. The only gainers by
it are the Finaniers, a race of men rather odious to the
nobility and the whole kingdom. If a prince or minister,
therefore, should arise, endowed with sufficient
discernment to know his own and the public interest, and
with sufficient force of mind to break through ancient
customs, we might expect to see these abuses remedied; in
which case, the difference between that absolute
government and our free one, would not appear so
considerable as at present.
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The source of degeneracy, which may be remarked in

free governments, consists in the practice of contracting
debt, and mortgaging the public revenues, by which taxes
may, in time, become altogether intolerable, and all the
property of the state be brought into the hands of the
public. This practice is of modern date. The Athenians,
though governed by a republic, paid near two hundred per
Cent. for those sums of money, which any emergence made
it necessary for them to borrow; as we learn from
Xenophon 5*. Among the moderns, the
0
Mil 96
Dutch first introduced the practice of borrowing great

sums at low interest, and have well nigh ruined themselves
by it. Absolute princes have also contracted debt; but as an
absolute prince may make a bankruptcy when he pleases, his
people can never be oppressed by his debts. In popular
governments, the people, and chiefly those who have the
highest offices, being commonly the public creditors, it is
difficult for the state to make use of this remedy, which,
however it may sometimes be necessary, is always cruel and
barbarous. This, therefore, seems to be an inconvenience,
which nearly threatens all free governments; especially our
own, at the present juncture of affairs. And what a strong
motive is this, to encrease our frugality of public money;
lest for want of it, we be reduced, by the multiplicity of
taxes, or what is worse, by our public impotence and
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inability for defence, to curse our very liberty, and wish

ourselves in the same state of servitude with all the nations
that surround us?
N O T E S.
1. Xenophon mentions it; but with a doubt if it be of any
advantage to a state. , &c. Xen.
Hiero. Plato totally excludes it from his imaginary republic. De
legibus, lib. iv.
2. Mr. Addison and Lord Shaftesbury.
*3. Dr. Swift.
4. Vide Asc. Ped. in Orat. pro Milone.
*5.

[Mil 96]

. . .
Mil 97
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E S S A Y XIII.
Of Eloquence.
HOSE, who consider the periods and revolutions of

human kind, as represented in history, are entertained
with a spectacle full of pleasure and variety, and see, with
surprize, the manners, customs, and opinions of the same
species susceptible of such prodigious changes in different
periods of time. It may, however, be observed, that, in civil
history, there is found a much greater uniformity than in
the history of learning and science, and that the wars,
negociations, and politics of one age resemble more those
of another, than the taste, wit, and speculative principles.
Interest and ambition, honour and shame, friendship and
enmity, gratitude and revenge, are the prime movers in all
public transactions; and these passions are of a very
stubborn and intractable nature,
Mil 98
in comparison of the sentiments and understanding, which

are easily varied by education and example. The Goths
were much more inferior to the Romans, in taste and
science, than in courage and virtue.
But not to compare together nations so widely
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different; it may be observed, that even this later period of

human learning is, in many respects, of an opposite
character to the ancient; and that, if we be superior in
philosophy, we are still, notwithstanding all our
refinements, much inferior in eloquence.
In ancient times, no work of genius was thought to
require so great parts and capacity, as the speaking in
public; and some eminent writers have pronounced the
talents, even of a great poet or philosopher, to be of an
inferior nature to those which are requisite for such an
undertaking. Greece and Rome produced, each of them,
but one accomplished orator; and whatever praises the other
celebrated speakers might merit, they were still esteemed
much inferior to these great models of eloquence. It is
observable, that the ancient critics could scarcely find two
orators in any age, who deserved to be placed precisely in
the same rank, and possessed the same degree of merit.
Calvus, Caelius, Curio, Hortensius, Caesar rose one
above another: But the greatest of that age was inferior to
Cicero, the most eloquent speaker, that had ever appeared
in Rome. Those of fine taste, however, pronounced this
judgment of the Roman orator, as well as of the Grecian,
that both of them surpassed in eloquence all that had ever
appeared, but that they were far from reaching the
perfection of their art, which was infinite, and not only
exceeded human force to attain, but human imagination to
conceive. Cicero declares himself dissatisfied with his own
performances; nay, even with those of Demosthenes. Ita
sunt avidae & capaces meae aures, says he, & semper aliquid
immensum, infinitumque desiderant.
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Mil 99
Of all the polite and learned nations, England alone

possesses a popular government, or admits into the
legislature such numerous assemblies as can be supposed to
lie under the dominion of eloquence. But what has England
to boast of in this particular? In enumerating the great men,
who have done honour to our country, we exult in our poets
and philosophers; but what orators are ever mentioned? Or
where are the monuments of their genius to be met with?
There are found, indeed, in our histories, the names of
several, who directed the resolutions of our parliament: But
neither themselves nor others have taken the pains to
preserve their speeches; and the authority, which they
possessed, seems to have been owing to their experience,
wisdom, or power, more than to their talents for oratory. At
present, there are above half a dozen speakers in the two
houses, who, in the judgment of the public, have reached
very near the same pitch of eloquence; and no man pretends
to give any one the preference above the rest. This seems to
me a certain proof, that none of them have attained much
beyond a mediocrity in their art, and that the species of
eloquence, which they aspire to, gives no exercise to the
sublimer faculties of the mind, but may be reached by
ordinary talents and a slight application. A hundred cabinetmakers in London can work a table or a chair equally well;
but no one poet can write verses with such spirit and
elegance as Mr. Pope.
0
We are told, that, when Demosthenes was to plead, all

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ingenious men flocked to Athens from the most remote

parts of Greece, as to the most celebrated spectacle of the
world 1.
Mil 100
At London you may see men sauntering in the court of

requests, while the most important debate is carrying on in
the two houses; and many do not think themselves
sufficiently compensated, for the losing of their dinners, by
all the eloquence of our most celebrated speakers. When
old Cibber is to act, the curiosity of several is more excited,
than when our prime minister is to defend himself from a
motion for his removal or impeachment.
Even a person, unacquainted with the noble remains of
ancient orators, may judge, from a few strokes, that the stile
or species of their eloquence was infinitely more sublime
than that which modern orators aspire to. How absurd
would it appear, in our temperate and calm speakers, to
make use of an Apostrophe, like that noble one of
Demosthenes, so much celebrated by Quintilian and
Longinus, when justifying the unsuccessful battle of
Chaeronea, he breaks out, No, my Fellow-Citizens, No: You
have not erred. I swear by the manes of those heroes, who fought for
the same cause in the plains of Marathon and Plataea. Who
could now endure such a bold and poetical figure, as that
which Cicero employs, after describing in the most tragical
terms the crucifixion of a Roman citizen. Should I paint the
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horrors of this scene, not to Roman citizens, not to the allies of our
state, not to those who have ever heard of the Roman Name, not even
to men, but to brute-
Mil 101
creatures; or, to go farther, should I lift up my voice in the most

desolate solitude, to the rocks and mountains, yet should I surely see
those rude and inanimate parts of nature moved with horror and
indignation at the recital of so enormous an action 2. With what a
blaze of eloquence must such a sentence be surrounded to
give it grace, or cause it to make any impression on the
hearers? And what noble art and sublime talents are
requisite to arrive, by just degrees, at a sentiment so bold
and excessive: To inflame the audience, so as to make them
accompany the speaker in such violent passions, and such
elevated conceptions: And to conceal, under a torrent of
eloquence, the artifice, by which all this is effectuated!
Should this sentiment even appear to us excessive, as
perhaps it justly may, it will at least serve to give an idea of
the stile of ancient eloquence, where such swelling
expressions were not rejected as wholly monstrous and
gigantic.
0
Suitable to this vehemence of thought and expression,

was the vehemence of action, observed in the ancient
orators. The supplosio pedis, or stamping with the foot, was
one of the most usual and moderate gestures which they
made use of 3; though that is now esteemed too violent,
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either for the senate, bar, or
Mil 102
pulpit, and is only admitted into the theatre, to accompany

the most violent passions, which are there represented.
One is somewhat at a loss to what cause we may ascribe
so sensible a decline of eloquence in later ages. The genius
of mankind, at all times, is, perhaps, equal: The moderns
have applied themselves, with great industry and success, to
all the other arts and sciences: And a learned nation
possesses a popular government; a circumstance which seems
requisite for the full display of these noble talents: But
notwithstanding all these advantages, our progress in
eloquence is very inconsiderable, in comparison of the
advances, which we have made in all other parts of learning.
Shall we assert, that the strains of ancient eloquence are
unsuitable to our age, and ought not to be imitated by
modern orators? Whatever reasons may be made use of to
prove this, I am persuaded they will be found, upon
examination, to be unsound and unsatisfactory.
First, It may be said, that, in ancient times, during the
flourishing period of Greek and Roman learning, the
municipal laws, in every state, were but few and simple, and
the decision of causes, was, in a great measure, left to the
equity and common sense of the judges. The study of the
laws was not then a laborious occupation, requiring the
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drudgery of a whole life to finish it, and incompatible with

every other study or profession. The great statesmen and
generals among the Romans were all lawyers; and Cicero,
to shew the facility of acquiring this science, declares, that,
in the midst of all his occupations, he would undertake, in a
few days, to make himself a complete civilian. Now, where a
pleader addresses himself to the equity of his judges, he has
much more room to display his eloquence, than where he
must draw his arguments from strict laws, statutes, and
precedents. In the former case, many circumstances must be
taken in; many personal considerations regarded; and even
favour and inclination, which it belongs to the orator, by his
art and eloquence, to conciliate, may be disguised under the
appearance of equity. But how shall a modern lawyer have
leisure to quit his toilsome oc-
Mil 103
cupations, in order to gather the flowers of Parnassus? Or

what opportunity shall he have of displaying them, amidst
the rigid and subtile arguments, objections, and replies,
which he is obliged to make use of? The greatest genius,
and greatest orator, who should pretend to plead before the
Chancellor, after a months study of the laws, would only
labour to make himself ridiculous.
I am ready to own, that this circumstance, of the
multiplicity and intricacy of laws, is a discouragement to
eloquence in modern times: But I assert, that it will not
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entirely account for the decline of that noble art. It may

banish oratory from Westminster-hall, but not from
either house of parliament. Among the Athenians, the
Areopagites expressly forbad all allurements of eloquence;
and some have pretended that in the Greek orations,
written in the judiciary form, there is not so bold and
rhetorical a stile, as appears in the Roman. But to what a
pitch did the Athenians carry their eloquence in the
deliberative kind, when affairs of state were canvassed, and
the liberty, happiness, and honour of the republic were the
subject of debate? Disputes of this nature elevate the genius
above all others, and give the fullest scope to eloquence;
and such disputes are very frequent in this nation.
Secondly, It may be pretended that the decline of
eloquence is owing to the superior good sense of the
moderns,
Mil 104
who reject with disdain all those rhetorical tricks, employed

to seduce the judges, and will admit of nothing but solid
argument in any debate or deliberation. If a man be accused
of murder, the fact must be proved by witnesses and
evidence; and the laws will afterwards determine the
punishment of the criminal. It would be ridiculous to
describe, in strong colours, the horror and cruelty of the
action: To introduce the relations of the dead; and, at a
signal, make them throw themselves at the feet of the
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judges, imploring justice with tears and lamentations: And

still more ridiculous would it be, to employ a picture
representing the bloody deed, in order to move the judges
by the display of so tragical a spectacle: Though we know,
that this artifice was sometimes practised by the pleaders of
old 4* Now, banish the pathetic from public discourses, and
0
you reduce the speakers merely to modern eloquence; that

is, to good sense, delivered in proper expression.
Perhaps it may be acknowledged, that our modern
customs, or our superior good sense, if you will, should
make our orators more cautious and reserved than the
ancient, in attempting to inflame the passions, or elevate
the imagination of their audience: But, I see no reason, why
it should make them despair absolutely of succeeding in that
attempt. It should make them redouble their art, not
abandon it entirely. The ancient orators seem also to have
been on their guard against this jealousy of their audience;
but they took a different way of eluding it 5. They hurried
0
away with such a torrent of sublime and pathetic, that they

left their hearers no leisure to perceive the artifice, by
which they were deceived. Nay, to consider the matter
aright, they were not deceived by any artifice. The orator,
by the force of his own genius and eloquence, first inflamed
himself with anger, indignation, pity, sorrow; and then
communicated those impetuous movements to his audience.
Mil 105
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Does any man pretend to have more good sense than

Julius Caesar? yet that haughty conqueror, we know, was
so subdued by the charms of Ciceros eloquence, that he
was, in a manner, constrained to change his settled purpose
and resolution, and to absolve a criminal, whom, before that
orator pleaded, he was determined to condemn.
Some objections, I own, notwithstanding his vast
success, may lie against some passages of the Roman orator.
He is too florid and rhetorical: His figures are too striking
and palpable: The divisions of his discourse are drawn
chiefly from the rules of the schools: And his wit disdains
not always the artifice even of a pun, rhyme, or jingle of
words. The Grecian addressed himself to an audience much
less refined than the Roman senate or judges. The lowest
vulgar of Athens were his sovereigns, and the arbiters of his
eloquence 6*. Yet is his manner more chaste and austere than
0
that of the other. Could it be copied, its success would be

infallible over a modern assembly. It is rapid harmony,
exactly adjusted to the sense: It is vehement reasoning,
without any appearance of art: It is
Mil 106
disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, involved in a continued

stream of argument: And of all human productions, the
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orations of Demosthenes present to us the models, which

approach the nearest to perfection.
Thirdly, It may be pretended, that the disorders of the
ancient governments, and the enormous crimes, of which
the citizens were often guilty, afforded much ampler matter
for eloquence than can be met with among the moderns.
Were there no Verres or Catiline, there would be no
Cicero. But that this reason can have no great influence, is
evident. It would be easy to find a Philip in modern times;
but where shall we find a Demosthenes?
What remains, then, but that we lay the blame on the
want of genius, or of judgment in our speakers, who either
found themselves incapable of reaching the heights of
ancient eloquence, or rejected all such endeavours, as
unsuitable to the spirit of modern assemblies? A few
successful attempts of this nature might rouze the genius of
the nation, excite the emulation of the youth, and accustom
our ears to a more sublime and more pathetic elocution,
than what we have been hitherto entertained with. There is
certainly something accidental in the first rise and the
progress of the arts in any nation. I doubt whether a very
satisfactory reason can be given, why ancient Rome, though
it received all its refinements from Greece, could attain
only to a relish for statuary, painting and architecture,
without reaching the practice of these arts: While modern
Rome has been excited, by a few remains found among the
ruins of antiquity, and has produced artists of the greatest
eminence and distinction. Had such a cultivated genius for
oratory, as Wallers for poetry, arisen, during the civil
wars, when liberty began to be fully established, and
popular assemblies to enter into all the most material points
of governwww.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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Mil 107
ment; I am persuaded so illustrious an example would have

given a quite different turn to British eloquence, and made
us reach the perfection of the ancient model. Our orators
would then have done honour to their country, as well as
our poets, geometers, and philosophers, and British
Ciceros have appeared, as well as British Archimedeses and
Virgils.
It is seldom or never found, when a false taste in poetry
or eloquence prevails among any people, that it has been
preferred to a true, upon comparison and reflection. It
commonly prevails merely from ignorance of the true, and
from the want of perfect models, to lead men into a juster
apprehension, and more refined relish of those productions
of genius. When these appear, they soon unite all suffrages
in their favour, and, by their natural and powerful charms,
gain over, even the most prejudiced, to the love and
admiration of them. The principles of every passion, and of
every sentiment, is in every man; and when touched
properly, they rise to life, and warm the heart, and convey
that satisfaction, by which a work of genius is distinguished
from the adulterate beauties of a capricious wit and fancy.
And if this observation be true, with regard to all the liberal
arts, it must be peculiarly so, with regard to eloquence;
which, being merely calculated for the public, and for men
of the world, cannot, with any pretence of reason, appeal
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from the people to more refined judges; but must submit to

the public verdict, without reserve or limitation. Whoever,
upon comparison, is deemed by a common audience the
greatest orator, ought most certainly to be pronounced
such, by men of science and erudition. And though an
indifferent speaker may triumph for a long time, and be
esteemed altogether perfect by the vulgar, who are satisfied
with his accomplishments, and know not in what he is
defective: Yet, whenever the true genius arises, he draws to
him the attention of every one, and immediately appears
superior to his rival.
Mil 108
Now to judge by this rule, ancient eloquence, that is,

the sublime and passionate, is of a much juster taste than the
modern, or the argumentative and rational; and, if properly
executed, will always have more command and authority
over mankind. We are satisfied with our mediocrity,
because we have had no experience of any thing better: But
the ancients had experience of both, and, upon comparison,
gave the preference to that kind, of which they have left us
such applauded models. For, if I mistake not, our modern
eloquence is of the same stile or species with that which
ancient critics denominated Attic eloquence, that is, calm,
elegant, and subtile, which instructed the reason more than
affected the passions, and never raised its tone above
argument or common discourse. Such was the eloquence of
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Lysias among the Athenians, and of Calvus among the

Romans. These were esteemed in their time; but when
compared with Demosthenes and Cicero, were eclipsed
like a taper when set in the rays of a meridian sun. Those
latter orators possessed the same elegance, and subtilty, and
force of argument, with the former; but what rendered
them chiefly admirable, was that pathetic and sublime,
which, on proper occasions, they threw into their discourse,
and by which they commanded the resolution of their
audience.
Of this species of eloquence we have scarcely had any
instance in England, at least in our public speakers. In our
writers, we have had some instances, which have met with
great applause, and might assure our ambitious youth of
equal or superior glory in attempts for the revival of ancient
eloquence. Lord Bolingbrokes productions, with all their
defects in argument, method, and precision, contain a force
and energy which our orators scarcely ever aim at; though it
is evident, that such an elevated stile has much better grace
in a speaker than in a writer, and is assured of more prompt
and more astonishing success. It is there seconded by the
graces of
Mil 109
voice and action: The movements are mutually

communicated between the orator and the audience: And
the very aspect of a large assembly, attentive to the
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discourse of one man, must inspire him with a peculiar

elevation, sufficient to give a propriety to the strongest
figures and expressions. It is true, there is a great prejudice
against set speeches; and a man cannot escape ridicule, who
repeats a discourse as a school-boy does his lesson, and takes
no notice of any thing that has been advanced in the course
of the debate. But where is the necessity of falling into this
absurdity? A public speaker must know beforehand the
question under debate. He may compose all the arguments,
objections, and answers, such as he thinks will be most
proper for his discourse 7*. If any thing new occur, he may
0
supply it from his invention; nor will the difference be very

apparent between his elaborate and his extemporary
compositions. The mind naturally continues with the same
impetus or force, which it has acquired by its motion; as a
vessel, once impelled by the oars, carries on its course for
some time, when the original impulse is suspended.
I shall conclude this subject with observing, that, even
though our modern orators should not elevate their stile or
aspire to a rivalship with the ancient; yet is there, in most of
their speeches, a material defect, which they might correct,
without departing from that composed air of argument and
reasoning, to which they limit their ambition. Their great
affectation of extemporary discourses has made them reject
all order and method, which seems so requisite to argument,
and without which it is scarcely possible to produce an
entire
Mil 110
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conviction on the mind. It is not, that one would

recommend many divisions in a public discourse, unless the
subject very evidently offer them: But it is easy, without this
formality, to observe a method, and make that method
conspicuous to the hearers, who will be infinitely pleased to
see the arguments rise naturally from one another, and will
retain a more thorough persuasion, than can arise from the
strongest reasons, which are thrown together in confusion.
N O T E S.
1. Ne illud quidem intelligunt, non modo ita memoriae
proditum esse, sed ita necesse fuisse, cum Demosthenes dicturus
esset, ut concursus, audiendi causa, ex tota Grecia fierent. At cum
isti Attici dicunt, non modo a corona (quod est ipsum miserabile)
sed etiam ab advocatis relinquuntur.
Cicero de Claris Oratoribus.
2. The original is; Quod si haec non ad cives Romanos, non ad
aliquos amicos nostrae civitatis, non ad eos qui populi Romani
nomen audissent; denique, si non ad homines, verum ad bestias; aut
etiam, ut longius progrediar, si in aliqua desertissima solitudine, ad
saxa & ad scopulos haec conqueri & deplorare vellem, tamen
omnia muta atque inanima, tanta & tam indigna rerum atrocitate
commoverentur.
Cic. in Ver.
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3. Ubi dolor? Ubi ardor animi, qui etiam ex infantium ingeniis

elicere voces & querelas solet? nulla perturbatio animi, nulla
corporis: frons non percussa, non femur; pedis (quod minimum est)
nulla supplosio. Itaque tantum abfuit ut inflammares nostros
animos; somnum isto loco vix tenebamus.
Cicero de Claris Oratoribus.
*4. Quintil. lib. vi. cap. I.
5. Longius, cap. 15.
*6. See NOTE [D].
*7. The first of the Athenians, who composed and wrote his
speeches, was Pericles, a man of business and a man of sense, if
ever there was one, ,
. Suidas in .
NOTE [D], p. 109. [Mil 105.]
HE orators formed the taste of the Athenian people,

not the people of the orators. Gorgias Leontinus was
very taking with them, till they became acquainted with a
better manner. His figures of speech, says Diodorus
Siculus, his antithesis, his , his ,
which are now despised, had a great effect upon the
audience. Lib. xii. page 106. ex editione Rhod. It is in vain
therefore for modern orators to plead the taste of their
hearers as an apology for their lame performances. It would
be strange prejudice in favour of antiquity, not to allow a
British parliament to be naturally superior in judgment and
delicacy to an Athenian mob.
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Mil 111
E S S A Y XIV.
Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and
Sciences.
OTHING requires greater nicety, in our enquiries

concerning human affairs, than to distinguish exactly
what is owing to chance, and what proceeds from causes; nor is
there any subject, in which an author is more liable to
deceive himself by false subtilties and refinements. To say,
that any event is derived from chance, cuts short all farther
enquiry concerning it, and leaves the writer in the same
state of ignorance with the rest of mankind. But when the
event is supposed to proceed from certain and stable causes,
he may then display his ingenuity, in assigning these causes;
and as a man of any subtilty can never be at a loss in this
particular, he has thereby an opportunity of swelling his
volumes, and discovering his profound knowledge, in
observing what escapes the vulgar and ignorant.
Mil 112
The distinguishing between chance and causes must

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depend upon every particular mans sagacity, in considering

every particular incident. But, if I were to assign any
general rule to help us in applying this distinction, it would
be the following, What depends upon a few persons is, in a great
measure, to be ascribed to chance, or secret and unknown causes: What
arises from a great number, may often be accounted for by determinate
and known causes.
Two natural reasons may be assigned for this rule. First,
If you suppose a dye to have any biass, however small, to a
particular side, this biass, though, perhaps, it may not
appear in a few throws, will certainly prevail in a great
number, and will cast the balance entirely to that side. In
like manner, when any causes beget a particular inclination
or passion, at a certain time, and among a certain people;
though many individuals may escape the contagion, and be
ruled by passions peculiar to themselves; yet the multitude
will certainly be seized by the common affection, and be
governed by it in all their actions.
Secondly, Those principles or causes, which are fitted to
operate on a multitude, are always of a grosser and more
stubborn nature, less subject to accidents, and less
influenced by whim and private fancy, than those which
operate on a few only. The latter are commonly so delicate
and refined, that the smallest incident in the health,
education, or fortune of a particular person, is sufficient to
divert their course, and retard their operation; nor is it
possible to reduce them to any general maxims or
observations. Their influence at one time will never assure
us concerning their influence at another; even though all
the general circumstances should be the same in both cases.
To judge by this rule, the domestic and the gradual
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revolutions of a state must be a more proper subject of

reasoning and observation, than the foreign and the violent,
which are commonly produced by single persons, and are
more influenced by whim, folly, or caprice, than by general
passions and interests. The depression of the lords, and rise
of the com-
Mil 113
mons in England, after the statutes of alienation and the

encrease of trade and industry, are more easily accounted
for by general principles, than the depression of the
Spanish, and rise of the French monarchy, after the death
of Charles Quint. Had Harry IV. Cardinal Richlieu, and
Louis XIV. been Spaniards; and Philip II. III. and IV. and
Charles II. been Frenchmen, the history of these two
nations had been entirely reversed.
For the same reason, it is more easy to account for the
rise and progress of commerce in any kingdom, than for
that of learning; and a state, which should apply itself to the
encouragement of the one, would be more assured of
success, than one which should cultivate the other. Avarice,
or the desire of gain, is an universal passion, which operates
at all times, in all places, and upon all persons: But curiosity,
or the love of knowledge, has a very limited influence, and
requires youth, leisure, education, genius, and example, to
make it govern any person. You will never want booksellers,
while there are buyers of books: But there may frequently
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be readers where there are no authors. Multitudes of

people, necessity and liberty, have begotten commerce in
Holland: But study and application have scarcely produced
any eminent writers.
We may, therefore, conclude, that there is no subject,
in which we must proceed with more caution, than in
tracing the history of the arts and sciences; lest we assign
causes which never existed, and reduce what is merely
contingent to stable and universal principles. Those who
cultivate the sciences in any state, are always few in number:
The passion, which
Mil 114
governs them, limited: Their taste and judgment delicate

and easily perverted: And their application disturbed with
the smallest accident. Chance, therefore, or secret and
unknown causes, must have a great influence on the rise and
progress of all the refined arts.
But there is a reason, which induces me not to ascribe
the matter altogether to chance. Though the persons, who
cultivate the sciences with such astonishing success, as to
attract the admiration of posterity, be always few, in all
nations and all ages; it is impossible but a share of the same
spirit and genius must be antecedently diffused throughout
the people among whom they arise, in order to produce,
form, and cultivate, from their earliest infancy, the taste
and judgment of those eminent writers. The mass cannot be
0
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altogether insipid, from which such refined spirits are

extracted. There is a God within us, says Ovid, who breathes that
divine fire, by which we are animated 1*. Poets, in all ages, have
advanced this claim to inspiration. There is not, however,
any thing supernatural in the case. Their fire is not kindled
from heaven. It only runs along the earth; is caught from
one breast to another; and burns brightest, where the
materials are best prepared, and most happily disposed. The
question, therefore, concerning the rise and progress of the
arts and sciences, is not altogether a question concerning
the taste, genius, and spirit of a few, but concerning those
of a whole people; and may, therefore, be accounted for, in
some measure, by general causes and principles. I grant,
that a man, who should enquire, why such a particular poet,
as Homer, for instance, existed, at such a place, in such a
time, would throw himself headlong into
Mil 115
chimaera, and could never treat of such a subject, without

a multitude of false subtilties and refinements. He might as
well pretend to give a reason, why such particular generals,
as Fabius and Scipio, lived in Rome at such a time, and why
Fabius came into the world before Scipio. For such
incidents as these, no other reason can be given than that of
Horace:
Scit genius, natale comes, qui temperat astrum,
Naturae Deus humanae, mortalis in unum
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Quodque caput, vultu mutabilis, albus & ater.

But I am persuaded, that in many cases good reasons
might be given, why such a nation is more polite and
learned, at a particular time, than any of its neighbours. At
least, this is so curious a subject, that it were a pity to
abandon it entirely, before we have found whether it be
susceptible of reasoning, and can be reduced to any general
principles.
My first observation on this head is, That it is impossible
for the arts and sciences to arise, at first, among any people unless that
people enjoy the blessing of a free government.
In the first ages of the world, when men are as yet
barbarous and ignorant, they seek no farther security
against mutual violence and injustice, than the choice of
some rulers, few or many, in whom they place an implicit
confidence, without providing any security, by laws or
political institutions, against the violence and injustice of
these rulers. If the authority be centered in a single person,
and if the people, either by conquest, or by the ordinary
course of propagation, encrease to a
Mil 116
great multitude, the monarch, finding it impossible, in his

own person, to execute every office of sovereignty, in every
place, must delegate his authority to inferior magistrates,
who preserve peace and order in their respective districts.
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As experience and education have not yet refined the

judgments of men to any considerable degree, the prince,
who is himself unrestrained, never dreams of restraining his
ministers, but delegates his full authority to every one,
whom he sets over any portion of the people. All general
laws are attended with inconveniencies, when applied to
particular cases; and it requires great penetration and
experience, both to perceive that these inconveniencies are
fewer than what result from full discretionary powers in
every magistrate; and also to discern what general laws are,
upon the whole, attended with fewest inconveniencies. This
is a matter of so great difficulty, that men may have made
some advances, even in the sublime arts of poetry and
eloquence, where a rapidity of genius and imagination
assists their progress, before they have arrived at any great
refinement in their municipal laws, where frequent trials
and diligent observation can alone direct their
improvements. It is not, therefore, to be supposed, that a
barbarous monarch, unrestrained and uninstructed, will ever
become a legislator, or think of restraining his Bashaws, in
every province, or even his Cadis in every village. We are
told, that the late Czar, though actuated with a noble genius,
and smit with the love and admiration of European arts; yet
professed an esteem for the Turkish policy in this
particular, and approved of such summary decisions of
causes, as are practised in that barbarous monarchy, where
the judges are not restrained by any methods, forms, or
laws. He did not perceive, how contrary such a practice
would have been to all his other endeavours for refining his
people. Arbitrary power, in all cases, is somewhat oppressive
and debasing; but it is altogether ruinous and intolerable,
when contracted into a small compass; and becomes still
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worse, when the person, who possesses it, knows that the
Mil 117
0
time of his authority is limited and uncertain. Habet subjectos

tanquam suos; viles, ut alienos 2. He governs the subjects with
full authority, as if they were his own; and with negligence
or tyranny, as belonging to another. A people, governed
after such a manner, are slaves in the full and proper sense
of the word; and it is impossible they can ever aspire to any
refinements of taste or reason. They dare not so much as
pretend to enjoy the necessaries of life in plenty or security.
To expect, therefore, that the arts and sciences should
take their first rise in a monarchy, is to expect a
contradiction. Before these refinements have taken place,
the monarch is ignorant and uninstructed; and not having
knowledge sufficient to make him sensible of the necessity
of balancing his government upon general laws, he
delegates his full power to all inferior magistrates. This
barbarous policy debases the people, and for ever prevents
all improvements. Were it possible, that, before science
were known in the world, a monarch could possess so much
wisdom as to become a legislator, and govern his people by
law, not by the arbitrary will of their fellow-subjects, it
might be possible for that species of government to be the
first nursery of arts and sciences. But that supposition seems
scarcely to be consistent or rational.
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It may happen, that a republic, in its infant state, may

be supported by as few laws as a barbarous monarchy, and
may entrust as unlimited an authority to its magistrates or
judges. But, besides that the frequent elections by the
people, are a considerable check upon authority; it is
impossible, but, in time, the necessity of restraining the
magistrates, in order to preserve liberty, must at last appear,
and give rise to general laws and statutes. The Roman
Consuls, for some time, decided all causes, without being
confined by any positive statutes, till the people, bearing
this yoke with impatience, cre-
Mil 118
ated the decemvirs, who promulgated the twelve tables; a body

of laws, which, though, perhaps, they were not equal in bulk
to one English act of parliament, were almost the only
written rules, which regulated property and punishment,
for some ages, in that famous republic. They were,
however, sufficient, together with the forms of a free
government, to secure the lives and properties of the
citizens, to exempt one man from the dominion of another;
and to protect every one against the violence or tyranny of
his fellow-citizens. In such a situation the sciences may raise
their heads and flourish: But never can have being amidst
such a scene of oppression and slavery, as always results
from barbarous monarchies, where the people alone are
restrained by the authority of the magistrates, and the
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magistrates are not restrained by any law or statute. An

unlimited despotism of this nature, while it exists,
effectually puts a stop to all improvements, and keeps men
from attaining that knowledge, which is requisite to instruct
them in the advantages, arising from a better police, and
more moderate authority.
Here then are the advantages of free states. Though a
republic should be barbarous, it necessarily, by an infallible
operation, gives rise to Law, even before mankind have
made any considerable advances in the other sciences. From
law arises security: From security curiosity: And from
curiosity knowledge. The latter steps of this progress may
be more accidental; but the former are altogether necessary.
A republic without laws can never have any duration. On the
contrary, in a monarchical government, law arises not
necessarily from the forms of government. Monarchy, when
absolute, contains even something repugnant to law. Great
wisdom and reflexion can alone reconcile them. But such a
degree of wisdom can never be expected, before the greater
refinements and improvements of human reason. These
refinements require curiosity, security, and law. The first
growth, therefore, of the arts and sciences can never be
expected in despotic governments.
There are other causes, which discourage the rise of
the
Mil 119
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refined arts in despotic governments; though I take the

want of laws, and the delegation of full powers to every
petty magistrate, to be the principal. Eloquence certainly
springs up more naturally in popular governments:
Emulation too in every accomplishment must there be more
animated and enlivened: And genius and capacity have a
fuller scope and career. All these causes render free
governments the only proper nursery for the arts and
sciences.
The next observation, which I shall make on this head,
is, That nothing is more favourable to the rise of politeness and
learning, than a number of neighbouring and independent states,
connected together by commerce and policy. The emulation, which
naturally arises among those neighbouring states, is an
obvious source of improvement: But what I would chiefly
insist on is the stop, which such limited territories give both
to power and to authority.
Extended governments, where a single person has great
influence, soon become absolute; but small ones change
naturally into commonwealths. A large government is
accustomed by degrees to tyranny; because each act of
violence is at first performed upon a part, which, being
distant from the majority, is not taken notice of, nor excites
any violent ferment. Besides, a large government, though
the whole be discontented, may, by a little art, be kept in
obedience; while each part, ignorant of the resolutions of
the rest, is afraid to begin any commotion or insurrection.
Not to mention, that there is a superstitious reverence for
princes, which mankind naturally contract when they do not
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often see the sovereign, and when many of them become

not acquainted with him so as to perceive his weaknesses.
And as large states can afford a great expence, in order to
support the pomp of majesty; this is a kind of fascination on
men, and naturally contributes to the enslaving of them.
In a small government, any act of oppression is
immediately known throughout the whole: The murmurs
and discontents, proceeding from it, are easily
communicated: And the indignation arises the higher,
because the subjects are not apt
Mil 120
to apprehend in such states, that the distance is very wide

between themselves and their sovereign. No man, said the
prince of Conde, is a hero to his Valet de Chambre. It is
certain that admiration and acquaintance are altogether
incompatible towards any mortal creature. Sleep and love
convinced even Alexander himself that he was not a God:
But I suppose that such as daily attended him could easily,
from the numberless weaknesses to which he was subject,
have given him many still more convincing proofs of his
humanity.
But the divisions into small states are favourable to
learning, by stopping the progress of authority as well as that
of power. Reputation is often as great a fascination upon
men as sovereignty, and is equally destructive to the
freedom of thought and examination. But where a number
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of neighbouring states have a great intercourse of arts and

commerce, their mutual jealousy keeps them from receiving
too lightly the law from each other, in matters of taste and
of reasoning, and makes them examine every work of art
with the greatest care and accuracy. The contagion of
popular opinion spreads not so easily from one place to
another. It readily receives a check in some state or other,
where it concurs not with the prevailing prejudices. And
nothing but nature and reason, or, at least, what bears them
a strong resemblance, can force its way through all
obstacles, and unite the most rival nations into an esteem
and admiration of it.
Greece was a cluster of little principalities, which soon
became republics; and being united both by their near
neighbourhood, and by the ties of the same language and
interest, they entered into the closest intercourse of
commerce and learning. There concurred a happy climate, a
soil not unfertile, and a most harmonious and
comprehensive language; so that every circumstance among
that people seemed to favour the rise of the arts and
sciences. Each city produced its
Mil 121
several artists and philosophers, who refused to yield the

preference to those of the neighbouring republics: Their
contention and debates sharpened the wits of men: A variety
of objects was presented to the judgment, while each
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challenged the preference to the rest: and the sciences, not

being dwarfed by the restraint of authority, were enabled to
make such considerable shoots, as are, even at this time, the
objects of our admiration. After the Roman christian, or
catholic church had spread itself over the civilized world, and
had engrossed all the learning of the times; being really one
large state within itself, and united under one head; this
variety of sects immediately disappeared, and the
Peripatetic philosophy was alone admitted into all the
schools, to the utter depravation of every kind of learning.
But mankind, having at length thrown off this yoke, affairs
are now returned nearly to the same situation as before, and
Europe is at present a copy at large, of what Greece was
formerly a pattern in miniature. We have seen the
advantage of this situation in several instances. What
checked the progress of the Cartesian philosophy, to which
the French nation shewed such a strong propensity towards
the end of the last century, but the opposition made to it by
the other nations of Europe, who soon discovered the weak
sides of that philosophy? The severest scrutiny, which
Newtons theory has undergone, proceeded not from his
own countrymen, but from foreigners; and if it can
overcome the obstacles, which it meets with at present in all
parts of Europe, it will probably go down triumphant to the
latest
Mil 122
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posterity. The English are become sensible of the

scandalous licentiousness of their stage, from the example
of the French decency and morals. The French are
convinced, that their theatre has become somewhat
effeminate, by too much love and gallantry; and begin to
approve of the more masculine taste of some neighbouring
nations.
In China, there seems to be a pretty considerable stock
of politeness and science, which, in the course of so many
centuries, might naturally be expected to ripen into
something more perfect and finished, than what has yet
arisen from them. But China is one vast empire, speaking
one language, governed by one law, and sympathizing in
the same manners. The authority of any teacher, such as
Confucius, was propagated easily from one corner of the
empire to the other. None had courage to resist the torrent
of popular opinion. And posterity was not bold enough to
dispute what had been universally received by their
ancestors. This seems to be one natural reason, why the
sciences have made so slow a progress in that mighty
empire 3*.
0
If we consider the face of the globe, Europe, of all the
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four parts of the world, is the most broken by seas, rivers,

and mountains; and Greece of all countries of Europe.
Hence these regions were naturally divided into several
distinct governments. And hence the sciences arose in
Greece; and Europe has been hitherto the most constant
habitation of them.
I have sometimes been inclined to think, that
interruptions in the periods of learning, were they not
attended with such a destruction of ancient books, and the
records of history, would be rather favourable to the arts
and sciences, by breaking the progress of authority, and
dethroning the tyrannical usurpers over human reason. In
this particular, they have the same influence, as
interruptions in political governments and societies.
Consider the blind submission of the ancient philosophers
to the several masters in each school, and you will be
convinced, that little good could be expected from a
hundred centuries of such a servile philosophy. Even the
Eclectics, who arose about the age of Augustus,
notwithstanding their professing to chuse freely what
pleased them from every different sect, were yet, in the
main, as slavish and dependent as any of their brethren;
since they sought for truth not in nature, but in the several
schools; where they supposed she must necessarily be found,
though not united in a body, yet dispersed in parts. Upon
the revival of learning, those sects of Stoics and
Epicureans, Platonists and Pythagoricians, could never
regain any credit or authority; and, at the same time, by the
example of their fall, kept men from submitting, with such
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blind deference, to those new sects, which have attempted

to gain an ascendant over them.
The third observation, which I shall form on this head,
of
Mil 124
the rise and progress of the arts and sciences, is, That though
the only proper Nursery of these noble plants be a free state; yet may
they be transplanted into any government; and that a republic is most
favourable to the growth of the sciences, a civilized monarchy to that of
the polite arts.
To balance a large state or society, whether
monarchical or republican, on general laws, is a work of so
great difficulty, that no human genius, however
comprehensive, is able, by the mere dint of reason and
reflection, to effect it. The judgments of many must unite
in this work: Experience must guide their labour: Time
must bring it to perfection: And the feeling of
inconveniencies must correct the mistakes, which they
inevitably fall into, in their first trials and experiments.
Hence appears the impossibility, that this undertaking
should be begun and carried on in any monarchy; since such
a form of government, ere civilized, knows no other secret
or policy, than that of entrusting unlimited powers to every
governor or magistrate, and subdividing the people into so
many classes and orders of slavery. From such a situation, no
improvement can ever be expected in the sciences, in the
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liberal arts, in laws, and scarcely in the manual arts and

manufactures. The same barbarism and ignorance, with
which the government commences, is propagated to all
posterity, and can never come to a period by the efforts or
ingenuity of such unhappy slaves.
But though law, the source of all security and
happiness, arises late in any government, and is the slow
product of order and of liberty, it is not preserved with the
same difficulty, with which it is produced; but when it has
once taken root, is a hardy plant, which will scarcely ever
perish through the ill culture of men, or the rigour of the
seasons. The arts of luxury, and much more the liberal arts,
which depend on a refined taste or sentiment, are easily
lost; because they are always relished by a few only, whose
leisure, fortune, and genius fit them for such amusements.
But what is profitable to every mortal, and in common life,
when once discovered, can scarcely fall into oblivion, but by
the total subversion of society, and by such furious
inundations of barbarous in-
Mil 125
vaders, as obliterate all memory of former arts and civility.

Imitation also is apt to transport these coarser and more
useful arts from one climate to another, and make them
precede the refined arts in their progress; though perhaps
they sprang after them in their first rise and propagation.
From these causes proceed civilized monarchies; where the
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arts of government, first invented in free states, are

preserved to the mutual advantage and security of sovereign
and subject.
However perfect, therefore, the monarchical form may
appear to some politicians, it owes all its perfection to the
republican; nor is it possible, that a pure despotism,
established among a barbarous people, can ever, by its
native force and energy, refine and polish itself. It must
borrow its laws, and methods, and institutions, and
consequently its stability and order, from free governments.
These advantages are the sole growth of republics. The
extensive despotism of a barbarous monarchy, by entering
into the detail of the government, as well as into the
principal points of administration, for ever prevents all such
improvements.
In a civilized monarchy, the prince alone is
unrestrained in the exercise of his authority, and possesses
alone a power, which is not bounded by any thing but
custom, example, and the sense of his own interest. Every
minister or magistrate, however eminent, must submit to
the general laws, which govern the whole society, and must
exert the authority delegated to him after the manner,
which is prescribed. The people depend on none but their
sovereign, for the security of their property. He is so far
removed from them, and is so much exempt from private
jealousies or interests, that this dependence is scarcely felt.
And thus a species of government arises, to which, in a high
political rant, we may give the name of Tyranny, but which,
by a just and prudent administration, may afford tolerable
security to the people, and may answer most of the ends of
political society.
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But though in a civilized monarchy, as well as in a

republic, the people have security for the enjoyment of
their property; yet in both these forms of government,
those who possess the
Mil 126
supreme authority have the disposal of many honours and

advantages, which excite the ambition and avarice of
mankind. The only difference is, that, in a republic, the
candidates for office must look downwards, to gain the
suffrages of the people; in a monarchy, they must turn their
attention upwards, to court the good graces and favour of
the great. To be successful in the former way, it is necessary
for a man to make himself useful, by his industry, capacity,
or knowledge: To be prosperous in the latter way, it is
requisite for him to render himself agreeable, by his wit,
complaisance, or civility. A strong genius succeeds best in
republics: A refined taste in monarchies. And consequently
the sciences are the more natural growth of the one, and the
polite arts of the other.
Not to mention, that monarchies, receiving their chief
stability from a superstitious reverence to priests and
princes, have commonly abridged the liberty of reasoning,
with regard to religion, and politics, and consequently
metaphysics and morals. All these form the most
considerable branches of science. Mathematics and natural
philosophy, which only remain, are not half so valuable.
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Among the arts of conversation, no one pleases more

than mutual deference or civility, which leads us to resign
our own inclinations to those of our companion, and to curb
and conceal that presumption and arrogance, so natural to
the human mind. A good-natured man, who is well
educated, practises this civility to every mortal, without
premeditation or interest. But in order to render that
valuable quality general among any people, it seems
necessary to assist the natural disposition by some general
motive. Where power rises upwards from the people to the
great, as in all republics, such refinements of civility are apt
to be little practised; since the whole state is, by that means,
brought near to a level, and every member of it is rendered,
in a great measure, independent of another. The people
have the advantage, by the authority of their suffrages: The
great, by the superiority of their station. But in a civilized
monarchy, there is a long train of dependence from the
prince to the peasant, which is not great enough to render
Mil 127
property precarious, or depress the minds of the people; but

is sufficient to beget in every one an inclination to please
his superiors, and to form himself upon those models, which
are most acceptable to people of condition and education.
Politeness of manners, therefore, arises most naturally in
monarchies and courts; and where that flourishes, none of
the liberal arts will be altogether neglected or despised.
0
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The republics in Europe are at present noted for want

of politeness. The good-manners of a SWISS civilized in
HOLLAND 4, is an expression for rusticity among the
French. The English, in some degree, fall under the same
censure, notwithstanding their learning and genius. And if
the Venetians be an exception to the rule, they owe it,
perhaps, to their communication with the other Italians,
most of whose governments beget a dependence more than
sufficient for civilizing their manners.
It is difficult to pronounce any judgment concerning
the refinements of the ancient republics in this particular:
But I am apt to suspect, that the arts of conversation were
not brought so near to perfection among them as the arts of
writing and composition. The scurrility of the ancient
orators, in many instances, is quite shocking, and exceeds all
belief. Vanity too is often not a little offensive in authors of
those ages 5; as well as the common licentiousness and
0
immodesty of their stile, Quicunque impudicus, adulter, ganeo,

manu, ventre, pene, bona patria laceraverat, says Sallust in one
of the
Mil 128
gravest and most moral passages of his history. Nam fuit ante
Helenam Cunnus teterrima belli Causa, is an expression of
Horace, in tracing the origin of moral good and evil. Ovid
and Lucretius 6 are almost as licentious in their stile as
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Lord Rochester; though the former were fine gentlemen

and delicate writers, and the latter, from the corruptions of
that court, in which he lived, seems to have thrown off all
regard to shame and decency. Juvenal inculcates modesty
with great zeal; but sets a very bad example of it, if we
consider the impudence of his expressions.
I shall also be bold to affirm, that among the ancients,
there was not much delicacy of breeding, or that polite
deference and respect, which civility obliges us either to
express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we
converse. Cicero was certainly one of the finest gentlemen
of his age; yet I must confess I have frequently been
shocked with the poor figure under which he represents his
friend Atticus, in
Mil 129
those dialogues, where he himself is introduced as a

speaker. That learned and virtuous Roman, whose dignity,
though he was only a private gentleman, was inferior to that
of no one in Rome, is there shewn in rather a more pitiful
light than Philalethess friend in our modern dialogues.
He is a humble admirer of the orator, pays him frequent
compliments, and receives his instructions, with all the
deference which a scholar owes to his master 7. Even Cato
0
is treated in somewhat of a cavalier manner in the dialogues

de finibus.
0
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0
One of the most particular details of a real dialogue,

which we meet with in antiquity, is related by Polybius 8*;
when Philip, king of Macedon, a prince of wit and parts,
met with Titus Flamininus, one of the politest of the
Romans, as we learn from Plutarch 9, accompanied with
ambassadors from almost all the Greek cities. The
AEtolian ambassador very abruptly tells the king, that he
talked like a fool or a madman (). Thats evident, says
his majesty, even to a blind man; which was a raillery on the
blindness of his excellency. Yet all this did not pass the usual
bounds: For the conference was not disturbed; and
Flamininus was very well
Mil 130
diverted with these strokes of humour. At the end, when

Philip craved a little time to consult with his friends, of
whom he had none present, the Roman general, being
desirous also to shew his wit, as the historian says, tells him,
that perhaps the reason, why he had none of his friends with him, was
because he had murdered them all; which was actually the case.
This unprovoked piece of rusticity is not condemned by the
historian; caused no farther resentment in Philip, than to
excite a Sardonian smile, or what we call a grin; and
hindered him not from renewing the conference next day.
Plutarch 10 too mentions this raillery amongst the witty
0
and agreeable sayings of Flamininus.

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Cardinal Wolsey apologized for his famous piece of

insolence, in saying, Ego et Rex meus, I and my king, by
observing, that this expression was conformable to the Latin
idiom, and that a Roman always named himself before the
person to whom, or of whom he spake. Yet this seems to
have been an instance of want of civility among that people.
The ancients made it a rule, that the person of the greatest
dignity should be mentioned first in the discourse;
insomuch, that we find the spring of a quarrel and jealousy
between the Romans and AEtolians, to have been a
poets naming the AEtolians before the Romans, in
celebrating a victory gained by their united arms over the
Macedonians 11. Thus Livia disgusted Tiberius by placing
0
her own name before his in an inscription 12.

No advantages in this world are pure and unmixed. In
like manner, as modern politeness, which is naturally so
ornamental, runs often into affectation and foppery,
disguise and
Mil 131
insincerity; so the ancient simplicity, which is naturally so

amiable and affecting, often degenerates into rusticity and
abuse, scurrility and obscenity.
If the superiority in politeness should be allowed to
modern times, the modern notions of gallantry, the natural
produce of courts and monarchies, will probably be assigned
0
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as the causes of this refinement. No one denies this

invention to be modern 13: But some of the more zealous
partizans of the ancients, have asserted it to be foppish and
ridiculous, and a reproach, rather than a credit, to the
present age 14. It may here be proper to examine this
question.
Nature has implanted in all living creatures an
affection between the sexes, which, even in the fiercest and
most rapacious animals, is not merely confined to the
satisfaction of the bodily appetite, but begets a friendship
and mutual sympathy, which runs through the whole tenor
of their lives. Nay, even in those species, where nature
limits the indulgence of this appetite to one season and to
one object, and forms a kind of marriage or association
between a single male and female, there is yet a visible
complacency and benevolence, which extends farther, and
mutually softens the affections of the sexes towards each
other. How much more must this have place in man, where
the confinement of the appetite is not natural; but either is
derived accidentally from some strong charm of love, or
arises from reflections on duty and convenience? Nothing,
therefore, can proceed less from affectation than the
passion of gallantry. It is natural in the highest degree. Art
and education, in the most elegant courts, make no more
alteration on it, than on all the other laudable passions.
They only turn the mind more towards it; they refine it;
they polish it; and give it a proper grace and expression.
Mil 132
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But gallantry is as generous as it is natural. To correct

such gross vices, as lead us to commit real injury on others,
is the part of morals, and the object of the most ordinary
education. Where that is not attended to, in some degree,
no human society can subsist. But in order to render
conversation, and the intercourse of minds more easy and
agreeable, good-manners have been invented, and have
carried the matter somewhat farther. Wherever nature has
given the mind a propensity to any vice, or to any passion
disagreeable to others, refined breeding has taught men to
throw the biass on the opposite side, and to preserve, in all
their behaviour, the appearance of sentiments different
from those to which they naturally incline. Thus, as we are
commonly proud and selfish, and apt to assume the
preference above others, a polite man learns to behave with
deference towards his companions, and to yield the
superiority to them in all the common incidents of society.
In like manner, wherever a persons situation may naturally
beget any disagreeable suspicion in him, it is the part of
good-manners to prevent it, by a studied display of
sentiments, directly contrary to those of which he is apt to
be jealous. Thus, old men know their infirmities, and
naturally dread contempt from the youth: Hence, welleducated youth redouble the instances of respect and
deference to their elders. Strangers and foreigners are
without protection: Hence, in all polite countries, they
receive the highest civilities, and are entitled to the first
place in every company. A man is lord in his own family, and
his guests are, in a manner, subject to his authority: Hence,
he is always the lowest person in the company; attentive to
0
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the wants of every one; and giving himself all the trouble, in
order to please, which may not betray too visible an
affectation, or impose too much constraint on his guests 15.
Gallantry is nothing but an instance of
Mil 133
the same generous attention. As nature has given man the

superiority above woman, by endowing him with greater
strength both of mind and body; it is his part to alleviate
that superiority, as much as possible, by the generosity of
his behaviour, and by a studied deference and complaisance
for all her inclinations and opinions. Barbarous nations
display this superiority, by reducing their females to the
most abject slavery; by confining them, by beating them, by
selling them, by killing them. But the male sex, among a
polite people, discover their authority in a more generous,
though not a less evident manner; by civility, by respect, by
complaisance, and, in a word, by gallantry. In good
company, you need not ask, Who is the master of the feast?
The man, who sits in the lowest place, and who is always
industrious in helping every one, is certainly the person. We
must either condemn all such instances of generosity, as
foppish and affected, or admit of gallantry among the rest.
The ancient Muscovites wedded their wives with a whip,
instead of a ring. The same people, in their own houses,
took always the precedency above foreigners, even 16*
0
foreign ambassadors.
These two instances of their

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generosity and politeness are much of a piece.

Gallantry is not less compatible with wisdom and
prudence, than with nature and generosity; and when under
proper regulations, contributes more than any other
invention, to the
Mil 134
entertainment and improvement of the youth of both sexes.

Among every species of animals, nature has founded on the
love between the sexes their sweetest and best enjoyment.
But the satisfaction of the bodily appetite is not alone
sufficient to gratify the mind; and even among brutecreatures, we find, that their play and dalliance, and other
expressions of fondness, form the greatest part of the
entertainment. In rational beings, we must certainly admit
the mind for a considerable share. Were we to rob the feast
of all its garniture of reason, discourse, sympathy,
friendship, and gaiety, what remains would scarcely be
worth acceptance, in the judgment of the truly elegant and
luxurious.
What better school for manners, than the company of
virtuous women; where the mutual endeavour to please
must insensibly polish the mind, where the example of the
female softness and modesty must communicate itself to
their admirers, and where the delicacy of that sex puts every
one on his guard, lest he give offence by any breach of
decency?
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Among the ancients, the character of the fair-sex was

considered as altogether domestic; nor were they regarded
as part of the polite world or of good company. This,
perhaps, is the true reason why the ancients have not left us
one piece of pleasantry that is excellent, (unless one may
except the Banquet of Xenophon, and the Dialogues of
Lucian) though many of their serious compositions are
altogether inimitable. Horace condemns the coarse
railleries and cold jests of Plautus: But, though the most
easy, agreeable, and judicious writer in the world, is his own
talent for ridicule very striking or refined? This, therefore,
is one considerable improvement, which the polite arts have
received from gallantry, and from courts, where it first
arose.
But, to return from this digression, I shall advance it as
a fourth observation on this subject, of the rise and progress
of
Mil 135
the arts and sciences, That when the arts and sciences come to
perfection in any state, from that moment they naturally, or rather
necessarily decline, and seldom or never revive in that nation, where
they formerly flourished.
It must be confessed, that this maxim, though
conformable to experience, may, at first sight, be esteemed
contrary to reason. If the natural genius of mankind be the
same in all ages, and in almost all countries, (as seems to be
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the truth) it must very much forward and cultivate this

genius, to be possessed of patterns in every art, which may
regulate the taste, and fix the objects of imitation. The
models left us by the ancients gave birth to all the arts about
200 years ago, and have mightily advanced their progress in
every country of Europe: Why had they not a like effect
during the reign of Trajan and his successors; when they
were much more entire, and were still admired and studied
by the whole world? So late as the emperor Justinian, the
Poet, by way of distinction, was understood, among the
Greeks, to be Homer; among the Romans, Virgil. Such
admiration still remained for these divine geniuses; though
no poet had appeared for many centuries, who could justly
pretend to have imitated them.
A mans genius is always, in the beginning of life, as
much unknown to himself as to others; and it is only after
frequent trials, attended with success, that he dares think
himself equal to those undertakings, in which those, who
have succeeded, have fixed the admiration of mankind. If
his own nation be already possessed of many models of
eloquence, he naturally compares his own juvenile exercises
with these; and being sensible of the great disproportion, is
discouraged from any farther attempts, and never aims at a
rivalship with those authors, whom he so much admires. A
noble emulation is the source of every excellence.
Admiration and modesty naturally extinguish this
emulation. And no one is so liable to an excess of admiration
and modesty, as a truly great genius.
Mil 136
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Next to emulation, the greatest encourager of the

noble arts is praise and glory. A writer is animated with new
force, when he hears the applauses of the world for his
former productions; and, being roused by such a motive, he
often reaches a pitch of perfection, which is equally
surprizing to himself and to his readers. But when the posts
of honour are all occupied, his first attempts are but coldly
received by the public; being compared to productions,
which are both in themselves more excellent, and have
already the advantage of an established reputation. Were
Moliere and Corneille to bring upon the stage at present
their early productions, which were formerly so well
received, it would discourage the young poets, to see the
indifference and disdain of the public. The ignorance of the
age alone could have given admission to the Prince of Tyre;
but it is to that we owe the Moor: Had Every man in his humour
been rejected, we had never seen Volpone.
Perhaps, it may not be for the advantage of any nation
to have the arts imported from their neighbours in too great
perfection. This extinguishes emulation, and sinks the
ardour of the generous youth. So many models of Italian
painting brought into England, instead of exciting our
artists, is the cause of their small progress in that noble art.
The same, perhaps, was the case of Rome, when it received
the arts from Greece. That multitude of polite productions
in the French language, dispersed all over Germany and
the North, hinder these nations from cultivating their own
language, and keep them still dependent on their
neighbours for those elegant entertainments.
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It is true, the ancients had left us models in every kind

of writing, which are highly worthy of admiration. But
besides
Mil 137
that they were written in languages, known only to the

learned; besides this, I say, the comparison is not so perfect
or entire between modern wits, and those who lived in so
remote an age. Had Waller been born in Rome, during the
reign of Tiberius, his first productions had been despised,
when compared to the finished odes of Horace. But in this
island the superiority of the Roman poet diminished
nothing from the fame of the English. We esteemed
ourselves sufficiently happy, that our climate and language
could produce but a faint copy of so excellent an original.
In short, the arts and sciences, like some plants, require
a fresh soil; and however rich the land may be, and however
you may recruit it by art or care, it will never, when once
exhausted, produce any thing that is perfect or finished in
the kind.
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N O T E S.
*1. Est Deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo:
Impetus hic, sacrae semina mentis habet.
Ovid, Fast. lib. i.
2. Tacit. hist. lib. i.
*3. See NOTE [E].
4. Cest la politesse dun Suisse
En Hollande civilis.
Rousseau.
5. It is needless to cite Cicero or Pliny on this head: They are

too much noted: But one is a little surprised to find Arrian, a very
grave, judicious writer, interrupt the thread of his narration all of a
sudden, to tell his readers that he himself is as eminent among the
Greeks for eloquence as Alexander was for arms. Lib. i.
6. This poet (See lib. iv. 1165.) recommends a very extraordinary
cure for love, and what one expects not to meet with in so elegant
and philosophical a poem. It seems to have been the original of
some of Dr. Swifts images. The elegant Catullus and Phaedrus
fall under the same censure.
7. Att. Non mihi videtur ad beate vivendum satis esse
virtutem. Mar. At hercule Bruto meo videtur; cujus ego judicium,
pace tua dixerim, longe antepono tuo. Tusc. Quaest lib. v.
*8. Lib. xvii.
9. In vita Flamin.
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10. Plut. in vita Flamin.

11. Ibid.
12. Tacit. Ann. lib. iii. cap. 64.
13. In the Self-Tormentor of Terence, Clinias, whenever he
comes to town, instead of waiting on his mistress, sends for her to
come to him.
14. Lord Shaftesbury, see his Moralists.
15. The frequent mention in ancient authors of that ill-bred
custom of the master of the familys eating better bread or
drinking better wine at table, than he afforded his guests, is but an
indifferent mark of the civility of those ages. See Juvenal, sat. 5.
Plinii lib. xiv. cap. 13.
[Mil 133]
Also Plinii Epist. Lucian de mercede
conductis, Saturnalia, &c. There is scarcely any part of Europe at

present so uncivilized as to admit of such a custom.
*16. See Relation of three Embassies, by the Earl of Carlisle.
NOTE [E], p. 126. [Mil 122.]
F it be asked how we can reconcile to the foregoing

principles the happiness, riches, and good police of the
Chinese, who have always been governed by a monarch, and
can scarcely form an idea of a free government; I would
answer, that though the Chinese government be a pure
monarchy, it is not, properly speaking, absolute. This
proceeds from a peculiarity in the situation of that country:
They have no neighbours, except the Tartars, from whom
they were, in some measure, secured, at least seemed to be
secured, by their famous wall, and by the great superiority
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of their numbers. By this means, military discipline has

always been much neglected amongst them; and their
standing forces are mere militia, of the worst kind; and
unfit to suppress any general insurrection in countries so
extremely populous. The sword, therefore, may properly be
said to be always in the hands of the people, which is a
sufficient restraint upon the monarch, and obliges him to
lay his mandarins or governors of provinces under the
restraint of general laws, in order to prevent those
rebellions, which we learn from history to have been so
frequent and dangerous in that government. Perhaps, a pure
monarchy of this kind, were it fitted for defence against
foreign enemies, would be the best of all governments, as
having both the tranquillity attending kingly power, and the
moderation and liberty of popular assemblies.
Mil 138
0
E S S A Y XV.
The Epicurean 1*.
T is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his

utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of
natures productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only
the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes
of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the
hand of the master. Some of the drapery may be of his
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drawing; but he is not allowed to touch the principal figure.

Art may make a suit of clothes: But nature must produce a
man.
Mil 139
Even in those productions, commonly denominated

works of art, we find that the noblest of the kind are
beholden for their chief beauty to the force and happy
influence of nature. To the native enthusiasm of the poets,
we owe whatever is admirable in their productions. The
greatest genius, where nature at any time fails him, (for she
is not equal) throws aside the lyre, and hopes not, from the
rules of art, to reach that divine harmony, which must
proceed from her inspiration alone. How poor are those
songs, where a happy flow of fancy has not furnished
materials for art to embellish and refine!
But of all the fruitless attempts of art, no one is so
ridiculous, as that which the severe philosophers have
undertaken, the producing of an artificial happiness, and
making us be pleased by rules of reason, and by reflection.
Why did none of them claim the reward, which Xerxes
promised to him, who should invent a new pleasure? Unless,
perhaps, they invented so many pleasures for their own use,
that they despised riches, and stood in no need of any
enjoyments, which the rewards of that monarch could
procure them. I am apt, indeed, to think, that they were not
willing to furnish the Persian court with a new pleasure, by
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presenting it with so new and unusual an object of ridicule.

Their speculations, when confined to theory, and gravely
delivered in the schools of Greece, might excite admiration
in their ignorant pupils: But the attempting to reduce such
principles to practice would soon have betrayed their
absurdity.
You pretend to make me happy by reason, and by rules
of art. You must, then, create me anew by rules of art. For
on my original frame and structure does my happiness
depend. But you want power to effect this; and skill too, I
am afraid: Nor can I entertain a less opinion of natures
wisdom than of yours. And let her conduct the machine,
which she has so wisely framed. I find, that I should only
spoil it by my tampering.
To what purpose should I pretend to regulate, refine,
or invigorate any of those springs or principles, which
nature has
Mil 140
implanted in me? Is this the road by which I must reach

happiness? But happiness implies ease, contentment, repose,
and pleasure; not watchfulness, care, and fatigue. The
health of my body consists in the facility, with which all its
operations are performed. The stomach digests the
aliments: The heart circulates the blood: The brain
separates and refines the spirits: And all this without my
concerning myself in the matter. When by my will alone I
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can stop the blood, as it runs with impetuosity along its

canals, then may I hope to change the course of my
sentiments and passions. In vain should I strain my faculties,
and endeavour to receive pleasure from an object, which is
not fitted by nature to affect my organs with delight. I may
give myself pain by my fruitless endeavours; but shall never
reach any pleasure.
Away then with all those vain pretences of making
ourselves happy within ourselves, of feasting on our own
thoughts, of being satisfied with the consciousness of welldoing, and of despising all assistance and all supplies from
external objects. This is the voice of Pride, not of Nature.
And it were well, if even this pride could support itself, and
communicate a real inward pleasure, however melancholy or
severe. But this impotent pride can do no more than
regulate the outside; and with infinite pains and attention
compose the language and countenance to a philosophical
dignity, in order to deceive the ignorant vulgar. The heart,
mean while, is empty of all enjoyment: And the mind,
unsupported by its proper objects, sinks into the deepest
sorrow and dejection. Miserable, but vain mortal! Thy mind
be happy within itself! With what resources is it endowed to
fill so immense a void, and supply the place of all thy bodily
senses and faculties? Can thy head subsist without thy other
members? In such a situation,
What foolish figure must it make?
Do nothing else but sleep and ake.
Mil 141
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Into such a lethargy, or such a melancholy, must thy mind

be plunged, when deprived of foreign occupations and
enjoyments.
Keep me, therefore, no longer in this violent
constraint. Confine me not within myself; but point out to
me those objects and pleasures, which afford the chief
enjoyment. But why do I apply to you, proud and ignorant
sages, to shew me the road to happiness? Let me consult my
own passions and inclinations. In them must I read the
dictates of nature; not in your frivolous discourses.
0
But see, propitious to my wishes, the divine, the

amiable Pleasure 2*, the supreme love of GODS and men,
advances towards me. At her approach, my heart beats with
genial heat, and every sense and every faculty is dissolved in
joy; while she pours around me all the embellishments of
the spring, and all the treasures of the autumn. The melody
of her voice charms my ears with the softest music, as she
invites me to partake of those delicious fruits, which, with a
smile that diffuses a glory on the heavens and the earth, she
presents to me. The sportive Cupids, who attend her, or fan
me with their odoriferous wings, or pour on my head the
most fragrant oils, or offer me their sparkling nectar in
golden goblets. O! for ever let me spread my limbs on this
bed of roses, and thus, thus feel the delicious moments, with
soft and downy steps, glide along. But cruel chance!
Whither do you fly so fast? Why do my ardent wishes, and
that load of pleasures, under which you labour, rather
hasten than retard your unrelenting pace? Suffer me to
enjoy this soft repose, after all my fatigues in search of
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happiness. Suffer me to satiate myself with these delicacies,

after the pains of so long and so foolish an abstinence.
Mil 142
But it will not do. The roses have lost their hue: The
fruit its flavour: And that delicious wine, whose fumes, so
late, intoxicated all my senses with such delight, now solicits
in vain the sated palate. Pleasure smiles at my languor. She
beckons her sister, Virtue, to come to her assistance. The
gay, the frolic Virtue observes the call, and brings along the
whole troop of my jovial friends. Welcome, thrice welcome,
my ever dear companions, to these shady bowers, and to this
luxurious repast. Your presence has restored to the rose its
hue, and to the fruit its flavour. The vapours of this
sprightly nectar now again play around my heart; while you
partake of my delights, and discover in your chearful looks,
the pleasure which you receive from my happiness and
satisfaction. The like do I receive from yours; and
encouraged by your joyous presence, shall again renew the
feast, with which, from too much enjoyment, my senses
were well nigh sated; while the mind kept not pace with the
body, nor afforded relief to her oerburthened partner.
In our chearful discourses, better than in the formal
reasonings of the schools, is true wisdom to be found. In
our friendly endearments, better than in the hollow debates
of statesmen and pretended patriots, does true virtue
display itself. Forgetful of the past, secure of the future, let
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us here enjoy the present; and while we yet possess a being,

let us fix some good, beyond the power of fate or fortune.
To-morrow will bring its own pleasures along with it: Or
should it disappoint our fond wishes, we shall at least enjoy
the pleasure of reflecting on the pleasures of to-day.
Fear not, my friends, that the barbarous dissonance of
Bacchus, and of his revellers, should break in upon this
entertainment, and confound us with their turbulent and
clamorous pleasures. The sprightly muses wait around; and
with their charming symphony, sufficient to soften the
wolves and tygers of the savage desert, inspire a soft joy into
every bosom. Peace, harmony and concord reign in this
retreat; nor
Mil 143
is the silence ever broken but by the music of our songs, or

the chearful accents of our friendly voices.
But hark! the favourite of the muses, the gentle
Damon, strikes the lyre; and while he accompanies its
harmonious notes with his more harmonious song, he
inspires us with the same happy debauch of fancy, by which
he is himself transported. Ye happy youth, he sings, Ye
favoured of heaven 3*, while the wanton spring pours upon
0
you all her blooming honours, let not glory seduce you, with
her delusive blaze, to pass in perils and dangers this
delicious season, this prime of life. Wisdom points out to
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you the road to pleasure: Nature too beckons you to follow

her in that smooth and flowery path. Will you shut your ears
to their commanding voice? Will you harden your heart to
their soft allurements? Oh, deluded mortals, thus to lose
your youth, thus to throw away so invaluable a present, to
trifle with so perishing a blessing. Contemplate well your
recompence. Consider that glory, which so allures your
proud hearts, and seduces you with your own praises. It is an
echo, a dream, nay the shadow of a dream, dissipated by
every wind, and lost by every contrary breath of the
ignorant and ill-judging multitude. You fear not that even
death itself shall ravish it from you. But behold! while you
are yet alive, calumny bereaves you of it; ignorance neglects
it; nature enjoys it not; fancy alone, renouncing every
pleasure receives this airy recompence, empty and unstable
as herself.
Thus the hours pass unperceived along, and lead in
their wanton train all the pleasures of sense, and all the joys
of harmony and friendship. Smiling innocence closes the
procession; and while she presents herself to our ravished
eyes,
Mil 144
she embellishes the whole scene, and renders the view of

these pleasures as transporting, after they have past us, as
when, with laughing countenances, they were yet advancing
towards us.
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But the sun has sunk below the horizon; and darkness,
stealing silently upon us, has now buried all nature in an
universal shade. Rejoice, my friends, continue your repast,
or change it for soft repose. Though absent, your joy or
your tranquillity shall still be mine. But whither do you go? Or
what new pleasures call you from our society? Is there aught agreeable
without your friends? And can aught please, in which we partake not?
Yes, my friends; the joy which I now seek, admits not of
your participation. Here alone I wish your absence: And
here alone can I find a sufficient compensation for the loss
of your society.
But I have not advanced far through the shades of the
thick wood, which spreads a double night around me, ere,
methinks, I perceive through the gloom, the charming
Caelia, the mistress of my wishes, who wanders impatient
through the grove, and preventing the appointed hour,
silently chides my tardy steps. But the joy, which she
receives from my presence, best pleads my excuse; and
dissipating every anxious and every angry thought, leaves
room for nought but mutual joy and rapture. With what
words, my fair one, shall I express my tenderness, or
describe the emotions which now warm my transported
bosom! Words are too faint to describe my love; and if, alas!
you feel not the same flame within you, in vain shall I
endeavour to convey to you a just conception of it. But your
every word and every motion suffice to remove this doubt;
and while they express your passion, serve also to enflame
mine. How amiable this solitude, this silence, this darkness!
No objects now importune the ravished soul. The thought,
the sense, all full of nothing but our mutual happiness,
wholly possess the mind, and convey a pleasure, which
deluded mortals vainly seek for in every other enjoyment.
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But why does your bosom heave with these sighs, while
tears bathe your glowing cheeks? Why distract your heart
with
Mil 145
such vain anxieties? Why so often ask me, How long my love
shall yet endure? Alas, my Caelia, can I resolve this question?
Do I know how long my life shall yet endure? But does this also
disturb your tender breast? And is the image of our frail
mortality for ever present with you, to throw a damp on
your gayest hours, and poison even those joys which love
inspires? Consider rather, that if life be frail, if youth be
transitory, we should well employ the present moment, and
lose no part of so perishable an existence. Yet a little
moment and these shall be no more. We shall be, as if we had
never been. Not a memory of us be left upon earth; and
even the fabulous shades below will not afford us a
habitation. Our fruitless anxieties, our vain projects, our
uncertain speculations shall all be swallowed up and lost.
Our present doubts, concerning the original cause of all
things, must never, alas! be resolved. This alone we may be
certain of, that, if any governing mind preside, he must be
pleased to see us fulfil the ends of our being, and enjoy that
pleasure, for which alone we were created. Let this
reflection give ease to your anxious thoughts; but render
not your joys too serious, by dwelling for ever upon it. It is
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sufficient, once, to be acquainted with this philosophy, in

order to give an unbounded loose to love and jollity, and
remove all the scruples of a vain superstition: But while
youth and passion, my fair one, prompt our eager desires,
we must find gayer subjects of discourse, to intermix with
these amorous caresses.
N O T E S.
*1. Or, The man of elegance and pleasure,. The intention of this and
the three following essays is not so much to explain accurately the
sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver the
sentiments of sects, that naturally form themselves in the world,
and entertain different ideas of human life and of happiness. I have
given each of them the name of the philosophical sect, to which it
bears the greatest affinity.
*2. Dia Voluptas. Lucret.
*3. An imitation of the Syrens song in Tasso.
O Giovinetti, mentre Aprile & Maggio
V ammantan di fiorit & verde spoglie, &c.
Giuresalemme liberata, Canto 14.
Mil 146
0
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0
E S S A Y XVI.
The Stoic 1.
HERE is this obvious and material difference in the

conduct of nature, with regard to man and other
animals, that, having endowed the former with a sublime
celestial spirit, and having given him an affinity with
superior beings, she allows not such noble faculties to lie
lethargic or idle; but urges him, by necessity, to employ, on
every emergence, his utmost art and industry. Brutecreatures have many of their necessities supplied by nature,
being cloathed and armed by this beneficent parent of all
things: And where their own industry is requisite on any
occasion, nature, by implanting instincts, still supplies them
with the art, and guides them to
Mil 147
their good, by her unerring precepts. But man, exposed

naked and indigent to the rude elements, rises slowly from
that helpless state, by the care and vigilance of his parents;
and having attained his utmost growth and perfection,
reaches only a capacity of subsisting, by his own care and
vigilance. Every thing is sold to skill and labour; and where
nature furnishes the materials, they are still rude and
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unfinished, till industry, ever active and intelligent, refines

them from their brute state, and fits them for human use
and convenience.
Acknowledge, therefore, O man, the beneficence of
nature; for she has given thee that intelligence which
supplies all thy necessities. But let not indolence, under the
false appearance of gratitude, persuade thee to rest
contented with her presents. Wouldest thou return to the
raw herbage for thy food, to the open sky for thy covering,
and to stones and clubs for thy defence against the ravenous
animals of the desert? Then return also to thy savage
manners, to thy timorous superstition, to thy brutal
ignorance; and sink thyself below those animals, whose
condition thou admirest, and wouldest so fondly imitate.
Thy kind parent, nature, having given thee art and
intelligence, has filled the whole globe with materials to
employ these talents: Hearken to her voice, which so plainly
tells thee, that thou thyself shouldest also be the object of
thy industry, and that by art and attention alone thou canst
acquire that ability, which will raise thee to thy proper
station in the universe. Behold this artizan, who converts a
rude and shapeless stone into a noble metal; and molding
that metal by his cunning hands, creates, as it were by
magic, every weapon for his defence, and every utensil for
his convenience. He has not this skill from nature: Use and
practice have taught it him: And if thou wouldest emulate
his success, thou must follow his laborious foot-steps.
But while thou ambitiously aspirest to perfecting thy
bodily powers and faculties, wouldest thou meanly neglect
thy mind, and from a preposterous sloth, leave it still rude
and uncultivated, as it came from the hands of nature? Far
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be such
Mil 148
folly and negligence from every rational being. If nature

has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the
more need of art to supply her defects. If she has been
generous and liberal, know that she still expects industry
and application on our part, and revenges herself in
proportion to our negligent ingratitude. The richest genius,
like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into
the rankest weeds; and instead of vines and olives for the
pleasure and use of man, produces, to its slothful owner, the
most abundant crop of poisons.
The great end of all human industry, is the attainment
of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences
cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the
most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the
lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the
elements, and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a
moment, this grand object of his being. Ignorant as he is of
every art of life, he still keeps in view the end of all those
arts, and eagerly seeks for felicity amidst that darkness with
which he is environed. But as much as the wildest savage is
inferior to the polished citizen, who, under the protection
of laws, enjoys every convenience which industry has
invented; so much is this citizen himself inferior to the man
of virtue, and the true philosopher, who governs his
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appetites, subdues his passions, and has learned, from

reason, to set a just value on every pursuit and enjoyment.
For is there an art and apprenticeship necessary for every
other attainment? And is there no art of life, no rule, no
precepts to direct us in this principal concern? Can no
particular pleasure be attained without skill; and can the
whole be regulated without reflection or intelligence, by
the blind guidance of appetite and instinct? Surely then no
mistakes are ever committed in this affair; but every man,
however dissolute and negligent, proceeds in the pursuit of
happiness, with as unerring a motion, as that which the
celestial bodies observe, when, conducted by the hand of
the Almighty, they roll along the ethereal plains. But if
mistakes be often, be inevitably committed, let us register
these mistakes;
Mil 149
let us consider their causes; let us weigh their importance;

let us enquire for their remedies. When from this we have
fixed all the rules of conduct, we are philosophers: When we
have reduced these rules to practice, we are sages.
Like many subordinate artists, employed to form the
several wheels and springs of a machine: Such are those who
excel in all the particular arts of life. He is the master
workman who puts those several parts together; moves them
according to just harmony and proportion; and produces
true felicity as the result of their conspiring order.
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While thou hast such an alluring object in view, shall

that labour and attention, requisite to the attainment of thy
end, ever seem burdensome and intolerable? Know, that this
labour itself is the chief ingredient of the felicity to which
thou aspirest, and that every enjoyment soon becomes
insipid and distasteful, when not acquired by fatigue and
industry. See the hardy hunters rise from their downy
couches, shake off the slumbers which still weigh down
their heavy eye-lids, and, ere Aurora has yet covered the
heavens with her flaming mantle, hasten to the forest. They
leave behind, in their own houses, and in the neighbouring
plains, animals of every kind, whose flesh furnishes the most
delicious fare, and which offer themselves to the fatal
stroke. Laborious man disdains so easy a purchase. He seeks
for a prey, which hides itself from his search, or flies from
his pursuit, or defends itself from his violence. Having
exerted in the chace every passion of the mind, and every
member of the body, he then finds the charms of repose,
and with joy compares its pleasures to those of his engaging
labours.
And can vigorous industry give pleasure to the pursuit
even of the most worthless prey, which frequently escapes
our toils? And cannot the same industry render the
cultivating of our mind, the moderating of our passions, the
enlightening of our reason, an agreeable occupation; while
we are every day sensible of our progress, and behold our
inward features and countenance brightening incessantly
with new charms? Begin by curing yourself of this lethargic
indolence; the task is not
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Mil 150
difficult: You need but taste the sweets of honest labour.

Proceed to learn the just value of every pursuit; long study
is not requisite: Compare, though but for once, the mind to
the body, virtue to fortune, and glory to pleasure. You will
then perceive the advantages of industry: You will then be
sensible what are the proper objects of your industry.
In vain do you seek repose from beds of roses: In vain
do you hope for enjoyment from the most delicious wines
and fruits. Your indolence itself becomes a fatigue: Your
pleasure itself creates disgust. The mind, unexercised, finds
every delight insipid and loathsome; and ere yet the body,
full of noxious humours, feels the torment of its multiplied
diseases, your nobler part is sensible of the invading poison,
and seeks in vain to relieve its anxiety by new pleasures,
which still augment the fatal malady.
I need not tell you, that, by this eager pursuit of
pleasure, you more and more expose yourself to fortune
and accidents, and rivet your affections on external objects,
which chance may, in a moment, ravish from you. I shall
suppose, that your indulgent stars favour you still with the
enjoyment of your riches and possessions. I prove to you,
that even in the midst of your luxurious pleasures, you are
unhappy; and that by too much indulgence, you are
incapable of enjoying what prosperous fortune still allows
you to possess.
But surely the instability of fortune is a consideration
not to be overlooked or neglected. Happiness cannot
possibly exist, where there is no security; and security can
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have no place, where fortune has any dominion. Though

that unstable deity should not exert her rage against you,
the dread of it would still torment you; would disturb your
slumbers, haunt your dreams, and throw a damp on the
jollity of your most delicious banquets.
The temple of wisdom is seated on a rock, above the
rage of the fighting elements, and inaccessible to all the
malice of man. The rolling thunder breaks below; and those
more terrible instruments of human fury reach not to so
sublime a height. The sage, while he breathes that serene
air, looks
Mil 151
down with pleasure, mixed with compassion, on the errors

of mistaken mortals, who blindly seek for the true path of
life, and pursue riches, nobility, honour, or power, for
genuine felicity. The greater part he beholds disappointed
of their fond wishes: Some lament, that having once
possessed the object of their desires, it is ravished from
them by envious fortune: And all complain, that even their
own vows, though granted, cannot give them happiness, or
relieve the anxiety of their distracted minds.
But does the sage always preserve himself in this
philosophical indifference, and rest contented with
lamenting the miseries of mankind, without ever employing
himself for their relief? Does he constantly indulge this
severe wisdom, which, by pretending to elevate him above
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human accidents, does in reality harden his heart, and

render him careless of the interests of mankind, and of
society? No; he knows that in this sullen Apathy, neither
true wisdom nor true happiness can be found. He feels too
strongly the charm of the social affections ever to
counteract so sweet, so natural, so virtuous a propensity.
Even when, bathed in tears, he laments the miseries of
human race, of his country, of his friends, and unable to
give succour, can only relieve them by compassion; he yet
rejoices in the generous disposition, and feels a satisfaction
superior to that of the most indulged sense. So engaging are
the sentiments of humanity, that they brighten up the very
face of sorrow, and operate like the sun, which, shining on a
dusky cloud or falling rain, paints on them the most
glorious colours which are to be found in the whole circle
of nature.
But it is not here alone, that the social virtues display
their energy. With whatever ingredient you mix them, they
are still predominant. As sorrow cannot overcome them, so
neither can sensual pleasure obscure them. The joys of love,
however tumultuous, banish not the tender sentiments of
sympathy and affection. They even derive their chief
influence from that generous passion; and when presented
alone, afford nothing to the unhappy mind but lassitude and
disgust. Behold this sprightly debauchee, who professes a
contempt of all
Mil 152
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other pleasures but those of wine and jollity: Separate him

from his companions, like a spark from a fire, where before
it contributed to the general blaze: His alacrity suddenly
extinguishes; and though surrounded with every other
means of delight, he lothes the sumptuous banquet, and
prefers even the most abstracted study and speculation, as
more agreeable and entertaining.
But the social passions never afford such transporting
pleasures, or make so glorious an appearance in the eyes
both of GOD and man, as when, shaking off every earthly
mixture, they associate themselves with the sentiments of
virtue, and prompt us to laudable and worthy actions. As
harmonious colours mutually give and receive a lustre by
their friendly union; so do these ennobling sentiments of
the human mind. See the triumph of nature in parental
affection! What selfish passion; what sensual delight is a
match for it! Whether a man exults in the prosperity and
virtue of his offspring, or flies to their succour, through the
most threatening and tremendous dangers?
Proceed still in purifying the generous passion, you
will still the more admire its shining glories. What charms
are there in the harmony of minds, and in a friendship
founded on mutual esteem and gratitude! What satisfaction
in relieving the distressed, in comforting the afflicted, in
raising the fallen, and in stopping the career of cruel
fortune, or of more cruel man, in their insults over the good
and virtuous! But what supreme joy in the victories over vice
as well as misery, when, by virtuous example or wise
exhortation, our fellow-creatures are taught to govern their
passions, reform their vices, and subdue their worst
enemies, which inhabit within their own bosoms?
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But these objects are still too limited for the human
mind, which, being of celestial origin, swells with the
divinest and most enlarged affections, and carrying its
attention beyond kindred and acquaintance, extends its
benevolent wishes to the most distant posterity. It views
liberty and laws as the source of human happiness, and
devotes itself, with the ut-
Mil 153
most alacrity, to their guardianship and protection. Toils,

dangers, death itself carry their charms, when we brave
them for the public good, and ennoble that being, which we
generously sacrifice for the interests of our country. Happy
the man, whom indulgent fortune allows to pay to virtue
what he owes to nature, and to make a generous gift of what
must otherwise be ravished from him by cruel necessity!
In the true sage and patriot are united whatever can
distinguish human nature, or elevate mortal man to a
resemblance with the divinity. The softest benevolence, the
most undaunted resolution, the tenderest sentiments, the
most sublime love of virtue, all these animate successively
his transported bosom. What satisfaction, when he looks
within, to find the most turbulent passions tuned to just
harmony and concord, and every jarring sound banished
from this enchanting music! If the contemplation, even of
inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses,
even when the fair form is foreign to us: What must be the
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effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have,

when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our
own reflection and industry?
But where is the reward of virtue? And what recompence has
nature provided for such important sacrifices, as those of life and
fortune, which we must often make to it? Oh, sons of earth! Are
ye ignorant of the value of this celestial mistress? And do ye
meanly enquire for her portion, when ye observe her
genuine charms? But know, that nature has been indulgent
to human weakness, and has not left this favourite child,
naked and unendowed. She has provided virtue with the
richest dowry; but being careful, lest the allurements of
interest should engage such suitors, as were insensible of
the native worth of so divine a beauty, she has wisely
provided, that this dowry can have no charms but in the eyes
of those who are already transported with the love of virtue.
Glory is the portion of virtue, the sweet reward of
honourable toils, the triumphant crown, which covers the
thoughtful head of the disinterested patriot, or the dusty
brow of the victorious warrior. Elevated by so sublime a
prize, the man of virtue looks down with
Mil 154
contempt on all the allurements of pleasure, and all the

menaces of danger. Death itself loses its terrors, when he
considers, that its dominion extends only over a part of him,
and that, in spite of death and time, the rage of the
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elements, and the endless vicissitude of human affairs, he is

assured of an immortal fame among all the sons of men.
There surely is a being who presides over the universe;
and who, with infinite wisdom and power, has reduced the
jarring elements into just order and proportion. Let
speculative reasoners dispute, how far this beneficent being
extends his care, and whether he prolongs our existence
beyond the grave, in order to bestow on virtue its just
reward, and render it fully triumphant. The man of morals,
without deciding any thing on so dubious a subject, is
satisfied with the portion, marked out to him by the
supreme disposer of all things. Gratefully he accepts of that
farther reward prepared for him; but if disappointed, he
thinks not virtue an empty name; but justly esteeming it its
own reward, he gratefully acknowledges the bounty of his
creator, who, by calling him into existence, has thereby
afforded him an opportunity of once acquiring so invaluable
a possession.
N O T E S.
1. Or the man of action and virtue.
Mil 155
0
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0
E S S A Y XVII.
The Platonist 1.
O some philosophers it appears matter of surprize,

that all mankind, possessing the same nature, and
being endowed with the same faculties, should yet differ so
widely in their pursuits and inclinations, and that one should
utterly condemn what is fondly sought after by another. To
some it appears matter of still more surprize, that a man
should differ so widely from himself at different times; and,
after possession, reject with disdain what, before, was the
object of all his vows and wishes. To me this feverish
uncertainty and irresolution, in human conduct, seems
altogether unavoidable; nor can a rational soul, made for
the contemplation of the
Mil 156
Supreme Being, and of his works, ever enjoy tranquillity or

satisfaction, while detained in the ignoble pursuits of
sensual pleasure or popular applause. The divinity is a
boundless ocean of bliss and glory: Human minds are
smaller streams, which, arising at first from this ocean, seek
still, amid all their wanderings, to return to it, and to lose
themselves in that immensity of perfection. When checked
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in this natural course, by vice or folly, they become furious

and enraged; and, swelling to a torrent, do then spread
horror and devastation on the neighbouring plains.
In vain, by pompous phrase and passionate expression,
each recommends his own pursuit, and invites the credulous
hearers to an imitation of his life and manners. The heart
belies the countenance, and sensibly feels, even amid the
highest success, the unsatisfactory nature of all those
pleasures, which detain it from its true object. I examine the
voluptuous man before enjoyment; I measure the
vehemence of his desire, and the importance of his object; I
find that all his happiness proceeds only from that hurry of
thought, which takes him from himself, and turns his view
from his guilt and misery. I consider him a moment after; he
has now enjoyed the pleasure, which he fondly sought after.
The sense of his guilt and misery returns upon him with
double anguish: His mind tormented with fear and remorse;
his body depressed with disgust and satiety.
But a more august, at least a more haughty personage,
presents himself boldly to our censure; and assuming the
title of a philosopher and man of morals, offers to submit to
the most rigid examination. He challenges, with a visible,
though concealed impatience, our approbation and
applause; and seems offended, that we should hesitate a
moment before we break out into admiration of his virtue.
Seeing this impatience, I hesitate still more: I begin to
examine the motives of his seeming virtue: But behold! ere
I can enter upon this enquiry, he flings himself from me;
and addressing his discourse to that crowd of heedless
auditors, fondly abuses them by his magnificent pretensions.
O philosopher! thy wisdom is vain, and thy virtue unwww.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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Mil 157
profitable. Thou seekest the ignorant applauses of men, not

the solid reflections of thy own conscience, or the more
solid approbation of that being, who, with one regard of his
all-seeing eye, penetrates the universe. Thou surely art
conscious of the hollowness of thy pretended probity, whilst
calling thyself a citizen, a son, a friend, thou forgettest thy
higher sovereign, thy true father, thy greatest benefactor.
Where is the adoration due to infinite perfection, whence
every thing good and valuable is derived? Where is the
gratitude, owing to thy creator, who called thee forth from
nothing, who placed thee in all these relations to thy
fellow-creatures, and requiring thee to fulfil the duty of
each relation, forbids thee to neglect what thou owest to
himself, the most perfect being, to whom thou art
connected by the closest tye?
But thou art thyself thy own idol: Thou worshippest
thy imaginary perfections: Or rather, sensible of thy real
imperfections, thou seekest only to deceive the world, and
to please thy fancy, by multiplying thy ignorant admirers.
Thus, not content with neglecting what is most excellent in
the universe, thou desirest to substitute in his place what is
most vile and contemptible.
Consider all the works of mens hands; all the inventions
of human wit, in which thou affectest so nice a discernment:
Thou wilt find, that the most perfect production still
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proceeds from the most perfect thought, and that it is mind

alone, which we admire, while we bestow our applause on
the graces of a well-proportioned statue, or the symmetry
of a noble pile. The statuary, the architect comes still in
view, and makes us reflect on the beauty of his art and
contrivance, which, from a heap of unformed matter, could
extract such expressions and proportions. This superior
beauty of thought and intelligence thou thyself
acknowledgest, while thou invitest us to contemplate, in thy
conduct, the harmony of affections, the dignity of
sentiments, and all those graces of a mind, which chiefly
merit our attention. But why stoppest thou short? Seest
thou nothing farther that is valuable? Amid thy rapturous
applauses of beauty and order, art thou still
Mil 158
ignorant where is to be found the most consummate beauty?

the most perfect order? Compare the works of art with
those of nature. The one are but imitations of the other.
The nearer art approaches to nature, the more perfect is it
esteemed. But still, how wide are its nearest approaches, and
what an immense interval may be observed between them?
Art copies only the outside of nature, leaving the inward
and more admirable springs and principles; as exceeding her
imitation; as beyond her comprehension. Art copies only the
minute productions of nature, despairing to reach that
grandeur and magnificence, which are so astonishing in the
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masterly works of her original. Can we then be so blind as

not to discover an intelligence and a design in the exquisite
and most stupendous contrivance of the universe? Can we
be so stupid as not to feel the warmest raptures of worship
and adoration, upon the contemplation of that intelligent
being, so infinitely good and wise?
The most perfect happiness, surely, must arise from the
contemplation of the most perfect object. But what more
perfect than beauty and virtue? And where is beauty to be
found equal to that of the universe? Or virtue, which can be
compared to the benevolence and justice of the Deity? If
aught can diminish the pleasure of this contemplation, it
must be either the narrowness of our faculties, which
conceals from us the greatest part of these beauties and
perfections; or the shortness of our lives, which allows not
time sufficient to instruct us in them. But it is our comfort,
that, if we employ worthily the faculties here assigned us,
they will be enlarged in another state of existence, so as to
render us more suitable worshippers of our maker: And that
the task, which can never be finished in time, will be the
business of an eternity.
N O T E S.
1. Or, the man of contemplation, and philosophical devotion.
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Mil 159
E S S A Y XVIII.
The Sceptic.
HAVE long entertained a suspicion, with regard to the

decisions of philosophers upon all subjects, and found in
myself a greater inclination to dispute, than assent to their
conclusions. There is one mistake, to which they seem
liable, almost without exception; they confine too much
their principles, and make no account of that vast variety,
which nature has so much affected in all her operations.
When a philosopher has once laid hold of a favourite
principle, which perhaps accounts for many natural effects,
he extends the same principle over the whole creation, and
reduces to it every phaenomenon, though by the most
violent and absurd reasoning. Our own mind being narrow
and contracted, we cannot extend our conception to the
variety and extent of nature; but imagine,
Mil 160
that she is as much bounded in her operations, as we are in

our speculation.
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But if ever this infirmity of philosophers is to be

suspected on any occasion, it is in their reasonings
concerning human life, and the methods of attaining
happiness. In that case, they are led astray, not only by the
narrowness of their understandings, but by that also of their
passions. Almost every one has a predominant inclination, to
which his other desires and affections submit, and which
governs him, though, perhaps, with some intervals, through
the whole course of his life. It is difficult for him to
apprehend, that any thing, which appears totally indifferent
to him, can ever give enjoyment to any person, or can
possess charms, which altogether escape his observation. His
own pursuits are always, in his account, the most engaging:
The objects of his passion, the most valuable: And the road,
which he pursues, the only one that leads to happiness.
But would these prejudiced reasoners reflect a
moment, there are many obvious instances and arguments,
sufficient to undeceive them, and make them enlarge their
maxims and principles. Do they not see the vast variety of
inclinations and pursuits among our species; where each
man seems fully satisfied with his own course of life, and
would esteem it the greatest unhappiness to be confined to
that of his neighbour? Do they not feel in themselves, that
what pleases at one time, displeases at another, by the
change of inclination; and that it is not in their power, by
their utmost efforts, to recall that taste or appetite, which
formerly bestowed charms on what now appears indifferent
or disagreeable? What is the meaning therefore of those
general preferences of the town or country life, of a life of
action or one of pleasure, of retirement or society; when
besides the different inclinations of different men, every
ones experience may convince him, that each of these kinds
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of life is agreeable in its turn, and that their variety or their

judicious mixture chiefly contributes to the rendering all of
them agreeable.
But shall this business be allowed to go altogether at
adven-
Mil 161
tures? And must a man consult only his humour and

inclination, in order to determine his course of life, without
employing his reason to inform him what road is preferable,
and leads most surely to happiness!? Is there no difference
then between one mans conduct and another?
I answer, there is a great difference. One man,
following his inclination, in chusing his course of life, may
employ much surer means for succeeding than another, who
is led by his inclination into the same course of life, and
pursues the same object. Are riches the chief object of your desires?
Acquire skill in your profession; be diligent in the exercise
of it; enlarge the circle of your friends and acquaintance;
avoid pleasure and expence; and never be generous, but
with a view of gaining more than you could save by
frugality. Would you acquire the public esteem? Guard equally
against the extremes of arrogance and fawning. Let it
appear that you set a value upon yourself, but without
despising others. If you fall into either of the extremes, you
either provoke mens pride by your insolence, or teach
them to despise you by your timorous submission, and by
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the mean opinion which you seem to entertain of yourself.

These, you say, are the maxims of common prudence,
and discretion; what every parent inculcates on his child,
and what every man of sense pursues in the course of life,
which he has chosen.What is it then you desire more? Do
you come to a philosopher as to a cunning man, to learn
something by magic or witchcraft, beyond what can be
known by common prudence and discretion?Yes; we
come to a philosopher to be instructed, how we shall chuse
our ends, more than the means for attaining these ends: We
want to know what desire we shall gratify, what passion we
shall comply with, what appetite we shall indulge. As to the
rest, we trust to common sense, and the general maxims of
the world for our instruction.
I am sorry then, I have pretended to be a philosopher:
For I find your questions very perplexing; and am in
danger, if my answer be too rigid and severe, of passing for
a pedant and scholastic; if it be too easy and free, of being
taken for a preacher of vice and immorality. However, to
satisfy you, I
Mil 162
shall deliver my opinion upon the matter, and shall only

desire you to esteem it of as little consequence as I do
myself. By that means you will neither think it worthy of
your ridicule nor your anger.
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If we can depend upon any principle, which we learn

from philosophy, this, I think, may be considered as certain
and undoubted, that there is nothing, in itself, valuable or
despicable, desirable or hateful, beautiful or deformed; but
that these attributes arise from the particular constitution
and fabric of human sentiment and affection. What seems
the most delicious food to one animal, appears loathsome to
another: What affects the feeling of one with delight,
produces uneasiness in another. This is confessedly the case
with regard to all the bodily senses: But if we examine the
matter more accurately, we shall find, that the same
observation holds even where the mind concurs with the
body, and mingles its sentiment with the exterior appetite.
Desire this passionate lover to give you a character of
his mistress: He will tell you, that he is at a loss for words to
describe her charms, and will ask you very seriously if ever
you were acquainted with a goddess or an angel? If you
answer that you never were: He will then say, that it is
impossible for you to form a conception of such divine
beauties as those which his charmer possesses; so complete a
shape; such well-proportioned features; so engaging an air;
such sweetness of disposition; such gaiety of humour. You
can infer nothing, however, from all this discourse, but that
the poor man is in love; and that the general appetite
between the sexes, which nature has infused into all animals,
is in him determined to a particular object by some qualities,
which give him pleasure. The same divine creature, not only
to a different animal, but also to a different man, appears a
mere mortal being, and is beheld with the utmost
indifference.
Nature has given all animals a like prejudice in favour
of their offspring. As soon as the helpless infant sees the
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light, though in every other eye it appears a despicable and

a miserable creature, it is regarded by its fond parent with
the
Mil 163
utmost affection, and is preferred to every other object,

however perfect and accomplished. The passion alone,
arising from the original structure and formation of human
nature, bestows a value on the most insignificant object.
We may push the same observation further, and may
conclude, that, even when the mind operates alone, and
feeling the sentiment of blame or approbation, pronounces
one object deformed and odious, another beautiful and
amiable; I say, that, even in this case, those qualities are not
really in the objects, but belong entirely to the sentiment of
that mind which blames or praises. I grant, that it will be
more difficult to make this proposition evident, and as it
were, palpable, to negligent thinkers; because nature is
more uniform in the sentiments of the mind than in most
feelings of the body, and produces a nearer resemblance in
the inward than in the outward part of human kind. There is
something approaching to principles in mental taste; and
critics can reason and dispute more plausibly than cooks or
perfumers. We may observe, however, that this uniformity
among human kind, hinders not, but that there is a
considerable diversity in the sentiments of beauty and
worth, and that education, custom, prejudice, caprice, and
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humour, frequently vary our taste of this kind. You will

never convince a man, who is not accustomed to Italian
music, and has not an ear to follow its intricacies, that a
Scotch tune is not preferable. You have not even any single
argument, beyond your own taste, which you can employ in
your behalf: And to your antagonist, his particular taste will
always appear a more convincing argument to the contrary.
If you be wise, each of you will allow, that the other may be
in the right; and having many other instances of this
diversity of taste, you will both confess, that beauty and
worth are merely of a relative nature, and consist in an
agreeable sentiment, produced by an object in a particular
mind, according to the peculiar structure and constitution
of that mind.
By this diversity of sentiment, observable in human
kind, nature has, perhaps, intended to make us sensible of
her authority, and let us see what surprizing changes she
could
Mil 164
produce on the passions and desires of mankind, merely by

the change of their inward fabric, without any alteration on
the objects. The vulgar may even be convinced by this
argument: But men, accustomed to thinking, may draw a
more convincing, at least a more general argument, from
the very nature of the subject.
In the operation of reasoning, the mind does nothing
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but run over its objects, as they are supposed to stand in

reality, without adding any thing to them, or diminishing
any thing from them. If I examine the Ptolomaic and
Copernican systems, I endeavour only, by my enquiries, to
know the real situation of the planets; that is in other words,
I endeavour to give them, in my conception, the same
relations, that they bear towards each other in the heavens.
To this operation of the mind, therefore, there seems to be
always a real, though often an unknown standard, in the
nature of things; nor is truth or falsehood variable by the
various apprehensions of mankind. Though all human race
should for ever conclude, that the sun moves, and the earth
remains at rest, the sun stirs not an inch from his place for
all these reasonings; and such conclusions are eternally false
and erroneous.
But the case is not the same with the qualities of
beautiful and deformed, desirable and odious, as with truth and
falsehood. In the former case, the mind is not content with
merely surveying its objects, as they stand in themselves: It
also feels a sentiment of delight or uneasiness, approbation
or blame, consequent to that survey; and this sentiment
determines it to affix the epithet beautiful or deformed,
desirable or odious. Now, it is evident, that this sentiment must
depend upon the particular fabric or structure of the mind,
which enables such particular forms to operate in such a
particular manner, and produces a sympathy or conformity
between the mind and its
Mil 165
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objects. Vary the structure of the mind or inward organs,

the sentiment no longer follows, though the form remains
the same. The sentiment being different from the object,
and arising from its operation upon the organs of the mind,
an alteration upon the latter must vary the effect, nor can
the same object, presented to a mind totally different,
produce the same sentiment.
This conclusion every one is apt to draw of himself,
without much philosophy, where the sentiment is evidently
distinguishable from the object. Who is not sensible, that
power, and glory, and vengeance, are not desirable of
themselves, but derive all their value from the structure of
human passions, which begets a desire towards such
particular pursuits? But with regard to beauty, either
natural or moral, the case is commonly supposed to be
different. The agreeable quality is thought to lie in the
object, not in the sentiment; and that merely because the
sentiment is not so turbulent and violent as to distinguish
itself, in an evident manner, from the perception of the
object.
But a little reflection suffices to distinguish them. A
man may know exactly all the circles and ellipses of the
Copernican system, and all the irregular spirals of the
Ptolomaic, without perceiving that the former is more
beautiful than the latter. Euclid has fully explained every
quality of the circle, but has not, in any proposition, said a
word of its beauty. The reason is evident. Beauty is not a
quality of the circle. It lies not in any part of the line whose
parts are all equally distant from a common center. It is only
the effect, which that figure produces upon a mind, whose
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particular fabric or structure renders it susceptible of such

sentiments. In vain would you look for it in the circle, or
seek it, either by your senses, or by mathematical
reasonings, in all the properties of that figure.
Mil 166
The mathematician, who took no other pleasure in

reading Virgil, but that of examining Eneass voyage by the
map, might perfectly understand the meaning of every
Latin word, employed by that divine author; and
consequently, might have a distinct idea of the whole
narration. He would even have a more distinct idea of it,
than they could attain who had not studied so exactly the
geography of the poem. He knew, therefore, every thing in
the poem: But he was ignorant of its beauty; because the
beauty, properly speaking, lies not in the poem, but in the
sentiment or taste of the reader. And where a man has no
such delicacy of temper, as to make him feel this sentiment,
he must be ignorant of the beauty, though possessed of the
science and understanding of an angel 1.
0
The inference upon the whole is, that it is not from the
value or worth of the object, which any person pursues, that
we can determine his enjoyment, but merely from the
passion with which he pursues it, and the success which he
meets with in his pursuit. Objects have absolutely no worth
or value in themselves. They derive their worth merely from
the passion. If that be strong, and steady, and successful, the
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person is happy. It cannot reasonably be doubted, but a

little miss, dressed in a new gown for a dancing-school ball,
receives as compleat enjoyment as the greatest orator, who
triumphs in the spendor of his eloquence, while he governs
the passions and resolutions of a numerous assembly.
Mil 167
All the difference, therefore, between one man and

another, with regard to life, consists either in the passion, or
in the enjoyment: And these differences are sufficient to
produce the wide extremes of happiness and misery.
To be happy, the passion must neither be too violent nor
too remiss. In the first case, the mind is in a perpetual hurry
and tumult; in the second, it sinks into a disagreeable
indolence and lethargy.
To be happy, the passion must be benign and social;
not rough or fierce. The affections of the latter kind are
not near so agreeable to the feeling, as those of the former.
Who will compare rancour and animosity, envy and
revenge, to friendship, benignity, clemency, and gratitude?
To be happy, the passion must be chearful and gay, not
gloomy and melancholy. A propensity to hope and joy is real
riches: One to fear and sorrow, real poverty.
Some passions or inclinations, in the enjoyment of their
object, are not so steady or constant as others, nor convey
such durable pleasure and satisfaction. Philosophical devotion,
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for instance, like the enthusiasm of a poet, is the transitory

effect of high spirits, great leisure, a fine genius, and a
habit of study and contemplation: But notwithstanding all
these circumstances, an abstract, invisible object, like that
which natural religion alone presents to us, cannot long
actuate the mind, or be of any moment in life. To render
the passion of continuance, we must find some method of
affecting the senses and imagination, and must embrace
some historical, as well as philosophical account of the divinity.
Popular superstitions and observances are even found to be
of use in this particular.
Though the tempers of men be very different, yet we
may safely pronounce in general, that a life of pleasure
cannot support itself so long as one of business, but is much
more subject to satiety and disgust. The amusements, which
are the most durable, have all a mixture of application and
attention in them; such as gaming and hunting. And in
general, business and action fill up all the great vacancies in
human life.
But where the temper is the best disposed for any
enjoyment, the object is often wanting: And in this respect,
the
Mil 168
passions, which pursue external objects, contribute not so

much to happiness, as those which rest in ourselves; since we
are neither so certain of attaining such objects, nor so
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secure in possessing them. A passion for learning is

preferable, with regard to happiness, to one for riches.
Some men are possessed of great strength of mind; and
even when they pursue external objects, are not much
affected by a disappointment, but renew their application
and industry with the greatest chearfulness. Nothing
contributes more to happiness than such a turn of mind.
According to this short and imperfect sketch of human
life, the happiest disposition of mind is the virtuous; or, in
other words, that which leads to action and employment,
renders us sensible to the social passions, steels the heart
against the assaults of fortune, reduces the affections to a
just moderation, makes our own thoughts an entertainment
to us, and inclines us rather to the pleasures of society and
conversation, than to those of the senses. This, in the mean
time, must be obvious to the most careless reasoner, that all
dispositions of mind are not alike favourable to happiness,
and that one passion or humour may be extremely desirable,
while another is equally disagreeable. And indeed, all the
difference between the conditions of life depends upon the
mind; nor is there any one situation of affairs, in itself,
preferable to another. Good and ill, both natural and moral,
are entirely relative to human sentiment and affection. No
man would ever be unhappy, could he alter his feelings.
Proteus-like, he would elude all attacks, by the continual
alterations of his shape and form.
But of this resource nature has, in a great measure,
deprived us. The fabric and constitution of our mind no
more depends on our choice, than that of our body. The
generality of men have not even the smallest notion, that
any alteration in this respect can ever be desirable. As a
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stream necessarily
Mil 169
follows the several inclinations of the ground, on which it

runs; so are the ignorant and thoughtless part of mankind
actuated by their natural propensities. Such are effectually
excluded from all pretensions to philosophy, and the
medicine of the mind, so much boasted. But even upon the wise
and thoughtful, nature has a prodigious influence; nor is it
always in a mans power, by the utmost art and industry, to
correct his temper, and attain that virtuous character, to
which he aspires. The empire of philosophy extends over a
few; and with regard to these too, her authority is very weak
and limited. Men may well be sensible of the value of
virtue, and may desire to attain it; but it is not always
certain, that they will be successful in their wishes.
Whoever considers, without prejudice, the course of
human actions, will find, that mankind are almost entirely
guided by constitution and temper, and that general maxims
have little influence, but so far as they affect our taste or
sentiment. If a man have a lively sense of honour and virtue,
with moderate passions, his conduct will always be
conformable to the rules of morality; or if he depart from
them, his return will be easy and expeditious. On the other
hand, where one is born of so perverse a frame of mind, of
so callous and insensible a disposition, as to have no relish
for virtue and humanity, no sympathy with his fellowwww.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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creatures, no desire of esteem and applause; such a one must

be allowed entirely incurable, nor is there any remedy in
philosophy. He reaps no satisfaction but from low and
sensual objects, or from the indulgence of malignant
passions: He feels no remorse to controul his vicious
inclinations: He has not even that sense or taste, which is
requisite to make him desire a better character: For my
part, I know not how I should address myself to such a one,
or by what arguments I should endeavour to reform him.
Should I tell him of the inward satisfaction which results
from laudable and humane actions, the delicate pleasure of
disinterested love and friendship, the lasting enjoyments of
a good name and an established character, he might still
reply, that these were, perhaps, pleasures to such as were
susceptible
Mil 170
of them; but that, for his part, he finds himself of a quite

different turn and disposition. I must repeat it; my
philosophy affords no remedy in such a case, nor could I do
any thing but lament this persons unhappy condition. But
then I ask, If any other philosophy can afford a remedy; or
if it be possible, by any system, to render all mankind
virtuous, however perverse may be their natural frame of
mind? Experience will soon convince us of the contrary; and
I will venture to affirm, that, perhaps, the chief benefit,
which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner,
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and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence,

than from its immediate application.
It is certain, that a serious attention to the sciences and
liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes
those fine emotions, in which true virtue and honour
consists. It rarely, very rarely happens, that a man of taste
and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whatever
frailties may attend him. The bent of his mind to speculative
studies must mortify in him the passions of interest and
ambition, and must, at the same time, give him a greater
sensibility of all the decencies and duties of life. He feels
more fully a moral distinction in characters and manners;
nor is his sense of this kind diminished, but, on the
contrary, it is much encreased, by speculation.
Besides such insensible changes upon the temper and
disposition, it is highly probable, that others may be
produced by study and application. The prodigious effects
of education may convince us, that the mind is not
altogether stubborn and inflexible, but will admit of many
alterations from its original make and structure. Let a man
propose to himself the model of a character, which he
approves: Let him be well acquainted with those particulars,
in which his own character deviates from this model: Let
him keep a constant watch over himself, and bend his mind,
by a continual effort, from the vices, towards the virtues;
and I doubt not but, in time, he will find, in his temper, an
alteration for the better.
Habit is another powerful means of reforming the
mind,
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Mil 171
and implanting in it good dispositions and inclinations. A

man, who continues in a course of sobriety and temperance,
will hate riot and disorder: If he engage in business or
study, indolence will seem a punishment to him: If he
constrain himself to practise beneficence and affability, he
will soon abhor all instances of pride and violence. Where
one is thoroughly convinced that the virtuous course of life
is preferable; if he have but resolution enough, for some
time, to impose a violence on himself; his reformation needs
not be despaired of. The misfortune is, that this conviction
and this resolution never can have place, unless a man be,
before-hand, tolerably virtuous.
Here then is the chief triumph of art and philosophy:
It insensibly refines the temper, and it points out to us those
dispositions which we should endeavour to attain, by a
constant bent of mind, and by repeated habit. Beyond this I
cannot acknowledge it to have great influence; and I must
entertain doubts concerning all those exhortations and
consolations, which are in such vogue among speculative
reasoners.
We have already observed, that no objects are, in
themselves, desirable or odious, valuable or despicable; but
that objects acquire these qualities from the particular
character and constitution of the mind, which surveys them.
To diminish therefore, or augment any persons value for
an object, to excite or moderate his passions, there are no
direct arguments or reasons, which can be employed with
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any force or influence. The catching of flies, like

Domitian, if it give more pleasure, is preferable to the
hunting of wild beasts, like William Rufus, or conquering
of kingdoms, like Alexander.
Mil 172
But though the value of every object can be

determined only by the sentiment or passion of every
individual, we may observe, that the passion, in
pronouncing its verdict, considers not the object simply, as
it is in itself, but surveys it with all the circumstances, which
attend it. A man transported with joy, on account of his
possessing a diamond, confines not his view to the glistering
stone before him: He also considers its rarity, and thence
chiefly arises his pleasure and exultation. Here therefore a
philosopher may step in, and suggest particular views, and
considerations, and circumstances, which otherwise would
have escaped us; and, by that means, he may either
moderate or excite any particular passion.
It may seem unreasonable absolutely to deny the
authority of philosophy in this respect: But it must be
confessed, that there lies this strong presumption against it,
that, if these views be natural and obvious, they would have
occurred of themselves, without the assistance of
philosophy; if they be not natural, they never can have any
influence on the affections. These are of a very delicate
nature, and cannot be forced or constrained by the utmost
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art or industry. A consideration, which we seek for on

purpose, which we enter into with difficulty, which we
cannot retain without care and attention, will never produce
those genuine and durable movements of passion, which are
the result of nature, and the constitution of the mind. A
man may as well pretend to cure himself of love, by viewing
his mistress through the artificial medium of a microscope
or prospect, and beholding there the coarseness of her skin,
and monstrous disproportion of her features, as hope to
excite or moderate any passion by the artificial arguments of
a Seneca or an Epictetus. The remembrance of the natural
aspect and situation of the object, will, in both cases, still
recur upon him. The reflections of philosophy are too
subtile and distant to take place in common life, or
eradicate any affection. The air is too fine to breathe in,
where it is above the winds and clouds of the atmosphere.
Mil 173
Another defect of those refined reflections, which

philosophy suggests to us, is, that commonly they cannot
diminish or extinguish our vicious passions, without
diminishing or extinguishing such as are virtuous, and
rendering the mind totally indifferent and unactive. They
are, for the most part, general, and are applicable to all our
affections. In vain do we hope to direct their influence only
to one side. If by incessant study and meditation we have
rendered them intimate and present to us, they will operate
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throughout, and spread an universal insensibility over the

mind. When we destroy the nerves, we extinguish the sense
of pleasure, together with that of pain, in the human body.
0
It will be easy, by one glance of the eye, to find one or

other of these defects in most of those philosophical
reflections, so much celebrated both in ancient and modern
times. Let not the injuries or violence of men, say the
philosophers 2, ever discompose you by anger or hatred. Would you
be angry at the ape for its malice, or the tyger for its ferocity? This
reflection leads us into a bad opinion of human nature, and
must extinguish the social affections. It tends also to
prevent all remorse for a mans own crimes; when he
considers, that vice is as natural to mankind, as the
particular instincts to brute-creatures.
All ills arise from the order of the universe, which is absolutely
perfect. Would you wish to disturb so divine an order for the sake of
your own particular interest? What if the ills I suffer arise from
malice or oppression? But the vices and imperfections of men are
also comprehended in the order of the universe:
If plagues and earthquakes break not heavns design,
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?
Let this be allowed; and my own vices will also be a part of
the same order.
To one who said, that none were happy, who were not
Mil 174
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above opinion, a Spartan replied, then none are happy but

knaves and robbers 3*.
Man is born to be miserable; and is he surprized at any
particular misfortune? And can he give way to sorrow and
lamentation upon account of any disaster? Yes: He very
reasonably laments, that he should be born to be miserable.
Your consolation presents a hundred ills for one, of which
you pretend to ease him.
You should always have before your eyes death, disease, poverty,
blindness, exile, calumny, and infamy, as ills which are incident to
human nature. If any one of these ills falls to your lot, you will bear it
the better, when you have reckoned upon it. I answer, if we confine
ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of
human life, that can have no effect to prepare us for them.
If by close and intense meditation we render them present
and intimate to us, that is the true secret for poisoning all
our pleasures, and rendering us perpetually miserable.
Your sorrow is fruitless, and will not change the course of
destiny. Very true: And for that very reason I am sorry.
Ciceros consolation for deafness is somewhat curious.
How many languages are there, says he, which you do not
understand? The Punic, Spanish, Gallic, AEgyptian, &c.
With regard to all these, you are as if you were deaf, yet you are
indifferent about the matter. Is it then so great a misfortune to be deaf
to one language more 4?
0
I like better the repartee of Antipater the Cyreniac,

when some women were condoling with him for his
blindness: What! says he, Do you think there are no pleasures in the
dark?
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Nothing can be more destructive, says Fontenelle, to

ambition, and the passion for conquest, than the true system of
Mil 175
astronomy. What a poor thing is even the whole globe in comparison of

the infinite extent of nature? This consideration is evidently too
distant ever to have any effect. Or, if it had any, would it
not destroy patriotism as well as ambition? The same gallant
author adds with some reason, that the bright eyes of the
ladies are the only objects, which lose nothing of their
lustre or value from the most extensive views of astronomy,
but stand proof against every system. Would philosophers
advise us to limit our affection to them?
Exile, says Plutarch to a friend in banishment, is no evil:
Mathematicians tell us, that the whole earth is but a point, compared
to the heavens. To change ones country then is little more than to
remove from one street to another. Man is not a plant, rooted to a
certain spot of earth: All soils and all climates are alike suited to
him 5. These topics are admirable, could they fall only into
0
the hands of banished persons. But what if they come also to

the knowledge of those who are employed in public affairs,
and destroy all their attachment to their native country? Or
will they operate like the quacks medicine, which is equally
good for a diabetes and a dropsy?
It is certain, were a superior being thrust into a human
body, that the whole of life would to him appear so mean,
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contemptible, and puerile, that he never could be induced

to take part in any thing, and would scarcely give attention
to what passes around him. To engage him to such a
condescension as to play even the part of a Philip with zeal
and alacrity, would be much more difficult, than to
constrain the same Philip, after having been a king and a
conqueror during fifty years, to mend old shoes with proper
care and attention; the occupation which Lucian assigns
him in the infernal regions. Now all the same topics of
disdain towards human affairs, which could operate on this
supposed being, occur also to a philosopher; but being, in
some measure, disproportioned
Mil 176
to human capacity, and not being fortified by the

experience of any thing better, they make not a full
impression on him. He sees, but he feels not sufficiently
their truth; and is always a sublime philosopher, when he
needs not; that is, as long as nothing disturbs him, or rouzes
his affections. While others play, he wonders at their
keenness and ardour; but he no sooner puts in his own stake,
than he is commonly transported with the same passions,
that he had so much condemned, while he remained a
simple spectator.
There are two considerations chiefly, to be met with in
books of philosophy, from which any important effect is to
be expected, and that because these considerations are
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drawn from common life, and occur upon the most

superficial view of human affairs. When we reflect on the
shortness and uncertainty of life, how despicable seem all
our pursuits of happiness? And even, if we would extend our
concern beyond our own life, how frivolous appear our
most enlarged and most generous projects; when we
consider the incessant changes and revolutions of human
affairs, by which laws and learning, books and governments
are hurried away by time, as by a rapid stream, and are lost
in the immense ocean of matter? Such a reflection certainly
tends to mortify all our passions: But does it not thereby
counterwork the artifice of nature, who has happily
deceived us into an opinion, that human life is of some
importance? And may not such a reflection be employed
with success by voluptuous reasoners, in order to lead us,
from the paths of action and virtue, into the flowery fields
of indolence and pleasure?
We are informed by Thucydides, that, during the
famous plague of Athens, when death seemed present to
every one, a dissolute mirth and gaiety prevailed among the
people, who exhorted one another to make the most of life
as long as it endured. The same observation is made by
Boccace with regard to the plague of Florence. A like
principle makes
Mil 177
soldiers, during war, be more addicted to riot and expence,

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than any other race of men. Present pleasure is always of

importance; and whatever diminishes the importance of all
other objects must bestow on it an additional influence and
value.
The second philosophical consideration, which may
often have an influence on the affections, is derived from a
comparison of our own condition with the condition of
others. This comparison we are continually making, even in
common life; but the misfortune is, that we are rather apt to
compare our situation with that of our superiors, than with
that of our inferiors. A philosopher corrects this natural
infirmity, by turning his view to the other side, in order to
render himself easy in the situation, to which fortune has
confined him. There are few people, who are not
susceptible of some consolation from this reflection,
though, to a very good-natured man, the view of human
miseries should rather produce sorrow than comfort, and
add, to his lamentations for his own misfortunes, a deep
compassion for those of others. Such is the imperfection,
even of the best of these philosophical topics of
consolation 6*.
0
Mil 178
I shall conclude this subject with observing, that,

though virtue be undoubtedly the best choice, when it is
attainable; yet such is the disorder and confusion of human
affairs, that no perfect or regular distribution of happiness
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and misery is ever, in this life, to be expected. Not only the

goods of fortune, and the endowments of the body (both of
which are important), not only these advantages, I say, are
unequally divided between the virtuous and vicious, but
even the mind itself partakes, in some degree, of this
disorder, and the most worthy character, by the very
constitution of the passions, enjoys not always the highest
felicity.
It is observable, that, though every bodily pain
proceeds from some disorder in the part or organ, yet the
pain is not always proportioned to the disorder; but is
greater or less, according to the greater or less sensibility of
the part, upon which the noxious humours exert their
influence. A tooth-ach produces more violent convulsions of
pain than a phthisis or a dropsy. In like manner, with regard to
the oeconomy of the
Mil 179
mind, we may observe, that all vice is indeed pernicious; yet

the disturbance or pain is not measured out by nature with
exact proportion to the degree of vice, nor is the man of
highest virtue, even abstracting from external accidents,
always the most happy. A gloomy and melancholy
disposition is certainly, to our sentiments, a vice or
imperfection; but as it may be accompanied with great sense
of honour and great integrity, it may be found in very
worthy characters; though it is sufficient alone to imbitter
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life, and render the person affected with it completely

miserable. On the other hand, a selfish villain may possess a
spring and alacrity of temper, a certain gaiety of heart, which
is indeed a good quality, but which is rewarded much
beyond its merit, and when attended with good fortune,
will compensate for the uneasiness and remorse arising from
all the other vices.
I shall add, as an observation to the same purpose, that,
if a man be liable to a vice or imperfection, it may often
happen, that a good quality, which he possesses along with
it,
Mil 180
will render him more miserable, than if he were completely

vicious. A person of such imbecility of temper as to be easily
broken by affliction, is more unhappy for being endowed
with a generous and friendly disposition, which gives him a
lively concern for others, and exposes him the more to
fortune and accidents. A sense of shame, in an imperfect
character, is certainly a virtue; but produces great
uneasiness and remorse, from which the abandoned villain is
entirely free. A very amorous complexion, with a heart
incapable of friendship, is happier than the same excess in
love, with a generosity of temper, which transports a man
beyond himself, and renders him a total slave to the object
of his passion.
In a word, human life is more governed by fortune
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than by reason; is to be regarded more as a dull pastime than

as a serious occupation; and is more influenced by particular
humour, than by general principles. Shall we engage
ourselves in it with passion and anxiety? It is not worthy of
so much concern. Shall we be indifferent about what
happens? We lose all the pleasure of the game by our
phlegm and carelessness. While we are reasoning
concerning life, life is gone; and death, though perhaps they
receive him differently, yet treats alike the fool and the
philosopher. To reduce life to exact rule and method, is
commonly a painful, oft a fruitless occupation: And is it not
also a proof, that we overvalue the prize for which we
contend? Even to reason so carefully concerning it, and to
fix with accuracy its just idea, would be overvaluing it, were
it not that, to some tempers, this occupation is one of the
most amusing, in which life could possibly be employed.
N O T E S.
1. See NOTE [F].
2. Plut. de ira cohibenda.
*3. Plut. Lacon. Apophtheg.
4. Tusc. Quest. lib. v.
5. De exilio.
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*6. See NOTE [G].
NOTE [F], p. 179. [Mil 166.]
ERE I not afraid of appearing too philosophical, I

should remind my reader of that famous doctrine,
supposed to be fully proved in modern times, That tastes
and colours, and all other sensible qualities, lie not in the
bodies, but merely in the senses. The case is the same with
beauty and deformity, virtue and vice. This doctrine,
however, takes off no more from the reality of the latter
qualities, than from that of the former; nor need it give any
umbrage either to critics or moralists. Though colours were
allowed to lie only in the eye, would dyers or painters ever
be less regarded or esteemed? There is a sufficient
uniformity in the senses and feelings of mankind, to make
all these qualities the objects of art and reasoning, and to
have the greatest influence on life and manners. And as it is
certain, that the discovery above-mentioned in natural
philosophy, makes no alteration on action and conduct; why
should a like discovery in moral philosophy make any
alteration?
NOTE [G], p. 191. [Mil 177.]
HE Sceptic, perhaps, carries the matter too far, when

he limits all philosophical topics and reflections to
these two. There seem to be others, whose truth is
undeniable, and whose natural tendency is to tranquillize
and soften all the passions. Philosophy greedily seizes these,
studies them, weighs them, commits them to the memory,
and familiarizes them to the mind: And their influence on
tempers, which are thoughtful, gentle, and moderate, may
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be considerable. But what is their influence, you will say, if

the temper be antecedently disposed after the same manner
as that to which they pretend to form it? They may, at least,
fortify that temper, and furnish it with views, by which it
may entertain and nourish itself. Here are a few examples
of such philosophical reflections.
1. Is it not certain, that every condition has concealed
ills? Then why envy any body?
2. Every one has known ills; and there is a
compensation throughout. Why not be contented with the
present?
3. Custom deadens the sense both of the good and the
ill, and levels every thing.
-[Mil 178] 4. Health and humour all. The rest of little
consequence, except these be affected.
5. How many other good things have I? Then why be
vexed for one ill?
6. How many are happy in the condition of which I
complain? How many envy me?
7. Every good must be paid for: Fortune by labour,
favour by flattery. Would I keep the price, yet have the
commodity?
8. Expect not too great happiness in life. Human nature
admits it not.
9. Propose not a happiness too complicated. But does
that depend on me? Yes: The first choice does. Life is like a
game: One may choose the game: And passion, by degrees,
seizes the proper object.
10. Anticipate by your hopes and fancy future
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consolation, which time infallibly brings to every affliction.

11. I desire to be rich. Why? That I may possess many
fine objects; houses, gardens, equipage, &c. How many fine
objects does nature offer to every one without expence? If
enjoyed, sufficient. If not: See the effect of custom or of
temper, which would soon take off the relish of the riches.
-[Mil 179] 12. I desire fame. Let this occur: If I act well, I
shall have the esteem of all my acquaintance. And what is all
the rest to me?
These reflections are so obvious, that it is a wonder
they occur not to every man: So convincing, that it is a
wonder they persuade not every man. But perhaps they do
occur to and persuade most men; when they consider human
life, by a general and calm survey: But where any real,
affecting incident happens; when passion is awakened, fancy
agitated, example draws, and counsel urges; the philosopher
is lost in the man, and he seeks in vain for that persuasion
which before seemed so firm and unshaken. What remedy
for this inconvenience? Assist yourself by a frequent perusal
of the entertaining moralists: Have recourse to the learning
of Plutarch, the imagination of Lucian, the eloquence of
Cicero, the wit of Seneca, the gaiety of Montaigne, the
sublimity of Shaftesbury. Moral precepts, so couched,
strike deep, and fortify the mind against the illusions of
passion. But trust not altogether to external aid: By habit
and study acquire that philosophical temper which both
gives force to reflection, and by rendering a great part of
your happiness independent, takes off the edge from all
disorderly passions, and tranquillizes the mind. Despise not
these helps; but confide not too much in them neither;
unless nature has been favourable in the temper, with which
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she has endowed you.
Mil 181
E S S A Y XIX.
Of Polygamy and Divorces.
S marriage is an engagement entered into by mutual

consent, and has for its end the propagation of the
species, it is evident, that it must be susceptible of all the
variety of conditions, which consent establishes, provided
they be not contrary to this end.
A man, in conjoining himself to a woman, is bound to
her according to the terms of his engagement: In begetting
children, he is bound, by all the ties of nature and
humanity, to provide for their subsistence and education.
When he has performed these two parts of duty, no one can
reproach him with injustice or injury. And as the terms of
his engagement, as well as the methods of subsisting his
offspring, may be various, it is mere superstition to imagine,
that marriage can
Mil 182
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be entirely uniform, and will admit only of one mode or

form. Did not human laws restrain the natural liberty of
men, every particular marriage would be as different as
contracts or bargains of any other kind or species.
As circumstances vary, and the laws propose different
advantages, we find, that, in different times and places, they
impose different conditions on this important contract. In
Tonquin, it is usual for the sailors, when the ships come
into harbour, to marry for the season; and notwithstanding
this precarious engagement, they are assured, it is said, of
the strictest fidelity to their bed, as well as in the whole
management of their affairs, from those temporary spouses.
I cannot, at present, recollect my authorities; but I
have somewhere read, that the republic of Athens, having
lost many of its citizens by war and pestilence, allowed
every man to marry two wives, in order the sooner to repair
the waste which had been made by these calamities. The
poet Euripides happened to be coupled to two noisy Vixens
who so plagued him with their jealousies and quarrels, that
he became ever after a professed woman hater; and is the
only theatrical writer, perhaps the only poet, that ever
entertained an aversion to the sex.
In that agreeable romance, called the History of the
Sevarambians, where a great many men and a few women
are supposed to be shipwrecked on a desert coast; the
captain of the troop, in order to obviate those endless
quarrels which
Mil 183
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arose, regulates their marriages after the following manner:

He takes a handsome female to himself alone; assigns one to
every couple of inferior officers; and to five of the lowest
rank he gives one wife in common.
The ancient Britons had a singular kind of marriage,
to be met with among no other people. Any number of
them, as ten or a dozen, joined in a society together, which
was perhaps requisite for mutual defence in those barbarous
times. In order to link this society the closer, they took an
equal number of wives in common; and whatever children
were born, were reputed to belong to all of them, and were
accordingly provided for by the whole community.
Among the inferior creatures, nature herself, being the
supreme legislator, prescribes all the laws which regulate
their marriages, and varies those laws according to the
different circumstances of the creature. Where she
furnishes, with ease, food and defence to the newborn
animal, the present embrace terminates the marriage; and
the care of the offspring is committed entirely to the
female. Where the food is of more difficult purchase, the
marriage continues for one season, till the common progeny
can provide for itself; and then the union immediately
dissolves, and leaves each of the parties free to enter into a
new engagement at the ensuing season. But nature, having
endowed man with reason, has not so exactly regulated
every article of his marriage contract, but has left him to
adjust them, by his own prudence, according to his
particular circumstances and situation. Municipal laws are a
supply to the wisdom of each individual; and, at the same
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time, by restraining the natural liberty of men, make private

interest submit to the interest of the public. All regulations,
therefore, on this head are equally lawful, and equally
conformable to the principles of nature; though they are
not all equally convenient, or equally useful to society. The
laws may allow of polygamy, as among the Eastern nations;
or of voluntary divorces, as among the Greeks and Romans;
or they may confine one man to one woman, during the
whole course of their lives, as among the modern
Europeans. It may not
Mil 184
be disagreeable to consider the advantages and

disadvantages, which result from each of these institutions.
The advocates for polygamy may recommend it as the
only effectual remedy for the disorders of love, and the
only expedient for freeing men from that slavery to the
females, which the natural violence of our passions has
imposed upon us. By this means alone can we regain our
right of sovereignty; and, sating our appetite, re-establish
the authority of reason in our minds, and, of consequence,
our own authority in our families. Man, like a weak
sovereign, being unable to support himself against the wiles
and intrigues of his subjects, must play one faction against
another, and become absolute by the mutual jealousy of the
females. To divide and to govern is an universal maxim; and by
neglecting it, the Europeans undergo a more grievous and a
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more ignominious slavery than the Turks or Persians, who

are subjected indeed to a sovereign, that lies at a distance
from them, but in their domestic affairs rule with an
uncontroulable sway.
On the other hand, it may be urged with better reason,
that this sovereignty of the male is a real usurpation, and
destroys that nearness of rank, not to say equality, which
nature has established between the sexes. We are, by nature,
their lovers, their friends, their patrons: Would we willingly
exchange such endearing appellations, for the barbarous
title of master and tyrant?
In what capacity shall we gain by this inhuman
proceeding? As lovers, or as husbands? The lover, is totally
annihilated; and courtship, the most agreeable scene in life,
can no longer have place, where women have not the free
disposal of themselves, but are bought and sold, like the
meanest animal. The husband is as little a gainer, having
found the admirable secret of extinguishing every part of
love, except its jealousy. No rose without its thorn; but he
must be a foolish wretch indeed, that throws away the rose
and preserves only the thorn.
But the Asiatic manners are as destructive to friendship
as to love. Jealousy excludes men from all intimacies and
familiarities with each other. No one dares bring his friend
to
Mil 185
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his house or table, lest he bring a lover to his numerous

wives. Hence all over the east, each family is as much
separate from another, as if they were so many distinct
kingdoms. No wonder then, that Solomon, living like an
eastern prince, with his seven hundred wives, and three
hundred concubines, without one friend, could write so
pathetically concerning the vanity of the world. Had he
tried the secret of one wife or mistress, a few friends, and a
great many companions, he might have found life somewhat
more agreeable. Destroy love and friendship; what remains
in the world worth accepting?
The bad education of children, especially children of
condition, is another unavoidable consequence of these
eastern institutions. Those who pass the early part of life
among slaves, are only qualified to be, themselves, slaves
and tyrants; and in every future intercourse, either with
their inferiors or superiors, are apt to forget the natural
equality of mankind. What attention, too, can it be
supposed a parent, whose seraglio affords him fifty sons,
will give to instilling principles of morality or science into a
progeny, with whom he himself is scarcely acquainted, and
whom he loves with so divided an affection? Barbarism,
therefore, appears, from reason as well as experience, to be
the inseparable attendant of polygamy.
To render polygamy more odious, I need not recount
the frightful effects of jealousy, and the constraint in which
it holds the fair-sex all over the east. In those countries men
are not allowed to have any commerce with the females, not
even physicians, when sickness may be supposed to have
extinguished all wanton passions in the bosoms of the fair,
and, at the same time, has rendered them unfit objects of
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desire. Tournefort tells us, that, when he was brought into

the grand signiors seraglio as a physician, he was not a little
surprized, in looking along a gallery, to see a great number
of
Mil 186
naked arms, standing out from the sides of the room. He

could not imagine what this could mean; till he was told,
that those arms, belonged to bodies, which he must cure,
without knowing any more about them, than what he could
learn from the arms. He was not allowed to ask a question of
the patient, or even of her attendants, lest he might find it
necessary to enquire concerning circumstances, which the
delicacy of the seraglio allows not to be revealed. Hence
physicians in the east pretend to know all diseases from the
pulse; as our quacks in Europe undertake to cure a person
merely from seeing his water. I suppose, had Monsieur
Tournefort been of this latter kind, he would not, in
Constantinople, have been allowed by the jealous Turks to
be furnished with materials requisite for exercising his art.
In another country, where polygamy is also allowed,
they render their wives cripples, and make their feet of no
use to them, in order to confine them to their own houses.
But it will, perhaps, appear strange, that, in a European
country, jealousy can yet be carried to such a height, that it
is indecent so much as to suppose that a woman of rank can
have feet or legs. Witness the following story, which we
0
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have from very good authority 1. When the mother of the

late king of Spain was on her road towards Madrid, she
passed through a little town in Spain, famous for its
manufactory of gloves and stockings. The magistrates of the
place thought they could not better express their joy for the
reception of their new queen, than by presenting her with a
sample of those commodities, for which alone their town
was remarkable. The major domo, who conducted the
princess, received the gloves very graciously: But when the
stockings were presented, he flung them away with
Mil 187
great indignation, and severely reprimanded the magistrates

for this egregious piece of indecency. Know, says he, that a
queen of Spain has no legs. The young queen, who, at that time,
understood the language but imperfectly, and had often
been frightened with stories of Spanish jealousy, imagined
that they were to cut off her legs. Upon which she fell a
crying, and begged them to conduct her back to Germany;
for that she never could endure the operation: And it was
with some difficulty they could appease her. Philip IV. is
said never in his life to have laughed heartily, but at the
recital of this story.
Having rejected polygamy, and matched one man with
one woman, let us now consider what duration we shall
assign to their union, and whether we shall admit of those
voluntary divorces, which were customary among the
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Greeks and Romans. Those who would defend this practice

may employ the following reasons.
How often does disgust and aversion arise after
marriage, from the most trivial accidents, or from an
incompatibility of humour; where time, instead of curing
the wounds, proceeding from mutual injuries, festers them
every day the more, by new quarrels and reproaches? Let us
separate hearts, which were not made to associate together.
Each of them may, perhaps, find another for which it is
better fitted. At least, nothing can be more cruel than to
preserve, by violence, an union, which, at first, was made by
mutual love, and is now, in effect, dissolved by mutual
hatred.
But the liberty of divorces is not only a cure to hatred
and domestic quarrels: It is also an admirable preservative
against them, and the only secret for keeping alive that
love, which first united the married couple. The heart of
man delights in liberty: The very image of constraint is
grievous to it: When you would confine it by violence, to
what would otherwise have been its choice, the inclination
immediately changes, and desire is turned into aversion. If
the public interest will not allow us to enjoy in polygamy
that variety, which is so agreeable in love: at least, deprive us
not of that liberty, which
Mil 188
is so essentially requisite. In vain you tell me, that I had my

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choice of the person, with whom I would conjoin myself. I

had my choice, it is true, of my prison; but this is but a small
comfort, since it must still be a prison.
Such are the arguments which may be urged in favour
of divorces: But there seem to be these three unanswerable
objections against them. First, What must become of the
children, upon the separation of the parents? Must they be
committed to the care of a step-mother; and instead of the
fond attention and concern of a parent, feel all the
indifference or hatred of a stranger or an enemy? These
inconveniencies are sufficiently felt, where nature has made
the divorce by the doom inevitable to all mortals: And shall
we seek to multiply those inconveniencies, by multiplying
divorces, and putting it in the power of parents, upon every
caprice, to render their posterity miserable?
Secondly, If it be true, on the one hand, that the heart of
man naturally delights in liberty, and hates every thing to
which it is confined; it is also true, on the other, that the
heart of man naturally submits to necessity, and soon loses
an inclination, when there appears an absolute impossibility
of gratifying it. These principles of human nature, youll
say, are contradictory: But what is man but a heap of
contradictions! Though it is remarkable, that, where
principles are, after this manner, contrary in their
operation, they do not always destroy each other; but the
one or the other may predominate on any particular
occasion, according as circumstances are more or less
favourable to it. For instance, love is a restless and impatient
passion, full of caprices and variations: arising in a moment
from a feature, from an air, from nothing, and suddenly
extinguishing after the same manner. Such a passion
requires liberty above all things; and therefore Eloisa had
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reason, when, in order to preserve this passion, she refused

to marry her beloved Abelard.
How oft, when prest to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made:
Mil 189
Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.
But friendship is a calm and sedate affection, conducted by
reason and cemented by habit; springing from long
acquaintance and mutual obligations; without jealousies or
fears, and without those feverish fits of heat and cold, which
cause such an agreeable torment in the amorous passion. So
sober an affection, therefore, as friendship, rather thrives
under constraint, and never rises to such a height, as when
any strong interest or necessity binds two persons together,
and gives them some common object of pursuit. We need
not, therefore, be afraid of drawing the marriage-knot,
which chiefly subsists by friendship, the closest possible.
The amity between the persons, where it is solid and
sincere, will rather gain by it: And where it is wavering and
uncertain, this is the best expedient for fixing it. How many
frivolous quarrels and disgusts are there, which people of
common prudence endeavour to forget, when they lie
under a necessity of passing their lives together; but which
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would soon be inflamed into the most deadly hatred, were

they pursued to the utmost, under the prospect of an easy
separation?
In the third place, we must consider, that nothing is
more dangerous than to unite two persons so closely in all
their interests and concerns, as man and wife, without
rendering the union entire and total. The least possibility of
a separate interest must be the source of endless quarrels
and suspicions. The wife, not secure of her establishment,
will still be driving some separate end or project; and the
husbands selfishness, being accompanied with more power,
may be still more dangerous.
Should these reasons against voluntary divorces be
deemed insufficient, I hope no body will pretend to refuse
the testimony of experience. At the time when divorces
were most frequent among the Romans, marriages were
most rare; and
Mil 190
Augustus was obliged, by penal laws, to force men of

fashion into the married state: A circumstance which is
scarcely to be found in any other age or nation. The more
ancient laws of Rome, which prohibited divorces, are
extremely praised by Dionysius Halycarnassaeus 2.
Wonderful was the harmony, says the historian, which this
inseparable union of interests produced between married
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persons; while each of them considered the inevitable

necessity by which they were linked together, and
abandoned all prospect of any other choice or
establishment.
The exclusion of polygamy and divorces sufficiently
recommends our present European practice with regard to
marriage.
N O T E S.
1. Memoirs de la cour dEspagne par Madame dAunoy.
2. Lib. ii.
Mil 191
E S S A Y XX.
Of Simplicity and Refinement in Writing.
INE writing, according to Mr. Addison, consists of

sentiments, which are natural, without being obvious.
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There cannot be a juster, and more concise definition of

fine writing.
Sentiments, which are merely natural, affect not the
mind with any pleasure, and seem not worthy of our
attention. The pleasantries of a waterman, the observations
of a peasant, the ribaldry of a porter or hackney coachman,
all of these are natural, and disagreeable. What an insipid
comedy should we make of the chit-chat of the tea-table,
copied faithfully and at
Mil 192
full length? Nothing can please persons of taste, but nature

drawn with all her graces and ornaments, la belle nature; or if
we copy low life, the strokes must be strong and
remarkable, and must convey a lively image to the mind.
The absurd naivety of Sancho Pancho is represented in such
inimitable colours by Cervantes, that it entertains as much
as the picture of the most magnanimous hero or softest
lover.
The case is the same with orators, philosophers, critics,
or any author who speaks in his own person, without
introducing other speakers or actors. If his language be not
elegant, his observations uncommon, his sense strong and
masculine, he will in vain boast his nature and simplicity. He
may be correct; but he never will be agreeable. It is the
unhappiness of such authors, that they are never blamed or
censured. The good fortune of a book, and that of a man,
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are not the same. The secret deceiving path of life, which
Horace talks of, fallentis semita vitae, may be the happiest
lot of the one; but is the greatest misfortune, which the
other can possibly fall into.
On the other hand, productions, which are merely
surprising, without being natural, can never give any lasting
entertainment to the mind. To draw chimeras is not,
properly speaking, to copy or imitate. The justness of the
representation is lost, and the mind is displeased to find a
picture, which bears no resemblance to any original. Nor
are such excessive refinements more agreeable in the
epistolary or philosophic style, than in the epic or tragic.
Too much ornament is a fault in every kind of production.
Uncommon expressions, strong flashes of wit, pointed
similies, and epigrammatic turns, especially when they recur
too frequently, are a disfigurement, rather than any
embellishment of discourse. As the eye, in surveying a
Gothic building, is dis-
Mil 193
tracted by the multiplicity of ornaments, and loses the

whole by its minute attention to the parts; so the mind, in
perusing a work overstocked with wit, is fatigued and
disgusted with the constant endeavour to shine and surprize.
This is the case where a writer overabounds in wit, even
though that wit, in itself, should be just and agreeable. But
it commonly happens to such writers, that they seek for
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their favourite ornaments, even where the subject does not

afford them; and by that means, have twenty insipid
conceits for one thought which is really beautiful.
There is no subject in critical learning more copious,
than this of the just mixture of simplicity and refinement in
writing; and therefore, not to wander in too large a field, I
shall confine myself to a few general observations on that
head.
First, I observe, That though excesses of both kinds are to be
avoided, and though a proper medium ought to be studied in all
productions; yet this medium lies not in a point, but admits of a
considerable latitude. Consider the wide distance, in this
respect, between Mr. Pope and Lucretius. These seem to
lie in the two greatest extremes of refinement and
simplicity, in which a poet can indulge himself, without
being guilty of any blameable excess. All this interval may
be filled with poets, who may differ from each other, but
may be equally admirable, each in his peculiar stile and
manner. Corneille and Congreve, who carry their wit and
refinement somewhat farther than Mr. Pope (if poets of so
different a kind can be compared together), and Sophocles
and Terence, who are more simple than Lucretius, seem
to have gone out of that medium, in which the most perfect
productions are found, and to be guilty of some excess in
these opposite characters. Of all the great poets, Virgil and
Racine, in my
Mil 194
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opinion, lie nearest the center, and are the farthest removed
from both the extremities.
My second observation on this head is, That it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to explain by words, where the just medium
lies between the excesses of simplicity and refinement, or to give any
rule by which we can know precisely the bounds between the fault and
the beauty. A critic may not only discourse very judiciously on
this head, without instructing his readers, but even without
understanding the matter perfectly himself. There is not a
finer piece of criticism than the dissertation on pastorals by
Fontenelle; in which, by a number of reflections and
philosophical reasonings, he endeavours to fix the just
medium, which is suitable to that species of writing. But let
any one read the pastorals of that author, and he will be
convinced, that this judicious critic, notwithstanding his fine
reasonings, had a false taste, and fixed the point of
perfection much nearer the extreme of refinement than
pastoral poetry will admit of. The sentiments of his
shepherds are better suited to the toilettes of Paris, than to
the forests of Arcadia. But this it is impossible to discover
from his critical reasonings. He blames all excessive
painting and ornament as much as Virgil could have done,
had that great poet writ a dissertation on this species of
poetry. However different the tastes of men, their general
discourse on these subjects is commonly the same. No
criticism can be instructive, which descends not to
particulars, and is not full of examples and illustrations. It is
allowed on all hands, that beauty, as well as virtue, always
lies in a medium; but where this medium is placed, is the
great question, and can never be sufficiently explained by
general reasonings.
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I shall deliver it as a third observation on this subject,

That we ought to be more on our guard against the excess of
refinement than that of simplicity; and that because the former excess
is both less beautiful, and more dangerous than the latter.
Mil 195
It is a certain rule, that wit and passion are entirely

incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no
place for the imagination. The mind of man being naturally
limited, it is impossible that all its faculties can operate at
once: And the more any one predominates, the less room is
there for the others to exert their vigour. For this reason, a
greater degree of simplicity is required in all compositions,
where men, and actions, and passions are painted, than in
such as consist of reflections and observations. And as the
former species of writing is the more engaging and
beautiful, one may safely, upon this account, give the
preference to the extreme of simplicity above that of
refinement.
We may also observe, that those compositions, which
we read the oftenest, and which every man of taste has got
by heart, have the recommendation of simplicity, and have
nothing surprizing in the thought, when divested of that
elegance of expression, and harmony of numbers, with
which it is cloathed. If the merit of the composition lie in a
point of wit; it may strike at first; but the mind anticipates
the thought in the second perusal, and is no longer affected
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by it. When I read an epigram of Martial, the first line

recalls the whole; and I have no pleasure in repeating to
myself what I know already. But each line, each word in
Catullus, has its merit; and I am never tired with the
perusal of him. It is sufficient to run over Cowley once: But
Parnel, after the fiftieth reading, is as fresh as at the first.
Besides, it is with books as with women, where a certain
plainness of manner and of dress is more engaging than that
glare of paint and airs and apparel, which may dazzle the
eye, but reaches not the affections. Terence is a modest and
bashful beauty, to whom we grant every thing, because he
assumes nothing, and whose purity and nature make a
durable, though not a violent impression on us.
Mil 196
But refinement, as it is the less beautiful, so is it the

more dangerous extreme, and what we are the aptest to fall
into. Simplicity passes for dulness, when it is not
accompanied with great elegance and propriety. On the
contrary, there is something surprizing in a blaze of wit and
conceit. Ordinary readers are mightily struck with it, and
falsely imagine it to be the most difficult, as well as most
excellent way of writing. Seneca abounds with agreeable
faults, says Quintilian, abundat dulcibus vitiis; and for that
reason is the more dangerous, and the more apt to pervert
the taste of the young and inconsiderate.
I shall add, that the excess of refinement is now more
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to be guarded against than ever; because it is the extreme,

which men are the most apt to fall into, after learning has
made some progress, and after eminent writers have
appeared in every species of composition. The endeavour to
please by novelty leads men wide of simplicity and nature,
and fills their writings with affectation and conceit. It was
thus the Asiatic eloquence degenerated so much from the
Attic: It was thus the age of Claudius and Nero became so
much inferior to that of Augustus in taste and genius: And
perhaps there are, at present, some symptoms of a like
degeneracy of taste, in France as well as in England.
Mil 197
E S S A Y XXI.
Of National Characters.
HE vulgar are apt to carry all national characters to

extremes; and having once established it as a
principle, that any people are knavish, or cowardly, or
ignorant, they will admit of no exception, but comprehend
every individual under the same censure. Men of sense
condemn these undistinguishing judgments: Though at the
same time, they allow, that each nation has a peculiar set of
manners, and that some particular qualities are more
frequently to be met with among one people than among
their neighbours. The common people in Switzerland have
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probably more honesty than those of the same rank in

Ireland; and every prudent man will, from that
circumstance alone, make a difference in the trust which he
reposes in each. We have reason to expect
Mil 198
greater wit and gaiety in a Frenchman than in a Spaniard;

though Cervantes was born in Spain. An Englishman will
naturally be supposed to have more knowledge than a Dane;
though Tycho Brahe was a native of Denmark.
Different reasons are assigned for these national
characters; while some account for them from moral, others
from physical causes. By moral causes, I mean all
circumstances, which are fitted to work on the mind as
motives or reasons, and which render a peculiar set of
manners habitual to us. Of this kind are, the nature of the
government, the revolutions of public affairs, the plenty or
penury in which the people live, the situation of the nation
with regard to its neighbours, and such like circumstances.
By physical causes I mean those qualities of the air and
climate, which are supposed to work insensibly on the
temper, by altering the tone and habit of the body, and
giving a particular complexion, which, though reflection
and reason may sometimes overcome it, will yet prevail
among the generality of mankind, and have an influence on
their manners.
That the character of a nation will much depend on
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moral causes, must be evident to the most superficial

observer; since a nation is nothing but a collection of
individuals, and the manners of individuals are frequently
determined by these causes. As poverty and hard labour
debase the minds of the common people, and render them
unfit for any science and ingenious profession; so where any
government becomes very oppressive to all its subjects, it
must have a proportional effect on their temper and genius,
and must banish all the liberal arts from among them.
The same principle of moral causes fixes the character
of different professions, and alters even that disposition,
which the particular members receive from the hand of
nature. A soldier and a priest are different characters, in all
nations, and all ages; and this difference is founded on
circumstances, whose operation is eternal and unalterable.
Mil 199
The uncertainty of their life makes soldiers lavish and

generous, as well as brave: Their idleness, together with the
large societies, which they form in camps or garrisons,
inclines them to pleasure and gallantry: By their frequent
change of company, they acquire good breeding and an
openness of behaviour: Being employed only against a
public and an open enemy, they become candid, honest, and
undesigning: And as they use more the labour of the body
than that of the mind, they are commonly thoughtless and
ignorant 1*.
0
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It is a trite, but not altogether a false maxim, that priests

of all religions are the same; and though the character of the
profession will not, in every instance, prevail over the
personal character, yet is it sure always to predominate with
the greater number. For as chymists observe, that spirits,
when raised to a certain height, are all the same, from
whatever materials they be extracted; so these men, being
elevated above humanity, acquire a uniform character,
which is entirely their own, and which, in my opinion, is,
generally speaking, not the most amiable that is to be met
with in human society. It is, in most points, opposite to that
of a soldier; as is the way of life, from which it is derived 2.
0
Mil 200
As to physical causes, I am inclined to doubt altogether

of their operation in this particular; nor do I think, that
men owe any thing of their temper or genius to the air,
food, or climate.
Mil 201
I confess, that the contrary opinion may justly, at first sight,

seem probable; since we find, that these circumstances have
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an influence over every other animal, and that even those
Mil 202
creatures, which are fitted to live in all climates, such as

dogs, horses, &c. do not attain the same perfection in all.
The courage of bull-dogs and game-cocks seems peculiar to
England. Flanders is remarkable for large and heavy
horses: Spain for horses light, and of good mettle. And any
breed of these creatures, transplanted from one country to
another, will soon lose the qualities, which they derived
from their native climate. It may be asked, why not the same
with men 3*?
0
There are few questions more curious than this, or

which will oftener occur in our enquiries concerning human
affairs; and therefore it may be proper to give it a full
examination.
The human mind is of a very imitative nature; nor is it
possible for any set of men to converse often together,
without acquiring a similitude of manners, and
communicating to each other their vices as well as virtues.
The propensity to company and society is strong in all
rational creatures; and the same disposition, which gives us
this propensity, makes us enter deeply into each others
sentiments, and causes like passions and inclinations to run,
as it were, by contagion, through the whole club or knot of
companions. Where a number of men are united into one
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political body, the occasions of their intercourse must be so

frequent, for defence, commerce, and government, that,
together with the same speech or lan-
Mil 203
guage, they must acquire a resemblance in their manners,

and have a common or national character, as well as a
personal one, peculiar to each individual. Now though
nature produces all kinds of temper and understanding in
great abundance, it does not follow, that she always
produces them in like proportions, and that in every society
the ingredients of industry and indolence, valour and
cowardice, humanity and brutality, wisdom and folly, will
be mixed after the same manner. In the infancy of society,
if any of these dispositions be found in greater abundance
than the rest, it will naturally prevail in the composition,
and give a tincture to the national character. Or should it be
asserted, that no species of temper can reasonably be
presumed to predominate, even in those contracted
societies, and that the same proportions will always be
preserved in the mixture; yet surely the persons in credit
and authority, being still a more contracted body, cannot
always be presumed to be of the same character; and their
influence on the manners of the people, must, at all times,
be very considerable. If on the first establishment of a
republic, a Brutus should be placed in authority, and be
transported with such an enthusiasm for liberty and public
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good, as to overlook all the ties of nature, as well as private

interest, such an illustrious example will naturally have an
effect on the whole society, and kindle the same passion in
every bosom. Whatever it be that forms the manners of one
generation, the next must imbibe a deeper tincture of the
same dye; men being more susceptible of all impressions
during infancy, and retaining these impressions as long as
they remain in the world. I assert, then, that all national
characters, where they depend not on fixed moral causes,
proceed from such accidents as these, and that physical
causes have no discernible operation on the human mind. It
is a maxim in all philosophy, that causes, which do not
appear, are to be considered as not existing.
Mil 204
If we run over the globe, or revolve the annals of

history, we shall discover every where signs of a sympathy or
contagion of manners, none of the influence of air or
climate.
First. We may observe, that, where a very extensive
government has been established for many centuries, it
spreads a national character over the whole empire, and
communicates to every part a similarity of manners. Thus
the Chinese have the greatest uniformity of character
imaginable: though the air and climate, in different parts of
those vast dominions, admit of very considerable variations.
Secondly. In small governments, which are contiguous,
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the people have notwithstanding a different character, and

are often as distinguishable in their manners as the most
distant nations. Athens and Thebes were but a short days
journey from each other; though the Athenians were as
remarkable for ingenuity, politeness, and gaiety, as the
Thebans for dulness, rusticity, and a phlegmatic temper.
Plutarch, discoursing of the effects of air on the minds of
men, observes, that the inhabitants of the Piraeum
possessed very different tempers from those of the higher
town in Athens, which was distant about four miles from
the former: But I believe no one attributes the difference
of manners in Wapping and St. Jamess, to a difference of air
or climate.
Thirdly. The same national character commonly follows
the authority of government to a precise boundary; and
upon crossing a river or passing a mountain, one finds a new
set of manners, with a new government. The
Languedocians and Gascons are the gayest people in
France; but whenever you pass the Pyrenees, you are
among Spaniards. Is it conceivable, that the qualities of the
air should change exactly with the limits of an empire,
which depend so much on the accidents of battles,
negociations, and marriages?
Mil 205
Fourthly. Where any set of men, scattered over distant

nations, maintain a close society or communication
0
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together, they acquire a similitude of manners, and have but

little in common with the nations amongst whom they live.
Thus the Jews in Europe, and the Armenians in the east,
have a peculiar character; and the former are as much noted
for fraud, as the latter for probity 4*. The Jesuits, in all
Roman-catholic countries, are also observed to have a
character peculiar to themselves.
Fifthly. Where any accident, as a difference in language
or religion, keeps two nations, inhabiting the same country,
from mixing with each other, they will preserve, during
several centuries, a distinct and even opposite set of
manners. The integrity, gravity, and bravery of the Turks,
form an exact contrast to the deceit, levity, and cowardice
of the modern Greeks.
Sixthly. The same set of manners will follow a nation,
and adhere to them over the whole globe, as well as the
same laws and language. The Spanish, English, French and
Dutch colonies are all distinguishable even between the
tropics.
Seventhly. The manners of a people change very
considerably from one age to another; either by great
alterations in
Mil 206
their government, by the mixtures of new people, or by that

inconstancy, to which all human affairs are subject. The
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ingenuity, industry, and activity of the ancient Greeks have

nothing in common with the stupidity and indolence of the
present inhabitants of those regions. Candour, bravery, and
love of liberty formed the character of the ancient Romans;
as subtilty, cowardice, and a slavish disposition do that of
the modern. The old Spaniards were restless, turbulent, and
so addicted to war, that many of them killed themselves,
when deprived of their arms by the Romans 5*. One would
0
find an equal difficulty at present, (at least one would have

found it fifty years ago) to rouze up the modern Spaniards
to arms. The Batavians were all soldiers of fortune, and
hired themselves into the Roman armies. Their posterity
make use of foreigners for the same purpose that the
Romans did their ancestors. Though some few strokes of
the French character be the same with that which Caesar
has ascribed to the Gauls; yet what comparison between the
civility, humanity, and knowledge of the modern
inhabitants of that country, and the ignorance, barbarity,
and grossness of the ancient? Not to insist upon the great
difference between the present possessors of Britain, and
those before the Roman conquest; we may observe that our
ancestors, a few centuries ago, were sunk into the most
abject superstition, last century they were inflamed with the
most furious enthusiasm, and are now settled into the most
cool indifference with regard to religious matters, that is to
be found in any nation of the world.
Eighthly. Where several neighbouring nations have a
very close communication together, either by policy,
commerce, or travelling, they acquire a similitude of
manners, proportioned to the communication. Thus all the
Franks appear to have a uniform character to the eastern
nations. The differences among them are like the peculiar
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accents of different provinces, which are not

distinguishable, except by an ear accustomed to them, and
which commonly escape a foreigner.
Mil 207
Ninthly. We may often remark a wonderful mixture of

manners and characters in the same nation, speaking the
same language, and subject to the same government: And in
this particular the English are the most remarkable of any
people, that perhaps ever were in the world. Nor is this to
be ascribed to the mutability and uncertainty of their
climate, or to any other physical causes; since all these causes
take place in the neighbouring country of Scotland,
without having the same effect. Where the government of a
nation is altogether republican, it is apt to beget a peculiar
set of manners. Where it is altogether monarchical, it is
more apt to have the same effect; the imitation of superiors
spreading the national manners faster among the people. If
the governing part of a state consist altogether of
merchants, as in Holland, their uniform way of life will fix
their character. If it consists chiefly of nobles and landed
gentry, like Germany, France, and Spain, the same effect
follows. The genius of a particular sect or religion is also
apt to mould the manners of a people. But the English
government is a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and
democracy. The people in authority are composed of gentry
and merchants. All sects of religion are to be found among
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them. And the great liberty and independency, which every

man enjoys, allows him to display the manners peculiar to
him. Hence the English, of any people in the universe,
have the least of a national character; unless this very
singularity may pass for such.
If the characters of men depended on the air and
climate, the degrees of heat and cold should naturally be
expected to have a mighty influence; since nothing has a
greater effect on all plants and irrational animals. And
indeed there is some reason to think, that all the nations,
which live beyond the polar circles or between the tropics,
are inferior to the rest of the species, and are incapable of
all the higher attainments of the human mind. The poverty
and misery of the northern inhabitants of the globe, and the
indolence of the southern, from their few necessities, may,
perhaps, account for this remarkable difference, without
our having recourse to physical
Mil 208
causes. This however is certain, that the characters of

nations are very promiscuous in the temperate climates, and
that almost all the general observations, which have been
formed of the more southern or more northern people in
these climates, are found to be uncertain and fallacious 6.
Shall we say, that the neighbourhood of the sun
inflames the imagination of men, and gives it a peculiar
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spirit and vivacity. The French, Greeks, Egyptians, and

Persians are remarkable for gaiety. The Spaniards, Turks,
and Chinese are noted for gravity and a serious deportment,
without any such difference of climate as to produce this
difference of temper.
The Greeks and Romans, who called all other nations
barbarians, confined genius and a fine understanding to the
more southern climates, and pronounced the northern
nations incapable of all knowledge and civility. But our
island has produced as great men, either for action or
learning, as Greece or Italy has to boast of.
It is pretended, that the sentiments of men become
more delicate as the country approaches nearer to the sun;
and that
Mil 209
the taste of beauty and elegance receives proportional

improvements in every latitude; as we may particularly
observe of the languages, of which the more southern are
smooth and melodious, the northern harsh and untuneable.
But this observation holds not universally. The Arabic is
uncouth and disagreeable: The Muscovite soft and musical.
Energy, strength, and harshness form the character of the
Latin tongue: The Italian is the most liquid, smooth, and
effeminate language that can possibly be imagined. Every
language will depend somewhat on the manners of the
people; but much more on that original stock of words and
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sounds, which they received from their ancestors, and which

remain unchangeable, even while their manners admit of
the greatest alterations. Who can doubt, but the English
are at present a more polite and knowing people than the
Greeks were for several ages after the siege of Troy? Yet is
there no comparison between the language of Milton and
that of Homer. Nay, the greater are the alterations and
improvements, which happen in the manners of a people,
the less can be expected in their language. A few eminent
and refined geniuses will communicate their taste and
knowledge to a whole people, and produce the greatest
improvements; but they fix the tongue by their writings,
and prevent, in some degree, its farther changes.
0
Lord Bacon has observed, that the inhabitants of the

south are, in general, more ingenious than those of the
north; but that, where the native of a cold climate has
genius, he rises to a higher pitch than can be reached by the
southern wits. This observation a late 7* writer confirms, by
comparing the southern wits to cucumbers, which are
commonly all good in their kind; but at best are an insipid
fruit: While the northern geniuses are like melons, of which
not one in fifty is good; but when it is so, it has an exquisite
relish. I believe this remark
Mil 210
may be allowed just, when confined to the European

nations, and to the present age, or rather to the preceding
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one: But I think it may be accounted for from moral causes.

All the sciences and liberal arts have been imported to us
from the south; and it is easy to imagine, that, in the first
ardor of application, when excited by emulation and by
glory, the few, who were addicted to them, would carry
them to the greatest height, and stretch every nerve, and
every faculty, to reach the pinnacle of perfection. Such
illustrious examples spread knowledge every where, and
begot an universal esteem for the sciences: After which, it is
no wonder, that industry relaxes; while men meet not with
suitable encouragement, nor arrive at such distinction by
their attainments. The universal diffusion of learning
among a people, and the entire banishment of gross
ignorance and rusticity, is, therefore, seldom attended with
any remarkable perfection in particular persons. It seems to
be taken for granted in the dialogue de Oratoribus, that
knowledge was much more common in Vespasians age than
in that of Cicero and Augustus. Quintilian also complains
of the profanation of learning, by its becoming too
common. Formerly, says Juvenal, science was confined
to Greece and Italy. Now the whole world emulates
Athens and Rome. Eloquent Gaul has taught Britain,
knowing in the laws. Even Thule entertains thoughts of
hiring rhetoricians for its instruction 8*. This state of
0
learning
Mil 211
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is remarkable; because Juvenal is himself the last of the

Roman writers, that possessed any degree of genius. Those,
who succeeded, are valued for nothing but the matters of
fact, of which they give us information. I hope the late
conversion of Muscovy to the study of the sciences will not
prove a like prognostic to the present period of learning.
Cardinal Bentivoglio gives the preference to the
northern nations above the southern with regard to candour
and sincerity; and mentions, on the one hand, the Spaniards
and Italians, and on the other, the Flemings and Germans.
But I am apt to think, that this has happened by accident.
The ancient Romans seem to have been a candid sincere
people, as are the modern Turks. But if we must needs
suppose, that this event has arisen from fixed causes, we may
only conclude from it, that all extremes are apt to concur,
and are commonly attended with the same consequences.
Treachery is the usual concomitant of ignorance and
barbarism; and if civilized nations ever embrace subtle and
crooked politics, it is from an excess of refinement, which
makes them disdain the plain direct path to power and
glory.
Most conquests have gone from north to south; and it
has hence been inferred, that the northern nations possess a
superior degree of courage and ferocity. But it would have
been juster to have said, that most conquests are made by
poverty and want upon plenty and riches. The Saracens,
leaving the deserts of Arabia, carried their conquests
northwards upon all the fertile provinces of the Roman
empire; and met the
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Mil 212
0
Turks half way, who were coming southwards from the

deserts of Tartary.
An eminent writer 9 has remarked, that all courageous
animals are also carnivorous, and that greater courage is to
be expected in a people, such as the English, whose food is
strong and hearty, than in the half-starved commonalty of
other countries. But the Swedes, notwithstanding their
disadvantages in this particular, are not inferior, in martial
courage, to any nation that ever was in the world.
In general, we may observe, that courage, of all
national qualities, is the most precarious; because it is
exerted only at intervals, and by a few in every nation;
whereas industry, knowledge, civility, may be of constant
and universal use, and for several ages, may become habitual
to the whole people. If courage be preserved, it must be by
discipline, example, and opinion. The tenth legion of
Caesar, and the regiment of Picardy in France were
formed promiscuously from among the citizens; but having
once entertained a notion, that they were the best troops in
the service, this very opinion really made them such.
As a proof how much courage depends on opinion, we
may observe, that, of the two chief tribes of the Greeks, the
Dorians, and Ionians, the former were always esteemed,
and always appeared more brave and manly than the latter;
though the colonies of both the tribes were interspersed
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and intermingled throughout all the extent of Greece, the

Lesser Asia, Sicily, Italy, and the islands of the AEgean
sea. The Athenians were the only Ionians that ever had any
reputation for valour or military atchievements; though
even these were deemed inferior to the Lacedemonians, the
bravest of the Dorians.
Mil 213
The only observation, with regard to the difference of

men in different climates, on which we can rest any weight,
is the vulgar one, that people in the northern regions have a
greater inclination to strong liquors, and those in the
southern to love and women. One can assign a very probable
physical cause for this difference. Wine and distilled waters
warm the frozen blood in the colder climates, and fortify
men against the injuries of the weather: As the genial heat
of the sun, in the countries exposed to his beams, inflames
the blood, and exalts the passion between the sexes.
0
Perhaps too, the matter may be accounted for by moral

causes. All strong liquors are rarer in the north, and
consequently are more coveted. Diodorus Siculus 10* tells
us, that the Gauls in his time were great drunkards, and
much addicted to wine; chiefly, I suppose, from its rarity
and novelty. On the other hand, the heat in the southern
climates, obliging men and women to go half naked,
thereby renders their frequent commerce more dangerous,
and inflames their mutual passion. This makes parents and
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husbands more jealous and reserved; which still farther

inflames the passion. Not to mention, that, as women ripen
sooner in the southern regions, it is necessary to observe
greater jealousy and care in their education; it being
evident, that a girl of twelve cannot possess equal discretion
to govern this passion, with one who feels not its violence
till she be seventeen or eighteen. Nothing so much
encourages the passion of love as ease and leisure, or is
more destructive to it than industry and hard labour; and as
the necessities of men are evidently fewer in the warm
climates than in the cold ones, this circumstance alone may
make a considerable difference between them.
But perhaps the fact is doubtful, that nature has, either
from moral or physical causes, distributed these respective
Mil 214
inclinations to the different climates. The ancient Greeks,

though born in a warm climate, seem to have been much
addicted to the bottle; nor were their parties of pleasure
any thing but matches of drinking among men, who passed
their time altogether apart from the fair. Yet when
Alexander led the Greeks into Persia, a still more southern
climate, they multiplied their debauches of this kind, in
imitation of the Persian manners 11*. So honourable was the
0
character of a drunkard among the Persians, that Cyrus the

younger, soliciting the sober Lacedemonians for succour
against his brother Artaxerxes, claims it chiefly on account
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of his superior endowments, as more valorous, more

bountiful, and a better drinker 12. Darius Hystaspes made
it be inscribed on his tomb-stone, among his other virtues
and princely qualities, that no one could bear a greater
quantity of liquor. You may obtain any thing of the
Negroes by offering them strong drink; and may easily
prevail with them to sell, not only their children, but their
wives and mistresses, for a cask of brandy. In France and
Italy few drink pure wine, except in the greatest heats of
summer; and indeed, it is then almost as necessary, in order
to recruit the spirits, evaporated by heat, as it is in Sweden,
during the winter, in order to warm the bodies congealed
by the rigour of the season.
If jealousy be regarded as a proof of an amorous
disposition, no people were more jealous than the
Muscovites,
Mil 215
before their communication with Europe had somewhat

altered their manners in this particular.
But supposing the fact true, that nature, by physical
principles, has regularly distributed these two passions, the
one to the northern, the other to the southern regions; we
can only infer, that the climate may affect the grosser and
more bodily organs of our frame; not that it can work upon
those finer organs, on which the operations of the mind and
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understanding depend. And this is agreeable to the analogy

of nature. The races of animals never degenerate when
carefully tended; and horses, in particular, always show
their blood in their shape, spirit, and swiftness: But a
coxcomb may beget a philosopher; as a man of virtue may
leave a worthless progeny.
I shall conclude this subject with observing, that
though the passion for liquor be more brutal and debasing
than love, which, when properly managed, is the source of
all politeness and refinement; yet this gives not so great an
advantage to the southern climates, as we may be apt, at first
sight, to imagine. When love goes beyond a certain pitch, it
renders men jealous, and cuts off the free intercourse
between the sexes, on which the politeness of a nation will
commonly much depend. And if we would subtilize and
refine upon this point, we might observe, that the people,
in very temperate climates, are the most likely to attain all
sorts of improvement; their blood not being so inflamed as
to render them jealous, and yet being warm enough to make
them set a due value on the charms and endowments of the
fair sex.
N O T E S.
*1. See NOTE [H].
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2. See NOTE [I].

*3. See NOTE [K].
*4. See NOTE [L].
*5. Tit. Livii, lib. xxxiv. cap. 17.
6. See NOTE [M].
*7. Dr. Berkeley: Minute Philosopher.
*8. Sed Cantaber unde
Stoicus? antiqui praesertim aetate Metelli.
Nunc totus Graias, nostrasque habet orbis Athenas.
Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos:
De conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule.
Sat. 15.
9. Sir William Temples account of the Netherlands.

*10. Lib. v. The same author ascribes taciturnity to that people; a
new proof that national characters may alter very much.
Taciturnity, as a national character, implies unsociableness.
Aristotle in his Politics, book ii. cap. 2. says, that the Gauls are
the only warlike nation, who are negligent of women.
*11. Babylonii maxime in vinum, & quae ebrietatem sequuntur, effusi
sunt. Quint. Cur. lib. v. cap. 1.
12. Plut. Symp. lib. i. quaest. 4.
NOTE [H], p. 215. [Mil 199.]
T is a saying of Menander, ,
. Men. apud
Stobaeum. It is not in the power even of God to make a polite
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soldier. The contrary observation with regard to the manners

of soldiers takes place in our days. This seems to me a
presumption, that the ancients owed all their refinement
and civility to books and study; for which, indeed, a
soldiers life is not so well calculated. Company and the
world is their sphere. And if there be any politeness to be
learned from company, they will certainly have a
considerable share of it.
NOTE [I], p. 215. [Mil 199.]
Hough all mankind have a strong propensity to

religion at certain times and in certain dispositions;
yet are there few or none, who have it to that degree, and
with that constancy, which is requisite to support the
character of this profession. It must, therefore, happen, that
clergymen, being drawn from the common mass of
mankind, as people are to other employments, by the views
of profit, the greater part, though no atheists or freethinkers, will find it necessary, on particular occasions, to
feign more devotion than [Mil 200] they are, at that time,
possessed of, and to maintain the appearance of fervor and
seriousness, even when jaded with the exercises of their
religion, or when they have their minds engaged in the
common occupations of life. They must not, like the rest of
the world, give scope to their natural movements and
sentiments: They must set a guard over their looks and
words and actions: And in order to support the veneration
paid them by the multitude, they must not only keep a
remarkable reserve, but must promote the spirit of
superstition, by a continued grimace and hypocrisy. This
dissimulation often destroys the candor and ingenuity of
their temper, and makes an irreparable breach in their
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character.
If by chance any of them be possessed of a temper
more susceptible of devotion than usual, so that he has but
little occasion for hypocrisy to support the character of his
profession; it is so natural for him to over-rate this
advantage, and to think that it atones for every violation of
morality, that frequently he is not more virtuous than the
hypocrite. And though few dare openly avow those
exploded opinions, that every thing is lawful to the saints, and
that they alone have property in their goods; yet may we observe,
that these principles lurk in every bosom, and represent a
zeal for religious observances as so great a merit, that it may
compensate for many vices and enormities. This observation
is so common, that all prudent men are on their guard, when
they meet with any extraordinary appearance of religion;
though at the same time, they confess, that there are many
exceptions to this general rule, and that probity and
superstition, or even probity and fanaticism, are not
altogether and in every instance incompatible.
Most men are ambitious; but the ambition of other
men may commonly be satisfied, by excelling in their
particular profession, and thereby promoting the interests
of society. The ambition of the clergy can often be satisfied
only by promoting ignorance and superstition and implicit
faith and pious frauds. And having got what Archimedes
only wanted, (namely, another world, on which he could fix
his engines) no wonder they move this world at their
pleasure.
Most men have an overweaning conceit of themselves;
but these have a peculiar temptation to that vice, who are
regarded with such veneration, and are even deemed sacred,
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by the ignorant multitude.

Most men are apt to bear a particular regard for
members of their own profession; but as a lawyer, or
physician, or merchant, does, each of them, follow out his
business apart, the interests of men of these professions are
not so closely united as the interests of clergymen of the
same religion; [Mil 201] where the whole body gains by the
veneration, paid to their common tenets, and by the
suppression of antagonists.
Few men can bear contradiction with patience; but the
clergy too often proceed even to a degree of fury on this
head: Because all their credit and livelihood depend upon
the belief, which their opinions meet with; and they alone
pretend to a divine and supernatural authority, or have any
colour for representing their antagonists as impious and
prophane. The Odium Theologicum, or Theological Hatred, is
noted even to a proverb, and means that degree of rancour,
which is the most furious and implacable.
Revenge is a natural passion to mankind; but seems to
reign with the greatest force in priests and women: Because,
being deprived of the immediate exertion of anger, in
violence and combat, they are apt to fancy themselves
despised on that account; and their pride supports their
vindictive disposition.
Thus many of the vices of human nature are, by fixed
moral causes, inflamed in that profession; and though
several individuals escape the contagion, yet all wise
governments will be on their guard against the attempts of a
society, who will for ever combine into one faction, and
while it acts as a society, will for ever be actuated by
ambition, pride, revenge, and a persecuting spirit.
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The temper of religion is grave and serious; and this is

the character required of priests, which confines them to
strict rules of decency, and commonly prevents irregularity
and intemperance amongst them. The gaiety, much less the
excesses of pleasure, is not permitted in that body; and this
virtue is, perhaps, the only one which they owe to their
profession. In religions, indeed, founded on speculative
principles, and where public discourses make a part of
religious service, it may also be supposed that the clergy will
have a considerable share in the learning of the times;
though it is certain that their taste in eloquence will always
be greater than their proficiency in reasoning and
philosophy. But whoever possesses the other noble virtues
of humanity, meekness, and moderation, as very many of
them, no doubt, do, is beholden for them to nature or
reflection, not to the genius of his calling.
It was no bad expedient in the old Romans, for
preventing the strong effect of the priestly character, to
make it a law that no one should be received into the
sacerdotal office, till he was past fifty years of age, Dion.
Hal. lib. i. The living a layman till that age, it is presumed,
would be able to fix the character.
NOTE [K], p. 216. [Mil 202.]
AESAR (de Bello Gallico, lib. 1.) says, that the

Gallic horses were very good; the German very bad.
We find in lib. vii. that he was obliged to remount some
German cavalry with Gallic horses. At present, no part of
Europe has so bad horses of all kinds as France: But
Germany abounds with excellent war horses. This may
beget a little suspicion, that even animals depend not on the
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climate; but on the different breeds, and on the skill and

care in rearing them. The north of England abounds in the
best horses of all kinds which are perhaps in the world. In
the neighbouring counties, north side of the Tweed, no
good horses of any kind are to be met with. Strabo, lib. ii.
Rejects, in a great measure, the influence of climates upon
men. All is custom and education, says he. It is not from
nature, that the Athenians are learned, the Lacedemonians
ignorant, and the Thebans too, who are still nearer
neighbours to the former. Even the difference of animals,
he adds, depends not on climate.
NOTE [L], p. 219. [Mil 205.]
Small sect or society amidst a greater are commonly

most regular in their morals; because they are more
remarked, and the faults of individuals draw dishonour on
the whole. The only exception to this rule is, when the
superstition and prejudices of the large society are so strong
as to throw an infamy on the smaller society, independent
of their morals. For in that case, having no character either
to save or gain, they become careless of their behaviour,
except among themselves.
NOTE [M], p. 222. [Mil 208.]
Am apt to suspect the negroes to be naturally inferior to

the whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of
that complexion, nor even any individual eminent either in
action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst
them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude
and barbarous of the whites, such as the ancient Germans,
the present Tartars, have still something eminent about
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them, in their valour, form of government, or some other

particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could
not happen, in so many countries and ages, if nature had not
made an original distinction between these breeds of men.
Not to mention our colonies, there are Negroe slaves
dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered
any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without
education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish
themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk
of one negroe as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely
he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot,
who speaks a few words plainly.
Mil 216
E S S A Y XXII.
Of Tragedy.
T seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators

of a well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror,
anxiety, and other passions, that are in themselves
disagreeable and uneasy. The more they are touched and
affected, the more are they delighted with the spectacle;
and as soon as the uneasy passions cease to operate, the
piece is at an end. One scene of full joy and contentment
and security is the utmost, that any composition of this kind
can bear; and it is sure always to be the concluding one. If,
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in the texture of the piece, there be interwoven any scenes

of satisfaction, they afford only faint gleams of pleasure,
which are thrown in by way of variety, and in order to
plunge the actors into deeper distress, by means of that
contrast and disappointment. The whole art of the poet
Mil 217
is employed, in rouzing and supporting the compassion and

indignation, the anxiety and resentment of his audience.
They are pleased in proportion as they are afflicted, and
never are so happy as when they employ tears, sobs, and
cries to give vent to their sorrow, and relieve their heart,
swoln with the tenderest sympathy and compassion.
The few critics who have had some tincture of
philosophy, have remarked this singular phaenomenon,
and have endeavoured to account for it.
LAbbe Dubos, in his reflections on poetry and
painting, asserts, that nothing is in general so disagreeable
to the mind as the languid, listless state of indolence, into
which it falls upon the removal of all passion and
occupation. To get rid of this painful situation, it seeks
every amusement and pursuit; business, gaming, shews,
executions; whatever will rouze the passions, and take its
attention from itself. No matter what the passion is: Let it
be disagreeable, afflicting, melancholy, disordered; it is still
better than that insipid languor, which arises from perfect
tranquillity and repose.
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It is impossible not to admit this account, as being, at

least in part, satisfactory. You may observe, when there are
several tables of gaming, that all the company run to those,
where the deepest play is, even though they find not there
the best players. The view, or, at least, imagination of high
passions, arising from great loss or gain, affects the
spectator by sympathy, gives him some touches of the same
passions, and serves him for a momentary entertainment. It
makes the time pass the easier with him, and is some relief
to that oppression, under which men commonly labour,
when left entirely to their own thoughts and meditations.
We find that common liars always magnify, in their
narrations, all kinds of danger, pain, distress, sickness,
deaths, murders, and cruelties; as well as joy, beauty, mirth,
and
Mil 218
magnificence. It is an absurd secret, which they have for

pleasing their company, fixing their attention, and
attaching them to such marvellous relations, by the passions
and emotions, which they excite.
There is, however, a difficulty in applying to the
present subject, in its full extent, this solution, however
ingenious and satisfactory it may appear. It is certain, that
the same object of distress, which pleases in a tragedy, were
it really set before us, would give the most unfeigned
uneasiness; though it be then the most effectual cure to
0
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languor and indolence. Monsieur Fontenelle seems to

have been sensible of this difficulty; and accordingly
attempts another solution of the phaenomenon; at least
makes some addition to the theory above mentioned 1*.
Pleasure and pain, says he, which are two
sentiments so different in themselves, differ not so much in
their cause. From the instance of tickling, it appears, that
the movement of pleasure, pushed a little too far, becomes
pain; and that the movement of pain, a little moderated,
becomes pleasure. Hence it proceeds, that there is such a
thing as a sorrow, soft and agreeable: It is a pain weakened
and diminished. The heart likes naturally to be moved and
affected. Melancholy objects suit it, and even disastrous and
sorrowful, provided they are softened by some
circumstance. It is certain, that, on the theatre, the
representation has almost the effect of reality; yet it has not
altogether that effect. However we may be hurried away by
the spectacle; whatever dominion the senses and
imagination may usurp over the reason, there still lurks at
the bottom a certain idea of falsehood in the whole of what
we see. This idea, though weak and disguised, suffices to
diminish the pain which we suffer from the misfortunes of
those whom we love, and to reduce that affliction to such a
pitch as converts it into a pleasure. We weep for the
misfortune of a hero, to whom we are attached. In the same
instant we com-
Mil 219
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fort ourselves, by reflecting, that it is nothing but a fiction:

And it is precisely that mixture of sentiments, which
composes an agreeable sorrow, and tears that delight us. But
as that affliction, which is caused by exterior and sensible
objects, is stronger than the consolation which arises from
an internal reflection, they are the effects and symptoms of
sorrow, that ought to predominate in the composition.
This solution seems just and convincing; but perhaps it
wants still some new addition, in order to make it answer
fully the phaenomenon, which we here examine. All the
passions, excited by eloquence, are agreeable in the highest
degree, as well as those which are moved by painting and
the theatre. The epilogues of Cicero are, on this account
chiefly, the delight of every reader of taste; and it is
difficult to read some of them without the deepest
sympathy and sorrow. His merit as an orator, no doubt,
depends much on his success in this particular. When he had
raised tears in his judges and all his audience, they were
then the most highly delighted, and expressed the greatest
satisfaction with the pleader. The pathetic description of
the butchery, made by Verres of the Sicilian captains, is a
masterpiece of this kind: But I believe none will affirm,
that the being present at a melancholy scene of that nature
would afford any entertainment. Neither is the sorrow here
softened by fiction: For the audience were convinced of the
reality of every circumstance. What is it then, which in this
case raises a pleasure from the bosom of uneasiness, so to
speak; and a pleasure, which still retains all the features and
outward symptoms of distress and sorrow?
I answer: This extraordinary effect proceeds from that
very eloquence, with which the melancholy scene is
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represented. The genius required to paint objects in a lively

manner, the art employed in collecting all the pathetic
circumstances, the judgment displayed in disposing them:
the exercise, I say, of these noble talents, together with the
force of expression, and
Mil 220
beauty of oratorial numbers, diffuse the highest satisfaction

on the audience, and excite the most delightful movements.
By this means, the uneasiness of the melancholy passions is
not only overpowered and effaced by something stronger of
an opposite kind; but the whole impulse of those passions is
converted into pleasure, and swells the delight which the
eloquence raises in us. The same force of oratory, employed
on an uninteresting subject, would not please half so much,
or rather would appear altogether ridiculous; and the mind,
being left in absolute calmness and indifference, would
relish none of those beauties of imagination or expression,
which, if joined to passion, give it such exquisite
entertainment. The impulse or vehemence, arising from
sorrow, compassion, indignation, receives a new direction
from the sentiments of beauty. The latter, being the
predominant emotion, seize the whole mind, and convert
the former into themselves, at least tincture them so
strongly as totally to alter their nature. And the soul, being,
at the same time, rouzed by passion, and charmed by
eloquence, feels on the whole a strong movement, which is
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altogether delightful.
The same principle takes place in tragedy; with this
addition, that tragedy is an imitation; and imitation is always
of itself agreeable. This circumstance serves still farther to
smooth the motions of passion, and convert the whole
feeling into one uniform and strong enjoyment. Objects of
the greatest terror and distress please in painting, and please
more than the most beautiful objects, that appear calm and
indifferent 2*. The affection, rouzing the mind, excites a
0
large stock of spirit and vehemence; which is all

transformed into pleasure by the
Mil 221
force of the prevailing movement. It is thus the fiction of

tragedy softens the passion, by an infusion of a new feeling,
not merely by weakening or diminishing the sorrow. You
may by degrees weaken a real sorrow, till it totally
disappears; yet in none of its gradations will it ever give
pleasure; except, perhaps, by accident, to a man sunk under
lethargic indolence, whom it rouzes from that languid state.
To confirm this theory, it will be sufficient to produce
other instances, where the subordinate movement is
converted into the predominant, and gives force to it,
though of a different, and even sometimes though of a
contrary nature.
Novelty naturally rouzes the mind, and attracts our
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attention; and the movements, which it causes, are always

converted into any passion, belonging to the object, and
join their force to it. Whether an event excite joy or sorrow,
pride or shame, anger or good-will, it is sure to produce a
stronger affection, when new or unusual. And though
novelty of itself be agreeable, it fortifies the painful, as well
as agreeable passions.
Had you any intention to move a person extremely by
the narration of any event, the best method of encreasing its
effect would be artfully to delay informing him of it, and
first to excite his curiosity and impatience before you let
him into the secret. This is the artifice practised by Iago in
the famous scene of Shakespeare; and every spectator is
sensible, that Othellos jealousy acquires additional force
from his preceding impatience, and that the subordinate
passion is here readily transformed into the predominant
one.
Difficulties encrease passions of every kind; and by
rouzing our attention, and exciting our active powers, they
produce an emotion, which nourishes the prevailing
affection.
Parents commonly love that child most, whose sickly
infirm frame of body has occasioned them the greatest
pains, trouble, and anxiety in rearing him. The agreeable
sentiment of affection here acquires force from sentiments
of uneasiness.
Mil 222
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Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his

death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an
influence.
Jealousy is a painful passion; yet without some share of
it, the agreeable affection of love has difficulty to subsist in
its full force and violence. Absence is also a great source of
complaint among lovers, and gives them the greatest
uneasiness: Yet nothing is more favourable to their mutual
passion than short intervals of that kind. And if long
intervals often prove fatal, it is only because, through time,
men are accustomed to them, and they cease to give
uneasiness. Jealousy and absence in love compose the dolce
peccante of the Italians, which they suppose so essential to
all pleasure.
There is a fine observation of the elder Pliny, which
illustrates the principle here insisted on. It is very remarkable,
says he, that the last works of celebrated artists, which they left
imperfect, are always the most prized, such as the Iris of Aristides,
the Tyndarides of Nicomachus, the Medea of Timomachus,
and the Venus of Apelles. These are valued even above their
finished productions: The broken lineaments of the piece, and the halfformed idea of the painter are carefully studied; and our very grief for
that curious hand, which had been stopped by death, is an additional
encrease to our pleasure 3.
0
These instances (and many more might be collected) are

sufficient to afford us some insight into the analogy of
nature, and to show us, that the pleasure, which poets,
orators, and musicians give us, by exciting grief, sorrow,
indignation, compassion, is not so extraordinary or
paradoxical, as it may at first sight appear. The force of
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imagination, the energy of expression, the power of

numbers, the charms of imitation; all these are naturally, of
themselves, delightful to the mind: And when
Mil 223
the object presented lays also hold of some affection, the

pleasure still rises upon us, by the conversion of this
subordinate movement into that which is predominant. The
passion, though, perhaps, naturally, and when excited by
the simple appearance of a real object, it may be painful; yet
is so smoothed, and softened, and mollified, when raised by
the finer arts, that it affords the highest entertainment.
To confirm this reasoning, we may observe, that if the
movements of the imagination be not predominant above
those of the passion, a contrary effect follows; and the
former, being now subordinate, is converted into the latter,
and still farther encreases the pain and affliction of the
sufferer.
Who could ever think of it as a good expedient for
comforting an afflicted parent, to exaggerate, with all the
force of elocution, the irreparable loss, which he has met
with by the death of a favourite child? The more power of
imagination and expression you here employ, the more you
encrease his despair and affliction.
The shame, confusion, and terror of Verres, no doubt,
rose in proportion to the noble eloquence and vehemence
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of Cicero: So also did his pain and uneasiness. These former

passions were too strong for the pleasure arising from the
beauties of elocution; and operated, though from the same
principle, yet in a contrary manner, to the sympathy,
compassion, and indignation of the audience.
Lord Clarendon, when he approaches towards the
catastrophe of the royal party, supposes, that his narration
must then become infinitely disagreeable; and he hurries
over the kings death, without giving us one circumstance of
it. He considers it as too horrid a scene to be contemplated
with any satisfaction, or even without the utmost pain and
aversion. He himself, as well as the readers of that age, were
too deeply concerned in the events, and felt a pain from
subjects, which
Mil 224
an historian and a reader of another age would regard as the

most pathetic and most interesting, and, by consequence,
the most agreeable.
An action, represented in tragedy, may be too bloody
and atrocious. It may excite such movements of horror as
will not soften into pleasure; and the greatest energy of
expression, bestowed on descriptions of that nature, serves
only to augment our uneasiness. Such is that action
represented in the Ambitious Stepmother, where a venerable
old man, raised to the height of fury and despair, rushes
against a pillar, and striking his head upon it, besmears it all
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over with mingled brains and gore. The English theatre

abounds too much with such shocking images.
Even the common sentiments of compassion require to
be softened by some agreeable affection, in order to give a
thorough satisfaction to the audience. The mere suffering
of plaintive virtue, under the triumphant tyranny and
oppression of vice, forms a disagreeable spectacle, and is
carefully avoided by all masters of the drama. In order to
dismiss the audience with entire satisfaction and
contentment, the virtue must either convert itself into a
noble courageous despair, or the vice receive its proper
punishment.
Most painters appear in this light to have been very
unhappy in their subjects. As they wrought much for
churches and convents, they have chiefly represented such
horrible subjects as crucifixions and martyrdoms, where
nothing appears but tortures, wounds, executions, and
passive suffering, without any action or affection. When
they turned their pencil from this ghastly mythology, they
had commonly recourse to Ovid, whose fictions, though
passionate and agreeable, are scarcely natural or probable
enough for painting.
The same inversion of that principle, which is here
insisted on, displays itself in common life, as in the effects
of oratory and poetry. Raise so the subordinate passion that
it becomes
Mil 225
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the predominant, it swallows up that affection which it

before nourished and encreased. Too much jealousy
extinguishes love: Too much difficulty renders us
indifferent: Too much sickness and infirmity disgusts a
selfish and unkind parent.
What so disagreeable as the dismal, gloomy, disastrous
stories, with which melancholy people entertain their
companions? The uneasy passion being there raised alone,
unaccompanied with any spirit, genius, or eloquence,
conveys a pure uneasiness, and is attended with nothing that
can soften it into pleasure or satisfaction.
N O T E S.
*1. Reflexions sur la poetique, 36.
*2. See NOTE [N].
3. Illud vero perquam rarum ac memoria dignum, etiam
suprema opera artificum, imperfectasque tabulas, sicut, Irin
Aristidis, Tyndaridas Nicomachi, Medeam Timomachi, & quam
diximus Venerem Apellis, in majori admiratione esse quam
perfecta. Quippe in iis lineamenta reliqua, ipsaeque cogitationes
artificum spectantur, atque in lenocinio commendationis dolor est
manus, cum id ageret, extinctae. Lib. xxxv. cap. 11.
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NOTE [N], p. 235. [Mil 220.]
AINTERS make no scruple of representing distress

and sorrow as well as any other passion: But they seem
not to dwell so much on these melancholy affections as the
poets, who, though they copy every motion of the human
breast, yet pass quickly over the agreeable sentiments. A
painter represents only one instant; and if that be passionate
enough, it is sure to affect and delight the spectator: But
nothing can furnish to the poet a variety of scenes and
incidents and sentiments, except distress, terror, or anxiety.
Compleat joy and satisfaction is attended with security, and
leaves no farther room for action.
Mil 226
E S S A Y XXIII.
Of the Standard of Taste.
HE great variety of Taste, as well as of opinion,

which prevails in the world, is too obvious not to have
fallen under every ones observation. Men of the most
confined knowledge are able to remark a difference of taste
in the
Mil 227
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narrow circle of their acquaintance, even where the persons

have been educated under the same government, and have
early imbibed the same prejudices. But those, who can
enlarge their view to contemplate distant nations and
remote ages, are still more surprized at the great
inconsistence and contrariety. We are apt to call barbarous
whatever departs widely from our own taste and
apprehension: But soon find the epithet of reproach
retorted on us. And the highest arrogance and self-conceit
is at last startled, on observing an equal assurance on all
sides, and scruples, amidst such a contest of sentiment, to
pronounce positively in its own favour.
As this variety of taste is obvious to the most careless
enquirer; so will it be found, on examination, to be still
greater in reality than in appearance. The sentiments of
men often differ with regard to beauty and deformity of all
kinds, even while their general discourse is the same. There
are certain terms in every language, which import blame,
and others praise; and all men, who use the same tongue,
must agree in their application of them. Every voice is
united in applauding elegance, propriety, simplicity, spirit
in writing; and in blaming fustian, affectation, coldness, and
a false brilliancy: But when critics come to particulars, this
seeming unanimity vanishes; and it is found, that they had
affixed a very different meaning to their expressions. In all
matters of opinion and science, the case is opposite: The
difference among men is there oftener found to lie in
generals than in particulars; and to be less in reality than in
appearance. An explanation of the terms commonly ends the
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controversy; and the disputants are surprized to find, that

they had been quarrelling, while at bottom they agreed in
their judgment.
Those who found morality on sentiment, more than on
reason, are inclined to comprehend ethics under the former
Mil 228
observation, and to maintain, that, in all questions, which

regard conduct and manners, the difference among men is
really greater than at first sight it appears. It is indeed
obvious, that writers of all nations and all ages concur in
applauding justice, humanity, magnanimity, prudence,
veracity; and in blaming the opposite qualities. Even poets
and other authors, whose compositions are chiefly
calculated to please the imagination, are yet found from
Homer down to Fenelon, to inculcate the same moral
precepts, and to bestow their applause and blame on the
same virtues and vices. This great unanimity is usually
ascribed to the influence of plain reason; which, in all these
cases, maintains similar sentiments in all men, and prevents
those controversies, to which the abstract sciences are so
much exposed. So far as the unanimity is real, this account
may be admitted as satisfactory: But we must also allow that
some part of the seeming harmony in morals may be
accounted for from the very nature of language. The word
virtue, with its equivalent in every tongue, implies praise; as
that of vice does blame: And no one, without the most
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obvious and grossest impropriety, could affix reproach to a

term, which in general acceptation is understood in a good
sense; or bestow applause, where the idiom requires
disapprobation. Homers general precepts, where he
delivers any such, will never be controverted; but it is
obvious, that, when he draws particular pictures of manners,
and represents heroism in Achilles and prudence in
Ulysses, he intermixes a much greater degree of ferocity in
the former, and of cunning and fraud in the latter, than
Fenelon would admit of. The sage Ulysses in the Greek
poet seems to delight in lies and fictions, and often employs
them without any necessity or even advantage: But his more
scrupulous son, in the French epic writer, exposes himself
to the most imminent perils, rather than depart from the
most exact line of truth and veracity.
Mil 229
The admirers and followers of the Alcoran insist on

the excellent moral precepts interspersed throughout that
wild and absurd performance. But it is to be supposed, that
the Arabic words, which correspond to the English, equity,
justice, temperance, meekness, charity, were such as, from
the constant use of that tongue, must always be taken in a
good sense; and it would have argued the greatest
ignorance, not of morals, but of language, to have
mentioned them with any epithets, besides those of
applause and approbation. But would we know, whether the
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pretended prophet had really attained a just sentiment of

morals? Let us attend to his narration; and we shall soon
find, that he bestows praise on such instances of treachery,
inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly
incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right
seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or
praised, so far only as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true
believers.
The merit of delivering true general precepts in ethics
is indeed very small. Whoever recommends any moral
virtues, really does no more than is implied in the terms
themselves. That people, who invented the word charity, and
used it in a good sense, inculcated more clearly and much
more efficaciously, the precept, be charitable, than any
pretended legislator or prophet, who should insert such a
maxim in his writings. Of all expressions, those, which,
together with their other meaning, imply a degree either of
blame or approbation, are the least liable to be perverted or
mistaken.
It is natural for us to seek a Standard of Taste; a rule, by
which the various sentiments of men may be reconciled; at
least, a decision,decision afforded, confirming one
sentiment, and condemning another.
There is a species of philosophy, which cuts off all
hopes of success in such an attempt, and represents the
impossibility of ever attaining any standard of taste. The
difference, it is said, is very wide between judgment and
sentiment.
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Mil 230
All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to

nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is
conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding
are not right; because they have a reference to something
beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not
always conformable to that standard. Among a thousand
different opinions which different men may entertain of
the same subject, there is one, and but one, that is just and
true; and the only difficulty is to fix and ascertain it. On the
contrary, a thousand different sentiments, excited by the
same object, are all right: Because no sentiment represents
what is really in the object. It only marks a certain
conformity or relation between the object and the organs or
faculties of the mind; and if that conformity did not really
exist, the sentiment could never possibly have being. Beauty
is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the
mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a
different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity,
where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual
ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without
pretending to regulate those of others. To seek the real
beauty, or real deformity, is as fruitless an enquiry, as to
pretend to ascertain the real sweet or real bitter. According
to the disposition of the organs, the same object may be
both sweet and bitter; and the proverb has justly determined
it to be fruitless to dispute concerning tastes. It is very
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natural, and even quite necessary, to extend this axiom to

mental, as well as bodily taste; and thus common sense,
which is so often at variance with philosophy, especially
with the sceptical kind, is found, in one instance at least, to
agree in pronouncing the same decision.
But though this axiom, by passing into a proverb, seems
to have attained the sanction of common sense; there is
certainly a species of common sense which opposes it, at
least serves to modify and restrain it. Whoever would assert
an equality of genius and elegance between Ogilby and
Milton, or
Mil 231
Bunyan and Addison, would be thought to defend no less

an extravagance, than if he had maintained a mole-hill to be
as high as Teneriffe, or a pond as extensive as the ocean.
Though there may be found persons, who give the
preference to the former authors; no one pays attention to
such a taste; and we pronounce without scruple the
sentiment of these pretended critics to be absurd and
ridiculous. The principle of the natural equality of tastes is
then totally forgot, and while we admit it on some
occasions, where the objects seem near an equality, it
appears an extravagant paradox, or rather a palpable
absurdity, where objects so disproportioned are compared
together.
It is evident that none of the rules of composition are
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fixed by reasonings a priori, or can be esteemed abstract

conclusions of the understanding, from comparing those
habitudes and relations of ideas, which are eternal and
immutable. Their foundation is the same with that of all the
practical sciences, experience; nor are they any thing but
general observations, concerning what has been universally
found to please in all countries and in all ages. Many of the
beauties of poetry and even of eloquence are founded on
falsehood and fiction, on hyperboles, metaphors, and an
abuse or perversion of terms from their natural meaning.
To check the sallies of the imagination, and to reduce every
expression to geometrical truth and exactness, would be the
most contrary to the laws of criticism; because it would
produce a work, which, by universal experience, has been
found the most insipid and disagreeable. But though poetry
can never submit to exact truth, it must be confined by rules
of art, discovered to the author either by genius or
observation. If some negligent or irregular writers have
pleased, they have not pleased by their transgressions of
rule or order, but in spite of these transgressions:
Mil 232
They have possessed other beauties, which were

conformable to just criticism; and the force of these
beauties has been able to overpower censure, and give the
mind a satisfaction superior to the disgust arising from the
blemishes. Ariosto pleases; but not by his monstrous and
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improbable fictions, by his bizarre mixture of the serious

and comic styles, by the want of coherence in his stories, or
by the continual interruptions of his narration. He charms
by the force and clearness of his expression, by the
readiness and variety of his inventions, and by his natural
pictures of the passions, especially those of the gay and
amorous kind: And however his faults may diminish our
satisfaction, they are not able entirely to destroy it. Did our
pleasure really arise from those parts of his poem, which we
denominate faults, this would be no objection to criticism in
general: It would only be an objection to those particular
rules of criticism, which would establish such circumstances
to be faults, and would represent them as universally
blameable. If they are found to please, they cannot be
faults; let the pleasure, which they produce, be ever so
unexpected and unaccountable.
But though all the general rules of art are founded
only on experience and on the observation of the common
sentiments of human nature, we must not imagine, that, on
every occasion, the feelings of men will be conformable to
these rules. Those finer emotions of the mind are of a very
tender and delicate nature, and require the concurrence of
many favourable circumstances to make them play with
facility and exactness, according to their general and
established principles. The least exterior hindrance to such
small springs, or the least internal disorder, disturbs their
motion, and confounds the operation of the whole machine.
When we would make an experiment of this nature, and
would try the force of any beauty or deformity, we must
choose with care a proper time and place, and bring the
fancy to a suitable situation and disposition. A perfect
serenity of mind, a recollection of thought, a due attention
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to the object; if any of these circumstances be wanting, our

experiment will be fallacious, and we
Mil 233
shall be unable to judge of the catholic and universal beauty.

The relation, which nature has placed between the form and
the sentiment, will at least be more obscure; and it will
require greater accuracy to trace and discern it. We shall be
able to ascertain its influence not so much from the
operation of each particular beauty, as from the durable
admiration, which attends those works, that have survived
all the caprices of mode and fashion, all the mistakes of
ignorance and envy.
The same Homer, who pleased at Athens and Rome
two thousand years ago, is still admired at Paris and at
London. All the changes of climate, government, religion,
and language, have not been able to obscure his glory.
Authority or prejudice may give a temporary vogue to a bad
poet or orator; but his reputation will never be durable or
general. When his compositions are examined by posterity
or by foreigners, the enchantment is dissipated, and his
faults appear in their true colours. On the contrary, a real
genius, the longer his works endure, and the more wide
they are spread, the more sincere is the admiration which he
meets with. Envy and jealousy have too much place in a
narrow circle; and even familiar acquaintance with his
person may diminish the applause due to his performances:
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But when these obstructions are removed, the beauties,

which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiments,
immediately display their energy; and while the world
endures, they maintain their authority over the minds of
men.
It appears then, that, amidst all the variety and caprice
of taste, there are certain general principles of approbation
or blame, whose influence a careful eye may trace in all
operations of the mind. Some particular forms or qualities,
from the original structure of the internal fabric, are
calculated to please, and others to displease; and if they fail
of their effect in any particular instance, it is from some
apparent defect or imperfection in the organ. A man in a
fever would not insist on his palate as able to decide
concerning flavours; nor would one, affected with the
jaundice, pretend to give a verdict with regard to colours. In
each creature, there is a sound and a
Mil 234
defective state; and the former alone can be supposed to

afford us a true standard of taste and sentiment. If, in the
sound state of the organ, there be an entire or a
considerable uniformity of sentiment among men, we may
thence derive an idea of the perfect beauty; in like manner
as the appearance of objects in day-light, to the eye of a
man in health, is denominated their true and real colour,
even while colour is allowed to be merely a phantasm of the
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senses.
Many and frequent are the defects in the internal
organs, which prevent or weaken the influence of those
general principles, on which depends our sentiment of
beauty or deformity. Though some objects, by the structure
of the mind, be naturally calculated to give pleasure, it is
not to be expected, that in every individual the pleasure will
be equally felt. Particular incidents and situations occur,
which either throw a false light on the objects, or hinder the
true from conveying to the imagination the proper
sentiment and perception.
One obvious cause, why many feel not the proper
sentiment of beauty, is the want of that delicacy of
imagination, which is requisite to convey a sensibility of
those finer emotions. This delicacy every one pretends to:
Every one talks of it; and would reduce every kind of taste
or sentiment to its standard. But as our intention in this
essay is to mingle some light of the understanding with the
feelings of sentiment, it will be proper to give a more
accurate definition of delicacy, than has hitherto been
attempted. And not to draw our philosophy from too
profound a source, we shall have recourse to a noted story
in Don Quixote.
It is with good reason, says Sancho to the squire with
the great nose, that I pretend to have a judgment in wine:
This is a quality hereditary in our family. Two of my
kinsmen were once called to give their opinion of a
hogshead, which was supposed to be excellent, being old
and of a good vintage. One of them tastes it; considers it;
and after mature reflection
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Mil 235
pronounces the wine to be good, were it not for a small

taste of leather, which he perceived in it. The other, after
using the same precautions, gives also his verdict in favour
of the wine; but with the reserve of a taste of iron, which he
could easily distinguish. You cannot imagine how much they
were both ridiculed for their judgment. But who laughed in
the end? On emptying the hogshead, there was found at the
bottom, an old key with a leathern thong tied to it.
The great resemblance between mental and bodily
taste will easily teach us to apply this story. Though it be
certain, that beauty and deformity, more than sweet and
bitter, are not qualities in objects, but belong entirely to the
sentiment, internal or external; it must be allowed, that
there are certain qualities in objects, which are fitted by
nature to produce those particular feelings. Now as these
qualities may be found in a small degree, or may be mixed
and confounded with each other, it often happens, that the
taste is not affected with such minute qualities, or is not
able to distinguish all the particular flavours, amidst the
disorder, in which they are presented. Where the organs are
so fine, as to allow nothing to escape them; and at the same
time so exact as to perceive every ingredient in the
composition: This we call delicacy of taste, whether we
employ these terms in the literal or metaphorical sense.
Here then the general rules of beauty are of use; being
drawn from established models, and from the observation of
what pleases or displeases, when presented singly and in a
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high degree: And if the same qualities, in a continued

composition and in a smaller degree, affect not the organs
with a sensible delight or uneasiness, we exclude the person
from all pretensions to this delicacy. To produce these
general rules or avowed patterns of composition is like
finding the key with the leathern thong; which justified the
verdict of Sanchos kinsmen, and confounded those
pretended judges who had condemned them. Though the
hogshead had never been emptied, the taste of the one was
still equally delicate, and that of the other equally dull and
languid: But it would have been more difficult to have
proved the superiority of the former, to
Mil 236
the conviction of every by-stander. In like manner, though

the beauties of writing had never been methodized, or
reduced to general principles; though no excellent models
had ever been acknowledged; the different degrees of taste
would still have subsisted, and the judgment of one man
been preferable to that of another; but it would not have
been so easy to silence the bad critic, who might always
insist upon his particular sentiment, and refuse to submit to
his antagonist. But when we show him an avowed principle
of art; when we illustrate this principle by examples, whose
operation, from his own particular taste, he acknowledges
to be conformable to the principle; when we prove, that the
same principle may be applied to the present case, where he
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did not perceive or feel its influence: He must conclude,

upon the whole, that the fault lies in himself, and that he
wants the delicacy, which is requisite to make him sensible
of every beauty and every blemish, in any composition or
discourse.
It is acknowledged to be the perfection of every sense
or faculty, to perceive with exactness its most minute
objects, and allow nothing to escape its notice and
observation. The smaller the objects are, which become
sensible to the eye, the finer is that organ, and the more
elaborate its make and composition. A good palate is not
tried by strong flavours; but by a mixture of small
ingredients, where we are still sensible of each part,
notwithstanding its minuteness and its confusion with the
rest. In like manner, a quick and acute perception of beauty
and deformity must be the perfection of our mental taste;
nor can a man be satisfied with himself while he suspects,
that any excellence or blemish in a discourse has passed him
unobserved. In this case, the perfection of the man, and the
perfection of the sense or feeling, are found to be united. A
very delicate palate, on many occasions, may be a great
inconvenience both to a man himself and to his friends: But
a delicate taste of wit or beauty must always be a desirable
quality; because it is the source of all the finest and most
innocent enjoyments, of which human nature is susceptible.
In this decision the sentiments of all mankind are agreed.
Mil 237
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Wherever you can ascertain a delicacy of taste, it is sure to

meet with approbation; and the best way of ascertaining it is
to appeal to those models and principles, which have been
established by the uniform consent and experience of
nations and ages.
But though there be naturally a wide difference in
point of delicacy between one person and another, nothing
tends further to encrease and improve this talent, than
practice in a particular art, and the frequent survey or
contemplation of a particular species of beauty. When
objects of any kind are first presented to the eye or
imagination, the sentiment, which attends them, is obscure
and confused; and the mind is, in a great measure, incapable
of pronouncing concerning their merits or defects. The
taste cannot perceive the several excellencies of the
performance; much less distinguish the particular character
of each excellency, and ascertain its quality and degree. If it
pronounce the whole in general to be beautiful or
deformed, it is the utmost that can be expected; and even
this judgment, a person, so unpractised, will be apt to
deliver with great hesitation and reserve. But allow him to
acquire experience in those objects, his feeling becomes
more exact and nice: He not only perceives the beauties and
defects of each part, but marks the distinguishing species of
each quality, and assigns it suitable praise or blame. A clear
and distinct sentiment attends him through the whole survey
of the objects; and he discerns that very degree and kind of
approbation or displeasure, which each part is naturally
fitted to produce. The mist dissipates, which seemed
formerly to hang over the object: The organ acquires
greater perfection in its operations; and can pronounce,
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without danger of mistake, concerning the merits of every

performance. In a word, the same address and dexterity,
which practice gives to the execution of any work, is also
acquired by the same means, in the judging of it.
So advantageous is practice to the discernment of
beauty, that, before we can give judgment on any work of
importance, it will even be requisite, that that very
individual performance be more than once perused by us,
and be surveyed in different
Mil 238
lights with attention and deliberation. There is a flutter or

hurry of thought which attends the first perusal of any
piece, and which confounds the genuine sentiment of
beauty. The relation of the parts is not discerned: The true
characters of style are little distinguished: The several
perfections and defects seem wrapped up in a species of
confusion, and present themselves indistinctly to the
imagination. Not to mention, that there is a species of
beauty, which, as it is florid and superficial, pleases at first;
but being found incompatible with a just expression either
of reason or passion, soon palls upon the taste, and is then
rejected with disdain, at least rated at a much lower value.
It is impossible to continue in the practice of
contemplating any order of beauty, without being
frequently obliged to form comparisons between the several
species and degrees of excellence, and estimating their
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proportion to each other. A man, who has had no

opportunity of comparing the different kinds of beauty, is
indeed totally unqualified to pronounce an opinion with
regard to any object presented to him. By comparison alone
we fix the epithets of praise or blame, and learn how to
assign the due degree of each. The coarsest daubing
contains a certain lustre of colours and exactness of
imitation, which are so far beauties, and would affect the
mind of a peasant or Indian with the highest admiration.
The most vulgar ballads are not entirely destitute of
harmony or nature; and none but a person, familiarized to
superior beauties, would pronounce their numbers harsh, or
narration uninteresting. A great inferiority of beauty gives
pain to a person conversant in the highest excellence of the
kind, and is for that reason pronounced a deformity: As the
most finished object, with which we are acquainted, is
naturally supposed to have reached the pinnacle of
perfection, and to be entitled to the highest applause. One
accustomed to see, and examine, and weigh the several
performances, admired in different ages and nations, can
alone rate the merits of a work exhibited to his view, and
assign its proper rank among the productions of genius.
Mil 239
But to enable a critic the more fully to execute this

undertaking, he must preserve his mind free from all
prejudice, and allow nothing to enter into his consideration,
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but the very object which is submitted to his examination.

We may observe, that every work of art, in order to produce
its due effect on the mind, must be surveyed in a certain
point of view, and cannot be fully relished by persons,
whose situation, real or imaginary, is not conformable to
that which is required by the performance. An orator
addresses himself to a particular audience, and must have a
regard to their particular genius, interests, opinions,
passions, and prejudices; otherwise he hopes in vain to
govern their resolutions, and inflame their affections.
Should they even have entertained some prepossessions
against him, however unreasonable, he must not overlook
this disadvantage; but, before he enters upon the subject,
must endeavour to conciliate their affection, and acquire
their good graces. A critic of a different age or nation, who
should peruse this discourse, must have all these
circumstances in his eye, and must place himself in the same
situation as the audience, in order to form a true judgment
of the oration. In like manner, when any work is addressed
to the public, though I should have a friendship or enmity
with the author, I must depart from this situation; and
considering myself as a man in general, forget, if possible,
my individual being and my peculiar circumstances. A
person influenced by prejudice, complies not with this
condition; but obstinately maintains his natural position,
without placing himself in that point of view, which the
performance supposes. If the work be addressed to persons
of a different age or nation, he makes no allowance for
their peculiar views and prejudices; but, full of the manners
of his own age and country, rashly condemns what seemed
admirable in the eyes of those for whom alone the discourse
was calculated. If the work be executed for the public, he
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never sufficiently enlarges his comprehension, or forgets

his interest as a friend or enemy, as a rival or commentator.
By this means, his sentiments are perverted; nor have the
same beauties and blemishes the same influence upon him,
as if he had imposed
Mil 240
a proper violence on his imagination, and had forgotten

himself for a moment. So far his taste evidently departs
from the true standard; and of consequence loses all credit
and authority.
It is well known, that in all questions, submitted to the
understanding, prejudice is destructive of sound judgment,
and perverts all operations of the intellectual faculties: It is
no less contrary to good taste; nor has it less influence to
corrupt our sentiment of beauty. It belongs to good sense to
check its influence in both cases; and in this respect, as well
as in many others, reason, if not an essential part of taste, is
at least requisite to the operations of this latter faculty. In
all the nobler productions of genius, there is a mutual
relation and correspondence of parts; nor can either the
beauties or blemishes be perceived by him, whose thought is
not capacious enough to comprehend all those parts, and
compare them with each other, in order to perceive the
consistence and uniformity of the whole. Every work of art
has also a certain end or purpose, for which it is calculated;
and is to be deemed more or less perfect, as it is more or less
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fitted to attain this end. The object of eloquence is to

persuade, of history to instruct, of poetry to please by
means of the passions and the imagination. These ends we
must carry constantly in our view, when we peruse any
performance; and we must be able to judge how far the
means employed are adapted to their respective purposes.
Besides, every kind of composition, even the most poetical,
is nothing but a chain of propositions and reasonings; not
always, indeed, the justest and most exact, but still plausible
and specious, however disguised by the colouring of the
imagination. The persons introduced in tragedy and epic
poetry, must be represented as reasoning, and thinking, and
concluding, and acting, suitably to their character and
circumstances; and without judgment, as well as taste and
invention, a poet can never hope to succeed in so delicate an
undertaking. Not to mention, that the same excellence of
faculties which contributes to the improvement of reason,
the same clearness of conception, the same exactness of
distinction, the same vivacity of apprehension, are essential
to
Mil 241
the operations of true taste, and are its infallible

concomitants. It seldom, or never happens, that a man of
sense, who has experience in any art, cannot judge of its
beauty; and it is no less rare to meet with a man who has a
just taste without a sound understanding.
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Thus, though the principles of taste be universal, and

nearly, if not entirely the same in all men; yet few are
qualified to give judgment on any work of art, or establish
their own sentiment as the standard of beauty. The organs
of internal sensation are seldom so perfect as to allow the
general principles their full play, and produce a feeling
correspondent to those principles. They either labour under
some defect, or are vitiated by some disorder; and by that
means, excite a sentiment, which may be pronounced
erroneous. When the critic has no delicacy, he judges
without any distinction, and is only affected by the grosser
and more palpable qualities of the object: The finer touches
pass unnoticed and disregarded. Where he is not aided by
practice, his verdict is attended with confusion and
hesitation. Where no comparison has been employed, the
most frivolous beauties, such as rather merit the name of
defects, are the object of his admiration. Where he lies
under the influence of prejudice, all his natural sentiments
are perverted. Where good sense is wanting, he is not
qualified to discern the beauties of design and reasoning,
which are the highest and most excellent. Under some or
other of these imperfections, the generality of men labour;
and hence a true judge in the finer arts is observed, even
during the most polished ages, to be so rare a character:
Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by
practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all
prejudice, can alone entitle critics to this valuable character;
and the joint verdict of such, wherever they are to be found,
is the true standard of taste and beauty.
But where are such critics to be found? By what marks
are they to be known? How distinguish them from
pretenders? These questions are embarrassing; and seem to
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throw us back into the same uncertainty, from which,

during the course of this essay, we have endeavoured to
extricate ourselves.
Mil 242
But if we consider the matter aright, these are

questions of fact, not of sentiment. Whether any particular
person be endowed with good sense and a delicate
imagination, free from prejudice, may often be the subject
of dispute, and be liable to great discussion and enquiry:
But that such a character is valuable and estimable will be
agreed in by all mankind. Where these doubts occur, men
can do no more than in other disputable questions, which
are submitted to the understanding: They must produce the
best arguments, that their invention suggests to them; they
must acknowledge a true and decisive standard to exist
somewhere, to wit, real existence and matter of fact; and
they must have indulgence to such as differ from them in
their appeals to this standard. It is sufficient for our present
purpose, if we have proved, that the taste of all individuals
is not upon an equal footing, and that some men in general,
however difficult to be particularly pitched upon, will be
acknowledged by universal sentiment to have a preference
above others.
But in reality the difficulty of finding, even in
particulars, the standard of taste, is not so great as it is
represented. Though in speculation, we may readily avow a
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certain criterion in science and deny it in sentiment, the

matter is found in practice to be much more hard to
ascertain in the former case than in the latter. Theories of
abstract philosophy, systems of profound theology, have
prevailed during one age: In a successive period, these have
been universally exploded: Their absurdity has been
detected: Other theories and systems have supplied their
place, which again gave place to their successors: And
nothing has been experienced more liable to the revolutions
of chance and fashion than these pretended decisions of
science. The case is not the same with the beauties of
eloquence and poetry. Just expressions of passion and
nature are sure, after a little time, to gain public applause,
which they maintain for ever. Aristotle, and Plato, and
Epicurus,
Mil 243
and Descartes, may successively yield to each other: But

Terence and Virgil maintain an universal, undisputed
empire over the minds of men. The abstract philosophy of
Cicero has lost its credit: The vehemence of his oratory is
still the object of our admiration.
Though men of delicate taste be rare, they are easily to
be distinguished in society, by the soundness of their
understanding and the superiority of their faculties above
the rest of mankind. The ascendant, which they acquire,
gives a prevalence to that lively approbation, with which
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they receive any productions of genius, and renders it

generally predominant. Many men, when left to themselves,
have but a faint and dubious perception of beauty, who yet
are capable of relishing any fine stroke, which is pointed
out to them. Every convert to the admiration of the real
poet or orator is the cause of some new conversion. And
though prejudices may prevail for a time, they never unite
in celebrating any rival to the true genius, but yield at last
to the force of nature and just sentiment. Thus, though a
civilized nation may easily be mistaken in the choice of
their admired philosopher, they never have been found long
to err, in their affection for a favourite epic or tragic
author.
But notwithstanding all our endeavours to fix a
standard of taste, and reconcile the discordant
apprehensions of men, there still remain two sources of
variation, which are not sufficient indeed to confound all
the boundaries of beauty and deformity, but will often
serve to produce a difference in the degrees of our
approbation or blame. The one is the different humours of
particular men; the other, the particular manners and
opinions of our age and country. The general principles of
taste are uniform in human nature: Where men vary in their
judgments, some defect or perversion in the faculties may
commonly be remarked; proceeding either from prejudice,
from want of practice, or want of delicacy; and there is just
reason for approving one taste, and condemning another.
But
Mil 244
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where there is such a diversity in the internal frame or

external situation as is entirely blameless on both sides, and
leaves no room to give one the preference above the other;
in that case a certain degree of diversity in judgment is
unavoidable, and we seek in vain for a standard, by which
we can reconcile the contrary sentiments.
A young man, whose passions are warm, will be more
sensibly touched with amorous and tender images, than a
man more advanced in years, who takes pleasure in wise,
philosophical reflections concerning the conduct of life and
moderation of the passions. At twenty, Ovid may be the
favourite author; Horace at forty; and perhaps Tacitus at
fifty. Vainly would we, in such cases, endeavour to enter
into the sentiments of others, and divest ourselves of those
propensities, which are natural to us. We choose our
favourite author as we do our friend, from a conformity of
humour and disposition. Mirth or passion, sentiment or
reflection; whichever of these most predominates in our
temper, it gives us a peculiar sympathy with the writer who
resembles us.
One person is more pleased with the sublime; another
with the tender; a third with raillery. One has a strong
sensibility to blemishes, and is extremely studious of
correctness: Another has a more lively feeling of beauties,
and pardons twenty absurdities and defects for one elevated
or pathetic stroke. The ear of this man is entirely turned
towards conciseness and energy; that man is delighted with a
copious, rich, and harmonious expression. Simplicity is
affected by one; ornament by another. Comedy, tragedy,
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satire, odes, have each its partizans, who prefer that

particular species of writing to all others. It is plainly an
error in a critic, to confine his approbation to one species or
style of writing, and condemn all the rest. But it is almost
impossible not to feel a predilection for that which suits our
particular turn and disposition. Such preferences are
innocent and unavoidable, and can never reasonably be the
object of dispute, because there is no standard, by which
they can be decided.
For a like reason, we are more pleased, in the course of
our
Mil 245
reading, with pictures and characters, that resemble objects

which are found in our own age or country, than with those
which describe a different set of customs. It is not without
some effort, that we reconcile ourselves to the simplicity of
ancient manners, and behold princesses carrying water from
the spring, and kings and heroes dressing their own victuals.
We may allow in general, that the representation of such
manners is no fault in the author, nor deformity in the
piece; but we are not so sensibly touched with them. For
this reason, comedy is not easily transferred from one age
or nation to another. A Frenchman or Englishman is not
pleased with the Andria of Terence, or Clitia of
Machiavel; where the fine lady, upon whom all the play
turns, never once appears to the spectators, but is always
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kept behind the scenes, suitably to the reserved humour of

the ancient Greeks and modern Italians. A man of learning
and reflection can make allowance for these peculiarities of
manners; but a common audience can never divest
themselves so far of their usual ideas and sentiments, as to
relish pictures which no wise resemble them.
But here there occurs a reflection, which may, perhaps,
be useful in examining the celebrated controversy
concerning ancient and modern learning; where we often
find the one side excusing any seeming absurdity in the
ancients from the manners of the age, and the other
refusing to admit this excuse, or at least, admitting it only as
an apology for the author, not for the performance. In my
opinion, the proper boundaries in this subject have seldom
been fixed between the contending parties. Where any
innocent peculiarities of manners are represented, such as
those above mentioned, they ought certainly to be
admitted; and a man, who is shocked with them, gives
Mil 246
an evident proof of false delicacy and refinement. The

poets monument more durable than brass, must fall to the
ground like common brick or clay, were men to make no
allowance for the continual revolutions of manners and
customs, and would admit of nothing but what was suitable
to the prevailing fashion. Must we throw aside the pictures
of our ancestors, because of their ruffs and fardingales? But
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where the ideas of morality and decency alter from one age
to another, and where vicious manners are described,
without being marked with the proper characters of blame
and disapprobation; this must be allowed to disfigure the
poem, and to be a real deformity. I cannot, nor is it proper I
should, enter into such sentiments; and however I may
excuse the poet, on account of the manners of his age, I
never can relish the composition. The want of humanity and
of decency, so conspicuous in the characters drawn by
several of the ancient poets, even sometimes by Homer and
the Greek tragedians, diminishes considerably the merit of
their noble performances, and gives modern authors an
advantage over them. We are not interested in the fortunes
and sentiments of such rough heroes: We are displeased to
find the limits of vice and virtue so much confounded: And
whatever indulgence we may give to the writer on account
of his prejudices, we cannot prevail on ourselves to enter
into his sentiments, or bear an affection to characters, which
we plainly discover to be blameable.
The case is not the same with moral principles, as with
speculative opinions of any kind. These are in continual flux
and revolution. The son embraces a different system from
the father. Nay, there scarcely is any man, who can boast of
great constancy and uniformity in this particular. Whatever
speculative errors may be found in the polite writings of any
age or country, they detract but little from the value of
those compositions. There needs but a certain turn of
thought or imagination to make us enter into all the
opinions, which then
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Mil 247
prevailed, and relish the sentiments or conclusions derived

from them. But a very violent effort is requisite to change
our judgment of manners, and excite sentiments of
approbation or blame, love or hatred, different from those
to which the mind from long custom has been familiarized.
And where a man is confident of the rectitude of that moral
standard, by which he judges, he is justly jealous of it, and
will not pervert the sentiments of his heart for a moment, in
complaisance to any writer whatsoever.
Of all speculative errors, those, which regard religion,
are the most excusable in compositions of genius; nor is it
ever permitted to judge of the civility or wisdom of any
people, or even of single persons, by the grossness or
refinement of their theological principles. The same good
sense, that directs men in the ordinary occurrences of life, is
not hearkened to in religious matters, which are supposed
to be placed altogether above the cognizance of human
reason. On this account, all the absurdities of the pagan
system of theology must be overlooked by every critic, who
would pretend to form a just notion of ancient poetry; and
our posterity, in their turn, must have the same indulgence
to their forefathers. No religious principles can ever be
imputed as a fault to any poet, while they remain merely
principles, and take not such strong possession of his heart,
as to lay him under the imputation of bigotry or superstition.
Where that happens, they confound the sentiments of
morality, and alter the natural boundaries of vice and virtue.
They are therefore eternal blemishes, according to the
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principle above mentioned; nor are the prejudices and false

opinions of the age sufficient to justify them.
It is essential to the Roman catholic religion to inspire
a violent hatred of every other worship, and to represent all
pagans, mahometans, and heretics as the objects of divine
wrath and vengeance. Such sentiments, though they are in
reality very blameable, are considered as virtues by the
zealots of that communion, and are represented in their
tragedies and epic poems as a kind of divine heroism. This
bigotry has
Mil 248
disfigured two very fine tragedies of the French theatre,

Polieucte and Athalia; where an intemperate zeal for
particular modes of worship is set off with all the pomp
imaginable, and forms the predominant character of the
heroes. What is this, says the sublime Joad to Josabet,
finding her in discourse with Mathan, the priest of Baal,
Does the daughter of David speak to this traitor? Are you
not afraid, lest the earth should open and pour forth flames
to devour you both? Or lest these holy walls should fall and
crush you together? What is his purpose? Why comes that
enemy of God hither to poison the air, which we breathe,
with his horrid presence? Such sentiments are received
with great applause on the theatre of Paris; but at London
the spectators would be full as much pleased to hear
Achilles tell Agamemnon, that he was a dog in his forehead,
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and a deer in his heart, or Jupiter threaten Juno with a

sound drubbing, if she will not be quiet.
Religious principles are also a blemish in any polite
composition, when they rise up to superstition, and intrude
themselves into every sentiment, however remote from any
connection with religion. It is no excuse for the poet, that
the customs of his country had burthened life with so many
religious ceremonies and observances, that no part of it was
exempt from that yoke. It must for ever be ridiculous in
Petrarch to compare his mistress, Laura, to Jesus
Mil 249
Christ. Nor is it less ridiculous in that agreeable libertine,

Boccace, very seriously to give thanks to God Almighty
and the ladies, for their assistance in defending him against
his enemies.
Mil 253
E S S A Y I.
Of Commerce.
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HE greater part of mankind may be divided into two

classes; that of shallow thinkers, who fall short of the truth;
and that of abstruse thinkers, who go beyond it. The latter
class are by far the most rare: and I may add, by far the most
useful and valuable. They suggest hints, at least, and
start difficulties, which they want, perhaps, skill to
pursue; but which may produce fine discoveries, when
handled by men who have a more just way of thinking. At
worst, what they say is uncommon; and if it should cost
some pains to comprehend it, one has, however, the
pleasure of hearing something that is new. An author is
little to be valued, who tells us nothing but what we can
learn from every coffee-house conversation.
All people of shallow thought are apt to decry even

those
Mil 254
of solid understanding, as abstruse thinkers, and

metaphysicians, and refiners; and never will allow any thing
to be just which is beyond their own weak conceptions.
There are some cases, I own, where an extraordinary
refinement affords a strong presumption of falsehood, and
where no reasoning is to be trusted but what is natural and
easy. When a man deliberates concerning his conduct in any
particular affair, and forms schemes in politics, trade,
oeconomy, or any business in life, he never ought to draw
his arguments too fine, or connect too long a chain of
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consequences together. Something is sure to happen, that

will disconcert his reasoning, and produce an event
different from what he expected. But when we reason upon
general subjects, one may justly affirm, that our speculations
can scarcely ever be too fine, provided they be just; and that
the difference between a common man and a man of genius
is chiefly seen in the shallowness or depth of the principles
upon which they proceed. General reasonings seem
intricate, merely because they are general; nor is it easy for
the bulk of mankind to distinguish, in a great number of
particulars, that common circumstance in which they all
agree, or to extract it, pure and unmixed, from the other
superfluous circumstances. Every judgment or conclusion,
with them, is particular. They cannot enlarge their view to
those universal propositions, which comprehend under them
an infinite number of individuals, and include a whole
science in a single theorem. Their eye is confounded with
such an extensive prospect; and the conclusions, derived
from it, even though clearly expressed, seem intricate and
obscure. But however intricate they may seem, it is certain,
that general principles, if just and sound, must always
prevail in the general course of things, though they may fail
in particular cases; and it is the chief business of
philosophers to regard the general course of things. I may
add, that it is also the chief business of politicians; especially
in the domestic government of the state, where the public
good, which is, or ought to be their object, depends on the
concurrence of a multitude of causes; not, as
Mil 255
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in foreign politics, on accidents and chances, and the

caprices of a few persons. This therefore makes the
difference between particular deliberations and general
reasonings, and renders subtilty and refinement much more
suitable to the latter than to the former.
I thought this introduction necessary before the
following discourses on commerce, money, interest, balance of
trade, &c. where, perhaps, there will occur some principles
which are uncommon, and which may seem too refined and
subtile for such vulgar subjects. If false, let them be
rejected: But no one ought to entertain a prejudice against
them, merely because they are out of the common road.
The greatness of a state, and the happiness of its
subjects, how independent soever they may be supposed in
some respects, are commonly allowed to be inseparable with
regard to commerce; and as private men receive greater
security, in the possession of their trade and riches, from
the power of the public, so the public becomes powerful in
proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of
private men. This maxim is true in general; though I cannot
forbear thinking, that it may possibly admit of exceptions,
and that we often establish it with too little reserve and
limitation. There may be some circumstances, where the
commerce and riches and luxury of individuals, instead of
adding strength to the public, will serve only to thin its
armies, and diminish its authority among the neighbouring
nations. Man is a very variable being,
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Mil 256
and susceptible of many different opinions, principles, and

rules of conduct. What may be true, while he adheres to one
way of thinking, will be found false, when he has embraced
an opposite set of manners and opinions.
The bulk of every state may be divided into husbandmen
and manufacturers. The former are employed in the culture
of the land; the latter workswork up the materials furnished
by the former, into all the commodities which are necessary
or ornamental to human life. As soon as men quit their
savage state, where they live chiefly by hunting and fishing,
they must fall into these two classes; though the arts of
agriculture employ at first the most numerous part of the
society 1*. Time and experience improve so much these arts,
0
that the land may easily maintain a much greater number of

men, than those who are immediately employed in its
culture, or who furnish the more necessary manufactures to
such as are so employed.
If these superfluous hands apply themselves to the
finer arts, which are commonly denominated the arts of
luxury, they add to the happiness of the state; since they
afford to many the opportunity of receiving enjoyments,
with which they would otherwise have been unacquainted.
But may not another scheme be proposed for the
employment of these superfluous hands? May not the
sovereign lay claim to them, and employ them in fleets and
armies, to encrease the dominions of the state abroad, and
spread its fame over distant nations? It is certain that the
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fewer desires and wants are found in the proprietors and

labourers of land, the fewer hands do they employ; and
consequently the superfluities of the land,
Mil 257
instead of maintaining tradesmen and manufacturers, may

support fleets and armies to a much greater extent, than
where a great many arts are required to minister to the
luxury of particular persons. Here therefore seems to be a
kind of opposition between the greatness of the state and
the happiness of the subject. A state is never greater than
when all its superfluous hands are employed in the service
of the public. The ease and convenience of private persons
require, that these hands should be employed in their
service. The one can never be satisfied, but at the expence
of the other. As the ambition of the sovereign must
entrench on the luxury of individuals; so the luxury of
individuals must diminish the force, and check the ambition
of the sovereign.
Nor is this reasoning merely chimerical; but is founded
on history and experience. The republic of Sparta was
certainly more powerful than any state now in the world,
consisting of an equal number of people; and this was owing
entirely to the want of commerce and luxury. The Helotes
were the labourers: The Spartans were the soldiers or
gentlemen. It is evident, that the labour of the Helotes
could not have maintained so great a number of Spartans,
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had these latter lived in ease and delicacy, and given

employment to a great variety of trades and manufactures.
The like policy may be remarked in Rome. And indeed,
throughout all ancient history, it is observable, that the
smallest republics raised and maintained greater armies,
than states consisting of triple the number of inhabitants,
are able to support at present. It is computed, that, in all
European nations, the proportion between soldiers and
people does not exceed one to a hundred. But we read, that
the city of Rome alone, with its small territory, raised and
maintained, in early times, ten legions against the Latins.
Athens, the whole of whose dominions was not larger than
Yorkshire, sent to the expedition against Sicily near forty
thousand men 2*. Dionysius the elder, it is said,
0
Mil 258
0
maintained a standing army of a hundred thousand foot and

ten thousand horse, besides a large fleet of four hundred
sail 3; though his territories extended no farther than the
city of Syracuse, about a third of the island of Sicily, and
some sea-port towns and garrisons on the coast of Italy and
Illyricum. It is true, the ancient armies, in time of war,
subsisted much upon plunder: But did not the enemy
plunder in their turn? which was a more ruinous way of
levying a tax, than any other that could be devised. In short,
no probable reason can be assigned for the great power of
the more ancient states above the modern, but their want of
0
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commerce and luxury. Few artizans were maintained by the

labour of the farmers, and therefore more soldiers might
live upon it. Livy says, that Rome, in his time, would find it
difficult to raise as large an army as that which, in her early
days, she sent out against the Gauls and Latins 4. Instead
of those soldiers who fought for liberty and empire in
Camilluss time, there were, in Augustuss days, musicians,
painters, cooks, players, and tailors; and if the land was
equally cultivated at both periods, it could certainly
maintain equal numbers in the one profession as in the
other. They added nothing to the mere necessaries of life,
in the latter period more than in the former.
It is natural on this occasion to ask, whether sovereigns
may not return to the maxims of ancient policy, and consult
their own interest in this respect, more than the happiness
of their
Mil 259
subjects? I answer, that it appears to me, almost impossible;

and that because ancient policy was violent, and contrary to
the more natural and usual course of things. It is well known
with what peculiar laws Sparta was governed, and what a
prodigy that republic is justly esteemed by every one, who
has considered human nature as it has displayed itself in
other nations, and other ages. Were the testimony of history
less positive and circumstantial, such a government would
appear a mere philosophical whim or fiction, and impossible
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ever to be reduced to practice. And though the Roman and

other ancient republics were supported on principles
somewhat more natural, yet was there an extraordinary
concurrence of circumstances to make them submit to such
grievous burthens. They were free states; they were small
ones; and the age being martial, all their neighbours were
continually in arms. Freedom naturally begets public spirit,
especially in small states; and this public spirit, this amor
patriae, must encrease, when the public is almost in
continual alarm, and men are obliged, every moment, to
expose themselves to the greatest dangers for its defence. A
continual succession of wars makes every citizen a soldier:
He takes the field in his turn: And during his service he is
chiefly maintained by himself. This service is indeed
equivalent to a heavy tax; yet is it less felt by a people
addicted to arms, who fight for honour and revenge more
than pay, and are unacquainted with gain and industry as
well as pleasure 5*. Not to mention the great equality of
0
fortunes among the inhabitants of the ancient republics,

where every field, belonging to a different proprietor, was
able to maintain a family, and rendered the numbers of
citizens very considerable, even without trade and
manufactures.
Mil 260
But though the want of trade and manufactures, among

a free and very martial people, may sometimes have no other
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effect than to render the public more powerful, it is certain,

that, in the common course of human affairs, it will have a
quite contrary tendency. Sovereigns must take mankind as
they find them, and cannot pretend to introduce any violent
change in their principles and ways of thinking. A long
course of time, with a variety of accidents and
circumstances, are requisite to produce those great
revolutions, which so much diversify the face of human
affairs. And the less natural any set of principles are, which
support a particular society, the more difficulty will a
legislator meet with in raising and cultivating them. It is his
best policy to comply with the common bent of mankind,
and give it all the improvements of which it is susceptible.
Now, according to the most natural course of things,
industry and arts and trade encrease the power of the
sovereign as well as the happiness of the subjects; and that
policy is violent, which aggrandizes the public by the
poverty of individuals. This will easily appear from a few
considerations, which will present to us the consequences of
sloth and barbarity.
Where manufactures and mechanic arts are not
cultivated, the bulk of the people must apply themselves to
agriculture; and if their skill and industry encrease, there
must arise a great superfluity from their labour beyond
what suffices to maintain
Mil 261
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them. They have no temptation, therefore, to encrease their

skill and industry; since they cannot exchange that
superfluity for any commodities, which may serve either to
their pleasure or vanity. A habit of indolence naturally
prevails. The greater part of the land lies uncultivated.
What is cultivated, yields not its utmost for want of skill and
assiduity in the farmers. If at any time the public exigencies
require, that great numbers should be employed in the
public service, the labour of the people furnishes now no
superfluities, by which these numbers can be maintained.
The labourers cannot encrease their skill and industry on a
sudden. Lands uncultivated cannot be brought into tillage
for some years. The armies, mean while, must either make
sudden and violent conquests, or disband for want of
subsistence. A regular attack or defence, therefore, is not to
be expected from such a people, and their soldiers must be
as ignorant and unskilful as their farmers and
manufacturers.
Every thing in the world is purchased by labour; and
our passions are the only causes of labour. When a nation
abounds in manufactures and mechanic arts, the proprietors
of land, as well as the farmers, study agriculture as a science,
and redouble their industry and attention. The superfluity,
which arises from their labour, is not lost; but is exchanged
with manufactures for those commodities, which mens
luxury now makes them covet. By this means, land furnishes
a great deal more of the necessaries of life, than what
suffices for those who cultivate it. In times of peace and
tranquillity, this superfluity goes to the maintenance of
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manufacturers, and the improvers of liberal arts. But it is

easy for the public to convert many of these manufacturers
into soldiers, and maintain them by that superfluity, which
arises from the labour of the farmers. Accordingly we find,
that this is the case in all civilized governments. When the
sovereign raises an army, what is the consequence? He
imposes a tax. This tax obliges all the people to retrench
what is least necessary to their subsistence. Those, who
labour in such commodities, must either enlist in the troops,
or turn themselves to agriculture, and thereby
Mil 262
oblige some labourers to enlist for want of business. And to

consider the matter abstractedly, manufactures encrease the
power of the state only as they store up so much labour, and
that of a kind to which the public may lay claim, without
depriving any one of the necessaries of life. The more
labour, therefore, is employed beyond mere necessaries, the
more powerful is any state; since the persons engaged in
that labour may easily be converted to the public service. In
a state without manufactures, there may be the same
number of hands; but there is not the same quantity of
labour, nor of the same kind. All the labour is there
bestowed upon necessaries, which can admit of little or no
abatement.
Thus the greatness of the sovereign and the happiness
of the state are, in a great measure, united with regard to
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trade and manufactures. It is a violent method, and in most

cases impracticable, to oblige the labourer to toil, in order
to raise from the land more than what subsists himself and
family. Furnish him with manufactures and commodities,
and he will do it of himself. Afterwards you will find it easy
to seize some part of his superfluous labour, and employ it
in the public service, without giving him his wonted return.
Being accustomed to industry, he will think this less
grievous, than if, at once, you obliged him to an
augmentation of labour without any reward. The case is the
same with regard to the other members of the state. The
greater is the stock of labour of all kinds, the greater
quantity may be taken from the heap, without making any
sensible alteration in it.
A public granary of corn, a storehouse of cloth, a
magazine of arms; all these must be allowed real richeriches
and strength in any state. Trade and industry are really
nothing but a stock of labour, which, in times of peace and
tranquillity, is employed for the ease and satisfaction of
individuals; but in the exigencies of state, may, in part, be
turned to public advantage. Could we convert a city into a
kind of fortified camp, and infuse into each breast so
martial a genius, and such a passion for public good, as to
make every one willing to undergo the greatest hardships
for the sake of the public; these affections
Mil 263
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might now, as in ancient times, prove alone a sufficient spur

to industry, and support the community. It would then be
advantageous, as in camps, to banish all arts and luxury; and,
by restrictions on equipage and tables, make the provisions
and forage last longer than if the army were loaded with a
number of superfluous retainers. But as these principles are
too disinterested and too difficult to support, it is requisite
to govern men by other passions, and animate them with a
spirit of avarice and industry, art and luxury. The camp is, in
this case, loaded with a superfluous retinue; but the
provisions flow in proportionably larger. The harmony of
the whole is still supported; and the natural bent of the
mind being more complied with, individuals, as well as the
public, find their account in the observance of those
maxims.
The same method of reasoning will let us see the
advantage of foreign commerce, in augmenting the power of
the state, as well as the riches and happiness of the subject.
It encreases the stock of labour in the nation; and the
sovereign may convert what share of it he finds necessary to
the service of the public. Foreign trade, by its imports,
furnishes materials for new manufactures; and by its
exports, it produces labour in particular commodities, which
could not be consumed at home. In short, a kingdom, that
has a large import and export, must abound more with
industry, and that employed upon delicacies and luxuries,
than a kingdom which rests contented with its native
commodities. It is, therefore, more powerful, as well as
richer and happier. The individuals reap the benefit of
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these commodities, so far as they gratify the senses and

appetites. And the public is also a gainer, while a greater
stock of labour is, by this means, stored up against any
public exigency; that is, a greater number of laborious men
are maintained, who may be diverted to the public service,
without robbing any one of the necessaries, or even the
chief conveniencies of life.
If we consult history, we shall find, that, in most
nations, foreign trade has preceded any refinement in home
manufactures, and given birth to domestic luxury. The
temptation
Mil 264
is stronger to make use of foreign commodities, which are

ready for use, and which are entirely new to us, than to
make improvements on any domestic commodity, which
always advance by slow degrees, and never affect us by their
novelty. The profit is also very great, in exporting what is
superfluous at home, and what bears no price, to foreign
nations, whose soil or climate is not favourable to that
commodity. Thus men become acquainted with the pleasures
of luxury and the profits of commerce; and their delicacy and
industry, being once awakened, carry them on to farther
improvements, in every branch of domestic as well as
foreign trade. And this perhaps is the chief advantage which
arises from a commerce with strangers. It rouses men from
their indolence; and presenting the gayer and more opulent
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part of the nation with objects of luxury, which they never

before dreamed of, raises in them a desire of a more
splendid way of life than what their ancestors enjoyed. And
at the same time, the few merchants, who possess the secret
of this importation and exportation, make great profits; and
becoming rivals in wealth to the ancient nobility, tempt
other adventurers to become their rivals in commerce.
Imitation soon diffuses all those arts; while domestic
manufactures emulate the foreign in their improvements,
and work up every home commodity to the utmost
perfection of which it is susceptible. Their own steel and
iron, in such laborious hands, become equal to the gold and
rubies of the Indies.
When the affairs of the society are once brought to this
situation, a nation may lose most of its foreign trade, and
yet continue a great and powerful people. If strangers will
not take any particular commodity of ours, we must cease to
labour in it. The same hands will turn themselves towards
some refinement in other commodities, which may be
wanted at home. And there must always be materials for
them to work upon; till every person in the state, who
possesses riches, enjoys as great plenty of home
commodities, and those in as great perfection, as he desires;
which can never possibly happen. China is represented as
one of the most flourishing empires in the world; though it
has very little commerce beyond its own territories.
Mil 265
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It will not, I hope, be considered as a superfluous

digression, if I here observe, that, as the multitude of
mechanical arts is advantageous, so is the great number of
persons to whose share the productions of these arts fall. A
too great disproportion among the citizens weakens any
state. Every person, if possible, ought to enjoy the fruits of
his labour, in a full possession of all the necessaries, and
many of the conveniencies of life. No one can doubt, but
such an equality is most suitable to human nature, and
diminishes much less from the happiness of the rich than it
adds to that of the poor. It also augments the power of the
state, and makes any extraordinary taxes or impositions be
paid with more chearfulness. Where the riches are
engrossed by a few, these must contribute very largely to
the supplying of the public necessities. But when the riches
are dispersed among multitudes, the burthen feels light on
every shoulder, and the taxes make not a very sensible
difference on any ones way of living.
Add to this, that, where the riches are in few hands,
these must enjoy all the power, and will readily conspire to
lay the whole burthen on the poor, and oppress them still
farther, to the discouragement of all industry.
In this circumstance consists the great advantage of
England above any nation at present in the world, or that
appears in the records of any story. It is true, the English
feel some disadvantages in foreign trade by the high price
of labour, which is in part the effect of the riches of their
artisans, as well as of the plenty of money: But as foreign
trade is not the most material circumstance, it is not to be
put in competition with the happiness of so many millions.
And if there were no more to endear to them that free
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government under which they live, this alone were

sufficient. The poverty of the common people is a natural,
if not an infallible effect of absolute monarchy; though I
doubt, whether it be always true, on the other hand, that
their riches are an infallible result of liberty. Liberty must
be attended with particular accidents, and a certain turn of
thinking, in order to produce that effect. Lord Bacon,
accounting for the great advantages obtained by the
English in their wars with France, ascribes them
Mil 266
chiefly to the superior ease and plenty of the common

people amongst the former; yet the government of the two
kingdoms was, at that time, pretty much alike. Where the
labourers and artisans are accustomed to work for low
wages, and to retain but a small part of the fruits of their
labour, it is difficult for them, even in a free government,
to better their condition, or conspire among themselves to
heighten their wages. But even where they are accustomed
to a more plentiful way of life, it is easy for the rich, in an
arbitrary government, to conspire against them, and throw
the whole burthen of the taxes on their shoulders.
It may seem an odd position, that the poverty of the
common people in France, Italy, and Spain, is, in some
measure, owing to the superior riches of the soil and
happiness of the climate; yet there want not reasons to
justify this paradox. In such a fine mould or soil as that of
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those more southern regions, agriculture is an easy art; and

one man, with a couple of sorry horses, will be able, in a
season, to cultivate as much land as will pay a pretty
considerable rent to the proprietor. All the art, which the
farmer knows, is to leave his ground fallow for a year, as
soon as it is exhausted; and the warmth of the sun alone and
temperature of the climate enrich it, and restore its
fertility. Such poor peasants, therefore, require only a
simple maintenance for their labour. They have no stock or
riches, which claim more; and at the same time, they are for
ever dependant on their landlord, who gives no leases, nor
fears that his land will be spoiled by the ill methods of
cultivation. In England, the land is rich, but coarse; must be
cultivated at a great expence; and produces slender crops,
when not carefully managed, and by a method which gives
not the full profit but in a course of several years. A farmer,
therefore, in England must have a considerable stock, and a
long lease; which beget proportional profits. The fine
vineyards of Champagne and Burgundy, that often yield to
the land-
Mil 267
lord above five pounds per acre, are cultivated by peasants,

who have scarcely bread: The reason is, that such peasants
need no stock but their own limbs, with instruments of
husbandry, which they can buy for twenty shillings. The
farmers are commonly in some better circumstances in those
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countries. But the grasiers are most at their ease of all those
who cultivate the land. The reason is still the same. Men
must have profits proportionable to their expence and
hazard. Where so considerable a number of the labouring
poor as the peasants and farmers are in very low
circumstances, all the rest must partake of their poverty,
whether the government of that nation be monarchical or
republican.
We may form a similar remark with regard to the
general history of mankind. What is the reason, why no
people, living between the tropics, could ever yet attain to
any art or civility, or reach even any police in their
government, and any military discipline; while few nations
in the temperate climates have been altogether deprived of
these advantages? It is probable that one cause of this
phaenomenon is the warmth and equality of weather in the
torrid zone, which render clothes and houses less requisite
for the inhabitants, and thereby remove, in part, that
necessity, which is the great spur to industry and invention.
Curis acuens mortalia corda. Not to mention, that the fewer
goods or possessions of this kind any people enjoy, the
fewer quarrels are likely to arise amongst them, and the less
necessity will there be for a settled police or regular
authority to protect and defend them from foreign
enemies, or from each other.
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N O T E S.
*1. Mons. Melon, in his political essay on commerce, asserts,
that even at present, if you divide France into 20 parts, 16 are
labourers or peasants; two only artizans; one belonging to the law,
church, and military; and one merchants, financiers, and bourgeois.
This calculation is certainly very erroneous. In France, England,
and indeed most parts of Europe, half of the inhabitants live in
cities; and even of those who live in the country, a great number
are artizans, perhaps above a third.
*2. Thucydides, lib. vii.
3. Diod. Sic. lib. vii. This account, I own, is somewhat
suspicious, not to say worse; chiefly because this army was not
composed of citizens, but of mercenary forces.
4. Titi livii, lib. vii. cap. 24. Adeo in quae laboramus, says
he, sola crevimus, divitias luxuriemque.
*5. See NOTE [O].
NOTE [O], p. 275. [Mil 259.]
HE more ancient Romans lived in perpetual war with

all their neighbours: And in old Latin, the term
hostis, expressed both a stranger and an enemy. This is
remarked by Cicero; but by him is ascribed to the humanity
of his ancestors, who softened, as much as possible, the
denomination of an enemy, by calling him by the same
appellation which signified a stranger. De Off. lib. ii. It is
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however much more probable, from the manners of the

times, that the ferocity of those people [Mil 260] was so great
as to make them regard all strangers as enemies, and call
them by the same name. It is not, besides, consistent with
the most common maxims of policy or of nature, that any
state should regard its public enemies with a friendly eye, or
preserve any such sentiments for them as the Roman orator
would ascribe to his ancestors. Not to mention, that the
early Romans really exercised piracy, as we learn from their
first treaties with Carthage, preserved by Polybius, lib. iii.
and consequently, like the Sallee and Algerine rovers,
were actually at war with most nations, and a stranger and an
enemy were with them almost synonimous.
Mil 268
E S S A Y II.
Of Refinement in the Arts.
UXURY is a word of an uncertain signification, and

may be taken in a good as well as in a bad sense. In
general, it means great refinement in the gratification of
the senses; and any degree of it may be innocent or
blameable, according to the age, or country, or condition of
the person. The bounds between the virtue and the vice
cannot here be exactly fixed, more than in other moral
subjects. To imagine, that the gratifying of any sense, or the
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indulging of any delicacy in meat, drink, or apparel, is of

itself a vice, can never enter into a head, that is not
disordered by the frenzies of enthusiasm. I have, indeed,
heard of a monk abroad, who, because the windows of his
cell opened upon a noble prospect, made a covenant with his
eyes never to turn that way, or receive so sensual a grat-
Mil 269
ification. And such is the crime of drinking Champagne or

Burgundy, preferably to small beer or porter. These
indulgences are only vices, when they are pursued at the
expence of some virtue, as liberality or charity; in like
manner as they are follies, when for them a man ruins his
fortune, and reduces himself to want and beggary. Where
they entrench upon no virtue, but leave ample subject
whence to provide for friends, family, and every proper
object of generosity or compassion, they are entirely
innocent, and have in every age been acknowledged such by
almost all moralists. To be entirely occupied with the luxury
of the table, for instance, without any relish for the
pleasures of ambition, study, or conversation, is a mark of
stupidity, and is incompatible with any vigour of temper or
genius. To confine ones expence entirely to such a
gratification, without regard to friends or family, is an
indication of a heart destitute of humanity or benevolence.
But if a man reserve time sufficient for all laudable pursuits,
and money sufficient for all generous purposes, he is free
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from every shadow of blame or reproach.

Since luxury may be considered either as innocent or
blameable, one may be surprized at those preposterous
opinions, which have been entertained concerning it; while
men of libertine principles bestow praises even on vicious
luxury, and represent it as highly advantageous to society;
and on the other hand, men of severe morals blame even the
most innocent luxury, and represent it as the source of all
the corruptions, disorders, and factions, incident to civil
government. We shall here endeavour to correct both these
extremes, by proving, first, that the ages of refinement are
both the happiest and most virtuous; secondly, that wherever
luxury ceases to be innocent, it also ceases to be beneficial;
and when carried a degree too far, is a quality pernicious,
though perhaps not the most pernicious, to political society.
To prove the first point, we need but consider the
effects of refinement both on private and on public life.
Human happiness, according to the most received notions,
seems to consist in three ingredients; action, pleasure, and
indolence: And
Mil 270
though these ingredients ought to be mixed in different

proportions, according to the particular disposition of the
person; yet no one ingredient can be entirely wanting,
without destroying, in some measure, the relish of the
whole composition. Indolence or repose, indeed, seems not
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of itself to contribute much to our enjoyment; but, like

sleep, is requisite as an indulgence to the weakness of
human nature, which cannot support an uninterrupted
course of business or pleasure. That quick march of the
spirits, which takes a man from himself, and chiefly gives
satisfaction, does in the end exhaust the mind, and requires
some intervals of repose, which, though agreeable for a
moment, yet, if prolonged, beget a languor and lethargy,
that destroys all enjoyment. Education, custom, and
example, have a mighty influence in turning the mind to
any of these pursuits; and it must be owned, that, where
they promote a relish for action and pleasure, they are so
far favourable to human happiness. In times when industry
and the arts flourish, men are kept in perpetual occupation,
and enjoy, as their reward, the occupation itself, as well as
those pleasures which are the fruit of their labour. The
mind acquires new vigour; enlarges its powers and faculties;
and by an assiduity in honest industry, both satisfies its
natural appetites, and prevents the growth of unnatural
ones, which commonly spring up, when nourished by ease
and idleness. Banish those arts from society, you deprive
men both of action and of pleasure; and leaving nothing but
indolence in their place, you even destroy the relish of
indolence, which never is agreeable, but when it succeeds to
labour, and recruits the spirits, exhausted by too much
application and fatigue.
Another advantage of industry and of refinements in
the mechanical arts, is, that they commonly produce some
refinements in the liberal; nor can one be carried to
perfection, without being accompanied, in some degree,
with the other. The same age, which produces great
philosophers and politicians, renowned generals and poets,
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usually abounds with skilful weavers, and ship-carpenters.

We cannot reasonably expect, that a piece of woollen cloth
will be wrought to per-
Mil 271
fection in a nation, which is ignorant of astronomy, or

where ethics are neglected. The spirit of the age affects all
the arts; and the minds of men, being once roused from
their lethargy, and put into a fermentation, turn themselves
on all sides, and carry improvements into every art and
science. Profound ignorance is totally banished, and men
enjoy the privilege of rational creatures, to think as well as
to act, to cultivate the pleasures of the mind as well as those
of the body.
The more these refined arts advance, the more sociable
men become: nor is it possible, that, when enriched with
science, and possessed of a fund of conversation, they
should be contented to remain in solitude, or live with their
fellow-citizens in that distant manner, which is peculiar to
ignorant and barbarous nations. They flock into cities; love
to receive and communicate knowledge; to show their wit
or their breeding; their taste in conversation or living, in
clothes or furniture. Curiosity allures the wise; vanity the
foolish; and pleasure both. Particular clubs and societies are
every where formed: Both sexes meet in an easy and
sociable manner; and the tempers of men, as well as their
behaviour, refine apace. So that, beside the improvements
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which they receive from knowledge and the liberal arts, it is

impossible but they must feel an encrease of humanity,
from the very habit of conversing together, and
contributing to each others pleasure and entertainment.
Thus industry, knowledge, and humanity, are linked together
by an indissoluble chain, and are found, from experience as
well as reason, to be peculiar to the more polished, and,
what are commonly denominated, the more luxurious ages.
Nor are these advantages attended with disadvantages,
that bear any proportion to them. The more men refine
upon pleasure, the less will they indulge in excesses of any
kind; because nothing is more destructive to true pleasure
than such excesses. One may safely affirm, that the Tartars
are
Mil 272
oftener guilty of beastly gluttony, when they feast on their

dead horses, than European courtiers with all their
refinements of cookery. And if libertine love, or even
infidelity to the marriage-bed, be more frequent in polite
ages, when it is often regarded only as a piece of gallantry;
drunkenness, on the other hand, is much less common: A
vice more odious, and more pernicious both to mind and
body. And in this matter I would appeal, not only to an
Ovid or a Petronius, but to a Seneca or a Cato. We know,
that Caesar, during Catilines conspiracy, being
necessitated to put into Catos hands a billet-doux, which
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discovered an intrigue with Servilia, Catos own sister, that

stern philosopher threw it back to him with indignation; and
in the bitterness of his wrath, gave him the appellation of
drunkard, as a term more opprobrious than that with which
he could more justly have reproached him.
But industry, knowledge, and humanity, are not
advantageous in private life alone: They diffuse their
beneficial influence on the public, and render the
government as great and flourishing as they make
individuals happy and prosperous. The encrease and
consumption of all the commodities, which serve to the
ornament and pleasure of life, are advantageous to society;
because, at the same time that they multiply those innocent
gratifications to individuals, they are a kind of storehouse of
labour, which, in the exigencies of state, may be turned to
the public service. In a nation, where there is no demand for
such superfluities, men sink into indolence, lose all
enjoyment of life, and are useless to the public, which
cannot maintain or support its fleets and armies, from the
industry of such slothful members.
Mil 273
The bounds of all the European kingdoms are, at

present, nearly the same they were two hundred years ago:
But what a difference is there in the power and grandeur of
those kingdoms? Which can be ascribed to nothing but the
encrease of art and industry. When Charles VIII. of
0
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France invaded Italy, he carried with him about 20,000

men: Yet this armament so exhausted the nation, as we learn
from Guicciardin, that for some years it was not able to
make so great an effort. The late king of France, in time of
war, kept in pay above 400,000 men 1; though from
Mazarines death to his own, he was engaged in a course of
wars that lasted near thirty years.
This industry is much promoted by the knowledge
inseparable from ages of art and refinement; as, on the
other hand, this knowledge enables the public to make the
best advantage of the industry of its subjects. Laws, order,
police, discipline; these can never be carried to any degree
of perfection, before human reason has refined itself by
exercise, and by an application to the more vulgar arts, at
least, of commerce and manufacture. Can we expect, that a
government will be well modelled by a people, who know
not how to make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a loom to
advantage? Not to mention, that all ignorant ages are
infested with superstition, which throws the government off
its bias, and disturbs men in the pursuit of their interest and
happiness.
Knowledge in the arts of government naturally begets
mildness and moderation, by instructing men in the
advantages of humane maxims above rigour and severity,
which
Mil 274
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drive subjects into rebellion, and make the return to

submission impracticable, by cutting off all hopes of
pardon. When the tempers of men are softened as well as
their knowledge improved, this humanity appears still more
conspicuous, and is the chief characteristic which
distinguishes a civilized age from times of barbarity and
ignorance. Factions are then less inveterate, revolutions less
tragical, authority less severe, and seditions less frequent.
Even foreign wars abate of their cruelty; and after the field
of battle, where honour and interest steel men against
compassion as well as fear, the combatants divest themselves
of the brute, and resume the man.
Nor need we fear, that men, by losing their ferocity,
will lose their martial spirit, or become less undaunted and
vigorous in defence of their country or their liberty. The
arts have no such effect in enervating either the mind or
body. On the contrary, industry, their inseparable
attendant, adds new force to both. And if anger, which is
said to be the whetstone of courage, loses somewhat of its
asperity, by politeness and refinement; a sense of honour,
which is a stronger, more constant, and more governable
principle, acquires fresh vigour by that elevation of genius
which arises from knowledge and a good education. Add to
this, that courage can neither have any duration, nor be of
any use, when not accompanied with discipline and martial
skill, which are seldom found among a barbarous people.
The ancients remarked, that Datames was the only
barbarian that ever knew the art of war. And Pyrrhus,
seeing the Romans marshal their army with some art and
skill, said with surprize, These barbarians have nothing barbarous
in their discipline! It is observable, that, as the old
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Mil 275
Romans, by applying themselves solely to war, were almost

the only uncivilized people that ever possessed military
discipline; so the modern Italians are the only civilized
people, among Europeans, that ever wanted courage and a
martial spirit. Those who would ascribe this effeminacy of
the Italians to their luxury, or politeness, or application to
the arts, need but consider the French and English, whose
bravery is as uncontestable, as their love for the arts, and
their assiduity in commerce. The Italian historians give us a
more satisfactory reason for this degeneracy of their
countrymen. They shew us how the sword was dropped at
once by all the Italian sovereigns; while the Venetian
aristocracy was jealous of its subjects, the Florentine
democracy applied itself entirely to commerce; Rome was
governed by priests, and Naples by women. War then
became the business of soldiers of fortune, who spared one
another, and to the astonishment of the world, could
engage a whole day in what they called a battle, and return
at night to their camp, without the least bloodshed.
What has chiefly induced severe moralists to declaim
against refinement in the arts, is the example of ancient
Rome, which, joining, to its poverty and rusticity, virtue and
public spirit, rose to such a surprizing height of grandeur
and liberty; but having learned from its conquered
provinces the Asiatic luxury, fell into every kind of
corruption; whence arose sedition and civil wars, attended
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at last with the total loss of liberty. All the Latin classics,
whom we peruse in our infancy, are full of these sentiments,
and universally ascribe the ruin of their state to the arts and
riches imported from the East: Insomuch that Sallust
represents a taste for painting
Mil 276
as a vice, no less than lewdness and drinking. And so popular

were these sentiments, during the later ages of the republic,
that this author abounds in praises of the old rigid Roman
virtue, though himself the most egregious instance of
modern luxury and corruption; speaks contemptuously of
the Grecian eloquence, though the most elegant writer in
the world; nay, employs preposterous digressions and
declamations to this purpose, though a model of taste and
correctness.
But it would be easy to prove, that these writers
mistook the cause of the disorders in the Roman state, and
ascribed to luxury and the arts, what really proceeded from
an ill modelled government, and the unlimited extent of
conquests. Refinement on the pleasures and conveniencies
of life has no natural tendency to beget venality and
corruption. The value, which all men put upon any
particular pleasure, depends on comparison and experience;
nor is a porter less greedy of money, which he spends on
bacon and brandy, than a courtier, who purchases
champagne and ortolans. Riches are valuable at all times,
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and to all men; because they always purchase pleasures, such

as men are accustomed to, and desire: Nor can any thing
restrain or regulate the love of money, but a sense of
honour and virtue; which, if it be not nearly equal at all
times, will naturally abound most in ages of knowledge and
refinement.
Of all European kingdoms, Poland seems the most
defective in the arts of war as well as peace, mechanical as
well as liberal; yet it is there that venality and corruption do
most prevail. The nobles seem to have preserved their
crown elective for no other purpose, than regularly to sell it
to the highest bidder. This is almost the only species of
commerce, with which that people are acquainted.
The liberties of England, so far from decaying since
the
Mil 277
improvements in the arts, have never flourished so much as

during that period. And though corruption may seem to
encrease of late years; this is chiefly to be ascribed to our
established liberty, when our princes have found the
impossibility of governing without parliaments, or of
terrifying parliaments by the phantom of prerogative. Not
to mention, that this corruption or venality prevails much
more among the electors than the elected; and therefore
cannot justly be ascribed to any refinements in luxury.
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If we consider the matter in a proper light, we shall

find, that a progress in the arts is rather favourable to
liberty, and has a natural tendency to preserve, if not
produce a free government. In rude unpolished nations,
where the arts are neglected, all labour is bestowed on the
cultivation of the ground; and the whole society is divided
into two classes, proprietors of land, and their vassals or
tenants. The latter are necessarily dependent, and fitted for
slavery and subjection; especially where they possess no
riches, and are not valued for their knowledge in
agriculture; as must always be the case where the arts are
neglected. The former naturally erect themselves into petty
tyrants; and must either submit to an absolute master, for
the sake of peace and order; or if they will preserve their
independency, like the ancient barons, they must fall into
feuds and contests among themselves, and throw the whole
society into such confusion, as is perhaps worse than the
most despotic government. But where luxury nourishes
commerce and industry, the peasants, by a proper
cultivation of the land, become rich and independent; while
the tradesmen and merchants acquire a share of the
property, and draw authority and consideration to that
middling rank of men, who are the best and firmest basis of
public liberty. These submit not to slavery, like the
peasants, from poverty and meanness of spirit; and having
no hopes of tyrannizing over others, like
Mil 278
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the barons, they are not tempted, for the sake of that
gratification, to submit to the tyranny of their sovereign.
They covet equal laws, which may secure their property,
and preserve them from monarchical, as well as
aristocratical tyranny.
The lower house is the support of our popular
government; and all the world acknowledges, that it owed
its chief influence and consideration to the encrease of
commerce, which threw such a balance of property into the
hands of the commons. How inconsistent then is it to blame
so violently a refinement in the arts, and to represent it as
the bane of liberty and public spirit!
To declaim against present times, and magnify the
virtue of remote ancestors, is a propensity almost inherent
in human nature: And as the sentiments and opinions of
civilized ages alone are transmitted to posterity, hence it is
that we meet with so many severe judgments pronounced
against luxury, and even science; and hence it is that at
present we give so ready an assent to them. But the fallacy is
easily perceived, by comparing different nations that are
contemporaries; where we both judge more impartially, and
can better set in opposition those manners, with which we
are sufficiently acquainted. Treachery and cruelty, the most
pernicious and most odious of all vices, seem peculiar to
uncivilized ages; and by the refined Greeks and Romans
were ascribed to all the barbarous nations, which
surrounded them. They might justly, therefore, have
presumed, that their own ancestors, so highly celebrated,
possessed no greater virtue, and were as much inferior to
their posterity in honour and humanity, as in taste and
science. An ancient Frank or Saxon may be highly extolled:
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But I believe every man would think his life or fortune

much less secure in the hands of a Moor or Tartar, than in
those of a French or English gentleman, the rank of men
the most civilized in the most civilized nations.
We come now to the second position which we proposed
to illustrate, to wit, that, as innocent luxury, or a
refinement in the arts and conveniencies of life, is
advantageous to the public; so wherever luxury ceases to be
innocent, it also ceases to
Mil 279
be beneficial; and when carried a degree farther, begins to

be a quality pernicious, though, perhaps, not the most
pernicious, to political society.
Let us consider what we call vicious luxury. No
gratification, however sensual, can of itself be esteemed
vicious. A gratification is only vicious, when it engrosses all
a mans expence, and leaves no ability for such acts of duty
and generosity as are required by his situation and fortune.
Suppose, that he correct the vice, and employ part of his
expence in the education of his children, in the support of
his friends, and in relieving the poor; would any prejudice
result to society? On the contrary, the same consumption
would arise; and that labour, which, at present, is employed
only in producing a slender gratification to one man, would
relieve the necessitous, and bestow satisfaction on hundreds.
The same care and toil that raise a dish of peas at
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Christmas, would give bread to a whole family during six

months. To say, that, without a vicious luxury, the labour
would not have been employed at all, is only to say, that
there is some other defect in human nature, such as
indolence, selfishness, inattention to others, for which
luxury, in some measure, provides a remedy; as one poison
may be an antidote to another. But virtue, like wholesome
food, is better than poisons, however corrected.
Suppose the same number of men, that are at present in
Great Britain, with the same soil and climate; I ask, is it
not possible for them to be happier, by the most perfect
way of life that can be imagined, and by the greatest
reformation that Omnipotence itself could work in their
temper and disposition? To assert, that they cannot, appears
evidently ridiculous. As the land is able to maintain more
than all its present inhabitants, they could never, in such a
Utopian state, feel any other ills than those which arise
from bodily sickness; and these are not the half of human
miseries. All other ills spring from some vice, either in
ourselves or others; and even many of our diseases proceed
from the same origin. Remove the vices, and the ills follow.
You must only take care to remove all the vices. If you
remove part, you may render the matter
Mil 280
worse. By banishing vicious luxury, without curing sloth and

an indifference to others, you only diminish industry in the
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state, and add nothing to mens charity or their generosity.

Let us, therefore, rest contented with asserting, that two
opposite vices in a state may be more advantageous than
either of them alone; but let us never pronounce vice in
itself advantageous. Is it not very inconsistent for an author
to assert in one page, that moral distinctions are inventions
of politicians for public interest; and in the next page
maintain, that vice is advantageous to the public 2? And
0
indeed it seems upon any system of morality, little less than

a contradiction in terms, to talk of a vice, which is in
general beneficial to society.
I thought this reasoning necessary, in order to give
some light to a philosophical question, which has been much
disputed in England. I call it a philosophical question, not a
political one. For whatever may be the consequence of such a
miraculous transformation of mankind, as would endow
them with every species of virtue, and free them from every
species of vice; this concerns not the magistrate, who aims
only at possibilities. He cannot cure every vice by
substituting a virtue in its place. Very often he can only cure
one vice by another; and in that case, he ought to prefer
what is least pernicious to society. Luxury, when excessive,
is the source of many ills; but is in general preferable to
sloth and idleness, which would commonly succeed in its
place, and are more hurtful both to private persons and to
the public. When sloth reigns, a mean uncultivated way of
life prevails amongst individuals, without society, without
enjoyment. And if the sovereign, in such a situation,
demands the service of his subjects, the labour of the state
suffices only to furnish the necessaries of life to the
labourers, and can afford nothing to those who are
employed in the public service.
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N O T E S.
1. The inscription on the Place-de-Vendome says 440,000.
2. Fable of the Bees.
Mil 281
E S S A Y III.
Of Money.
ONEY is not, properly speaking, one of the

subjects of commerce; but only the instrument
which men have agreed upon to facilitate the exchange of
one commodity for another. It is none of the wheels of
trade: It is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels
more smooth and easy. If we consider any one kingdom by
itself, it is evident, that the greater or less plenty of money
is of no consequence; since the prices of commodities are
always proportioned to the plenty of money, and a crown in
Harry VII.s time served the same purpose as a pound does
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at present. It is only the public which
Mil 282
draws any advantage from the greater plenty of money; and

that only in its wars and negociations with foreign states.
And this is the reason, why all rich and trading countries
from Carthage to Great Britain and Holland, have
employed mercenary troops, which they hired from their
poorer neighbours. Were they to make use of their native
subjects, they would find less advantage from their superior
riches, and from their great plenty of gold and silver; since
the pay of all their servants must rise in proportion to the
public opulence. Our small army of 20,000 men is
maintained at as great expence as a French army twice as
numerous. The English fleet, during the late war, required
as much money to support it as all the Roman legions, which
kept the whole world in subjection, during the time of the
emperors 1*.
0
Mil 283
The greater number of people and their greater

industry are serviceable in all cases; at home and abroad, in
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private, and in public. But the greater plenty of money, is

very limited in its use, and may even sometimes be a loss to a
nation in its commerce with foreigners.
There seems to be a happy concurrence of causes in
human affairs, which checks the growth of trade and riches,
and hinders them from being confined entirely to one
people; as might naturally at first be dreaded from the
advantages of an established commerce. Where one nation
has gotten the start of another in trade, it is very difficult
for the latter to regain the ground it has lost; because of the
superior industry and skill of the former, and the greater
stocks, of which its merchants are possessed, and which
enable them to trade on so much smaller profits. But these
advantages are compensated, in some measure, by the low
price of labour in every nation which has not an extensive
commerce, and does not much abound in gold and silver.
Manufactures, therefore, gradually shift their places,
leaving those countries and provinces which they have
already enriched, and flying to others, whither they are
allured by the cheapness of provisions and labour; till they
have enriched these also, and are again banished by the same
Mil 284
causes. And, in general, we may observe, that the dearness

of every thing, from plenty of money, is a disadvantage,
which attends an established commerce, and sets bounds to
it in every country, by enabling the poorer states to
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undersel the richer in all foreign markets.

This has made me entertain a doubt concerning the
benefit of banks and paper-credit, which are so generally
esteemed advantageous to every nation. That provisions and
labour should become dear by the encrease of trade and
money, is, in many respects, an inconvenience; but an
inconvenience that is unavoidable, and the effect of that
public wealth and prosperity which are the end of all our
wishes. It is compensated by the advantages, which we reap
from the possession of these precious metals, and the
weight, which they give the nation in all foreign wars and
negociations. But there appears no reason for encreasing
that inconvenience by a counterfeit money, which
foreigners will not accept of in any payment, and which any
great disorder in the state will reduce to nothing. There
are, it is true, many people in every rich state, who, having
large sums of money, would prefer paper with good
security; as being of more easy transport and more safe
custody. If the public provide not a bank, private bankers
will take advantage of this circumstance; as the goldsmiths
formerly did in London, or as the bankers do at present in
Dublin: And therefore it is better, it may be thought, that a
public company should enjoy the benefit of that papercredit, which always will have place in every opulent
kingdom. But to endeavour artificially to encrease such a
credit, can never be the interest of any trading nation; but
must lay them under disadvantages, by encreasing money
beyond its natural proportion to labour and commodities,
and thereby heightening their price to the merchant and
manufacturer. And in this view, it must be allowed, that no
bank could be more advantageous, than such a one as locked
up all the money it received 2, and never augmented the
0
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circulating coin, as is usual,
Mil 285
by returning part of its treasure into commerce. A public

bank, by this expedient, might cut off much of the dealings
of private bankers and money-jobbers; and though the state
bore the charge of salaries to the directors and tellers of this
bank (for, according to the preceding supposition, it would
have no profit from its dealings), the national advantage,
resulting from the low price of labour and the destruction
of paper-credit, would be a sufficient compensation. Not to
mention, that so large a sum, lying ready at command,
would be a convenience in times of great public danger and
distress; and what part of it was used might be replaced at
leisure, when peace and tranquillity was restored to the
nation.
But of this subject of paper credit we shall treat more
largely hereafter. And I shall finish this essay on money, by
proposing and explaining two observations, which may,
perhaps, serve to employ the thoughts of our speculative
politicians.
0
It was a shrewd observation of Anacharsis 3* the

Scythian, who had never seen money in his own country,
that gold and silver seemed to him of no use to the Greeks,
but to assist them in numeration and arithmetic. It is indeed
evident, that money is nothing but the representation of
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labour and commodities, and serves only as a method of

rating or estimating them. Where coin is in greater plenty;
as a greater quantity of it is required to represent the same
quantity of goods; it can have no effect, either good or bad,
taking a nation within itself; any more than it would make
an alteration on a merchants books, if, instead of the
Arabian method of notation, which requires few characters,
he should make use of the Roman, which requires a great
many. Nay, the greater quantity of money, like the Roman
characters, is rather inconvenient, and requires greater
trouble both to keep and transport it. But notwithstanding
this conclusion, which must be
Mil 286
allowed just, it is certain, that, since the discovery of the

mines in America, industry has encreased in all the nations
of Europe, except in the possessors of those mines; and this
may justly be ascribed, amongst other reasons, to the
encrease of gold and silver. Accordingly we find, that, in
every kingdom, into which money begins to flow in greater
abundance than formerly, every thing takes a new face:
labour and industry gain life; the merchant becomes more
enterprising, the manufacturer more diligent and skilful,
and even the farmer follows his plough with greater alacrity
and attention. This is not easily to be accounted for, if we
consider only the influence which a greater abundance of
coin has in the kingdom itself, by heightening the price of
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commodities, and obliging every one to pay a greater

number of these little yellow or white pieces for every thing
he purchases. And as to foreign trade, it appears, that great
plenty of money is rather disadvantageous, by raising the
price of every kind of labour.
To account, then, for this phenomenon, we must
consider, that though the high price of commodities be a
necessary consequence of the encrease of gold and silver,
yet it follows not immediately upon that encrease; but some
time is required before the money circulates through the
whole state, and makes its effect be felt on all ranks of
people. At first, no alteration is perceived; by degrees the
price rises, first of one commodity, then of another; till the
whole at last reaches a just proportion with the new quantity
of specie which is in the kingdom. In my opinion, it is only
in this interval or intermediate situation, between the
acquisition of money and rise of prices, that the encreasing
quantity of gold and silver is favourable to industry. When
any quantity of money is imported into a nation, it is not at
first dispersed into many hands; but is confined to the
coffers of a few persons, who immediately seek to employ it
to advantage. Here are a set of manufacturers or merchants,
we shall suppose, who have received returns of gold and
silver for goods which they sent to Cadiz. They are thereby
enabled to employ more workmen
Mil 287
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than formerly, who never dream of demanding higher

wages, but are glad of employment from such good
paymasters. If workmen become scarce, the manufacturer
gives higher wages, but at first requires an encrease of
labour; and this is willingly submitted to by the artisan, who
can now eat and drink better, to compensate his additional
toil and fatigue. He carries his money to market, where he
finds every thing at the same price as formerly, but returns
with greater quantity and of better kinds, for the use of his
family. The farmer and gardener, finding, that all their
commodities are taken off, apply themselves with alacrity to
the raising more; and at the same time can afford to take
better and more cloths from their tradesmen, whose price is
the same as formerly, and their industry only whetted by so
much new gain. It is easy to trace the money in its progress
through the whole commonwealth; where we shall find, that
it must first quicken the diligence of every individual,
before it encrease the price of labour.
And that the specie may encrease to a considerable
pitch, before it have this latter effect, appears, amongst
other instances, from the frequent operations of the
French king on the money; where it was always found, that
the augmenting of the numerary value did not produce a
proportional rise of the prices, at least for some time. In the
last year of Louis XIV. money was raised three-sevenths,
but prices augmented only one. Corn in France is now sold
at the same price, or for the same number of livres, it was in
1683; though silver was then at 30 livres the mark, and is now
at 50 4*. Not to mention the great addition of gold and
0
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silver, which may have come into that kingdom since the
former period.
Mil 288
From the whole of this reasoning we may conclude,

that it is of no manner of consequence, with regard to the
domestic happiness of a state, whether money be in a
greater or less quantity. The good policy of the magistrate
consists only in keeping it, if possible, still encreasing;
because, by that means, he keeps alive a spirit of industry in
the nation, and encreases the stock of labour, in which
consists all real power and riches. A nation, whose money
decreases, is actually, at that time, weaker and more
miserable than another nation, which possesses no more
money, but is on the encreasing hand. This will be easily
accounted for, if we consider, that the alterations in the
quantity of money, either on one side or the other, are not
immediately attended with proportionable alterations in the
price of commodities. There is always an interval before
matters be adjusted to their new situation; and this interval
is as pernicious to industry, when gold and silver are
diminishing, as it is advantageous when these metals are
encreasing. The workman has not the same employment
from the manufacturer and merchant; though he pays the
same price for every thing in the market. The farmer cannot
dispose
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Mil 289
of his corn and cattle; though he must pay the same rent to
his landlord. The poverty, and beggary, and sloth, which
must ensue, are easily foreseen.
II. The second observation which I proposed to make
with regard to money, may be explained after the following
manner. There are some kingdoms, and many provinces in
Europe, (and all of them were once in the same condition)
where money is so scarce, that the landlord can get none at
all from his tenants; but is obliged to take his rent in kind,
and either to consume it himself, or transport it to places
where he may find a market. In those countries, the prince
can levy few or no taxes, but in the same manner: And as he
will receive small benefit from impositions so paid, it is
evident that such a kingdom has little force even at home;
and cannot maintain fleets and armies to the same extent, as
if every part of it abounded in gold and silver. There is
surely a greater disproportion between the force of
Germany, at present, and what it was three centuries ago 5,
0
than there is in its industry, people, and manufactures. The

Austrian dominions in the empire are in general well
peopled and well cultivated, and are of great extent; but
have not a proportionable weight in the balance of Europe;
proceeding, as is commonly supposed, from the scarcity of
money. How do all these facts agree with that principle of
reason, that the quantity of gold and silver is in itself
altogether indifferent? According to that principle,
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wherever a sovereign has numbers of subjects, and these

have plenty of commodities, he should of course be great
and powerful, and they rich and happy, independent of the
greater or
Mil 290
lesser abundance of the precious metals. These admit of

divisions and subdivisions to a great extent; and where the
pieces might become so small as to be in danger of being
lost, it is easy to mix the gold or silver with a baser metal, as
is practised in some countries of Europe; and by that means
raise the pieces to a bulk more sensible and convenient.
They still serve the same purposes of exchange, whatever
their number may be, or whatever colour they may be
supposed to have.
To these difficulties I answer, that the effect, here
supposed to flow from scarcity of money, really arises from
the manners and customs of the people; and that we
mistake, as is too usual, a collateral effect for a cause. The
contradiction is only apparent; but it requires some thought
and reflection to discover the principles, by which we can
reconcile reason to experience.
It seems a maxim almost self-evident, that the prices of
every thing depend on the proportion between commodities
and money, and that any considerable alteration on either
has the same effect, either of heightening or lowering the
price. Encrease the commodities, they become cheaper;
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encrease the money, they rise in their value. As, on the

other hand, a diminution of the former, and that of the
latter, have contrary tendencies.
It is also evident, that the prices do not so much depend
on the absolute quantity of commodities and that of money,
which are in a nation, as on that of the commodities, which
come or may come to market, and of the money which
circulates. If the coin be locked up in chests, it is the same
thing with regard to prices, as if it were annihilated; if the
commodities be hoarded in magazines and granaries, a like
effect follows. As the money and commodities, in these
cases, never meet, they cannot affect each other. Were we,
at any time, to form conjectures concerning the price of
provisions, the corn, which the farmer must reserve for seed
and for the maintenance of himself and family, ought never
to enter into the estimation. It is only the overplus,
compared to the demand, that determines the value.
To apply these principles, we must consider, that, in
the
Mil 291
first and more uncultivated ages of any state, ere fancy has
confounded her wants with those of nature, men, content
with the produce of their own fields, or with those rude
improvements which they themselves can work upon them,
have little occasion for exchange, at least for money, which,
by agreement, is the common measure of exchange. The
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wool of the farmers own flock, spun in his own family, and
wrought by a neighbouring weaver, who receives his
payment in corn or wool, suffices for furniture and
cloathing. The carpenter, the smith, the mason, the tailor,
are retained by wages of a like nature; and the landlord
himself, dwelling in the neighbourhood, is content to
receive his rent in the commodities raised by the farmer.
The greater part of these he consumes at home, in rustic
hospitality: The rest, perhaps, he disposes of for money to
the neighbouring town, whence he draws the few materials
of his expence and luxury.
But after men begin to refine on all these enjoyments,
and live not always at home, nor are content with what can
be raised in their neighbourhood, there is more exchange
and commerce of all kinds, and more money enters into that
exchange. The tradesmen will not be paid in corn; because
they want something more than barely to eat. The farmer
goes beyond his own parish for the commodities he
purchases, and cannot always carry his commodities to the
merchant who supplies him. The landlord lives in the
capital, or in a foreign country; and demands his rent in
gold and silver, which can easily be transported to him.
Great undertakers, and manufacturers, and merchants, arise
in every commodity; and these can conveniently deal in
nothing but in specie. And consequently, in this situation of
society, the coin enters into many more contracts, and by
that means is much more employed than in the former.
The necessary effect is, that, provided the money
encrease not in the nation, every thing must become much
cheaper in times of industry and refinement, than in rude,
uncultivated ages. It is the proportion between the
circulating money, and the commodities in the market,
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which determines the prices. Goods, that are consumed at

home, or exchanged
Mil 292
with other goods in the neighbourhood, never come to

market; they affect not in the least the current specie; with
regard to it they are as if totally annihilated; and
consequently this method of using them sinks the
proportion on the side of the commodities, and encreases
the prices. But after money enters into all contracts and
sales, and is every where the measure of exchange, the same
national cash has a much greater task to perform; all
commodities are then in the market; the sphere of
circulation is enlarged; it is the same case as if that
individual sum were to serve a larger kingdom; and
therefore, the proportion being here lessened on the side of
the money, every thing must become cheaper, and the
prices gradually fall.
By the most exact computations, that have been formed
all over Europe, after making allowance for the alteration
in the numerary value or the denomination, it is found, that
the prices of all things have only risen three, or at most,
four times, since the discovery of the West Indies. But will
any one assert, that there is not much more than four times
the coin in Europe, that was in the fifteenth century, and
the centuries preceding it? The Spaniards and Portuguese
from their mines, the English, French, and Dutch, by
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their African trade, and by their interlopers in the West

Indies, bring home about six millions a year, of which not
above a third goes to the East-IndiesEast Indies. This sum
alone, in ten years, would probably double the ancient stock
of money in Europe. And no other satisfactory reason can
be given, why all prices have not risen to a much more
exorbitant height, except that which is derived from a
change of customs and manners. Besides that more
commodities are produced by additional industry, the same
commodities come more to market, after men depart from
their ancient simplicity of manners.
Mil 293
And though this encrease has not been equal to that of

money, it has, however, been considerable, and has
preserved the proportion between coin and commodities
nearer the ancient standard.
Were the question proposed, Which of these methods
of living in the people, the simple or refined, is the most
advantageous to the state or public? I should, without much
scruple, prefer the latter, in a view to politics at least; and
should produce this as an additional reason for the
encouragement of trade and manufactures.
While men live in the ancient simple manner, and
supply all their necessaries from domestic industry or from
the neighbourhood, the sovereign can levy no taxes in
money from a considerable part of his subjects; and if he
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will impose on them any burthens, he must take payment in

commodities, with which alone they abound; a method
attended with such great and obvious inconveniencies, that
they need not here be insisted on. All the money he can
pretend to raise, must be from his principal cities, where
alone it circulates; and these, it is evident, cannot afford
him so much as the whole state could, did gold and silver
circulate throughout the whole. But besides this obvious
diminution of the revenue, there is another cause of the
poverty of the public in such a situation. Not only the
sovereign receives less money, but the same money goes not
so far as in times of industry and general commerce. Every
thing is dearer, where the gold and silver are supposed
equal; and that because fewer commodities come to market,
and the whole coin bears a higher proportion to what is to
be purchased by it; whence alone the prices of every thing
are fixed and determined.
Here then we may learn the fallacy of the remark,
often to be met with in historians, and even in common
conversation, that any particular state is weak, though
fertile, populous, and well cultivated, merely because it
wants money. It appears, that the want of money can never
injure any state within itself: For men and commodities are
the real strength of any community. It is the simple manner
of living which here hurts the public, by confining the gold
and silver to few hands, and
Mil 294
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preventing its universal diffusion and circulation. On the

contrary, industry and refinements of all kinds incorporate
it with the whole state, however small its quantity may be:
They digest it into every vein, so to speak; and make it
enter into every transaction and contract. No hand is
entirely empty of it. And as the prices of every thing fall by
that means, the sovereign has a double advantage: He may
draw money by his taxes from every part of the state; and
what he receives, goes farther in every purchase and
payment.
0
We may infer, from a comparison of prices, that money

is not more plentiful in China, than it was in Europe three
centuries ago: But what immense power is that empire
possessed of, if we may judge by the civil and military
establishment maintained by it? Polybius 6* tells us, that
provisions were so cheap in Italy during his time, that in
some places the stated price for a meal at the inns was a semis
a head, little more than a farthing! Yet the Roman power
had even then subdued the whole known world. About a
century before that period, the Carthaginian ambassador
said, by way of raillery, that no people lived more sociably
amongst themselves than the Romans; for that, in every
entertainment, which, as foreign ministers, they received,
they still observed the same plate at every table 7. The
0
absolute quantity of the precious metals is a matter of great

indifference. There are only two circumstances of any
importance, namely, their gradual encrease, and their
thorough concoction and circulation through the state; and
the influence of both these circumstances has here been
explained.
In the following Essay we shall see an instance of a like
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fallacy as that above mentioned; where a collateral effect is

taken for a cause, and where a consequence is ascribed to
the plenty of money; though it be really owing to a change
in the manners and customs of the people.
N O T E S.
*1. See NOTE [P].
2. This is the case with the bank of Amsterdam.
*3. Plut. Quomodo quis suos profectus in virtute sentire possit.
*4. See NOTE [Q].
5. The Italians gave to the Emperor Maximilian, the
nickname of Pocci-danari. None of the enterprises of that prince
ever succeeded, for want of money.
*6. Lib. ii. cap. 15.
7. Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 11.
NOTE [P], p. 300. [Mil 282.]
Private soldier in the Roman infantry had a denarius a

day, somewhat less than eightpence. The Roman
emperors had commonly 25 legions in pay, which allowing
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5000 men to a legion, makes 125,000. Tacit. Ann. lib. iv. It is

true, there were also auxiliaries to the legions; but their [Mil
283] numbers are uncertain, as well as their pay. To consider
only the legionaries, the pay of the private men could not
exceed 1,600,000 pounds. Now, the parliament in the last
war commonly allowed for the fleet 2,500,000. We have
therefore 900,000 over for the officers and other expences
of the Roman legions. There seem to have been but few
officers in the Roman armies, in comparison of what are
employed in all our modern troops, except some Swiss
corps. And these officers had very small pay: A centurion,
for instance, only double a common soldier. And as the
soldiers from their pay (Tacit. Ann. lib. i. ) bought their
own cloaths, arms, tents, and baggage; this must also
diminish considerably the other charges of the army. So
little expensive was that mighty government, and so easy
was its yoke over the world. And, indeed, this is the more
natural conclusion from the foregoing calculations. For
money, after the conquest of AEgypt, seems to have been
nearly in as great plenty at Rome, as it is at present in the
richest of the European kingdoms.
NOTE [Q], p. 305. [Mil 287.]
HESE facts I give upon the authority of Mons. du

Tot in his Reflections politiques, an author of
reputation. Though I must confess, that the facts which he
advances on other occasions, are often so suspicious, as to
make his authority less in this matter. However, the general
observation, that the augmenting of the money in France
does not at first proportionably augment the prices, is
certainly just.
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By the by, this seems to be one of the best reasons

which can be given, for a gradual and universal encrease of
the denomination of money, though [Mil 288] it has been
entirely overlooked in all those volumes which have been
written on that question by Melon, Du Tot, and Paris de
Verney. Were all our money, for instance, recoined, and a
pennys worth of silver taken from every shilling, the new
shilling would probably purchase every thing that could
have been bought by the old; the prices of every thing
would thereby be insensibly diminished; foreign trade
enlivened; and domestic industry, by the circulation of a
great number of pounds and shillings, would receive some
encrease and encouragement. In executing such a project, it
would be better to make the new shilling pass for 24
halfpence, in order to preserve the illusion, and make it be
taken for the same. And as a recoinage of our silver begins
to be requisite, by the continual wearing of our shillings and
sixpences, it may be doubtful, whether we ought to imitate
the example in King Williams reign, when the clipt money
was raised to the old standard.
Mil 295
E S S A Y IV.
Of Interest.
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OTHING is esteemed a more certain sign of the

flourishing condition of any nation than the lowness
of interest: And with reason; though I believe the cause is
somewhat different from what is commonly apprehended.
Lowness of interest is generally ascribed to plenty of
money. But
Mil 296
money, however plentiful, has no other effect, if fixed, than

to raise the price of labour. Silver is more common than
gold; and therefore you receive a greater quantity of it for
the same commodities. But do you pay less interest for it?
Interest in Batavia and Jamaica is at 10 per cent. in Portugal
at 6; though these places, as we may learn from the prices of
every thing, abound more in gold and silver than either
London or Amsterdam.
Were all the gold in England annihilated at once, and
one and twenty shillings substituted in the place of every
guinea, would money be more plentiful or interest lower?
No surely: We should only use silver instead of gold. Were
gold rendered as common as silver, and silver as common as
copper; would money be more plentiful or interest lower?
We may assuredly give the same answer. Our shillings would
then be yellow, and our halfpence white; and we should
have no guineas. No other difference would ever be
observed; no alteration on commerce, manufactures,
navigation, or interest; unless we imagine, that the colour of
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the metal is of any consequence.

Now, what is so visible in these greater variations of
scarcity or abundance in the precious metals, must hold in
all inferior changes. If the multiplying of gold and silver
fifteen times makes no difference, much less can the
doubling or tripling them. All augmentation has no other
effect than to heighten the price of labour and
commodities; and even this variation is little more than that
of a name. In the progress towards these changes, the
augmentation may have some influence, by exciting
industry; but after the prices are settled, suitably to the new
abundance of gold and silver, it has no manner of influence.
An effect always holds proportion with its cause. Prices
have risen near four times since the discovery of the Indies;
and it is probable gold and silver have multiplied much
more: But interest has not fallen much above half. The rate
of interest, therefore, is not derived from the quantity of
the precious metals.
Mil 297
Money having chiefly a fictitious value, the greater or

less plenty of it is of no consequence, if we consider a
nation within itself; and the quantity of specie, when once
fixed, though ever so large, has no other effect, than to
oblige every one to tell out a greater number of those
shining bits of metal, for clothes, furniture or equipage,
without encreasing any one convenience of life. If a man
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borrow money to build a house, he then carries home a

greater load; because the stone, timber, lead, glass, &c. with
the labour of the masons and carpenters, are represented by
a greater quantity of gold and silver. But as these metals are
considered chiefly as representations, there can no
alteration arise, from their bulk or quantity, their weight or
colour, either upon their real value or their interest. The
same interest, in all cases, bears the same proportion to the
sum. And if you lent me so much labour and so many
commodities; by receiving five per cent. you always receive
proportional labour and commodities, however represented,
whether by yellow or white coin, whether by a pound or an
ounce. It is in vain, therefore, to look for the cause of the
fall or rise of interest in the greater or less quantity of gold
and silver, which is fixed in any nation.
High interest arises from three circumstances: A great
demand for borrowing; little riches to supply that demand;
and great profits arising from commerce: And these
circumstances are a clear proof of the small advance of
commerce and industry, not of the scarcity of gold and
silver. Low interest, on the other hand, proceeds from the
three opposite circumstances: A small demand for
borrowing; great riches to supply that demand; and small
profits arising from commerce: And these circumstances are
all connected together, and proceed from the encrease of
industry and commerce, not of gold and silver. We shall
endeavour to prove these points; and shall begin with the
causes and the effects of a great or small demand for
borrowing.
When a people have emerged ever so little from a
savage state, and their numbers have encreased beyond the
original multitude, there must immediately arise an
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inequality of
Mil 298
property; and while some possess large tracts of land, others

are confined within narrow limits, and some are entirely
without any landed property. Those who possess more land
than they can labour, employ those who possess none, and
agree to receive a determinate part of the product. Thus the
landed interest is immediately established; nor is there any
settled government, however rude, in which affairs are not
on this footing. Of these proprietors of land, some must
presently discover themselves to be of different tempers
from others; and while one would willingly store up the
produce of his land for futurity, another desires to consume
at present what should suffice for many years. But as the
spending of a settled revenue is a way of life entirely
without occupation; men have so much need of somewhat to
fix and engage them, that pleasures, such as they are, will be
the pursuit of the greater part of the landholders, and the
prodigals among them will always be more numerous than
the misers. In a state, therefore, where there is nothing but
a landed interest, as there is little frugality, the borrowers
must be very numerous, and the rate of interest must hold
proportion to it. The difference depends not on the
quantity of money, but on the habits and manners which
prevail. By this alone the demand for borrowing is
encreased or diminished. Were money so plentiful as to
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make an egg be sold for sixpence; so long as there are only

landed gentry and peasants in the state, the borrowers must
be numerous, and interest high. The rent for the same farm
would be heavier and more bulky: But the same idleness of
the landlord, with the higher price of commodities, would
dissipate it in the same time, and produce the same necessity
and demand for borrowing.
Nor is the case different with regard to the second
circumstance which we proposed to consider, namely, the
great or little riches to supply the demand. This effect also
depends on the habits and way of living of the people, not
on the quantity of gold and silver. In order to have, in any
state, a great number of lenders, it is not sufficient nor
requisite, that there be great abundance of the precious
metals. It is only requisite,
Mil 299
that the property or command of that quantity, which is in

the state, whether great or small, should be collected in
particular hands, so as to form considerable sums, or
compose a great monied interest. This begets a number of
lenders, and sinks the rate of usury; and this I shall venture
to affirm, depends not on the quantity of specie, but on
particular manners and customs, which make the specie
gather into separate sums or masses of considerable value.
For suppose, that, by miracle, every man in Great
Britain should have five pounds slipt into his pocket in one
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night; this would much more than double the whole money
that is at present in the kingdom; yet there would not next
day, nor for some time, be any more lenders, nor any
variation in the interest. And were there nothing but
landlords and peasants in the state, this money, however
abundant, could never gather into sums; and would only
serve to encrease the prices of every thing, without any
farther consequence. The prodigal landlord dissipates it, as
fast as he receives it; and the beggarly peasant has no means,
nor view, nor ambition of obtaining above a bare livelihood.
The overplus of borrowers above that of lenders continuing
still the same, there will follow no reduction of interest.
That depends upon another principle; and must proceed
from an encrease of industry and frugality, of arts and
commerce.
Every thing useful to the life of man arises from the
ground; but few things arise in that condition which is
requisite to render them useful. There must, therefore,
beside the peasants and the proprietors of land, be another
rank of men, who receiving from the former the rude
materials, work them into their proper form, and retain part
for their own use and subsistence. In the infancy of society,
these contracts between the artisans and the peasants, and
between one species of artisans and another are commonly
entered into immediately by the persons themselves, who,
being neighbours, are easily acquainted with each others
necessities, and can lend their mutual assistance to supply
them. But when mens industry encreases, and their views
enlarge, it is found, that the most
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Mil 300
remote parts of the state can assist each other as well as the
more contiguous, and that this intercourse of good offices
may be carried on to the greatest extent and intricacy.
Hence the origin of merchants, one of the most useful races
of men, who serve as agents between those parts of the
state, that are wholly unacquainted, and are ignorant of
each others necessities. Here are in a city fifty workmen in
silk and linen, and a thousand customers; and these two
ranks of men, so necessary to each other, can never rightly
meet, till one man erects a shop, to which all the workmen
and all the customers repair. In this province, grass rises in
abundance: The inhabitants abound in cheese, and butter,
and cattle; but want bread and corn, which, in a
neighbouring province, are in too great abundance for the
use of the inhabitants. One man discovers this. He brings
corn from the one province and returns with cattle; and
supplying the wants of both, he is, so far, a common
benefactor. As the people encrease in numbers and industry,
the difficulty of their intercourse encreases: The business
of the agency or merchandize becomes more intricate; and
divides, subdivides, compounds, and mixes to a greater
variety. In all these transactions, it is necessary, and
reasonable, that a considerable part of the commodities and
labour should belong to the merchant, to whom, in a great
measure, they are owing. And these commodities he will
sometimes preserve in kind, or more commonly convert into
money, which is their common representation. If gold and
silver have encreased in the state together with the industry,
it will require a great quantity of these metals to represent a
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great quantity of commodities and labour. If industry alone

has encreased, the prices of every thing must sink, and a
small quantity of specie will serve as a representation.
There is no craving or demand of the human mind
more constant and insatiable than that for exercise and
employment; and this desire seems the foundation of most
of our passions and pursuits. Deprive a man of all business
and serious occupation, he runs restless from one
amusement to another; and the weight and oppression,
which he feels from
Mil 301
idleness, is so great, that he forgets the ruin which must

follow him from his immoderate expences. Give him a more
harmless way of employing his mind or body, he is satisfied,
and feels no longer that insatiable thirst after pleasure. But
if the employment you give him be lucrative, especially if
the profit be attached to every particular exertion of
industry, he has gain so often in his eye, that he acquires, by
degrees, a passion for it, and knows no such pleasure as that
of seeing the daily encrease of his fortune. And this is the
reason why trade encreases frugality, and why, among
merchants, there is the same overplus of misers above
prodigals, as, among the possessors of land, there is the
contrary.
Commerce encreases industry, by conveying it readily
from one member of the state to another, and allowing
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none of it to perish or become useless. It encreases

frugality, by giving occupation to men, and employing them
in the arts of gain, which soon engage their affection, and
remove all relish for pleasure and expence. It is an infallible
consequence of all industrious professions, to beget
frugality, and make the love of gain prevail over the love of
pleasure. Among lawyers and physicians who have any
practice, there are many more who live within their income,
than who exceed it, or even live up to it. But lawyers and
physicians beget no industry; and it is even at the expence
of others they acquire their riches; so that they are sure to
diminish the possessions of some of their fellow-citizens, as
fast as they encrease their own. Merchants, on the contrary,
beget industry, by serving as canals to convey it through
every corner of the state: And at the same time, by their
frugality, they acquire great power over that industry, and
collect a large property in the labour and commodities,
which they are the chief instruments in producing. There is
no other profession, therefore, except merchandize, which
can make the monied interest considerable, or, in other
words, can encrease industry, and, by also encreasing
frugality, give a great command of that industry to
particular members of the society. Without commerce, the
state must consist chiefly of landed gentry, whose
prodigality and expence make a con-
Mil 302
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tinual demand for borrowing; and of peasants, who have no

sums to supply that demand. The money never gathers into
large stocks or sums, which can be lent at interest. It is
dispersed into numberless hands, who either squander it in
idle show and magnificence, or employ it in the purchase of
the common necessaries of life. Commerce alone assembles
it into considerable sums; and this effect it has merely from
the industry which it begets, and the frugality which it
inspires, independent of that particular quantity of precious
metal which may circulate in the state.
Thus an encrease of commerce, by a necessary
consequence, raises a great number of lenders, and by that
means produces lowness of interest. We must now consider
how far this encrease of commerce diminishes the profits
arising from that profession, and gives rise to the third
circumstance requisite to produce lowness of interest.
It may be proper to observe on this head, that low
interest and low profits of merchandize are two events, that
mutually forward each other, and are both originally
derived from that extensive commerce, which produces
opulent merchants, and renders the monied interest
considerable. Where merchants possess great stocks,
whether represented by few or many pieces of metal, it
must frequently happen, that, when they either become
tired of business, or leave heirs unwilling or unfit to engage
in commerce, a great proportion of these riches naturally
seeks an annual and secure revenue. The plenty diminishes
the price, and makes the lenders accept of a low interest.
This consideration obliges many to keep their stock
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employed in trade, and rather be content with low profits

than dispose of their money at an under-value. On the other
hand, when commerce has become extensive, and employs
large stocks, there must arise rivalships among the
merchants, which diminish the profits of trade, at the same
time that they encrease the trade itself. The low profits of
merchandize induce the merchants to accept more willingly
of a low interest, when they leave off business, and begin to
indulge themselves in ease and indolence. It is needless,
therefore, to enquire
Mil 303
which of these circumstances, to wit, low interest or low profits,

is the cause, and which the effect? They both arise from an
extensive commerce, and mutually forward each other. No
man will accept of low profits, where he can have high
interest; and no man will accept of low interest, where he
can have high profits. An extensive commerce, by producing
large stocks, diminishes both interest and profits; and is
always assisted, in its diminution of the one, by the
proportional sinking of the other. I may add, that, as low
profits arise from the encrease of commerce and industry,
they serve in their turn to its farther encrease, by rendering
the commodities cheaper, encouraging the consumption,
and heightening the industry. And thus, if we consider the
whole connexion of causes and effects, interest is the
barometer of the state, and its lowness is a sign almost
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infallible of the flourishing condition of a people. It proves

the encrease of industry, and its prompt circulation through
the whole state, little inferior to a demonstration. And
though, perhaps, it may not be impossible but a sudden and
a great check to commerce may have a momentary effect of
the same kind, by throwing so many stocks out of trade; it
must be attended with such misery and want of employment
in the poor, that, besides its short duration, it will not be
possible to mistake the one case for the other.
Those who have asserted, that the plenty of money was
the cause of low interest, seem to have taken a collateral
effect for a cause; since the same industry, which sinks the
interest, commonly acquires great abundance of the
precious metals. A variety of fine manufactures, with
vigilant enterprising merchants, will soon draw money to a
state, if it be any where to be found in the world. The same
cause, by multiplying the conveniencies of life, and
encreasing industry, collects great riches into the hands of
persons, who are not proprietors of land, and produces, by
that means, a lowness of interest. But though both these
effects, plenty of money and low interest, naturally arise
from commerce and industry, they are altogether
independent of each other. For suppose a nation removed
into the Pacific ocean, without any foreign commerce,
Mil 304
or any knowledge of navigation: Suppose, that this nation

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possesses always the same stock of coin, but is continually

encreasing in its numbers and industry: It is evident, that
the price of every commodity must gradually diminish in
that kingdom; since it is the proportion between money and
any species of goods, which fixes their mutual value; and,
upon the present supposition, the conveniencies of life
become every day more abundant, without any alteration in
the current specie. A less quantity of money, therefore,
among this people, will make a rich man, during the times
of industry, than would suffice to that purpose, in ignorant
and slothful ages. Less money will build a house, portion a
daughter, buy an estate, support a manufactory, or maintain
a family and equipage. These are the uses for which men
borrow money; and therefore, the greater or less quantity
of it in a state has no influence on the interest. But it is
evident, that the greater or less stock of labour and
commodities must have a great influence; since we really
and in effect borrow these, when we take money upon
interest. It is true, when commerce is extended all over the
globe, the most industrious nations always abound most with
the precious metals: So that low interest and plenty of
money are in fact almost inseparable. But still it is of
consequence to know the principle whence any
phenomenon arises, and to distinguish between a cause and
a concomitant effect. Besides that the speculation is curious,
it may frequently be of use in the conduct of public affairs.
At least, it must be owned, that nothing can be of more use
than to improve, by practice, the method of reasoning on
these subjects, which of all others are the most important;
though they are commonly treated in the loosest and most
careless manner.
Another reason of this popular mistake with regard to
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the cause of low interest, seems to be the instance of some

nations; where, after a sudden acquisition of money or of
the precious metals, by means of foreign conquest, the
interest
Mil 305
has fallen, not only among them, but in all the

neighbouring states, as soon as that money was dispersed,
and had insinuated itself into every corner. Thus, interest in
Spain fell near a half immediately after the discovery of the
West Indies, as we are informed by Garcilasso de la Vega:
And it has been ever since gradually sinking in every
kingdom of Europe. Interest in Rome, after the conquest
of Egypt, fell from 6 to 4 per cent. as we learn from Dion 1.
0
The causes of the sinking of interest, upon such an

event, seem different in the conquering country and in the
neighbouring states; but in neither of them can we justly
ascribe that effect merely to the encrease of gold and silver.
In the conquering country, it is natural to imagine, that
this new acquisition of money will fall into a few hands, and
be gathered into large sums, which seek a secure revenue,
either by the purchase of land or by interest; and
consequently the same effect follows, for a little time, as if
there had been a great accession of industry and commerce.
The encrease of lenders above the borrowers sinks the
interest; and so much the faster, if those, who have acquired
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those large sums, find no industry or commerce in the state,

and no method of employing their money but by lending it
at interest. But after this new mass of gold and silver has
been digested, and has circulated through the whole state,
affairs will soon return to their former situation; while the
landlords and new money-holders, living idly, squander
above their income; and the former daily contract debt, and
the latter encroach on their stock till its
Mil 306
final extinction. The whole money may still be in the state,

and make itself felt by the encrease of prices: But not being
now collected into any large masses or stocks, the
disproportion between the borrowers and lenders is the
same as formerly, and consequently the high interest
returns.
0
Accordingly we find, in Rome, that, so early as

Tiberiuss time, interest had again mounted to 6 per cent. 2*
0
though no accident had happened to drain the empire of

money. In Trajans time, money lent on mortgages in
Italy, bore 6 per cent. 3; on common securities in Bithynia,
12 4. And if interest in Spain has not risen to its old pitch;
this can be ascribed to nothing but the continuance of the
same cause that sunk it, to wit, the large fortunes
continually made in the Indies, which come over to Spain
from time to time, and supply the demand of the borrowers.
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By this accidental and extraneous cause, more money is to

be lent in Spain, that is, more money is collected into large
sums than would otherwise be found in a state, where there
are so little commerce and industry.
As to the reduction of interest, which has followed in
England, France, and other kingdoms of Europe, that
have no mines, it has been gradual; and has not proceeded
from the encrease of money, considered merely in itself;
but from that of industry, which is the natural effect of the
former encrease, in that interval, before it raises the price
of labour and provisions. For to return to the foregoing
supposition; if the industry of England had risen as much
from other causes, (and that rise might easily have
happened, though the stock of money had remained the
same) must not all the same consequences have followed,
which we observe at present? The same people would, in
that case, be found in the kingdom, the same commodities,
the same industry, manufactures, and commerce; and
consequently the same mer-
Mil 307
chants, with the same stocks, that is, with the same command
over labour and commodities, only represented by a smaller
number of white or yellow pieces; which being a
circumstance of no moment, would only affect the
waggoner, porter, and trunk-maker. Luxury, therefore,
manufactures, arts, industry, frugality, flourishing equally
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as at present, it is evident, that interest must also have been

as low; since that is the necessary result of all these
circumstances; so far as they determine the profits of
commerce, and the proportion between the borrowers and
lenders in any state.
N O T E S.
1. Lib. ii.
*2. Columella, lib. iii. cap. 3.
3. Plinii epist. lib. vii. ep. 18.
4. Id. lib. x. ep. 62.
Mil 308
E S S A Y V.
Of the Balance of Trade.
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T is very usual, in nations ignorant of the nature of

commerce, to prohibit the exportation of commodities,
and to preserve among themselves whatever they think
valuable and useful. They do not consider, that, in this
prohibition, they act directly contrary to their intention;
and that the more is exported of any commodity, the more
will be raised at home, of which they themselves will always
have the first offer.
It is well known to the learned, that the ancient laws of
Athens rendered the exportation of figs criminal; that
being supposed a species of fruit so excellent in Attica,
that the Athenians deemed it too delicious for the palate of
any foreigner. And in this ridiculous prohibition they were
so much in earnest, that informers were thence called
sycophants
Mil 309
among them, from two Greek words, which signify figs and
discoverer 1. There are proofs in many old acts of parliament
of the same ignorance in the nature of commerce,
particularly in the reign of Edward III. And to this day, in
France, the exportation of corn is almost always prohibited;
in order, as they say, to prevent famines; though it is
evident, that nothing contributes more to the frequent
famines, which so much distress that fertile country.
The same jealous fear, with regard to money, has also
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prevailed among several nations; and it required both reason

and experience to convince any people, that these
prohibitions serve to no other purpose than to raise the
exchange against them, and produce a still greater
exportation.
These errors, one may say, are gross and palpable: But
there still prevails, even in nations well acquainted with
commerce, a strong jealousy with regard to the balance of
trade, and a fear, that all their gold and silver may be
leaving them. This seems to me, almost in every case, a
groundless apprehension; and I should as soon dread, that
all our springs and rivers should be exhausted, as that money
should abandon a kingdom where there are people and
industry. Let us carefully
Mil 310
preserve these latter advantages; and we need never be

apprehensive of losing the former.
It is easy to observe, that all calculations concerning
the balance of trade are founded on very uncertain facts and
suppositions. The custom-house books are allowed to be an
insufficient ground of reasoning; nor is the rate of
exchange much better; unless we consider it with all
nations, and know also the proportions of the several sums
remitted; which one may safely pronounce impossible.
Every man, who has ever reasoned on this subject, has
always proved his theory, whatever it was, by facts and
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calculations, and by an enumeration of all the commodities

sent to all foreign kingdoms.
The writings of Mr. GeeGee struck the nation with an
universal panic, when they saw it plainly demonstrated, by a
detail of particulars, that the balance was against them for
so considerable a sum as must leave them without a single
shilling in five or six years. But luckily, twenty years have
since elapsed, with an expensive foreign war; yet is it
commonly supposed, that money is still more plentiful
among us than in any former period.
Nothing can be more entertaining on this head than
Dr. Swift; an author so quick in discerning the mistakes and
absurdities of others. He says, in his short view of the state of
Ireland, that the whole cash of that kingdom formerly
amounted but to 500,000l.; that out of this the Irish
remitted every year a neat million to England, and had
scarcely any other source from which they could
compensate themselves, and little other foreign trade than
the importation of French wines, for which they paid ready
money. The consequence of this situation, which must be
owned to be disadvantageous, was, that, in a course of three
years, the current money of
Mil 311
Ireland, from 500,000l. was reduced to less than two. And at

present, I suppose, in a course of 30 years it is absolutely
nothing. Yet I know not how, that opinion of the advance
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of riches in Ireland, which gave the Doctor so much

indignation, seems still to continue, and gain ground with
every body.
In short, this apprehension of the wrong balance of
trade, appears of such a nature, that it discovers itself,
wherever one is out of humour with the ministry, or is in
low spirits; and as it can never be refuted by a particular
detail of all the exports, which counterbalance the imports,
it may here be proper to form a general argument, that may
prove the impossibility of this event, as long as we preserve
our people and our industry.
Suppose four-fifths of all the money in Great Britain
to be annihilated in one night, and the nation reduced to
the same condition, with regard to specie, as in the reigns of
the Harrys and Edwards, what would be the consequence?
Must not the price of all labour and commodities sink in
proportion, and every thing be sold as cheap as they were in
those ages? What nation could then dispute with us in any
foreign market, or pretend to navigate or to sell
manufactures at the same price, which to us would afford
sufficient profit? In how little time, therefore, must this
bring back the money which we had lost, and raise us to the
level of all the neighbouring nations? Where, after we have
arrived, we immediately lose the advantage of the cheapness
of labour and commodities; and the farther flowing in of
money is stopped by our fulness and repletion.
Again, suppose, that all the money of Great Britain
were multiplied fivefold in a night, must not the contrary
effect follow? Must not all labour and commodities rise to
such an exorbitant height, that no neighbouring nations
could afford to buy from us; while their commodities, on
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the other hand, became comparatively so cheap, that, in

spite of all the laws which could be formed, they would be
run in upon us, and our money flow out; till we fall to a
level with foreigners,
Mil 312
and lose that great superiority of riches, which had laid us

under such disadvantages?
Now, it is evident, that the same causes, which would
correct these exorbitant inequalities, were they to happen
miraculously, must prevent their happening in the common
course of nature, and must for ever, in all neighbouring
nations, preserve money nearly proportionable to the art
and industry of each nation. All water, wherever it
communicates, remains always at a level. Ask naturalists the
reason; they tell you, that, were it to be raised in any one
place, the superior gravity of that part not being balanced,
must depress it, till it meet a counterpoise; and that the
same cause, which redresses the inequality when it happens,
must for ever prevent it, without some violent external
operation 2*.
0
Can one imagine, that it had ever been possible, by any

laws, or even by any art or industry, to have kept all the
money in Spain, which the galleons have brought from the
Indies? Or that all commodities could be sold in France for
a tenth of the price which they would yield on the other
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side of the Pyrenees, without finding their way thither, and

draining from that immense treasure? What other reason,
indeed, is there, why all nations, at present, gain in their
trade with Spain and Portugal; but because it is impossible
to heap up money, more than any fluid, beyond its proper
level? The sovereigns of these countries have shown, that
they wanted not inclination to keep their gold and silver to
themselves, had it been in any degree practicable.
But as any body of water may be raised above the level
of the surrounding element, if the former has no
communication with the latter; so in money, if the
communication be cut off,
Mil 313
by any material or physical impediment, (for all laws alone

are ineffectual) there may, in such a case, be a very great
inequality of money. Thus the immense distance of China,
together with the monopolies of our India companies,
obstructing the communication, preserve in Europe the
gold and silver, especially the latter, in much greater plenty
than they are found in that kingdom. But, notwithstanding
this great obstruction, the force of the causes
abovementioned is still evident. The skill and ingenuity of
Europe in general surpasses perhaps that of China, with
regard to manual arts and manufactures; yet are we never
able to trade thither without great disadvantage. And were
it not for the continual recruits, which we receive from
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America, money would soon sink in Europe, and rise in

China, till it came nearly to a level in both places. Nor can
any reasonable man doubt, but that industrious nation, were
they as near us as Poland or Barbary, would drain us of the
overplus of our specie, and draw to themselves a larger
share of the West Indian treasures. We need not have
recourse to a physical attraction, in order to explain the
necessity of this operation. There is a moral attraction,
arising from the interests and passions of men, which is full
as potent and infallible.
How is the balance kept in the provinces of every
kingdom among themselves, but by the force of this
principle, which makes it impossible for money to lose its
level, and either to rise or sink beyond the proportion of
the labour and commodities which are in each province?
Did not long experience make people easy on this head,
what a fund of gloomy reflections might calculations afford
to a melancholy Yorkshireman, while he computed and
magnified the sums drawn to
Mil 314
London by taxes, absentees, commodities, and found on

comparison the opposite articles so much inferior? And no
doubt, had the Heptarchy subsisted in England, the
legislature of each state had been continually alarmed by
the fear of a wrong balance; and as it is probable that the
mutual hatred of these states would have been extremely
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violent on account of their close neighbourhood, they

would have loaded and oppressed all commerce, by a jealous
and superfluous caution. Since the union has removed the
barriers between Scotland and England, which of these
nations gains from the other by this free commerce? Or if
the former kingdom has received any encrease of riches, can
it reasonably be accounted for by any thing but the encrease
of its art and industry? It was a common apprehension in
England, before the union, as we learn from LAbbe du
Bos 3, that Scotland would soon drain them of their
0
treasure, were an open trade allowed; and on the other side

the Tweed a contrary apprehension prevailed: With what
justice in both, time has shown.
What happens in small portions of mankind, must take
place in greater. The provinces of the Roman empire, no
doubt, kept their balance with each other, and with Italy,
independent of the legislature; as much as the several
counties of Great Britain, or the several parishes of each
county. And any man who travels over Europe at this day,
may see, by the prices of commodities, that money, in spite
of the absurd jealousy of princes and states, has brought
itself nearly to a level; and that the difference between one
kingdom and another is not greater in this respect, than it is
often between different provinces of the same kingdom.
Men naturally flock to capital cities, sea-ports, and
navigable rivers. There we find
Mil 315
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more men, more industry, more commodities, and

consequently more money; but still the latter difference
holds proportion with the former, and the level is
preserved 4*.
Our jealousy and our hatred of France are without
bounds; and the former sentiment, at least, must be
acknowledged reasonable and well-grounded. These
passions have occasioned innumerable barriers and
obstructions upon commerce, where we are accused of
being commonly the aggressors. But what have we gained
by the bargain? We lost the French market for our woollen
manufactures, and transferred the commerce of wine to
Spain and Portugal, where we buy worse liquor at a higher
price. There are few Englishmen who would not think their
country absolutely ruined, were French wines sold in
England so cheap and in such abundance as to supplant, in
some measure, all ale, and home-brewed liquors: But would
we lay aside prejudice, it would not be difficult to prove,
that nothing could be more innocent, perhaps advantageous.
Each new acre of vineyard planted in France, in order to
supply England with wine, would make it requisite for the
French to take the produce of an English acre, sown in
wheat or barley, in order to subsist themselves; and it is
evident, that we should thereby get command of the better
commodity.
There are many edicts of the French king, prohibiting
the planting of new vineyards, and ordering all those which
Mil 316
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are lately planted to be grubbed up: So sensible are they, in

that country, of the superior value of corn, above every
other product.
Mareschal Vauban complains often, and with reason, of
the absurd duties which load the entry of those wines of
Languedoc, Guienne, and other southern provinces, that
are imported into Britanny and Normandy. He entertained
no doubt but these latter provinces could preserve their
balance, notwithstanding the open commerce which he
recommends. And it is evident, that a few leagues more
navigation to England would make no difference; or if it
did, that it must operate alike on the commodities of both
kingdoms.
There is indeed one expedient by which it is possible to
sink, and another by which we may raise money beyond its
natural level in any kingdom; but these cases, when
examined, will be found to resolve into our general theory,
and to bring additional authority to it.
I scarcely know any method of sinking money below its
level, but those institutions of banks, funds, and papercredit, which are so much practised in this kingdom. These
render paper equivalent to money, circulate it throughout
the whole state, make it supply the place of gold and silver,
raise proportionably the price of labour and commodities,
and by that means either banish a great part of those
precious metals, or prevent their farther encrease. What can
be more shortsighted than our reasonings on this head? We
fancy, because an individual would be much richer, were his
stock of money doubled, that the same good effect would
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follow were the money of every one encreased; not

considering, that this would raise as much the price of every
commodity, and reduce every man, in time, to the same
condition as before. It is only in our public negociations and
transactions with foreigners, that a greater stock of money
is advantageous; and as our paper
Mil 317
0
is there absolutely insignificant, we feel, by its means, all

the ill effects arising from a great abundance of money,
without reaping any of the advantages 5.
Suppose that there are 12 millions of paper, which
circulate in the kingdom as money, (for we are not to
imagine, that all our enormous funds are employed in that
shape) and suppose the real cash of the kingdom to be 18
millions: Here is a state which is found by experience to be
able to hold a stock of 30 millions. I say, if it be able to hold
it, it must of necessity have acquired it in gold and silver,
had we not obstructed the entrance of these metals by this
new invention of paper. Whence would it have acquired that
sum? From all the kingdoms of the world. But why? Because,
if you remove these 12 millions, money in this state is below
its level, compared with our neighbours; and we must
immediately draw from all of them, till we be full and
saturate, so to speak, and can hold no more. By our present
politics, we are as careful to stuff the nation with this fine
commodity of bank-bills and chequer-notes, as if we were
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afraid of being overburthened with the precious metals.

It is not to be doubted, but the great plenty of bullion
in France is, in a great measure, owing to the want of
paper-credit. The French have no banks: Merchants bills
do not there circulate as with us: Usury or lending on
interest is not directly permitted; so that many have large
sums in their coffers: Great quantities of plate are used in
private houses; and all the churches are full of it. By this
means, provisions and labour still remain cheaper among
them, than in nations that are not half so rich in gold and
silver. The advantages of this situation, in point of trade as
well as in great public emergencies, are too evident to be
disputed.
Mil 318
The same fashion a few years ago prevailed in Genoa,

which still has place in England and Holland, of using
services of China-ware instead of plate; but the senate,
foreseeing the consequence, prohibited the use of that
brittle commodity beyond a certain extent; while the use of
silver-plate was left unlimited. And I suppose, in their late
distresses, they felt the good effect of this ordinance. Our
tax on plate is, perhaps, in this view, somewhat impolitic.
Before the introduction of paper-money into our
colonies, they had gold and silver sufficient for their
circulation. Since the introduction of that commodity, the
least inconveniency that has followed is the total
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banishment of the precious metals. And after the abolition

of paper, can it be doubted but money will return, while
these colonies possess manufactures and commodities, the
only thing valuable in commerce, and for whose sake alone
all men desire money.
What pity Lycurgus did not think of paper-credit,
when he wanted to banish gold and silver from Sparta! It
would have served his purpose better than the lumps of iron
he made use of as money; and would also have prevented
more effectually all commerce with strangers, as being of so
much less real and intrinsic value.
It must, however, be confessed, that, as all these
questions of trade and money are extremely complicated,
there are certain lights, in which this subject may be placed,
so as to represent the advantages of paper-credit and banks
to be superior to their disadvantages. That they banish
specie and bullion from a state is undoubtedly true; and
whoever looks no farther than this circumstance does well
to condemn them; but specie and bullion are not of so great
consequence as not to admit of a compensation, and even an
overbalance from the encrease of industry and of credit,
which may be promoted by the right use of paper-money. It
is well known of what advan-
Mil 319
tage it is to a merchant to be able to discount his bills upon

occasion; and every thing that facilitates this species of
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traffic is favourable to the general commerce of a state. But

private bankers are enabled to give such credit by the credit
they receive from the depositing of money in their shops;
and the bank of England in the same manner, from the
liberty it has to issue its notes in all payments. There was an
invention of this kind, which was fallen upon some years
ago by the banks of Edinburgh; and which, as it is one of
the most ingenious ideas that has been executed in
commerce, has also been thought advantageous to
Scotland. It is there called a Bank-Credit; and is of this
nature. A man goes to the bank and finds surety to the
amount, we shall suppose, of a thousand pounds. This
money, or any part of it, he has the liberty of drawing out
whenever he pleases, and he pays only the ordinary interest
for it, while it is in his hands. He may, when he pleases,
repay any sum so small as twenty pounds, and the interest is
discounted from the very day of the repayment. The
advantages, resulting from this contrivance, are manifold.
As a man may find surety nearly to the amount of his
substance, and his bank-credit is equivalent to ready money,
a merchant does hereby in a manner coin his houses, his
household furniture, the goods in his warehouse, the
foreign debts due to him, his ships at sea; and can, upon
occasion, employ them in all payments, as if they were the
current money of the country. If a man borrow a thousand
pounds from a private hand, besides that it is not always to
be found when required, he pays interest for it, whether he
be using it or not: His bank-credit costs him nothing except
during the very moment, in which it is of service to him:
And this circumstance is of equal advantage as if he had
borrowed money at much lower interest. Merchants,
likewise, from this invention, acquire a great facility in
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supporting each others credit, which is a considerable

security against bankruptcies. A man, when his own bankcredit is exhausted, goes to any of his neighbours who is not
in the same condition; and he gets the money, which he
replaces at his convenience.
Mil 320
After this practice had taken place during some years at

Edinburgh, several companies of merchants at Glasgow
carried the matter farther. They associated themselves into
different banks, and issued notes so low as ten shillings,
which they used in all payments for goods, manufactures,
tradesmens labour of all kinds; and these notes, from the
established credit of the companies, passed as money in all
payments throughout the country. By this means, a stock of
five thousand pounds was able to perform the same
operations as if it were six or seven; and merchants were
thereby enabled to trade to a greater extent, and to require
less profit in all their transactions. But whatever other
advantages result from these inventions, it must still be
allowed that, besides giving too great facility to credit,
which is dangerous, they banish the precious metals; and
nothing can be a more evident proof of it, than a
comparison of the past and present condition of Scotland
in that particular. It was found, upon the recoinage made
after the union, that there was near a million of specie in
that country: But notwithstanding the great encrease of
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riches, commerce and manufactures of all kinds, it is

thought, that, even where there is no extraordinary drain
made by England, the current specie will not now amount
to a third of that sum.
But as our projects of paper-credit are almost the only
expedient, by which we can sink money below its level; so,
in my opinion, the only expedient, by which we can raise
money above it, is a practice which we should all exclaim
against as destructive, namely, the gathering of large sums
into a public treasure, locking them up, and absolutely
preventing their circulation. The fluid, not communicating
with the neighbouring element, may, by such an artifice, be
raised to what height we please. To prove this, we need only
return to our first supposition, of annihilating the half or
any part of our cash; where we found, that the immediate
consequence of such an event would be the attraction of an
equal sum from all the neighbouring kingdoms. Nor does
there seem to be any necessary bounds set, by the nature of
things, to this practice
Mil 321
of hoarding. A small city, like Geneva, continuing this

policy for ages, might engross nine-tenths of the money of
Europe. There seems, indeed, in the nature of man, an
invincible obstacle to that immense growth of riches. A
weak state, with an enormous treasure, will soon become a
prey to some of its poorer, but more powerful neighbours.
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A great state would dissipate its wealth in dangerous and illconcerted projects; and probably destroy, with it, what is
much more valuable, the industry, morals, and numbers of
its people. The fluid, in this case, raised to too great a
height, bursts and destroys the vessel that contains it; and
mixing itself with the surrounding element, soon falls to its
proper level.
So little are we commonly acquainted with this
principle, that, though all historians agree in relating
uniformly so recent an event, as the immense treasure
amassed by Harry VII. (which they make amount to
2,700,000 pounds,) we rather reject their concurring
testimony, than admit of a fact, which agrees so ill with our
inveterate prejudices. It is indeed probable, that this sum
might be three-fourths of all the money in England. But
where is the difficulty in conceiving, that such a sum might
be amassed in twenty years, by a cunning, rapacious, frugal,
and almost absolute monarch? Nor is it probable, that the
diminution of circulating money was ever sensibly felt by
the people, or ever did them any prejudice. The sinking of
the prices of all commodities would immediately replace it,
by giving England the advantage in its commerce with the
neighbouring kingdoms.
0
Have we not an instance, in the small republic of

Athens with its allies, who, in about fifty years, between
the Median and Peloponnesian wars, amassed a sum not
much inferior to that of Harry VII.? For all the Greek
historians 6 and orators 7 agree, that the Athenians
collected in the citadel
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Mil 322
more than 10,000 talents, which they afterwards dissipated

to their own ruin, in rash and imprudent enterprizes. But
when this money was set a running, and began to
communicate with the surrounding fluid; what was the
consequence? Did it remain in the state? No. For we find,
by the memorable census mentioned by Demosthenes 8 and
0
Polybius 9, that, in about fifty years afterwards, the whole

value of the republic, comprehending lands, houses,
commodities, slaves, and money, was less than 6000 talents.
What an ambitious high-spirited people was this, to
collect and keep in their treasury, with a view to conquests,
a sum, which it was every day in the power of the citizens,
by a single vote, to distribute among themselves, and which
would have gone near to triple the riches of every
individual! For we must observe, that the numbers and
private riches of the Athenians are said, by ancient writers,
to have been no greater at the beginning of the
Peloponnesian war, than at the beginning of the
Macedonian.
0
Money was little more plentiful in Greece during the

age of Philip and Perseus, than in England during that of
Harry VII.: Yet these two monarchs in thirty years 10
0
collected from the small kingdom of Macedon, a larger

treasure than that of the English monarch. Paulus
AEmilius brought to Rome about 1,700,000 pounds
Sterling 11. Pliny says, 2,400,000 12. And that was but a part
of the Macedonian
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Mil 323
treasure. The rest was dissipated by the resistance and flight

of Perseus 13.
We may learn from Stanian, that the canton of Berne
had 300,000 pounds lent at interest, and had above six times
as much in their treasury. Here then is a sum hoarded of
1,800,000 pounds Sterling, which is at least quadruple what
should naturally circulate in such a petty state; and yet no
one, who travels in the Pais de Vaux, or any part of that
canton, observes any want of money more than could be
supposed in a country of that extent, soil, and situation. On
the contrary, there are scarce any inland provinces in the
continent of France or Germany, where the inhabitants are
at this time so opulent, though that canton has vastly
encreased its treasure since 1714, the time when Stanian
wrote his judicious account of Switzerland 14*.
0
The account given by Appian 15* of the treasure of the

Ptolemies, is so prodigious, that one cannot admit of it; and
so much the less, because the historian says, that the other
successors of Alexander were also frugal, and had many of
them treasures not much inferior. For this saving humour of
the neighbouring princes must necessarily have checked the
frugality of the Egyptian monarchs, according to the
foregoing theory. The sum he mentions is 740,000 talents,
or 191,166,666 pounds 13 shillings and 4 pence, according to
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Dr. Arbuthnots computation. And yet Appian says, that he

extracted his account from the public records; and he was
himself a native of Alexandria.
Mil 324
From these principles we may learn what judgment we

ought to form of those numberless bars, obstructions, and
imposts, which all nations of Europe, and none more than
England, have put upon trade; from an exorbitant desire of
amassing money, which never will heap up beyond its level,
while it circulates; or from an ill-grounded apprehension of
losing their specie, which never will sink below it. Could
any thing scatter our riches, it would be such impolitic
contrivances. But this general ill effect, however, results
from them, that they deprive neighbouring nations of that
free communication and exchange which the Author of the
world has intended, by giving them soils, climates, and
geniuses, so different from each other.
Our modern politics embrace the only method of
banishing money, the using of paper-credit; they reject the
only method of amassing it, the practice of hoarding; and
they adopt a hundred contrivances, which serve to no
purpose but to check industry, and rob ourselves and our
neighbours of the common benefits of art and nature.
All taxes, however, upon foreign commodities, are not
to be regarded as prejudicial or useless, but those only
which are founded on the jealousy above-mentioned. A tax
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on GermanGerman linen encourages home manufactures,

and thereby multiplies our people and industry. A tax on
brandy encreases the sale of rum, and supports our southern
colonies. And as it is necessary, that imposts should be
levied, for the support of government, it may be thought
more convenient to lay them on foreign commodities,
which can easily be intercepted at the port, and subjected to
the impost. We ought, however, always to remember the
maxim of Dr. Swift, That, in the arithmetic of the customs,
two and two make not four, but often make only one. It can
scarcely be doubted, but if the duties on
Mil 325
wine were lowered to a third, they would yield much more

to the government than at present: Our people might
thereby afford to drink commonly a better and more
wholesome liquor; and no prejudice would ensue to the
balance of trade, of which we are so jealous. The
manufacture of ale beyond the agriculture is but
inconsiderable, and gives employment to few hands. The
transport of wine and corn would not be much inferior.
But are there not frequent instances, you will say, of
states and kingdoms, which were formerly rich and opulent,
and are now poor and beggarly? Has not the money left
them, with which they formerly abounded? I answer, If
they lose their trade, industry, and people, they cannot
expect to keep their gold and silver: For these precious
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metals will hold proportion to the former advantages. When

Lisbon and Amsterdam got the East-India trade from
Venice and Genoa, they also got the profits and money
which arose from it. Where the seat of government is
transferred, where expensive armies are maintained at a
distance, where great funds are possessed by foreigners;
there naturally follows from these causes a diminution of
the specie. But these, we may observe, are violent and
forcible methods of carrying away money, and are in time
commonly attended with the transport of people and
industry. But where these remain, and the drain is not
continued, the money always finds its way back again, by a
hundred canals, of which we have no notion or suspicion.
What immense treasures have been spent, by so many
nations, in Flanders, since the revolution, in the course of
three long wars? More
Mil 326
money perhaps than the half of what is at present in

Europe. But what has now become of it? Is it in the narrow
compass of the Austrian provinces? No, surely: It has most
of it returned to the several countries whence it came, and
has followed that art and industry, by which at first it was
acquired. For above a thousand years, the money of Europe
has been flowing to Rome, by an open and sensible current;
but it has been emptied by many secret and insensible
canals: And the want of industry and commerce renders at
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present the papal dominions the poorest territory in all

Italy.
In short, a government has great reason to preserve
with care its people and its manufactures. Its money, it may
safely trust to the course of human affairs, without fear or
jealousy. Or if it ever give attention to this latter
circumstance, it ought only to be so far as it affects the
former.
N O T E S.
1. Plut. De Curiositate.
*2. There is another cause, though more limited in its operation,
which checks the wrong balance of trade, to every particular nation
to which the kingdom trades. When we import more goods than we
export, the exchange turns against us, and this becomes a new
encouragement to export; as much as the charge of carriage and
insurance of the money which becomes due would amount to. For
the exchange can never rise but a little higher than that sum.
3. Les interets dAngleterre mal-entendus.
*4. See NOTE [R].
5. We observed in Essay III. [Of Money.] that money, when
encreasing, gives encouragement to industry, during the interval
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between the encrease of money and rise of the prices. A good

effect of this nature may follow too from paper-credit; but it is
dangerous to precipitate matters, at the risk of losing all by the
failing of that credit, as must happen upon any violent shock in
public affairs.
6. Thucydides, lib. ii. and Diod. Sic. lib. xii.
7. Vid. AEschinis et Demosthenis Epist.
8. .
9. Lib. ii. cap. 62.
10. Titi Livii, lib. xlv. cap. 40.
11. Vel. Paterc. lib. i. cap. 9.
12. Lib. xxxiii. cap. 3.
13. Titi Livii, ibid.
*14. The poverty which Stanian speaks of is only to be seen in
the most mountainous cantons, where there is no commodity to
bring money. And even there the people are not poorer than in the
diocese of Saltsburgh on the one hand, or Savoy on the other.
*15. Proem.
NOTE [R], p. 333. [Mil 315.]
T must carefully be remarked, that throughout this

discourse, wherever I speak of the level of money, I
mean always its proportional level to the commodities,
labour, industry, and skill, which is in the several states. And
I assert, that where these advantages are double, triple,
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quadruple, to what they are in the neighbouring states, the

money infallibly will also be double, triple, quadruple. The
only circumstance that can obstruct the exactness of these
proportions, is the expence of transporting the commodities
from one place to another; and this expence is sometimes
unequal. Thus the corn, cattle, cheese, butter, of
Derbyshire, cannot draw the money of London, so much as
the manufactures of London draw the money of
Derbyshire. But this objection is only a seeming one: For so
far as the transport of commodities is expensive, so far is the
communication between the places obstructed and
imperfect.
Mil 327
E S S A Y VI.
Of the Jealousy of Trade.
AVING endeavoured to remove one species of illfounded jealousy, which is so prevalent among
commercial nations, it may not be amiss to mention another,
which seems equally groundless. Nothing is more usual,
among states
Mil 328
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which have made some advances in commerce, than to look

on the progress of their neighbours with a suspicious eye, to
consider all trading states as their rivals, and to suppose that
it is impossible for any of them to flourish, but at their
expence. In opposition to this narrow and malignant
opinion, I will venture to assert, that the encrease of riches
and commerce in any one nation, instead of hurting,
commonly promotes the riches and commerce of all its
neighbours; and that a state can scarcely carry its trade and
industry very far, where all the surrounding states are
buried in ignorance, sloth, and barbarism.
It is obvious, that the domestic industry of a people
cannot be hurt by the greatest prosperity of their
neighbours; and as this branch of commerce is undoubtedly
the most important in any extensive kingdom, we are so far
removed from all reason of jealousy. But I go farther, and
observe, that where an open communication is preserved
among nations, it is impossible but the domestic industry of
every one must receive an encrease from the improvements
of the others. Compare the situation of Great Britain at
present, with what it was two centuries ago. All the arts both
of agriculture and manufactures were then extremely rude
and imperfect. Every improvement, which we have since
made, has arisen from our imitation of foreigners; and we
ought so far to esteem it happy, that they had previously
made advances in arts and ingenuity. But this intercourse is
still upheld to our great advantage: Notwithstanding the
advanced state of our manufactures, we daily adopt, in every
art, the inventions and improvements of our neighbours.
The commodity is first imported from abroad, to our great
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discontent, while we imagine that it drains us of
Mil 329
our money: Afterwards, the art itself is gradually imported,

to our visible advantage: Yet we continue still to repine,
that our neighbours should possess any art, industry, and
invention; forgetting that, had they not first instructed us,
we should have been at present barbarians; and did they not
still continue their instructions, the arts must fall into a state
of languor, and lose that emulation and novelty, which
contribute so much to their advancement.
The encrease of domestic industry lays the foundation
of foreign commerce. Where a great number of
commodities are raised and perfected for the home-market,
there will always be found some which can be exported with
advantage. But if our neighbours have no art or cultivation,
they cannot take them; because they will have nothing to
give in exchange. In this respect, states are in the same
condition as individuals. A single man can scarcely be
industrious, where all his fellow-citizens are idle. The
riches of the several members of a community contribute to
encrease my riches, whatever profession I may follow. They
consume the produce of my industry, and afford me the
produce of theirs in return.
Nor needs any state entertain apprehensions, that their
neighbours will improve to such a degree in every art and
manufacture, as to have no demand from them. Nature, by
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giving a diversity of geniuses, climates, and soils, to

different nations, has secured their mutual intercourse and
commerce, as long as they all remain industrious and
civilized. Nay, the more the arts encrease in any state, the
more will be its demands from its industrious neighbours.
The inhabitants, having become opulent and skilful, desire
to have every commodity in the utmost perfection; and as
they have plenty of commodities to give in exchange, they
make large importations from every foreign country. The
industry of the nations, from whom they import, receives
encouragement: Their own is also encreased, by the sale of
the commodities which they give in exchange.
But what if a nation has any staple commodity, such as
the woollen manufacture is in England? Must not the
inter-
Mil 330
fering of our neighbours in that manufacture be a loss to us?

I answer, that, when any commodity is denominated the
staple of a kingdom, it is supposed that this kingdom has
some peculiar and natural advantages for raising the
commodity; and if, notwithstanding these advantages, they
lose such a manufacture, they ought to blame their own
idleness, or bad government, not the industry of their
neighbours. It ought also to be considered, that, by the
encrease of industry among the neighbouring nations, the
consumption of every particular species of commodity is
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also encreased; and though foreign manufactures interfere

with them in the market, the demand for their product may
still continue, or even encrease. And should it diminish,
ought the consequence to be esteemed so fatal? If the spirit
of industry be preserved, it may easily be diverted from one
branch to another; and the manufacturers of wool, for
instance, be employed in linen, silk, iron, or any other
commodities, for which there appears to be a demand. We
need not apprehend, that all the objects of industry will be
exhausted, or that our manufacturers, while they remain on
an equal footing with those of our neighbours, will be in
danger of wanting employment. The emulation among rival
nations serves rather to keep industry alive in all of them:
And any people is happier who possess a variety of
manufactures, than if they enjoyed one single great
manufacture, in which they are all employed. Their
situation is less precarious; and they will feel less sensibly
those revolutions and uncertainties, to which every
particular branch of commerce will always be exposed.
The only commercial state, that ought to dread the
improvements and industry of their neighbours, is such a
one as the Dutch, who enjoying no extent of land, nor
possessing any number of native commodities, flourish only
by their being the brokers, and factors, and carriers of
others. Such a people may naturally apprehend, that, as soon
as the neighbouring states come to know and pursue their
interest, they will take into their own hands the
management of their affairs, and deprive their brokers of
that profit, which they formerly
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Mil 331
reaped from it. But though this consequence may naturally

be dreaded, it is very long before it takes place; and by art
and industry it may be warded off for many generations, if
not wholly eluded. The advantage of superior stocks and
correspondence is so great, that it is not easily overcome;
and as all the transactions encrease by the encrease of
industry in the neighbouring states, even a people whose
commerce stands on this precarious basis, may at first reap a
considerable profit from the flourishing condition of their
neighbours. The Dutch, having mortgaged all their
revenues, make not such a figure in political transactions as
formerly; but their commerce is surely equal to what it was
in the middle of the last century, when they were reckoned
among the great powers of Europe.
Were our narrow and malignant politics to meet with
success, we should reduce all our neighbouring nations to
the same state of sloth and ignorance that prevails in
Morocco and the coast of Barbary. But what would be the
consequence? They could send us no commodities: They
could take none from us: Our domestic commerce itself
would languish for want of emulation, example, and
instruction: And we ourselves should soon fall into the same
abject condition, to which we had reduced them. I shall
therefore venture to acknowledge, that, not only as a man,
but as a British subject, I pray for the flourishing
commerce of Germany, Spain, Italy, and even France
itself. I am at least certain, that Great Britain, and all
those nations, would flourish more, did their sovereigns and
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ministers adopt such enlarged and benevolent sentiments

towards each other.
Mil 332
E S S A Y VII.
Of the Balance of Power.
0
T is a question whether the idea of the balance of power

be owing entirely to modern policy, or whether the
phrase only has been invented in these later ages? It is
certain, that Xenophon 1*, in his Institution of Cyrus,
represents the combination of the Asiatic powers to have
arisen from a jealousy of the encreasing force of the Medes
and Persians; and though that elegant composition should
be supposed altogether a romance, this sentiment, ascribed
by the author to the eastern princes, is at least a proof of the
prevailing notion of ancient times.
In all the politics of Greece, the anxiety, with regard
to
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the balance of power, is apparent, and is expressly pointed

out to us, even by the ancient historians. Thucydides 2
represents the league, which was formed against Athens,
and which produced the Peloponnesian war, as entirely
owing to this principle. And after the decline of Athens,
when the Thebans and Lacedemonians disputed for
sovereignty, we find, that the Athenians (as well as many
other republics) always threw themselves into the lighter
scale, and endeavoured to preserve the balance. They
supported Thebes against Sparta, till the great victory
gained by Epaminondas at Leuctra; after which they
immediately went over to the conquered, from generosity,
as they pretended, but in reality from their jealousy of the
conquerors 3.
0
Whoever will read Demostheness oration for the

Megalopolitans, may see the utmost refinements on this
principle, that ever entered into the head of a Venetian or
English speculatist. And upon the first rise of the
Macedonian power, this orator immediately discovered the
danger, sounded the alarm throughout all Greece, and at
last assembled that confederacy under the banners of
Athens, which fought the great and decisive battle of
Chaeronea.
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It is true, the Grecian wars are regarded by historians

as wars of emulation rather than of politics; and each state
seems to have had more in view the honour of leading the
rest, than any well-grounded hopes of authority and
dominion. If we consider, indeed, the small number of
inhabitants in any one republic, compared to the whole, the
great difficulty of forming sieges in those times, and the
extraordinary bravery and discipline of every freeman
among that noble people; we shall conclude, that the
balance of power was, of itself, sufficiently secured in
Greece, and needed not to have been guarded with that
caution which may be requisite in other ages. But whether
we ascribe the shifting of sides in all the Grecian republics
to jealous emulation or cautious politics, the effects were alike,
and every prevailing power was sure to meet with a
confederacy against it, and that often composed of its
former friends and allies.
The same principle, call it envy or prudence, which
produced the Ostracism of Athens, and Petalism of Syracuse,
and expelled every citizen whose fame or power overtopped
the rest; the same principle, I say, naturally discovered itself
in foreign politics, and soon raised enemies to the leading
state, however moderate in the exercise of its authority.
The Persian monarch was really, in his force, a petty
prince, compared to the Grecian republics; and therefore it
behoved him, from views of safety more than from
emulation, to interest himself in their quarrels, and to
support the weaker side in every contest. This was the
advice given by Alcibiades to Tissaphernes 4*, and it
0
prolonged near a century
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Mil 335
the date of the Persian empire; till the neglect of it for a

moment, after the first appearance of the aspiring genius of
Philip, brought that lofty and frail edifice to the ground,
with a rapidity of which there are few instances in the
history of mankind.
0
The successors of Alexander showed great jealousy of

the balance of power; a jealousy founded on true politics
and prudence, and which preserved distinct for several ages
the partition made after the death of that famous
conqueror. The fortune and ambition of Antigonus 5
threatened them anew with a universal monarchy; but their
combination, and their victory at Ipsus saved them. And in
subsequent times, we find, that, as the Eastern princes
considered the Greeks and Macedonians as the only real
military force, with whom they had any intercourse, they
kept always a watchful eye over that part of the world. The
Ptolemies, in particular, supported first Aratus and the
Achaeans, and then Cleomenes king of Sparta, from no
other view than as a counterbalance to the Macedonian
monarchs. For this is the account which Polybius gives of
the Egyptian politics 6*.
0
The reason, why it is supposed, that the ancients were

entirely ignorant of the balance of power, seems to be drawn
from the Roman history more than the Grecian; and as the
transactions of the former are generally more familiar to us,
we have thence formed all our conclusions. It must be
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owned, that the Romans never met with any such general
combination or confederacy against them, as might
naturally have been expected from the rapid conquests and
declared ambition; but
Mil 336
were allowed peaceably to subdue their neighbours, one

after another, till they extended their dominion over the
whole known world. Not to mention the fabulous history of
their Italic wars; there was, upon Hannibals invasion of
the Roman state, a remarkable crisis, which ought to have
called up the attention of all civilized nations. It appeared
afterwards (nor was it difficult to be observed at the time) 7
0
that this was a contest for universal empire; yet no prince or

state seems to have been in the least alarmed about the
event or issue of the quarrel. Philip of Macedon remained
neuter, till he saw the victories of Hannibal; and then most
imprudently formed an alliance with the conqueror, upon
terms still more imprudent. He stipulated, that he was to
assist the Carthaginian state in their conquest of Italy;
after which they engaged to send over forces into Greece,
to assist him in subduing the Grecian commonwealths 8.
0
The Rhodian and Achaean republics are much

celebrated by ancient historians for their wisdom and sound
policy; yet both of them assisted the Romans in their wars
against Philip and Antiochus. And what may be esteemed
still a stronger proof, that this maxim was not generally
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known in those ages; no ancient author has remarked the

imprudence of these measures, nor has even blamed that
absurd treaty above-mentioned, made by Philip with the
Carthaginians. Princes and statesmen, in all ages, may,
before-hand, be blinded in their reasonings with regard to
events: But it is somewhat extraordinary, that historians,
afterwards, should not form a sounder judgment of them.
Massinissa, Attalus, Prusias, in gratifying their private
passions, were, all of them, the instruments of the
Mil 337
Roman greatness; and never seem to have suspected, that

they were forging their own chains, while they advanced the
conquests of their ally. A simple treaty and agreement
between Massinissa and the Carthaginians, so much
required by mutual interest, barred the Romans from all
entrance into Africa, and preserved liberty to mankind.
0
The only prince we meet with in the Roman history,

who seems to have understood the balance of power, is
Hiero king of Syracuse. Though the ally of Rome, he sent
assistance to the Carthaginians, during the war of the
auxiliaries; Esteeming it requisite, says Polybius 9, both
in order to retain his dominions in Sicily, and to preserve
the Roman friendship, that Carthage should be safe; lest by
its fall the remaining power should be able, without contrast
or opposition, to execute every purpose and undertaking.
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And here he acted with great wisdom and prudence. For

that is never, on any account, to be overlooked; nor ought
such a force ever to be thrown into one hand, as to
incapacitate the neighbouring states from defending their
rights against it. Here is the aim of modern politics
pointed out in express terms.
In short, the maxim of preserving the balance of power
is founded so much on common sense and obvious
reasoning, that it is impossible it could altogether have
escaped antiquity, where we find, in other particulars, so
many marks of deep
Mil 338
penetration and discernment. If it was not so generally

known and acknowledged as at present, it had, at least, an
influence on all the wiser and more experienced princes and
politicians. And indeed, even at present, however generally
known and acknowledged among speculative reasoners, it
has not, in practice, an authority much more extensive
among those who govern the world.
After the fall of the Roman empire, the form of
government, established by the northern conquerors,
incapacitated them, in a great measure, for farther
conquests, and long maintained each state in its proper
boundaries. But when vassalage and the feudal militia were
abolished, mankind were anew alarmed by the danger of
universal monarchy, from the union of so many kingdoms
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and principalities in the person of the emperor Charles.

But the power of the house of Austria, founded on
extensive but divided dominions, and their riches, derived
chiefly from mines of gold and silver, were more likely to
decay, of themselves, from internal defects, than to
overthrow all the bulwarks raised against them. In less than
a century, the force of that violent and haughty race was
shattered, their opulence dissipated, their splendor eclipsed.
A new power succeeded, more formidable to the liberties of
Europe, possessing all the advantages of the former, and
labouring under none of its defects; except a share of that
spirit of bigotry and persecution, with which the house of
Austria was so long, and still is so much infatuated.
In the general wars, maintained against this ambitious
power, Great Britain has stood foremost; and she still
maintains her station. Beside her advantages of riches and
situation, her people are animated with such a national
spirit, and are so fully sensible of the blessings of their
government, that we may hope their vigour never will
languish in so necessary and so just a cause. On the contrary,
if we may judge by the past, their passionate ardour seems
rather to require some
Mil 339
moderation; and they have oftener erred from a laudable

excess than from a blameable deficiency.
In the first place, we seem to have been more possessed
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with the ancient Greek spirit of jealous emulation, than

actuated by the prudent views of modern politics. Our wars
with France have been begun with justice, and even,
perhaps, from necessity; but have always been too far
pushed from obstinacy and passion. The same peace, which
was afterwards made at Ryswick in 1697, was offered so
early as the year ninety-two; that concluded at Utrecht in
1712 might have been finished on as good conditions at
Gertruytenberg in the year eight; and we might have
given at Frankfort, in 1743, the same terms, which we were
glad to accept of at Aix-la-Chapelle in the year fortyeight. Here then we see, that above half of our wars with
France, and all our public debts, are owing more to our
own imprudent vehemence, than to the ambition of our
neighbours.
In the second place, we are so declared in our opposition
to French power, and so alert in defence of our allies, that
they always reckon upon our force as upon their own; and
expecting to carry on war at our expence, refuse all
reasonable terms of accommodation. Habent subjectos,
tanquam suos; viles, ut alienos. All the world knows, that the
factious vote of the House of Commons, in the beginning
of the last parliament, with the professed humour of the
nation, made the queen of Hungary inflexible in her terms,
and prevented that agreement with Prussia, which would
immediately have restored the general tranquillity of
Europe.
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In the third place, we are such true combatants, that,

when once engaged, we lose all concern for ourselves and
our posterity, and consider only how we may best annoy the
enemy. To mortgage our revenues at so deep a rate, in wars,
where we were only accessories, was surely the most fatal
delusion, that a nation, which had any pretension to politics
and prudence, has ever yet been guilty of. That remedy of
funding, if it be a remedy, and not rather a poison, ought,
in all reason, to be reserved to the last extremity; and no
evil, but the greatest and most urgent, should ever induce us
to embrace so dangerous an expedient.
These excesses, to which we have been carried, are
prejudicial; and may, perhaps, in time, become still more
prejudicial another way, by begetting, as is usual, the
opposite extreme, and rendering us totally careless and
supine with regard to the fate of Europe. The Athenians,
from the most bustling, intriguing, warlike people of
Greece, finding their error in thrusting themselves into
every quarrel, abandoned all attention to foreign affairs;
and in no contest ever took part on either side, except by
their flatteries and complaisance to the victor.
Enormous monarchies are, probably, destructive to hu-
Mil 341
man nature; in their progress, in their continuance 10, and

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even in their downfal, which never can be very distant from

their establishment. The military genius, which aggrandized
the monarchy, soon leaves the court, the capital, and the
center of such a government; while the wars are carried on
at a great distance, and interest so small a part of the state.
The ancient nobility, whose affections attach them to their
sovereign, live all at court; and never will accept of military
employments, which would carry them to remote and
barbarous frontiers, where they are distant both from their
pleasures and their fortune. The arms of the state, must,
therefore, be entrusted to mercenary strangers, without
zeal, without attachment, without honour; ready on every
occasion to turn them against the prince, and join each
desperate malcontent, who offers pay and plunder. This is
the necessary progress of human affairs: Thus human nature
checks itself in its airy elevation: Thus ambition blindly
labours for the destruction of the conqueror, of his family,
and of every thing near and dear to him. The Bourbons,
trusting to the support of their brave, faithful, and
affectionate nobility, would push their advantage, without
reserve or limitation. These, while fired with glory and
emulation, can bear the fatigues and dangers of war; but
never would submit to languish in the garrisons of Hungary
or Lithuania, forgot at court, and sacrificed to the
intrigues of every minion or mistress, who approaches the
prince. The troops are filled with Cravates and Tartars,
Hussars and Cossacs; intermingled, perhaps, with a few
soldiers of fortune from the better provinces: And the
melancholy fate of the Roman emperors, from the same
cause, is renewed over and over again, till the final
dissolution of the monarchy.
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N O T E S.
*1. Lib. i.
2. Lib. i.
3. Xenoph. Hist. Graec. lib. vi. & vii.
*4. Thucyd. lib. viii.
5. Diod. Sic. lib. xx.
*6. Lib. ii. cap. 51.
7. It was observed by some, as appears by the speech of
Agelaus of Naupactum, in the general congress of Greece. See
Polyb. lib. v. cap. 104.
8. Titi Livii, lib. xxiii. cap. 33.
9. Lib. i. cap. 83.
10. If the Roman empire was of advantage, it could only
proceed from this, that mankind were generally in a very
disorderly, uncivilized condition, before its establishment.
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E S S A Y VIII.
Of Taxes.
HERE is a prevailing maxim, among some reasoners,

that every new tax creates a new ability in the subject to bear
it, and that each encrease of public burdens encreases proportionably the
industry of the people. This maxim is of such a nature as is most
likely to be abused; and is so much the more dangerous, as
its truth cannot be altogether denied: but it must be owned,
when kept within certain bounds, to have some foundation
in reason and experience.
Mil 343
When a tax is laid upon commodities, which are

consumed by the common people, the necessary
consequence may seem to be, either that the poor must
retrench something from their way of living, or raise their
wages, so as to make the burden of the tax fall entirely upon
the rich. But there is a third consequence, which often
follows upon taxes, namely, that the poor encrease their
industry, perform more work, and live as well as before,
without demanding more for their labour. Where taxes are
moderate, are laid on gradually, and affect not the
necessaries of life, this consequence naturally follows; and it
is certain, that such difficulties often serve to excite the
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industry of a people, and render them more opulent and

laborious, than others, who enjoy the greatest advantages.
For we may observe, as a parallel instance, that the most
commercial nations have not always possessed the greatest
extent of fertile land; but, on the contrary, that they have
laboured under many natural disadvantages. Tyre, Athens,
Carthage, Rhodes, Genoa, Venice, Holland, are strong
examples to this purpose. And in all history, we find only
three instances of large and fertile countries, which have
possessed much
Mil 344
trade; the Netherlands, England, and France. The two

former seem to have been allured by the advantages of their
maritime situation, and the necessity they lay under of
frequenting foreign ports, in order to procure what their
own climate refused them. And as to France, trade has
come late into that kingdom, and seems to have been the
effect of reflection and observation in an ingenious and
enterprizing people, who remarked the riches acquired by
such of the neighbouring nations as cultivated navigation
and commerce.
0
The places mentioned by Cicero 1, as possessed of the

greatest commerce in his time, are Alexandria, Colchus,
Tyre, Sidon, Andros, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Lycia, Rhodes,
Chios, Byzantium, Lesbos, Smyrna, Miletum, Coos. All
these, except Alexandria, were either small islands, or
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narrow territories. And that city owed its trade entirely to

the happiness of its situation.
0
Since therefore some natural necessities or

disadvantages may be thought favourable to industry, why
may not artificial burdens have the same effect? Sir William
Temple 2, we may observe, ascribes the industry of the
Dutch entirely to necessity, proceeding from their natural
disadvantages; and illustrates his doctrine by a striking
comparison with Ireland; where, says he, by the
largeness and plenty of the soil, and scarcity of people, all
things necessary to life are so cheap, that an industrious
man, by two days labour, may gain enough to feed him the
rest of the week. Which I take to be a very plain ground of
the laziness attributed to the people. For men naturally
prefer ease before labour, and will not take pains if they can
live idle; though when, by necessity, they have been inured
to it, they cannot leave it, being grown a custom necessary
to their health, and to their very entertainment. Nor
perhaps is the change harder, from constant ease to labour,
than from constant labour to ease. After which the author
proceeds to confirm his doctrine, by enumerating, as
Mil 345
above, the places where trade has most flourished, in

ancient and modern times; and which are commonly
observed to be such narrow confined territories, as beget a
necessity for industry.
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The best taxes are such as are levied upon

consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes
are least felt by the people. They seem, in some measure,
voluntary; since a man may chuse how far he will use the
commodity which is taxed: They are paid gradually and
insensibly: They naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if
judiciously imposed: And being confounded with the
natural price of the commodity, they are scarcely perceived
by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is, that they are
expensive in the levying.
Taxes upon possessions are levied without expence; but
have every other disadvantage. Most states, however, are
obliged to have recourse to them, in order to supply the
deficiencies of the other.
But the most pernicious of all taxes are the arbitrary.
They are commonly converted, by their management, into
punishments on industry; and also, by their unavoidable
inequality, are more grievous, than by the real burden
which
Mil 346
they impose. It is surprising, therefore, to see them have

place among any civilized people.
In general, all poll-taxes, even when not arbitrary,
which they commonly are, may be esteemed dangerous:
Because it is so easy for the sovereign to add a little more,
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and a little more, to the sum demanded, that these taxes are
apt to become altogether oppressive and intolerable. On the
other hand, a duty upon commodities checks itself; and a
prince will soon find, that an encrease of the impost is no
encrease of his revenue. It is not easy, therefore, for a
people to be altogether ruined by such taxes.
Historians inform us, that one of the chief causes of
the destruction of the Roman state, was the alteration,
which Constantine introduced into the finances, by
substituting an universal poll-tax, in lieu of almost all the
tithes, customs, and excises, which formerly composed the
revenue of the empire. The people, in all the provinces, were
so grinded and oppressed by the publicans, that they were
glad to take refuge under the conquering arms of the
barbarians; whose dominion, as they had fewer necessities
and less art, was found preferable to the refined tyranny of
the Romans.
It is an opinion, zealously promoted by some political
writers, that, since all taxes, as they pretend, fall ultimately
upon land, it were better to lay them originally there, and
abolish every duty upon consumptions. But it is denied, that
all taxes fall ultimately upon land. If a duty be laid upon any
commodity, consumed by an artisan, he has two obvious
expedients for paying it; he may retrench somewhat of his
expence, or he may encrease his labour. Both these
resources are more easy and natural, than that of
heightening his wages. We see,
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that, in years of scarcity, the weaver either consumes less or

labours more, or employs both these expedients of frugality
and industry, by which he is enabled to reach the end of the
year. It is but just, that he should subject himself to the same
hardships, if they deserve the name, for the sake of the
publick, which gives him protection. By what contrivance
can he raise the price of his labour? The manufacturer who
employs him, will not give him more: Neither can he,
because the merchant, who exports the cloth, cannot raise
its price, being limited by the price which it yields in
foreign markets. Every man, to be sure, is desirous of
pushing off from himself the burden of any tax, which is
imposed, and of laying it upon others: But as every man has
the same inclination, and is upon the defensive; no set of
men can be supposed to prevail altogether in this contest.
And why the landed gentleman should be the victim of the
whole, and should not be able to defend himself, as well as
others are, I cannot readily imagine. All tradesmen, indeed,
would willingly prey upon him, and divide him among
them, if they could: But this inclination they always have,
though no taxes were levied; and the same methods, by
which he guards against the imposition of tradesmen before
taxes, will serve him afterwards, and make them share the
burden with him. They must be very heavy taxes, indeed,
and very injudiciously levied, which the artizan will not, of
himself, be enabled to pay, by superior industry and
frugality, without raising the price of his labour.
I shall conclude this subject with observing, that we
have, with regard to taxes, an instance of what frequently
happens in political institutions, that the consequences of
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things are diametrically opposite to what we should expect

on the first appearance. It is regarded as a fundamental
maxim of the Turkish government, that the Grand Signior,
though absolute master of the lives and fortunes of each
individual, has no authority to impose a new tax; and every
Ottoman prince, who has made such an attempt, either has
been obliged to retract, or has found the fatal effects of his
perseverance. One would imagine, that this prejudice or
established opinion were
Mil 348
the firmest barrier in the world against oppression; yet it is

certain, that its effect is quite contrary. The emperor,
having no regular method of encreasing his revenue, must
allow all the bashaws and governors to oppress and abuse the
subjects: And these he squeezes after their return from their
government. Whereas, if he could impose a new tax, like
our European princes, his interest would so far be united
with that of his people, that he would immediately feel the
bad effects of these disorderly levies of money, and would
find, that a pound, raised by a general imposition, would
have less pernicious effects, than a shilling taken in so
unequal and arbitrary a manner.
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N O T E S.
1. Epist. ad Att. lib. ix. ep. II.
2. Account of the Netherlands, chap. 6.
Mil 349
E S S A Y IX.
Of Public Credit.
T appears to have been the common practice of

antiquity, to make provision, during peace, for the
necessities of war, and to hoard up treasures before-hand,
as the instruments either of conquest or defence; without
trusting to extraordinary impositions, much less to
borrowing, in times of disorder and confusion. Besides the
immense sums above mentioned 1*, which were amassed by
0
Athens, and by the Ptolemies, and other successors of

Alexander; we learn from Plato 2, that the frugal
Lacedemonians had also col-
Mil 350
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lected a great treasure; and Arrian 3 and Plutarch 4 take

notice of the riches which Alexander got possession of on
the conquest of Susa and Ecbatana, and which were
reserved, some of them, from the time of Cyrus. If I
remember right, the scripture also mentions the treasure of
Hezekiah and the Jewish princes; as profane history does
that of Philip and Perseus, kings of Macedon. The ancient
republics of Gaul had commonly large sums in reserve 5.
0
Every one knows the treasure seized in Rome by Julius

Caesar, during the civil wars: and we find afterwards, that
the wiser emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian,
Severus, &c. always discovered the prudent foresight, of
saving great sums against any public exigency.
On the contrary, our modern expedient, which has
become very general, is to mortgage the public revenues,
and to trust that posterity will pay off the incumbrances
contracted by their ancestors: And they, having before their
eyes, so good an example of their wise fathers, have the
same prudent reliance on their posterity; who, at last, from
necessity more than choice, are obliged to place the same
confidence in a new posterity. But not to waste time in
declaiming against a practice which appears ruinous, beyond
all controversy; it seems pretty apparent, that the ancient
maxims are, in this respect, more prudent than the modern;
even though the latter had been confined within some
reasonable bounds, and had ever,
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Mil 351
in any instance, been attended with such frugality, in time

of peace, as to discharge the debts incurred by an expensive
war. For why should the case be so different between the
public and an individual, as to make us establish different
maxims of conduct for each? If the funds of the former be
greater, its necessary expences are proportionably larger; if
its resources be more numerous, they are not infinite; and as
its frame should be calculated for a much longer duration
than the date of a single life, or even of a family, it should
embrace maxims, large, durable, and generous, agreeably to
the supposed extent of its existence. To trust to chances and
temporary expedients, is, indeed, what the necessity of
human affairs frequently renders unavoidable; but whoever
voluntarily depend on such resources, have not necessity,
but their own folly, to accuse for their misfortunes, when
any such befal them.
If the abuses of treasures be dangerous, either by
engaging the state in rash enterprizes, or making it neglect
military discipline, in confidence of its riches; the abuses of
mortgaging are more certain and inevitable; poverty,
impotence, and subjection to foreign powers.
According to modern policy war is attended with every
destructive circumstance; loss of men, encrease of taxes,
decay of commerce, dissipation of money, devastation by
sea and land. According to ancient maxims, the opening of
the public treasure, as it produced an uncommon affluence
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of gold and silver, served as a temporary encouragement to

industry, and atoned, in some degree, for the inevitable
calamities of war.
Mil 352
It is very tempting to a minister to employ such an

expedient, as enables him to make a great figure during his
administration, without overburthening the people with
taxes, or exciting any immediate clamours against himself.
The practice, therefore, of contracting debt will almost
infallibly be abused, in every government. It would scarcely
be more imprudent to give a prodigal son a credit in every
bankers shop in London, than to impower a statesman to
draw bills, in this manner, upon posterity.
What then shall we say to the new paradox, that public
incumbrances, are, of themselves, advantageous,
independent of the necessity of contracting them; and that
any state, even though it were not pressed by a foreign
enemy, could not possibly have embraced a wiser expedient
for promoting commerce and riches, than to create funds,
and debts, and taxes, without limitation? Reasonings, such
as these, might naturally have passed for trials of wit among
rhetoricians, like the panegyrics on folly and a fever, on
Busiris and Nero, had we not seen such absurd maxims
patronized by great ministers, and by a whole party among
us.
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Mil 353
Let us examine the consequences of public debts, both

in our domestic management, by their influence on
commerce and industry; and in our foreign transactions, by
their effect on wars and negociations.
Public securities are with us become a kind of money,
and pass as readily at the current price as gold or silver.
Wherever any profitable undertaking offers itself, how
expensive soever, there are never wanting hands enow to
embrace it; nor need a trader, who has sums in the public
stocks, fear to launch out into the most extensive trade;
since he is possessed of funds, which will answer the most
sudden demand that can be made upon him. No merchant
thinks it necessary to keep by him any considerable cash.
Bank-stock, or India-bonds, especially the latter, serve all
the same purposes; because he can dispose of them, or
pledge them to a banker, in a quarter of an hour; and at the
same time they are not idle, even when in his scritoire, but
bring him in a constant revenue. In short, our national debts
furnish merchants with a species of money, that is
continually multiplying in their hands, and produces sure
gain, besides the profits of their commerce. This must
enable them to trade upon less profit. The small profit of
the merchant renders the commodity cheaper, causes a
greater consumption, quickens the labour of the common
people, and helps to spread arts and industry throughout the
whole society.
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There are also, we may observe, in England and in all

states, which have both commerce and public debts, a set of
men, who are half merchants, half stock-holders, and may
be
Mil 354
supposed willing to trade for small profits; because

commerce is not their principal or sole support, and their
revenues in the funds are a sure resource for themselves and
their families. Were there no funds, great merchants would
have no expedient for realizing or securing any part of their
profit, but by making purchases of land; and land has many
disadvantages in comparison of funds. Requiring more care
and inspection, it divides the time and attention of the
merchant; upon any tempting offer or extraordinary
accident in trade, it is not so easily converted into money;
and as it attracts too much, both by the many natural
pleasures it affords, and the authority it gives, it soon
converts the citizen into the country gentleman. More men,
therefore, with large stocks and incomes, may naturally be
supposed to continue in trade, where there are public debts;
and this, it must be owned, is of some advantage to
commerce, by diminishing its profits, promoting
circulation, and encouraging industry.
But, in opposition to these two favourable
circumstances, perhaps of no very great importance, weigh
the many disadvantages which attend our public debts, in
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the whole interior conomy of the state: You will find no

comparison between the ill and the good which result from
them.
First, It is certain, that national debts cause a mighty
confluence of people and riches to the capital, by the great
sums, levied in the provinces to pay the interest; and
perhaps, too, by the advantages in trade above mentioned,
which they give the merchants in the capital above the rest
of the kingdom. The question is, whether, in our case, it be
for the public interest, that so many privileges should be
conferred on London, which has already arrived at such an
enormous size, and seems still encreasing? Some men are
apprehensive of the consequences. For my own part, I
cannot forbear thinking, that, though the head is
undoubtedly too large for the body, yet that great city is so
happily situated, that its excessive bulk causes less
inconvenience than even a smaller capital to a greater
kingdom. There is more difference between the prices of
all provisions in Paris and Languedoc, than between
Mil 355
those in London and Yorkshire. The immense greatness,

indeed, of London, under a government which admits not
of discretionary power, renders the people factious,
mutinous, seditious, and even perhaps rebellious. But to this
evil the national debts themselves tend to provide a remedy.
The first visible eruption, or even immediate danger, of
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public disorders must alarm all the stockholders, whose

property is the most precarious of any; and will make them
fly to the support of government, whether menaced by
Jacobitish violence or democratical frenzy.
Secondly, Public stocks, being a kind of paper-credit,
have all the disadvantages attending that species of money.
They banish gold and silver from the most considerable
commerce of the state, reduce them to common circulation,
and by that means render all provisions and labour dearer
than otherwise they would be.
Thirdly, The taxes, which are levied to pay the interests
of these debts, are apt either to heighten the price of
labour, or be an oppression on the poorer sort.
Fourthly, As foreigners possess a great share of our
national funds, they render the public, in a manner,
tributary to them, and may in time occasion the transport of
our people and our industry.
Fifthly, The greater part of the public stock being
always in the hands of idle people, who live on their
revenue, our funds, in that view, give great encouragement
to an useless and unactive life.
But though the injury, that arises to commerce and
industry from our public funds, will appear, upon balancing
the whole, not inconsiderable, it is trivial, in comparison of
the prejudice that results to the state considered as a body
politic, which must support itself in the society of nations,
and have
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Mil 356
various transactions with other states in wars and

negociations. The ill, there, is pure and unmixed, without
any favourable circumstance to atone for it; and it is an ill
too of a nature the highest and most important.
We have, indeed, been told, that the public is no
weaker upon account of its debts; since they are mostly due
among ourselves, and bring as much property to one as they
take from another. It is like transferring money from the
right hand to the left; which leaves the person neither
richer nor poorer than before. Such loose reasonings and
specious comparisons will always pass, where we judge not
upon principles. I ask, Is it possible, in the nature of things,
to overburthen a nation with taxes, even where the
sovereign resides among them? The very doubt seems
extravagant; since it is requisite, in every community, that
there be a certain proportion observed between the
laborious and the idle part of it. But if all our present taxes
be mortgaged, must we not invent new ones? And may not
this matter be carried to a length that is ruinous and
destructive?
In every nation, there are always some methods of
levying money more easy than others, agreeably to the way
of living of the people, and the commodities they make use
of. In Great Britain, the excises upon malt and beer afford
a large revenue; because the operations of malting and
brewing are tedious, and are impossible to be concealed;
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and at the same time, these commodities are not so

absolutely necessary to life, as that the raising of their price
would very much affect the poorer sort. These taxes being
all mortgaged, what difficulty to find new ones! what
vexation and ruin of the poor!
Duties upon consumptions are more equal and easy
than those upon possessions. What a loss to the public, that
the former are all exhausted, and that we must have
recourse to the more grievous method of levying taxes!
Mil 357
Were all the proprietors of land only stewards to the

public, must not necessity force them to practise all the arts
of oppression used by stewards; where the absence or
negligence of the proprietor render them secure against
enquiry?
It will scarcely be asserted, that no bounds ought ever
to be set to national debts; and that the public would be no
weaker, were twelve or fifteen shillings in the pound, landtax, mortgaged, with all the present customs and excises.
There is something, therefore, in the case, beside the mere
transferring of property from the one hand to another. In
500 years, the posterity of those now in the coaches, and of
those upon the boxes, will probably have changed places,
without affecting the public by these revolutions.
Suppose the public once fairly brought to that
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condition, to which it is hastening with such amazing

rapidity; suppose the land to be taxed eighteen or nineteen
shillings in the pound; for it can never bear the whole
twenty; suppose all the excises and customs to be screwed up
to the utmost which the nation can bear, without entirely
losing its commerce and industry; and suppose that all those
funds are mortgaged to perpetuity, and that the invention
and wit of all our projectors can find no new imposition,
which may serve as the foundation of a new loan; and let us
consider the necessary consequences of this situation.
Though the imperfect state of our political knowledge, and
the narrow capacities of men, make it difficult to fortel the
effects which will result from any untried measure, the
seeds of ruin are here scattered with such profusion as not
to escape the eye of the most careless observer.
In this unnatural state of society, the only persons, who
possess any revenue beyond the immediate effects of their
industry, are the stock-holders, who draw almost all the
rent of the land and houses, besides the produce of all the
customs and excises. These are men, who have no
connexions with the state, who can enjoy their revenue in
any part of the globe in which they chuse to reside, who will
naturally bury themselves in the capital or in great cities,
and who will sink into the lethargy of a stupid and
pampered luxury, without spirit,
Mil 358
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ambition, or enjoyment. Adieu to all ideas of nobility,

gentry, and family. The stocks can be transferred in an
instant, and being in such a fluctuating state, will seldom be
transmitted during three generations from father to son. Or
were they to remain ever so long in one family, they convey
no hereditary authority or credit to the possessor; and by
this means, the several ranks of men, which form a kind of
independent magistracy in a state, instituted by the hand of
nature, are entirely lost; and every man in authority derives
his influence from the commission alone of the sovereign.
No expedient remains for preventing or suppressing
insurrections, but mercenary armies: No expedient at all
remains for resisting tyranny: Elections are swayed by
bribery and corruption alone: And the middle power
between king and people being totally removed, a grievous
despotism must infallibly prevail. The landholders, despised
for their poverty, and hated for their oppressions, will be
utterly unable to make any opposition to it.
Though a resolution should be formed by the
legislature never to impose any tax which hurts commerce
and discourages industry, it will be impossible for men, in
subjects of such extreme delicacy, to reason so justly as
never to be mistaken, or amidst difficulties so urgent, never
to be seduced from their resolution. The continual
fluctuations in commerce require continual alterations in
the nature of the taxes; which exposes the legislature every
moment to the danger both of wilful and involuntary error.
And any great blow given to trade, whether by injudicious
taxes or by other accidents, throws the whole system of
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government into confusion.

But what expedient can the public now employ, even
supposing trade to continue in the most flourishing
condition, in order to support its foreign wars and
enterprizes, and to defend its own honour and interests, or
those of its allies? I do not ask how the public is to exert
such a prodigious power as it has maintained during our late
wars; where we have so much exceeded, not only our own
natural strength, but even that of the greatest empires. This
extravagance is the abuse complained of, as the source of all
the dangers, to which we are at
Mil 359
present exposed. But since we must still suppose great

commerce and opulence to remain, even after every fund is
mortgaged; these riches must be defended by proportional
power; and whence is the public to derive the revenue
which supports it? It must plainly be from a continual
taxation of the annuitants, or, which is the same thing, from
mortgaging anew, on every exigency, a certain part of their
annuities; and thus making them contribute to their own
defence, and to that of the nation. But the difficulties,
attending this system of policy, will easily appear, whether
we suppose the king to have become absolute master, or to
be still controuled by national councils, in which the
annuitants themselves must necessarily bear the principal
sway.
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If the prince has become absolute, as may naturally be

expected from this situation of affairs, it is so easy for him
to encrease his exactions upon the annuitants, which amount
only to the retaining money in his own hands, that this
species of property would soon lose all its credit, and the
whole income of every individual in the state must lie
entirely at the mercy of the sovereign: A degree of
despotism, which no oriental monarchy has ever yet
attained. If, on the contrary, the consent of the annuitants
be requisite for every taxation, they will never be persuaded
to contribute sufficiently even to the support of
government; as the diminution of their revenue must in that
case be very sensible, would not be disguised under the
appearance of a branch of excise or customs, and would not
be shared by any other order of the state, who are already
supposed to be taxed to the utmost. There are instances, in
some republics, of a hundredth penny, and sometimes of the
fiftieth, being given to the support of the state;
Mil 360
but this is always an extraordinary exertion of power, and

can never become the foundation of a constant national
defence. We have always found, where a government has
mortgaged all its revenues, that it necessarily sinks into a
state of languor, inactivity, and impotence.
Such are the inconveniencies, which may reasonably be
foreseen, of this situation, to which Great Britain is visibly
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tending. Not to mention, the numberless inconveniencies,

which cannot be foreseen, and which must result from so
monstrous a situation as that of making the public the chief
or sole proprietor of land, besides investing it with every
branch of customs and excise, which the fertile imagination
of ministers and projectors have been able to invent.
I must confess, that there is a strange supineness, from
long custom, creeped into all ranks of men, with regard to
public debts, not unlike what divines so vehemently
complain of with regard to their religious doctrines. We all
own, that the most sanguine imagination cannot hope,
either that this or any future ministry will be possessed of
such rigid and steady frugality, as to make a considerable
progress in the payment of our debts; or that the situation
of foreign affairs will, for any long time, allow them leisure
and tranquillity for such an undertaking. What then is to
become of us? Were we ever so good Christians, and ever so
resigned to Providence; this, methinks, were a curious
question, even considered as a speculative one, and what it
might not be altogether impossible to form some
conjectural solution of. The events here will depend little
upon the contingencies of battles, negociations, intrigues,
and factions. There seems to be a natural progress of things,
which may guide our reasoning. As it would have required
but a moderate share of prudence, when we first began this
practice of mortgaging, to have foretold, from the nature
of men and of ministers, that things would necessarily be
carried to the length we see; so now, that they have at last
happily reached it, it may not be difficult to guess at the
consequences. It must, indeed, be one of these two events;
either the nation must destroy public credit, or public credit
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Mil 361
will destroy the nation. It is impossible that they can both

subsist, after the manner they have been hitherto managed,
in this, as well as in some other countries.
There was, indeed, a scheme for the payment of our
debts, which was proposed by an excellent citizen, Mr.
Hutchinson, above thirty years ago, and which was much
approved of by some men of sense, but never was likely to
take effect. He asserted, that there was a fallacy in
imagining that the public owed this debt; for that really
every individual owed a proportional share of it, and paid,
in his taxes, a proportional share of the interest, beside the
expence of levying these taxes. Had we not better, then,
says he, make a distribution of the debt among ourselves,
and each of us contribute a sum suitable to his property, and
by that means discharge at once all our funds and public
mortgages? He seems not to have considered, that the
laborious poor pay a considerable part of the taxes by their
annual consumptions, though they could not advance, at
once, a proportional part of the sum required. Not to
mention, that property in money and stock in trade might
easily be concealed or disguised; and that visible property in
lands and houses would really at last answer for the whole:
An inequality and oppression, which never would be
submitted to. But though this project is not likely to take
place; it is not altogether improbable, that, when the nation
becomes heartily sick of their debts, and is cruelly
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oppressed by them, some daring projector may arise with

visionary schemes for their discharge. And as public credit
will begin, by that time, to be a little frail, the least touch
will destroy it, as happened in France during the regency;
and in this manner it will die of the doctor.
But it is more probable, that the breach of national
faith will be the necessary effect of wars, defeats,
misfortunes, and
Mil 362
public calamities, or even perhaps of victories and

conquests. I must confess, when I see princes and states
fighting and quarrelling, amidst their debts, funds, and
public mortgages, it always brings to my mind a match of
cudgel-playing fought in a China shop. How can it be
expected, that sovereigns will spare a species of property,
which is pernicious to themselves and to the public, when
they have so little compassion on lives and properties, that
are useful to both? Let the time come (and surely it will
come) when the new funds, created for the exigencies of the
year, are not subscribed to, and raise not the money
projected. Suppose, either that the cash of the nation is
exhausted; or that our faith, which has hitherto been so
ample, begins to fail us. Suppose, that, in this distress, the
nation is threatened with an invasion; a rebellion is
suspected or broken out at home; a squadron cannot be
equipped for want of pay, victuals, or repairs; or even a
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foreign subsidy cannot be advanced. What must a prince or

minister do in such an emergence? The right of selfpreservation is unalienable in every individual, much more
in every community. And the folly of our statesmen must
then be greater than the folly of
Mil 363
those who first contracted debt, or, what is more, than that
of those who trusted, or continue to trust this security, if
these statesmen have the means of safety in their hands, and
do not employ them. The funds, created and mortgaged,
will, by that time, bring in a large yearly revenue, sufficient
for the defence and security of the nation: Money is
perhaps lying in the exchequer, ready for the discharge of
the quarterly interest: Necessity calls, fear urges, reason
exhorts, compassion alone exclaims: The money will
immediately be seized for the current service, under the
most solemn protestations, perhaps, of being immediately
replaced. But no more is requisite. The whole fabric,
already tottering, falls to the ground, and buries thousands
in its ruins. And this, I think, may be called the natural death
of public credit: For to this period it tends as naturally as an
animal body to its dissolution and destruction.
So great dupes are the generality of mankind, that,
notwithstanding such a violent shock to public credit, as a
voluntary bankruptcy in England would occasion, it would
not probably be long ere credit would again revive in as
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flourishing a condition as before. The present king of

France, during the late war, borrowed money at lower
interest than ever his grandfather did; and as low as the
British parliament, comparing the natural rate of interest
in both kingdoms. And though men are commonly more
governed by what they have seen, than by what they
foresee, with whatever certainty; yet promises,
protestations, fair appearances, with the allurements of
present interest, have such powerful influence as few are
able to resist. Mankind are, in all ages, caught by the same
baits: The same tricks, played over and over again, still
trepan them. The heights of popularity and patriotism are
still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to
treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the
glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy. The
fear of an everlasting destruction of credit, allowing it to be
an evil, is a needless bugbear. A prudent man, in reality,
would rather lend to the
Mil 364
public immediately after we had taken a spunge to our

debts, than at present; as much as an opulent knave, even
though one could not force him to pay, is a preferable
debtor to an honest bankrupt: For the former, in order to
carry on business, may find it his interest to discharge his
debts, where they are not exorbitant: The latter has it not in
his power. The reasoning of Tacitus 6, as it is eternally
0
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true, is very applicable to our present case. Sed vulgus ad

magnitudinem beneficiorum aderat: Stultissimus quisque pecuniis
mercabatur: Apud sapientes cassa habebantur, quae neque dari neque
accipi, salva republica, poterant. The public is a debtor, whom
no man can oblige to pay. The only check which the
creditors have upon her, is the interest of preserving credit;
an interest, which may easily be overbalanced by a great
debt, and by a difficult and extraordinary emergence, even
supposing that credit irrecoverable. Not to mention, that a
present necessity often forces states into measures, which
are, strictly speaking, against their interest.
These two events, supposed above, are calamitous, but
not the most calamitous. Thousands are thereby sacrificed
to the safety of millions. But we are not without danger,
that the contrary event may take place, and that millions
may be sacrificed for ever to the temporary safety of
thousands 7*. Our
0
Mil 365
popular government, perhaps, will render it difficult or

dangerous for a minister to venture on so desperate an
expedient, as that of a voluntary bankruptcy. And though
the house of Lords be altogether composed of proprietors
of land, and the house of Commons chiefly; and
consequently neither of them can be supposed to have great
property in the funds. Yet the connections of the members
may be so great with the proprietors, as to render them
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more tenacious of public faith, than prudence, policy, or

even justice, strictly speaking, requires. And perhaps too,
our foreign enemies may be so politic as to discover, that
our safety lies in despair, and may not, therefore, show the
danger, open and barefaced, till it be inevitable. The
balance of power in Europe, our grandfathers, our fathers,
and we, have all deemed too unequal to be preserved
without our attention and assistance. But our children,
weary of the struggle, and fettered with incumbrances, may
sit down secure, and see their neighbours oppressed and
conquered; till, at last, they themselves and their creditors
lie both at the mercy of the conqueror. And this may
properly enough be denominated the violent death of our
public credit.
These seem to be the events, which are not very
remote, and which reason foresees as clearly almost as she
can do any thing that lies in the womb of time. And though
the ancients maintained, that in order to reach the gift of
prophecy, a certain divine fury or madness was requisite,
one may safely affirm, that, in order to deliver such
prophecies as these, no more is necessary, than merely to be
in ones senses, free from the influence of popular madness
and delusion.
N O T E S.
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*1. Essay V. [Of the Balance of Trade.]

2. Alcib. i.
3. Lib. iii.
4. Plut. in vita Alex. He makes these treasures amount to
80,000 talents, or about 15 millions sterl. Quintus Curtius (lib. v.
cap. 2.) says, that Alexander found in Susa above 50,000 talents.
5. Strabo, lib. iv.
6. Hist. lib. iii.
*7. See NOTE [S].
NOTE [S], p. 384. [Mil 364.]
Have heard it has been computed, that all the creditors

of the public, natives and foreigners, amount only to
17,000. These make a figure at present on their income; but
in case of a public bankruptcy, would, in an instant, become
the lowest, as well as the most wretched of the people. The
dignity and authority of the landed gentry and nobility is
much better rooted; and would render the contention very
unequal, if ever we come to that extremity. One would
incline to assign to this event a very near period, [Mil 365] such
as half a century, had not our fathers prophecies of this
kind been already found fallacious, by the duration of our
public credit so much beyond all reasonable expectation.
When the astrologers in France were every year foretelling
the death of Henry IV. These fellows, says he, must be right at
last. We shall, therefore, be more cautious than to assign any
precise date; and shall content ourselves with pointing out
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the event in general.
Mil 366
E S S A Y X.
Of some Remarkable Customs.
Shall observe three remarkable customs in three

celebrated governments; and shall conclude from the
whole, that all general maxims in politics ought to be
established with great caution; and that irregular and
extraordinary appearances are frequently discovered in the
moral, as well as in the physical world. The former, perhaps,
we can better account for, after they happen, from springs
and principles, of which every one has, within himself, or
from observation, the strongest assurance and conviction:
But it is often fully as impossible for human prudence,
before-hand, to foresee and foretel them.
I. One would think it essential to every supreme
council or assembly, which debates, that entire liberty of
speech should be granted to every member, and that all
motions or reason-
Mil 367
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ings should be received, which can any wise tend to

illustrate the point under deliberation. One would
conclude, with still greater assurance, that, after a motion
was made, which was voted and approved by that assembly in
which the legislative power is lodged, the member who
made the motion must for ever be exempted from future
trial or enquiry. But no political maxim can, at first sight,
appear more undisputable, than that he must, at least, be
secured from all inferior jurisdiction; and that nothing less
than the same supreme legislative assembly, in their
subsequent meetings, could make him accountable for those
motions and harangues, to which they had before given
their approbation. But these axioms, however irrefragable
they may appear, have all failed in the Athenian
government, from causes and principles too, which appear
almost inevitable.
By the , or indictment of illegality,
(though it has not been remarked by antiquaries or
commentators) any man was tried and punished in a common
court of judicature, for any law which had passed upon his
motion, in the assembly of the people, if that law appeared
to the court unjust, or prejudicial to the public. Thus
Demosthenes, finding that ship-money was levied
irregularly, and that the poor bore the same burden as the
rich in equipping the gallies, corrected this inequality by a
very useful law, which proportioned the expence to the
revenue and income of each individual. He moved for this
law in the assembly: he proved its advantages 1*; he
0
convinced the people, the only legislature in Athens; the

law passed, and was carried into execution: Yet was he tried
0
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in a criminal court for that law, upon the complaint of the

rich, who resented the alteration that he had introduced
into the finances 2. He was indeed acquitted, upon proving
anew the usefulness of his law.
Mil 368
Ctesiphon moved in the assembly of the people, that

particular honours should be conferred on Demosthenes, as
on a citizen affectionate and useful to the commonwealth:
The people, convinced of this truth, voted those honours:
Yet was Ctesiphon tried by the . It was
asserted, among other topics, that Demosthenes was not a
good citizen, nor affectionate to the commonwealth: And
the orator was called upon to defend his friend, and
consequently himself; which he executed by that sublime
piece of eloquence, that has ever since been the admiration
of mankind.
0
After the battle of Chaeronea, a law was passed upon

the motion of Hyperides, giving liberty to slaves, and
inrolling them in the troops 3*. On account of this law, the
orator was afterwards tried by the indictment abovementioned, and defended himself, among other topics, by
that stroke celebrated by Plutarch and Longinus. It was not
I, said he, that moved for this law: It was the necessities of war; it
was the battle of Chaeronea. The orations of Demosthenes
abound with many instances of trials of this nature, and
prove clearly, that nothing was more commonly practised.
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The Athenian Democracy was such a tumultuous

government as we can scarcely form a notion of in the
present age of the world. The whole collective body of the
people voted in every law, without any limitation of
property, without any distinction of rank, without controul
from any magistracy or senate 4; and consequently without
0
regard to order, justice, or
Mil 369
prudence. The Athenians soon became sensible of the

mischiefs attending this constitution: But being averse to
checking themselves by any rule or restriction, they
resolved, at least, to check their demagogues or counsellors,
by the fear of future punishment and enquiry. They
accordingly instituted this remarkable law; a law esteemed
so essential to their form of government, that AEschines
insists on it as a known truth, that, were it abolished or
neglected, it were impossible for the Democracy to
subsist 5.
0
The people feared not any ill consequence to liberty

from the authority of the criminal courts; because these
were nothing but very numerous juries, chosen by lot from
among the people. And they justly considered themselves as
in a state of perpetual pupillage; where they had an
authority, after they came to the use of reason, not only to
retract and controul whatever had been determined, but to
punish any guardian for measures which they had embraced
0
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by his persuasion. The same law had place in Thebes 6; and

for the same reason.
It appears to have been a usual practice in Athens, on
the establishment of any law esteemed very useful or
popular, to prohibit for ever its abrogation and repeal. Thus
the demagogue, who diverted all the public revenues to the
support of shows and spectacles, made it criminal so much as
to move for a repeal of this law 7*. Thus Leptines moved for
0
a law, not only
Mil 370
0
to recal all the immunities formerly granted, but to deprive

the people for the future of the power of granting any
more 8. Thus all bills of attainder 9 were forbid, or laws
that affected one Athenian, without extending to the
whole commonwealth. These absurd clauses, by which the
legislature vainly attempted to bind itself for ever,
proceeded from an universal sense in the people of their
own levity and inconstancy.
0
II. A wheel within a wheel, such as we observe in the

German empire, is considered by Lord Shaftesbury 10 as
an absurdity in politics: But what must we say to two equal
wheels, which govern the same political machine, without
any mutual check, controul, or subordination; and yet
preserve the greatest harmony and concord? To establish
two distinct legislatures, each of which possesses full and
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absolute authority within itself, and stands in no need of the

others assistance, in order to give validity to its acts; this
may appear, before-hand, altogether impracticable, as long
as men are actuated by the passions of ambition, emulation,
and avarice,
Mil 371
which have hitherto been their chief governing principles.

And should I assert, that the state I have in my eye was
divided into two distinct factions, each of which
predominated in a distinct legislature, and yet produced no
clashing in these independent powers; the supposition may
appear incredible. And if, to augment the paradox, I should
affirm, that this disjointed, irregular government, was the
most active, triumphant, and illustrious commonwealth, that
ever yet appeared; I should certainly be told, that such a
political chimera was as absurd as any vision of priests or
poets. But there is no need for searching long, in order to
prove the reality of the foregoing suppositions: For this was
actually the case with the Roman republic.
The legislative power was there lodged in the comitia
centuriata and comitia tributa. In the former, it is well known,
the people voted according to their census; so that when the
Mil 372
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first class was unanimous, though it contained not, perhaps,

the hundredth part of the commonwealth, it determined the
whole; and, with the authority of the senate, established a
law. In the latter, every vote was equal; and as the authority
of the senate was not there requisite, the lower people
entirely prevailed, and gave law to the whole state. In all
party-divisions, at first between the Patricians and
Plebeians, afterwards between the nobles and the people,
the interest of the Aristocracy was predominant in the first
legislature; that of the Democracy in the second: The one
could always destroy what the other had established: Nay,
the one, by a sudden and unforeseen motion, might take the
start of the other, and totally annihilate its rival, by a vote,
which, from the nature of the constitution, had the full
authority of a law. But no such contest is observed in the
history of Rome: No instance of a quarrel between these
two legislatures; though many between the parties that
governed in each. Whence arose this concord, which may
seem so extraordinary?
The legislature established in Rome, by the authority
of Servius Tullius, was the comitia centuriata, which, after
the expulsion of the kings, rendered the government, for
some time, very aristocratical. But the people, having
numbers and force on their side, and being elated with
frequent conquests and victories in their foreign wars,
always prevailed when pushed to extremity, and first
extorted from the senate the magistracy of the tribunes, and
next the legislative power of the comitia tributa. It then
behoved the nobles to be more careful than ever not to
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provoke the people. For beside the force which the latter
were always possessed of, they had now got possession of
legal authority, and could instantly break in pieces any
order or institution which directly opposed them. By
intrigue, by influence, by money, by combination, and by
the respect paid to their character, the nobles might often
prevail, and direct the whole machine of government: But
had they openly set their comitia centuriata in opposition to
the tributa, they had soon lost the advantage of that
institution, together with their consuls, praetors, ediles,
and all the magis-
Mil 373
trates elected by it. But the comitia tributa, not having the
same reason for respecting the centuriata, frequently
repealed laws favourable to the Aristocracy: They limited
the authority of the nobles, protected the people from
oppression, and controuled the actions of the senate and
magistracy. The centuriata found it convenient always to
submit; and though equal in authority, yet being inferior in
power, durst never directly give any shock to the other
legislature, either by repealing its laws, or establishing laws,
which, it foresaw, would soon be repealed by it.
No instance is found of any opposition or struggle
between these comitia; except one slight attempt of this
kind, mentioned by Appian in the third book of his civil
wars. Mark Anthony, resolving to deprive Decimus Brutus
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of the government of Cisalpine Gaul, railed in the Forum,

and called one of the comitia, in order to prevent the
meeting of the other, which had been ordered by the
senate. But affairs were then fallen into such confusion, and
the Roman constitution was so near its final dissolution, that
no inference can be drawn from such an expedient. This
contest, besides, was founded more on form than party. It
was the senate who ordered the comitia tributa, that they
might obstruct the meeting of the centuriata, which, by the
constitution, or at least forms of the government, could
alone dispose of provinces.
Cicero was recalled by the comitia centuriata, though
banished by the tributa, that is, by a plebiscitum. But his
banishment, we may observe, never was considered as a legal
deed, arising from the free choice and inclination of the
people. It was always ascribed to the violence alone of
Clodius, and to the disorders introduced by him into the
government.
III. The third custom, which we purpose to remark,
regards England, and though it be not so important as those
which we have pointed out in Athens and Rome, is no less
Mil 374
singular and unexpected. It is a maxim in politics, which we

readily admit as undisputed and universal, that a power,
however great, when granted by law to an eminent
magistrate, is not so dangerous to liberty, as an authority,
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however inconsiderable, which he acquires from violence

and usurpation. For, besides that the law always limits every
power which it bestows, the very receiving it as a concession
establishes the authority whence it is derived, and preserves
the harmony of the constitution. By the same right that one
prerogative is assumed without law, another may also be
claimed, and another, with still greater facility; while the
first usurpations both serve as precedents to the following,
and give force to maintain them. Hence the heroism of
Hampdens conduct, who sustained the whole violence of
royal prosecution, rather than pay a tax of twenty shillings,
not imposed by parliament; hence the care of all English
patriots to guard against the first encroachments of the
crown; and hence alone the existence, at this day, of
English liberty.
There is, however, one occasion, where the parliament
has departed from this maxim; and that is, in the pressing of
seamen. The exercise of an irregular power is here tacitly
permitted in the crown; and though it has frequently been
Mil 375
under deliberation, how that power might be rendered

legal, and granted, under proper restrictions, to the
sovereign, no safe expedient could ever be proposed for
that purpose; and the danger to liberty always appeared
greater from law than from usurpation. While this power is
exercised to no other end than to man the navy, men
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willingly submit to it, from a sense of its use and necessity;

and the sailors, who are alone affected by it, find no body to
support them, in claiming the rights and privileges, which
the law grants, without distinction, to all English subjects.
But were this power, on any occasion, made an instrument
of faction or ministerial tyranny, the opposite faction, and
indeed all lovers of their country, would immediately take
the alarm, and support the injured party; the liberty of
Englishmen would be asserted; juries would be implacable;
and the tools of tyranny, acting both against law and equity,
would meet with the severest vengeance. On the other
hand, were the parliament to grant such an authority, they
would probably fall into one of these two inconveniencies:
They would either bestow it under so many restrictions as
would make it lose its effect, by cramping the authority of
the crown; or they would render it so large and
comprehensive, as might give occasion to great abuses, for
which we could, in that case, have no remedy. The very
irregularity of the practice, at present, prevents its abuses,
by affording so easy a remedy against them.
I pretend not, by this reasoning, to exclude all
possibility of contriving a register for seamen, which might
man the navy, without being dangerous to liberty. I only
observe, that no satisfactory scheme of that nature has yet
been proposed. Rather than adopt any project hitherto
invented, we continue a practice seemingly the most absurd
and unaccountable. Authority, in times of full internal
peace and concord, is armed against law. A continued
violence is permitted in the crown, amidst the greatest
jealousy and watchfulness in the people; nay proceeding
from those very principles: Liberty, in a country of the
highest liberty, is left entirely to its own defence, without
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any countenance or protection: The wild
Mil 376
state of nature is renewed, in one of the most civilized

societies of mankind: And great violence and disorder are
committed with impunity; while the one party pleads
obedience to the supreme magistrate, the other the sanction
of fundamental laws.
N O T E S.
*1. His harangue for it is still extant; .
2. Pro Ctesiphonte.
*3. Plutarchus in vita decem oratorum. Demosthenes gives a
different account of this law. Contra Aristogiton. orat. II. He says,
that its purport was, to render the , or to restore the
privilege of bearing offices to those who had been declared
incapable. Perhaps these were both clauses of the same law.
4. The senate of the Bean was only a less numerous mob,
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chosen by lot from among the people; and their authority was not
great.
5. In Ctesiphontem. It is remarkable, that the first step after
the dissolution of the Democracy by Critias and the Thirty, was
to annul the , as we learn from Demosthenes
. The orator in this oration gives us the words of the
law, establishing the , pag. 297. ex edit. Aldi. And

he accounts for it, from the same principles we here reason upon.
6. Plut. in vita Pelop.
*7. Demost. Olynth. I.2.
8. Demost. contra Lept.
9. Demost. contra Aristocratem.
10. Essay on the freedom of wit and humour, part 3. 2.
Mil 377
E S S A Y XI.
Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations.
HERE is very little ground, either from reason or

observation, to conclude the world eternal or
incorruptible. The continual and rapid motion of matter,
the violent revolutions with which every part is agitated, the
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changes remarked in the heavens, the plain traces as well as

tradition of an universal deluge, or general convulsion of
the elements; all these prove strongly the mortality of this
fabric of the world, and its passage, by corruption or
dissolution, from one state or order to another. It must
therefore, as well as each individual form which it contains,
have its infancy, youth, manhood, and old age; and it is
probable, that, in all these variations, man, equally with
every animal and vegetable, will partake. In the flourishing
age of the world, it may be expected, that the
Mil 378
human species should possess greater vigour both of mind

and body, more prosperous health, higher spirits, longer
life, and a stronger inclination and power of generation.
But if the general system of things, and human society of
course, have any such gradual revolutions, they are too slow
to be discernible in that short period which is
comprehended by history and tradition. Stature and force
of body, length of life, even courage and extent of genius,
seem hitherto to have been naturally, in all ages, pretty
much the same. The arts and sciences, indeed, have
flourished in one period, and have decayed in another: But
we may observe, that, at the time when they rose to greatest
perfection among one people, they were perhaps totally
unknown to all the neighbouring nations; and though they
universally decayed in one age, yet in a succeeding
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generation they again revived, and diffused themselves over

the world. As far, therefore, as observation reaches, there is
no universal difference discernible in the human species;
and though it were allowed, that the universe, like an
animal body, had a natural progress from infancy to old age;
yet as it must still be uncertain, whether, at present, it be
advancing to its point of perfection, or declining from it,
we cannot thence presuppose any decay in human nature 1*.
0
To prove, therefore, or account for that superior

populousness of antiquity, which is commonly supposed, by
the imaginary youth or vigour of the world, will scarcely be
admitted by any just reasoner. These general physical causes
ought entirely to be excluded from this question.
Mil 379
There are indeed some more particular physical causes of

importance. Diseases are mentioned in antiquity, which are
almost unknown to modern medicine; and new diseases have
arisen and propagated themselves, of which there are no
traces in ancient history. In this particular we may observe,
upon comparison, that the disadvantage is much on the side
of the moderns. Not to mention some others of less
moment; the small-pox commitcommits such ravages, as
would almost alone account for the great superiority
ascribed to ancient times. The tenth or the twelfth part of
mankind, destroyed every gener-
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Mil 380
ation, should make a vast difference, it may be thought, in

the numbers of the people; and when joined to venereal
distempers, a new plague diffused every where, this disease
is perhaps equivalent, by its constant operation, to the three
great scourges of mankind, war, pestilence, and famine.
Were it certain, therefore, that ancient times were more
populous than the present, and could no moral causes be
assigned for so great a change; these physical causes alone,
in the opinion of many, would be sufficient to give us
satisfaction on that head.
But is it certain, that antiquity was so much more
populous, as is pretended? The extravagancies of Vossius,
with regard to this subject, are well known. But an author of
much greater genius and discernment has ventured to
affirm, that, according to the best computations which these
subjects will admit of, there are not now, on the face of the
earth, the fiftieth part of mankind, which existed in the
time of Julius Caesar 2. It may easily be observed, that
0
the comparison, in this case, must be imperfect, even

though we confine our-
Mil 381
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selves to the scene of ancient history; Europe, and the

nations round the Mediterranean. We know not exactly
the numbers of any European kingdom, or even city, at
present: How can we pretend to calculate those of ancient
cities and states, where historians have left us such
imperfect traces? For my part, the matter appears to me so
uncertain, that, as I intend to throw together some
reflections on that head, I shall intermingle the enquiry
concerning causes with that concerning facts; which ought
never to be admitted, where the facts can be ascertained
with any tolerable assurance. We shall, first, consider
whether it be probable, from what we know of the situation
of society in both periods, that antiquity must have been
more populous; secondly, whether in reality it was so. If I can
make it appear, that the conclusion is not so certain as is
pretended, in favour of antiquity, it is all I aspire to.
In general, we may observe, that the question, with
regard to the comparative populousness of ages or
kingdoms, implies important consequences, and commonly
determines concerning the preference of their whole
police, their manners, and the constitution of their
government. For as there is in all men, both male and
female, a desire and power of generation, more active than
is ever universally exerted, the restraints, which they lie
under, must proceed from some difficulties in their
situation, which it belongs to a wise legislature carefully to
observe and remove. Almost every man who thinks he can
maintain a family will have one; and the human species, at
this rate of propagation, would more than double every
generation. How fast do mankind multiply in every colony
or new settlement; where it is an easy matter to provide for
a family; and where men are nowise straitened or confined,
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as in long established governments? History tells us

frequently of plagues, which have swept away the third or
fourth part of a people: Yet in a generation or two, the
destruction was not perceived; and the society had again
acquired their former number. The lands which were
cultivated, the houses built, the commodities raised, the
riches acquired, enabled the people, who escaped,
immediately to marry, and to rear families,
Mil 382
which supplied the place of those who had perished 3. And

for a like reason, every wise, just, and mild government, by
rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will
always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and
riches. A country, indeed, whose climate and soil are fitted
for vines, will naturally be more populous than one which
produces corn only, and that more populous than one which
is only fitted for pasturage. In general, warm climates, as
the necessities of the inhabitants are there fewer, and
vegetation more powerful, are likely to be most populous:
But if every thing else be equal, it seems natural to expect,
that, wherever there are most happiness and virtue, and the
wisest institutions, there will also be most people.
Mil 383
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The question, therefore, concerning the populousness

of ancient and modern times, being allowed of great
importance, it will be requisite, if we would bring it to some
determination, to compare both the domestic and political
situation of these two periods, in order to judge of the facts
by their moral causes; which is the first view in which we
proposed to consider them.
The chief difference between the domestic oeconomy
of the ancients and that of the moderns consists in the
practice of slavery, which prevailed among the former, and
which has been abolished for some centuries throughout the
greater part of Europe. Some passionate admirers of the
ancients, and zealous partizans of civil liberty, (for these
sentiments, as they are, both of them, in the main,
extremely just, are found to be almost inseparable) cannot
forbear regretting the loss of this institution; and whilst
they brand all submission to the government of a single
person with the harsh denomination of slavery, they would
gladly reduce the greater part of mankind to real slavery
and subjection. But to one who considers coolly on the
subject it will appear, that human nature, in general, really
enjoys more liberty at present, in the most arbitrary
government of Europe, than it ever did during the most
flourishing period of ancient times. As much as submission
to a petty prince, whose dominions extend not beyond a
single city, is more grievous than obedience to a great
monarch; so much is domestic slavery more cruel and
oppressive than any civil subjection whatsoever. The more
the master is removed from us in place and rank, the greater
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liberty we enjoy; the less are our actions inspected and

controled; and the fainter that cruel comparison becomes
between our own subjection, and the freedom, and even
dominion of another. The remains which are found of
domestic slavery, in the American colonies, and among
some European nations, would never surely create a desire
of rendering it more universal. The little humanity,
commonly observed in persons, accustomed, from their
infancy, to exercise so great authority over their fellowcreatures, and to trample upon human nature, were
sufficient
Mil 384
alone to disgust us with that unbounded dominion. Nor can

a more probable reason be assigned for the severe, I might
say, barbarous manners of ancient times, than the practice
of domestic slavery; by which every man of rank was
rendered a petty tyrant, and educated amidst the flattery,
submission, and low debasement of his slaves.
According to ancient practice, all checks were on the
inferior, to restrain him to the duty of submission; none on
the superior, to engage him to the reciprocal duties of
gentleness and humanity. In modern times, a bad servant
finds not easily a good master, nor a bad master a good
servant; and the checks are mutual, suitably to the inviolable
and eternal laws of reason and equity.
The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves in an
0
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island of the Tyber, there to starve, seems to have been

pretty common in Rome; and whoever recovered, after
having been so exposed, had his liberty given him, by an
edict of the emperor Claudius; in which it was likewise
forbidden to kill any slave merely for old age or sickness 4*.
But supposing that this edict was strictly obeyed, would it
better the domestic treatment of slaves, or render their lives
much more comfortable? We may imagine what others
would practise, when it was the professed maxim of the
elder Cato, to sell his superannuated slaves for any price,
rather than maintain what he esteemed a useless burden 5.
0
The ergastula, or dungeons, where slaves in chains were
Mil 385
forced to work, were very common all over Italy.

Columella 6 advises, that they be always built under
ground; and recommends 7 it as the duty of a careful
overseer, to call over every day the names of these slaves,
like the mustering of a regiment or ships company, in order
to know presently when any of them had deserted. A proof
of the frequency of these ergastula, and of the great number
of slaves usually confined in them.
0
A chained slave for a porter, was usual in Rome, as

appears from Ovid 8*, and other authors 9. Had not these
people shaken off all sense of compassion towards that
unhappy part of their species, would they have presented
0
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0
their friends, at the first entrance, with such an image of the

severity of the master, and misery of the slave?
Nothing so common in all trials, even of civil causes, as
to call for the evidence of slaves; which was always extorted
by the most exquisite torments. Demosthenes says 10*, that,
0
where it was possible to produce, for the same fact, either

freemen or slaves, as witnesses, the judges always preferred
the torturing of slaves, as a more certain evidence 11.
Seneca draws a picture of that disorderly luxury, which
changes day into night, and night into day, and inverts every
stated hour of every office in life. Among other
circumstances,
Mil 386
such as displacing the meals and times of bathing, he

mentions, that, regularly about the third hour of the night,
the neighbours of one, who indulges this false refinement,
hear the noise of whips and lashes; and, upon enquiry, find
that he is then taking an account of the conduct of his
servants, and giving them due correction and discipline.
This is not remarked as an instance of cruelty, but only of
disorder, which, even in actions the most usual and
methodical, changes the fixed hours that an established
custom had assigned for them 12.
0
But our present business is only to consider the

influence of slavery on the populousness of a state. It is
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pretended, that, in this particular, the ancient practice had

infinitely the advantage, and was the chief cause of that
extreme populousness, which is supposed in those times. At
present, all masters discourage the marrying of their male
servants, and admit not by any means the marriage of the
female, who are then supposed altogether incapacitated for
their service. But where the property of the servants is
lodged in the master, their marriage forms his riches, and
brings him a succession of slaves that supply the place of
those whom age and infirmity have disabled. He
encourages, therefore, their propagation as much as that of
his cattle; rears the young with the same care; and
Mil 387
educates them to some art or calling, which may render

them more useful or valuable to him. The opulent are, by
this policy, interested in the being at least, though not in
the well-being of the poor; and enrich themselves, by
encreasing the number and industry of those who are
subjected to them. Each man, being a sovereign in his own
family, has the same interest with regard to it, as the prince
with regard to the state; and has not, like the prince, any
opposite motives of ambition or vain-glory, which may lead
him to depopulate his little sovereignty. All of it is, at all
times, under his eye; and he has leisure to inspect the most
minute detail of the marriage and education of his
subjects 13*.
0
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Such are the consequences of domestic slavery,

according to the first aspect and appearance of things: But
if we enter more deeply into the subject, we shall perhaps
find reason to retract our hasty determinations. The
comparison is shocking between the management of human
creatures and that of cattle; but being extremely just, when
applied to the present subject, it may be proper to trace the
consequences of it. At the capital, near all great cities, in all
populous, rich, industrious provinces, few cattle are bred.
Provisions, lodging, attendance, labour are there dear; and
men find their account better in buying the cattle, after
they come to a certain age, from the remoter and cheaper
countries. These are consequently the only breeding
countries for cattle; and by a parity of reason, for men too,
when the latter are put on the same footing with the
former. To rear a child in London, till he could be
serviceable, would cost much dearer, than to buy one of the
same age from Scotland or Ireland; where he had been
bred in a cottage, covered with rags, and fed on oatmeal or
potatoes. Those who had slaves, therefore, in all the richer
and
Mil 388
more populous countries, would discourage the pregnancy

of the females, and either prevent or destroy the birth. The
human species would perish in those places where it ought
to encrease the fastest; and a perpetual recruit be wanted
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from the poorer and more desert provinces. Such a

continued drain would tend mightily to depopulate the
state, and render great cities ten times more destructive
than with us; where every man is master of himself, and
provides for his children from the powerful instinct of
nature, not the calculations of sordid interest. If London, at
present, without much encreasing, needs a yearly recruit
from the country, of 5000 people, as is usually computed,
what must it require, if the greater part of the tradesmen
and common people were slaves, and were hindered from
breeding by their avaricious masters?
0
All ancient authors tell us, that there was a perpetual

flux of slaves to Italy from the remoter provinces,
particularly Syria, Cilicia 14*, Cappadocia, and the Lesser
0
Asia, Thrace, and AEgypt: Yet the number of people did

not encrease in Italy; and writers complain of the continual
decay of industry and agriculture 15. Where then is that
extreme fertility of the Roman slaves, which is commonly
supposed? So far from multiplying, they could not, it seems,
so much as keep up the stock, without immense recruits.
And though great numbers were continually manumitted
and converted into Roman citizens, the numbers even of
these did not encrease 16, till the freedom of the city was
0
communicated to foreign provinces.
Mil 389
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The term for a slave, born and bred in the family, was
verna 17; and these slaves seem to have been entitled by
0
custom to privileges and indulgences beyond others; a

sufficient reason why the masters would not be fond of
rearing many of that kind 18. Whoever is acquainted with
the maxims of our planters, will acknowledge the justness of
this observation 19*.
Mil 390
0
Atticus is much praised by his historian for the care,

which he took in recruiting his family from the slaves born
in it 20*: May we not thence infer, that this practice was not
then very common?
0
The names of slaves in the Greek comedies, Syrus,

Mysus, Geta, Thrax, Davus, Lydus, Phryx, &c. afford a
presumption, that, at Athens at least, most of the slaves
were imported from foreign countries. The Athenians, says
Strabo 21, gave to their slaves, either the names of the
nations whence they were bought, as Lydus, Syrus; or the
names that were most common among those nations, as
Manes or Midas to a Phrygian, Tibias to a Paphlagonian.
Demosthenes, having mentioned a law which forbad
any man to strike the slave of another, praises the humanity
0
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of this law; and adds, that, if the barbarians from whom the
slaves were bought, had information, that their countrymen
met with such gentle treatment, they would entertain a
great esteem for the Athenians 22. Isocrates 23 too
insinuates, that
Mil 391
the slaves of the Greeks were generally or very commonly

barbarians. Aristotle in his Politics 24 plainly supposes,
that a slave is always a foreigner. The ancient comic writers
represented the slaves as speaking a barbarous language 25*.
This was an imitation of nature.
It is well known that Demosthenes, in his nonage, had
been defrauded of a large fortune by his tutors, and that
afterwards he recovered, by a prosecution at law, the value
of his patrimony. His orations, on that occasion, still
remain, and contain an exact detail of the whole substance
left by his father 26*, in money, merchandise, houses, and
0
slaves, together with the value of each particular. Among

the rest were 52 slaves, handicraftsmen, namely, 32 swordcutlers, and 20 cabinet-makers 27; all males; not a word of
any wives, children or family, which they certainly would
have had, had it been a common practice at Athens to breed
from the slaves: And the value of the whole must have much
depended on that circumstance. No female slaves are even
so much as mentioned, except some house-maids, who
0
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belonged to his mother. This argument has great force, if it

be not altogether conclusive.
Consider this passage of Plutarch 28, speaking of the
Elder Cato. He had a great number of slaves, whom he
took care to buy at the sales of prisoners of war; and he
chose them young, that they might easily be accustomed to
any diet or manner of life, and be instructed in any business
or labour, as men teach any thing to young dogs or horses.
And esteeming love the chief source of all disorders, he
allowed the male slaves to have a commerce with the female
in his family,
Mil 392
upon paying a certain sum for this privilege: But he strictly

prohibited all intrigues out of his family. Are there any
symptoms in this narration of that care which is supposed in
the ancients, of the marriage and propagation of their
slaves? If that was a common practice, founded on general
interest, it would surely have been embraced by Cato, who
was a great oeconomist, and lived in times when the
ancient frugality and simplicity of manners were still in
credit and reputation.
0
It is expressly remarked by the writers of the Roman

law, that scarcely any ever purchase slaves with a view of
breeding from them 29*.
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Mil 393
Our lackeys and house-maids, I own, do not serve

much to multiply their species: But the ancients, besides
those who attended on their person, had almost all their
labour performed, and even manufactures executed, by
slaves, who lived, many of them, in their family; and some
great men possessed to the number of 10,000. If there be
any suspicion, therefore, that this institution was
unfavourable to propagation, (and the same reason, at least
in part, holds with regard to ancient slaves as modern
servants) how destructive must slavery have proved?
0
History mentions a Roman nobleman, who had 400

slaves under the same roof with him: And having been
assassinated at home by the furious revenge of one of them,
the law was executed with rigour, and all without exception
were put to death 30. Many other Roman noblemen had
0
families equally, or more numerous; and I believe every one

will allow, that this would scarcely be practicable, were we
to suppose all the slaves married, and the females to be
breeders 31.
0
So early as the poet Hesiod 32, married slaves, whether
Mil 394
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male or female, were esteemed inconvenient. How much

more, where families had encreased to such an enormous
size as in Rome, and where the ancient simplicity of
manners was banished from all ranks of people?
Xenophon in his Oeconomics, where he gives
directions for the management of a farm, recommends a
strict care and attention of laying the male and the female
slaves at a distance from each other. He seems not to
suppose that they are ever married. The only slaves among
the Greeks that appear to have continued their own race,
were the Helotes, who had houses apart, and were more
the slaves of the public than of individuals 33*.
0
The same author 34 tells us, that Niciass overseer, by

agreement with his master, was obliged to pay him an
obolus a day for each slave; besides maintaining them, and
keeping up the number. Had the ancient slaves been all
breeders, this last circumstance of the contract had been
superfluous.
0
The ancients talk so frequently of a fixed, stated

portion of provisions assigned to each slave 35, that we are
naturally led to conclude, that slaves lived almost all single,
and received that portion as a kind of board-wages.
0
The practice, indeed, of marrying slaves seems not to

have been very common, even among the countrylabourers, where it is more naturally to be expected.
Cato 36, enumerating the slaves requisite to labour a
vineyard of a hundred acres, makes them amount to 15; the
overseer and his wife, villicus and villica, and 13 male slaves;
for an olive plantation of 240 acres,
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Mil 395
0
the overseer and his wife, and 11 male slaves; and so in

proportion to a greater or less plantation or vineyard.
Varro 37*, quoting this passage of Cato, allows his
computation to be just in every respect, except the last. For
as it is requisite, says he, to have an overseer and his wife,
whether the vineyard or plantation be great or small, this
must alter the exactness of the proportion. Had Catos
computation been erroneous in any other respect, it had
certainly been corrected by Varro, who seems fond of
discovering so trivial an error.
0
The same author 38, as well as Columella 39,

recommends it as requisite to give a wife to the overseer, in
order to attach him the more strongly to his masters
service. This was therefore a peculiar indulgence granted to
a slave, in whom so great confidence was reposed.
In the same place, Varro mentions it as an useful
precaution, not to buy too many slaves from the same
nation, lest they beget factions and seditions in the family:
A presumption, that in Italy, the greater part, even of the
country labouring slaves, (for he speaks of no other) were
bought from the remoter provinces. All the world knows,
that the family slaves in Rome, who were instruments of
show and luxury, were commonly imported from the east.
Hoc profecere, says Pliny, speaking of the jealous care of
masters, mancipiorum legiones, et in domo turba externa, ac
0
40
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servorum quoque causa nomenclator adhibendus 40.
Mil 396
It is indeed recommended by Varro 41, to propagate

young shepherds in the family from the old ones. For as
grasing farms were commonly in remote and cheap places,
and each shepherd lived in a cottage apart, his marriage and
encrease were not liable to the same inconveniencies as in
dearer places, and where many servants lived in the family;
which was universally the case in such of the Roman farms as
produced wine or corn. If we consider this exception with
regard to shepherds, and weigh the reasons of it, it will
serve for a strong confirmation of all our foregoing
suspicions 42*.
0
Columella 43, I own, advises the master to give a

reward, and even liberty to a female slave, that had reared
him above three children: A proof, that sometimes the
ancients propagated from their slaves; which, indeed,
cannot be denied. Were it otherwise, the practice of slavery,
being so common in antiquity, must have been destructive
to a degree which no expedient could repair. All I pretend
to infer from these reasonings is, that slavery is in general
disadvantageous both to the happiness and populousness of
mankind, and that its place is much better supplied by the
practice of hired servants.
0
The laws, or, as some writers call them, the seditions of

0
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the Gracchi, were occasioned by their observing the

encrease of slaves all over Italy, and the diminution of free
citizens. Appian 44 ascribes this encrease to the propagation
0
of the slaves: Plutarch 45 to the purchasing of barbarians,

who
were
chained and imprisoned,

46*. It is to be presumed that both causes
concurred.
Mil 397
Sicily, says Florus 47*, was full of ergastula, and was

0
cultivated by labourers in chains. Eunus and Athenio

excited the servile war, by breaking up these monstrous
prisons, and giving liberty to 60,000 slaves. The younger
Pompey augmented his army in Spain by the same
expedient 48. If the country labourers, throughout the
Roman empire, were so generally in this situation, and if it
was difficult or impossible to find separate lodgings for the
families of the city servants, how unfavourable to
propagation, as well as to humanity, must the institution of
domestic slavery be esteemed?
Constantinople, at present, requires the same recruits
Mil 398
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of slaves from all the provinces, that Rome did of old; and
these provinces are of consequence far from being
populous.
Egypt, according to Mons. Maillet, sends continual
colonies of black slaves to the other parts of the Turkish
empire; and receives annually an equal return of white: The
one brought from the inland parts of Africa; the other from
Mingrelia, Circassia, and Tartary.
Our modern convents are, no doubt, bad institutions:
But there is reason to suspect, that anciently every great
family in Italy, and probably in other parts of the world,
was a species of convent. And though we have reason to
condemn all those popish institutions, as nurseries of
superstition, burthensome to the public, and oppressive to
the poor prisoners, male as well as female; yet may it be
questioned whether they be so destructive to the
populousness of a state, as is commonly imagined. Were the
land, which belongs to a convent, bestowed on a nobleman,
he would spend its revenue on dogs, horses, grooms,
footmen, cooks, and house-maids; and his family would not
furnish many more citizens than the convent.
The common reason, why any parent thrusts his
daughters into nunneries, is, that he may not be
overburthened with too numerous a family; but the ancients
had a method almost as innocent, and more effectual to that
purpose, to wit, exposing their children in early infancy.
This practice was very common; and is not spoken of by any
author of those times with the horror it deserves, or
scarcely 49* even with disapprobation. Plutarch, the
0
50
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humane, good-natured Plutarch 50, men-
Mil 399
tions it as a merit in Attalus, king of Pergamus, that he

murdered, or, if you will, exposed all his own children, in
order to leave his crown to the son of his brother, Eumenes;
signalizing in this manner his gratitude and affection to
Eumenes, who had left him his heir preferably to that son.
It was Solon, the most celebrated of the sages of Greece,
that gave parents permission by law to kill their children 51.
0
Shall we then allow these two circumstances to

compensate each other, to wit, monastic vows and the
exposing of children, and to be unfavourable, in equal
degrees, to the propagation of mankind? I doubt the
advantage is here on the side of antiquity. Perhaps, by an
odd connexion of causes, the barbarous practice of the
ancients might rather render those times more populous. By
removing the terrors of too numerous a family it would
engage many people in marriage; and such is the force of
natural affection, that very few, in comparison, would have
resolution enough, when it came to the push, to carry into
execution their former intentions.
China, the only country where this practice of
exposing children prevails at present, is the most populous
country we know of; and every man is married before he is
twenty. Such early marriages could scarcely be general, had
0
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not men the prospect of so easy a method of getting rid of

their children. I own, that 52* Plutarch speaks of it as a very
general maxim of the poor to expose their children; and as
the rich were then averse to marriage, on account of the
courtship they met with
Mil 400
from those who expected legacies from them, the public

must have been in a bad situation between them 53.
Of all sciences there is none, where first appearances
are more deceitful than in politics. Hospitals for foundlings
seem favourable to the encrease of numbers; and perhaps,
may be so, when kept under proper restrictions. But when
they open the door to every one, without distinction, they
have probably a contrary effect, and are pernicious to the
state. It is computed, that every ninth child born at Paris, is
sent to the hospital; though it seems certain, according to
the common course of human affairs, that it is not a
hundredth child whose parents are altogether incapacitated
to rear and educate him. The great difference, for health,
industry, and morals, between an education in an hospital
and that in a private family, should induce us not to make
the entrance into the former too easy and engaging. To kill
ones own child is shocking to nature, and must therefore be
somewhat unusual; but to turn over the care of him upon
others, is very tempting to the natural indolence of
mankind.
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Having considered the domestic life and manners of

the ancients, compared to those of the moderns; where, in
the main, we seem rather superior, so far as the present
question is concerned; we shall now examine the political
customs and institutions of both ages, and weigh their
influence in retarding or forwarding the propagation of
mankind.
Mil 401
Before the encrease of the Roman power, or rather till

its full establishment, almost all the nations, which are the
scene of ancient history, were divided into small territories
or petty commonwealths, where of course a great equality
of fortune prevailed, and the center of the government was
always very near its frontiers.
This was the situation of affairs not only in Greece and
Italy, but also in Spain, Gaul, Germany, Afric, and a great
part of the Lesser Asia: And it must be owned, that no
institution could be more favourable to the propagation of
mankind. For, though a man of an overgrown fortune, not
being able to consume more than another, must share it
with those who serve and attend him; yet their possession
being precarious, they have not the same encouragement to
marry, as if each had a small fortune, secure and
independent. Enormous cities are, besides, destructive to
society, beget vice and disorder of all kinds, starve the
remoter provinces, and even starve themselves, by the prices
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to which they raise all provisions. Where each man had his
little house and field to himself, and each county had its
capital, free and independent; what a happy situation of
mankind! How favourable to industry and agriculture; to
marriage and propagation! The prolific virtue of men, were
it to act in its full extent, without that restraint which
poverty and necessity imposes on it, would double the
number every generation: And nothing surely can give it
more liberty, than such small commonwealths, and such an
equality of fortune among the citizens. All small states
naturally produce equality of fortune, because they afford
no opportunities of great encrease; but small
commonwealths much more, by that division of power and
authority which is essential to them.
0
When Xenophon 54* returned after the famous

expedition with Cyrus, he hired himself and 6000 of the
Greeks into the service of Seuthes, a prince of Thrace;
and the articles of his agreement were, that each soldier
should receive a daric
Mil 402
a month, each captain two darics, and he himself, as general,

four: A regulation of pay which would not a little surprise
our modern officers.
Demosthenes and AEschines, with eight more, were
sent ambassadors to Philip of Macedon, and their
0
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appointments for above four months were a thousand

drachmas, which is less than a drachma a day for each
ambassador 55. But a drachma a day, nay sometimes two 56,
0
was the pay of a common foot-soldier.

0
A centurion among the Romans had only double pay to

a private man, in Polybiuss time 57, and we accordingly
0
find the gratuities after a triumph regulated by that

proportion 58. But Mark Anthony and the triumvirate gave
the centurions five times the reward of the other 59. So
much had the encrease of the commonwealth encreased the
inequality among the citizens 60.
It must be owned, that the situation of affairs in
modern times, with regard to civil liberty, as well as equality
of fortune, is not near so favourable, either to the
propagation or happiness of mankind. Europe is shared out
mostly into great monarchies; and such parts of it as are
divided into small territories, are commonly governed by
absolute princes, who ruin their people by a mimicry of the
greater monarchs, in the splendor of their court and
number of their forces.
Mil 403
Swisserland alone and Holland resemble the ancient

republics; and though the former is far from possessing any
advantage either of soil, climate, or commerce, yet the
numbers of people, with which it abounds, notwithstanding
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their enlisting themselves into every service in Europe,

prove sufficiently the advantages of their political
institutions.
The ancient republics derived their chief or only
security from the numbers of their citizens. The
Trachinians having lost great numbers of their people, the
remainder, instead of enriching themselves by the
inheritance of their fellow-citizens, applied to Sparta, their
metropolis, for a new stock of inhabitants. The Spartans
immediately collected ten thousand men; among whom the
old citizens divided the lands of which the former
proprietors had perished 61*.
0
After Timoleon had banished Dionysius from

Syracuse, and had settled the affairs of Sicily, finding the
cities of Syracuse and Sellinuntium extremely
depopulated by tyranny, war, and faction, he invited over
from Greece some new inhabitants to repeople them 62.
0
Immediately forty thousand men (Plutarch 63 says sixty

thousand) offered themselves; and he distributed so many
lots of land among them, to the great satisfaction of the
ancient inhabitants: A proof at once of the maxims of
ancient policy, which affected populousness more than
riches; and of the good effects of these maxims, in the
extreme populousness of that small country, Greece, which
could at once supply so great a colony. The case was not
much different with the Romans in early times. He is a
pernicious citizen, said M. Curius, who cannot be content
with seven acres 64*. Such ideas of equality could not fail of
0
producing great numbers of people.
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Mil 404
We must now consider what disadvantages the ancients

lay under with regard to populousness, and what checks
they received from their political maxims and institutions.
There are commonly compensations in every human
condition: and though these compensations be not always
perfectly equal, yet they serve, at least, to restrain the
prevailing principle. To compare them and estimate their
influence, is indeed difficult, even where they take place in
the same age, and in neighbouring countries: But where
several ages have intervened, and only scattered lights are
afforded us by ancient authors; what can we do but amuse
ourselves by talking pro and con, on an interesting subject,
and thereby correcting all hasty and violent determinations?
First, We may observe, that the ancient republics were
almost in perpetual war, a natural effect of their martial
spirit, their love of liberty, their mutual emulation, and that
hatred which generally prevails among nations that live in
close neighbourhood. Now, war in a small state is much
more destructive than in a great one; both because all the
inhabitants, in the former case, must serve in the armies;
and because the whole state is frontier, and is all exposed to
the inroads of the enemy.
The maxims of ancient war were much more
destructive than those of modern; chiefly by that
distribution of plunder, in which the soldiers were
indulged. The private men in our armies are such a low set
of people, that we find any abunwww.davidhume.org/texts/etv1.html
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Mil 405
dance, beyond their simple pay, breeds confusion and

disorder among them, and a total dissolution of discipline.
The very wretchedness and meanness of those, who fill the
modern armies, render them less destructive to the
countries which they invade: One instance, among many of
the deceitfulness of first appearances in all political
reasonings 65.
0
Ancient battles were much more bloody, by the very

nature of the weapons employed in them. The ancients
drew up their men 16 or 20, sometimes 50 men deep, which
made a narrow front; and it was not difficult to find a field,
in which both armies might be marshalled, and might
engage with each other. Even where any body of the troops
was kept off by hedges, hillocks, woods, or hollow ways, the
battle was not so soon decided between the contending
parties, but that the others had time to overcome the
difficulties which opposed them, and take part in the
engagement. And as the whole army was thus engaged, and
each man closely buckled to his antagonist, the battles were
commonly very bloody, and great slaughter was made on
both sides, especially on the vanquished. The long thin
lines, required by fire-arms, and the quick decision of the
fray, render our modern engagements but partial
rencounters, and enable the general, who is foiled in the
beginning of the day, to draw off the greater part of his
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army, sound and entire.

The battles of antiquity, both by their duration, and
their resemblance to single combats, were wrought up to a
degree of fury quite unknown to later ages. Nothing could
then engage the combatants to give quarter, but the hopes
of profit, by making slaves of their prisoners. In civil wars,
as we learn from Tacitus 66, the battles were the most
0
bloody, because the prisoners were not slaves.
Mil 406
What a stout resistance must be made, where the

vanquished expected so hard a fate! How inveterate the
rage, where the maxims of war were, in every respect, so
bloody and severe!
0
Instances are frequent, in ancient history, of cities

besieged, whose inhabitants, rather than open their gates,
murdered their wives and children, and rushed themselves
on a voluntary death, sweetened perhaps by a little prospect
of revenge upon the enemy. Greeks 67, as well as
Barbarians, have often been wrought up to this degree of
fury. And the same determined spirit and cruelty must, in
other instances less remarkable, have been destructive to
human society, in those petty commonwealths, which lived
in close neighbourhood, and were engaged in perpetual
wars and contentions.
0
Sometimes the wars in Greece, says Plutarch 68, were

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carried on entirely by inroads, and robberies, and piracies.

Such a method of war must be more destructive in small
states, than the bloodiest battles and sieges.
0
By the laws of the twelve tables, possession during two

years formed a prescription for land; one year for
moveables 69: An indication, that there was not in Italy, at
that time, much more order, tranquillity, and settled police,
than there is at present among the Tartars.
0
The only cartel I remember in ancient history, is that

between Demetrius Poliorcetes and the Rhodians; when it
was agreed, that a free citizen should be restored for 1000
drachmas, a slave bearing arms for 500 70.
But, secondly, it appears that ancient manners were more
unfavourable than the modern, not only in times of war, but
also in those of peace; and that too in every respect, except
the
Mil 407
love of civil liberty and of equality, which is, I own, of

considerable importance. To exclude faction from a free
government, is very difficult, if not altogether
impracticable; but such inveterate rage between the
factions, and such bloody maxims, are found, in modern
times amongst religious parties alone. In ancient history, we
may always observe, where one party prevailed, whether the
nobles or people (for I can observe no difference in this
0
71*
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respect 71*) that they immediately butchered all of the

opposite party who fell into their hands, and banished such
as had been so fortunate as to escape their fury. No form of
process, no law, no trial, no pardon. A fourth, a third,
perhaps near half of the city was slaughtered, or expelled,
every revolution; and the exiles always joined foreign
enemies, and did all the mischief possible to their fellowcitizens; till fortune put it in their power to take full
revenge by a new revolution. And as these were frequent in
such violent governments, the disorder, diffidence,
jealousy, enmity, which must prevail, are not easy for us to
imagine in this age of the world.
There are only two revolutions I can recollect in
ancient history, which passed without great severity, and
great effusion of blood in massacres and assassinations,
namely, the restoration of the Athenian Democracy by
Thrasybulus, and the subduing of the Roman republic by
Caesar. We learn from ancient history, that Thrasybulus
passed a general amnesty for all past offences; and first
introduced that word, as well as practice, into Greece 72. It
0
appears, however, from many orations of Lysias 73, that the

chief, and even some of the
Mil 408
subaltern offenders, in the preceding tyranny, were tried,

and capitally punished. And as to Caesars clemency,
0
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though much celebrated, it would not gain great applause in

the present age. He butchered, for instance, all Catos
senate, when he became master of Utica 74; and these, we
may readily believe, were not the most worthless of the
party. All those who had borne arms against that usurper,
were attainted; and, by Hirtiuss law, declared incapable of
all public offices.
These people were extremely fond of liberty; but seem
not to have understood it very well. When the thirty tyrants
first established their dominion at Athens, they began with
seizing all the sycophants and informers, who had been so
troublesome during the Democracy, and putting them to
death by an arbitrary sentence and execution. Every man,
says Sallust 75 and Lysias 76, was rejoiced at these punishments;
0
not considering, that liberty was from that moment

annihilated.
The utmost energy of the nervous style of Thucydides,
and the copiousness and expression of the Greek language,
seem to sink under that historian, when he attempts to
describe the disorders, which arose from faction throughout
all the Grecian commonwealths. You would imagine, that
he still labours with a thought greater than he can find
words to communicate. And he concludes his pathetic
description with an observation, which is at once refined
and solid. In these contests, says he, those who were the
dullest, and most stupid, and had the least foresight,
commonly prevailed. For being conscious of this weakness,
and dreading to be overreached by those of greater
penetration, they went to work
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Mil 409
hastily, without premeditation, by the sword and poinard,

and thereby got the start of their antagonists, who were
forming fine schemes and projects for their
destruction 77.
0
Not to mention Dionysius 78 the elder, who is

computed to have butchered in cool blood above 10,000 of
his fellow-citizens; or Agathocles 79*, Nabis 80, and others,
0
still more bloody than he; the transactions, even in free

governments, were extremely violent and destructive. At
Athens, the thirty tyrants and the nobles, in a twelvemonth,
murdered, without trial, about 1200 of the people, and
banished above the half of the citizens that remained 81. In
0
Argos, near the same time, the people killed 1200 of the
nobles; and afterwards their own demagogues, because they
had refused to carry their prosecutions farther 82. The
0
people also in Corcyra killed 1500 of the nobles, and

banished a thousand 83*. These numbers will appear the
more surprising, if we consider the extreme smallness of
these states. But all ancient history is full of such
instances 84**.
Mil 410
0
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When Alexander ordered all the exiles to be restored

throughout all the cities; it was found, that the whole
amounted to 20,000 men 85; the remains probably of still
greater slaughters and massacres. What an astonishing
multitude in so narrow a country as ancient Greece! And
what domestic confusion, jealousy, partiality, revenge,
heartburnings, must tear those cities, where factions were
wrought up to such a degree of fury and despair.
It would be easier, says Isocrates to Philip, to raise an
Mil 411
army in Greece at present from the vagabonds than from

the cities.
Even when affairs came not to such extremities (which
they failed not to do almost in every city twice or thrice
every century) property was rendered very precarious by the
maxims of ancient government. Xenophon, in the Banquet
of Socrates, gives us a natural unaffected description of the
tyranny of the Athenian people. In my poverty, says
Charmides, I am much more happy than I ever was while
possessed of riches: as much as it is happier to be in security
than in terrors, free than a slave, to receive than to pay
court, to be trusted than suspected. Formerly I was obliged
to caress every informer; some imposition was continually
laid upon me; and it was never allowed me to travel, or be
absent from the city. At present, when I am poor I look big,
0
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and threaten others. The rich are afraid of me, and show me
every kind of civility and respect; and I am become a kind
of tyrant in the city 86*.
In one of the pleadings of Lysias 87, the orator very
coolly speaks of it, by the by, as a maxim of the Athenian
people, that, whenever they wanted money, they put to
death some of the rich citizens as well as strangers, for the
sake of the forfeiture. In mentioning this, he seems not to
have any intention of blaming them; still less of provoking
them, who were his audience and judges.
Mil 412
Whether a man was a citizen or a stranger among that

people, it seems indeed requisite, either that he should
impoverish himself, or that the people would impoverish
him, and perhaps kill him into the bargain. The orator last
mentioned gives a pleasant account of an estate laid out in
the public service 88; that is, above the third of it in raree0
shows and figured dances.

I need not insist on the Greek tyrannies, which were
altogether horrible. Even the mixed monarchies, by which
most of the ancient states of Greece were governed, before
the introduction of republics, were very unsettled. Scarcely
any city, but Athens, says Isocrates, could show a
succession of kings for four or five generations 89.
0
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Mil 413
Besides many other obvious reasons for the instability

of ancient monarchies, the equal division of property among
the brothers in private families, must, by a necessary
consequence, contribute to unsettle and disturb the state.
The universal preference given to the elder by modern
laws, though it encreases the inequality of fortunes, has,
however, this good effect, that it accustoms men to the same
idea in public succession, and cuts off all claim and
pretension of the younger.
The new settled colony of Heraclea, falling
immediately into faction applied to Sparta, who sent
Heripidas with full authority to quiet their dissentions. This
man, not provoked by any opposition, not inflamed by party
rage, knew no better expedient than immediately putting to
death about 500 of the citizens 90*. A strong proof how
0
deeply rooted these violent maxims of government were

throughout all Greece.
If such was the disposition of mens minds among that
refined people, what may be expected in the
commonwealths of Italy, Afric, Spain, and Gaul, which
were denominated barbarous? Why otherwise did the
Greeks so much value themselves on their humanity,
gentleness, and moderation, above all other nations? This
reasoning seems very natural. But unluckily the history of
the Roman commonwealth, in its earlier times, if we give
credit to the received accounts, presents an opposite
0
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conclusion. No blood was ever shed in any sedition at

Rome, till the murder of the Gracchi. Dionysius
Halicarnassaeus 91, observing the singular humanity of
the Roman people in this particular, makes use of it as an
argument that they were originally of Grecian extraction:
Whence we may conclude, that the factions and revolutions
in the barbarous republics were usually more violent than
even those of Greece above-mentioned.
If the Romans were so late in coming to blows, they
made ample compensation, after they had once entered
upon the
Mil 414
bloody scene; and Appians history of their civil wars

contains the most frightful picture of massacres,
proscriptions, and forfeitures, that ever was presented to
the world. What pleases most, in that historian, is, that he
seems to feel a proper resentment of these barbarous
proceedings; and talks not with that provoking coolness and
indifference, which custom had produced in many of the
Greek historians 92.
0
The maxims of ancient politics contain, in general, so

little humanity and moderation, that it seems superfluous to
give any particular reason for the acts of violence
committed at any particular period. Yet I cannot forbear
observing, that the laws, in the later period of the Roman
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commonwealth, were so absurdly contrived, that they

obliged the heads of parties to have recourse to these
extremities. All capital punishments were abolished:
However criminal, or, what is more, however dangerous any
citizen might be, he could not regularly be punished
otherwise than by banishment: And it became necessary, in
the revolutions of party, to draw the sword of private
vengeance; nor was it easy, when laws were once vio-
Mil 415
lated, to set bounds to these sanguinary proceedings. Had

Brutus himself prevailed over the triumvirate, could he, in
common prudence, have allowed Octavius and Anthony, to
live, and have contented himself with banishing them to
Rhodes or Marseilles, where they might still have plotted
new commotions and rebellions? His executing C.
Antonius, brother to the triumvir, shows evidently his sense
of the matter. Did not Cicero, with the approbation of all
the wise and virtuous of Rome, arbitrarily put to death
Catilines accomplices, contrary to law, and without any
trial or form of process? And if he moderated his
executions, did it not proceed, either from the clemency of
his temper, or the conjunctures of the times? A wretched
security in a government which pretends to laws and liberty!
Thus, one extreme produces another. In the same
manner as excessive severity in the laws is apt to beget great
relaxation in their execution; so their excessive lenity
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naturally produces cruelty and barbarity. It is dangerous to

force us, in any case, to pass their sacred boundaries.
One general cause of the disorders, so frequent in all
ancient governments, seems to have consisted in the great
difficulty of establishing any Aristocracy in those ages, and
the perpetual discontents and seditions of the people,
whenever even the meanest and most beggarly were
excluded from the legislature and from public offices. The
very quality of freemen gave such a rank, being opposed to
that of slave, that it seemed to entitle the possessor to every
power and privilege of the commonwealth. Solons 93* laws
0
excluded no freeman from votes or elections, but confined

some magistracies to a particular census; yet were the people
never satisfied till those laws were repealed. By the treaty
with Antipater 94, no Athenian was allowed a vote whose
census was less than 2000
Mil 416
drachmas (about 60 l. Sterling). And though such a government

would to us appear sufficiently democratical, it was so
disagreeable to that people, that above two-thirds of them
immediately left their country 95. Cassander reduced that
0
census to the half 96; yet still the government was considered
as an oligarchical tyranny, and the effect of foreign
violence.
Servius Tulliuss 97 laws seem equal and reasonable,
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by fixing the power in proportion to the property: Yet the

Roman people could never be brought quietly to submit to
them.
In those days there was no medium between a severe,
jealous Aristocracy, ruling over discontented subjects; and a
turbulent, factious, tyrannical Democracy. At present, there
is not one republic in Europe, from one extremity of it to
the other, that is not remarkable for justice, lenity, and
stability, equal to, or even beyond Marseilles, Rhodes, or
the most celebrated in antiquity. Almost all of them are
well-tempered Aristocracies.
But thirdly, there are many other circumstances, in
which ancient nations seem inferior to the modern, both for
the happiness and encrease of mankind. Trade,
manufactures, industry, were no where, in former ages, so
flourishing as they are at present in Europe. The only garb
of the ancients, both for males and females, seems to have
been a kind of flannel, which they wore commonly white or
grey, and which they scoured as often as it became dirty.
Tyre, which carried on, after Carthage, the greatest
commerce of any city in the Mediterranean, before it was
destroyed by Alexander, was no mighty city, if we credit
Arrians account of its inhabitants 98*. Athens is commonly
0
supposed to have been a trad-
Mil 417
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ing city: But it was as populous before the Median war as at

any time after it, according to Herodotus 99; yet its
commerce, at that time, was so inconsiderable, that, as the
same historian observes 100, even the neighbouring coasts
0
of Asia were as little frequented by the Greeks as the pillars

of Hercules: For beyond these he conceived nothing.
Great interest of money, and great profits of trade, are
an infallible indication, that industry and commerce are but
in their infancy. We read in Lysias 101 of 100 per cent. profit
0
made on a cargo of two talents, sent to no greater distance

than from Athens to the Adriatic: Nor is this mentioned as
an instance of extraordinary profit. Antidorus, says
Demosthenes 102, paid three talents and a half for a house
which he let at a talent a year: And the orator blames his
own tutors for not employing his money to like advantage.
My fortune, says he, in eleven years minority, ought to have
been tripled. The value of 20 of the slaves left by his father,
he computes at 40 minas, and the yearly profit of their
labour at 12 103*. The most moderate interest at Athens, (for
0
there was higher 104 often paid) was 12 per cent. 105, and that
paid monthly. Not to insist
Mil 418
0
upon the high interest, to which the vast sums distributed in

106
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elections had raised money 106 at Rome, we find, that

0
Verres, before that factious period, stated 24 per cent. for

money which he left in the hands of the publicans: And
though Cicero exclaims against this article, it is not on
account of the extravagant usury; but because it had never
been customary to state any interest on such occasions 107.
0
Interest, indeed, sunk at Rome, after the settlement of the

empire: But it never remained any considerable time so low,
as in the commercial states of modern times 108.
0
Among the other inconveniencies, which the

Athenians felt from the fortifying of Decelia by the
Lacedemonians, it is represented by Thucydides 109, as one
of the most considerable, that they could not bring over
their corn from Eubea by land, passing by Oropus; but were
obliged to embark it, and to sail round the promontory of
Sunium. A surprising instance of the imperfection of
ancient navigation! For the water-carriage is not here above
double the land.
I do not remember a passage in any ancient author,
where the growth of a city is ascribed to the establishment
of a manufacture. The commerce, which is said to flourish,
is chiefly the exchange of those commodities, for which
different soils and climates were suited. The sale of wine
and oil into Africa, according to Diodorus Siculus 110*, was
0
the foundation of the riches of Agrigentum. The situation

of the city of Sybaris, according to the same author 111 was
the
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Mil 419
cause of its immense populousness; being built near the two

rivers Crathys and Sybaris. But these two rivers, we may
observe, are not navigable; and could only produce some
fertile vallies, for agriculture and tillage; an advantage so
inconsiderable, that a modern writer would scarcely have
taken notice of it.
The barbarity of the ancient tyrants, together with the
extreme love of liberty, which animated those ages, must
have banished every merchant and manufacturer, and have
quite depopulated the state, had it subsisted upon industry
and commerce. While the cruel and suspicious Dionysius
was carrying on his butcheries, who, that was not detained
by his landed property, and could have carried with him any
art or skill to procure a subsistence in other countries,
would have remained exposed to such implacable barbarity?
The persecutions of Philip II. and Lewis XIV. filled all
Europe with the manufacturers of Flanders and of France.
I grant, that agriculture is the species of industry
chiefly requisite to the subsistence of multitudes; and it is
possible, that this industry may flourish, even where
manufactures and other arts are unknown and neglected.
Swisserland is at present a remarkable instance; where we
find, at once, the most skilful husbandmen, and the most
bungling tradesmen, that are to be met with in Europe.
That agriculture flourished in Greece and Italy, at least in
some parts of them, and at some periods, we have reason to
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presume; And whether the mechanical arts had reached the

same degree of perfection, may not be esteemed so
material; especially, if we consider the great equality of
riches in the ancient republics, where each family was
obliged to cultivate, with the greatest care and industry, its
own little field, in order to its subsistence.
But is it just reasoning, because agriculture may, in
some instances, flourish without trade or manufactures, to
conclude, that, in any great extent of country, and for any
great tract of time, it would subsist alone? The most natural
way, surely, of encouraging husbandry, is, first, to excite
other
Mil 420
kinds of industry, and thereby afford the labourer a ready

market for his commodities, and a return of such goods as
may contribute to his pleasure and enjoyment. This method
is infallible and universal; and, as it prevails more in modern
government than in the ancient, it affords a presumption of
the superior populousness of the former.
0
Every man, says Xenophon 112*, may be a farmer: No

art or skill is requisite: All consists in industry, and in
attention to the execution. A strong proof, as Columella
hints, that agriculture was but little known in the age of
Xenophon.
All our later improvements and refinements, have they
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done nothing towards the easy subsistence of men, and

consequently towards their propagation and encrease? Our
superior skill in mechanics; the discovery of new worlds, by
which commerce has been so much enlarged; the
establishment of posts; and the use of bills of exchange:
These seem all extremely useful to the encouragement of
art, industry, and populousness. Were we to strike off these,
what a check should we give to every kind of business and
labour, and what multitudes of families would immediately
perish from want and hunger? And it seems not probable,
that we could supply the place of these new inventions by
any other regulation or institution.
Have we reason to think, that the police of ancient
states was any wise comparable to that of modern, or that
men had then equal security, either at home, or in their
journies by land or water? I question not, but every
impartial examiner would give us the preference in this
particular 113*.
0
Thus, upon comparing the whole, it seems impossible

to assign any just reason, why the world should have been
more populous in ancient than in modern times. The
equality of
Mil 421
property among the ancients, liberty, and the small divisions

of their states, were indeed circumstances favourable to the
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propagation of mankind: But their wars were more bloody

and destructive, their governments more factious and
unsettled, commerce and manufactures more feeble and
languishing, and the general police more loose and
irregular. These latter disadvantages seem to form a
sufficient counterbalance to the former advantages; and
rather favour the opposite opinion to that which commonly
prevails with regard to this subject.
But there is no reasoning, it may be said, against matter
of fact. If it appear, that the world was then more populous
than at present, we may be assured, that our conjectures are
false, and that we have overlooked some material
circumstance in the comparison. This I readily own: All our
preceding reasonings, I acknowledge to be mere trifling,
or, at least, small skirmishes and frivolous rencounters,
which decide nothing. But unluckily the main combat,
where we compare facts, cannot be rendered much more
decisive. The facts, delivered by ancient authors, are either
so uncertain or so imperfect as to afford us nothing positive
in this matter. How indeed could it be otherwise? The very
facts, which we must oppose to them, in computing the
populousness of modern states, are far from being either
certain or complete. Many grounds of calculation
proceeded on by celebrated writers, are little better than
those of the Emperor Heliogabalus, who formed an
estimate of the immense greatness of Rome, from ten
thousand pound weight of cobwebs which had been found
in that city 114.
0
It is to be remarked, that all kinds of numbers are

uncertain in ancient manuscripts, and have been subject to
much greater corruptions than any other part of the text;
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and that for an obvious reason. Any alteration, in other

places, commonly affects the sense or grammar, and is more
readily perceived by the reader and transcriber.
Mil 422
Few enumerations of inhabitants have been made of

any tract of country by any ancient author of good
authority, so as to afford us a large enough view for
comparison.
It is probable, that there was formerly a good
foundation for the number of citizens assigned to any free
city; because they entered for a share in the government,
and there were exact registers kept of them. But as the
number of slaves is seldom mentioned, this leaves us in as
great uncertainty as ever, with regard to the populousness
even of single cities.
0
The first page of Thucydides is, in my opinion, the

commencement of real history. All preceding narrations are
so intermixed with fable, that philosophers ought to
abandon them, in a great measure, to the embellishment of
poets and orators 115*.
With regard to remote times, the numbers of people
assigned are often ridiculous, and lose all credit and
authority. The free citizens of Sybaris, able to bear arms,
and actually drawn out in battle, were 300,000. They
encountered at Siagra with 100,000 citizens of Crotona,
0
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another Greek city contiguous to them; and were defeated.

This is Diodorus Siculuss 116 account; and is very seriously
insisted on by that historian. Strabo 117 also mentions the
same number of Sybarites.
Mil 423
Diodorus Siculus 118, enumerating the inhabitants of

Agrigentum, when it was destroyed by the Carthaginians,
says, that they amounted to 20,000 citizens, 200,000
strangers, besides slaves, who, in so opulent a city as he
represents it, would probably be, at least, as numerous. We
must remark, that the women and the children are not
included; and that, therefore, upon the whole, this city must
have contained near two millions of inhabitants 119. And
0
what was the reason of so immense an encrease! They were

industrious in cultivating the neighbouring fields, not
exceeding a small English county; and they traded with
their wine and oil to Africa, which, at that time, produced
none of these commodities.
0
Ptolemy, says Theocritus 120*, commands 33,339 cities. I

suppose the singularity of the number was the reason of
assigning it. Diodorus Siculus 121 assigns three millions of
inhabitants to AEgypt, a small number: But then he
makes the number of cities amount to 18,000: An evident
contradiction.
0
122
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He says 122, the people were formerly seven millions.

Thus remote times are always most envied and admired.
That Xerxess army was extremely numerous, I can
readily believe; both from the great extent of his empire,
and from the practice among the eastern nations, of
encumbering
Mil 424
their camp with a superfluous multitude: But will any

rational man cite Herodotuss wonderful narrations as an
authority? There is something very rational, I own, in
Lysiass 123 argument upon this subject. Had not Xerxess
0
army been incredibly numerous, says he, he had never made

a bridge over the Hellespont: It had been much easier to
have transported his men over so short a passage, with the
numerous shipping of which he was master.
Polybius 124 says, that the Romans, between the first
and second Punic wars, being threatened with an invasion
from the Gauls, mustered all their own forces, and those of
their allies, and found them amount to seven hundred
thousand men able to bear arms: A great number surely, and
which, when joined to the slaves, is probably not less, if not
rather more, than that extent of country affords at
present 125. The enumeration too seems to have been made
0
with some exactness; and Polybius gives us the detail of the

particulars. But might not the number be magnified, in
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order to encourage the people?

Diodorus Siculus 126* makes the same enumeration
amount to near a million. These variations are suspicious.
He plainly too supposes, that Italy in his time was not so
populous: Another suspicious circumstance. For who can
believe, that the inhabitants of that country diminished
from the time of the first Punic war to that of the
triumvirates?
0
Julius Caesar according to Appian 127, encountered

four millions of Gauls, killed one million, and made
another mil-
Mil 425
lion prisoners 128. Supposing the number of the enemys

army and that of the slain could be exactly assigned, which
never is possible; how could it be known how often the same
man returned into the armies, or how distinguish the new
from the old levied soldiers? No attention ought ever to be
given to such loose, exaggerated calculations; especially
where the author does not tell us the mediums, upon which
the calculations were founded.
0
Paterculus 129 makes the number of Gauls killed by

Caesar amount only to 400,000: A more probable account,
and more easily reconciled to the history of these wars given
by that conqueror himself in his Commentaries 130*. The
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most bloody of his battles were fought against the Helvetii

and the Germans.
One would imagine, that every circumstance of the life
and actions of Dionysius the elder might be regarded as
authentic, and free from all fabulous exaggeration; both
because he lived at a time when letters flourished most in
Greece, and because his chief historian was Philistus, a
man allowed to be of great genius, and who was a courtier
and minister of that prince. But can we admit, that he had a
standing army of 100,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and a fleet of
400 gallies 131*? These, we may observe, were mercenary
0
forces, and
Mil 426
subsisted upon pay, like our armies in Europe. For the

citizens were all disarmed; and when Dion afterwards
invaded Sicily, and called on his countrymen to vindicate
their liberty, he was obliged to bring arms along with him,
which he distributed among those who joined him 132. In a
state where agriculture alone flourishes, there may be many
inhabitants; and if these be all armed and disciplined, a
great force may be called out upon occasion: But great
bodies of mercenary troops can never be maintained,
without either great trade and numerous manufactures, or
extensive dominions. The United Provinces never were
masters of such a force by sea and land, as that which is said
to belong to Dionysius; yet they possess as large a territory,
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perfectly well cultivated, and have much more resources

from their commerce and industry. Diodorus Siculus
allows, that, even in his time, the army of Dionysius
appeared incredible; that is, as I interpret it, was entirely a
fiction, and the opinion arose from the exaggerated flattery
of the courtiers, and perhaps from the vanity and policy of
the tyrant himself.
It is a usual fallacy, to consider all the ages of antiquity
as one period, and to compute the numbers contained in the
great cities mentioned by ancient authors, as if these cities
had been all cotemporary. The Greek colonies flourished
extremely in Sicily during the age of Alexander: But in
Augustuss time they were so decayed, that almost all the
produce of that fertile island was consumed in Italy 133*.
0
Let us now examine the numbers of inhabitants

assigned to particular cities in antiquity; and omitting the
numbers of Nineveh, Babylon, and the Egyptian Thebes,
let us confine ourselves to the sphere of real history, to the
Grecian and Roman states. I must own, the more I consider
this subject, the more am I inclined to scepticism, with
regard to the great populousness ascribed to ancient times.
Mil 427
Athens is said by Plato 134 to be a very great city; and

0
it was surely the greatest of all the Greek 135 cities, except
Syracuse, which was nearly about the same size in
0
136
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Thucydidess 136 time, and afterwards encreased beyond it.

0
For Cicero 137 mentions it as the greatest of all the Greek

cities in his time; not comprehending, I suppose, either
Antioch or Alexandria under that denomination.
Athenaeus 138 says, that, by the enumeration of
Demetrius Phalereus, there were in Athens 21,000
citizens, 10,000 strangers, and 400,000 slaves. This number is
much insisted on by those whose opinion I call in question,
and is esteemed a fundamental fact to their purpose: But, in
my opinion, there is no point of criticism more certain, than
that Athenaeus and Ctesicles, whom he quotes, are here
mistaken, and that the number of slaves is, at least,
augmented by a whole cypher, and ought not to be
regarded as more than 40,000.
0
First, When the number of citizens is said to be 21,000

by Athenaeus 139, men of full age are only understood.
For, (1.) Herodotus says 140, that Aristagoras, ambassador
from the Ionians, found it harder to deceive one SpartaN
than 30,000 Athenians; meaning, in a loose way, the whole
state, sup-
Mil 428
posed to be met in one popular assembly, excluding the

women and children. (2.) Thucydides 141 says, that, making
0
allowance for all the absentees in the fleet, army, garrisons,

and for people employed in their private affairs, the
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Athenian assembly never rose to five thousand. (3.) The

forces, enumerated by the same historian 142, being all
citizens, and amounting to 13,000 heavy-armed infantry,
prove the same method of calculation; as also the whole
tenor of the Greek historians, who always understand men
of full age, when they assign the number of citizens in any
republic. Now, these being but the fourth of the
inhabitants, the free Athenians were by this account 84,000;
the strangers 40,000; and the slaves, calculating by the
smaller number, and allowing that they married and
propagated at the same rate with freemen, were 160,000;
and the whole of the inhabitants 284,000: A number surely
large enough. The other number, 1,720,000, makes Athens
larger than London and Paris united.
0
Secondly, There were but 10,000 houses in Athens 143.

0
Thirdly, Though the extent of the walls, as given us by

Thucydides 144, be great, (to wit, eighteen miles, beside
the sea-coast): Yet Xenophon 145 says, there was much
waste ground within the walls. They seem indeed to have
joined four distinct and separate cities 146.
Mil 429
0
Fourthly, No insurrection of the slaves, or suspicion of

insurrection, is ever mentioned by historians; except one
commotion of the miners 147*.
0
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Fifthly, The treatment of slaves by the Athenians is said

by
Xenophon 148,
and
Demosthenes 149*,
and
Plautus 150, to have been extremely gentle and indulgent:
Which could never have been the case, had the
disproportion been twenty to one. The disproportion is not
so great in any of our colonies; yet are we obliged to
exercise a rigorous military government over the negroes.
Sixthly, No man is ever esteemed rich for possessing
what may be reckoned an equal distribution of property in
any country, or even triple or quadruple that wealth. Thus
every person in England is computed by some to spend sixpence a day: Yet is he esteemed but poor who has five times
that sum. Now Timarchus is said by AEschines 151 to
0
have been left in easy circumstances; but he was master only

of ten slaves employed in manufactures. Lysias and his
brother, two strangers, were proscribed by the thirty for
their great riches; though they had but sixty a-piece 152*.
0
Demosthenes was left very rich by his father; yet he had no

more than fifty-two slaves 153. His workhouse, of twenty
cabinet-makers, is said to be a very considerable
manufactory 154.
Seventhly, During the Decelian war, as the Greek his-
Mil 430
0
torians call it, 20,000 slaves deserted, and brought the

Athenians to great distress, as we learn from
0
155
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Thucydides 155. This could not have happened, had they

been only the twentieth part. The best slaves would not
desert.
Eighthly,
Xenophon 156
proposes a
scheme
for
maintaining by the public 10,000 slaves: And that so great a

number may possibly be supported, any one will be
convinced, says he, who considers the numbers we possessed
before the Decelian war. A way of speaking altogether
incompatible with the larger number of Athenaeus.
0
Ninthly, The whole census of the state of Athens was

less than 6000 talents. And though numbers in ancient
manuscripts be often suspected by critics, yet this is
unexceptionable; both because Demosthenes 157, who
0
gives it, gives also the detail, which checks him; and because
Polybius 158* assigns the same number, and reasons upon it.
Now, the most vulgar slave could yield by his labour an
obolus a day, over and above his maintenance, as we learn
from Xenophon 159, who says, that Niciass overseer paid
his master so much for slaves, whom he employed in mines.
If you will take the pains to estimate an obolus a day, and the
slaves at 400,000, computing only at four years purchase,
you will find the sum above 12,000 talents; even though
allowance be made for the great number of holidays in
Athens. Besides, many of the slaves would have a much
greater value from their art. The lowest that Demosthenes
estimates any of his 160 fathers slaves is two minas a head.
0
And upon this supposition, it is a little difficult, I confess,

to reconcile even the number of 40,000 slaves with the census
of 6000 talents.
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0
Mil 431
Tenthly, Chios is said by Thucydides 161, to contain

0
more slaves than any Greek city, except Sparta. Sparta

then had more than Athens, in proportion to the number of
citizens. The Spartans were 9000 in the town, 30,000 in the
country 162. The male slaves, therefore, of full age, must
0
have been more than 78,000780,000; the whole more than

3,120,000. A number impossible to be maintained in a
narrow barren country, such as Laconia, which had no
trade. Had the Helotes been so very numerous, the murder
of 2000 mentioned by Thucydides 163*, would have irritated
0
them, without weakening them.

0
Besides, we are to consider, that the number assigned

by Athenaeus 164, whatever it is, comprehends all the
inhabitants of Attica, as well as those of Athens. The
Athenians affected much a country life, as we learn from
Thucydides 165; and when they were all chased into town,
by the
Mil 432
invasion of their territory during the Peloponnesian war,

the city was not able to contain them; and they were obliged
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to lie in the porticoes, temples, and even streets, for want of

lodging 166*.
The same remark is to be extended to all the other
Greek cities; and when the number of citizens is assigned,
we must always understand it to comprehend the inhabitants
of the neighbouring country, as well as of the city. Yet,
even with this allowance, it must be confessed, that Greece
was a populous country, and exceeded what we could
imagine concerning so narrow a territory, naturally not very
fertile, and which drew no supplies of corn from other
places. For, excepting Athens, which traded to Pontus for
that commodity, the other cities seem to have subsisted
chiefly from their neighbouring territory 167.
0
Rhodes is well known to have been a city of extensive

commerce, and of great fame and splendor; yet it contained
only 6000 citizens able to bear arms, when it was besieged
by Demetrius 168.
0
Thebes was always one of the capital cities of

Greece 169: But the number of its citizens exceeded not
those of
Mil 433
Rhodes 170. Phliasia is said to be a small city by

Xenophon 171*, yet we find, that it contained 6000
citizens 172. I pretend not to reconcile these two facts.
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Perhaps, Xenophon calls Phliasia a small town, because it

made but a small figure in Greece, and maintained only a
subordinate alliance with Sparta; or perhaps the country,
belonging to it, was extensive, and most of the citizens were
employed in the cultivation of it, and dwelt in the
neighbouring villages.
0
Mantinea was equal to any city in Arcadia 173:

Consequently it was equal to Megalopolis, which was fifty
stadia, or six miles and a quarter in circumference 174. But
Mil 434
Mantinea had only 3000 citizens 175. The Greek cities,

therefore, contained often fields and gardens, together
with the houses; and we cannot judge of them by the extent
of their walls. Athens contained no more than 10,000
houses; yet its walls, with the sea-coast, were above twenty
miles in extent. Syracuse was twenty-two miles in
circumference; yet was scarcely ever spoken of by the
ancients as more populous than Athens. Babylon was a
square of fifteen miles, or sixty miles in circuit; but it
contained large cultivated fields and inclosures, as we learn
from Pliny. Though Aurelians wall was fifty miles in
circumference 176*; the circuit of all the thirteen divisions of
0
Rome, taken apart, according to Publius Victor, was only

about forty-three miles. When an enemy invaded the
country, all the inhabitants retired within the walls of the
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ancient cities, with their cattle and furniture, and

instruments of husbandry: and the great height, to which
the
Mil 435
0
walls were raised, enabled a small number to defend them

with facility.
Sparta, says Xenophon 177, is one of the cities of
Greece that has the fewest inhabitants. Yet Polybius 178
0
says, that it was forty-eight stadia in circumference, and was

round.
0
All the AEtolians able to bear arms in Antipaters

time, deducting some few garrisons, were but ten thousand
men 179.
0
Polybius 180 tells us, that the Achaean league might,

without any inconvenience, march 30 or 40,000 men: And
this account seems probable: For that league comprehended
the greater part of Peloponnesus. Yet Pausanias 181*,
speaking of the same period, says, that all the AurelianS
able to bear arms, even when several manumitted slaves
were joined to them, did not amount to fifteen thousand.
Mil 436
0
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The Thessalians, till their final conquest by the

Romans, were, in all ages, turbulent, factious, seditious,
disorderly 182. It is not therefore natural to suppose, that
0
this part of Greece abounded much in people.

We are told by Thucydides 183, that the part of
Peloponnesus, adjoining to Pylos, was desart and
uncultivated. Herodotus says 184*, that Macedonia was full
of lions and wild bulls; animals which can only inhabit vast
unpeopled forests. These were the two extremities of
Greece.
0
All the inhabitants of Epirus, of all ages, sexes and

conditions, who were sold by Paulus AEmilius, amounted
only to 150,000 185. Yet Epirus might be double the extent
0
of Yorkshire.
Justin 186 tells us, that, when Philip of Macedon was
declared head of the Greek confederacy, he called a
congress of all the states, except the Lacedemonians, who
refused to concur; and he found the force of the whole,
upon computation, to amount to 200,000 infantry, and
15,000 cavalry. This must be understood to be all the citizens
capable of bearing arms. For as the Greek republics
maintained no mercenary forces, and had no militia distinct
from the whole body of the citizens, it is not conceivable
what other medium there could be of computation. That
such an army could ever, by Greece, be brought into the
field, and be maintained there, is contrary to all history.
Upon this supposition, therefore, we may thus reason. The
free Greeks of all ages and sexes were 860,000. The slaves,
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estimating them by the number of
Mil 437
Athenian slaves as above, who seldom married or had

families, were double the male citizens of full age, to wit,
430,000. And all the inhabitants of ancient Greece,
excepting Laconia, were about one million two hundred
and ninety thousand: No mighty number, nor exceeding
what may be found at present in Scotland, a country of not
much greater extent, and very indifferently peopled.
We may now consider the numbers of people in Rome
and Italy, and collect all the lights afforded us by scattered
passages in ancient authors. We shall find, upon the whole, a
great difficulty, in fixing any opinion on that head; and no
reason to support those exaggerated calculations, so much
insisted on by modern writers.
0
Dionysius Halicarnassaeus 187 says, that the ancient

0
walls of Rome were nearly of the same compass with those

of Athens, but that the suburbs ran out to a great extent;
and it was difficult to tell, where the town ended or the
country began. In some places of Rome, it appears, from
the same author 188*, from Juvenal 189, and from other
0
ancient writers 190,
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Mil 438
that the houses were high, and families lived in separate

storeys, one above another: But it is probable, that these
were only the poorer citizens, and only in some few streets.
If we may judge from the younger Plinys 191 account of his
own house, and from Bartolis plans of ancient buildings,
the men of quality had very spacious palaces; and their
buildings were like the Chinese houses at this day, where
each apartment is separated from the rest, and rises no
higher than a single storey. To which if we add, that the
Roman nobility much affected extensive porticoes, and
even woods 192 in town; we may perhaps allow Vossius
0
(though there is no manner of reason for it) to read the

famous passage of the elder Pliny 193*
Mil 441
his own way, without admitting

consequences which he draws from it.
the
extravagant
The number of citizens who received corn by the

public distribution in the time of Augustus, were two
hundred thousand 194. This one would esteem a pretty
0
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0
certain ground of calculation: Yet is it attended with such

circumstances as throw us back into doubt and uncertainty.
Did the poorer citizens only receive the distribution?
It was calculated, to be sure, chiefly for their benefit. But it
appears from a passage in Cicero 195 that the rich might
also take their portion, and that it was esteemed no
reproach in them to apply for it.
To whom was the corn given; whether only to heads of
families, or to every man, woman, and child? The portion
Mil 442
0
every month was five modii to each 196* (about 56 of a bushel).

This was too little for a family, and too much for an
individual. A very accurate antiquary 197, therefore, infers,
that it was given to every man of full age: But he allows the
matter to be uncertain.
0
Was it strictly enquired, whether the claimant lived

within the precincts of Rome; or was it sufficient, that he
presented himself at the monthly distribution? This last
seems more probable 198.
0
Were there no false claimants? We are told 199, that

Caesar struck off at once 170,000, who had creeped in
without a just title; and it is very little probable, that he
remedied all abuses.
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But, lastly, what proportion of slaves must we assign to

these citizens? This is the most material question; and the
most uncertain. It is very doubtful, whether Athens can be
established as a rule for Rome. Perhaps the Athenians had
more slaves, because they employed them in manufactures,
for which a capital city, like Rome, seems not so proper.
Perhaps, on the other hand, the Romans had more slaves, on
account of their superior luxury and riches.
Mil 443
0
There were exact bills of mortality kept at Rome; but

no ancient author has given us the number of burials, except
Suetonius 200*, who tells us, that in one season, there were
30,000 names carried to the temple of Libitina: But this was
during a plague; which can afford no certain foundation for
any inference.
0
The public corn, though distributed only to 200,000

citizens, affected very considerably the whole agriculture of
Italy 201: a fact no wise reconcileable to some modern
0
exaggerations with regard to the inhabitants of that

country.
0
The best ground of conjecture I can find concerning

the greatness of ancient Rome, is this: We are told by
Herodian 202, that Antioch and Alexandria were very
little inferior to Rome. It appears from Diodorus
Siculus 203, that one straight street of Alexandria reaching
0
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from gate to gate, was five miles long; and as Alexandria

was much more extended in length than breadth, it seems to
have been a city nearly of the bulk of Paris 204; and Rome
might be about the size of London.
Mil 444
There lived in Alexandria, in Diodorus Siculuss

time 205*, 300,000 free people, comprehending, I suppose,
women and children 206. But what number of slaves? Had
we any just ground to fix these at an equal number with the
free inhabitants, it would favour the foregoing
computation.
0
There is a passage in Herodian, which is a little

surprising. He says positively, that the palace of the
Emperor was as large as all the rest of the city 207*. This was
Neros golden house, which is indeed represented by
Suetonius 208 and
Mil 445
Pliny as of an enormous extent 209, but no power of

imagination can make us conceive it to bear any proportion
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to such a city as London.

We may observe, had the historian been relating
Neros extravagance, and had he made use of such an
expression, it would have had much less weight; these
rhetorical exaggerations being so apt to creep into an
authors style, even when the most chaste and correct. But it
is mentioned by Herodian only by the by, in relating the
quarrels between Geta and Caracalla.
0
It appears from the same historian 210, that there was

then much land uncultivated, and put to no manner of use;
and he ascribes it as a great praise to Pertinax, that he
allowed every
Mil 446
one to take such land either in Italy or elsewhere, and

cultivate it as he pleased, without paying any taxes. Lands
uncultivated, and put to no manner of use! This is not heard of in
any part of Christendom; except in some remote parts of
Hungary; as I have been informed. And it surely
corresponds very ill with that idea of the extreme
populousness of antiquity, so much insisted on.
0
We learn from Vopiscus 211, that there was even in

Etruria much fertile land uncultivated, which the Emperor
Aurelian intended to convert into vineyards, in order to
furnish the Roman people with a gratuitous distribution of
wine; a very proper expedient for depopulating still farther
0
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that capital and all the neighbouring territories.

It may not be amiss to take notice of the account which
Polybius 212* gives of the great herds of swine to be met
with in Tuscany and Lombardy, as well as in Greece, and of
the method of feeding them which was then practised.
There are great herds of swine, says he, throughout all
Italy, particularly in former times, through Etruria and
Cisalpine Gaul. And a herd frequently consists of a
thousand or more swine. When one of these herds in
feeding meets with another, they mix together; and the
swine-herds have no other expedient for separating them
than to go to different quarters, where they sound their
horn; and these animals, being accustomed to that signal,
run immediately each to the horn of his own keeper.
Whereas in Greece, if the herds of swine happen to mix in
the forests, he who has the greater flock, takes cunningly
the opportunity of driving all away. And thieves are very apt
to purloin the straggling hogs, which have wandered to a
great distance from their keeper in search of food.
May we not infer from this account, that the north of
Italy, as well as Greece, was then much less peopled, and
Mil 447
worse cultivated, than at present? How could these vast

herds be fed in a country so full of inclosures, so improved
by agriculture, so divided by farms, so planted with vines
0
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0
and corn intermingled together? I must confess, that

Polybiuss relation has more the air of that oeconomy
which is to be met with in our American colonies, than the
management of a European country.
We meet with a reflection in Aristotles 213* Ethics,
which seems unaccountable on any supposition, and by
proving too much in favour of our present reasoning, may
be thought really to prove nothing. That philosopher,
treating of friendship, and observing, that this relation
ought neither to be contracted to a very few, nor extended
over a great multitude, illustrates his opinion by the
following argument. In like manner, says he, as a city
cannot subsist, if it either have so few inhabitants as ten, or
so many as a hundred thousand; so is there a mediocrity
required in the number of friends; and you destroy the
essence of friendship by running into either extreme.
What! impossible that a city can contain a hundred thousand
inhabitants! Had Aristotle never seen nor heard of a city
so populous? This, I must own, passes my comprehension.
0
Pliny 214 tells us that Seleucia, the seat of the Greek

empire in the East, was reported to contain 600,000 people.
Carthage is said by Strabo 215 to have contained 700,000.
The inhabitants of Pekin are not much more numerous.
London, Paris, and Constantinople, may admit of nearly
the same computation; at least, the two latter cities do not
exceed it. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, we have already
spoken of. From the experience of past and present ages,
one might conjecture that there is a kind of impossi-
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Mil 448
bility, that any city could ever rise much beyond this
proportion. Whether the grandeur of a city be founded on
commerce or on empire, there seem to be invincible
obstacles, which prevent its farther progress. The seats of
vast monarchies, by introducing extravagant luxury,
irregular expence, idleness, dependence, and false ideas of
rank and superiority, are improper for commerce. Extensive
commerce checks itself, by raising the price of all labour
and commodities. When a great court engages the
attendance of a numerous nobility, possessed of overgrown
fortunes, the middling gentry remain in their provincial
towns, where they can make a figure on a moderate income.
And if the dominions of a state arrive at an enormous size,
there necessarily arise many capitals, in the remoter
provinces, whither all the inhabitants, except a few
courtiers,
repair
for
education,
fortune,
and
amusement 216*. London, by uniting extensive commerce
0
and middling empire, has, perhaps, arrived at a greatness,

which no city will ever be able to exceed.
Chuse Dover or Calais for a center: Draw a circle of
two hundred miles radius: You comprehend London, Paris,
the Netherlands, the United Provinces, and some of the
best cultivated parts of France and England. It may safely,
I think, be affirmed, that no spot of ground can be found,
in antiquity, of equal extent, which contained near so many
great and populous cities, and was so stocked with riches
0
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and inhabitants. To balance, in both periods, the states,

which possessed most art, knowledge, civility, and the best
police, seems the truest method of comparison.
It is an observation of LAbbe du Bos 217, that Italy is
warmer at present than it was in ancient times. The annals
Mil 449
of Rome tell us, says he, that in the year 480 ab U.C. the
winter was so severe that it destroyed the trees. The Tyber
froze in Rome, and the ground was covered with snow for
forty days. When Juvenal 218* describes a superstitious
woman, he represents her as breaking the ice of the Tyber,
that she might perform her ablutions:
Hybernum fracta glacie descendet in amnem,
Ter matutino Tyberi mergetur.
He speaks of that rivers freezing as a common event. Many
passages of Horace suppose the streets of Rome full of
snow and ice. We should have more certainty with regard to
this point, had the ancients known the use of thermometers:
But their writers, without intending it, give us information,
sufficient to convince us, that the winters are now much
more temperate at Rome than formerly. At present the
Tyber no more freezes at Rome than the Nile at Cairo.
The Romans esteem the winters very rigorous, if the snow
lie two days, and if one see for eight and forty hours a few
0
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icicles hang from a fountain that has a north exposure.

The observation of this ingenious critic may be
extended to other European climates. Who could discover
the mild climate of France in Diodorus Siculuss 219
description of that of Gaul? As it is a northern climate,
says he, it is infested with cold to an extreme degree. In
cloudy weather, instead of rain there fall great snows; and
in clear weather it
Mil 450
there freezes so excessive hard, that the rivers acquire

bridges of their own substance, over which, not only single
travellers may pass, but large armies, accompanied with all
their baggage and loaded waggons. And there being many
rivers in Gaul, the Rhone, the Rhine, &c. almost all of
them are frozen over; and it is usual, in order to prevent
falling, to cover the ice with chaff and straw at the places
where the road passes. Colder than a Gallic Winter, is used
by Petronius as a proverbial expression. Aristotle says,
that Gaul is so cold a climate that an ass could not live in
it 220*.
0
North of the Cevennes, says Strabo 221, Gaul

produces not figs and olives: And the vines, which have been
planted, bear not grapes, that will ripen.
0
Ovid positively maintains, with all the serious

affirmation of prose, that the Euxine sea was frozen over
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every winter in his time; and he appeals to Roman

governours, whom he names, for the truth of his
assertion 222. This seldom or never happens at present in
the latitude of Tomi, whither Ovid was banished. All the
complaints of the same poet seem to mark a rigour of the
seasons, which is scarcely experienced at present in
Petersburgh or Stockholm.
Tournefort, a Provenal, who had travelled into the
same country, observes, that there is not a finer climate in
the world: And he asserts, that nothing but Ovids
melancholy could have given him such dismal ideas of it.
But the facts, mentioned by that poet, are too
circumstantial to bear any such interpretation.
0
Polybius 223 says, that the climate in Arcadia was very

cold, and the air moist.
Mil 451
Italy, says Varro 224, is the most temperate

climate in Europe. The inland parts (Gaul, Germany, and
Pannonia, no doubt) have almost perpetual winter.
The northern parts of Spain, according to Strabo 225*,
are but ill inhabited, because of the great cold.
Allowing, therefore, this remark to be just, that
Europe is become warmer than formerly; how can we
account for it? Plainly, by no other method, than by
0
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supposing, that the land is at present much better cultivated,

and that the woods are cleared, which formerly threw a
shade upon the earth, and kept the rays of the sun from
penetrating to it. Our northern colonies in America become
more temperate, in proportion as the woods are felled 226;
0
but in general, every one may remark, that cold is still much
more severely felt, both in North and South America, than
in places under the same latitude in Europe.
Saserna, quoted by Columella 227, affirmed, that the
disposition of the heavens was altered before his time, and
that the air had become much milder and warmer; as appears
hence, says he, that many places now abound with vineyards
and olive plantations, which formerly, by reason of the
rigour of the climate, could raise none of these productions.
Such a change, if real, will be allowed an evident sign of the
better cultivation and peopling of countries before the age
of Saserna 228; and if it be continued to the present times,
0
is a
Mil 452
proof, that these advantages have been continually

encreasing throughout this part of the world.
Let us now cast our eye over all the countries which are
the scene of ancient and modern history, and compare their
past and present situation: We shall not, perhaps, find such
foundation for the complaint of the present emptiness and
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desolation of the world. AEgypt is represented by

Maillet, to whom we owe the best account of it, as
extremely populous; though he esteems the number of its
inhabitants to be diminished. Syria, and the Lesser Asia, as
well as the coast of Barbary, I can readily own, to be desart
in comparison of their ancient condition. The depopulation
of Greece is also obvious. But whether the country now
called Turky in Europe may not, in general, contain more
inhabitants than during the flourishing period of Greece,
may be a little doubtful. The Thracians seem then to have
lived like the Tartars at present, by pasturage and
plunder 229*: The Getes were still more uncivilized 230:
0
And the Illyrians were no better 231. These occupy ninetenths of that country: And though the government of the
Turks be not very favourable to industry and propagation;
yet it preserves at least peace and order among the
inhabitants; and is preferable to that barbarous, unsettled
condition, in which they anciently lived.
Poland and Muscovy in Europe are not populous; but
are certainly much more so than the ancient Sarmatia and
Scythia; where no husbandry or tillage was ever heard of,
and pasturage was the sole art by which the people were
maintained. The like observation may be extended to
Denmark and Sweden. No one ought to esteem the
immense swarms of people, which formerly came from the
North, and
Mil 453
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over-ran all Europe, to be any objection to this opinion.

Where a whole nation, or even half of it remove their seat;
it is easy to imagine, what a prodigious multitude they must
form; with what desperate valour they must make their
attacks; and how the terror they strike into the invaded
nations will make these magnify, in their imagination, both
the courage and multitude of the invaders. Scotland is
neither extensive nor populous; but were the half of its
inhabitants to seek new seats, they would form a colony as
numerous as the Teutons and Cimbri; and would shake all
Europe, supposing it in no better condition for defence
than formerly.
0
Germany has surely at present twenty times more

inhabitants than in ancient times, when they cultivated no
ground, and each tribe valued itself on the extensive
desolation which it spread around; as we learn from
Caesar 232*, and Tacitus 233, and Strabo 234. A proof,
that the division into small republics will not alone render a
nation populous, unless attended with the spirit of peace,
order, and industry.
0
The barbarous condition of Britain in former times is

well known, and the thinness of its inhabitants may easily be
conjectured, both from their barbarity, and from a
circumstance mentioned by Herodian 235, that all Britain
was marshy, even in Severuss time, after the Romans had
been fully settled in it above a century.
It is not easily imagined, that the Gauls were anciently
much more advanced in the arts of life than their northern
neighbours; since they travelled to this island for their
education in the mysteries of the religion and philosophy of
0
236*
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the Druids 236*. I cannot, therefore, think, that Gaul was

then near so populous as France is at present.
Mil 454
Were we to believe, indeed, and join together the

testimony of Appian, and that of Diodorus Siculus, we
must admit of an incredible populousness in Gaul. The
former historian 237 says, that there were 400 nations in
that country; the latter 238 affirms, that the largest of the
0
Gallic nations consisted of 200,000 men, besides women

and children, and the least of 50,000. Calculating, therefore,
at a medium, we must admit of near 200 millions of people,
in a country, which we esteem populous at present, though
supposed to contain little more than twenty 239. Such
0
calculations, therefore, by their extravagance, lose all

manner of authority. We may observe, that the equality of
property, to which the populousness of antiquity may be
ascribed, had no place among the Gauls 240*. Their
0
intestine wars also, before Caesars time, were almost

perpetual 241. And Strabo 242 observes, that, though all
0
Gaul was cultivated, yet was it not cultivated with any skill
or care; the genius of the inhabitants leading them less to
arts than arms, till their slavery under Rome produced peace
among themselves.
Caesar 243 enumerates very particularly the great
forces which were levied in Belgium to oppose his
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conquests; and makes them amount to 208,000. These were

not the whole
Mil 455
people able to bear arms: For the same historian tells us,
that the Bellovaci could have brought a hundred thousand
men into the field, though they engaged only for sixty.
Taking the whole, therefore, in this proportion of ten to
six, the sum of fighting men in all the states of Belgium was
about 350,000; all the inhabitants a million and a half. And
Belgium being about a fourth of Gaul, that country might
contain six millions, which is not near the third of its
present inhabitants 244*. We are informed by Caesar, that
0
the Gauls had no fixed property in land; but that the

chieftains, when any death happened in a family, made a
new division of all the lands among the several members of
the family. This is the custom of Tanistry, which so long
prevailed in Ireland, and which retained that country in a
state of misery, barbarism, and desolation.
0
The ancient Helvetia was 250 miles in length, and 180

in breadth, according to the same author 245; yet contained
only 360,000 inhabitants. The canton of Berne alone has, at
present, as many people.
After this computation of Appian and Diodorus
Siculus, I know not, whether I dare affirm, that the
modern Dutch are more numerous than the ancient Batavi.
548/674
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Spain is, perhaps, decayed from what it was three

centuries ago; but if we step backward two thousand years,
and
Mil 456
consider the restless, turbulent, unsettled condition of its

inhabitants, we may probably be inclined to think, that it is
now much more populous. Many Spaniards killed
themselves, when deprived of their arms by the
Romans 246. It appears from Plutarch 247, that robbery
0
and plunder were esteemed honourable among the

Spaniards. Hirtius 248 represents in the same light the
0
situation of that country in Caesars time; and he says, that

every man was obliged to live in castles and walled towns for
his security. It was not till its final conquest under
Augustus, that these disorders were repressed 249*. The
account which Strabo 250 and Justin 251 give of Spain,
corresponds exactly with those above mentioned. How
much, therefore, must it diminish from our idea of the
populousness of antiquity, when we find, that Tully,
comparing Italy, Afric, Gaul, Greece, and Spain,
mentions the great number of inhabitants, as the peculiar
circumstance, which rendered this latter country
formidable 252*?
0
549/674
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Mil 457
Italy, however, it is probable, has decayed: But how

many great cities does it still contain? Venice, Genoa,
Pavia, Turin, Milan, Naples, Florence, Leghorn, which
either subsisted not in ancient times, or were then very
inconsiderable? If we reflect on this, we shall not be apt to
carry matters to so great an extreme as is usual, with regard
to this subject.
0
When the Roman authors complain, that Italy, which

formerly exported corn, became dependent on all the
provinces for its daily bread, they never ascribe this
alteration to the encrease of its inhabitants, but to the
neglect of tillage and agriculture 253. A natural effect of
0
that pernicious practice of importing corn, in order to

distribute it gratis among the Roman citizens, and a very bad
means of multiplying the inhabitants of any country 254.
The sportula, so much talked of by Martial and Juvenal,
being presents regularly made by the great lords to their
smaller clients, must have had a like tendency to produce
idleness, debauchery, and a continual decay among the
people. The parish-rates have at present the same bad
consequences in England.
Were I to assign a period, when I imagine this part of
the world might possibly contain more inhabitants than at
present, I should pitch upon the age of Trajan and the
Anto-
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Mil 458
nines; the great extent of the Roman empire being then

civilized and cultivated, settled almost in a profound peace
both foreign and domestic, and living under the same
regular police and government 255. But we are told, that all
extensive
Mil 460
0
governments, especially absolute monarchies, are pernicious

to population, and contain a secret vice and poison, which
destroy the effect of all these promising appearances 256*.
To confirm this, there is a passage cited from
Plutarch 257, which being somewhat singular, we shall
here examine it.
That author, endeavouring to account for the silence
of many of the oracles, says, that it may be ascribed to the
present desolation of the world, proceeding from former
wars and factions; which common calamity, he adds, has
fallen heavier upon Greece than on any other country;
insomuch, that the whole could scarcely at present furnish
three thousand warriors; a number which, in the time of the
Median war,
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Mil 461
were supplied by the single city of Megara. The gods,

therefore, who affect works of dignity and importance,
have suppressed many of their oracles, and deign not to use
so many interpreters of their will to so diminutive a people.
I must confess, that this passage contains so many
difficulties, that I know not what to make of it. You may
observe, that Plutarch assigns, for a cause of the decay of
mankind, not the extensive dominion of the Romans, but
the former wars and factions of the several states; all which
were quieted by the Roman arms. Plutarchs reasoning,
therefore, is directly contrary to the inference, which is
drawn from the fact he advances.
0
Polybius supposes, that Greece had become more

prosperous and flourishing after the establishment of the
Roman yoke 258*; and though that historian wrote before
0
these conquerors had degenerated, from being the patrons,

to be the plunderers of mankind; yet as we find from
Tacitus 259, that the severity of the emperors afterwards
0
corrected the licence of the governors, we have no reason to

think that extensive monarchy so destructive as it is often
represented.
0
We learn from Strabo 260, that the Romans, from

their regard to the Greeks, maintained, to his time, most of
the privileges and liberties of that celebrated nation; and
Nero afterwards rather encreased them 261. How therefore
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can we
Mil 462
imagine, that the Roman yoke was so burdensome over that

part of the world? The oppression of the proconsuls was
checked; and the magistracies in Greece being all
bestowed, in the several cities, by the free votes of the
people, there was no necessity for the competitors to attend
the emperors court. If great numbers went to seek their
fortunes in Rome, and advance themselves by learning or
eloquence, the commodities of their native country, many
of them would return with the fortunes which they had
acquired, and thereby enrich the Grecian commonwealths.
But Plutarch says, that the general depopulation had
been more sensibly felt in Greece than in any other
country. How is this reconcileable to its superior privileges
and advantages?
Besides, this passage, by proving too much, really
proves nothing. Only three thousand men able to bear arms in all
Greece! Who can admit so strange a proposition, especially
if we consider the great number of Greek cities, whose
names still remain in history, and which are mentioned by
writers long after the age of Plutarch? There are there
surely ten times more people at present, when there
scarcely remains a city in all the bounds of ancient Greece.
That country is still tolerably cultivated, and furnishes a
sure supply of corn, in case of any scarcity in Spain, Italy,
0
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or the south of France.

We may observe, that the ancient frugality of the
Greeks, and their equality of property, still subsisted
during the age of Plutarch; as appears from Lucian 262.
Nor is there any ground to imagine, that that country was
possessed by a few masters, and a great number of slaves.
It is probable, indeed, that military discipline, being
entirely useless, was extremely neglected in Greece after
the establishment of the Roman empire; and if these
commonwealths, formerly so warlike and ambitious,
maintained each of them a small city-guard, to prevent
mobbish disorders, it is
Mil 463
all they had occasion for: And these, perhaps, did not
amount to 3000 men, throughout all Greece. I own, that, if
Plutarch had this fact in his eye, he is here guilty of a gross
paralogism, and assigns causes no wise proportioned to the
effects. But is it so great a prodigy, that an author should
fall into a mistake of this nature 263?
0
But whatever force may remain in this passage of

Plutarch, we shall endeavour to counterbalance it by as
remarkable a passage in Diodorus Siculus, where the
historian, after mentioning Ninuss army of 1,700,000 foot
and
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Mil 464
200,000 horse, endeavours to support the credibility of this

account by some posterior facts; and adds, that we must not
form a notion of the ancient populousness of mankind from
the present emptiness and depopulation which is spread
over the world 264. Thus an author, who lived at that very
0
period of antiquity which is represented as most

populous 265, complains of the desolation which then
prevailed, gives the preference to former times, and has
recourse to ancient fables as a foundation for his opinion.
The humour of blaming the present, and admiring the past,
is strongly rooted in human nature, and has an influence
even on persons endued with the profoundest judgment and
most extensive learning.
N O T E S.
*1. See NOTE [T].
2. Lettres Persanes. See also LEsprit de Loix, liv. xxiii. cap. 17, 18,
19.
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3. This too is a good reason why the small-pox does not

depopulate countries so much as may at first sight be imagined.
Where there is room for more people, they will always arise, even
without the assistance of naturalization bills. It is remarked by
Don Geronimo de Ustariz, that the provinces of Spain, which
send most people to the Indies, are most populous; which
proceeds from their superior riches.
*4. Suetonius in vita Claudii.
5. Plut. in vita Catonis.
6. Lib. i. cap. 6.
7. Id. lib. xi. cap. 1.
*8. Amor. lib. i. eleg. 6.
9. Sueton. de claris rhetor. So also the ancient poet, Janitoris
tintinnire impedimenta audio.
*10. In Oniterem orat. I.
11. The same practice was very common in Rome; but Cicero
seems not to think this evidence so certain as the testimony of
free-citizens. Pro Caelio.
12. See NOTE [U].
*13. We may here observe, that if domestic slavery really
encreased populousness, it would be an exception to the general
rule, that the happiness of any society and its populousness are
necessary attendants. A master, from humour or interest, may
make his slaves very unhappy, yet be careful, from interest, to
encrease their number. Their marriage is not a matter of choice
with them, more than any other action of their life.
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*14. Ten thousand slaves in a day have often been sold for the
use of the Romans, at Delus in Cilicia. Strabo, lib. xiv.
15. Columella, lib. i. prooem. et cap. 2. et 7. Varro, lib. iii. cap. 1.
Horat. lib. ii. od. 15. Tacit. annal. lib. iii. cap. 54. Sueton. in vita
Aug. cap. xlii. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 13.
16. Minore indies plebe ingenua, says Tacitus, ann. lib. xxiv. cap. 7.
17. See NOTE [X].
18. Verna is used by Roman writers as a word equivalent to scurra,
on account of the petulance and impudence of those slaves. Mart.
lib. i. ep. 42. Horace also mentions the vernae procaces; and
Petronius, cap. 24. vernula urbanitas. Seneca, de provid. cap. I.
vernularum licentia.
*19. It is computed in the West Indies, that a stock of slaves
grow worse five
[Mil 390]
per cent. every year, unless new slaves be
bought to recruit them. They are not able to keep up their

number, even in those warm countries, where cloaths and
provisions are so easily got. How much more must this happen in
European countries, and in or near great cities? I shall add, that,
from the experience of our planters, slavery is as little
advantageous to the master as to the slave, wherever hired servants
can be procured. A man is obliged to cloath and feed his slave; and
he does no more for his servant: The price of the first purchase is,
therefore, so much loss to him: not to mention, that the fear of
punishment will never draw so much labour from a slave, as the
dread of being turned off and not getting another service, will
from a freeman.
*20. Corn. Nepos in vita Attici. We may remark, that Atticuss
estate lay chiefly in Epirus, which, being a remote, desolate place,
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would render it profitable for him to rear slaves there.

21. Lib. vii.
22. In Midiam. p. 221, ex. edit. Aldi.
23. Panegyr.
24. Lib. vii. cap. 10. sub fin.
*25. Aristoph. Equites, l. 17. The ancient scholiast remarks on
this passage .
*26. In Amphobum orat. I.
27. , makers of those beds which the ancients lay
upon at meals.
28. In vita Catonis.
*29. See NOTE [Y].
30. Tacit. ann. lib. xiv. cap. 43.
31. The slaves in the great houses had little rooms assigned to
them, called cellae. Whence the name of cell was transferred to the
monksmonks room in a convent. See farther on this head, Just.
Lipsius, Saturn. i. cap. 14. These form strong presumptions against
the marriage and propagation of the family slaves.
32. Opera et Dies, lib. ii. 1. 24. also 1. 220.
*33. Strabo, lib. viii.
34. De ratione redituum.
35. See Cato de re rustica, cap. 56. Donatus in Phormion, l. I. 9.
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Senecae epist. 80.

36. De re rust. cap. 10, 11.
*37. Lib. i. cap. 18.
38. Lib. i. cap. 17.
39. Lib. i. cap. 18.
40. Lib. xxxiii. cap. I. So likewise Tacitus, annal. lib. xiv. cap. 44.
41. Lib. ii. cap. 10.
*42. Pastoris duri est hic filius, ille bubulci. Juven. sat. 11. 151.
43. Lib. i. cap. 8.
44. De bel. civ. lib. i.
45. In vita Tib. & C. Gracchi.
*46. To the same purpose is that passage of the elder Seneca,
ex controversia 5. lib. v. Arata quondam populis rura, singulorum
ergastulorum sunt; [Mil 397] latiusque nunc villici, quam olim reges,
imperant. At nunc eadem, says Pliny, vincti pedes, damnatae
manus, inscripti vultus exercent. Lib. xviii. cap. 3. So also Martial.
Et sonet innumera compede Thuscus ager. Lib. ix. ep. 23.
And Lucan. Tum longos jungere fines
Agrorum, et quondam duro sulcata Camilli,
Vomere et antiquas Curiorum passa ligones,
Longa sub ignotis extendere rura colonis.
Lib. i.
Vincto fossore coluntur

Hesperiae segetes.
Lib. vii.
*47. Lib. iii. cap. 19.

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48. Id. lib. iv. cap. 8.

*49. Tacitus blames it. De morib. Germ.
50. De fraterno amore.
[Mil 399]
Seneca also approves of the
exposing of sickly infirm children. De ira, lib. i. cap. 15.

51. Sext. Emp. lib. iii. cap. 24.
*52. De amore prolis.
53. See NOTE [Z].
*54. De exp. Cyr. lib. vii.
55. Demost. de falsa leg. He calls it a considerable sum.
56. Thucyd. lib. iii.
57. Lib. vi. cap. 37.
58. Tit. Liv. lib. xli. cap. 7. 13 & alibi passim.
59. Appian. De bell. civ. lib. iv.
60. Caesar gave the centurions ten times the gratuity of the
common soldiers, De bello Gallico, lib. viii. In the Rhodian cartel,
mentioned afterwards, no distinction in the ransom was made on
account of ranks in the army.
*61. Diod. Sic. lib. xii. Thucyd. lib. iii.
62. Diod. Sic. lib. xvi.
63. In vita Timol.
*64. See NOTE [AA].
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65. The ancient soldiers, being free citizens, above the lowest
rank, were all married. Our modern soldiers are either forced to
live unmarried, or their marriages turn to small account towards
the encrease of mankind. A circumstance which ought, perhaps, to
be taken into consideration, as of some consequence in favour of
the ancients.
66. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 44.
67. As Abydus, mentioned by Livy, lib. xxxi. cap. 17, 18. and
Polyb. lib. xvi. As also the Xanthians, Appian. de bell. civil. lib. iv.
68. In vita Arati.
69. Inst. lib. ii. cap. 6.
70. Diod. Sicul. lib. xx.
*71. Lysias, who was himself of the popular faction, and very
narrowly escaped from the thirty tyrants, says, that the Democracy
was as violent a government as the Oligarchy. Orat. 24. de statu popul.
72. Cicero, Philip I.
73. As orat. 11. contra Eratost. orat. 12. contra Agorat. orat. 15. pro
Mantith.
74. Appian. de bell. civ. lib. ii.
75. See Caesars speech de bell. Catil.
76. Orat. 24. And in orat. 29. he mentions the factious spirit of
the popular assemblies as the only cause why these illegal
punishments should displease.
77. Lib. iii.
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78. Plut. de virt. & fort. Alex.

*79. Diod. Sic. lib. xviii, xix.
80. Tit. Liv. xxxi, xxxiii, xxxiv.
81. Diod. Sic. lib. xiv. Isocrates says there were only 5000
banished. He makes the number of those killed amount to 1500.
Areop. AEschines contra Ctesiph. assigns precisely the same
number. Seneca (de tranq. anim. cap. 5.) says 1300.
82. Diod. Sic. lib. xv.
*83. Diod. Sic. lib. xiii.
**84. See NOTE [BB].
85. Diod. Sic. lib. xviii.
*86. Pag. 885. ex edit. Leunclav.
87. Orat. 29. in Nicom.
88. See NOTE [CC].
89. Panath.
*90. Diod. Sic. lib. xiv.
91. Lib. i.
92. See NOTE [DD].
*93. Plutarchus in vita Solon.
95. Id. ibid.
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96. Id. ibid.

97. Tit. Liv. lib. i. cap. 43.
*98. Lib. ii. There were 8000 killed during the [Mil 417] siege; and
the captives amounted to 30,000. Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii. says
only 13,000: But he accounts for this small number, by saying that
the Tyrians had sent away before-hand part of their wives and
children to Carthage.
99. Lib. v. he makes the number of the citizens amount to
30,000.
100. Ib. v.
101. Orat. 33. advers. Diagit.
102. Contra Aphob. p. 25. ex edit. Aldi.
*103. Id. p. 19.
104. Id. ibid.
105. Id. ibid. and AEschines contra Ctesiph.
106. Epist. ad Attic. lib. iv. epist. 15.
107. Contra Verr. orat. 3.
108. See Essay IV. [Of Interest.]
109. Lib. vii.
*110. Lib. xiii.
111. Lib. xii.
*112. Oecon.
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*113. See Part I. Essay XI.Essay XII. [Of Civil Liberty.]

114. AElii Lamprid. in vita Heliogab. cap. 26.
*115. See NOTE [EE].
116. Lib. xii.
117. Lib. vi.
118. Lib. xiii.
119. Diogenes Laertius (in vita Empedoclis) says, that
Agrigentum contained only 800,000 inhabitants.
*120. Idyll. 17.
121. Lib. i.
122. Idyll. 17.
123. Orat. funebris.
124. Lib. ii.
125. The country that supplied this number, was not above a
third of Italy, viz. the Popes dominions, Tuscany, and a part of
the kingdom of Naples: But perhaps in those early times there
were very few slaves, except in Rome, or the great cities.
*126. Lib. ii.
127. Celtica.
128. Plutarch (in vita Caes.) makes the number that Caesar
fought with amount to three millions; Julian (in Caesaribus) to
two.
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129. Lib. ii. cap. 47.

*130. See NOTE [FF].
*131. Diod. Sic. lib. ii.
132. Plutarch in vita Dionys.
*133. Strabo, lib. vi.
134. Apolog. Socr.
135. Argos seems also to have been a great city; for Lysias
contents himself with saying that it did not exceed Athens. Orat.
34.
136. Lib. vi. See also Plutarch in vita Niciae.
137. Orat. contra Verrem, lib. iv. cap. 52. Strabo, lib. vi. says, it was
twenty-two miles in compass. But then we are to consider, that it
contained two harbours within it; one of which was a very large
one, and might be regarded as a kind of bay.
138. Lib. vi. cap. 20.
139. Demosthenes assigns 20,000; contra Aristag.
140. Lib. v.
141. Lib. viii.
142. Lib. ii. Diodorus Siculuss account perfectly agrees, lib.
xii.
143. Xenophon. Mem. lib. ii.
144. Lib. ii.
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145. De ratione red.

146. See NOTE [GG].
*147. Athen. lib. vi.
148. De rep. Athen.
*149. Philip. 3.
150. Sticho.
151. Contra Timarch.
*152. Orat. 11.
153. Contra Aphob.
154. Ibid.
155. Lib. vii.
156. De rat. red.
157. De classibus.
*158. Lib. ii. cap. 62.
159. De rat. red.
160. Contra Aphobum.
161. Lib. viii.
162. Plutarch. in vita Lycurg.
*163. Lib. iv.
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164. The same author affirms, that Corinth had once 460,000
slaves, AEgina 470,000. But the foregoing arguments hold
stronger against these facts, which are indeed entirely absurd and
impossible. It is however remarkable, that Athenaeus cites so
great an authority as Aristotle for this last fact: And the scholiast
on Pindar mentions the same number of slaves in AEgina.
165. Lib. ii.
*166. Thucyd. lib. ii.
167. See NOTE [HH].
168. Diod. Sic. lib. xx.
169. Isocr. paneg.
170. See NOTE [II].
*171. Hist. Graec. lib. vii.
172. Id. lib. vii.
173. Polyb. lib. ii.
174. Polyc.Polyb. lib. ix. cap. 20.
175. Lysias, orat. 34.
*176. Vopiscus in vita Aurel.
177. De rep. Laced. This passage is not easily reconciled with
that of Plutarch above, who says, that Sparta had 9000 citizens.
178. Polyb. lib. ix. cap. 20.
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180. Legat.
*181. In Achaicis.
182. Tit. Liv. lib. xxxiv. cap. 51. Plato in Critone.
183. Lib. vii.
*184. Lib. vii.
185. Tit. Liv. lib. xlv. cap. 34.
186. Lib. ix. cap. 5.
187. Lib. iv.
*188. Lib. x.
189. Satyr. iii. l. 269, 270.
190. See NOTE [KK].
191. See NOTE [LL].
192. Vitruv. lib. v. cap. 11. Tacit. annal. lib. xi. cap. 3. Sueton. in
vita Octav. cap. 72, &c.
*193. See NOTE [MM].
194. Ex monument. Ancyr.
195. Tusc. Quaest. lib. iii. cap. 48.
*196. Licinius apud Sallust. hist. frag. lib. iii.
197. Nicolaus Hortensius de re frumentaria Roman.
198. Not to take the people too much from their business,
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Augustus ordained the distribution of corn to be made only thrice

a-year: But the people finding the monthly distributions more
convenient, (as preserving, I suppose, a more regular oeconomy
in their family) desired to have them restored. Sueton. August.
cap. 40. Had not some of the people come from some distance for
their corn, Augustuss precaution seems superfluous.
199. Sueton. in Jul. cap. 41.
*200. In vita Neronis.
201. Sueton. Aug. cap. 42.
202. Lib. iv. cap. 5.
203. Lib. xvii.
204. See NOTE [NN].
*205. Lib. xvii.
206. He says , not , which last expression must
have been understood of citizens alone, and grown men.
*207. Lib. iv. cap. 1. . Politian interprets it
aedibus majoribus etiam reliqua urbe.
208. See NOTE [OO].
209. Plinius, lib. xxxvi. cap. 15. Bis vidimus urbem totam cingi
domibus principum, Caii ac Neronis.
210. Lib. ii. cap. 15.
211. In Aurelian. cap. 48.
*212. Lib. xii. cap. 2.
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*213. Lib. ix. cap. 10. His expression is , not ;

inhabitant, not citizen.
214. Lib. vi. cap. 28.
215. Lib. xvii.
*216. Such were Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Ephesus,
Lyons, &c. in the Roman empire. Such are even Bourdeaux,
Tholouse, Dijon, Rennes, Rouen, Aix, &c. in France; Dublin,
Edinburgh, York, in the British dominions.
217. Vol. ii. sect. 16.
*218. Sat. 6.
219. Lib. iv.
*220. De generat. anim. lib. ii.
221. Lib. iv.
222. Trist. lib. iii. eleg. 9. De Ponto , lib. iv. eleg. 7, 9, 10.
223. Lib. iv. cap. 21.
224. Lib. i. cap. 2.
*225. Lib. iii.
226. The warm southern colonies also become more healthful:
And it is remarkable, that in the Spanish histories of the first
discovery and conquest of these countries, they appear to have
been very healthful; being then well peopled and cultivated. No
account of the sickness or decay of Cortess or Pizarros small
armies.
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227. Lib. i. cap. 1.

228. He seems to have lived about the time of the younger
Africanus; lib. i. cap. 1.
*229. Xenoph. Exp. lib. vii. Polyb. lib. iv. cap. 45.
230. Ovid. passim, &c. Strabo, lib. vii.
231. Polyb. lib. ii. cap. 12.
*232. De Bello Gallico, lib. vi.
233. De Moribus Germ.
234. Lib. vii.
235. Lib. iii. cap. 47.
*236. Caesar de Bello Gallico, lib. xvi. [Mil 454] Strabo, lib. vii. says,
the Gauls were not much more improved than the Germans.
237. Celt. pars 1.
238. Lib. v.
239. Ancient Gaul was more extensive than modern France.
240. Caesar de Bello Gallico, lib. vi.
241. Id. ibid.
242. Lib,. iv.
243. De Bello Gallico, lib. ii.
*244. See NOTE [PP].
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245. De Bello Gallico, lib. i.

246. Titi Livii, lib. xxxiv. cap. 17.
247. In vita Marii.
248. De Bello Hisp.
*249. Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. 90.
250. Lib. iii.
251. Lib. xliv.
*252. Nec numero Hispanos, nec robore Gallos, nec
calliditate Poenos, nec artibus Graecos, nec denique hoc ipso
hujus gentis, ac terrae domestico nativoque sensu, Italos ipsos ac
Latinossuperavimus. De harusp. resp. cap. 9. The disorders of
Spain seem to have been almost proverbial: Nec impacatos a
tergo horrebis Iberos. Virg. Georg. lib. iii.
[Mil 457]
The Iberi are
here plainly taken, by a poetical figure, for robbers in general.

253. Varro de re rustica, lib. ii. praef. Columella praef.
Sueton. August. cap. 42.
254. Though the observations of LAbb du Bos should be
admitted, that Italy is now warmer than in former times, the
consequence may not be necessary, that it is more populous or
better cultivated. If the other countries of Europe were more
savage and woody, the cold winds that blew from them, might
affect the climate of Italy.
255. See NOTE [QQ].
*256. LEsprit de Loix, liv. xxiii. chap. 19.
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257. De Orac. Defectus.

*258. See NOTE [RR].
259. Annal. lib. i. cap. 2.
260. Lib. viii. and ix.
261. Plutarch. De his qui sero a Numine puniuntur.
262. De mercede conductis.
263. See NOTE [SS].
264. Lib. ii.
265. He was cotemporary with Caesar and Augustus.
NOTE [T], p. 398. [Mil 378.]
Olumella says, lib. iii. cap. 8. that in AEgypt and

Africa the bearing of twins was frequent, and even
customary; gemini partus familiares, ac paene solennes sunt. If
this was true, there is a physical difference both in countries
and ages. For travellers make no such remarks on these
countries at present. On the contrary, we are apt to suppose
the northern nations more prolific. As those two countries
were provinces of the Roman empire, it is difficult, though
not altogether absurd, to suppose that such a man as
Columella might be mistaken with regard to them.
NOTE [U], p. 404. [Mil 386.]
PIST. 122. The inhuman sports exhibited at Rome,

may justly be considered too as an effect of the
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peoples contempt for slaves, and was also a great cause of

the general inhumanity of their princes and rulers. Who can
read the accounts of the amphitheatrical entertainments
without horror? Or who is surprised, that the emperors
should treat that people in the same way the people treated
their inferiors? Ones humanity is apt to renew the
barbarous wish of Caligula, that the people had but one
neck: A man could almost be pleased, by a single blow, to
put an end to such a race of monsters. You may thank God,
says the author above cited, (epist. 7.) addressing himself to
the Roman people, that you have a master (to wit the mild
and merciful Nero) who is incapable of learning cruelty
from your example. This was spoke in the beginning of his
reign: But he fitted them very well afterwards; and, no
doubt, was considerably improved by the sight of the
barbarous objects, to which he had, from his infancy, been
accustomed.
NOTE [X], p. 407. [Mil 389.]
S servus was the name of the genus, and verna of the

species, without any correlative, this forms a strong
presumption, that the latter were by far the least numerous.
It is an universal observation which we may form upon
language, that where two related parts of a whole bear any
proportion to each other, in numbers, rank or
consideration, there are always correlative terms invented,
which answer to both the parts, and express their mutual
relation. If they bear no proportion to each other, the term
is only invented for the less, and marks its distinction from
the whole. Thus man and woman, master and servant, father
and son, prince and subject, stranger and citizen, are correlative
terms. But the words seaman, carpenter, smith, tailor, &c. have
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no correspondent terms, which express those who are no

seamen, no carpenters, &c. Languages differ very much with
regard to the particular words where this distinction
obtains; and may thence afford very strong inferences,
concerning the manners and customs of different nations.
The military government of the Roman emperors had
exalted the soldiery so high, that they balanced all the other
orders of the state: Hence miles and paganus became relative
terms; a thing, till then, unknown to ancient, and still so to
modern languages. Modern superstition exalted the clergy
so high, that they overbalanced the whole state: Hence clergy
and laity are terms opposed in all modern languages; and in
these alone. And from the same principles I infer, that if the
number of slaves bought by the Romans from foreign
countries, had not extremely exceeded those which were
bred at home, verna would have had a correlative, which
would have expressed the former species of slaves. But
these, it would seem, composed the main body of the
ancient slaves, and the latter were but a few exceptions.
NOTE [Y], p. 410. [Mil 392.]
ON temere ancillae ejus rei causa comparantur

ut pariant. Digest. lib. v. tit. 3. de haered. petit. lex
27. The following texts are to the same purpose,
Spadonem morbosum non esse, neque vitiosum, verius
mihi videtur; sed sanum esse, sicuti illum qui unum
testiculum habet, qui etiam generare potest. Digest. lib. ii.
tit. 1. de aedilitio edicto, lex 6. 2. Sin autem quis ita spado
sit, ut tam necessaria pars corporis penitus absit, morbosus
est. Id. lex 7. His impotence, it seems, was only regarded so
far as his health or life might be affected by it. In other
respects, he was full as valuable. The same reasoning is
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employed with regard to female slaves. Quaeritur de ea

muliere quae semper mortuos parit, an morbosa sit? et ait
Sabinus, si vulvae vitio hoc contingit, morbosam esse. Id.
lex 14. It had even been doubted, whether a woman
pregnant was morbid or vitiated; and it is determined, that
she is sound, not on account of the value of her offspring,
but because it is the natural part or office of women to bear
children. Si mulier praegnans venerit, inter omnes
convenit sanam eam esse. Maximum enim ac praecipuum
munus foeminarum accipere ac tueri conceptum.
Puerperam quoque sanam esse; si modo nihil extrinsecus
accedit, quod corpus ejus in aliquam valetudinem
immitteret. De sterili [Mil 393] Coelius distinguere
Trebatium dicit, ut si natura sterilis sit, sana sit; si vitio
corporis, contra. Id.
NOTE [Z], p. 416. [Mil 400.]
HE practice of leaving great sums of money to

friends, though one had near relations, was common
in Greece as well as Rome; as we may gather from Lucian.
This practice prevails much less in modern times; and Ben.
Johnsons Volpone is therefore almost entirely extracted
from ancient authors, and suits better the manners of those
times.
It may justly be thought, that the liberty of divorces in
Rome was another discouragement to marriage. Such a
practice prevents not quarrels from humour, but rather
encreases them; and occasions also those from interest, which
are much more dangerous and destructive. See farther on
this head, Part I. Essay XVIIIXIX. [Of Polygamy and
Divorces.] Perhaps too the unnatural lusts of the ancients
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ought to be taken into consideration, as of some moment.
NOTE [AA], p. 420. [Mil 403.]
LIN. lib. xviii. cap. 3. The same author, in cap. 6. says,

Verumque fatentibus latifundia perdidere [Mil 404] ITALIAM;
jam vero et provincias. Sex domi semissem Africae possidebant,
cum interfecit eos Nero princeps. In this view the barbarous
butchery committed by the first Roman emperors, was not,
perhaps, so destructive to the public as we may imagine.
These never ceased till they had extinguished all the
illustrious families, which had enjoyed the plunder of the
world, during the latter ages of the republic. The new
nobles who arose in their place, were less splendid, as we
learn from Tacit. Ann. lib. iii. cap. 55.
NOTE [BB], p. 426. [Mil 409.]
E shall mention from Diodorus Siculus alone a few

massacres, which passed in the course of sixty years,
during the most shining age of Greece. [Mil 410] There were
banished from Sybaris 500 of the nobles and their partizans;
lib. xii. p. 77. ex edit. Rhodomanni. Of Chians, 600 citizens
banished; lib. xiii. p. 189. At Ephesus, 340 killed, 1000
banished; lib. xiii. p. 223. Of Cyrenians, 500 nobles killed,
all the rest banished; lib. xiv. p. 263. The Corinthians killed
120, banished 500; lib. xiv. p. 304. Phaebidas the Spartan
banished 300 Baeotians; lib. xv. p. 342. Upon the fall of
the Lacedaemonians, Democracies were restored in many
cities, and severe vengeance taken of the nobles, after the
Greek manner. But matters did not end there. For the
banished nobles, returning in many places, butchered their
adversaries at Phialae, in Corinth, in Megara, in Phliasia.
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In this last place they killed 300 of the people; but these
again revolting, killed above 600 of the nobles, and
banished the rest; lib. xv. p. 357. In Arcadia 1400 banished,
besides many killed. The banished retired to Sparta and to
Pallantium: The latter were delivered up to their
countrymen, and all killed; lib. xv. p. 373. Of the banished
from Argos and Thebes, there were 509 in the Spartan
army; id. p. 374. Here is a detail of the most remarkable of
Agathocless cruelties from the same author. The people
before his usurpation had banished 600 nobles; lib. xix. p.
655. Afterwards that tyrant, in concurrence with the people,
killed 4000 nobles, and banished 6000; id. p. 647. He killed
4000 people at Gela; id. p. 741. By Agathocless brother
8000 banished from Syracuse; lib. xx. p. 757. The inhabitants
of AEgesta, to the number of 40,000, were killed, man,
woman, and child; and with tortures, for the sake of their
money; id. p. 802. All the relations, to wit, father, brother,
children, grandfather, of his Libyan army, killed; id. p. 803.
He killed 7000 exiles after capitulation; id. p. 816. It is to be
remarked, that Agathocles was a man of great sense and
courage, and is not to be suspected of wanton cruelty,
contrary to the maxims of his age.
NOTE [CC], p. 428. [Mil 412.]
N order to recommend his client to the favour of the

people, he enumerates all the sums he had expended.
When , 30 minas: Upon a chorus of men 20 minas;
, 8 minas; , 50 minas;
, 3 minas; Seven times trierarch, where he
spent 6 talents: Taxes, once 30 minas, another time 40;
, 12 minas; , 15 minas;
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, 18 minas; , 7
minas; , 15 minas; , 30 minas:

In the whole ten talents 38 minas. An immense sum for an
Athenian fortune, and what alone would be esteemed great
riches, Orat. 20. It is true, he says, the law did not oblige him
absolutely to be at so much expence, not above a fourth.
But without the favour of the people, no body was so much
as safe; and this was the only way to gain it. See farther, orat.
24. de pop. statu. In another place, he introduces a speaker,
who says that he had spent his whole fortune, and an
immense one, eighty talents, for the people. Orat. 25. de prob.
Evandri. The , or strangers, find, says he, if they do
not contribute largely enough to the peoples fancy, that
they have reason to repent it. Orat. 30. contra Phil. You may
see with what care Demosthenes displays his expences of
this nature, when he pleads for himself de corona; and how he
exaggerates Midiass stinginess in this particular, in his
accusation of that criminal. All this, by the by, is a mark of a
very iniquitous judicature: And yet the Athenians valued
themselves on having the most legal and regular
administration of any people in Greece.
NOTE [DD], p. 429. [Mil 414.]
HE authorities cited above, are all historians, orators,

and philosophers, whose testimony is unquestioned. It
is dangerous to rely upon writers who deal in ridicule and
satyr. What will posterity, for instance, infer from this
passage of Dr. Swift: I told him, that in the kingdom of
Tribnia (Britain) by the natives called Langdon (London)
where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of
the people consist, in a manner, wholly of discoverers,
witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences,
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swearers, together with their several subservient and

subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct,
and pay of ministers of state and their deputies. The plots in
that kingdom are usually the workmanship of those
persons, &c. GulliversGullivers travels. Such a
representation might suit the government of Athens; not
that of England, which is remarkable even in modern times,
for humanity, justice, and liberty. Yet the Doctors satyr,
though carried to extremes, as is usual with him, even
beyond other satyrical writers, did not altogether want an
object. The Bishop of Rochester, who was his friend, and
of the same party, had been banished a little before by bill
of attainder, with great justice, but without such a proof as
was legal, or according to the strict forms of common law.
NOTE [EE], p. 438. [Mil 422.]
N general, there is more candour and sincerity in

ancient historians, but less exactness and care, than in
the moderns. Our speculative factions, especially those of
religion, throw such an illusion over our minds, that men
seem to regard impartiality to their adversaries and to
heretics, as a vice or weakness: But the commonness of
books, by means of printing, has obliged modern historians
to be more careful in avoiding contradictions and
incongruities. Diodorus Siculus is a good writer, but it is
with pain I see his narration contradict, in so many
particulars, the two most authentic pieces of all Greek
history, to wit, Xenophons expedition, and Demostheness
orations. Plutarch and Appian seem scarce ever to have
read Ciceros epistles.
NOTE [FF], p. 440. [Mil 425.]

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LINY, lib. vii. cap. 25. says, that Caesar used to boast, that
there had fallen in battle against him one million one
hundred and ninety-two thousand men, besides those
who perished in the civil wars. It is not probable, that that
conqueror could ever pretend to be so exact in his
computation. But allowing the fact, it is likely, that the
Helvetii, Germans, and Britons, whom he slaughtered,
would amount to near a half of the number.
NOTE [GG], p. 444. [Mil 428.]
E are to observe, that when Dionysius

Halycarnassaeus says, that if we regard the
ancient walls of Rome, the extent of that city will not
appear greater than that of Athens; he must mean the
Acropolis and high town only. No ancient author ever
speaks of the Pyraeum, Phalerus, and Munychia, as the
same with Athens. Much less can it be supposed, that
Dionysius would consider the matter in that light, after the
walls of Cimon and Pericles were destroyed, and Athens
was entirely separated from these other towns. This
observation destroys all Vossiuss reasonings, and introduces
common sense into these calculations.
NOTE [HH], p. 447. [Mil 432.]
EMOST. contra Lept. The Athenians brought yearly

from Pontus 400,000 medimni or bushels of corn, as
appeared from the custom-house books. And this was the
greater part of their importation of corn. This by the by is a
strong proof that there is some great mistake in the
foregoing passage of Athenaeus. For Attica itself was so
barren of corn, that it produced not enough even to
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maintain the peasants. Tit. Liv. lib. xliii. cap. 6. And 400,000
medimni would scarcely feed 100,000 men during a
twelvemonth. Lucian, in his navigium sive vota, says, that a
ship, which, by the dimensions he gives, seems to have been
about the size of our third rates, carried as much corn as
would maintain all Attica for a twelve-month. But perhaps
Athens was decayed at that time; and besides, it is not safe
to trust to such loose rhetorical calculations.
NOTE [II], p. 447. [Mil 433.]
IOD. Sic. lib. xvii. When Alexander attacked

Thebes, we may safely conclude, that almost all the
inhabitants were present. Whoever is acquainted with the
spirit of the Greeks, especially of the Thebans, will never
suspect, that any of them would desert their country, when
it was reduced to such extreme peril and distress. As
Alexander took the town by storm, all those who bore arms
were put to the sword without mercy; and they amounted
only to 6000 men. Among these were some strangers and
manumitted slaves. The captives, consisting of old men,
women, children, and slaves, were sold, and they amounted
to 30,000. We may therefore conclude that the free citizens
in Thebes, of both sexes and all ages, were near 24,000; the
strangers and slaves about 12,000. These last, we may
observe, were somewhat fewer in proportion than at
Athens; as is reasonable to imagine from this circumstance,
that Athens was a town of more trade to support slaves, and
of more entertainment to allure strangers. It is also to be
remarked, that thirty-six thousand was the whole number of
people, both in the city of Thebes, and the neighbouring
territory: A very moderate number, it must be confessed;
and this computation, being founded on facts which appear
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indisputable, must have great weight in the present

controversy. The above-mentioned number of Rhodians
too were all the inhabitants of the island, who were free,
and able to bear arms.
NOTE [KK], p. 451. [Mil 437.]
TRABO, liv. v. says, that the emperor Augustus

prohibited the raising houses higher than seventy feet.
In another passage, lib. xvi. he speaks of the houses of Rome
as remarkably high. See also to the same purpose Vitruvius,
lib. ii. cap. 8. Aristides the sophist, in his oration ,
says, that Rome consisted of cities on the top of cities; and
that if one were to spread it out, and unfold it, it would
cover the whole surface of Italy. Where an author indulges
himself in such extravagant declamations, and gives so much
into the hyperbolical style, one knows not how far he must
be reduced. But this reasoning seems natural: If Rome was
built in so scattered a manner as Dionysius says, and ran so
much into the country, there must have been very few
streets where the houses were raised so high. It is only for
want of room, that any body builds in that inconvenient
manner.
NOTE [LL], p. 451. [Mil 438.]
IB. ii. epist. 16. lib. v. epist. 6. It is true, Pliny there

describes a country-house: But since that was the idea
which the ancients formed of a magnificent and convenient
building, the great men would certainly build the same way
in town. In laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca of the
rich and voluptuous, epist. 114. Valerius Maximus, lib. iv.
cap. 4. speaking of Cincinnatuss field of four acres, says,
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Auguste se habitare nunc putat, cujus domus tantum patet

quantum Cincinnati rura patuerant. To the same purpose
see lib. xxxvi. cap. 15. also lib. xviii. cap. 2.
NOTE [MM], p. 451. [Mil 440.]
OENIA ejus (Romae) collegere ambitu

imperatoribus, censoribusque Vespasianis, A. U.
C. 828. pass. xiii. MCC. complexa montes septem, ipsa
dividitur in regiones quatuordecim, compita earum 265.
Ejusdem spatii mensura, currente a milliario in capite Rom.
Fori statuto, ad singulas portas, quae sunt hodie numero
37, ita ut duodecim portae semel numerentur,
praetereanturque ex veteribus septem, quae esse
desierunt, efficit passuum per directum 30,775. Ad extrema
veto tectorum cum castris praetoriis ab eodem Milliario,
per vicos omnium viarum, mensura [Mil 439] collegit paulo
amplius septuaginta millia passuum. Quo si quis altitudinem
tectorum addat, dignam profecto, aestimationem
concipiat, fateaturque nullius urbis magnitudinem in toto
orbe potuisse ei comparari. Plin. lib. iii. cap. 5.
All the best manuscripts of Pliny read the passage as
here cited, and fix the compass of the walls of Rome to be
thirteen miles. The question is, What Pliny means by 30,775
paces, and how that number was formed? The manner in
which I conceive it, is this. Rome was a semicircular area of
thirteen miles circumference. The Forum, and consequently
the Milliarium, we know, was situated on the banks of the
Tyber, and near the center of the circle, or upon the
diameter of the semicircular area. Though there were
thirty-seven gates to Rome, yet only twelve of them had
straight streets, leading from them to the Milliarium. Pliny,
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therefore, having assigned the circumference of Rome, and

knowing that that alone was not sufficient to give us a just
notion of its surface, uses this farther method. He supposes
all the streets, leading from the Milliarium to the twelve
gates, to be laid together into one straight line, and
supposes we run along that line, so as to count each gate
once: In which case, he says, that the whole line is 30,775
paces: Or, in other words, that each street or radius of the
semicircular area is upon an average two miles and a half;
and the whole length of Rome is five miles, and its breadth
about half as much, besides the scattered suburbs.
Pere Hardouin understands this passage in the same
manner; with regard to [Mil 440] the laying together the
several streets of Rome into one line, in order to compose
30,775 paces: But then he supposes, that streets led from the
Milliarium to every gate, and that no street exceeded 800
paces in length. But (1.) a semicircular area, whose radius was
only 800 paces, could never have a circumference near
thirteen miles, the compass of Rome as assigned by Pliny. A
radius of two miles and a half forms very nearly that
circumference. (2.) There is an absurdity in supposing a city
so built as to have streets running to its center from every
gate in its circumference. These streets must interfere as
they approach. (3.) This diminishes too much from the
greatness of ancient Rome, and reduces that city below even
Bristol or Rotterdam.
The sense which Vossius in his Observationes variae puts
on this passage of Pliny, errs widely in the other extreme.
One manuscript of no authority, instead of thirteen miles,
has assigned thirty miles for the compass of the walls of
Rome. And Vossius understands this only of the curvilinear
part of the circumference; supposing, that as the Tyber
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formed the diameter, there were no walls built on that side.

But (1.) this reading is allowed to be contrary to almost all
the manuscripts. (2.) Why should Pliny, a concise writer,
repeat the compass of the walls of Rome in two successive
sentences? (3.) Why repeat it with so sensible a variation? (4.)
What is the meaning of Plinys mentioning twice the
Milliarium, if a line was measured that had no dependence
on the Milliarium? (5.) Aurelians wall is said by Vopiscus
to have been drawn laxiore ambitu, and to have
comprehended all the buildings and suburbs on the north
side of the Tyber; yet its compass was only fifty miles; and
even here critics suspect some mistake or corruption in the
text; since the walls, which remain, and which are supposed
to be the same with Aurelians, exceed not twelve miles. It
is not probable, that Rome would diminish from Augustus
to Aurelian. It remained still the capital of the same
empire; and none of the civil wars in that long period,
except the tumults on the death of Maximus and Balbinus,
ever affected the city. Caracalla is said by Aurelius Victor
to have encreased Rome. (6.) There are no remains of
ancient buildings, which mark any such greatness of Rome.
Vossiuss reply to this objection seems absurd, that the
rubbish would sink sixty or seventy feet under ground. It
appears from Spartian (in vita Severi) that the five-mile
stone in via Lavicana was out of the city. (7.) Olympiodorus
and Publius Victor fix the number of houses in Rome to be
betwixt forty and fifty thousand. (8.) The very extravagance
of the consequences drawn by this critic, as well as Lipsius[Mil 441] , if they be necessary, destroys the foundation on
which they are grounded: That Rome contained fourteen
millions of inhabitants; while the whole kingdom of France
contains only five, according to his computation, &c.
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The only objection to the sense which we have affixed

above to the passage of Pliny, seems to lie in this, That
Pliny, after mentioning the thirty-seven gates of Rome,
assigns only a reason for suppressing the seven old ones, and
says nothing of the eighteen gates, the streets leading from
which terminated, according to my opinion, before they
reached the Forum. But as Pliny was writing to the Romans,
who perfectly knew the disposition of the streets, it is not
strange he should take a circumstance for granted, which
was so familiar to every body. Perhaps too, many of these
gates led to wharfs upon the river.
NOTE [NN], p. 453. [Mil 443.]
Uintus Curtius says, its walls were ten miles in

circumference, when founded by Alexander; lib. iv.
cap. 8. Strabo, who had travelled to Alexandria, as well as
Diodorus Siculus, says it was scarce four miles long, and in
most places about a mile broad; lib. 17. Pliny says it
resembled a Macedonian cassock, stretching out in the
corners; lib. v. cap. 10. Notwithstanding this bulk of
Alexandria, which seems but moderate, Diodorus Siculus,
speaking of its circuit as drawn by Alexander (which it
never exceeded, as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus,
lib. xxii. cap. 16.) says it was , extremely
great, ibid. The reason which he assigns for its surpassing all
cities in the world (for he excepts not Rome) is, that it
contained 300,000 free inhabitants. He also mentions the
reve-[Mil 444] nues of the kings, to wit, 6000 talents, as
another circumstance to the same purpose: No such mighty
sum in our eyes, even though we make allowance for the
different value of money. What Strabo says of the
neighbouring country, means only that it was well peopled,
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. Might not one affirm, without any great
hyperbole, that the whole banks of the river from

Gravesend to Windsor are one city? This is even more than
Strabo says of the banks of the lake Mareotis, and of the
canal to Canopus. It is a vulgar saying in Italy, that the king
of Sardinia has but one town in Piedmont; for it is all a
town. Agrippa, in Josephus de bello Judaic. lib. ii. cap. 16. to
make his audience comprehend the excessive greatness of
Alexandria, which he endeavours to magnify, describes
only the compass of the city as drawn by Alexander: A clear
proof that the bulk of the inhabitants were lodged there,
and that the neighbouring country was no more than what
might be expected about all great towns, very well
cultivated, and well peopled.
NOTE [OO], p. 454. [Mil 444.]
E says (in Nerone, cap. 30.) that a portico or piazza

of it was 3000 feet long; tanta laxitas ut porticus
triplices milliarias haberet. He cannot mean three miles.
For the [Mil 445] whole extent of the house from the Palatine
to the Esquiline was not near so great. So when Vopisc. in
Aureliano mentions a portico in Sallusts gardens, which
he calls porticus milliarensis, it must be understood of a
thousand feet. So also Horace:
Nulla decempedis
Metata privatis opacam
Porticus exciplebat Arcton."
Lib. ii. ode 15.
So also in lib. i. satyr. 8.

Mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum
Hic dabat.
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NOTE [PP], p. 464. [Mil 455.]
T appears from Caesars account, that the Gauls had

no domestic slaves, who formed a different order from
the Plebes. The whole common people were indeed a kind of
slaves to the nobility, as the people of Poland are at this
day: And a nobleman of Gaul had sometimes ten thousand
dependents of this kind. Nor can we doubt, that the armies
were composed of the people as well as of the nobility. The
fighting men amongst the Helvetii were the fourth part of
the inhabitants; a clear proof that all the males of military
age bore arms. See Caesar de bello Gall. lib. i.
We may remark, that the numbers in Caesars
commentaries can be more depended on than those of any
other ancient author, because of the Greek translation,
which still remains, and which checks the Latin original.
NOTE [QQ], p. 466. [Mil 460.]
HE inhabitants of Marseilles lost not their

superiority over the Gauls in commerce and the
mechanic arts, till the Roman dominion turned the latter
from arms to agriculture and civil life. See Strabo, lib. iv.
That author, in several places, repeats the observation
concerning the improvement arising from the Roman arts
and civility: And he lived at the time when the change was
new, and would be more sensible. So also Pliny: Quis enim
non, communicato orbe terrarum, majestate Romani
imperii, profecisse vitam putet, commercio rerum ac
societate festae pacis, omniaque etiam, quae occulta
antea fuerant, in promiscuo usu facta. Lib. xiv. prooem.
"Numine dem electa (speaking of Italy) quae coelum
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ipsum clarius faceret, sparsa congregaret imperia, ritusque

molliret, & tot populorum discordes, ferasque linguas
sermonis commercio contraheret ad colloquia, &
humanitatem homini daret; breviterque, una cunctarum
gentium in toto orbe patria fieret; lib. ii. cap. 5. Nothing
can be stronger to this purpose than the following passage
from Tertullian, who lived about the age of Severus.
Certe quidem ipse orbis in promptu est, cultior de die &
instructior pristino. Omnia jam pervia, omnia nota, omnia
negotiosa. Sol-[Mil 459] itudines famosas retro fundi
amoenissimi obliteraverunt, silvas arva domuerunt, feras
pecora fugaverunt; arenae seruntur, saxa panguntur,
paludes eliquantur, tantae urbes, quantae non casae
quondam. Jam nec insulae horrent, nec scopuli terrent;
ubique domus, ubique populus, ubique respublica, ubique
vita. Summum testimonium frequentiae humanae,
onerosi sumus mundo, vix nobis elementa sufficiunt; &
necessitates arctiores, et querelae apud omnes, dum jam
nos natura non sustinet. De anima, cap. 30. The air of
rhetoric and declamation which appears in this passage,
diminishes somewhat from its authority, but does not
entirely destroy it. The same remark may be extended to
the following passage of Aristides the sophist, who lived in
the age of Adrian. The whole world, says he, addressing
himself to the Romans, seems to keep one holiday; and
mankind, laying aside the sword which they formerly wore,
now betake themselves to feasting and to joy. The cities,
forgetting their ancient animosities, preserve only one
emulation, which shall embellish itself most by every art and
ornament; Theatres every where arise, amphitheatres,
porticoes, aqueducts, temples, schools, academies; and one
may safely pronounce, that the sinking world has been again
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raised by your auspicious empire. Nor have cities alone

received an encrease of ornament and beauty; but the whole
earth, like a garden or paradise, is cultivated and adorned:
Insomuch, that such of mankind as are placed out of the
limits of your empire (who are but few) seem to merit our
sympathy and compassion.
It is remarkable, that though Diodorus Siculus makes
the inhabitants of AEgypt, when conquered by the
Romans, amount only to three millions-[Mil 460] ; yet Joseph.
de bello Jud. lib. ii. cap. 16. says, that its inhabitants, excluding
those of Alexandria, were seven millions and a half, in the
reign of Nero: And he expressly says, that he drew this
account from the books of the Roman publicans, who levied
the poll-tax. Strabo, lib. xvii. praises the superior police of
the Romans with regard to the finances of AEgypt, above
that of its former monarchs: And no part of administration
is more essential to the happiness of a people. Yet we read
in Athenaeus, (lib. i. cap. 25.) who flourished during the
reign of the Antonines, that the town Mareia, near
Alexandria, which was formerly a large city, had dwindled
into a village. This is not, properly speaking, a
contradiction. Suidas (August.) says, that the Emperor
Augustus, having numbered the whole Roman empire,
found it contained only 4,101,017 men (). There is
here surely some great mistake, either in the author or
transcriber. But this authority, feeble as it is, may be
sufficient to counterbalance the exaggerated accounts of
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus with regard to more
early times.
NOTE [RR], p. 467. [Mil 461.]

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IB. ii. cap. 62. It may perhaps be imagined, that Polybius,

being dependent on Rome, would naturally extol the
Roman dominion. But, in the first place, Polybius, though
one sees sometimes instances of his caution, discovers no
symptoms of flattery. Secondly, This opinion is only
delivered in a single stroke, by the by, while he is
intent upon another subject; and it is allowed, if there be
any suspicion of an authors insincerity, that these oblique
propositions discover his real opinion better than his more
formal and direct assertions.
NOTE [SS], p. 469. [Mil 463.]
Must confess that that discourse of Plutarch,

concerning the silence of the oracles, is in general of so
odd a texture, and so unlike his other productions, that one
is at a loss what judgment to form of it. It is written in
dialogue, which is a method of composition that Plutarch
commonly but little affects. The personages he introduces
advance very wild, absurd, and contradictory opinions, more
like the visionary systems or ravings of Plato than the plain
sense of Plutarch. There runs also through the whole an
air of superstition and credulity, which resembles very little
the spirit that appears in other philosophical compositions
of that author. For it is remarkable, that, though Plutarch
be an historian as superstitious as Herodotus or Livy, yet
there is scarcely, in all antiquity, a philosopher less
superstitious, excepting Cicero and Lucian. I must
therefore confess, that a passage of Plutarch, cited from
this discourse, has much less authority with me, than if it
had been found in most of his other compositions.
There is only one other discourse of Plutarch liable to
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like objections, to wit, that concerning those whose punishment is

delayed by the Deity. It is also writ in dialogue, contains like
superstitious, wild visions, and seems to have been chiefly
composed in rivalship to Plato, particularly his last book de
republica.
And here I cannot but observe, that Mons.
Fontenelle, a writer eminent for candor, seems to have
departed a little from his usual character, when he
endeavours to throw a ridicule upon Plutarch on account
of passages to be met with in this dialogue concerning
oracles. The absurdities here put into the mouths of the
several personages are not to be ascribed to Plutarch. He
makes them refute each other; and, in general, he seems to
intend the ridiculing of those very opinions, which
Fontenelle would ridicule him for maintaining. See
Histoire des oracles.
Mil 465
E S S A Y XII.
Of the Original Contract.
S no party, in the present age, can well support itself,

without a philosophical or speculative system of
principles, annexed to its political or practical one; we
accordingly find, that each of the factions, into which this
nation is divided, has reared up a fabric of the former kind,
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in order to protect and cover that scheme of actions, which

it pursues.
Mil 466
The people being commonly very rude builders, especially

in this speculative way, and more especially still, when
actuated by party-zeal; it is natural to imagine, that their
workmanship must be a little unshapely, and discover
evident marks of that violence and hurry, in which it was
raised. The one party, by tracing up government to the
Deity, endeavour to render it so sacred and inviolate, that it
must be little less than sacrilege, however tyrannical it may
become, to touch or invade it, in the smallest article. The
other party, by founding government altogether on the
consent of the People, suppose that there is a kind of
original contract, by which the subjects have tacitly reserved
the power of resisting their sovereign, whenever they find
themselves aggrieved by that authority, with which they
have, for certain purposes, voluntarily entrusted him. These
are the speculative principles of the two parties; and these
too are the practical consequences deduced from them.
I shall venture to affirm, That both these systems of
speculative principles are just; though not in the sense, intended by the
parties: And, That both the schemes of practical consequences are
prudent; though not in the extremes, to which each party, in opposition
to the other, has commonly endeavoured to carry them.
That the Deity is the ultimate author of all
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government, will never be denied by any, who admit a

general providence, and allow, that all events in the
universe are conducted by an uniform plan, and directed to
wise purposes. As it is impossible for the human race to
subsist, at least in any comfortable or secure state, without
the protection of government; this
Mil 467
institution must certainly have been intended by that

beneficent Being, who means the good of all his creatures:
And as it has universally, in fact, taken place, in all
countries, and all ages; we may conclude, with still greater
certainty, that it was intended by that omniscient Being,
who can never be deceived by any event or operation. But
since he gave rise to it, not by any particular or miraculous
interposition, but by his concealed and universal efficacy; a
sovereign cannot, properly speaking, be called his vicegerent, in any other sense than every power or force, being
derived from him, may be said to act by his commission.
Whatever actually happens is comprehended in the general
plan or intention of providence; nor has the greatest and
most lawful prince any more reason, upon that account, to
plead a peculiar sacredness or inviolable authority, than an
inferior magistrate, or even an usurper, or even a robber
and a pyrate. The same divine superintendant, who, for wise
purposes, invested a Titus or a Trajan with authority, did
also, for purposes, no doubt, equally wise, though unknown,
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bestow power on a Borgia or an Angria. The same causes,

which gave rise to the sovereign power in every state,
established likewise every petty jurisdiction in it, and every
limited authority. A constable, therefore, no less than a
king, acts by a divine commission, and possesses an
indefeasible right.
When we consider how nearly equal all men are in their
Mil 468
bodily force, and even in their mental powers and faculties,

till cultivated by education; we must necessarily allow, that
nothing but their own consent could, at first, associate them
together, and subject them to any authority. The people, if
we trace government to its first origin in the woods and
desarts, are the source of all power and jurisdiction, and
voluntarily, for the sake of peace and order, abandoned
their native liberty, and received laws from their equal and
companion. The conditions, upon which they were willing
to submit, were either expressed, or were so clear and
obvious, that it might well be esteemed superfluous to
express them. If this, then, be meant by the original contract,
it cannot be denied, that all government is, at first, founded
on a contract, and that the most ancient rude combinations
of mankind were formed chiefly by that principle. In vain,
are we asked in what records this charter of our liberties is
registered. It was not written on parchment, nor yet on
leaves or barks of trees. It preceded the use of writing and
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all the other civilized arts of life. But we trace it plainly in

the nature of man, and in the equality, or something
approaching equality, which we find in all the individuals of
that species. The force, which now prevails, and which is
founded on fleets and armies, is plainly political, and
derived from authority, the effect of established
government. A mans natural force consists only in the
vigour of his limbs, and the firmness of his courage; which
could never subject multitudes to the command of one.
Nothing but their own consent, and their sense of the
advantages resulting from peace and order, could have had
that influence.
Yet even this consent was long very imperfect, and
could not be the basis of a regular administration. The
chieftain, who had probably acquired his influence during
the continuance of war, ruled more by persuasion than
command; and till he could employ force to reduce the
refractory and disobedient, the society could scarcely be
said to have attained a state of civil government. No
compact or agreement, it is evident, was expressly formed
for general submission; an idea far beyond the
comprehension of savages: Each exertion of
Mil 469
authority in the chieftain must have been particular, and

called forth by the present exigencies of the case: The
sensible utility, resulting from his interposition, made these
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exertions become daily more frequent; and their frequency

gradually produced an habitual, and, if you please to call it
so, a voluntary, and therefore precarious, acquiescence in
the people.
But philosophers, who have embraced a party (if that be
not a contradiction in terms) are not contented with these
concessions. They assert, not only that government in its
earliest infancy arose from consent or rather the voluntary
acquiescence of the people; but also, that, even at present,
when it has attained full maturity, it rests on no other
foundation. They affirm, that all men are still born equal,
and owe allegiance to no prince or government, unless
bound by the obligation and sanction of a promise. And as no
man, without some equivalent, would forego the advantages
of his native liberty, and subject himself to the will of
another; this promise is always understood to be
conditional, and imposes on him no obligation, unless he
meet with justice and protection from his sovereign. These
advantages the sovereign promises him in return; and if he
fail in the execution, he has broken, on his part, the articles
of engagement, and has thereby freed his subject from all
obligations to allegiance. Such, according to these
philosophers, is the foundation of authority in every
government; and such the right of resistance, possessed by
every subject.
But would these reasoners look abroad into the world,
they
Mil 470
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would meet with nothing that, in the least, corresponds to

their ideas, or can warrant so refined and philosophical a
system. On the contrary, we find, every where, princes, who
claim their subjects as their property, and assert their
independent right of sovereignty, from conquest or
succession. We find also, every where, subjects, who
acknowledge this right in their prince, and suppose
themselves born under obligations of obedience to a certain
sovereign, as much as under the ties of reverence and duty
to certain parents. These connexions are always conceived
to be equally independent of our consent, in Persia and
China; in France and Spain; and even in Holland and
England, wherever the doctrines above-mentioned have
not been carefully inculcated. Obedience or subjection
becomes so familiar, that most men never make any enquiry
about its origin or cause, more than about the principle of
gravity, resistance, or the most universal laws of nature. Or
if curiosity ever move them; as soon as they learn, that they
themselves and their ancestors have, for several ages, or
from time immemorial, been subject to such a form of
government or such a family; they immediately acquiesce,
and acknowledge their obligation to allegiance. Were you
to preach, in most parts of the world, that political
connexions are founded altogether on voluntary consent or
a mutual promise, the magistrate would soon imprison you,
as seditious, for loosening the ties of obedience; if your
friends did not before shut you up as delirious, for
advancing such absurdities. It is strange, that an act of the
mind, which every individual is supposed to have formed,
and after he came to the use of reason too, otherwise it
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could have no authority; that this act, I say, should be so

much unknown to all of them, that, over the face of the
whole earth, there scarcely remain any traces or memory of
it.
But the contract, on which government is founded, is
said to be the original contract; and consequently may be
supposed too old to fall under the knowledge of the present
generation. If the agreement, by which savage men first
associated and conjoined their force, be here meant, this is
acknowledged to
Mil 471
be real; but being so ancient, and being obliterated by a

thousand changes of government and princes, it cannot now
be supposed to retain any authority. If we would say any
thing to the purpose, we must assert, that every particular
government, which is lawful, and which imposes any duty of
allegiance on the subject, was, at first, founded on consent
and a voluntary compact. But besides that this supposes the
consent of the fathers to bind the children, even to the most
remote generations, (which republican writers will never
allow) besides this, I say, it is not justified by history or
experience, in any age or country of the world.
Almost all the governments, which exist at present, or
of which there remains any record in story, have been
founded originally, either on usurpation or conquest, or
both, without any pretence of a fair consent, or voluntary
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subjection of the people. When an artful and bold man is

placed at the head of an army or faction, it is often easy for
him, by employing, sometimes violence, sometimes false
pretences, to establish his dominion over a people a
hundred times more numerous than his partizans. He allows
no such open communication, that his enemies can know,
with certainty, their number or force. He gives them no
leisure to assemble together in a body to oppose him. Even
all those, who are the instruments of his usurpation, may
wish his fall; but their ignorance of each others intention
keeps them in awe, and is the sole cause of his security. By
such arts as these, many governments have been established;
and this is all the original contract, which they have to boast
of.
The face of the earth is continually changing, by the
encrease of small kingdoms into great empires, by the
dissolution of great empires into smaller kingdoms, by the
planting of colonies, by the migration of tribes. Is there any
thing discoverable in all these events, but force and
violence? Where is the mutual agreement or voluntary
association so much talked of?
Even the smoothest way, by which a nation may receive
a foreign master, by marriage or a will, is not extremely
honour-
Mil 472
able for the people; but supposes them to be disposed of,

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like a dowry or a legacy, according to the pleasure or

interest of their rulers.
But where no force interposes, and election takes
place; what is this election so highly vaunted? It is either the
combination of a few great men, who decide for the whole,
and will allow of no opposition: Or it is the fury of a
multitude, that follow a seditious ringleader, who is not
known, perhaps, to a dozen among them, and who owes his
advancement merely to his own impudence, or to the
momentary caprice of his fellows.
Are these disorderly elections, which are rare too, of
such mighty authority, as to be the only lawful foundation
of all government and allegiance?
In reality, there is not a more terrible event, than a
total dissolution of government, which gives liberty to the
multitude, and makes the determination or choice of a new
establishment depend upon a number, which nearly
approaches to that of the body of the people: For it never
comes entirely to the whole body of them. Every wise man,
then, wishes to see, at the head of a powerful and obedient
army, a general, who may speedily seize the prize, and give
to the people a master, which they are so unfit to chuse for
themselves. So little correspondent is fact and reality to
those philosophical notions.
Let not the establishment at the Revolution deceive us,
or make us so much in love with a philosophical origin to
government, as to imagine all others monstrous and
irregular. Even that event was far from corresponding to
these refined ideas. It was only the succession, and that only
in the regal part of the government, which was then
changed: And it was only the majority of seven hundred,
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who determined that change for near ten millions. I doubt

not, indeed, but the bulk of those
Mil 473
ten millions acquiesced willingly in the determination: But

was the matter left, in the least, to their choice? Was it not
justly supposed to be, from that moment, decided, and
every man punished, who refused to submit to the new
sovereign? How otherwise could the matter have ever been
brought to any issue or conclusion?
The republic of Athens was, I believe, the most
extensive democracy, that we read of in history: Yet if we
make the requisite allowances for the women, the slaves,
and the strangers, we shall find, that that establishment was
not, at first, made, nor any law ever voted, by a tenth part of
those who were bound to pay obedience to it: Not to
mention the islands and foreign dominions, which the
Athenians claimed as theirs by right of conquest. And as it
is well known, that popular assemblies in that city were
always full of licence and disorder, notwithstanding the
institutions and laws by which they were checked: How
much more disorderly must they prove, where they form
not the established constitution, but meet tumultuously on
the dissolution of the ancient government, in order to give
rise to a new one? How chimerical must it be to talk of a
choice in such circumstances?
0
The Achaeans enjoyed the freest and most perfect

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democracy of all antiquity; yet they employed force to

oblige some cities to enter into their league, as we learn
from Polybius 1*.
Harry the IVth and Harry the VIIth of England, had
really no title to the throne but a parliamentary election;
yet they never would acknowledge it, lest they should
thereby weaken their authority. Strange, if the only real
foundation of all authority be consent and promise!
It is in vain to say, that all governments are or should
be, at first, founded on popular consent, as much as the
necessity of human affairs will admit. This favours entirely
my pretension. I maintain, that human affairs will never
admit of this consent; seldom of the appearance of it. But
that conquest or
Mil 474
usurpation, that is, in plain terms, force, by dissolving the

ancient governments, is the origin of almost all the new
ones, which were ever established in the world. And that in
the few cases, where consent may seem to have taken place,
it was commonly so irregular, so confined, or so much
intermixed either with fraud or violence, that it cannot have
any great authority.
My intention here is not to exclude the consent of the
people from being one just foundation of government
where it has place. It is surely the best and most sacred of
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any. I only pretend, that it has very seldom had place in any
degree, and never almost in its full extent. And that
therefore some other foundation of government must also
be admitted.
Were all men possessed of so inflexible a regard to
justice, that, of themselves, they would totally abstain from
the properties of others; they had for ever remained in a
state of absolute liberty, without subjection to any
magistrate or political society: But this is a state of
perfection, of which human nature is justly deemed
incapable. Again; were all men possessed of so perfect an
understanding, as always to know their own interests, no
form of government had ever been submitted to, but what
was established on consent, and was fully canvassed by every
member of the society: But this state of perfection is
likewise much superior to human nature. Reason, history,
and experience shew us, that all political societies have had
an origin much less accurate and regular; and were one to
choose a period of time, when the peoples consent was the
least regarded in public transactions, it would be precisely
on the establishment of a new government. In a settled
constitution, their inclinations are often consulted; but
during the fury of revolutions, conquests, and public
convulsions, military force or political craft usually decides
the controversy.
When a new government is established, by whatever
means, the people are commonly dissatisfied with it, and
pay obedience more from fear and necessity, than from any
idea of allegiance or of moral obligation. The prince is
watchful and jealous, and must carefully guard against every
beginning or appearance of insurrection. Time, by degrees,
removes all
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Mil 475
these difficulties, and accustoms the nation to regard, as

their lawful or native princes, that family, which, at first,
they considered as usurpers or foreign conquerors. In order
to found this opinion, they have no recourse to any notion
of voluntary consent or promise, which, they know, never
was, in this case, either expected or demanded. The original
establishment was formed by violence, and submitted to
from necessity. The subsequent administration is also
supported by power, and acquiesced in by the people, not as
a matter of choice, but of obligation. They imagine not,
that their consent gives their prince a title: But they
willingly consent, because they think, that, from long
possession, he has acquired a title, independent of their
choice or inclination.
Should it be said, that, by living under the dominion of
a prince, which one might leave, every individual has given a
tacit consent to his authority, and promised him obedience;
it may be answered, that such an implied consent can only
have place, where a man imagines, that the matter depends
on his choice. But where he thinks (as all mankind do who
are born under established governments) that by his birth he
owes allegiance to a certain prince or certain form of
government; it would be absurd to infer a consent or
choice, which he expressly, in this case, renounces and
disclaims.
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Can we seriously say, that a poor peasant or artizan has

a free choice to leave his country, when he knows no
foreign language or manners, and lives from day to day, by
the small wages which he acquires? We may as well assert,
that a man, by remaining in a vessel, freely consents to the
dominion of the master; though he was carried on board
while asleep, and must leap into the ocean, and perish, the
moment he leaves her.
0
What if the prince forbid his subjects to quit his

dominions; as in Tiberiuss time, it was regarded as a crime
in a Roman knight that he had attempted to fly to the
Parthians, in order to escape the tyranny of that
emperor 2? Or as the ancient Muscovites prohibited all
travelling under
Mil 476
pain of death? And did a prince observe, that many of his

subjects were seized with the frenzy of migrating to foreign
countries, he would doubtless, with great reason and justice,
restrain them, in order to prevent the depopulation of his
own kingdom. Would he forfeit the allegiance of all his
subjects, by so wise and reasonable a law? Yet the freedom
of their choice is surely, in that case, ravished from them.
A company of men, who should leave their native
country, in order to people some uninhabited region, might
dream of recovering their native freedom; but they would
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soon find, that their prince still laid claim to them, and
called them his subjects, even in their new settlement. And
in this he would but act conformably to the common ideas
of mankind.
The truest tacit consent of this kind, that is ever
observed, is when a foreigner settles in any country, and is
beforehand acquainted with the prince, and government,
and laws, to which he must submit: Yet is his allegiance,
though more voluntary, much less expected or depended
on, than that of a natural born subject. On the contrary, his
native prince still asserts a claim to him. And if he punish
not the renegade, when he seizes him in war with his new
princes commission; this clemency is not founded on the
municipal law, which in all countries condemns the
prisoner; but on the consent of princes, who have agreed to
this indulgence, in order to prevent reprisals.
Did one generation of men go off the stage at once,
and another succeed, as is the case with silk-worms and
butterflies, the new race, if they had sense enough to
choose their government, which surely is never the case
with men, might voluntarily, and by general consent,
establish their own form of civil polity, without any regard
to the laws or precedents, which prevailed among their
ancestors. But as human society is in perpetual flux, one
man every hour going out of the world, another coming
into it, it is necessary, in order to preserve stability in
government, that the new brood should conform themselves
to the established constitution, and nearly follow the path
which their fathers, treading in the
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Mil 477
footsteps of theirs, had marked out to them. Some

innovations must necessarily have place in every human
institution, and it is happy where the enlightened genius of
the age give these a direction to the side of reason, liberty,
and justice: but violent innovations no individual is entitled
to make: they are even dangerous to be attempted by the
legislature: more ill than good is ever to be expected from
them: and if history affords examples to the contrary, they
are not to be drawn into precedent, and are only to be
regarded as proofs, that the science of politics affords few
rules, which will not admit of some exception, and which
may not sometimes be controuled by fortune and accident.
The violent innovations in the reign of Henry VIII.
proceeded from an imperious monarch, seconded by the
appearance of legislative authority: Those in the reign of
Charles I. were derived from faction and fanaticism; and
both of them have proved happy in the issue: But even the
former were long the source of many disorders, and still
more dangers; and if the measures of allegiance were to be
taken from the latter, a total anarchy must have place in
human society, and a final period at once be put to every
government.
Suppose, that an usurper, after having banished his
lawful prince and royal family, should establish his
dominion for ten or a dozen years in any country, and
should preserve so exact a discipline in his troops, and so
regular a disposition in his garrisons, that no insurrection
had ever been raised, or even murmur heard, against his
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administration: Can it be asserted, that the people, who in

their hearts abhor his treason, have tacitly consented to his
authority, and promised him allegiance, merely because,
from necessity, they live under his dominion? Suppose again
their native prince restored, by means of an army, which he
levies in foreign countries: They receive him with joy and
exultation, and shew plainly with what reluctance they had
submitted to any other yoke. I may
Mil 478
now ask, upon what foundation the princes title stands?

Not on popular consent surely: For though the people
willingly acquiesce in his authority, they never imagine, that
their consent made him sovereign. They consent; because
they apprehend him to be already, by birth, their lawful
sovereign. And as to that tacit consent, which may now be
inferred from their living under his dominion, this is no
more than what they formerly gave to the tyrant and
usurper.
When we assert, that all lawful government arises from
the consent of the people, we certainly do them a great deal
more honour than they deserve, or even expect and desire
from us. After the Roman dominions became too unwieldly
for the republic to govern them, the people, over the whole
known world, were extremely grateful to Augustus for that
authority, which, by violence, he had established over them;
and they shewed an equal disposition to submit to the
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successor, whom he left them, by his last will and testament.

It was afterwards their misfortune, that there never was, in
one family, any long regular succession; but that their line
of princes was continually broken, either by private
assassinations or public rebellions. The praetorian bands, on
the failure of every family, set up one emperor; the legions
in the East a second; those in Germany, perhaps, a third:
And the sword alone could decide the controversy. The
condition of the people, in that mighty monarchy, was to be
lamented, not because the choice of the emperor was never
left to them; for that was impracticable: But because they
never fell under any succession of masters, who might
regularly follow each other. As to the violence and wars and
bloodshed, occasioned by every new settlement; these were
not blameable, because they were inevitable.
The house of Lancaster ruled in this island about sixty
years; yet the partizans of the white rose seemed daily to
multiply in England. The present establishment has taken
Mil 479
place during a still longer period. Have all views of right in

another family been utterly extinguished; even though
scarce any man now alive had arrived at years of discretion,
when it was expelled, or could have consented to its
dominion, or have promised it allegiance? A sufficient
indication surely of the general sentiment of mankind on
this head. For we blame not the partizans of the abdicated
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family, merely on account of the long time, during which

they have preserved their imaginary loyalty. We blame them
for adhering to a family, which, we affirm, has been justly
expelled, and which, from the moment the new settlement
took place, had forfeited all title to authority.
But would we have a more regular, at least a more
philosophical, refutation of this principle of an original
contract or popular consent; perhaps, the following
observations may suffice.
All moral duties may be divided into two kinds. The first
are those, to which men are impelled by a natural instinct or
immediate propensity, which operates on them,
independent of all ideas of obligation, and of all views,
either to public or private utility. Of this nature are, love of
children, gratitude to benefactors, pity to the unfortunate.
When we reflect on the advantage, which results to society
from such humane instincts, we pay them the just tribute of
moral approbation and esteem: But the person, actuated by
them, feels their power and influence, antecedent to any
such reflection.
Mil 480
The second kind of moral duties are such as are not

supported by any original instinct of nature, but are
performed entirely from a sense of obligation, when we
consider the necessities of human society, and the
impossibility of supporting it, if these duties were
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neglected. It is thus justice or a regard to the property of

others, fidelity or the observance of promises, become
obligatory, and acquire an authority over mankind. For as it
is evident, that every man loves himself better than any
other person, he is naturally impelled to extend his
acquisitions as much as possible; and nothing can restrain
him in this propensity, but reflection and experience, by
which he learns the pernicious effects of that licence, and
the total dissolution of society which must ensue from it.
His original inclination, therefore, or instinct, is here
checked and restrained by a subsequent judgment or
observation.
The case is precisely the same with the political or civil
duty of allegiance, as with the natural duties of justice and
fidelity. Our primary instincts lead us, either to indulge
ourselves in unlimited freedom, or to seek dominion over
others: And it is reflection only, which engages us to
sacrifice such strong passions to the interests of peace and
public order. A small degree of experience and observation
suffices to teach us, that society cannot possibly be
maintained without the authority of magistrates, and that
this authority must soon fall into contempt, where exact
obedience is not payed to it. The observation of these
general and obvious interests is the source of all allegiance,
and of that moral obligation, which we attribute to it.
What necessity, therefore, is there to found the duty of
allegiance or obedience to magistrates on that of fidelity or a
regard to promises, and to suppose, that it is the consent of
each individual, which subjects him to government; when it
appears, that both allegiance and fidelity stand precisely on
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Mil 481
the same foundation, and are both submitted to by

mankind, on account of the apparent interests and
necessities of human society? We are bound to obey our
sovereign, it is said; because we have given a tacit promise to
that purpose. But why are we bound to observe our
promise? It must here be asserted, that the commerce and
intercourse of mankind, which are of such mighty
advantage, can have no security where men pay no regard to
their engagements. In like manner, may it be said, that men
could not live at all in society, at least in a civilized society,
without laws and magistrates and judges, to prevent the
encroachments of the strong upon the weak, of the violent
upon the just and equitable. The obligation to allegiance
being of like force and authority with the obligation to
fidelity, we gain nothing by resolving the one into the
other. The general interests or necessities of society are
sufficient to establish both.
If the reason be asked of that obedience, which we are
bound to pay to government, I readily answer, because society
could not otherwise subsist: And this answer is clear and
intelligible to all mankind. Your answer is, because we should
keep our word. But besides, that no body, till trained in a
philosophical system, can either comprehend or relish this
answer: Besides this, I say, you find yourself embarrassed,
when it is asked, why we are bound to keep our word? Nor can
you give any answer, but what would, immediately, without
any circuit, have accounted for our obligation to allegiance.
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But to whom is allegiance due? And who is our lawful

sovereign? This question is often the most difficult of any,
and liable to infinite discussions. When people are so happy,
that they can answer, Our present sovereign, who inherits, in a
direct line, from ancestors, that have governed us for many ages; this
answer admits of no reply; even though historians, in
tracing up to the remotest antiquity, the origin of that royal
family,
Mil 482
may find, as commonly happens, that its first authority was

derived from usurpation and violence. It is confessed, that
private justice, or the abstinence from the properties of
others, is a most cardinal virtue: Yet reason tells us, that
there is no property in durable objects, such as lands or
houses, when carefully examined in passing from hand to
hand, but must, in some period, have been founded on
fraud and injustice. The necessities of human society,
neither in private nor public life, will allow of such an
accurate enquiry: And there is no virtue or moral duty, but
what may, with facility, be refined away, if we indulge a
false philosophy, in sifting and scrutinizing it, by every
captious rule of logic, in every light or position, in which it
may be placed.
The questions with regard to private property have
filled infinite volumes of law and philosophy, if in both we
add the commentators to the original text; and in the end,
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we may safely pronounce, that many of the rules, there

established, are uncertain, ambiguous, and arbitrary. The
like opinion may be formed with regard to the succession
and rights of princes and forms of government. Several
cases, no doubt, occur, especially in the infancy of any
constitution, which admit of no determination from the
laws of justice and equity: And our historian Rapin
pretends, that the controversy be-
Mil 483
tween Edward the Third and Philip de Valois was of this

nature, and could be decided only by an appeal to heaven,
that is, by war and violence.
Who shall tell me, whether Germanicus or Drusus
ought to have succeeded to Tiberius, had he died, while
they were both alive, without naming any of them for his
successor? Ought the right of adoption to be received as
equivalent to that of blood, in a nation, where it had the
same effect in private families, and had already, in two
instances, taken place in the public? Ought Germanicus to
be esteemed the elder son because he was born before
Drusus; or the younger, because he was adopted after the
birth of his brother? Ought the right of the elder to be
regarded in a nation, where he had no advantage in the
succession of private families? Ought the Roman empire at
that time to be deemed hereditary, because of two
examples; or ought it, even so early, to be regarded as
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belonging to the stronger or to the present possessor, as

being founded on so recent an usurpation?
Commodus mounted the throne after a pretty long
succession of excellent emperors, who had acquired their
title, not by birth, or public election, but by the fictitious
rite of adoption. That bloody debauchee being murdered
by a conspiracy suddenly formed between his wench and her
gallant, who happened at that time to be Praetorian
Praefect; these immediately deliberated about choosing a
master to human kind, to speak in the style of those ages;
and they cast their
Mil 484
eyes on Pertinax. Before the tyrants death was known, the

Praefect went secretly to that senator, who, on the
appearance of the soldiers, imagined that his execution had
been ordered by Commodus. He was immediately saluted
emperor by the officer and his attendants; chearfully
proclaimed by the populace; unwillingly submitted to by
the guards; formally recognized by the senate; and passively
received by the provinces and armies of the empire.
The discontent of the Praetorian bands broke out in a
sudden sedition, which occasioned the murder of that
excellent prince: And the world being now without a master
and without government, the guards thought proper to set
the empire formally to sale. Julian, the purchaser, was
proclaimed by the soldiers, recognized by the senate, and
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submitted to by the people; and must also have been

submitted to by the provinces, had not the envy of the
legions begotten opposition and resistance. Pescennius
Niger in Syria elected himself emperor, gained the
tumultuary consent of his army, and was attended with the
secret good-will of the senate and people of Rome. Albinus
in Britain found an equal right to set up his claim; but
Severus, who governed Pannonia, prevailed in the end
above both of them. That able politician and warrior,
finding his own birth and dignity too much inferior to the
imperial crown, professed, at first, an intention only of
revenging the death of Pertinax. He marched as general
into Italy; defeated Julian; and without our being able to
fix any precise commencement even of the soldiers
consent, he was from necessity acknowledged emperor by
the senate and people; and fully established in his violent
authority by subduing Niger and Albinus 3.
0
Inter haec Gordianus Caesar (says Capitolinus,

speaking of another period) sublatus a militibus. Imperator est
appel-
Mil 485
latus, quia non erat alius in praesenti. It is to be remarked, that

Gordian was a boy of fourteen years of age.
Frequent instances of a like nature occur in the history
of the emperors; in that of Alexanders successors; and of
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many other countries: Nor can any thing be more unhappy

than a despotic government of this kind; where the
succession is disjointed and irregular, and must be
determined, on every vacancy, by force or election. In a
free government, the matter is often unavoidable, and is
also much less dangerous. The interests of liberty may there
frequently lead the people, in their own defence, to alter
the succession of the crown. And the constitution, being
compounded of parts, may still maintain a sufficient
stability, by resting on the aristocratical or democratical
members, though the monarchical be altered, from time to
time, in order to accommodate it to the former.
In an absolute government, when there is no legal
prince, who has a title to the throne, it may safely be
determined to belong to the first occupant. Instances of this
kind are but too frequent, especially in the eastern
monarchies. When any race of princes expires, the will or
destination of the last sovereign will be regarded as a title.
Thus the edict of Lewis the XIVth, who called the bastard
princes to the succession in case of the failure of all the
legitimate princes, would, in such an event, have some
authority 4*. Thus the will of Charles the Second
0
Mil 486
disposed of the whole Spanish monarchy. The cession of the

ancient proprietor, especially when joined to conquest, is
likewise deemed a good title. The general obligation, which
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binds us to government, is the interest and necessities of

society; and this obligation is very strong. The
determination of it to this or that particular prince or form
of government is frequently more uncertain and dubious.
Present possession has considerable authority in these cases,
and greater than in private property; because of the
disorders which attend all revolutions and changes of
government.
We shall only observe, before we conclude, that,
though an appeal to general opinion may justly, in the
speculative sciences of metaphysics, natural philosophy, or
astronomy, be deemed unfair and inconclusive, yet in all
questions with regard to morals, as well as criticism, there is
really no other standard, by which any controversy can ever
be decided. And nothing is a clearer proof, that a theory of
this kind is erroneous, than to find, that it leads to
paradoxes, repugnant to the common sentiments of
mankind, and to the practice and opinion of all nations and
all ages. The doctrine, which founds all lawful government
on an original contract, or consent of the people, is plainly of
this kind; nor has the most noted of its partizans, in
prosecution of it, scrupled to affirm, that absolute
Mil 487
monarchy is inconsistent with civil society, and so can be no form of

civil government at all 5*; and that the supreme power in a state
cannot take from any man, by taxes and impositions, any part of his
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property, without his own consent or that of his representatives 6.

What authority any moral reasoning can have, which leads
into opinions so wide of the general practice of mankind, in
every place but this single kingdom, it is easy to determine.
The only passage I meet with in antiquity, where the
obligation of obedience to government is ascribed to a
promise, is in Platos Crito: where Socrates refuses to
escape from prison, because he had tacitly promised to obey
the laws. Thus he builds a tory consequence of passive
obedience, on a whig foundation of the original contract.
New discoveries are not to be expected in these
matters. If scarce any man, till very lately, ever imagined
that government was founded on compact, it is certain, that
it cannot, in general, have any such foundation.
The crime of rebellion among the ancients was
commonly expressed by the terms , novas res
moliri.
N O T E S.
*1. Lib. ii. cap. 38.
2. Tacit. Ann. vi. cap. 14.
3. Herodian, lib. ii.
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*4. See NOTE [TT].

*5. See Locke on Government, chap. vii. 90.
6. Id. chap. xi. 138, 139, 140.
NOTE [TT], p. 492. [Mil 485.]
T is remarkable, that, in the remonstrance of the duke

of Bourbon and the legitimate princes, against this
destination of Louis the XIVth, the doctrine of the original
contract is insisted on, even in that absolute government. The
French nation, say they, chusing Hugh Capet and his
posterity to rule over them and their posterity, where the
former line fails, there is a tacit right reserved to choose a
new royal family; and this right is [Mil 486] invaded by calling
the bastard princes to the throne, without the consent of the
nation. But the Comte de Boulainvilliers, who wrote in
defence of the bastard princes, ridicules this notion of an
original contract, especially when applied to Hugh Capet;
who mounted the throne, says he, by the same arts, which
have ever been employed by all conquerors and usurpers.
He got his title, indeed, recognized by the states after he
had put himself in possession: But is this a choice or
contract? The Comte de Boulainvilliers, we may observe,
was a noted republican; but being a man of learning, and
very conversant in history, he knew that the people were
never almost consulted in these revolutions and new
establishments, and that time alone bestowed right and
authority on what was commonly at first founded on force
and violence. See Etat de la France, Vol. III.
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Mil 488
E S S A Y XIII.
Of Passive Obedience.
N the former essay, we endeavoured to refute the

speculative systems of politics advanced in this nation; as
well the religious system of the one party, as the
philosophical of the other. We come now to examine the
practical consequences, deduced by each party, with regard
to the measures of submission due to sovereigns.
Mil 489
As the obligation to justice is founded entirely on the

interests of society, which require mutual abstinence from
property, in order to preserve peace among mankind; it is
evident, that, when the execution of justice would be
attended with very pernicious consequences, that virtue
must be suspended, and give place to public utility, in such
extraordinary and such pressing emergencies. The maxim,
fiat Justitia & ruat Coelum, let justice be performed, though
the universe be destroyed, is apparently false, and by
sacrificing the end to the means, shews a preposterous idea
of the subordination of duties. What governor of a town
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makes any scruple of burning the suburbs, when they

facilitate the approaches of the enemy? Or what general
abstains from plundering a neutral country, when the
necessities of war require it, and he cannot otherwise subsist
his army? The case is the same with the duty of allegiance;
and common sense teaches us, that, as government binds us
to obedience only on account of its tendency to public
utility, that duty must always, in extraordinary cases, when
public ruin would evidently attend obedience, yield to the
primary and original obligation. Salus populi suprema Lex, the
safety of the people is the supreme law. This maxim is
agreeable to the sentiments of mankind in all ages:
Mil 490
Nor is any one, when he reads of the insurrections against

Nero or Philip the Second, so infatuated with partysystems, as not to wish success to the enterprize, and praise
the undertakers. Even our high monarchical party, in spite
of their sublime theory, are forced, in such cases, to judge,
and feel, and approve, in conformity to the rest of mankind.
Resistance, therefore, being admitted in extraordinary
emergencies, the question can only be among good
reasoners, with regard to the degree of necessity, which can
justify resistance, and render it lawful or commendable. And
here I must confess, that I shall always incline to their side,
who draw the bond of allegiance very close, and consider an
infringement of it, as the last refuge in desperate cases,
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when the public is in the highest danger, from violence and

tyranny. For besides the mischiefs of a civil war, which
commonly attends insurrection; it is certain, that, where a
disposition to rebellion appears among any people, it is one
chief cause of tyranny in the rulers, and forces them into
many violent measures which they never would have
embraced, had every one been inclined to submission and
obedience. Thus the tyrannicide or assassination, approved of
by ancient maxims, instead of keeping tyrants and usurpers
in awe, made them ten times more fierce and unrelenting;
and is now justly, upon that account, abolished by the laws
of nations, and universally condemned as a base and
treacherous method of bringing to justice these disturbers
of society.
Besides we must consider, that, as obedience is our
duty in the common course of things, it ought chiefly to be
inculcated; nor can any thing be more preposterous than an
anxious care and solicitude in stating all the cases, in which
resistance may be allowed. In like manner, though a
philosopher reasonably acknowledges, in the course of an
argument, that the rules of justice may be dispensed with in
cases of urgent
Mil 491
necessity; what should we think of a preacher or casuist,

who should make it his chief study to find out such cases,
and enforce them with all the vehemence of argument and
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eloquence? Would he not be better employed in inculcating

the general doctrine, than in displaying the particular
exceptions, which we are, perhaps, but too much inclined,
of ourselves, to embrace and to extend?
There are, however, two reasons, which may be
pleaded in defence of that party among us, who have, with
so much industry, propagated the maxims of resistance;
maxims, which, it must be confessed, are, in general, so
pernicious, and so destructive of civil society. The first is,
that their antagonists carrying the doctrine of obedience to
such an extravagant height, as not only never to mention the
exceptions in extraordinary cases (which might, perhaps, be
excusable) but even positively to exclude them; it became
necessary to insist on these exceptions, and defend the
rights of injured truth and liberty. The second, and, perhaps,
better reason, is founded on the nature of the British
constitution and form of government.
It is almost peculiar to our constitution to establish a
first magistrate with such high pre-eminence and dignity,
that, though limited by the laws, he is, in a manner, so far as
regards his own person, above the laws, and can neither be
questioned nor punished for any injury or wrong, which
may be committed by him. His ministers alone, or those
who act by his commission, are obnoxious to justice; and
while the prince is thus allured, by the prospect of personal
safety, to give the laws their free course, an equal security
is, in effect, obtained by the punishment of lesser
offenders, and at the same time a civil war is avoided, which
would be the infallible consequence, were an attack, at
every turn, made directly upon the sovereign. But though
the constitution pays this salutary compliment to the prince,
it can never reasonably be understood, by that maxim, to
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have determined its own destruction, or to have established

a tame submission, where he protects his ministers,
perseveres in injustice, and usurps the whole
Mil 492
power of the commonwealth. This case, indeed, is never

expressly put by the laws; because it is impossible for them,
in their ordinary course, to provide a remedy for it, or
establish any magistrate, with superior authority, to chastise
the exorbitancies of the prince. But as a right without a
remedy would be an absurdity; the remedy in this case, is
the extraordinary one of resistance, when affairs come to
that extremity, that the constitution can be defended by it
alone. Resistance therefore must, of course, become more
frequent in the British government, than in others, which
are simpler, and consist of fewer parts and movements.
Where the king is an absolute sovereign, he has little
temptation to commit such enormous tyranny as may justly
provoke rebellion: But where he is limited, his imprudent
ambition, without any great vices, may run him into that
perilous situation. This is frequently supposed to have been
the case with Charles the First; and if we may now speak
truth, after animosities are ceased, this was also the case
with James the Second. These were harmless, if not, in their
private character, good men; but mistaking the nature of
our constitution, and engrossing the whole legislative
power, it became necessary to oppose them with some
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vehemence; and even to deprive the latter formally of that

authority, which he had used with such imprudence and
indiscretion.
Mil 493
E S S A Y XIV.
Of the Coalition of Parties.
O abolish all distinctions of party may not be

practicable, perhaps not desirable, in a free
government. The only dangerous parties are such as
entertain opposite views with regard to the essentials of
government, the succession of the crown, or the more
considerable privileges belonging to the several members of
the constitution; where there is no room for any
compromise or accommodation, and where the controversy
may appear so momentous as to justify even an opposition
by arms to the pretensions of antagonists. Of this nature was
the animosity, continued for above a century past, between
the parties in England; an animosity which broke out
sometimes into civil war, which occasioned violent
revolutions, and which continually endangered the peace
and tran-
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Mil 494
quillity of the nation. But as there have appeared of late the

strongest symptoms of an universal desire to abolish these
party distinctions; this tendency to a coalition affords the
most agreeable prospect of future happiness, and ought to
be carefully cherished and promoted by every lover of his
country.
There is not a more effectual method of promoting so
good an end, than to prevent all unreasonable insult and
triumph of the one party over the other, to encourage
moderate opinions, to find the proper medium in all
disputes, to persuade each that its antagonist may possibly
be sometimes in the right, and to keep a balance in the
praise and blame, which we bestow on either side. The two
former Essays, concerning the original contract and passive
obedience, are calculated for this purpose with regard to the
philosophical and practical controversies between the parties,
and tend to show that neither side are in these respects so
fully supported by reason as they endeavour to flatter
themselves. We shall proceed to exercise the same
moderation with regard to the historical disputes between
the parties, by proving that each of them was justified by
plausible topics; that there were on both sides wise men,
who meant well to their country; and that the past animosity
between the factions had no better foundation than narrow
prejudice or interested passion.
The popular party, who afterwards acquired the name
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of whigs, might justify, by very specious arguments, that

opposition to the crown, from which our present free
constitution is derived. Though obliged to acknowledge,
that precedents in favour of prerogative had uniformly
taken place during many reigns before Charles the First,
they thought, that there was no reason for submitting any
longer to so dangerous an authority. Such might have been
their reasoning: As the rights of mankind are for ever to be
deemed sacred, no prescription of tyranny or arbitrary
power can have authority sufficient to abolish them. Liberty
is a blessing so inestimable, that, wherever there appears any
probability of recovering it, a nation may willingly run
many hazards, and ought not even to repine at the greatest
effusion of blood or dissipation of treasure. All
Mil 495
human institutions, and none more than government, are in

continual fluctuation. Kings are sure to embrace every
opportunity of extending their prerogatives: And if
favourable incidents be not also laid hold of for extending
and securing the privileges of the people, an universal
despotism must for ever prevail amongst mankind. The
example of all the neighbouring nations proves, that it is no
longer safe to entrust with the crown the same high
prerogatives, which had formerly been exercised during
rude and simple ages. And though the example of many late
reigns may be pleaded in favour of a power in the prince
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somewhat arbitrary, more remote reigns afford instances of

stricter limitations imposed on the crown; and those
pretensions of the parliament, now branded with the title of
innovations, are only a recovery of the just rights of the
people.
These views, far from being odious, are surely large,
and generous, and noble: To their prevalence and success
the kingdom owes its liberty; perhaps its learning, its
industry, commerce, and naval power: By them chiefly the
English name is distinguished among the society of nations,
and aspires to a rivalship with that of the freest and most
illustrious commonwealths of antiquity. But as all these
mighty consequences could not reasonably be foreseen at
the time when the contest began, the royalists of that age
wanted not specious arguments on their side, by which they
could justify their defence of the then established
prerogatives of the prince. We shall state the question, as it
might have appeared to them at the assembling of that
parliament, which, by its violent encroachments on the
crown, began the civil wars.
The only rule of government, they might have said,
known and acknowledged among men, is use and practice:
Reason is so uncertain a guide that it will always be exposed
to doubt and controversy: Could it ever render itself
prevalent over the people, men had always retained it as
their sole rule of conduct: They had still continued in the
primitive, unconnected, state of nature, without submitting
to political government, whose sole basis is, not pure
reason, but authority and prece-
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Mil 496
dent. Dissolve these ties, you break all the bonds of civil
society, and leave every man at liberty to consult his private
interest, by those expedients, which his appetite, disguised
under the appearance of reason, shall dictate to him. The
spirit of innovation is in itself pernicious, however
favourable its particular object may sometimes appear: A
truth so obvious, that the popular party themselves are
sensible of it; and therefore cover their encroachments on
the crown by the plausible pretence of their recovering the
ancient liberties of the people.
But the present prerogatives of the crown, allowing all
the suppositions of that party, have been incontestably
established ever since the accession of the House of Tudor;
a period, which, as it now comprehends a hundred and sixty
years, may be allowed sufficient to give stability to any
constitution. Would it not have appeared ridiculous, in the
reign of the Emperor Adrian, to have talked of the
republican constitution as the rule of government; or to
have supposed, that the former rights of the senate, and
consuls, and tribunes were still subsisting?
But the present claims of the English monarchs are
much more favourable than those of the Roman emperors
during that age. The authority of Augustus was a plain
usurpation, grounded only on military violence, and forms
such an epoch in the Roman history, as is obvious to every
reader. But if Henry VII. really, as some pretend, enlarged
the power of the crown, it was only by insensible
acquisitions, which escaped the apprehension of the people,
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and have scarcely been remarked even by historians and

politicians. The new govern-
Mil 497
ment, if it deserve the epithet, is an imperceptible transition

from the former; is entirely engrafted on it; derives its title
fully from that root; and is to be considered only as one of
those gradual revolutions, to which human affairs, in every
nation, will be for ever subject.
The House of Tudor, and after them that of Stuart,
exercised no prerogatives, but what had been claimed and
exercised by the Plantagenets. Not a single branch of their
authority can be said to be an innovation. The only
difference is, that, perhaps, former kings exerted these
powers only by intervals, and were not able, by reason of
the opposition of their barons, to render them so steady a
rule of administration. But the sole inference from this fact
is, that those ancient times were more turbulent and
seditious; and that royal authority, the constitution, and the
laws have happily of late gained the ascendant.
Under what pretence can the popular party now speak
of recovering the ancient constitution? The former
controul over the kings was not placed in the commons, but
in the barons: The people had no authority, and even little
or no liberty; till the crown, by suppressing these factious
tyrants, enforced the execution of the laws, and obliged all
the subjects equally to respect each others rights, privileges,
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and properties. If we must return to the ancient barbarous

and feudal constitution; let those gentlemen, who now
behave themselves with so much insolence to their
sovereign, set the first example. Let them make court to be
admitted as retainers to a neighbouring baron; and by
submitting to slavery under him, acquire some protection to
themselves; together with the power of exercising rapine
and oppression over their inferior slaves and vil-
Mil 498
lains. This was the condition of the commons among their

remote ancestors.
But how far back must we go, in having recourse to
ancient constitutions and governments? There was a
constitution still more ancient than that to which these
innovators affect so much to appeal. During that period
there was no magna charta: The barons themselves possessed
few regular, stated privileges: And the house of commons
probably had not an existence.
It is ridiculous to hear the commons, while they are
assuming, by usurpation, the whole power of government,
talk of reviving ancient institutions. Is it not known, that,
though representatives received wages from their
constituents; to be a member of the lower house was always
considered as a burden, and an exemption from it as a
privilege? Will they persuade us, that power, which, of all
human acquisitions, is the most coveted, and in comparison
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of which even reputation and pleasure and riches are

slighted, could ever be regarded as a burden by any man?
The property, acquired of late by the commons, it is
said, entitles them to more power than their ancestors
enjoyed. But to what is this encrease of their property
owing, but to an encrease of their liberty and their security?
Let them therefore acknowledge, that their ancestors,
while the crown was restrained by the seditious barons,
really enjoyed less liberty than they themselves have
attained, after the sovereign acquired the ascendant: And let
them enjoy that liberty with moderation; and not forfeit it
by new exorbitant claims, and by rendering it a pretence for
endless innovations.
The true rule of government is the present established
practice of the age. That has most authority, because it is
Mil 499
recent: It is also best known, for the same reason. Who has
assured those tribunes, that the Plantagenets did not
exercise as high acts of authority as the Tudors? Historians,
they say, do not mention them. But historians are also silent
with regard to the chief exertions of prerogative by the
Tudors. Where any power or prerogative is fully and
undoubtedly established, the exercise of it passes for a thing
of course, and readily escapes the notice of history and
annals. Had we no other monuments of Elizabeths reign,
than what are preserved even by Camden, the most copious,
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judicious, and exact of our historians, we should be entirely

ignorant of the most important maxims of her government.
Was not the present monarchical government, in its full
extent, authorized by lawyers, recommended by divines,
acknowledged by politicians, acquiesced in, nay passionately
cherished, by the people in general; and all this during a
period of at least a hundred and sixty years, and till of late,
without the smallest murmur or controversy? This general
consent surely, during so long a time, must be sufficient to
render a constitution legal and valid. If the origin of all
power be derived, as is pretended, from the people; here is
their consent in the fullest and most ample terms that can be
desired or imagined.
But the people must not pretend, because they can, by
their consent, lay the foundations of government, that
therefore they are to be permitted, at their pleasure, to
overthrow and subvert them. There is no end of these
seditious and arrogant claims. The power of the crown is
now openly struck at: The nobility are also in visible peril:
The gentry will soon follow: The popular leaders, who will
then assume the name of gentry, will next be exposed to
danger: And the people themselves, having become
incapable of civil government,
Mil 500
and lying under the restraint of no authority, must, for the

sake of peace, admit, instead of their legal and mild
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monarchs, a succession of military and despotic tyrants.

These consequences are the more to be dreaded, as the
present fury of the people, though glossed over by
pretensions to civil liberty, is in reality incited by the
fanaticism of religion; a principle the most blind,
headstrong, and ungovernable, by which human nature can
possibly be actuated. Popular rage is dreadful, from
whatever motive derived: But must be attended with the
most pernicious consequences, when it arises from a
principle, which disclaims all controul by human law,
reason, or authority.
These are the arguments, which each party may make
use of to justify the conduct of their predecessors, during
that great crisis. The event, if that can be admitted as a
reason, has shown, that the arguments of the popular party
were better founded; but perhaps, according to the
established maxims of lawyers and politicians, the views of
the royalists ought, before-hand, to have appeared more
solid, more safe, and more legal. But this is certain, that the
greater moderation we now employ in representing past
events; the nearer shall we be to produce a full coalition of
the parties, and an entire acquiescence in our present
establishment. Moderation is of advantage to every
establishment: Nothing but zeal can overturn a settled
power: And an over-active zeal in friends is apt to beget a
like spirit in antagonists. The transition from a moderate
opposition against an establishment, to an entire
acquiescence in it, is easy and insensible.
There are many invincible arguments, which should
induce the malcontent party to acquiesce entirely in the
present
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Mil 501
settlement of the constitution. They now find, that the

spirit of civil liberty, though at first connected with
religious fanaticism, could purge itself from that pollution,
and appear under a more genuine and engaging aspect; a
friend to toleration, and an encourager of all the enlarged
and generous sentiments that do honour to human nature.
They may observe, that the popular claims could stop at a
proper period; and after retrenching the high claims of
prerogative, could still maintain a due respect to monarchy,
to nobility, and to all ancient institutions. Above all, they
must be sensible, that the very principle, which made the
strength of their party, and from which it derived its chief
authority, has now deserted them, and gone over to their
antagonists. The plan of liberty is settled; its happy effects
are proved by experience; a long tract of time has given it
stability; and whoever would attempt to overturn it, and to
recall the past government or abdicated family, would,
besides other more criminal imputations, be exposed, in
their turn, to the reproach of faction and innovation. While
they peruse the history of past events, they ought to reflect,
both that those rights of the crown are long since
annihilated, and that the tyranny, and violence, and
oppression, to which they often gave rise, are ills, from
which the established liberty of the constitution has now at
last happily protected the people. These reflections will
prove a better security to our freedom and privileges, than
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to deny, contrary to the clearest evidence of facts, that such

regal powers ever had an existence. There is not a more
effectual method of betraying a cause, than to lay the stress
of the argument on a wrong place, and by disputing an
untenable post, enure the adversaries to success and victory.
Mil 502
E S S A Y XV.
Of the Protestant Succession.
SUPPOSE, that a member of parliament, in the reign

of King William or Queen Anne, while the
establishment of the Protestant Succession was yet uncertain,
were deliberating concerning the party he would chuse in
that important question, and weighing, with impartiality,
the advantages and disadvantages on each side. I believe the
following particulars would have entered into his
consideration.
Mil 503
He would easily perceive the great advantage resulting

from the restoration of the Stuart family; by which we
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should preserve the succession clear and undisputed, free

from a pretender, with such a specious title as that of blood,
which, with the multitude, is always the claim, the strongest
and most easily comprehended. It is in vain to say, as many
have done, that the question with regard to governors,
independent of government, is frivolous, and little worth
disputing, much less fighting about. The generality of
mankind never will enter into these sentiments; and it is
much happier, I believe, for society, that they do not, but
rather continue in their natural prepossessions. How could
stability be preserved in any monarchical government,
(which, though, perhaps, not the best, is, and always has
been, the most common of any) unless men had so
passionate a regard for the true heir of their royal family;
and even though he be weak in understanding, or infirm in
years, gave him so sensible a preference above persons the
most accomplished in shining talents, or celebrated for
great atchievements? Would not every popular
Mil 504
leader put in his claim at every vacancy, or even without any

vacancy; and the kingdom become the theatre of perpetual
wars and convulsions? The condition of the Roman empire,
surely, was not, in this respect, much to be envied; nor is
that of the Eastern nations, who pay little regard to the titles
of their sovereign, but sacrifice them, every day, to the
caprice or momentary humour of the populace or soldiery.
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It is but a foolish wisdom, which is so carefully displayed, in

undervaluing princes, and placing them on a level with the
meanest of mankind. To be sure, an anatomist finds no
more in the greatest monarch than in the lowest peasant or
day-labourer; and a moralist may, perhaps, frequently find
less. But what do all these reflections tend to? We, all of us,
still retain these prejudices in favour of birth and family;
and neither in our serious occupations, nor most careless
amusements, can we ever get entirely rid of them. A
tragedy, that should represent the adventures of sailors, or
porters, or even of private gentlemen, would presently
disgust us; but one that introduces kings and princes,
acquires in our eyes an air of importance and dignity. Or
should a man be able, by his superior wisdom, to get
entirely above such prepossessions, he would soon, by means
of the same wisdom, again bring himself down to them, for
the sake of society, whose welfare he would perceive to be
intimately connected with them. Far from endeavouring to
undeceive the people in this particular, he would cherish
such sentiments of reverence to their princes; as requisite to
preserve a due subordination in society. And though the
lives of twenty thousand men be often sacrificed to maintain
a king in possession of his throne, or preserve the right of
succession undisturbed, he entertains no indignation at the
loss, on pretence that every individual of these was, perhaps,
in himself, as valuable as the prince he served. He considers
the consequences of violating the hereditary right of kings:
Consequences, which may be felt for many centuries; while
the loss of several thousand men brings so little prejudice to
a large kingdom, that it may not be perceived a few years
after.
The advantages of the Hanover succession are of an
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Mil 505
opposite nature, and arise from this very circumstance, that

it violates hereditary right; and places on the throne a
prince, to whom birth gave no title to that dignity. It is
evident, from the history of this island, that the privileges
of the people have, during near two centuries, been
continually upon the encrease, by the division of the
church-lands, by the alienations of the barons estates, by
the progress of trade, and above all, by the happiness of our
situation, which, for a long time, gave us sufficient security,
without any standing army or military establishment. On the
contrary, public liberty has, almost in every other nation of
Europe, been, during the same period, extremely upon the
decline; while the people were disgusted at the hardships of
the old feudal militia, and rather chose to entrust their
prince with mercenary armies, which he easily turned
against themselves. It was nothing extraordinary, therefore,
that some of our British sovereigns mistook the nature of
the constitution, at least, the genius of the people; and as
they embraced all the favourable precedents left them by
their ancestors, they overlooked all those which were
contrary, and which supposed a limitation in our
government. They were encouraged in this mistake, by the
example of all the neighbouring princes, who bearing the
same title or appellation, and being adorned with the same
ensigns of authority, naturally led them to claim the same
powers and prerogatives. It appears from the speeches, and
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proclamations of James I. and the whole train of that

princes actions, as well as his sons, that he regarded the
English government as a simple monarchy, and never
imagined that any considerable part of his subjects
entertained a contrary idea. This opinion made those
monarchs discover their pretensions, without preparing any
force to support them; and even without reserve or disguise,
which are always employed by those, who enter upon any
new project, or endeavour to innovate in any government.
The flattery of courtiers farther confirmed their prejudices;
and above all, that of the clergy, who from several passages
of scripture, and these wrested too, had erected a regular and
avowed system of arbitrary power. The only method of de-
Mil 506
stroying, at once, all these high claims and pretensions, was

to depart from the true hereditary line, and choose a prince,
who, being plainly a creature of the public, and receiving
the crown on conditions, expressed and avowed, found his
authority established on the same bottom with the privileges
of the people. By electing him in the royal line, we cut off
all hopes of ambitious subjects, who might, in future
emergencies, disturb the government by their cabals and
pretensions: By rendering the crown hereditary in his
family, we avoided all the inconveniencies of elective
monarchy: And by excluding the lineal heir, we secured all
our constitutional limitations, and rendered our
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government uniform and of a piece. The people cherish

monarchy, because protected by it: The monarch favours
liberty, because created by it. And thus every advantage is
obtained by the new establishment, as far as human skill and
wisdom can extend itself.
These are the separate advantages of fixing the
succession, either in the house of Stuart, or in that of
Hanover. There are also disadvantages in each
establishment, which an impartial patriot would ponder and
examine, in order to form a just judgment upon the whole.
The disadvantages of the protestant succession consist
in the foreign dominions, which are possessed by the
princes of the Hanover line, and which, it might be
supposed, would engage us in the intrigues and wars of the
continent, and lose us, in some measure, the inestimable
advantage we possess, of being surrounded and guarded by
the sea, which we command. The disadvantages of recalling
the abdicated family consist chiefly in their religion, which
is more prejudicial to society than that established amongst
us, is contrary to it, and affords no toleration, or peace, or
security to any other communion.
It appears to me, that these advantages and
disadvantages are allowed on both sides; at least, by every
one who is at all susceptible of argument or reasoning. No
subject, however loyal, pretends to deny, that the disputed
title and foreign dominions of the present royal family are a
loss. Nor is there
Mil 507
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any partizan of the Stuarts, but will confess, that the claim
of hereditary, indefeasible right, and the Roman Catholic
religion, are also disadvantages in that family. It belongs,
therefore, to a philosopher alone, who is of neither party,
to put all the circumstances in the scale, and assign to each
of them its proper poise and influence. Such a one will
readily, at first, acknowledge that all political questions are
infinitely complicated, and that there scarcely ever occurs,
in any deliberation, a choice, which is either purely good,
or purely ill. Consequences, mixed and varied, may be
foreseen to flow from every measure: And many
consequences, unforeseen, do always, in fact, result from
every one. Hesitation, and reserve, and suspence, are,
therefore, the only sentiments he brings to this essay or
trial. Or if he indulges any passion, it is that of derision
against the ignorant multitude, who are always clamorous
and dogmatical, even in the nicest questions, of which, from
want of temper, perhaps still more than of understanding,
they are altogether unfit judges.
But to say something more determinate on this head,
the following reflections will, I hope, show the temper, if
not the understanding of a philosopher.
Were we to judge merely by first appearances, and by
past experience, we must allow that the advantages of a
parliamentary title in the house of Hanover are greater
than those of an undisputed hereditary title in the house of
Stuart; and that our fathers acted wisely in preferring the
former to the latter. So long as the house of Stuart ruled in
Great Britain, which, with some interruption, was above
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eighty years, the government was kept in a continual fever,

by the contention between the privileges of the people and
the prerogatives of the crown. If arms were dropped, the
noise of disputes continued: Or if these were silenced,
jealousy still corroded the heart, and threw the nation into
an unnatural ferment and disorder. And while we were thus
occupied in domestic disputes, a foreign power, dangerous
to public liberty, erected itself in Europe, without any
opposition from us, and even sometimes with our assistance.
Mil 508
But during these last sixty years, when a parliamentary

establishment has taken place; whatever factions may have
prevailed either among the people or in public assemblies,
the whole force of our constitution has always fallen to one
side, and an uninterrupted harmony has been preserved
between our princes and our parliaments. Public liberty,
with internal peace and order, has flourished almost without
interruption: Trade and manufactures, and agriculture,
have encreased: The arts, and sciences, and philosophy, have
been cultivated. Even religious parties have been
necessitated to lay aside their mutual rancour: And the glory
of the nation has spread itself all over Europe; derived
equally from our progress in the arts of peace, and from
valour and success in war. So long and so glorious a period
no nation almost can boast of: Nor is there another instance
in the whole history of mankind, that so many millions of
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people have, during such a space of time, been held

together, in a manner so free, so rational, and so suitable to
the dignity of human nature.
But though this recent experience seems clearly to
decide in favour of the present establishment, there are
some circumstances to be thrown into the other scale; and it
is dangerous to regulate our judgment by one event or
example.
We have had two rebellions during the flourishing
period above mentioned, besides plots and conspiracies
without number. And if none of these have produced any
very fatal event, we may ascribe our escape chiefly to the
narrow genius of those princes who disputed our
establishment; and we may esteem ourselves so far
fortunate. But the claims of the banished family, I fear, are
not yet antiquated; and who can foretel, that their future
attempts will produce no greater disorder?
The disputes between privilege and prerogative may
easily be composed by laws, and votes, and conferences, and
concessions; where there is tolerable temper or prudence on
both sides, or on either side. Among contending titles, the
question can only be determined by the sword, and by
devastation, and by civil war.
Mil 509
A prince, who fills the throne with a disputed title,

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dares not arm his subjects; the only method of securing a

people fully, both against domestic oppression and foreign
conquest.
Notwithstanding our riches and renown, what a critical
escape did we make, by the late peace, from dangers, which
were owing not so much to bad conduct and ill success in
war, as to the pernicious practice of mortgaging our
finances, and the still more pernicious maxim of never
paying off our incumbrances? Such fatal measures would
not probably have been embraced, had it not been to secure
a precarious establishment.
But to convince us, that an hereditary title is to be
embraced rather than a parliamentary one, which is not
supported by any other views or motives; a man needs only
transport himself back to the aera of the restoration, and
suppose, that he had had a seat in that parliament which
recalled the royal family, and put a period to the greatest
disorders that ever arose from the opposite pretensions of
prince and people. What would have been thought of one,
that had proposed, at that time, to set aside Charles II. and
settle the crown on the Duke of York, or Gloucester,
merely in order to exclude all high claims, like those of
their father and grandfather? Would not such a one have
been regarded as an extravagant projector, who loved
dangerous remedies, and could tamper and play with a
government and national constitution, like a quack with a
sickly patient?
In reality, the reason assigned by the nation for
excluding the race of Stuart, and so many other branches
of the royal family, is not on account of their hereditary
title (a reason, which would, to vulgar apprehensions, have
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appeared altogether absurd), but on account of their

religion. Which leads us to compare the disadvantages above
mentioned in each establishment.
I confess, that, considering the matter in general, it
were much to be wished, that our prince had no foreign
dominions, and could confine all his attention to the
government of this island. For not to mention some real
inconveniencies that may
Mil 510
result from territories on the continent, they afford such a

handle for calumny and defamation, as is greedily seized by
the people, always disposed to think ill of their superiors. It
must, however, be acknowledged, that Hanover, is,
perhaps, the spot of ground in Europe the least
inconvenient for a King of England. It lies in the heart of
Germany, at a distance from the great powers, which are
our natural rivals: It is protected by the laws of the empire,
as well as by the arms of its own sovereign: And it serves
only to connect us more closely with the house of Austria,
our natural ally.
The religious persuasion of the house of Stuart is an
inconvenience of a much deeper dye, and would threaten us
with much more dismal consequences. The Roman Catholic
religion, with its train of priests and friers, is more
expensive than ours: Even though unaccompanied with its
natural attendants of inquisitors, and stakes, and gibbets, it
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is less tolerating: And not content with dividing the

sacerdotal from the regal office (which must be prejudicial
to any state), it bestows the former on a foreigner, who has
always a separate interest from that of the public, and may
often have an opposite one.
But were this religion ever so advantageous to society,
it is contrary to that which is established among us, and
which is likely to keep possession, for a long time, of the
minds of the people. And though it is much to be hoped,
that the progress of reason will, by degrees, abate the
acrimony of opposite religions all over Europe; yet the
spirit of moderation has, as yet, made too slow advances to
be entirely trusted.
Thus, upon the whole, the advantages of the settlement
in the family of Stuart, which frees us from a disputed
title, seem to bear some proportion with those of the
settlement in the family of Hanover, which frees us from
the claims of prerogative: But at the same time, its
disadvantages, by placing on the throne a Roman Catholic,
are greater than those of the other establishment, in settling
the crown on a foreign prince. What party an impartial
patriot, in the reign of K. William or Q. Anne, would have
chosen amidst these op-
Mil 511
posite views, may, perhaps, to some appear hard to

determine.
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But the settlement in the house of Hanover has

actually taken place. The princes of that family, without
intrigue, without cabal, without solicitation on their part,
have been called to mount our throne, by the united voice
of the whole legislative body. They have, since their
accession, displayed, in all their actions, the utmost
mildness, equity, and regard to the laws and constitution.
Our own ministers, our own parliaments, ourselves have
governed us; and if aught ill has befallen us, we can only
blame fortune or ourselves. What a reproach must we
become among nations, if, disgusted with a settlement so
deliberately made, and whose conditions have been so
religiously observed, we should throw every thing again
into confusion; and by our levity and rebellious disposition,
prove ourselves totally unfit for any state but that of
absolute slavery and subjection?
The greatest inconvenience, attending a disputed title,
is, that it brings us in danger of civil wars and rebellions.
What wise man, to avoid this inconvenience, would run
directly into a civil war and rebellion? Not to mention, that
so long possession, secured by so many laws, must, ere this
time, in the apprehension of a great part of the nation, have
begotten a title in the house of Hanover, independent of
their present possession: So that now we should not, even by
a revolution, obtain the end of avoiding a disputed title.
No revolution made by national forces, will ever be
able, without some other great necessity, to abolish our
debts and incumbrances, in which the interest of so many
persons is concerned. And a revolution made by foreign
forces, is a conquest: A calamity, with which the precarious
balance of power threatens us, and which our civil
dissentions are likely, above all other circumstances, to
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bring upon us.
Mil 512
E S S A Y XVI.
Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth.
T is not with forms of government, as with other

artificial contrivances; where an old engine may be
rejected, if we can discover another more accurate and
commodious, or where trials may safely be made, even
though the success be doubtful. An established government
has an infinite advantage, by that very circumstance of its
being established; the bulk of mankind being governed by
authority, not reason, and never attributing authority to any
thing that has not the recommendation of antiquity. To
tamper, therefore, in this affair, or try experiments merely
upon the credit of supposed argument and philosophy, can
never be the part of a wise magistrate, who will bear a
reverence to what carries the marks of age; and though he
may attempt some improvements for the public
Mil 513
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good, yet will he adjust his innovations, as much as possible,

to the ancient fabric, and preserve entire the chief pillars
and supports of the constitution.
The mathematicians in Europe have been much divided
concerning that figure of a ship, which is the most
commodious for sailing; and Huygens, who at last
determined the controversy, is justly thought to have
obliged the learned, as well as commercial world; though
Columbus had sailed to America, and Sir Francis Drake
made the tour of the world, without any such discovery. As
one form of government must be allowed more perfect than
another, independent of the manners and humours of
particular men; why may we not enquire what is the most
perfect of all, though the common botched and inaccurate
governments seem to serve the purposes of society, and
though it be not so easy to establish a new system of
government, as to build a vessel upon a new construction?
The subject is surely the most worthy curiosity of any the
wit of man can possibly devise. And who knows, if this
controversy were fixed by the universal consent of the wise
and learned, but, in some future age, an opportunity might
be afforded of reducing the theory to practice, either by a
dissolution of some old government, or by the combination
of men to form a new one, in some distant part of the
world? In all cases, it must be advantageous to know what is
most perfect in the kind, that we may be able to bring any
real constitution or form of government as near it as possi-
Mil 514
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ble, by such gentle alterations and innovations as may not

give too great disturbance to society.
All I pretend to in the present essay is to revive this
subject of speculation; and therefore I shall deliver my
sentiments in as few words as possible. A long dissertation
on that head would not, I apprehend, be very acceptable to
the public, who will be apt to regard such disquisitions both
as useless and chimerical.
All plans of government, which suppose great
reformation in the manners of mankind, are plainly
imaginary. Of this nature, are the Republic of Plato, and the
Utopia of Sir Thomas More. The Oceana is the only
valuable model of a commonwealth, that has yet been
offered to the public.
Mil 515
The chief defects of the Oceana seem to be these.

First, Its rotation is inconvenient, by throwing men, of
whatever abilities, by intervals, out of public employments.
Secondly, Its Agrarian is impracticable. Men will soon learn
the art, which was practised in ancient Rome, of concealing
their possessions under other peoples name; till at last, the
abuse will become so common, that they will throw off even
the appearance of restraint. Thirdly, The Oceana provides
not a sufficient security for liberty, or the redress of
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grievances. The senate must propose, and the people

consent; by which means, the senate have not only a
negative upon the people, but, what is of much greater
consequence, their negative goes before the votes of the
people. Were the Kings negative of the same nature in the
English constitution, and could he prevent any bill from
coming into parliament, he would be an absolute monarch.
As his negative follows the votes of the houses, it is of little
consequence: Such a difference is there in the manner of
placing the same thing. When a popular bill has been
debated in parliament, is brought to maturity, all its
conveniencies and inconveniencies, weighed and balanced;
if afterwards it be presented for the royal assent, few
princes will venture to reject the unanimous desire of the
people. But could the King crush a disagreeable bill in
embryo (as was the case, for some time, in the Scottish
parliament, by means of the lords of the articles), the
British government would have no balance, nor would
grievances ever be redressed: And it is certain, that
exorbitant power proceeds not, in any govern-
Mil 516
ment, from new laws, so much as from neglecting to remedy

the abuses, which frequently rise from the old ones. A
government, says Machiavel, must often be brought back to
its original principles. It appears then, that, in the Oceana,
the whole legislature may be said to rest in the senate;
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which Harrington would own to be an inconvenient form

of government, especially after the Agrarian is abolished.
Here is a form of government, to which I cannot, in
theory, discover any considerable objection.
Let Great Britain and Ireland, or any territory of
equal extent, be divided into 100 counties, and each county
into 100 parishes, making in all 10,000. If the country,
proposed to be erected into a commonwealth be of more
narrow extent, we may diminish the number of counties;
but never bring them below thirty. If it be of greater
extent, it were better to enlarge the parishes, or throw more
parishes into a county, than encrease the number of
counties.
Let all the freeholders of twenty pounds a-year in the
county, and all the householders worth 500 pounds in the
town parishes, meet annually in the parish church, and
chuse, by ballot, some freeholder of the county for their
member, whom we shall call the county representative.
Let the 100 county representatives, two days after their
election, meet in the county town, and chuse by ballot,
from their own body, ten county magistrates, and one senator.
There are, therefore, in the whole commonwealth, 100
senators, 1100 county magistrates, and 10,000 county
representatives. For we shall bestow on all senators the
authority of county magistrates, and on all county
magistrates the authority of county representatives.
Let the senators meet in the capital, and be endowed
with the whole executive power of the commonwealth; the
power of peace and war, of giving orders to generals,
admirals, and
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Mil 517
ambassadors, and, in short, all the prerogatives of a British

King, except his negative.
Let the county representatives meet in their particular
counties, and possess the whole legislative power of the
commonwealth; the greater number of counties deciding
the question; and where these are equal, let the senate have
the casting vote.
Every new law must first be debated in the senate; and
though rejected by it, if ten senators insist and protest, it
must be sent down to the counties. The senate, if they
please, may join to the copy of the law their reasons for
receiving or rejecting it.
Because it would be troublesome to assemble all the
county representatives for every trivial law, that may be
requisite, the senate have their choice of sending down the
law either to the county magistrates or county
representatives.
The magistrates, though the law be referred to them,
may, if they please, call the representatives, and submit the
affair to their determination.
Whether the law be referred by the senate to the
county magistrates or representatives, a copy of it, and of
the senates reasons, must be sent to every representative
eight days before the day appointed for the assembling, in
order to deliberate concerning it. And though the
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determination be, by the senate, referred to the

magistrates, if five representatives of the county order the
magistrates to assemble the whole court of representatives,
and submit the affair to their determination, they must
obey.
Either the county magistrates or representatives may
give, to the senator of the county, the copy of a law to be
proposed to the senate; and if five counties concur in the
same order, the law, though refused by the senate, must
come either to the county magistrates or representatives, as
is contained in the order of the five counties.
Any twenty counties, by a vote either of their
magistrates or representatives, may throw any man out of all
public offices for a year. Thirty counties for three years.
Mil 518
The senate has a power of throwing out any member or

number of members of its own body, not to be re-elected
for that year. The senate cannot throw out twice in a year
the senator of the same county.
The power of the old senate continues for three weeks
after the annual election of the county representatives.
Then all the new senators are shut up in a conclave, like the
cardinals; and by an intricate ballot, such as that of Venice
or Malta, they chuse the following magistrates; a
protector, who represents the dignity of the
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commonwealth, and presides in the senate; two secretaries

of state; these six councils, a council of state, a council of
religion and learning, a council of trade, a council of laws, a
council of war, a council of the admiralty, each council
consisting of five persons; together with six commissioners
of the treasury and a first commissioner. All these must be
senators. The senate also names
Mil 519
all the ambassadors to foreign courts, who may either be

senators or not.
The senate may continue any or all of these, but must
re-elect them every year.
The protector and two secretaries have session and
suffrage in the council of state. The business of that council
is all foreign politics. The council of state has session and
suffrage in all the other councils.
The council of religion and learning inspects the
universities and clergy. That of trade inspects every thing
that may affect commerce. That of laws inspects all the
abuses of law by the inferior magistrates, and examines what
improvements may be made of the municipal law. That of
war inspects the militia and its discipline, magazines, stores,
&c. and when the republic is in war, examines into the
proper orders for generals. The council of admiralty has the
same power with regard to the navy, together with the
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nomination of the captains and all inferior officers.

None of these councils can give orders themselves,
except where they receive such powers from the senate. In
other cases, they must communicate every thing to the
senate.
When the senate is under adjournment, any of the
councils may assemble it before the day appointed for its
meeting.
Besides these councils or courts, there is another called
the court of competitors; which is thus constituted. If any
candidates for the office of senator have more votes than a
third of the representatives, that candidate, who has most
votes, next to the senator elected, becomes incapable for
one year of all public offices, even of being a magistrate or
representative: But he takes his seat in the court of
competitors. Here then is a court which may sometimes
consist of a hundred members, sometimes have no members
at all; and by that means, be for a year abolished.
The court of competitors has no power in the
commonwealth. It has only the inspection of public
accounts, and the accusing of any man before the senate. If
the senate acquit him, the court of competitors may, if they
please, appeal to
Mil 520
the people, either magistrates or representatives. Upon that

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appeal, the magistrates or representatives meet on the day

appointed by the court of competitors, and chuse in each
county three persons; from which number every senator is
excluded. These, to the number of 300, meet in the capital,
and bring the person accused to a new trial.
The court of competitors may propose any law to the
senate; and if refused, may appeal to the people, that is, to
the magistrates or representatives, who examine it in their
counties. Every senator, who is thrown out of the senate by
a vote of the court, takes his seat in the court of
competitors.
The senate possesses all the judicative authority of the
house of Lords, that is, all the appeals from the inferior
courts. It likewise appoints the Lord Chancellor, and all the
officers of the law.
Every county is a kind of republic within itself, and the
representatives may make bye-laws; which have no
authority till three months after they are voted. A copy of
the law is sent to the senate, and to every other county. The
senate, or any single county, may, at any time, annul any
bye-law of another county.
The representatives have all the authority of the
British justices of peace in trials, commitments, &c.
The magistrates have the appointment of all the
officers of the revenue in each county. All causes with
regard to the revenue are carried ultimately by appeal
before the magistrates. They pass the accompts of all the
officers; but must have their own accompts examined and
passed at the end of the year by the representatives.
The magistrates name rectors or ministers to all the
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parishes.
The Presbyterian government is established; and the
highest ecclesiastical court is an assembly or synod of all the
presbyters of the county. The magistrates may take any
cause from this court, and determine it themselves.
The magistrates may try, and depose or suspend any
presbyter.
The militia is established in imitation of that of
Swisser-
Mil 521
land, which being well known, we shall not insist upon it. It
will only be proper to make this addition, that an army of
20,000 men be annually drawn out by rotation, paid and
encamped during six weeks in summer; that the duty of a
camp may not be altogether unknown.
The magistrates appoint all the colonels and
downwards. The senate all upwards. During war, the
general appoints the colonel and downwards, and his
commission is good for a twelvemonth. But after that, it
must be confirmed by the magistrates of the county, to
which the regiment belongs. The magistrates may break any
officer in the county regiment. And the senate may do the
same to any officer in the service. If the magistrates do not
think proper to confirm the generals choice, they may
appoint another officer in the place of him they reject.
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All crimes are tried within the county by the

magistrates and a jury. But the senate can stop any trial, and
bring it before themselves.
Any county may indict any man before the senate for
any crime.
The protector, the two secretaries, the council of state,
with any five or more that the senate appoints, are
possessed, on extraordinary emergencies, of dictatorial
power for six months.
The protector may pardon any person condemned by
the inferior courts.
In time of war, no officer of the army that is in the
field can have any civil office in the commonwealth.
The capital, which we shall call London, may be
allowed
Mil 522
four members in the senate. It may therefore be divided

into four counties. The representatives of each of these
chuse one senator, and ten magistrates. There are therefore
in the city four senators, forty-four magistrates, and four
hundred representatives. The magistrates have the same
authority as in the counties. The representatives also have
the same authority; but they never meet in one general
court: They give their votes in their particular county, or
division of hundreds.
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When they enact any bye-law, the greater number of

counties or divisions determines the matter. And where
these are equal, the magistrates have the casting vote.
The magistrates chuse the mayor, sheriff, recorder, and
other officers of the city.
In the commonwealth, no representative, magistrate,
or senator, as such, has any salary. The protector,
secretaries, councils, and ambassadors, have salaries.
The first year in every century is set apart for
correcting all inequalities, which time may have produced in
the representative. This must be done by the legislature.
The following political aphorisms may explain the
reason of these orders.
The lower sort of people and small proprietors are
good judges enough of one not very distant from them in
rank or habitation; and therefore, in their parochial
meetings, will probably chuse the best, or nearly the best
representative: But they are wholly unfit for countymeetings, and for electing into the higher offices of the
republic. Their ignorance gives the grandees an opportunity
of deceiving them.
Ten thousand, even though they were not annually
elected, are a basis large enough for any free government.
It is true, the nobles in Poland are more than 10,000, and
yet these oppress the people. But as power always continues
there in the same persons and families, this makes them, in a
manner, a different nation from the people. Besides the
nobles are there united under a few heads of families.
All free governments must consist of two councils, a
lesser and greater; or, in other words, of a senate and
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people. The
Mil 523
people, as Harrington observes, would want wisdom,

without the senate: The senate, without the people, would
want honesty.
A large assembly of 1000, for instance, to represent the
people, if allowed to debate, would fall into disorder. If not
allowed to debate, the senate has a negative upon them, and
the worst kind of negative, that before resolution.
Here therefore is an inconvenience, which no
government has yet fully remedied, but which is the easiest
to be remedied in the world. If the people debate, all is
confusion: If they do not debate, they can only resolve; and
then the senate carves for them. Divide the people into
many separate bodies; and then they may debate with safety,
and every inconvenience seems to be prevented.
Cardinal de Retz says, that all numerous assemblies,
however composed, are mere mob, and swayed in their
debates by the least motive. This we find confirmed by daily
experience. When an absurdity strikes a member, he
conveys it to his neighbour, and so on, till the whole be
infected. Separate this great body; and though every
member be only of middling sense, it is not probable, that
any thing but reason can prevail over the whole. Influence
and example being removed, good sense will always get the
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better of bad among a number of people.

There are two things to be guarded against in every
senate: Its combination, and its division. Its combination is
most dangerous. And against this inconvenience we have
provided the following remedies. 1. The great dependence
of the senators on the people by annual elections; and that
not by an un-
Mil 524
distinguishing rabble, like the English electors, but by men

of fortune and education. 2. The small power they are
allowed. They have few offices to dispose of. Almost all are
given by the magistrates in the counties. 3. The court of
competitors, which being composed of men that are their
rivals, next to them in interest, and uneasy in their present
situation, will be sure to take all advantages against them.
The division of the senate is prevented, 1. By the
smallness of their number. 2. As faction supposes a
combination in a separate interest, it is prevented by their
dependence on the people. 3. They have a power of
expelling any factious member. It is true, when another
member of the same spirit comes from the county, they
have no power of expelling him: Nor is it fit they should;
for that shows the humour to be in the people, and may
possibly arise from some ill conduct in public affairs. 4.
Almost any man, in a senate so regularly chosen by the
people, may be supposed fit for any civil office. It would be
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proper, therefore, for the senate to form some general

resolutions with regard to the disposing of offices among
the members: Which resolutions would not confine them in
critical times, when extraordinary parts on the one hand, or
extraordinary stupidity on the other, appears in any senator;
but they would be sufficient to prevent intrigue and
faction, by making the disposal of the offices a thing of
course. For instance, let it be a resolution, That no man
shall enjoy any office, till he has sat four years in the senate:
That, except ambassadors, no man shall be in office two
years following: That no man shall attain the higher offices
but through the lower: That no man shall be protector
twice, &c. The senate of Venice govern themselves by such
resolutions.
In foreign politics the interest of the senate can
scarcely ever be divided from that of the people; and
therefore it is fit to make the senate absolute with regard to
them; otherwise there could be no secrecy or refined policy.
Besides, without money no alliance can be executed; and
the senate is still sufficiently dependant. Not to mention,
that the legislative power being always superior to the
executive, the magistrates or representatives may interpose
whenever they think proper.
Mil 525
The chief support of the British government is the

opposition of interests; but that, though in the main
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serviceable, breeds endless factions. In the foregoing plan,

it does all the good without any of the harm. The competitors
have no power of controlling the senate: They have only the
power of accusing, and appealing to the people.
It is necessary, likewise, to prevent both combination
and division in the thousand magistrates. This is done
sufficiently by the separation of places and interests.
But lest that should not be sufficient, their dependence
on the 10,000 for their elections, serves to the same purpose.
Nor is that all: For the 10,000 may resume the power
whenever they please; and not only when they all please,
but when any five of a hundred please, which will happen
upon the very first suspicion of a separate interest.
The 10,000 are too large a body either to unite or
divide, except when they meet in one place, and fall under
the guidance of ambitious leaders. Not to mention their
annual election, by the whole body of the people, that are
of any consideration.
A small commonwealth is the happiest government in
the world within itself, because every thing lies under the
eye of the rulers: But it may be subdued by great force
from without. This scheme seems to have all the advantages
both of a great and a little commonwealth.
Every county-law may be annulled either by the senate
or another county; because that shows an opposition of
interest: In which case no part ought to decide for itself.
The matter must be referred to the whole, which will best
determine what agrees with general interest.
As to the clergy and militia, the reasons of these orders
are obvious. Without the dependence of the clergy on the
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civil magistrates, and without a militia, it is in vain to think

that any free government will ever have security or stability.
In many governments, the inferior magistrates have no
rewards but what arise from their ambition, vanity, or
public spirit. The salaries of the French judges amount not
to the interest of the sums they pay for their offices. The
Dutch
Mil 526
burgo-masters have little more immediate profit than the

English justices of peace, or the members of the house of
commons formerly. But lest any should suspect, that this
would beget negligence in the administration (which is little
to be feared, considering the natural ambition of mankind),
let the magistrates have competent salaries. The senators
have access to so many honourable and lucrative offices,
that their attendance needs not be bought. There is little
attendance required of the representatives.
That the foregoing plan of government is practicable,
no one can doubt, who considers the resemblance that it
bears to the commonwealth of the United Provinces, a wise
and renowned government. The alterations in the present
scheme seem all evidently for the better. 1. The
representation is more equal. 2. The unlimited power of the
burgo-masters in the towns, which forms a perfect
aristocracy in the Dutch commonwealth, is corrected by a
well-tempered democracy, in giving to the people the
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annual election of the county representatives. 3. The

negative, which every province and town has upon the
whole body of the Dutch republic, with regard to alliances,
peace and war, and the imposition of taxes, is here removed.
4. The counties, in the present plan, are not so independent
of each other, nor do they form separate bodies so much as
the seven provinces; where the jealousy and envy of the
smaller provinces and towns against the greater, particularly
Holland and Amsterdam, have frequently disturbed the
government. 5. Larger powers, though of the safest kind,
are intrusted to the senate than the States-General possess;
by which means, the former may become more expeditious,
and secret in their resolutions, than it is possible for the
latter.
The chief alterations that could be made on the
British government, in order to bring it to the most perfect
model of limited monarchy, seem to be the following. First,
The plan of Cromwells parliament ought to be restored,
by making the representation equal, and by allowing none
to vote in the county elections who possess not a property of
200 pounds
Mil 527
value. Secondly, As such a house of Commons would be too

weighty for a frail house of Lords, like the present, the
Bishops and Scotch Peers ought to be removed: The
number of the upper house ought to be raised to three or
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four hundred: Their seats not hereditary, but during life:

They ought to have the election of their own members; and
no commoner should be allowed to refuse a seat that was
offered him. By this means the house of Lords would
consist entirely of the men of chief credit, abilities, and
interest in the nation; and every turbulent leader in the
house of Commons might be taken off, and connected by
interest with the house of Peers. Such an aristocracy would
be an excellent barrier both to the monarchy and against it.
At present, the balance of our government depends in some
measure on the abilities and behaviour of the sovereign;
which are variable and uncertain circumstances.
This plan of limited monarchy, however corrected,
seems still liable to three great inconveniencies. First, It
removes not entirely, though it may soften, the parties of
court and country. Secondly, The kings personal character
must still have great influence on the government. Thirdly,
The sword is in the hands of a single person, who will always
neglect to discipline the militia, in order to have a pretence
for keeping up a standing army.
We shall conclude this subject, with observing the
falsehood of the common opinion, that no large state, such
as France or Great Britain, could ever be modelled into a
commonwealth, but that such a form of government can
only take place in a city or small territory. The contrary
seems probable. Though it is more difficult to form a
republican government in an extensive country than in a
city; there is more facility, when once it is formed, of
preserving it steady and uniform, without tumult and
faction. It is not easy, for the distant parts of a large state to
combine in any plan of free government; but they easily
conspire in the esteem and reverence for a single person,
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who, by means of this popular favour, may seize the power,

and forcing the more obstinate to submit, may establish a
monarchical government. On the other
Mil 528
hand, a city readily concurs in the same notions of

government, the natural equality of property favours
liberty, and the nearness of habitation enables the citizens
mutually to assist each other. Even under absolute princes,
the subordinate government of cities is commonly
republican; while that of counties and provinces is
monarchical. But these same circumstances, which facilitate
the erection of commonwealths in cities, render their
constitution more frail and uncertain. Democracies are
turbulent. For however the people may be separated or
divided into small parties, either in their votes or elections;
their near habitation in a city will always make the force of
popular tides and currents very sensible. Aristocracies are
better adapted for peace and order, and accordingly were
most admired by ancient writers; but they are jealous and
oppressive. In a large government, which is modelled with
masterly skill, there is compass and room enough to refine
the democracy, from the lower people, who may be
admitted into the first elections or first concoction of the
commonwealth, to the higher magistrates, who direct all the
movements. At the same time, the parts are so distant and
remote, that it is very difficult, either by intrigue,
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prejudice, or passion, to hurry them into any measures

against the public interest.
It is needless to enquire, whether such a government
would be immortal. I allow the justness of the poets
exclamation on the endless projects of human race, Man and
for ever! The world itself probably is not immortal. Such
consuming plagues may arise as would leave even a perfect
government a weak prey to its neighbours. We know not to
what length
Mil 529
enthusiasm, or other extraordinary movements of the

human mind, may transport men, to the neglect of all order
and public good. Where difference of interest is removed,
whimsical and unaccountable factions often arise, from
personal favour or enmity. Perhaps, rust may grow to the
springs of the most accurate political machine, and disorder
its motions. Lastly, extensive conquests, when pursued, must
be the ruin of every free government; and of the more
perfect governments sooner than of the imperfect; because
of the very advantages which the former possess above the
latter. And though such a state ought to establish a
fundamental law against conquests; yet republics have
ambition as well as individuals, and present interest makes
men forgetful of their posterity. It is a sufficient incitement
to human endeavours, that such a government would
flourish for many ages; without pretending to bestow, on
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any work of man, that immortality, which the Almighty

seems to have refused to his own productions.
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Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

OME People are subject to a certain delicacy of passion,

tunes and adversity. Favours and good offices easily engage

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

And when a person, that has this sensibility of temper,

tainment; rudeness or impertinence is as great a punishment

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

happiness and misery, and makes us sensible to pains as well

these two species of delicacy, I am persuaded, that nothing

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

nobler arts. A greater or less relish for those obvious

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

temper as the study of the beauties, either of poetry,

be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

little enjoyment but in the company of a few select

being thus confined within a narrow circle, no wonder he

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

OTHING is more apt to surprize a foreigner, than

or Spain; it may very naturally give occasion to a question,

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

It will be found, if I mistake not, a true observation in

two extremes of absolute monarchy and of a republic,

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

want of jealousy begets a mutual confidence and trust in

predominates. The consequences are conformable to the

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

watchfulness and jealousy. The Roman emperors were,

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

nation may be employed on the side of freedom, and every

rally be careful to keep the press open, as of importance to

T is a question with several, whether there be any

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

Were it once admitted, that all governments are alike, and

constitution above another, must be esteemed mere bigotry

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

ancient as well as modern history, foreign as well as

influence, and made it not the interest, even of bad men, to

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

power they possessed in a collective, not in a representative

large share of power, and shall form a proper balance or

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

such as are founded on causes and principles eternal and

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

governments have been commonly the most happy for those

their provinces: And this observation may, I believe, be

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

frequently; which obliges these temporary tyrants to be

And who is not touched with indignation to hear, that, after

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

the provinces, as Tacitus informs us 2*; and it may be

decline. The oppression and tyranny of the Carthaginians

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

the conquests of Alexander the Great, which I think, may

consider, that a monarch may govern his subjects in two

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)

enterprize: Whereas, in the latter, the least misfortune, or

Such is the reasoning of Machiavel, which seems solid

magistrates; being always, in such governments, as absolute

Texts - Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, vol. 1 (1777)