are at to procure them. 'Such a situation,'
said I, 'would be dangerous to many people, for if, as some have
supposed, and, in regard to a great part of the world, I fear with
truth, mutual wants are the great bands of society, a person thus
placed, would be in danger of feeling himself so independent a being as
might tempt him to disclaim all commerce with mankind, since he could
not be benefited by them. He would look on himself in the light of a
rich man gaming with sharpers, with a great probability of losing, and a
certainty of never being a gainer.'

'I do not think the danger,' replied Lady Mary, 'so great as you
imagine, even though we allow that society arises from the motive you
mention. However fortune may have set us above any bodily wants, the
mind will still have many which would drive us into society. Reason
wishes for communication and improvement; benevolence longs for objects
on which to exert itself; the social comforts of friendship are so
necessary to our happiness that it would be impossible not to endeavour
to enjoy them. In sickness the langour of our minds makes us wish for
the amusements of conversation; in health the vivacity of our spirits
leads us to desire it. To avoid pain we seek after corporeal
conveniencies, to procure pleasure we aim at mental enjoyments; and I
believe, if we observe the general course of men's actions, we shall see
them at least as strongly actuated by the desire of pleasure, as by the
fear of pain; though philosophers, who have formed their judgements more
on reason than the knowledge of mankind, may have thought otherwise.'

'I think,' said Mrs Morgan, 'somebody has asserted that he who could
live without society must be more than a God, or less than a man; the
latter part of this assertion would have held good had he carried it
farther, and said lower than a brute, for there is no creature in the
universe that is not linked into some society, except we allow the
existence of that exploded and unsociable bird the Phoenix.'

'I am surprised,' interrupted Lamont, 'to hear ladies, who seclude
themselves from the world in this solitary though beautiful place, so
strongly plead for society.'

'Do you then,' replied Miss Mancel, 'mistake a crowd for society? I know
not two things more opposite. How little society is there to be found in
what you call the world? It might more properly be compared to that
state of war, which Hobbes supposes the first condition of mankind