ver wealthy it may be; otherwise, the wealth
will soon be dissipated and disappear. The people of Flanders cannot,
for example, cultivate the fields of the French, and live in Flanders;
and, if the agriculture of a country is neglected, that country must soon
become poor and miserable. {67}

---
{67} We have seen what became of the Romans, when the tribute paid
by other nations enabled them to live in idleness. The influx of wealth
from America produced nearly the same effect on Spain: though it
lasted for a very short time, yet it ruined the country.
-=-

[end of page #81]

It is not absolutely necessary, then, for an individual to conciliate
affluence with industry, or, which is the same thing, to preserve one of
the effects of necessity, after the necessity has ceased to exist. But if
it were possible for a sum of money, or property of any sort, to be given
to each individual in a nation, which would be sufficient, in the midst
of an industrious people, to enable him to live in perfect idleness, the
whole nation could not become idle. Such a case never can exist, as
that of all the individuals in a country becoming sufficiently rich to
live without labour. But something approaching towards that state of
things actually does take place, when, by the general increase of
wealth, the necessity for labour is diminished. The number of idle
people is constantly augmenting; and even those who continue to
labour do it less intensely than when the operation of necessity was
more severe. When a cause is diminished, the effect must in time fall
off in proportion.

With individuals, nature has given very powerful auxiliaries to
necessity, which strengthen and prolong its operation, but which do
not operate equally on nations.

Habit or custom is the one auxiliary, and ambition or avarice is the
other.

Habit, in all cases, diminishes the reluctance to labour, which is
inherent in the most part of mankind, and sometimes entirely
overcomes it. {68} Ambition, which appears under many different
forms, renders labour absolutely an enjoyment. Sometimes ambition is
merely a desire of amassing property, an avaricious disposition:
sometimes it is a desire to create a family; and even, sometimes, the
vain and delusive idea of retiring from business, and becoming happy
in a state of total idleness, spurs a man on to labour. It is a very
curious, but well-known fact, that, after necessity has entirely ceased
to promote industry, th