no Hand in these Things, nor
yet in the laying out of the immense Sums for the Elegancy and
Magnificence of Equipages, Gardens, Furniture and Buildings. All these
Things, I dare say, you would let pass; but if you should hear a Man
say, that this Consumption depends chiefly upon Qualities, we pretend
to be asham'd of, it would be offensive to you; and if he should
maintain, that, without the Vices of Man, it would be impossible to
enjoy all the Ease, Glory, and Greatness, the World can afford, and
which, in short, we are fond of, you would think his Assertion to be a
terrible Paradox.

Many People would believe, that Hunger, tho' they never felt the
Extremities of it, is, in order to live, as requisite to a Man, as it
is to a Cormorant, or to a Wolf; and that without Lust, if you give it
a softer Name, our Species could not be preserv'd, any more than that
of Bulls or Goats. But not One in a Thousand can imagine, tho' it be
equally demonstrable, that in the Civil Society the Avarice of Some and
the Profuseness of Others, together with the Pride and Envy of most
Individuals, are absolutely necessary to raise them to a great and
powerful, and, in the Language of the World, polite Nation. It seems
still to be a greater Paradox, that natural as well as moral Evil, and
the very Calamities we pray against, do not only contribute to this
worldly Greatness, but a certain Proportion of them is so necessary to
all Nations, that it is not to be conceiv'd, how any Society could
subsist upon Earth, exempt from all Evil, both natural and moral.

Yet these Things are asserted, and, I think, demonstrated in _The Fable
of the Bees_. The Book has run through several Impressions, and met
with innumerable Enemies: Nothing was ever more reviled from the Pulpit
as well as the Press. I have been call'd all the ugly Names in Print,
that Malice or ill Manners can invent; but not one of my Adversaries
has attempted to disprove what I had said, or overthrow any one
Argument, I made Use of, otherwise than by exclaiming against it, and
saying that it was not true: which to me is a Sign, that not only what
I have advanced is not easy to refute, but likewise, that my Opposers
are more closely attach'd to the World, than even I my self had
imagined them to be. Otherwise it is impossible, but, perceiving this
Difficulty, some of them would have reason'd after the following
Manner, _viz._ Since this worldly Greatness is not to be attain'd to
without t