-these were qualities which were treated
as fit for none but the vulgar. Mr Barlow, he found, had been utterly
mistaken in all the principles which he had ever inculcated. "The human
species," Mr Barlow used to say, "can only be supplied with food and
necessaries by a constant assiduity in cultivating the earth and
providing for their mutual wants. It is by labour that everything is
produced; without labour, these fertile fields, which are now adorned
with all the luxuriance of plenty, would be converted into barren
heaths, or impenetrable thickets; these meadows, now the support of a
thousand herds of cattle, would be covered with stagnated waters, that
would not only render them uninhabitable by beasts, but corrupt the air
with pestilential vapours; and even these innumerable flocks of sheep
that feed along the hills, would disappear immediately on the cessation
of that cultivation, which can alone support them, and secure their
existence."

But, however true might be these principles, they were so totally
inconsistent with the conduct and opinion of Tommy's new friends, that
it was not possible for him long to remember their force. He had been
nearly a month with a few young ladies and gentlemen of his own rank,
and instead of their being brought up to produce anything useful, he
found that the great object of all their knowledge and education was
only to waste, to consume, to destroy, to dissipate what was produced
by others; he even found that this inability to assist either themselves
or others seemed to be a merit upon which every one valued himself
extremely; so that an individual, who could not exist without having two
attendants to wait upon him, was superior to him that had only one, but
was obliged in turn to yield to another who required four. And, indeed,
this new system seemed much more easy than the old one; for, instead of
giving himself any trouble about his manners or understanding, he might
with safety indulge all his caprices, give way to all his passions, be
humoursome, haughty, unjust, and selfish to the extreme. He might be
ungrateful to his friends, disobedient to his parents, a glutton, an
ignorant blockhead, in short, everything which to plain sense appears
most frivolous or contemptible, without incurring the least imputation,
provided his hair hung fashionably about his ears, his buckles were
sufficiently large, and his politeness to the ladies unimpeached.

Once, indeed, Harry had thrown h