An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson].

  • Adam Ferguson
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history of civil society / [Adam Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    384/438 page 374
    *» * o/4 I-I 1STORY OF in every age, equally groundlcfs and unreafonable ? Are we never to dread any error in the article of a refinement bellowed on the means of fubfift- ence, or the conveniencies of life? The fact is, that men are perpetually expofed to the commiffion of error in this article, not merely where they are accuftomed to high meafures of accommodation, or to any particular fpecies of lood, but where- ever thefe objeds, in general, may come to be preferred to their character, to their country, ot- to mankind ; they adually commit fuch error , where-ever they admire paultry diftindions or frivolous advantages ;\vhere-ever they fhrinkfrom fmall inconveniencies, and are incapable of difcharging their duty with vigour. The ufc of morality on this fubjed, is not to limit men to any particular fpecies of lodging, diet, or cloaths; but to prevent their copfidering thefe conveniencies as the principal objeds of human life. And if we are afked, Where the purfuit of trifling accommodations fhould flop, in order that a man may devote himfelf entirely to the higher engagements of life? we may anfwer, That it fhould flop where it is. This was the rule followed at Sparta: the objed of the rule was, to preferve the heart entire for the public, and to occupy men in cultivating their own nature, notin accumulating wealth, and extern- al conveniencies. It was not expeded otherwife, that the a'xe or the faw fhould be attended with greater political advantage , than the plane and the chrfel. When Cato walked the flreets
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