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.

    385/438 page 375
    of Rome without his robe, and without (hoes, he did fo, moft probably, in contempt of what his countrymen were fo prone to admire; not in hopes of finding a virtue in one fpecies of drefs, or a vice in another. Luxury, therefore,confidered as a predilection in favour of the objects of vanity, and the coflly materials of pleafure, is ruinous to the human character; confidered as the mere ufe of accom- modations and conveniencies which the age has procured, rather depends on the progrefs which the mechanical arts have made , and on the degree in which the fortunes of men are unequally parcelled than on the difpofitions of particular men either to vice or to virtue. Different meafures of luxury are, however, varioufiy fuited to different conftitutions of govern- ment. The advancement of arts fuppofes an un- equal diffcribution of fortune ; and the means of diftiqdlion they bring, ferve to render the feparation of ranks more fenfibie. Luxury is, upon this ac- count, apart from all its moral effects, adverfe to the form of democratical government; and in any liate of fociety, can be fafely admitted in that degree only in which the members of a community are fuppofed of unequal rank , and conftitute public order by the relations of fuperior and vaffal. High degrees of it appear falutary, and even neceffary , in monarchical and mixed governments; where, befides the encouragement to arts and commerce, it ferves to give luftre to thofe hereditary or conftitutional dignities which have a place o£ B b 4 \
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