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.

    406/438 page 396
    / 396 HISTORY OF tim-e, or derived moft advantage from the mutual influences with which they add and re-act on each other. It has been obferved, that in fome nations the fpirit of commerce, intent on fecuring its profits, has led the way to political wifdom. A people, pofleffed of wealth, and become jealous of their properties, have formed the project of emancipation, and have proceeded, under favour of an importance recently gained, (till farther to enlarge their pretenfions , and to difpute the prerogatives which their fovereign had been in ufe to employ. But it is in vain that we expect in one age, from the poffeflion of wealth, the fruit which it is faid to have borne in a former. Great acceflions of fortune, when recent, when accompanied with frugality, and a fenfe of inde- pendence, may render the owner confident in his ftrength , and ready to fpurn at opprefifion. The purfe which is open, not to perfonal expence, or to the indulgence of vanity, but to fupport the interefts of a faction, to gratify the higher paffions of party, render the wealthy citizen for- midable to thofe who pretend to dominion; but it does not follow, that in a time of corruption, equal , or greater , meafures of wealth fhould operate to the fame effed. On the contrary, when wealth is accumulated only in the hands of the mifer, and runs to wade from thofe of the prodigal; when heirs of family find thernfelves ftraitened and poor, in the midft of affluence; when the cravings of luxury filencc even the voice of party and fadion ; when the
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