importance. This has been paralyzed by the rapid fluctuations in the currency. The details of these are so extensive, and the results of so much consequence, that the subject cannot with propriety be abridged, and the reader is referred to the detail in the following Essays.

26

ESSAY I.

ON THE MOTIVES TO INDUSTRY.

IN investigating the causes of wealth it is important to inquire into the motives which excite mankind to become industrious, and which overcome their natural repugnance to engage in toilsome occupations. The wants of nature require a continued supply of food and clothing: lodging must also be provided; and every person is desirous to escape from the condition of poverty. Such are the primary inducements to labour. Next in order, is the wish generally entertained to preserve what may be called rank in society, or the same degree of estimation in the opinion of neighbours, as is conceded to other people in similar situations of life: thus almost every one desires to reside in a house, and to use clothing, not inferior in appearance to what are enjoyed by others, whom he regards as equals.

Were these, however, the only motives which stimulate mankind to industry, they would proceed in the same beaten track with their forefathers, and few improvements could ensue. In the human

mind there are yet other, and far more powerful, incitements to exertion. The wish to better and improve our condition increases with our years, and frequently accompanies us to the close of existence. By the advancement of a few in society, a spirit of emulation is raised among many. There is a degree of pride, which does not allow our equals to surpass us without an effort; and in all minds there exists an ambition to excel, and to acquire the means of distinction, which makes us desirous of surpassing others. Many people are consequently disposed to continue their labour, after having gained a sufficiency of wealth adequate to provide all the objects of enjoyment which seem to be either necessary or desirable.

These various motives will have a more or less powerful influence on the mind, according to the education and acquired habits of individuals, and according to the circumstances in which they are placed. It is, therefore, deserving inquiry, how far this education, these habits, and circumstances, actuate the conduct, and excite or paralyze the energies of mankind in the desire of improving their condition, and consequently tend to promote, or to oppose the prevalence of that general abundance which naturally proceeds from well-directed labour, and constitutes national wealth.

The habits of labour acquired in early youth enable the labourer not only to perform a greater

quantity of work, but like wise to do it with a degree of facility to himself, or without so great a sacrifice of his own ease, as is required from others not inured to toil. In Brazil, where the trading in slaves is still most unhappily continued, the price of those arriving from Africa is, in a great measure, determined by the known habits of the tribe or nation to which they have formerly belonged. If brought from a district where the labour is chiefly performed by women, then the female slaves are more valuable, and the men slaves are held in less estimation than if they had respectively been brought from a part of Africa where the contrary practice obtained. It is a great consideration with the purchasers, not only that slaves, when educated to labour in early youth, are enabled to perform a greater quantity of work, but also that their health, when laboriously employed, is better preserved. That despondency of mind, too, which occasionally accompanies a state of slavery, and predisposes the body to disease, or even induces the oppressed to put a violent end to their sufferings, is by no means so prevalent among those who are engaged in labour, which they have practised before: as it is among the men who belonged formerly to tribes where all toil was allotted to women, and where drunkenness and plunder alone were held to be manly pursuits.

Education in habits of idleness renders mankind unfit for all industrious occupations, and leads them

to consider that ordinary, or even moderate, labour and exertion must necessarily occasion excessive fatigue. In the unfortunate countries where slavery prevails, it is, no doubt, a great calamity to the slave; at the same time that it frequently proves to be a serious misfortune to the master. The first is without a stimulus to exertion, or at least without any which is not of a compulsatory kind, and degrading to human nature. A master, if so fortunate as to have been educated in those active occupations which are most common in a northern clime, may escape from the contagion of such slothful habits as generally prevail among slave owners. He may even retain some degree of energy in his character; but all who are, from infancy, used to command without controul, become indolent from indulgence. Having had the misfortune to be educated where slaves are always in attendance, they usually contract an aversion to active pursuits. Accustomed to meet with implicit obedience to their will, they fall insensibly into early habits of indolence, which grow with the man, and strengthen with his strength. Indolence of body superinduces indolence of mind, and thus does human nature gradually degenerate.

Among the Greeks and Romans this tendency to indolence and degeneracy, which originates in the possession of slaves, was counteracted for a long time by the active pursuits of their masters. The constant activity which a state of warfare requires,