Bernard Mandeville
Fable of the Bees
Remark P, The Very Poor Liv’d Better that the Rich Before
「1714」 Bernard Mandeville 「Bernard de Mandeville」, “The Very Poor Liv’d Better than the Rich Before,” Remark P 「Transcribed from the 9th ed, Edinburgh, 1755; Online at Animal Rights History」 in The Fable of the Bees「Google Books」, (「Originally published as the English poem, The Grumbling Hive, 1705; First Published with Remarks as The Fable of the Bees, 1714」 London, 1729)
I have often thought, if it was not for this Tyranny which Custom usurps over us, that Men of any tolerable Good-nature could never be reconcil’d to the killing of so many Animals for their daily Food. (131)
When a Creature has given such convincing and undeniable Proofs of the Terrors upon Descartes so inur’d to Blood, as not to refute, by his Commiseration, the Philosophy of that vain Reasoner? (131)
(P.) The very poor
Liv’d better than the rich before.
Page 6. Line 33.
If we trace the most flourishing nations in their origin, we shall find, that in the remote beginnings of every society, the richest and most considerable men among them were a great while destitute of a great many comforts of life that are now enjoy’d by the meanest and most humble wretches: so that many things, which were once look’d upon as the invention of luxury, are now allow’d even to those that are so miserably poor as to become the objects of public charity, nay counted so necessary, that we think no human creature ought to want them.
In the first ages, man, without doubt, fed on the fruits of the earth, without any previous preparation, and reposed himself naked like other animals on the lap of their common parent: whatever has contributed since to make life more comfortable, as it must have been the result of thought, experience, and some labour, so it more or less deserves the name of luxury, the more or less trouble it required, and deviated from the primitive simplicity. Our admiration is extended no farther than to what is new to us, and we all over-look the excellency of things we are used to, be they never so curious. A man would be laugh’d at, that should discover luxury in the plain dress of a poor creature that walks along in a thick parish gown, and a coarse shirt underneath it; and yet what a number of people, how many different trades, and what a variety of skill and tools must be employ’d to have the most ordinary Yorkshire cloth ! what depth of though and ingenuity, what toil and labour, and what length of time must it have cost, before man could learn from a seed to raise and prepare so useful a product as linen!
Must that society not be vainly curious, among whom this admirable commodity, after it is made, shall not be thought fit to be used even by the poorest of all, before it is brought to a perfect whiteness, which is not to be procur’d but by the assistance of all the elements, join’d to a world of industry and patience ? I have not done yet: can we reflect, not only on the cost laid out upon this luxurious invention, but likewise on the little time the whiteness of it continues, in which part of its beauty consists, that every six or seven days at farthest it wants cleaning, and whilst it lasts is a continual charge to the wearer; can we, I say, reflect on all this, and not think it an extravagant piece of nicety, that even those who receive alms of the parish, should not only have whole garments made of this operose manufacture, but likewise, that as soon as they are soil’d, to restore them to their pristine purity, they should make use of one of the most judicious, as well as difficult compositions that chymistry can boast of; with which, dissolved in water by the help of fire, the most detersive, and yet innocent Lixivium is prepar’d, that human industry has hitherto been able to invent. It is certain, time was, that the thing I speak of would have bore those lofty expressions, and in which every body would have reason’d after the same manner; but the age we live in would call a man fool who should talk of extravagance and nicety, if he saw a poor woman, after having wore her crown cloth smock, a whole week, wash it with a bit of stinking soap of a groat a pound.
The arts of brewing, and making bread, have by slow degrees been brought to the perfection they now are in; but to have invented them at once, and a priori, would have required more knowledge, and a deeper insight into the nature of fermentation, than the greatest philosopher has hitherto been endowed with; yet the fruits of both are now enjoy’d by the meanest of our species, and a starving wretch knows not how to make a more humble, or most modest petition, than by asking for a bit of bread, or a draught of small beer.
Man has learned by experience, that nothing was softer than the small plumes and down of birds, and found that heap’d together they would, by their elasticity, gently resist any incumbent weight, and heave up again of themselves as soon as the pressure is over. To make use of them to sleep upon was, no doubt, first invented to compliment the vanity, as well as ease of the wealthy and potent; but they are long since become so common, that almost every body lyes upon feather-beds, and to substitute flocks in the room of them is counted a miserable shift of the most necessitous. What a vast height must luxury have been arrived to, before it could be reckoned a hardship to repose upon the soft wool of animals! From eaves, huts, hovels, tents and barracks, with which mankind took up at first, we are come to warm and well-wrought houses; and the meanest habitations to be seen in cities, are regular buildings, contriv’d by persons skill’d in proportions and architecture. If the ancient Britons and Gauls should come out of their graves, with what amazement would they gaze on the mighty structures every where raised for the poor ! Should they behold the magnificence of a Chelsea-College, a Greenwich Hospital, or, what surpasses all the, a Des Invalides at Paris, and see the care, the plenty, the superfluities and pomp, which people that have no possessions at all are treated with in those stately palaces; those who were once the greatest and richest of the land, would have reason to envy the most reduced of our species now.
Another piece of luxury the poor enjoy, that is not looked upon as such, and which there is not doubt but the wealthiest in a golden age would abstain from, is their making use of the flesh of animals to eat. In what concerns the fashions and manners of the ages men live in, they never examine into the real worth or merit of the cause, and generally judge of things not as their reason, but custom direct them. Time was when the funereal rites in the disposing of the dead were perform’d by fire, and the cadavers of the greatest emperors were burnt to ashes. Then burying the corpse in the ground was the funeral for slaves, or made a punishment for the worst of malefactors. Now nothing is decent or honourable but interring, and burning the body is reserved for crimes of the blackest dye. At some times we look upon trifles with horror, at other times we can behold enormities without concern. If we see a man walk with his hat on in a church, though out of service time, it shocks us; but if on a Sunday night we meet half a dozen fellows drunk in the street, the sight makes little or no impression upon us. If a woman at a merry-making dresses in man’s clothes, it is reckoned a frolic amongst friends, and he that finds too much fault with it is counted censorious: upon the stage it is done without reproach, and the most virtuous ladies will dispense with it in an actress, tho’ every body has a few view of her legs and thighs; but if the same woman, as soon as she has petticoats on again, should show her leg to a man as high as her knee, it would be a very immodest action, and every body will call her impudent for it.
I have often thought, if it was not for this tyranny which custom usurps over us, that men of any tolerable good-nature could never be reconcil’d to the killing of so many animals for their daily food, as long as the bountiful earth so plentifully provides them with varieties of vegetable dainties. I know that reason excites our compassion but faintly. And therefore I would not wonder how men should so little commiserate such imperfect creatures, as cray fish, oysters, cockles, and indeed all fish in general: as they are mute, and their inward formation, as well as outward figure, vastly different from ours, they express themselves unintelligibly to us, and therefore ’tis not strange that their grief should not affect our understanding, which it cannot reach; for nothing stirs us to pity so effectually, as when the symptoms of misery strike immediately upon our senses, and I have seen people mov’d at the noise a live lobster makes upon the spit, that could have kill’d half a dozen fowls with pleasure. But in such perfect animals as sheep and oxen, in whom the heart, the brain, and nerves differ so little from ours, and in whom the separation of the spirits from the blood, the organs of sense, and consequently feeling itself, are the same as they are in human creatures; I can’t imagine how a man not hardned in blood an massacre, is able to see a violent death, and the pangs of it without concern.
In answer to this, most people will think it sufficient to say, that all things being allow’d to be made for the service of man, there can be no cruelty in putting creatures to the use they were designed for; but I have heard men make this reply, whilst their nature within them has reproached them with the falsehood of the assertion. There is of all the multitude, not one man in ten but what will own, (if he was not brought up in a slaughter-house) that of all trades he could never have been a Butcher; and I question whether ever any body so much as killed a chicken without reluctancy the first time. Some people are not to be persuaded to taste of any creatures they have daily seen and been acquainted with, whilst they were alive; others extend their scruple no farther than to their own poultry, and refuse to eat what they have fed and took care of themselves; yet all of them will feed heartily and without remorse, on beef, mutton, and fowls when they are bought in the market. In this behaviour, methinks, there appears something like a consciousness of guilt; it looks as if they endeavored to save themselves from the imputation of a crime (which they know sticks somewhere) by removing the cause of it as far as they can from themselves; and I can discover in it some strong remains of primitive pity and innocence, which all the arbitrary power of custom, and the violence of luxury, have not yet been able to conquer.
What I build upon, I shall be told, is a folly that wise men are not guilty of: I own it; but whilst it proceeds from a real passion inherent in our nature, it is sufficient to demonstrate that we are born with a repugnancy to the killing, and consequently the eating of animals; for it is impossible that a natural appetite should ever prompt us to act, or desire others to do, what we have an aversion to, be it as foolish as it will.
Every body knows, that surgeons in the cure of dangerous wounds and fractures, the extirpations of limbs, and other dreadful operations, are often compell’d to put their patients to extraordinary torments, and that the more desperate and calamitous cases occur to them, the more the outcries and bodily sufferings of others must become familiar to them; for this reason our English law, out of a most affectionate regard of the lives of the subjects, allow them not to be of any jury upon life and death, as supposing that their practice itself is sufficient to harden and extinguish in them that tenderness, without which no man is capable of setting a true value upon the lives of his fellow creatures. Now if we ought to have no concern for what we do to brute beasts, and there was not imagin’d to be any cruelty in killing them; why should of all callings Butchers, and only they jointly with Surgeons, be excluded form being jury-men by the same law?
I shall urge nothing of what Pythagoras and many other wise men have said concerning this barbarity of eating flesh; I have gone too much out of my way already, and shall therefore beg the reader, if he would have any more of this, to run over the following fable, or else, if he be tired, to let it alone, with an assurance that, in doing of either, he shall equally oblige me.
A Roman merchant in one of the Carthaginian wars was cast away upon the coast of Afric: himself and his slave with great difficulty got safe ashore; but going in quest of relief, were met by a lion of a mighty size. It happened to be one of the breed that rang’d in Æsop’s days, and one that could not only speak several languages, but seem’d moreover very well acquainted with human affairs. The slave got up on a tree, but his master not thinking himself safe there, and having heard much of the generosity of lions, fell down prostrate before him, with all the signs of fear and submission. The lion, who had lately filled his belly, bids him rise, and for a while lay by his fears, assuring him withal, that he should not be touch’d, if he could give any tolerable reasons why he should not be devoured. The merchant obeyed; and having now received some glimmering hope of safety, gave a dismal account of the shipwreck he had suffered, and, endeavouring from thence to raise the lion’s pity, pleaded his cause with abundance of good rhetoric; but observing by the countenance of the beast that flattery and fine words made very little impression, he betook himself to arguments of greater solidity, and reasoning from the excellency of man’s nature and abilities, remonstrated how improbable it was that the gods should not have designed him for a better use that to be eat by savage beasts. Upon this the lion became more attentive, and vouchsafed now and then a reply, till a last the following dialogue ensued between them. ‘Oh vain and covetous animal, (said the lion) whose pride and avarice can make him leave his native soil, where his natural wants might be plentifully supplied, and try rough seas and dangerous mountains to find out superfluities, why should you esteem your species above ours ? and if the gods have given you a superiority over all creatures, then why beg you of an inferior?’ “Our superiority (answer’d the merchant) consists not in bodily force, but strength of understanding; the gods have endued us with a rational soul, which, tho’ invisible, is much the better part of us.”
‘I desire to touch nothing of you but what is good to eat; but why do you value yourself so much upon that part which is invisible ?’
“Because it is immortal, and shall meet with rewards after death for the actions of this life, and the just shall enjoy eternal bliss and tranquility with the heroes and demi-gods in the Elysian fields.”
‘What life have you led?’
” I have honoured the gods, and studied to be beneficial to man.”
‘Then why do you fear death, if you think the gods as just as you have been ?’
“I have a wife and five small children that must come to want if they lose me. “
‘I have two whelps that are not big enough to shift for themselves, that are in want now, and must actually be starved if I can provide nothing for them: your children will be provided for one way or other; at least as well when I have eat you, as if you had been drown’d,
‘As to the excellency of either species, the value of things among you have ever increas’d with the scarcity of them, and to a million of men there is hardly one lion; besides that, in the greatest veneration man pretends to have for his kind, there is little sincerity farther than it concerns the share which ever one’s pride has in it for himself; ’tis a folly to boast of the tenderness shewn and attendance given to your young ones, or the excessive and lasting trouble bestowed in the education of them: man being born the most necessitous and most helpless animal, this is only an instinct of nature, which in all creatures has ever proportioned the care of the parents to the wants and imbecillities of the off-spring. But if a man had a real value for his kind, how is it possible that often ten thousand of them, and sometimes ten times as many, should be destroyed in a few hours for the caprice of two ? All degrees of men despise those that are inferior to them, and if you could enter into the hearts of kings and princes, you would hardly find any but what have less value for the greatest part of the multitudes they rule over, than those have for the cattle that belong to them. Why should so many pretend to derive their race, tho’ but spuriously, from the immortal gods; why should all of them suffer others to kneel down before them, and more or less take delight in having divine honours paid them, but to insinuate that themselves are of a more exalted nature, and a species superior to that of their subjects ?
‘Savage I am, but no creature can be call’d cruel but what either by malice or insensibility extinguishes his natural pity: the lion was born without compassion; we follow the instinct of our nature; the gods have appointed us to live upon the waste and spoil of other animals, and as long as we can meet with dead ones, we never hunt after the living. ‘Tis only man, mischievous man, that can make death a sport. Nature taught your stomach to crave nothing but vegetables; but your violent fondness to change, and greater eagerness after novelties, have prompted you to the destruction of animals without justice or necessity, perverted your nature, and warped your appetites which way soever your pride or luxury have called them. The lion has a ferment within him that consumes the toughest skin and hardest bones as well as the flesh of all animals without exception, your squeamish stomach, in which the digestive heat is weak and inconsiderable, won’t so much as admit of the most tender parts of them, unless above half the concoction had been performed by artificial fire before hand; and yet what animal have you spared to satisfy the caprices of a languid appetite ? languid I say; for what is man’s hunger, if compared to the lions ? yours, when it is at the worst, make you faint, mine makes me mad: oft have I tried with roots and herbs to allay the violence of it, but in vain; nothing but large quantities of flesh can anywise appease it.
‘Yet the fierceness of our hunger notwithstanding, lions have often requited benefits received; but ungrateful and perfidious man feeds on the sheep that clothes him, and spares not her innocent young ones, whom he has taken into his care and custody. If you tell me the gods made man master over all other creatures, what tyranny was it then to destroy them out of wantonness? No, fickle timorous animal, the gods have made you for society, and design’d that millions of you, when well joined together, should compose the strong Leviathan. A single lion bears some sway in the creation, but what is single man? a small and inconsiderable part, a trifling atom of one great breast. What nature designs she executes, and ’tis not safe to judge of what she purpos’d but from the effects she shews: if she had intended that man, as man, from a superiority of species should lord it over all other animals, the tiger, nay, the whale and eagle would have obeyed his voice.
‘But if your wit and understanding exceeds ours, ought not the lion in deference to that superiority to follow the maxims of men, with whom nothing is more sacred than that the reason of the strongest is ever the most prevalent ? whole multitudes of you have conspired and compassed the destruction of one, after they had owned the gods had made him their superior; and one has often ruined and cut off whole multitudes, whom by the same gods he had sworn to defend and maintain. Man never acknowledged superiority without power, and why should I ? the excellency I boast of is visible, all animals tremble at the sight of the lion, not out of panic fear. The gods have given me swiftness to overtake, and strength to conquer whatever comes near me. Where is there a creature that has his teeth and claws like mine; behold the thickness of these massy jaw-bones; consider the width of them, and feel the firmness of this brawny neck. The nimblest deer, the wildest boar, the stoutest horse, and the strongest bull, are my prey wherever I meet them.’
Thus spoke the lion, and the merchant fainted away.
‘The lion, in my opinion, has stretched the point too far; yet when to soften the flesh of male animals, we have by castration prevented the firmness their tendons and every fibre would have come to without it, I confess I think it ought to move a human creature when he reflects upon the cruel care with which they are fatned for destruction. When a large and gentle bullock, after having resisted a ten time greater force of blows than would have killed his murderer, falls stun’d at last, and his arm’d head fastened to the ground with cords; as soon as the wide wound is made, and jugulars are cut asunder, what mortal can, without compassion, hear the painful bellowings intercepted by his blood, the bitter sighs that speak the sharpness of his anguish, and the deep sounding groans with loud anxiety fetched from the bottom of his strong and palpitating heart; look on the trebling and violent convulsions of his limbs; see, whilst his reeking gore streams from him, his eyes become dim and languid, and behold his strugglings, gasps and last effort for life, the certain signs of his approaching fate ? When a creature has given such convincing and undeniable proofs of the terrors upon him, and the pains and agonies he feels, is there a follower of DesChartres so inur’d to blood, as not to refute, by his commiseration, the philosophy of that vain reasoner?
THE
FABLE
OF THE
BEES:
OR;
PRIVATE VICES, PUBLIC BENEFITS.
With, An Essay on
CHARITY AND CHARITY-SCHOOLS;
AND,
A SEARCH into the Nature of SOCIETY.
The ninth EDITION:
To WHICH IS ADDED,
A VINDICATION of the BOOK from the Aspersions contained in a Presentment of the Grand Jury of Middlesex, and an abuseive Letter to the Lord C.
EDINBURGH:
Printed for W. GRAY and W. PETER
Sold at their shop in the Parliament Close.
MDCCLV.
