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none in necessity , and though » o man has any thing , yet they are all rich ; for what can make a man so rich as to lead sl serene and cheerful life , free from anxieties ; neither apprehending want himself , nor vexed with the endless complaints of his wife ? He is not afraid of
the misery of his children , nor is he contriving how to raise a portion for his daughters ; hut is secure in this , that both he " and wife , his children and grandchildren , to as many generations as he can fancy , will all live both plentifully and happily ; since , among them , there is no less care taken of those who were
once engaged in labour , but grow , afterwards , unable to follow it , than there is elsewhere , of those that continue still employed . 1 would gladly hear any man compare the justice that is among them with that x ) f all other nations ; among whom may I perish if I see any thing that looks either like justice or equity :
for what justice is there in this , that a nobleman , a goldsmith , a banker , or any other man , that either does nothing at all , or , at best , is employed in things that are of no use to the public , should live in great luxury and splendour upon what is so ill acquired ; and a mean man , a
carter , a smith , or a ploughman , that works harder even than the beasts themselves , and is employed in labours so necessary that no commonwealth could hold out a year without them , can only earn so poor a livelihood , and must lead so miserable a life , that the condition of the beasts is much better than theirs ?
For as the beasts do not work so constantly , so they feed almost as well and with more pleasure ; and have no anxiety about what is to come , whilst these men are depressed by a barren and fruitless
employment , and tormented with the apprehensions of want in their old age , since that which they get by their daily labour does but maintain them at present , and is consumed as fast as it comes in ; there is no overplus left to lay up for old
age . . " Is not that government both unjust and ungrateful that is so prodigal of its favour to those that are called gentlemen or goldsmiths , or such others that are idle or live either by flattery or by contriving the arts of vain pleasure ; and , on the other hand , takes no care of those
ot a meaner sort , such as ploughmen , colliers , and smiths , without whom it could not subsist ? But after the public has reaped all the advantage of their service , and they come to be oppressed with age , sickness , and want , all their labours and the good they have done is forgotten ; and all the recompence given
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them is , that tfeey are left to die in great misery , * ' Therefore , I must say , that , as I hope for mercy , I can have no <> ther notion of all the other governments that I see -or know , than tba * they are a conspiracy of the rich who , on pretence < of managing
the public , only pursue their private ends , and devise all the ways and Arts they can find out ; . first , that they may , without danger , preserve all that they have so ill acquired , and then , that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible , and oppress them as much as they please ; and , if
they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority , which is considered as the representative of the whole people , then they are accounted laws : yet these wicked men , after they have by a most insatiable covetousness , divided that among themselves with which all the rest might have
been well supplied , are far from that happiness that is enjoyed among the Utopians : for the use as well as the desire of money being extinguished , much anxiety and great occasions of mischief is cut off with it ; and who does not see that the frauds , thefts , robberies , quarrels , tumults , contentions , seditions , murders , treacheries , and witchcrafts , which
are , indeed , rather punished than restrained by the severities of the law , would all fall off , if money were not any more valued by the world . Men ' s fears , solicitudes , cares , labours , and watchings , would all perish in the same moment with the value of money ; even poverty itself , for the relief of which money seems most necessary , would fall .
" I do not doubt but rich men are sensible of this , and that they well know how much a greater happiness it is to want nothing necessary than to abound in many superfluities ; and to be rescued out of so much misery than to abound with so much wealth : and I cannot think
but the sense of every man's interest added to the authority of Christ's commands , who , as he was infinitely wise , Tmew what was best , and was not less good in discovering it to us ^ would have drawn all the world over to the laws
of the Utopians , if pride , that plague of human nature , that source of so much misery , did not hinder it ; for this vice does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences as by the miseries of others , and would not be satisfied
with being thought a goddess , if none were left that were miserable , over whom she might insult . Pride thinks its own happiness shines the brighter , by comparing it with the misfortunes of other
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100 The Nonconformist . No . XX ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/36/
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