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diculous, the importance ascribed to men wlio have no other merit but of being consumers, as if that were a very rare talent.
Just views of consumption give necessarily just ideas on that greatest of consumers, government; on the effects of its expenses, its debts, and the different imposts which compose its revenues, and lead us clearly to trace the different reflections of these assessments, and to estimate the greater or less evil they do, according to the different classes of men on Which they fall.
All these consequences are rigorous. They will not be the less contested. It was necessary then, to arrive at them methodically. Eut those above all, which will experience the greatest opposition, are what lead us to determine the degrees of importance of the different classes of society. How persuade fche great rural proprietors, so much cried up, that they are but lenders of money, burdensome to agriculture and strangers to all its interests? How convince these idle rich, so much respected, that they are absolutely good for nothing; and that their' existence is an evil, inasmuch as it diminishes the number of useful labourers ? How obtain acknowledgement from all those who hire labour, that the clearness of workmanship is a desirable thing; ?nd that, in general, all the true interests of the poor ?:re exactly the same as the true interest of the whole society. It is not merely their interests, well or ill understood, which oppose these truths, it is their passion ; and among these passions, the most violent and antisocial of all, vanity. "With them demonstration, or at least conviction is no
