Defense Is Superior To Opulence.

No Society Can Surely Be Flourishing And Happy, Of Which The Far Greater Part Of The Members Are Poor And Miserable. It Is But Equity, Besides, That They Who Feed, Clothe And Lodge The Whole Body Of The People, Should Have Such A Share Of The Produce Of Their Own Labour As To Be Themselves Tolerably Well Fed, Clothed And Lodged.

But What All The Violence Of The Feudal Institutions Could Never Have Effected, The Silent And Insensible Operation Of Foreign Commerce And Manufactures Gradually Brought About.

Good Roads, Canals, And Navigable Rivers, By Diminishing The Expence Of Carriage, Put The Remote Parts Of The Country More Nearly Upon A Level With With Those Of The Neighbourhood Of The Town. They Are Upon That The Greatest Of All Improvements.

I Have No Great Faith In Political Arithmetic, And I Mean Not To Warrant The Exactness Of Either Of These Computations.

That Wealth And Greatness Are Often Regarded With The Respect And Admiration Which Are Due Only To Wisdom And Virtue; And That The Contempt, Of Which Vice And Folly Are The Only Proper Objects, Is Most Often Unjustly Bestowed Upon Poverty And Weakness, Has Been The Complaint Of Moralists In All Ages.