The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits

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: ALSO, A VINDICATION OF THE BOOK FROM THE ASPERSIONS CONTAINED IN A PRESENTMENT OF THE GRAND JURY OF MIDDLESEX, AND AN ABUSIVE LETTER TO LORD C—— .
LONDON: PUBLISHED BY T. OSTELL, AVE-MARIA LANE, LONDON, AND MUNDELL AND SON, EDINBURGH. 1806.

Edinburgh, printed by Mundell and Son.

PART I.
PART II.

Laws and government are to the political bodies of civil societies, what the vital spirits and life itself are to the natural bodies of animated creatures; and as those that study the anatomy of dead carcases may see, that the chief organs and nicest springs more immediately required to continue the motion of our machine, are not hard bones, strong muscles and nerves, nor the smooth white skin, that so beautifully covers them, but small trifling films, and little pipes, that are either overlooked or else seem inconsiderable to vulgar eyes; so they that examine into the nature of man, abstract from art and education, may observe, that what renders him a sociable animal, consists not in his desire of company, good nature, pity, affability, and other graces of a fair outside; but that his vilest and most hateful qualities are the most necessary accomplishments to fit him for the largest, and, according to the world, the happiest and most flourishing societies.