SECT. VIII.
XXXIV. It will also be proper in this place, to touch on a complaint very common among poor gentlemen: These frequently say, that now-a-days money is more esteemed than men of family, and that riches are more respected than nobility. This sentence is hardly out of their mouths, before it is followed by a deep sigh, that seems to express their sorrow for the corruption of the times, which has altered and mistaken the true value of things.
XXXV. But they are greatly deceived, who think the world ever was, or ever will be otherwise in this particular, for they always did, and always will, make more professions of esteem and respect to a rich man of humble origin, than to a poor one descended from an illustrious family. This is a consequence attendant on, and naturally produced by the condition of humanity. Men are seldom obsequious or attentive to others, from mere motives of courtesy, and without an eye to their interests, but are generally solicitous to please those, who have it in their power either to favour or injure them. Nobility is not an active quality, but wealth is. A nobleman, merely as a person ennobled, can do neither good nor harm; but a rich man, holds in one hand the thunderbolt of Jupiter, and in the other the cornucopia of Amalthea. Simonides being asked which was most estimable, riches or learning, replied that he was puzzled to give an answer, because he frequently saw the learned running to pay their court to the rich and powerful, but that he never remarked the same attention of the rich to the learned; so that if in those ancient times the learned paid homage to the rich, what must the vulgar have done? Hope and fear, are the two main springs, which give motion to the human heart, but disinterested love, operates in very few individuals. There are at this day idolatrous nations, who worship both God and the Devil; God, that he should bestow benefits on them, and the Devil, because he should not injure them. He then who can neither do good nor harm, must expect no adoration or attention paid to him. The only and most effectual instrument wherewith to do service or injury, is money; thus those who are masters of that, will also be masters of, and command the common respect and homage. Gold is the idol of the rich, and the rich are the idols of the poor; it always was so, and ever will be so.
XXXVI. Let the neglected nobles, however, comfort themselves with the reflection, that the adoration and court which is paid to the rich and powerful, is not sincere. The incense which is offered to them, does not arise from the fire of love, but the blaze of concupiscence; and the breast is always giving the lie to whatever is pronounced by the lips. The body bends with submissive congées, but the will does not incline or stoop to the idol. Obsequies, or the outward shew of respect, is all the invention of art, not the work of nature. What price or value can you set upon adulations, that are articulated by a tongue, which is the vile slave of interest? I don’t deny but there are some men of opulence and power, who have merited their fortune; and that these, on account of the intrinsic worth of their good qualities, may be sincerely and consistently honoured and respected by good men; but such as these are the fewest in number, and the misfortune is, that there is no rich man whatever, who has not been persuaded by the voice of flattery, that he is one of those few.
XXXVII. It may be also necessary to apprize the complaining gentlemen, that the rich, merely as rich people, are in some degree intitled to the respect that is shewn them. The blessing of the Lord, says Solomon in the Proverbs, makes men rich, so that riches is a gift from heaven, and such a gift, as according to the common estimation and opinion of the world, constitutes those who possess it worthy to be honoured and respected. St. Thomas affirms this to be the case in the following sentence: Secundum vulgarem opinionem, excellentia divitiarum facit hominem dignum honore. (22. quæst. 45. art. 1.) The common estimation in this particular, founds a right: and although that judgment should be erroneous, it would be prudent for us to wait till the world is undeceived, before we exempt ourselves from conforming to the usages of it. But this happy time will hardly ever arrive, till God, with his powerful hand, shall bend and incline the hearts of men to esteem virtue, and that only; though if this happy day should arrive, the nobility may probably find a falling-off in the estimation they are at present held in; for every one then, would be respected according to his own deeds, and not according to those of his ancestors. This mode of rating things, would be exceedingly beneficial to the state; for how well would it be served, and what good citizens would it consist of, if there was no other road but that of virtue, whereby to arrive at the public esteem! but as the case stands at present, the merit, or even the fortune of an individual, makes all his descendants glorious and honourable, and when those who succeed in that line, find that by virtue of their birth the public veneration is attached to their family, great numbers of them will consider themselves as excused from negotiating it by some honourable application.
XXXVIII. From hence I infer, that what is speciously urged in favour of the nobility, to wit, that it is just and right to reward in the descendants the virtue of their ancestors, although it may sound well in theory, will have but a bad effect in practice. If only personal virtue was to be rewarded, in the course of twenty descendants, there might probably be ten or a dozen of them, who would labour to acquire glory. But if the first of the twenty gains it for all the rest, he only would be useful to the state. He would serve the public, and the public would become the servants of all the rest.