_Caput est in omni procuratione negotii et muneris publici, ut
avaritiae pellatur etiam minima suspicio._[2]
There is no vice which mankind carries to such wild extremes as that of
avarice: Those two which seem to rival it in this point, are lust and
ambition: but, the former is checked by difficulties and diseases,
destroys itself by its own pursuits, and usually declines with old age:
and the latter requiring courage, conduct and fortune in a high degree,
and meeting with a thousand dangers and oppositions, succeeds too seldom
in an age to fall under common observation. Or, is avarice perhaps the
same passion with ambition, only placed in more ignoble and dastardly
minds, by which the object is changed from power to money? Or it may be,
that one man pursues power in order to wealth, and another wealth in
order to power; which last is the safer way, though longer about, and
suiting with every period as well as condition of life, is more generally
followed.
However it be, the extremes of this passion are certainly more frequent
than of any other, and often to a degree so absurd and ridiculous, that
if it were not for their frequency, they could hardly obtain belief. The
_stage_, which carries other follies and vices beyond nature and
probability, falls very short in the representations of avarice; nor are
there any extravagances in this kind described by ancient or modern
comedies, which are not outdone by an hundred instances, commonly told,
among ourselves.
I am ready to conclude from hence, that a vice which keeps so firm a hold
upon human nature, and governs it with so unlimited a tyranny, since it
cannot be wholly eradicated, ought at least to be confined to particular
objects, to thrift and penury, to private fraud and extortion, and never
suffered to prey upon the public; and should certainly be rejected as the
most unqualifying circumstance for any employment, where bribery and
corruption can possibly enter.
If the mischiefs of this vice, in a public station, were confined to
enriching only those particular persons employed, the evil would be more
supportable; but it is usually quite otherwise. When a steward defrauds
his lord, he must connive at the rest of the servants, while they are
following the same practice in their several spheres; so that in some
families you may observe a subordination of knaves in a link downwards to
the very helper in the stables, all cheating by concert, and with
impunity: And even if this were all, perhaps the master could bear it
without being undone; but it so happens, that for every shilling the
servant gets by his iniquity, the master loses twenty; the perquisites
of servants being but small compositions for suffering shopkeepers to
bring in what bills they please.[3] It is exactly the same thing in a
state: an avaricious man in office is in confederacy with the whole
_clan_ of his district or dependence, which in modern terms of art is
called, "To live, and let live;" and yet _their_ gains are the smallest
part of the public's loss. Give a guinea to a knavish land-waiter, and
he shall connive at the merchant for cheating the Queen of an hundred. A
brewer gives a bribe to have the privilege of selling drink to the Navy;
but the fraud is ten times greater than the bribe, and the public is at
the whole loss.[4]
Moralists make two kinds of avarice; that of Catiline, _alieni appetens,
sui profusus;_[5] and the other more generally understood by that name;
which is, the endless desire of hoarding: But I take the former to be
more dangerous in a state, because it mingles well with ambition, which I
think the latter cannot; for though the same breast may be capable of
admitting both, it is not able to cultivate them; and where the love of
heaping wealth prevails, there is not in my opinion, much to be
apprehended from ambition. The disgrace of that sordid vice is sooner apt
to spread than any other, and is always attended with the hatred and
scorn of the people: so that whenever those two passions happen to meet
in the same subject, it is not unlikely that Providence hath placed
avarice to be a check upon ambition; and I have reason to think, some
great ministers of state have been of my opinion.
The divine authority of Holy Writ, the precepts of philosophers, the
lashes and ridicule of satirical poets, have been all employed in
exploding this insatiable thirst of money, and all equally controlled by
the daily practice of mankind. Nothing new remains to be said upon the
occasion, and if there did, I must remember my character, that I am an
_Examiner_ only, and not a Reformer.
However, in those cases where the frailties of particular men do nearly
affect the public welfare, such as a prime minister of state, or a great
general of an army; methinks there should be some expedient contrived, to
let them know impartially what is the world's opinion in the point:
Encompassed with a crowd of depending flatterers, they are many degrees
blinder to their own faults than the common infirmities of human nature
can plead in their excuse; Advice dares not be offered, or is wholly
lost, or returned with hatred: and whatever appears in public against
their prevailing vice, goes for nothing; being either not applied, or
passing only for libel and slander, proceeding from the malice and envy
of a party.
I have sometimes thought, that if I had lived at Rome in the time of the
first Triumvirate, I should have been tempted to write a letter, as from
an unknown hand, to those three great men, who had then usurped the
sovereign power; wherein I would freely and sincerely tell each of them
that fault which I conceived was most odious, and of most consequence
to the commonwealth: That, to Crassus, should have been sent to him after
his conquests in Mesopotamia, and in the following terms.[6]
"_To Marcus Crassus, health._
"_If you apply as you ought, what I now write,[7] you will be more
obliged to me than to all the world, hardly excepting your parents or
your country. I intend to tell you, without disguise or prejudice, the
opinion which the world has entertained of you: and to let you see I
write this without any sort of ill will, you shall first hear the
sentiments they have to your advantage. No man disputes the gracefulness
of your person; you are allowed to have a good and clear understanding,
cultivated by the knowledge of men and manners, though not by literature.
You are no ill orator in the Senate; you are said to excel in the art of
bridling and subduing your anger, and stifling or concealing your
resentments. You have been a most successful general, of long experience,
great conduct, and much personal courage. You have gained many important
victories for the commonwealth, and forced the strongest towns in
Mesopotamia to surrender, for which frequent supplications have been
decreed by the Senate. Yet with all these qualities, and this merit, give
me leave to say, you are neither beloved by the patricians, or plebeians
at home, nor by the officers or private soldiers of your own army abroad:
And, do you know, Crassus, that this is owing to a fault, of which you
may cure yourself, by one minutes reflection? What shall I say? You are
the richest person in the commonwealth; you have no male child, your
daughters are all married to wealthy patricians; you are far in the
decline of life; and yet you are deeply stained with that odious and
ignoble vice of covetousness:[8] It is affirmed, that you descend even to
the meanest and most scandalous degrees of it; and while you possess so
many millions, while you are daily acquiring so many more, you are
solicitous how to save a single sesterce, of which a hundred ignominious
instances are produced, and in all men's mouths. I will only mention that
passage of the buskins,[9] which after abundance of persuasion, you would
hardly suffer to be cut from your legs, when they were so wet and cold,
that to have kept them on, would have endangered your life.
"Instead of using the common arguments to dissuade you from this weakness,
I will endeavour to convince you, that you are really guilty of it, and
leave the cure to your own good sense. For perhaps, you are not yet
persuaded that this is your crime, you have probably never yet been
reproached for it to your face, and what you are now told, comes from one
unknown, and it may be, from an enemy. You will allow yourself indeed to
be prudent in the management of your fortune; you are not a prodigal,
like Clodius[10] or Catiline, but surely that deserves not the name of
avarice. I will inform you how to be convinced. Disguise your person; go
among the common people in Rome; introduce discourses about yourself;
inquire your own character; do the same in your camp, walk about it in
the evening, hearken at every tent, and if you do not hear every mouth
censuring, lamenting, cursing this vice in you, and even you for this
vice, conclude yourself innocent. If you are not yet persuaded, send for
Atticus,[11] Servius Sulpicius, Cato or Brutus, they are all your
friends; conjure them to tell you ingenuously which is your great fault,
and which they would chiefly wish you to correct; if they do not all
agree in their verdict, in the name of all the gods, you are acquitted.
"When your adversaries reflect how far you are gone in this vice, they are
tempted to talk as if we owed our success, not to your courage or
conduct, but to those veteran troops you command, who are able to conquer
under any general, with so many brave and experienced officers to lead
them. Besides, we know the consequences your avarice hath often
occasioned. The soldier hath been starving for bread, surrounded with
plenty, and in an enemy's country, but all under safeguards and
contributions; which if you had sometimes pleased to have exchanged for
provisions, might at the expense of a few talents in a campaign, have so
endeared you to the army, that they would have desired you to lead them
to the utmost limits of Asia. But you rather chose to confine your
conquests within the fruitful country of Mesopotamia, where plenty of
money might be raised. How far that fatal greediness of gold may have
influenced you, in breaking off the treaty[12] with the old Parthian King
Orodes,[13] you best can tell; your enemies charge you with it, your
friends offer nothing material in your defence; and all agree, there is
nothing so pernicious, which the extremes of avarice may not be able to
inspire.
"The moment you quit this vice, you will be a truly great man; and still
there will imperfections enough remain to convince us, you are not a god.
Farewell."_
Perhaps a letter of this nature, sent to so reasonable a man as Crassus,
might have put him upon _Examining_ into himself, and correcting that
little sordid appetite, so utterly inconsistent with all pretences to a
hero. A youth in the heat of blood may plead with some shew of reason,
that he is not able to subdue his lusts; An ambitious man may use the
same arguments for his love of power, or perhaps other arguments to
justify it. But, excess of avarice hath neither of these pleas to offer;
it is not to be justified, and cannot pretend temptation for excuse:
Whence can the temptation come? Reason disclaims it altogether, and it
cannot be said to lodge in the blood, or the animal spirits. So that I
conclude, no man of true valour and true understanding, upon whom this
vice has stolen unawares, when he is convinced he is guilty, will suffer
it to remain in his breast an hour.
[Footnote 1: No. 27 in the reprint. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 2: "It is of the greatest importance in the discharge of every
office of trade, or of the public treasury, that the least suspicion of
avarice should be avoided." [T.S.]]
[Footnote 3: The Commissioners for examining the public accounts reported
to the House of Commons (December 21st, 1711) that the Duke of
Marlborough had received from Sir Solomon de Medina (army contractor
for bread) and his predecessor, during the years 1702 to 1711,
a sum of £63,319 3s. 7d. "In this report was contained the deposition
of Sir Solomon Medina, charging the Duke of Marlborough and
Adam Cardonell, his secretary, of various peculations, with regard to
the contracts for bread and bread-wagons for the army in Flanders."
The Duke admitted the fact in a letter to the Queen, dated November
10th, 1711, but said that the whole sum had "been constantly employed
for the service of the public, in keeping secret correspondence,
and in getting intelligence of the enemy's motions and designs"
(Macpherson's "Great Britain," ii. 512; Tindal's "History," iv.
232; and "Journals of House of Commons," xvii. 16). [T.S.]]
[Footnote 4: See the remarks in No. 39, _post_, p.250. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 5: Sallust, "Catiline," 5. "Greedy of what was not his own,
lavish of what was." Catiline was extravagant and profligate, and quite
unscrupulous in the pursuit of his many pleasures. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 6: A most severe censure on the Duke of Marlborough. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 7: Commenting on this "The Medley" (No. 20, February 12th,
1711) remarks: "Of all that ever made it their business to defame,
there never was such a bungler sure as my friend. He writes a letter
now to Crassus, as a man marked out for destruction, because that hint
was given him six months ago; and does not seem to know yet that he
is still employed, and that in attacking him, he affronts the Q[uee]n."
Writing to Stella, under date February 18th, Swift says: "Lord Rivers,
talking to me the other day, cursed the paper called 'The Examiner,' for
speaking civilly of the Duke of Marlborough: this I happened to talk of
to the Secretary [St. John], who blamed the warmth of that lord, and some
others, and swore, that, if their advice were followed, they would be
blown up in twenty-four hours" (vol. ii., p. 123 of present edition).
[T.S.]]
[Footnote 8: To Stella Swift writes somewhat later (March 7th): "Yes, I
do read the 'Examiners,' and they are written very finely as you judge.
I do not think they are too severe on the Duke; they only tax him of
avarice, and his avarice has ruined us. You may count upon all things in
them to be true. The author has said, it is not Prior; but perhaps it may
be Atterbury" (vol. ii., p. 133 of present edition). [T.S.]]
[Footnote 9: Wet stockings. [FAULKNER.]]
[Footnote 10: Clodius Albinus, the Roman general, died 197 A.D. The
reference here is to the Earl of Wharton (see No. 27, _ante_, p. 169).
[T.S.]]
[Footnote 11: T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend and correspondent of
Cicero. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 12: The Treaty of Gertruydenberg (see No. 14, _ante_, and note
on p. 77; see also note on pp. 201-2 of vol. v. of present edition).
[T.S.]]
[Footnote 13: Orodes I. (Arsaces XIV.), King of Parthia, defeated
Crassus, B.C. 53. [T.S.]]