OF POLITICAL IDLENESS.
Wise governments suffer not political idleness in the midst of work and
industry. I mean by political idleness that existence which contributes
nothing to society either by its work or by its wealth; which gains
without ever losing; which, stupidly admired and reverenced by the
vulgar, is regarded by the wise man with disdain, and with pity for the
beings who are its victims; which, being destitute of that stimulus of
an active life, the necessity of preserving or increasing the store of
worldly goods, leaves to the passions of opinion, not the least strong
ones, all their energy. This kind of idleness has been confused by
austere declaimers with that of riches, gathered by industry; but it is
not for the severe and narrow virtue of some censors, but for the laws,
to define what is punishable idleness. He is not guilty of political
idleness, who enjoys the fruits of the virtues or vices of his ancestors
and sells in exchange for his pleasures bread and existence to the
industrious poor, who carry on peacefully the silent war of industry
against wealth, instead of by force a war uncertain and sanguinary. The
latter kind of idleness is necessary and useful, in proportion as society
becomes wider and its government more strict.