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.