Whatever Work He Does, Beyond What Is

Wonder... And Not Any Expectation Of Advantage From Its Discoveries, Is The First Principle Which Prompts Mankind To The Study Of Philosophy, Of That Science Which Pretends To Lay Open The Concealed Connections That Unite The Various Appearances Of Nature.

Every Individual Is Continually Exerting Himself To Find Out The Most Advantageous Employment For Whatever Capital He Can Command. It Is His Own Advantage, Indeed, And Not That Of The Society Which He Has In View. But The Study Of His Own Advantage Naturally, Or Rather Necessarily, Leads Him To Prefer That Employment Which Is Most Advantageous To Society... He Intends Only His Own Gain, And He Is In This, As In Many Other Cases, Led By An Invisible Hand To Promote An End Which Was Not Part Of His Intention

Such Regulations May, No Doubt, Be Considered As In Some Respect A Violation Of Natural Liberty. But Those Exertions Of The Natural Liberty Of A Few Individuals, Which Might Endanger The Security Of The Whole Society, Are, And Ought To Be, Restrained By The Laws Of All Governments; Of The Most Free, As Well As Or The Most Despotical. The Obligation Of Building Party Walls, In Order To Prevent The Communication Of Fire, Is A Violation Of Natural Liberty, Exactly Of The Same Kind With The Regulations Of The Banking Trade Which Are Here Proposed.

The Disposition To Admire, And Almost To Worship, The Rich And The Powerful, And To Despise, Or, At Least, To Neglect Persons Of Poor And Mean Condition Is The Great And Most Universal Cause Of The Corruption Of Our Moral Sentiments.

A Power To Dispose Of Estates For Ever Is Manifestly Absurd. The Earth And The Fulness Of It Belongs To Every Generation, And The Preceding One Can Have No Right To Bind It Up From Posterity. Such Extension Of Property Is Quite Unnatural.