Philosophy & Poetry

[sMartins]

The Fable of the Bees
or
Private vices, public benefits

Bernard Mandeville, 1732


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Grumbling Hive
or
Knaves turned Honest

A spacious hive well stocked with bees,
that lived in luxury and ease;
and yet as famed for laws and arms
as yielding large and early swarms;
was counted the great nursery
of sciences and industry.
No bees had better government,
more fickleness, or less content:
they were not slaves to tyranny,
nor ruled by wild democracy;
but kings, that could not wrong, because
their power was circumscribed by laws.
These insects lived like men, and all
our actions they performed in small:
they did whatever’s done in town,
and what belongs to sword or gown,
though th’ artful works, by nimble slight
of minute limbs, ’scaped human sight;
yet we’ve no engines, labourers,
ships, castles, arms, artificers,
craft, science, shop, or instrument,
but they had an equivalent:
which, since their language is unknown,
must be called as we do our own.
As grant that among other things
they lacked dice, yet they had kings;
and those had guards; from whence we may
justly conclude they had some play,
unless a regiment be shown
of soldiers that make use of none.
Vast numbers thronged the fruitful hive;
yet those vast numbers made them thrive;
millions endeavouring to supply
each other’s lust and vanity;
while other millions were employed,
to see their handiworks destroyed;
they furnished half the universe;
yet had more work than labourers.
Some with vast stocks, and little pains,
jumped into business of great gains;
and some were damned to scythes and spades
and all those hard laborious trades,
where willing wretches daily sweat
and wear out strength and limbs to eat,
while others followed mysteries,
to which few folks bind apprentices; [A]
that want no stock but that of brass,
and may set up without a cross [see Glossary]
as sharpers, parasites, pimps, players,
pick-pockets, coiners, quacks, soothsayers,
and all those that in enmity,
with downright working, cunningly
convert to their own use the labour
of their good-natured heedless neighbour.
These were called ‘knaves’, but bar the name,
the grave industrious were the same: [b]
all trades and places knew some cheat,
no calling was without deceit.
The lawyers, of whose art the basis
was raising feuds and splitting cases,
opposed all registers, that cheats
might make more work with dipped estates;
as wer’t unlawful that one’s own
without a law-suit should be known.
They kept off hearings wilfully,
to finger the refreshing fee;
and to defend a wicked cause,
examined and surveyed the laws,
as burglars shops and houses do,
to find out where they’d best break through.
Physicians valued fame and wealth
above the drooping patient’s health,
or their own skill. The greatest part
studied, instead of rules of art,
grave pensive looks and dull behaviour
to gain the apothecary’s favour;
the praise of midwives, priests, and all
that served at birth or funeral.
To bear with the ever-talking tribe,
and hear my lady’s aunt prescribe
with formal smile and kind ‘How do ye?’
to fawn on all the family;
and, which of all the greatest curse is,
to endure the impertinence of nurses.
Among the many priests of Jove,
hired to draw blessings from above,
some few were learned and eloquent,
but thousands hot and ignorant:
yet all passed muster that could hide
their sloth, lust, avarice and pride;
for which they were as famed as tailors
for cabbage, or for brandy sailors;
some, meagre-looked, and meanly clad,
would mystically pray for bread,
meaning by that an ample store,
yet literally received no more;
and, while these holy drudges starved,
the lazy ones, for which they served,
indulged their ease, with all the graces
of health and plenty in their faces.
The soldiers, that were forced to fight,
if they survived, got honour by it; [C]
though some, that shunned the bloody fray,
had limbs shot off, that ran away:
some valiant gen’rals fought the foe;
others took bribes to let them go:
some ventured always where ’twas warm,
lost now a leg, and then an arm;
till quite disabled, and put by,
they lived on half their salary;
while others never came in play,
and stayed at home for double pay.
Their kings were served, but knavishly,
cheated by their own ministry;
many that for their welfare slaved,
robbing the very crown they saved:
pensions were small, and they lived high,
yet boasted of their honesty.
calling, whene’er they strained their right,
the slippery trick a ‘perquisite’;
and when folks understood their cant,
they changed that for ‘emolument’;
unwilling to be short or plain,
in anything concerning gain;
for there was not a bee but would
get more, I won’t say, than he should; [D]
but than he dared to let them know,
that paid for it; as your gamesters do,
who, though at fair play, ne’er will own
before the losers what they’ve won.
[E]
But who can all their frauds repeat?
the very stuff, which in the street
they sold for dirt to enrich the ground,
was often by the buyers found
sophisticated with a quarter
of good-for-nothing stones and mortar;
though flail had little cause to mutter,
who sold the other salt for butter.
Justice herself, famed for fair dealing,
by blindness had not lost her feeling;
her left hand, which the scales should hold,
had often dropped them, bribed with gold;
and, though she seemed impartial,
where punishment was corporal,
pretended to a reg’lar course,
in murder and all crimes of force;
though some, first pilloried for cheating,
were hanged in hemp of their own beating;
yet, it was thought, the sword she bore
checked but the desp’rate and the poor;
that, urged by mere necessity,
were tied up to the wretched tree
for crimes, which not deserved that fate,
but to secure the rich and great.
Thus every part was full of vice,
yet the whole mass a paradise;
f
lattered in peace, and feared in wars,
they were the esteem of foreigners,
and lavish of their wealth and lives,
the balance of all other hives.
such were the blessings of that state;
their crimes conspired to make them great:
and virtue, who from politics
had learned a thousand cunning tricks,
was by their happy influence
made friends with vice: and ever since,
the worst of all the multitude
did something for the common good. [G]
This was the statescraft, that maintained
the whole of which each part complained:
this, as in music harmony,
made jarrings in the main agree;
parties directly opposite,
assist each other, as it were for spite; [H]
and temperance with sobriety,
serve drunkenness and gluttony.
The root of evil, avarice,
that damned ill-natured baneful vice, [I]
was slave to prodigality,
that noble sin; while luxury [K, L]
employed a million of the poor,
and odious pride a million more:
[M]
envy itself, and vanity,
were ministers of industry; [N]
their darling folly, fickleness,
in diet, furniture and dress,
[F]
that strange ridiculous vice, was made
the very wheel that turned the trade.
Their laws and clothes were equally
objects of mutability;
for what was well done for a time
in half a year became a crime;
yet while they altered thus their laws,
still finding and correcting flaws,
they mended by inconstancy
faults, which no prudence could foresee.
Thus vice nursed ingenuity,
which joined with time and industry,
had carried life’s conveniencies,
its real pleasures, comforts, ease,
[O]
to such a height, the very poor
lived better than the rich before,
and nothing could be added more.
How vain is mortal happiness!
[P]
Had they but known the bounds of bliss;
and that perfection here below
is more than gods can well bestow;
the grumbling brutes had been content
with ministers and government.
But they, at every ill success,
like creatures lost without redress,
cursed politicians, armies, fleets;
while everyone cried ‘Damn the cheats!’
and would, though conscious of his own,
in others barbarously bear none.
One that had got a princely store,
by cheating master, king and poor,
dared cry aloud ‘The land must sink
for all its fraud!’; and whom d’ye think
the sermonizing rascal chid?
A glover that sold lamb for kid.
The least thing was not done amiss,
or crossed the public business;
but all the rogues cried brazenly,
‘Good gods, had we but honesty!’
Mercury smiled at the impudence,
and others called it lack of sense,
always to rail at what they loved:
but Jove with indignation moved,
at last in anger swore he’d rid
the bawling hive of fraud; and did.
The very moment it departs,
and honesty fills all their hearts;
there shows them, like th’ instructive tree,
those crimes which they’re ashamed to see;
which now in silence they confess,
by blushing at their ugliness:
like children, that would hide their faults,
and by their colour own their thoughts:
imagining, when they’re looked upon,
that others see what they have done.
But oh ye gods! what consternation,
how vast and sudden was the alteration!
in half an hour, the nation round,
meat fell a penny in the pound.
The mask hypocrisy’s flung down,
from the great statesman to the clown:
and some in borrowed looks well known,
appeared like strangers in their own.
the bar was silent from that day;
for now the willing debtors pay,
even what’s by creditors forgot;
who quitted them that had it not.
Those that were in the wrong stood mute,
and dropped the patched vexatious suit:
on which since nothing less can thrive,
than lawyers in an honest hive,
all, except those that got enough,
with inkhorns by their sides trooped off.
Justice hanged some, set others free;
and after jail delivery,
her presence being no more required,
with all her train and pomp retired.
First marched some smiths with locks and grates,
fetters, and doors with iron plates:
next goalers, turnkeys and assistants:
before the goddess, at some distance,
her chief and faithful minister,
Squire Catch, the law’s great finisher,
bore not the imaginary sword,
but his own tools, an ax and cord:
then on a cloud the hoodwinked fair,
Justice her self was pushed by air:
about her chariot, and behind,
were serjeants, bums1 of every kind,
tipstaffs, and all those officers,
that squeeze a living out of tears.
Though physic lived while folks were ill,
none would prescribe but bees of skill,
which through the hive dispersed so wide,
that none of them had need to ride;
waved vain disputes, and strove to free
the patients of their misery;
left drugs in cheating countries grown,
and used the product of their own;
knowing the gods sent no disease
to nations without remedies.
Their clergy roused from laziness,
laid not their charge on journey-bees;
but served themselves, exempt from vice,
the gods with prayer and sacrifice;
all those that were unfit, or knew
their service might be spared, withdrew:
nor was there business for so many,
(if the honest stand in need of any,)
few only with the high-priest stayed,
to whom the rest obedience paid:
himself employed in holy cares,
resigned to others state-affairs.
He chased no starveling from his door,
nor pinched the wages of the poor;
but at his house the hungry’s fed,
the hireling finds unmeasured bread,
the needy traveller board and bed.
Among the king’s great ministers,
and all the inferior officers
the change was great; for frugally
they now lived on their salary:
[Q]
that a poor bee should ten times come
to ask his due, a trifling sum,
and by some well-hired clerk be made
to give a crown, or ne’er be paid,
would now be called a downright cheat,
though formerly a perquisite.
All places managed first by three,
who watched each other’s knavery,
and often for a fellow-feeling,
promoted one another’s stealing,
are happily supplied by one,
by which some thousands more are gone.
No honour now could be content,
to live and owe for what was spent; [R]
liveries in brokers’ shops are hung,
they part with coaches for a song;
sell stately horses by whole sets;
and country-houses, to pay debts.
Vain cost is shunned as much as fraud;
they have no forces kept abroad;
laugh at the esteem of foreigners,
and empty glory got by wars;
they fight but for their country’s sake,
when right or liberty’s at stake.
Now mind the glorious hive, and see
how honesty and trade agree.
the show is gone, it thins apace;
and looks with quite another face.
for ’twas not only that they went,
by whom vast sums were yearly spent;
but multitudes that lived on them,
were daily forced to do the same.
in vain to other trades they’d fly;
all were o’er-stocked accordingly.
The price of land and houses falls;
miraculous palaces, whose walls,
like those of Thebes, were raised by play,
are to be let; while the once gay,
well-seated household gods would be
more pleased to expire in flames, than see
the mean inscription on the door
smile at the lofty ones they bore.
The building trade is quite destroyed,
artificers are not employed;
no limner for his art is famed,
stone-cutters, carvers are not named.
[S]
Those that remained, grown temperate, strive
not how to spend, but how to live,
and, when they paid their tavern score,
resolved to enter it no more:
no vintner’s jilt in all the hive
could now wear cloth of gold, and thrive;
nor Torcol such vast sums advance,
for Burgundy and Ortelans;
the courtier’s gone, that with his miss
supped at his house on christmas peas;
spending as much in two hours stay,
as keeps a troop of horse a day.
The haughty Chloe, to live great,
had made her husband rob the state: [T]
but now she sells her furniture,
which the Indies had been ransacked for;
contracts the expensive bill of fare,
and wears her strong suit a whole year:
the slight and fickle age is past;
and clothes, as well as fashions, last.
Weavers, that joined rich silk with plate,
and all the trades subordinate,
are gone. Still peace and plenty reign,
and everything is cheap, though plain:
kind nature, free from gard’ners force,
allows all fruits in her own course;
but rarities cannot be had,
where pains to get them are not paid.
As pride and luxury decrease,
so by degrees they leave the seas.
Not merchants now, but companies
remove whole manufactories.
All arts and crafts neglected lie;
content, the bane of industry, [V]
makes them admire their homely store,
and neither seek nor covet more.
So few in the vast hive remain,
the hundredth part they can’t maintain
against the insults of numerous foes;
whom yet they valiantly oppose:
till some well-fenced retreat is found,
and here they die or stand their ground.
No hireling in their army’s known;
but bravely fighting for their own,
their courage and integrity
at last were crowned with victory.
They triumphed not without their cost,
for many thousand bees were lost.
Hardened with toils and exercise,
they counted ease itself a vice;
which so improved their temperance;
that, to avoid extravagance,
they flew into a hollow tree,
blest with content and honesty.


* * * * * * *
The Moral

Then leave complaints: fools only strive
to make a great an honest hive [X]
to enjoy the world’s conveniencies,
be famed in war, yet live in ease,
without great vices, is a vain
Utopia seated in the brain.
Fraud, luxury and pride must live,
while we the benefits receive:
hunger’s a dreadful plague, no doubt,
yet who digests or thrives without?
Do we not owe the growth of wine
To the dry shabby crooked vine?
[Y]
Which, while its shoots neglected stood,
choked other plants, and ran to wood;
but blest us with its noble fruit,
as soon as it was tied and cut:
So vice is beneficial found,
when it’s by justice lopped and bound;
nay, where the people would be great,
as necessary to the state,
as hunger is to make them eat.
Bare virtue can’t make nations live
in splendour; they, that would revive
a golden age, must be as free,
for acorns, as for honesty.

[sMartouts]

Such a simple thing
I’d like to ref:

If meeting contention,
look first within your Self.

It makes a load of sense
when you comprehend
you’re the only Soul in the realm
playing an immense Game
of “Lets pretend
we’re mere humans
by wearing flesh“.

That may sound
abstractly metaphysic
but I ensure you
my friend
that is exactly how it is.

In my reality tunnel
which is naught
but Prime consciousness
folded in upon its Self
to create the illusion of separation
which powers an immense engine
for unification
validation
and emancipation.

Ah
it really is quite brilliant.

Theory and practice
however
are wildly different things
because there is a third half
to all of this:

The voice in your head.

See, it doesn’t exist
and yet most think
it is them
as they carry out its edicts
without stopping to reflect:

“Wait a sec
how can I be
when I’m listening?“.

That
my friend
is the 8 billion Soul question
and until you live
these lyrics
but written in your own ink
of purest gnosis
its mere speculation
as the Game needs illusion
for there to be transcendence.

Get it?

Trance
end
dance.

Realizing you’re in the first
brings the second
which leads to a freeing of Inner Sense
that allows you
once again
to feel the cosmic rhythm
as you burst out and sing
bust a few moves as well
and sport an immense grin
for you aren’t smiling:

Its the innerG within.

These knots and twists
are old thoughts and feelings
you repressed
or dare not express
since back when.

The (false) self says:

“Yuck, edit this mess”.

The subconscious has no choice
but to go along with its request.

Over time
the bundle builds
the tension becomes immense
so we crave drugs,
drinks and distractions instead
to stave off the stress
of being square watermelons
par excellence.

[sMartins]

Much appreciated, thank you.