74
And it is evident that, according to the certainty and regularity of succession to these advantages, that is, according to the degree in which it could be calculated and foreseen, they would enter into human motives, and form incentives to moral restraint.
Wealth is productive of many other beneficial consequences besides such as are intended and desired by those who seek it. For the sake of those consequences, inequality of conditions is necessary, on account of its effect in creating new and powerful stimulants to exertion, which the natural utility of wealth, considered merely in reference to the primary gratifications resulting from its use, would be utterly insufficient to produce. After the necessary wants have been supplied, the next powerful motive to exertion is the spirit of emulation, and the desire of rising in the world. Men are attracted upwards by the example of others who are richer than themselves. At the top of the scale this attraction is wanting.
would be sufficient for the purpose. In proportion to the inaccuracy of the supposition, the necessary excess would become greater, as in proportion to the violence of storms is the amount of ballast which a ship must carry.
