19.9. 9. Of the Vanity and Pride of Nations. Vanity is as advantageous to
a government as pride is dangerous.
To be convinced of this we need only
represent, on the one hand, the numberless benefits which result from
vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; on the
other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain
nations, as laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything — in fine,
the destruction of the nations which have happened to fall under their
government, as well as of their own. Laziness is the effect of pride;
[9]
labour, a consequence of vanity. The pride of a Spaniard leads him to
decline labour; the vanity of a Frenchman to work better than others.
All lazy nations are grave; for those who do not labour regard
themselves as the sovereigns of those who do.
If we search among all nations, we shall find that for the most part
gravity, pride, and indolence go hand in hand.
The people of Achim
[10]
are proud and lazy; those who have no
slaves, hire one, if it be only to carry a quart of rice a hundred
paces; they would be dishonoured if they carried it themselves.
In many places people let their nails grow, that all may see they do
not work.
Women in the Indies
[11]
believe it shameful for them to learn to
read: this is, they say, the business of their slaves, who sing their
spiritual songs in the temples of their pagods. In one tribe they do not
spin; in another they make nothing but baskets and mats; they are not
even to pound rice; and in others they must not go to fetch water. These
rules are established by pride, and the same passion makes them
followed. There is no necessity for mentioning that the moral qualities,
according as they are blended with others, are productive of different
effects; thus pride, joined to a vast ambition and notions of grandeur,
produced such effects among the Romans as are known to all the world.
Footnotes
[9]
The people who follow the khan of Malacamber, those of Carnataca
and Coromandel, are proud and indolent; they consume little, because
they are miserably poor; while the subjects of the Mogul and the people
of Hindostan employ themselves, and enjoy the conveniences of life, like
the Europeans. — "Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the
Establishment of the East India Company," vol. i, p. 54.
[11]
"Edifying Letters," coll. xil, p. 80.
