The Fable of the Bees

Knowledge both enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things a man wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be supplied.

Footnote Bernard de Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, 5th edition, London 1728.

Remarks, pages 212, 213, 328.

Temperate living and constant employment is the direct road for the poor to rational happiness, by which he most probably means long working days and little means of subsistence, and to riches and strength for the state, viz.

Do I have it here? Yeah.

Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, which...

Oh, yes.

I had never heard of.

I had never heard of it either, but I enjoyed hearing you guys talk about it.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, and it's so funny because once I was researching it, people were like, ah, yes, the time-honored parable, the Fable of the Bees.

What? But it was really interesting.

And also, just knowing the ways in which Lord Chesterfield's own biography- ... differs from what he preaches.

I'm really glad we read The Fable of the Bees before this because it, it helped me think about, like, okay, so this is his faux morality.

He, he doesn't keep a consistent-

Yes