IN THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.
395
enough to cultivate the fields ; and this muft occafion book
adearnefs of provifions, which, while it raifes the price    XIX-
£ workmanfhip,  will alio  diminifh the number of'     v
trades.
Where fertility of foil is wanting, manufadures re-
quire, at leaft, as few men to be employed as poffible.
A nation that fliould expend much on its mere fob-
Mence, would abforb the whole profits of its induftry.
When the gratifications of luxury are greater or more
expenfive than the means of fupplying them, the fource
from which they are derived is loft, and they can no
longer be fupported. If the workman will feed and
clothe himfelf like the manufadurer who employs him,
the manufadure is foon ruined. The degree of fin-
ality that republican nations adhere to from motives
of virtue, the manufadurer ought to obferve from
views of parfimony. This may be the reafon, perhaps,
the arts, even thofe of luxury, are more adapted
to republics than monarchies; for, under monarchical
inftitutions, poverty is not always the fharpefi fpur
with the people to induftry. Labour, proceeding from
lunger, is narrow and confined, like the appetite it
fprings from ; but the work that arifes from ambition
Ipreads and increafes as naturally as the vice itfelf.
National charader has confiderable influence over
k progrefs or the arts of luxury and ornament.   Some
people are fitted for invention by that levity which na-
turally inclines them to novelty.    The fame nation is
tted for the arts, by their vanity, which inclines them
uhe ornament of drefs.    Another nation, lefs lively,
* lefs tafte for trivial matters, and is not fond of
changing fafhions.   Being of a more ferious turn, thefe
people are more inclined to indulge in exceffes of the
ii and in drinking, which relieves them from all
7 and apprehenfion.    Of thefe nations, the one
icceed better than its rival in the arts of deco-
and muft have the preference over it among all
pother nations which are fond ofthe fame arts.
lie advantages which manufadures derive from na-
l* are further feconded by the form of government.