For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Romans 7.19-20.

“The crowns and scepters of stage emperors,” remarked Sancho, “were never known to be of pure gold; they are always of tinsel or tinplate.” “That is the truth,” said Don Quixote, “for it is only right that the accessories of a drama should be fictitious and not real, like the play itself. Speaking of that, Sancho, I would have you look kindly upon the art of the theater and, as a consequence, upon those who write the pieces and perform in (...) them, for they render a great service to the state by holding up a mirror for us at each step we take, wherein we may observe, vividly depicted, all the varied aspects of human life; and I may add that there is nothing that shows us more clearly, by similitude, what we are and what we ought to be than do plays and players.” Miguel de Cervantes,Don Quixote, II, iii, 12. (shrink)

Hume's economic arguments, While grounded in the thought of his mercantilist contemporaries, Were none the less novel. They helped change the conception of work and the worker during the eighteenth century. Hume's psychological egalitarianism and his assumption of an 'achievement motive' amongst the laboring classes attacked the traditional view of the poor as unmoved by economic incentives to work. His arguments opened the way for a reconsideration of public policy when they were incorporated by adam smith into a highly articulated (...) vision of social life in an achieving community of psychic equals. (shrink)