Corruption of Morality by our Admiration Of The Rich

The similarity between the respect for greatness and respect for virtue corrupts morality.

²⁸ We are disposed to:

• admire the rich and the powerful, and
• despise the poor

Both of these are necessary to establish and maintain:

• the distinction of ranks and
• the order of society.

However, it is also the most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.

Moralists in all ages have complained:

• that wealth and greatness are admired when wisdom and virtue should be admired
• that poverty and weakness is unjustly detested when vice and folly should be the ones detested.

²⁹ We:

• want to be respectable and to be respected
• dread to be contemptible and to be condemned

But upon coming into the world, we find that:

• wisdom and virtue are not the sole objects of respect, and
• vice and folly are not the sole objects of contempt.

We frequently see:

• the world’s respect directed much more towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous
• the vices and follies of powerful men are much less despised than the poverty and weakness of the innocent

The great objects of ambition are to deserve, acquire, and enjoy mankind’s respect and admiration.

Two different roads equally lead to these objects.

1. The study of wisdom and the practice of virtue
2. The acquisition of wealth and greatness

Two different characters are presented to our emulation.

1. Proud ambition and ostentatious avidity
2. Humble modesty and equitable justice

Two different models show how we may fashion our own character and behaviour.

1. One that is is more gaudy and glittering in its colouring

This forces itself on every wandering eye.

2. One that is more correct and beautiful in its outline

This attracts the attention of nobody but the most studious and careful observer.

The real admirers of wisdom and virtue are a few wise and virtuous people.

• The great mob of mankind are the disinterested worshippers of wealth and greatness.

³⁰ Our respect for wisdom and virtue is different from our respect for wealth and greatness.

Inattentive observers commonly mistake the one for the other.

³¹ In equal degrees of merit, everyone respects the rich and the great more than the poor and the humble.

Most people admire the vanity of the rich much more than the solid merit of the poor.

It is improper to say that mere wealth and greatness, without merit and virtue, deserve our respect.

• Yet mere wealth and greatness gets our respect anyway.

Wealth and greatness might be considered as the natural objects or respect.

• The vice and folly of the rich must be very great before the rich are completely degraded by them.

The extravagance of a rich man is less hated than the extravagance of a poor man.

³² In the middle and lower ranks, the road to virtue and the road to reasonable fortune are often happily nearly the same.

In all the middle and lower professions, success is usually attained by real and solid professional abilities joined to prudent, just, firm, and temperate conduct.

Abilities will even sometimes prevail where the conduct is incorrect.

Habitual imprudence, injustice, weakness, or wastefulness, will always cloud and sometimes depress the most splendid professional abilities.

Besides, people in the middle and lower ranks can never be great enough to be above the law. The law must generally overawe them into some respect for the more important rules of justice.

The success of such people, too, almost always depends on the favour and good opinion of their neighbours and equals.

Without a tolerably regular conduct, these can very seldom be obtained. In such situations, the good old proverb, That honesty is the best policy, holds almost always perfectly true.

Therefore in such situations, we may expect a considerable degree of virtue. Fortunately because of society’s good morals, these are the situations of most people.

³³ In the upper classes, the case is sadly not always the same.

In royal courts, flattery and falsehood too often prevail over merit and abilities.

In such societies, the abilities to please are more regarded than the abilities to serve.

A ‘man of fashion’ is an impertinent and foolish thing.

His external graces and frivolous accomplishments are more admired than the solid and masculine virtues of a warrior, statesman, philosopher, or legislator.

All the virtues fit for the council, senate, or the field are hated by those insignificant flatterers who rise the most in such corrupted societies.

For example, The duke of Sully was called on by Lewis 13th for his advice in some great emergency.

The duke was an an old warrior and statesman.

He observed the favourites and courtiers whispering to one another about his unfashionable appearance.

He said:

Duke

Whenever your majesty’s father consulted me, he ordered the buffoons of the court to retire into the antechamber.