In the canon
The Fable of the Bees
Bernard Mandeville
- Form
- Form Satire
- Year
- Year 1714
- Pages
- Pages 400
The hive in this poem is a filthy, thriving thing: its lawyers breed lawsuits, its physicians prize reputation above the drooping patient's health, its tailors live off vanity, and out of all that appetite comes a roaring, prosperous state. Then the bees pray to be made honest, and Jove grants it, and the hive empties: trades collapse, the great houses stand quiet, and the survivors fly off to live plainly in a hollow tree.
private vices, by the dexterous management of a skilful politician, may be turned into public benefits.
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