as the perfection of the machine that serves to attain it.
How many people ruin themselves by lay|ing out money on trinkets of frivolous utility? What pleases these lovers of toys is not so much the utility, as the aptness of the ma|chines that are fitted to promote it. All their pockets are stuffed with little conveniencies. They contrive new pockets, unknown in the cloaths of other people, in order to carry a greater number. They walk about loaded with a multitude of baubles, in weight and sometimes in value not inferior to an ordinary Jews-box, some of which may sometimes be of some little use, but all of which might at all times be very well spared, and of which the whole utility is certainly not worth the fatigue of bearing the burden.
Nor is it only with regard to such frivo|lous objects that our conduct is influenced by this principle; it is often the secret motive of the most serious and important pursuits of both private and public life.
The poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition, when he be|gins to look around him admires the con|dition of the rich. He finds the cottage of his father too small for his accommodation,
