cimens of the gentility of the family. For more of this, see the
chapter on Education.

{73} In Rome, after the taking of Carthage; and in Portugal,
immediately after it got possession of the trade to India; the change
must have been as great over the whole of the people in one
generation, as it is generally between a remote province and near the
capital.
-=-

[end of page #86]

general welfare is, that such men may return to a state of
insignificance and labour as fast as possible; for, while they remain
above that, and in a declining state, they are filling their place in
society badly.

It is different where the change goes on through a whole country, then
no one can supply the place, they are all going the same way, and at
nearly the same rate; {74} the consequence will be, that this will not
be the fall of a family, but the fall of a whole people; the motion will,
indeed, be much more slow, but the moving body will be vastly
greater, and the effect will be in proportion.

In every nation in Europe there is, between the capital and the distant
provinces, a difference of affluence, of wealth, &c. equal to what
probably takes place in a nation in one or two centuries. The
inhabitants of the capital have some great advantages over those that
come from a distance; they have connections, they have money and
stock; and, generally speaking, in their early years, they possess a
more ready and marketable knowledge. But all these avail nothing
against habits of industry, and being taught to expect nothing from
others, but to depend all on one's own powers. With this single, but
signal, advantage, the sons of the wealthy citizens are always yielding
to the son of the peasant; they are one by one giving way, and their
places are filled by a new race; while their descendants are sinking
into poverty, and filling prisons, poor-houses, and hospitals.

This vicissitude is so observable, that it would be unnecessary to dwell
upon it were it, =sic= not of such infinite importance. {75}

The alarming and lamentable increase of the poor, in proportion as

---
{74} It is always to be observed, that this reasoning is only applicable
in general, and not in every particular case. It has been remarked by
the writer of the notes on the Wealth of Nations, that where a fortune
is not realized in a family, sufficient to enable it to withdraw entirely
from trade, it seldom remains wealthy above two generations. The
sons most frequent