ch the prosperity of a nation may be estimated, the
very evil that brings on decay serves to disguise its approach. A nation
may be irretrievably undone, before it is perceived that it has any
tendency to decline; it is, therefore, unwise for governments to wait
till they see the effects of decay, and then to hope to counteract them;
they must look before-hand, and prevent, otherwise all their exertions
will prove ineffectual. [end of page #174]

CHAP. X.

_Of the external Causes of Decline.--the Envy and Enmity of other
Nations.--their Efforts, both in Peace and War, to bring Wealthy
Nations down to their level_.

The external causes of the decline of nations are much more simple
in themselves than the internal ones, besides which, their action is
more visible; the way of operation is such as to excite attention, and
has made them thought more worthy of being recorded.

The origin of envy and enmity are the same. The possession of what is
desirable, in a superior degree, is the cause of envy. That occasions
injurious and unjust proceedings, and enmity is the consequence,
though both originated in the same feeling at first, they assume
distinct characteristics in the course of time.

The desire of possession, in order to enjoy, is the cause of enmity and
envy; and all the crimes of nations, and of individuals, have the same
common origin.

It follows, as a natural consequence, arising from this state of things,
that those nations which enjoyed a superior degree of wealth, became
the objects of the envy of others. If that wealth was accompanied by
sufficient power for its protection, then the only way to endeavour to
share it was by imitation; but if the wealth was found unprotected,
then conquest or violence was always considered as the most ready
way of obtaining possession.

The wandering Arabs, who are the only nations that profess robbery at
the present day, (by land,) follow still the same maxim with regard to
those whose wealth they mean to enjoy. If too powerful to be
compelled by force to give up what they have got, they traffic and
barter with the merchants of a caravan; but if they find themselves
able to take, they never give themselves the trouble to adopt the
legitimate but less expeditious method of plunder and robbery =sic=.
[end of page #175]

As it has been found that wealth operates, by degrees, in destroying
the bravery of a people, after a certain time, so it happens that, in the
c