Luxury no political evil: but demonstratively proved to be necessary to the preservation and prosperity of states. Addressed to the British senate

"There is one striking observation that occurs upon this subject; though in theory the common opinion is against it; in practice, the world is for it: though moralists inveigh against it, wise statesmen have encouraged it. If Luxury be a vice, and cause those disasters so often imputed to it, why have not some measures been taken to suppress it? But if, on the contrary, it be a necessary resource, without which every thing would languish, we cannot place this truth in too clear a view, lest any unforeseen, any impolitic attack upon it should destroy that source, on which the opulence of the State, and public welfare, depend.
This is an edition of a classical book first published in the eighteenth century.