But then if the smith could not have found an immediate
purchaser, he must have deserted his anvil; if there had by
accident at any time been more sellers than buyers, the workmen
must have reduced their profit to nothing, by underselling one
another; and as no great stock could have been in any hand, no
sudden demand of large quantities could have been answered and the
builder must have stood still till the nailer could supply him.
According to these schemes, universal plenty is to begin and end in
universal misery. Hope and emulation will be utterly extinguished;
and as all must obey the call of immediate necessity, nothing that
requires extensive views, or provides for distant consequences will
ever be performed.
To the southern inhabitants of Scotland, the state of the mountains
and the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra:
Of both they have only heard a little, and guess the rest. They
are strangers to the language and the manners, to the advantages
and wants of the people, whose life they would model, and whose
evils they would remedy.
Nothing is less difficult than to procure one convenience by the
forfeiture of another.
