22 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

which lie can buy either food, clothes, or lodging, as he hasoccasion.

As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that weobtain from one another the greater part of those mutualgood offices which we stand in need of, so it is the sametruckling disposition which originally gives occasion to thedivision of labour. In a tribe of hunters or shepherds a par-ticular person makes bows and arrows, for example, withmore readiness and dexterity than any other. He frequentlyexchanges them for cattle or for venison with his companions;and he finds at last that he can in this manner, get more cattleand venison than if he himself went to the field to catch them.From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the making ofbows and arrows grows to be his chief business, and he be-comes a sort of armourer. Another excels in making theframes and covers of their little huts or moveable houses. Heis accustomed to be of use in this way to his neighbours, whoreward him in the same manner with cattle and with venison,till at last he finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirelyto this employment, and to become a sort of house-carpenter.In the same manner a third becomes a smith or a brazier; afourth a tanner or dresser of hides or skins, the principal partof the clothing of savages. And thus the certainty of beingable to exchange all that surplus part of the produce of hisown labour, which is over and above his own consumption,for such parts of the produce of other men’s labour as he mayhave occasion for, encourages every man to apply himself toa particular occupation, and to cultivate and bring to perfec-tion whatever talent or genius he may possess for that parti-cular species of business.

The difference of natural talents in different men is, inreality, much less than we are aware of; and the very differentgenius which appears to distinguish men of different profes-sions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occa-sions so much the cause, as the effect of the division of labour.The difference between the most dissimilar characters, be-tween a philosopher and a common street porter, for example,seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, cus-tom, and education. When they came into the world, andfor the first six or eight years of their existence, they were,perhaps, very much alike, and neither their parents nor play-fellows could perceive any remarkable difference. Aboutthat age, or soon after, they come to be employed in very