(J54 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OK

turally introduced by the prudence of individuals, who findthat they promote their private interest better by confiningthemselves to a particular trade, than by exercising a greatnumber. But it is the wisdom of the state only which canrender the trade of a soldier a particular trade separate anddistinct from all others. A private citizen, who in time ofprofound peace, and without any particular encouragementfrom the public, should spend the greater part of his time inmilitary exercises, might, no doubt, both improve himselfvery much in them, and amuse himself very well; but hecertainly would not promote his own interest. It is the wis-dom of the state only which can render it for bis interest togive up the greater part of his time to this peculiar occupa-tion ; and states have not always had this wisdom, even whentheir circumstances had become such, that the preservationof their existence required that they should have it.

A shepherd has a great deal of leisure; a husbandman, inthe rude state of husbandry, has some; an artificer or manu-facturer has none at all. The first may, without any loss,employ a great deal of his time in martial exercises; thesecond may employ some part of it; but the last cannot em-ploy a single hour in them without some loss; and his atten-tion to his own interest naturally leads him to neglect themaltogether. Those improvements in husbandry too, whichthe progress of arts and manufactures necessarily introduces,leave the husbandman as little leisure as the artificer. Mili-tary exercises come to be as much neglected by the inhabit-ants of the country as by those of the town, and the greatbody of the people becomes altogether unwarlike. Thatwealth, at the same time, which always follows the improve-ments of agriculture and manufactures, and which in realityis no more than the accumulated produce of those improve-ments, provokes the invasion of all their neighbours. An in-dustrious, and upon that account a wealthy nation, is of allnations the most likely to be attacked ; and unless the statetakes some new measures for the public defence, the naturalhabits of the people render them altogether incapable of de-fending themselves.

In these circumstances, there seem to be but two methodsby which the state can make any tolerable provision for thepublic defence.

It may either, first, by means of a very rigorous police, andin spite of the whole bent of the interest, genius, and iucli-