Some voices from the midst of the multitude replied: 

Raise a discriminating standard; and let all those who maintain and nourish mankind by useful labors gather round it; and you will discover the enemy that preys upon you.

The standard being raised, this nation divided itself at once into two bodies of unequal magnitude and contrasted appearance.  The one, innumerable, and almost total, exhibited in the poverty of its clothing, in its emaciated appearance and sun-burnt faces, the marks of misery and labor; the other, a little group, an insignificant faction, presented in its rich attire embroidered with gold and silver, and in its sleek and ruddy faces, the signs of leisure and abundance.

Considering these men more attentively, I found that the great body was composed of farmers, artificers, merchants, all professions useful to society; and that the little group was made up of priests of every order, of financiers, of nobles, of men in livery, of commanders of armies; in a word, of the civil, military, and religious agents of government.

These two bodies being assembled face to face, and regarding each other with astonishment, I saw indignation and rage arising in one side, and a sort of panic in the other.  And the large body said to the little one:  Why are you separated from us?  Are you not of our number?

No, replied the group; you are the people; we are a privileged class, who have our laws, customs, and rights, peculiar to ourselves.

People.—­And what labor do you perform in our society?

Privileged class.—­None; we are not made to work.

People.—­How, then, have you acquired these riches?

Privileged class.—­By taking the pains to govern you.

People.—­What! is this what you call governing?  We toil and you enjoy! we produce and you dissipate!  Wealth proceeds from us, and you absorb it.  Privileged men! class who are not the people; form a nation apart, and govern yourselves.*

* This dialogue between the people and the indolent classes, is applicable to every society; it contains the seeds of all the political vices and disorders that prevail, and which may thus be defined:  Men who do nothing, and who devour the substance of others; and men who arrogate to themselves particular rights and exclusive privileges of wealth and indolence.  Compare the Mamlouks of Egypt, the nobility of Europe, the Nairs of India, the Emirs of Arabia, the patricians of Rome, the Christian clergy, the Imans, the Bramins, the Bonzes, the Lamas, etc., etc., and you will find in all the same characteristic feature:—­Men living in idleness at the expense of those who labor.

Then the little group, deliberating on this new state of things, some of the most honorable among them said:  We must join the people and partake of their labors and burdens, for they are men like us, and our riches come from them; but others arrogantly exclaimed:  It would be a shame, an infamy, for us to mingle with the crowd; they are born to serve us.  Are we not men of another race—­the noble and pure descendants of the conquerors of this empire?  This multitude must be reminded of our rights and its own origin.