There used to be a society for ameliorating the condition of the Jews; but they were found to be so much more adept than other people in ameliorating their own condition that I suppose it was given up.  Mandeville says that to his knowledge there are a great many people who get up ameliorating enterprises merely to be conspicuously busy in society, or to earn a little something in a good cause.  They seem to think that the world owes them a living because they are philanthropists.  In this Mandeville does not speak with his usual charity.  It is evident that there are Jews, and some Gentiles, whose condition needs ameliorating, and if very little is really accomplished in the effort for them, it always remains true that the charitable reap a benefit to themselves.  It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Our next-door neighbor.  Why is it that almost all philanthropists and reformers are disagreeable?

I ought to explain who our next-door neighbor is.  He is the person who comes in without knocking, drops in in the most natural way, as his wife does also, and not seldom in time to take the after-dinner cup of tea before the fire.  Formal society begins as soon as you lock your doors, and only admit visitors through the media of bells and servants.  It is lucky for us that our next-door neighbor is honest.

The parson.  Why do you class reformers and philanthropists together?  Those usually called reformers are not philanthropists at all.  They are agitators.  Finding the world disagreeable to themselves, they wish to make it as unpleasant to others as possible.

Mandeville.  That’s a noble view of your fellow-men.

Our next door.  Well, granting the distinction, why are both apt to be unpleasant people to live with?

The parson.  As if the unpleasant people who won’t mind their own business were confined to the classes you mention!  Some of the best people I know are philanthropists,—­I mean the genuine ones, and not the uneasy busybodies seeking notoriety as a means of living.

The fire-tender.  It is not altogether the not minding their own business.  Nobody does that.  The usual explanation is, that people with one idea are tedious.  But that is not all of it.  For few persons have more than one idea,—­ministers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, manufacturers, merchants,—­they all think the world they live in is the central one.

Mandeville.  And you might add authors.  To them nearly all the life of the world is in letters, and I suppose they would be astonished if they knew how little the thoughts of the majority of people are occupied with books, and with all that vast thought circulation which is the vital current of the world to book-men.  Newspapers have reached their present power by becoming unliterary, and reflecting all the interests of the world.