take a fancy to a thing, and he can get it. It is also more
agreeable for a rich man to live there, because there he can gratify
his vanity; there is some one with whom he can vie in luxury; there
is some one to astonish, and there is some one to outshine. But the
principal reason why it is more comfortable in the city for a rich
man is that formerly, in the country, his luxury made him awkward and
uneasy; while now, on the contrary, it would be awkward for him not
to live luxuriously, not to live like all his peers around him. That
which seemed dreadful and awkward in the country, here appears to be
just as it should be. [Rich people congregate in the city; and
there, under the protection of the authorities, they calmly demand
every thing that is brought thither from the country. And the
countryman is, in some measure, compelled to go thither, where this
uninterrupted festival of the wealthy which demands all that is taken
from him is in progress, in order to feed upon the crumbs which fall
from the tables of the rich; and partly, also, because, when he
beholds the care-free, luxurious life, approved and protected by
everybody, he himself becomes desirous of regulating his life in such
a way as to work as little as possible, and to make as much use as
possible of the labors of others.

And so he betakes himself to the city, and finds employment about the
wealthy, endeavoring, by every means in his power, to entice from
them that which he is in need of, and conforming to all those
conditions which the wealthy impose upon him, he assists in the
gratification of all their whims; he serves the rich man in the bath
and in the inn, and as cab-driver and prostitute, and he makes for
him equipages, toys, and fashions; and he gradually learns from the
rich man to live in the same manner as the latter, not by labor, but
by divers tricks, getting away from others the wealth which they have