procure other riches and other property, and rightly, for there are
other riches and property in nature; and these are the proper objects
of economy: while trade only procures money, not by all means, but by
the exchange of it, and for that purpose it is this which it is
chiefly employed about, for money is the first principle and the end
of trade; nor are there any bounds to be set to what is thereby
acquired. Thus also there are no limits to the art of medicine, with
respect to the health which it attempts to procure; the same also is
true of all other arts; no line can be drawn to terminate their
bounds, the several professors of them being desirous to extend them
as far as possible. (But still the means to be employed for that
purpose are limited; and these are the limits beyond which the art
cannot proceed.) Thus in the art of acquiring riches there are no
limits, for the object of that is money and possessions; but economy
has a boundary, though this has not: for acquiring riches is not the
business of that, for which reason it should seem that some boundary
should be set to riches, though we see the contrary to this is what is
practised; for all those who get riches add to their money without
end; the cause of which is the near connection of these two arts with
each other, which sometimes occasions the one to change employments
with the other, as getting of money is their common object: for
economy requires the possession of wealth, but not on its own account
but with another view, to purchase things necessary therewith; but the
other procures it merely to increase it: so that some persons are
confirmed in their belief, that this is the proper object of economy,
and think that for this purpose money should be saved and hoarded up
without end; the reason for which disposition is, that they are intent
upon living, but not upon living well; and this desire being boundless
in its extent, the means which they aim at for that purpose are
boundless also; and those who propose to live well, often confine that