私欲的“恶之花”结出的是公共利益的善果。这就是著名的“曼德维尔悖论”。从道德的角度看，以自利驱动的行为是应该受到谴责的，但如果想以“公共精神”的道德情怀来建立一种充满美德的繁荣社会，那只是一种“浪漫的奇想”，因为私欲和私欲支配的个人恶行恰恰是社会繁荣的能源，离开了这个能源，公共利益将是无源之水，无本之木。公益心和道德感这样的善之花，都将结出贫困和伪善的恶之果。

曼德维尔的“蜜蜂的寓言”是现代自由主义经济学和经济伦理的基本隐喻。其理论主旨是弘扬私欲，相信市场对私人恶行具有神奇的转化和净化力量，认定出于道德情怀的行为不仅不可行而且可能危及公共利益。

但自问世起，曼德维尔的“蜜蜂的寓言”一直遭到理论上的质疑和事实上的挑战。具体到商业领域，关于企业是一个纯粹为自身赚取利润的组织，还是一个应该承担社会责任的组织，也一直是一个争论不休的问题。

Don’t put your trust in their friendliness, their Christian love for their neighbour, but rest assured that they will always keep their own interests in mind. 

不要相信他们的友善，他们对邻居如上帝般的友爱，要相信他们心里想的总是他们自己的利益。

For Smith, the most important outcome of the rise of productivity was what he called the universal opulence that extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.  

He sincerely believed that everybody would profit from the new wealth: the rich would become richer, but the poor would also become richer. Or to quote him: “a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of society”. 

在斯密看来，生产力提高最重要的是带来了普遍富裕，惠及到社会最底层。他确实相信所有人都能从这种新财富中收益：富人更富，穷人也会得以改善。用他的话说：“普遍性富裕遍及社会社会各阶层”。

[On the division of labour]

By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter as a mastiff, that is a kind of dog, is from a greyhound and a greyhound from a spaniel. 

在天资和天性方面，一个哲学家的天赋同一个街道搬运工的天赋的不同，远远不及大猛犬之于猎犬，或猎犬之于长毛垂耳犬，或长毛垂耳犬之于牧羊人犬。

if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to what we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely simple and easy; and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.

假如我们考察一下所有这些东西，看一看每一种都要使用多少不同的劳动，我们就会了解到没有成千上万人的帮助和合作，一个文明社会中的最卑贱的工人，就不可能得到他普通所得到的那种(按照我们的非常错误的设想是)平常的简单的生活用品。的确，同富贵人家的极度豪华奢侈相比，他的生活用品看来无疑地是极其简单而又平常的；然而，这或许又是真事，一个欧洲君主的生活用品，并非总是大大超过一个勤劳节俭的农民的生活用品，而这个农民的生活用品却总是超过许多非洲君主的生活用品，这些君主正是数以万计的赤裸野蛮人的生命与自由的绝对主宰啊。

【谁说资本主义就万恶了，斯密在最初就体现了人文关怀啊】

Adam Smith, writing some seventy years before Marx, was not unaware of this problem. He says that somebody who has to perform the same task over and over again, month after month, may become as stupid and as ignorant as it is possible for a human being to become. He even thought about ways to offer factory workers some kind of education to compensate for the monotony of their work.

In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations; frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects, too, are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention, in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life. Of the great and extensive interests of his country he is altogether incapable of judging; and unless very particular pains have been taken to render him otherwise, he is equally incapable of defending his country in war. The uniformity of his stationary life naturally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him regard, with abhorrence, the irregular, uncertain, and adventurous life of a soldier. It corrupts even the activity of his body, and renders him incapable of exerting his strength with vigour and perseverance in any other employment, than that to which he has been bred. His dexterity at his own particular trade seems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expense of his intellectual, social, and martial virtues. But in every improved and civilized society, this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to prevent it.

随着劳动分工的进展，大部分以劳动为生的人也就是说大多数人民的职业仅限于少数非常简单的操作，常常只是一种或两种。但是大多数人的理解力必然是通过他们的普通职业去形成的。整个生活用来从事少数简单操作的人，这种操作的效果或许总是一样的或几乎是一样的，他就没有机会去发挥他的理解力，或发挥他的发明才能，找出克服所遇到的困难的办法。因此，他自然丧失了发挥这种能力的习惯，通常变得像一个人可能变成的那样驽钝和无知。他们精神上的无感觉状态使得他不仅不能领会或参加任何合理的谈话，而且也不能怀有任何宽宏、高尚或温和的感情，因而甚至不能就许多私生活方面的普通义务形成任何正确的判断。对于他的国家的重大广泛的利益，他完全不能判断；他同样也不能在战时捍卫他的国家，除非采取特别费力的办法去使他做到这一点。他的无变化生活的单调性自然消磨了精神上的勇气，使他厌恶士兵的不规则的、不确定的冒险的生活。这种单调性甚至腐化了他的身体的活动力，使得他除了从事自己的职业以外在任何其他职业中不能奋发地、坚韧地施展自己的力量。这样，他在自己的特殊行业中的熟练，是靠牺牲他的智力的、社会的和军事的才能获得的。但在每一个进步的和文明的社会，这是劳动贫民，即大多数人民必然会落到的状态，除非政府设法去防止它。

an anecdote about Auguste Comte

The vague, optimistic, and humanitarian dreams of this singular reformer did undoubtedly exercise a certain fas- cination over the youthful mind of Comte, and gave his genius and char- acter an inflexible bent towards a scheme of social reorganization.

毫无疑问，孔德心中模糊、乐观，又充满人文主义关怀的梦想让这位少年的心中产生了某种迷恋，并使其在才华和性格上倾向于社会重构方案。

But the shallowness of Saint-Simon’s acquirements could not impart any- thing of a solid kind to such a mind as Comte’s; and the vanity and charlatanry of the famous socialist alienated his young follower. 

然而，圣西门才疏学浅，并不能为孔德这样的人带来任何真才实学；这位著名社会主义者不仅充满了虚荣心，还招摇撞骗，也使这位年轻的追随者疏远了他。

Tocqueville did not see indications of a polarisation between the very rich and the very poor,  where the rich become richer and the poor become so desperately poor that they have nothing to lose but their shackles. On the contrary, revolutions will become rare because everybody will have a little bit of property to lose and are therefore protective of what they own.

托克维尔没有发现富人和穷人之间两极分化的情况，富人变得更加富有，而穷人变得极度贫困，以至于他们除了桎梏之外别无他物。 相反，革命将变得罕见，因为人人都拥有一些财产，并且想守住自己的财产。

Democratisation, he argued, does not only refer to political processes. This change in politics is part of a more general movement in the direction of more equality between the members of society. The social conditions under which the members live become more similar. The most striking inequalities between the social layers begin to dwindle away, people become more alike, not only in the economic realm but also in their habits, their lifestyles. 

他认为，民主并不仅仅只是政治进程。在政治上的变化是一种更普遍性的运动的组成部分，这种运动是朝着社会成员之间更加平等的方向发展的。社会成员之间的生活条件变得更加相似，社会阶层之间的显著性不平等开始减少，人与人之间变得更加趋同，不仅出现在经济领域，也出现在生活习惯和生活方式上。