“Consider any year, that has been so unfruitful that many thousands have died of hunger; and yet if, at the end of that year, a survey was made of the granaries of all the rich men that have hoarded up the corn, it would be found that there was enough among them to have prevented all that consumption of men that perished in misery; and that, if it had been distributed among them, none would have felt the terrible effects of that scarcity: so easy a thing would it be to supply all the necessities of life, if that blessed thing called money, which is pretended to be invented for procuring them was not really the only thing that obstructed their being procured!
“No dudo de que los ricos se percatan de esto, y de que saben muy bien cuánta mayor felicidad hay en no carecer de nada necesario que en abundar en muchas superfluidades, y en verse libres de tanta miseria que en abundar en tanta riqueza; y no puedo pensar sino que el sentido del interés de cada cual, sumado a la autoridad de los mandamientos de Cristo, quien, como era infinitamente sabio, sabía qué era lo mejor, y no fue menos bueno al revelárnoslo, habría atraído a todo el mundo hacia las leyes de los utopianos, si el orgullo, esa plaga de la naturaleza humana, esa fuente de tanta miseria, no lo impidiera; pues este