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Mandeville is the wittiest and shrewdest philosopher ever to make a significant impact upon economics. He anticipated Oscar Wilde in choosing his enemies with great care, and within his own century they included David Hume, Adam Smith, and Francis Hutcheson. He could afford even such enemies because his friends and admirers have been legion.

— George J. Stigler, University of Chicago

29]THE FIRST DIALOGUE BETWEEN Horatio, Cleomenes, and Fulvia.
“Cleo.
If that be all, I shall soon convince you.
Hor.
No Conviction to me, I beseech you: I am [3]determin’d and fully persuaded, that there is Good in the World, as well as Evil; and that the Words, Honesty, Benevolence, and Humanity, and even Charity, are not empty Sounds only, but that there are such Things in spight of the Fable of the Bees; and I am resolved to believe, that, notwithstanding the Degeneracy of Mankind, and the Wickedness of the Age, there are Men now living, who are actually possess’d of those Virtues.
Cleo.
But you don’t know what I am going to say: I am—
Hor.
That may be. but I will not hear one Word; all you can say is lost upon me, and if you will not give me leave to speak out, I am gone this Moment. That cursed Book has bewitch’d you, and made you deny the Existence of those very Virtues that had gain’d you the Esteem of your Friends. You know this is not my usual Language; I hate to say harsh Things: But what Regard can or ought one to have for an Author that treats every Body de haut en bas, makes a Jest of Virtue and Honour, calls Alexander the Great a Madman,1 and spares Kings and Princes no more than any one would the most abject of the People? The Business of his Philosophy is just the Reverse to that of the Herald’s Office; for as there they are always contriving and finding out high and illustrious Pedigrees for low and obscure People, so your Author is ever searching after, and inventing [4]mean contemptible Origins for worthy and honourable Actions. I am your very humble Servant.”

Bernard Mandeville

Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) was a doctor and pamphleteer, whose works had a large impact on the course of eighteenth century social philosophy.

He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Leiden in 1691 and began to practice as a specialist in nerve and stomach disorders, his father’s specialty. Perhaps after a tour of Europe, he ended up in London, where he soon learned the language and decided to stay. He married in 1699, fathered at least two children, and brought out his first English publication in 1703 (a book of fables in the La Fontaine tradition). He wrote works on medicine (A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions, 1711), poetry (Wishes to a Godson, with Other Miscellany Poems, 1712), and religious and political affairs (Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, and National Happiness, 1720).

His most famous work, The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Publick Benefits,came out in more than half a dozen editions beginning in 1714 (the poem The Grumbing Hive upon which it was based appeared in 1705) and became one of the most enduringly controversial works of the eighteenth century for its claims about the moral foundations of modern commercial society.