ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the most basic level of author's economic thought takes the form of a natural history of the "rise and progress of commerce" in which he seeks to explain the development of economic activity through the impact of changing environmental forces on certain human passions. The general historical setting for his treatment of the issue is fixed in a brief opening statement on the nature of the different general levels of economic evolution. The author describes three "causes of labour" emerge: the desire for "pleasure", the desire for "action", and the desire for the "quick march of the spirits", which is expressed through both action and pleasure. His treatment of action and pleasure as substitutable media for the expression of a desire for liveliness provides the basis for an interpretation of the relations between idleness and an excessive indulgence in pleasure and which may be termed the desire for "liveliness".
