ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the discussion has stressed the aspects of the author's economic philosophy which exhibit its continuity with his own psychology and general historical perspective. There remains to be considered the normative level of the author's economic thought where, discussing the controversial issue of luxury, he seeks to frame a comprehensive appraisal of a commercial society. The author's analysis is addressed to the extreme prevailing positions on luxury, and it takes the form of an attempt to mediate between them. Though he has emphasised that luxury whets the appetite for both "pleasure" and "gain", in answering the charge that it undermines political liberty by promoting venality and immorality in government he denies that there is any functional relation between luxury and greed. Although his defence of luxury was philosophically more discriminating than Bernard Mandeville's, in part the author was over-indulging his own patent and often expressed distaste for the excesses of religious "enthusiasm".
