Quiz: The Fable of the Bees, Parts I and II

14 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. How, according to Cleomenes, has nature provided for the men lost in war and at sea? More boys than girls are born yearly Widows soon remarry younger men Women bear more twins in times of war Soldiers marry earlier than other men
2. Why does Mandeville say great numbers of the poor should be kept ignorant? There are not enough honest schoolmasters to teach them without corrupting them Learning would lead them into popery and other dangerous errors of religion Knowledge enlarges and multiplies desires, making them harder to content Reading by candlelight would ruin the eyesight they need for their work
3. What does Mandeville propose about duelling? Let the Church and the bishops’ courts settle all quarrels of honour License duels before a magistrate Pardon no duellist, yet keep the custom for its civilising effect Abolish the custom of demanding satisfaction altogether, by statute
4. In Remark B, what gives Decio the advantage over Alcander in their sugar deal? A bribe paid to Alcander’s clerk News that the Barbados fleet had been destroyed by a storm A new duty on imported sugar A forged letter from the West Indies reporting a glut of sugar
5. How does Remark (X.) judge Spartan greatness? As the result of their iron mines As proof that frugality and hardiness bring wealth As empty, since the Spartans enjoyed nothing As the model a trading nation like ours should copy
6. Why are bales of cloth lost at sea as beneficial to the English poor as if they had been sold? Those who made and carried them were paid before they sailed Replacement cloth comes in from Holland, which lowers prices for the poor The poor along the coast salvage the bales from the wreck and sell them The insurers repay the merchant, who then pays the weavers a second time
7. What name does Cleomenes coin for the instinct by which every creature values itself above its real worth? Self-approbation Self-preference Self-liking Natural vanity
8. In Remark G, which liquor does Mandeville call the most destructive to the health and industry of the poor? Burgundy Gin Small beer Brandy
9. What finally becomes of the hive after Jove makes the bees honest? It begs Jove to restore its old vices, and he grants them back again It grows richer than before, its trade reviving under honest rulers The survivors withdraw into a hollow tree, content and honest It is conquered and plundered by its envious neighbours’ swarms
10. Which passions, according to Cleomenes, combine to produce reverence in a savage child? Love, fear and esteem Pride, awe and obedience Pity, shame and gratitude Hope, envy and admiration
11. What scene does Mandeville imagine to show that pity is a natural passion felt even by criminals? A beggar displaying his sores in the street A man being hanged at Tyburn A shipwreck seen from the shore A starving sow devouring a small child in a yard
12. What does Cleomenes call the third and last step to society? The invention of letters The worship of one invisible God The first division of land among families The taming of horses and cattle
13. To what machine does Cleomenes compare the laws of a well-ordered city, apologising for the low simile? A printing-press with movable type A ship’s chain-pump A knitting-frame A water-mill
14. According to the Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue, what are the moral virtues? Rules discovered by reason alone, apart from religion The political offspring of flattery begot upon pride The product of revealed religion Innate affections implanted in every man by nature at birth

0 of 14 answered