Government was the sole product of the place, the one grist ground at those mills.

No one was made to labor more than six hours of the twenty-four.

And the term labor meant no more than one-tenth its definition in any other town.

Wherefore, even those most engaged of the citizenry had leisure to settle the world's most perplexing concerns, and they generously devoted it to that purpose.
Nor were they abashed by any insignificance of their personal estate.
Familiarity does not breed contempt, it breeds conceit.

Those who dwell close to the hub of government, even though they build departmental fires, sweep departmental floors, and empty departmental waste baskets, from nearness of contact and a daily perusal of your truly great, come at last to look upon themselves as beings of tremendous importance--and all after the self-gratulatory example of the thoughtful fly on the chariot wheel in the fable.