SOURCE: Goldsmith, M. M. “Bernard Mandeville and the Virtues of the Dutch.” Dutch Crossing 48 (autumn 1992): 20-38.

In the following essay, Goldsmith discusses the impact that Mandeville's Dutch heritage may have had on his viewpoints, literary style, and subject matter.

Little is known about the life of Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733), author of The Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. Until recently all that was available concerning that part of his life which he spent in his native Holland was a few bald facts about his family background and his education. He was baptized in Rotterdam on 20 November 1670.¹ His background, Dutch on both sides, was from well-established medical and professional families.² After attending the Erasmian School in Rotterdam until 1685, he studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Leiden. Those studies left him a Cartesian.³ Apparently, having taken his first degree in 1689, he returned to Rotterdam, spending...