The difference of natural talents in different men is in reality much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which appears to distinguish men of different professions when grown up to maturity is not upon many occasions so much the cause as the effect of the division of labour. The difference between the most dissimilar characters between a philosopher and a common street porter for example seems to arise not so much from nature as from habit custom and education. When they came in to the world and for the first six or eight years of their existence they were perhaps very much alike and neither their parents nor play-fellows could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age or soon after they come to be employed in very different occupations. The difference of talents comes then to be taken notice of and widens by degrees till at last the vanity of the philosopher is willing to acknowledge scarce any resemblance. But without the disposition to truck barter and exchange every man must have procured to himself every necessary and conveniency of life which he wanted. All must have had the same duties to perform and the same work to do and there could have been no such difference of employment as could alone give occasion to any great difference of talents. As it is this disposition which forms that difference of talents so remarkable among men of different professions so it is this same disposition which renders that difference useful. Many tribes of animals acknowledged to be all of the same species derive from nature a much more remarkable distinction of genius than what antecedent to custom and education appears to take place among men.