If you should see a flock of pigeons in a field of corn, and if (instead of each picking where and what he liked, taking just as much as it wanted and no more) you should see ninety-nine of them gathering all they got into a heap and reserving nothing for themselves but the chaff and refuse; keeping this heap for one, and that the weakest, perhaps worst, pigeon of the flock; sitting round and looking on all the winter whilst this one was devouring, throwing about and wasting it; and if a pigeon more hardy or hungry than the rest touched a grain of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon it and tearing it to pieces — if you should see this you would see nothing more than what is every day practiced and established among men.
— ARCHDEACON PALEY (1785), Moral and Political Philosophy, Book III., Part I, Chap. 1.
See also Kate Kennedy's "Paley's Foolish Pigeons," which is, or will soon be, online at http://thesingletax.com
Comments