 Assuming with the ascetics that human desires were essentially evil and therefore produced 'private vices' and assuming with the common view that wealth was a 'public benefit', he easily showed that all civilization implied the development of vicious propensities.As a satire, the poem and commentary point out the hypocrisy of men who promulgate ideas about virtue while their private acts are vices.The degree to which Mandeville's "rigoristic" definitions of virtue and vice followed those of English society as a whole has been debated by scholars.