Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the

The words of Thomas Fuller thunder with moral clarity: “Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree, while the other is in distress, try whether one side of the face can smile while the other is pinched.” This is no idle proverb, but a vivid parable cast in the language of the body. Fuller reminds us that a community is like a living being, and the suffering of one part inevitably wounds the whole. To believe that wealth and joy can belong only to the few while misery devours the many is to embrace a contradiction as absurd as a half-smile upon a half-tormented face.

The origin of this wisdom lies in Fuller’s time, the seventeenth century, when England wrestled with civil strife, economic inequality, and the collapse of harmony between the gentry and the common people. Yet his words speak not merely to his age but to all ages, for inequality has been the recurring shadow over every civilization. His metaphor is drawn from the very form of the human body: as the right and left sides of the face cannot separate in expression, so too the rich and poor, the high and low, cannot live apart in condition. The joy of one must be joined with the well-being of the other, or else both will fall into ruin.

Consider the fate of Rome. In her early days, the Republic thrived when her citizens, both patrician and plebeian, shared in the burden of war and the spoils of victory. But in later centuries, vast estates consumed by the wealthy left the poor dispossessed, reduced to hunger while spectacles and bread were thrown to distract them. Rome’s rulers imagined they could keep one side of the face grinning with luxury while the other shriveled in poverty. Yet the body of Rome itself collapsed, for the sickness of one part infected the whole. Fuller’s metaphor finds its living example in the ruins of empires.

There is also a lesson in compassion. The smile that is authentic cannot be built upon the suffering of others. If the merchant grows rich while the laborer starves, if the palace glitters while the streets are filled with rags, the smile of prosperity is false and fleeting. It may dazzle for a moment, but it cannot endure. Only when justice spreads across the whole of society, when no one side is pinched into misery, does the smile of a nation become true and radiant. Fuller speaks to the conscience, urging those who prosper to remember that their fate is inseparably bound with the fate of their neighbor.

History gives us another mirror in the story of industrial England. In the nineteenth century, the factories roared with wealth, but the children who worked within them coughed blood and withered before their time. The masters believed themselves secure in prosperity while their workers suffered. Yet soon the entire body of society shook with strikes, reforms, and upheavals. Only when child labor laws and fairer wages were established did the nation’s smile become less grotesque, no longer twisted by the suffering of one side. Thus, reform proved Fuller’s parable true: no class can thrive while another withers.

The lesson is plain: society must be tended as one body. If one class rises while another sinks, the harmony of the whole is broken, and decay soon follows. A nation that forgets its poor, its widows, its laborers, and its oppressed, builds a tower upon sand. But a nation that lifts all its people together, binding prosperity with compassion, stands firm as a house built upon rock.

Therefore, let each of us act with this wisdom in mind. When you prosper, remember those whose side of the face is pinched by want. When you make decisions in business, in politics, or in daily life, consider not only your gain but the well-being of those unseen. For only in shared joy is joy complete. Thus Thomas Fuller’s words live on as a guiding fire: a people divided between plenty and poverty cannot long endure, for the smile of a nation must shine from the whole face, or else it is no smile at all.