MDMD Ch. 25 : The Business of the World

[Michel Ryckx]

"The Business of the World is Trade and Death, and you must engage with
that unpleasantness, as the price of your not-at-all-assur'd Moment of
Purity.-- Fool' ''

(M&D, 247.30-32)

This seems to me a quote, and given the "trans-lating all thah' French
Jabber" at the bottom of the same page, from French origin.  I've been
looking around, but cannot find anything relevant.  It must be (to my
ears, that is), at the time, a pretty recent phrase, for it is around
this period the economic school of mercantilism was replaced by the one
of the physiocrats; the latter stressing the importance of commerce,
while the first concentrated on the fruits of the earth as the essence
of economy (I had a post about those things, but it's computer crash
week).

If someone has a CD with Diderot's Encyclopédie, that might help, I
think.

Michel.