position and that of the ordinary capitalist is
the power which the latter supposes himself
to possess, and which is attributed to him by
others, of spending his money at any moment.
This pleasure, taken in the imagination of power to part with that with which we have no intention of parting, is one of the most curious, though
commonest forms of the Eidolon, or Phantasm
of Wealth. But the political economist has
nothing to do with this idealism, and looks
only to the practical issue of it—namely, that
the holder of wealth, in such temper, may be
regarded simply as a mechanical means of
collection; or as a money-chest with a slit in
it, not only receptant but suctional, set in
the public thoroughfare;—chest of which only
Death has the key, and evil Chance the
distribution of the contents. In his function of
Lender (which, however, is one of administration,
not use, as far as he is himself concerned),
the capitalist takes, indeed, a more interesting
aspect; but even in that function, his relations
with the State are apt to degenerate into
a mechanism for the convenient contraction
of debt;—a function the more mischievous,
because a nation invariably appeases its
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