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PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTION 225 
the poor. You may behold extravagance—it 
is a vice ; but that very extravagance circu 
lates money, and the vice of one contributes 
to the happiness of many. The only vice 
which is not redeemed by producing commen 
surate good, is avarice. If all were equal, 
there would be no arts, no manufactures, no 
industry, no employment. As it is, the 
inequality of the distribution of wealth may be 
compared to the heart, pouring forth the blood 
like a steam-engine through the human frame, 
the same blood returning from the extremities 
by the veins, to be again propelled, and keep 
up a healthy and vigorous circulation.” The 
fallacy betrays itself at once when we remind 
ourselves that we cannot be ultimately de 
pendent for employment on other people’s 
wants, because we have all quite sufficient of 
our own to keep us fully occupied in satisfying 
them. Yet there are those to-day who follow 
the lead of Marryat’s hero along one line of 
thought and maintain that the excessive 
saving of the rich — which is sometimes 
represented as forced upon them because it is 
maintained that they simply cannot spend in 
proportion to what they get—is withholding 
employment from the poor. But saving which 
is not hoarding is indirect spending—spending 
on productive instruments which make things