But even in the very case on which Mr. Macculloch lays his principal stress, the difference is such as fully to warrant a different classification. It is, no doubt, true that, to have a fire in an attic in London, it is equally necessary that the coals should be brought up stairs from the cellar, as that they should be brought up from the bottom of the coal-mine to the surface: it is equally true that there is some resemblance between carrying coals from the bottom of a house to the top, and carrying them from the bottom of a mine to the top; but there is still a most decided and characteristic difference in the two cases. The miner is paid by the owner or worker of the mine, for the express purpose of increasing his wealth; the value of the miner’s labour is, therefore, charged with a profit upon the price of the coals; and the result of it would regularly enter into any estimate of national wealth. But when the same owner or worker of coal-mines pays a menial servant for bringing coals up from the yard to the drawing-room, he pays him for the express purpose of facilitating and rendering more convenient and agreeable, the consumption of that wealth which he had obtained through the instrumentality of the miner. The two instruments are used for purposes distinctly different, one to assist in obtaining wealth, the other to assist in consuming it. In an inquiry into the causes of the wealth of nations, I cannot easily conceive a more distinct and useful line of demarcation. On the same principle, if it be found useful with a view to explanations, to distinguish, by a different name, the stock destined for immediate consumption, from the stock employed or kept, with a view to profit, surely we must not wait to investigate the peculiar talents of each individual, before we venture to characterise the nature of his expenditure; and if we find such men as Arkwright and Watt[37] most naturally and properly reserving, for their immediate consumption, the means of keeping up a handsome or splendid establishment for the gratification of themselves, their family, and their friends, make an exception in their favour, and call such an expenditure an outlay of capital, instead of a consumption of revenue, as we should call it in the case of all ordinary persons. Such an inquiry would impose a duty upon the writers in political economy, which it would be perfectly absurd to attempt to fulfil, as it would quite defeat the end of the proposed classifications; and with regard to the distinguished characters adverted to, it would surely be most unnecessary. In an estimate of national wealth, the genius of a Newton or a Milton is necessarily underrated, which only shows that there are other sources of admiration and delight besides wealth. But such men as Arkwright and Watt are quite safe in the hands of the political economist. The result of their genius and labour is exactly of that description which is