8 Nov r 1800 *1

Paper Mischief

Ch. < > […?]

Money […?]

1

A state of things in which the ratio of the mass of vendible commodities to the mass of money should be stationary or on the encrease - in which the ratio of the mass of money to the mass of vendible commodities should be stationary or on the decrease is so perfectly one without precedent, that it is not without great /some/ difficulty that the mind can square /fashion/ /shape/ itself to it the conception of it. The picture of such a state is a /a sort of/ romance: and being as unprecedented in representation as in reality, it is a romance of a new stamp. It is like the history of Brobdinggnag or Lilliput - I mean what these histories were when they first came out /sallied forth from the brain of the ingenious misanthropist/: not what they are at present. In point of instruction however it differs widely /stands upon a higher level/ from a romance: it vies with the gravest and most instructive histories. The future is worth looking at /Let us bestow a glance upon the future/: for if the state of things pourtrayed by it should appear a preferable one, it may be not altogether incapable of being realized.