OF VALUE.

merely the relation in which two objects stand
to each other as exchangeable commodities.

In the circumstance, that it denotes a rela-
tion between two objects, and cannot be predi-
cated of any commodity without an express or
implied reference to some other commodity,
value bears a resemblance to distance. . As we
cannot speak of the distance of any object
without implying some other object, between
which and the former this relation exists, so we
cannot speak of the value of a commodity but
in reference to another commodity compared
with it. A thing cannot be valuable in itself
without reference to another thing, any more
than a thing can be distant in itself without re-
ference to another thing.

It follows from this view of value as a rela-
tion, that it cannot alter as to one of the objects
compared, without altering as to the other. It
would be an absurdity to suppose, that the value
of A to B could alter, and not the value of B to
a; that a could rise in value to B, and B re-
main stationary in value to A ; an absurdity of
much the same kind as supposing, that the dis-