12

ON THE NATURE

as to one and not as to the other; to suppose
that the value of a to B could be altered, and
not the value of B to A, would, as I have al-
ready remarked, be as absurd, as supposing
that the distance of the sun from the earth
could be increased or decreased, while the dis-
tance of the earth from the sun remained as
hYefore.
The truth intended to be conveyed by saying
that B remains of the same value is, that the
cause of the altered relation between A and B
is in the former, and not in the latter; and to
determine where the change originated is in
fact the whole object of those who endeavour
to show what commodities have remained
stationary in value, and what have varied.

It is so important to bear in mind, in these
cases of rising and falling, that as A rises, B
necessarily falls; or, to speak with greater pre-
cision, that the value of A cannot increase in
relation to B, without the value of B decreasing
in relation to aA, that I may be pardoned for
still further showing the impropriety, or at least
the danger, of using the terms rise and fall in