22

ON THE NATURE

the object itself may properly be said to be af-
fected; in the other, only the value of the
commodities which it purchases; and if we
ing out his own meaning. He states two cases; in one,
the power of purchasing, possessed by any object, is said
to arise from causes affecting the object itself; in the other,
its power of purchasing is said to arise from causes af-
fecting the commodities against which it is exchanged. He
then proceeds to observe, that in the first case ¢ the value
of the object itself may properly be said to be affected :”
i.e. “if the power of purchasing possessed by any
object arises from causes affecting the object itself, the
value of the object itself may properly be said to be af-
fected.” This must be allowed to be a very unmeaning
proposition. Mr. Malthus evidently intended to say,
not that the power of purchasing possessed by any object,
but that a change in its power of purchasing, might arise
sither from causes affecting that object, or from causes af-
fecting the commodities compared with it.

Many similar instances of negligence and inaccuracy of
axpression disfigure the pages of Mr. Malthus’s pamphlet,
the more unpardonable, not only because he is master,
when he chooses, of an excellent and perspicnous style,
but because such passages form serious impediments to
the progress of a science, which requires the utmost clear-
ness and precision of language, both for its improvement
and its diffusion.