114

ON MEASURES

mon bond of connection between the measure-
ments of space in all ages. But this circum-
stance can evidently have no existence in the
measurement of value, which is the ascertain-
ment of a relation between contemporary com-
modities, and not between objects at different
periods. The two cases would be analogous
if we supposed no physical measure of length
to be transmitted from one period to another, but
only a record of the lengths of different objects
expressed in a common denomination. Under
these circumstances, all that we could do would
be to compare the relative dimensions of ob-
jects in our own days, with the relative dimen-
sions of similar objects in past times, as re-
corded: but we should have no common me-
dium of comparison between one age and ano-
ther. Now what in this case would be owing
to the want of a transmitted measure, arises in
the other case from the very nature of the re-
lation with which we have to do. The na-
ture of that relation itself interposes as com-
plete a disconnection between different ages, as