CHAPTER X.

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MEASURE
AND A CAUSE OF VALUE.

Any one who takes the trouble of minutely ex-
amining the writings of the most celebrated
political economists will be astonished, not only
at the looseness of expression, but at the vague-
ness of design by which they are too frequently
distinguished. It is often far from being ma-
nifest, what is the precise doctrine or propo-
sition they are intending to support, or to over-
throw ; or rather, it is evident that they them-
selves have not succeeded in defining it clearly
to their own understandings.

No department of political economy has suf-
fered more from this indefiniteness of purpose,
and ambiguity of language, than that which is