204 ON THE CAUSES

termined by their comparative quantities of pro-
ducing labour, or by any other cause. The
fatter would be a step further back in the se-
quence of causes and effects. There can be
nothing absurd in assigning one thing as the
proximate cause of an effect, merely because it
s possible that another may be assigned as its
remote cause.
Mr. Mill's language, too, is unusually lax.
He confounds the standard with the cause of
value. The proposition, that the values of com-
modities are determined by the capitals ex-
pended in producing them, affirms a cause, but
certainly does not point out any standard of
value; nor would Mr, Mill's own doctrine fur-
1ish such an auxiliary. A standard, whatever
meaning it may have in this connection, must
at all events be something clearly defined and
easily accessible; and if Mr. Mill purposes to
set up the quantity of labour in a commodity
‘rom first to last, through all its various meta-
morphoses, in that capacity, it will be one
seldom within his reach. In reality, however,