232 ON THE CAUSES OF VALUE.

an increase or diminution of any of them, an
increase or diminution of the effect. If
Mr. Ricardo, as his admirers allege, has really
enriched the science of political economy with
any new and important truths (a point which
this is not the place to decide), we may safely
pronounce that they are not inferences from the
doctrine, that the quantity of labour employed
in the production of commodities is the sole
determining principle of their value. It may be
affirmed, without any hazard of error, that
there is not one of them, whatever they may be,
which would not equally flow from the more
accurate proposition, that it is the principal
cause. A false simplification in matters of fact
can be of no service, and can only tend to perplex
 the mind of the inquirer by those perversions
 of language, those distortions of expression,
 and those circuitous expedients of logical
ingenuity, which it unavoidably engenders.