16

ON THE NATURE

he intended, the connection and tenour of the
whole passage sufficiently evince.
The contradiction involved in affirming the
stationary or invariable value of any object
amidst the variations of other things, is so direct
 and palpable, that it may be instructive to
point out the way in which a writer of such
powers of reasoning, as Mr. Ricardo unquestionably
 possessed, has been led into so
strange and manifest an error.
Since value denotes a relation between two
objects, no arguments are required to prove,
that it cannot arise from causes affecting only
one of the objects, but must proceed from
two causes, or two sets of causes respectively
operating on the objects between which the
relation exists*. If A is equal in value to B,

* Value implying, as I have before shown, a mental
affection, and consequently all eauses of value being, in
reality, circumstances affecting the mind, it might be more
correct to speak of the eauses operating on the mind with
regard to an object, than of the causes operating on the
object itself: but the latter is a shorter mode of expression,
 sufficiently intelligible, and not likely to lead into
Brror.