24

ON THE NATURE

modities for which it is exchanged: that is,
that the power of A in commanding B in exchange
 may be altered, while the power of B
in commanding A remains as before. Mr.
Malthus has fallen into the same error, which
we have already noticed in Mr. Ricardo; the
error of supposing, that if a commodity continued
 the same in the circumstances of its
production, it would retain the same value
amidst the fluctuations of other commodities.
The inconsistency of this with the definition of
value, has already been sufficiently exposed;
and as it is the basis of Mr. Malthus’s notion
of absolute value, that notion necessarily falls to
the ground. The very term absolute value, implies
 the same sort of absurdity as absolute distance
 ; while the invariable value of one object,
amidst the fluctuations of all other things, is
as self-contradictory a notion as the invariable
resemblance of a picture, to the natural scenery
from which it was taken, amidst all the vicissitudes

 of the seasons, the touches of time,
and the encroachments of art.