CHAPTER X.

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

Any one who takes the trouble of minutely examining
 the writings of the most celebrated
political economists will be astonished, not only
at the looseness of expression, but at the vagueness
 of design by which they are too frequently
distinguished. It is often far from being manifest,
 what is the precise doctrine or proposition
 they are intending to support, or to overthrow
 ; or rather, it is evident that they themselves
 have not succeeded in defining it clearly
to their own understandings.
No department of political economy has suffered
 more from this indefiniteness of purpose,
and ambiguity of language, than that which is