OF VALUE. 
213 
little variable as here represented, it proves 
only that they are circumstances which perma- 
nently affect value, and that it must be alto- 
gether incorrect to designate quantity of labour 
the sole cause, when quality of labour is so 
steady in its effects. This cause of value is, in 
fact, on precisely the same footing as any 
other. A variation in it, small or great, would 
occasion a corresponding variation in the value 
of the article on which the labour was em- 
ployed ; and however inconsiderable its effects 
may be, they cannot be consistently either 
denied or overlooked. The whole of the sec- 
tion appears to have been dictated by a lurking 
impatience of any thing which seemed to break 
into the beautiful simplicity of the rule, that 
value is determined by quantity of labour. Else 
why not freely allow the exceptions wherever 
they occur, and qualify the expression of the 
general rule accordingly * 7” 
* The only place in Mr. Ricardo’s work, where I have 
been able to find the expression of the general rule pro-