But there is the same sort of danger from holding two ideas radically identical to be different, or in opposition to each other, as there is from confounding two ideas radically opposed. Meantime, no chapter in Ricardo's book (with the single exception of the first) has been so much singled out for attack, or for special admiration, as this particular chapter which rectifies the idea of wealth. Even amongst the leading supporters of Ricardo, it will be seen further on, (in the brief commentary upon this eighteenth chapter,) that some have unconsciously surrendered it. Not only have they been unaware of their own revolt, in this particular instance, from that theory which they had professed to adopt; but they have been equally unaware that, simultaneously with the collapse of this doctrine concerning wealth, collapses the entire doctrine of Ricardo concerning value; and if that basis should ever seriously be shaken, all the rest of Ricardo's system, being purely in the nature of a superstructure, must fall into ruins. These questions, however, with respect to the truth of particular doctrines, and their power to resist such assaults as have menaced them, will come forward by degrees, in proportion as their development ripens under our advance. For the present my office is, not to defend them, but to state them, and to trace their logical deduction; by which word, borrowed from a case strictly analogous in the modern expositions of the civil law, I understand a process such as, by a more learned term, would be called a systematic "genesis" of any complex truth, the act, namely, of pursuing the growth. which gradually carries that truth to its full expansion through all its movements, and showing of each separately how it arose, and in what change or movement of the principal idea, under what necessity supervening at that point, or on the suggestion of what occasional falling in with some other and kindred truth.

I have now traced the generic idea of "value," taken absolutely and without further limitation, into the two subordinate modes of, 1st, Value resting exclusively on a power to serve a purpose; and, 2d, Of value resting on that power, but combined with the accessory power of commanding an equivalent,-into value which does and value which does not involve the idea of property. The simpler mode of value I have announced to be identical with the Ricardian idea of wealth, and, under that head, it will come round for consideration in its proper place. But the other mode of value-viz. Exchange Value which is far more important to political economy, being no longer a regulative but a constitutive idea,1 now steps naturally into the place, standing next in order for investigation; and I warn the young student that, at this point, he steps forward upon perilous ground, of which every inch is debatable. Here it is that the true struggle takes place, that unavoidable combat between principles originally hostile, which into every subsequent section carries forward its consequences, and which, upon every system past or to come, impresses that determinate character, exposes that determinate tendency or clinamen, eventually decisive of its pretensions.

SECTION II.-VALUE IN EXCHANGE.

WHAT is value in exchange? What is its foundation? Most remarkable it seems, that up to a certain point all systems of modern economy answer this question correctly; yet, after passing that point, that all are wrong. In the vast accumulation of books on this subject, English, French, or Italian, (for German books go for nothing

here,) I have not met with one which sustains the truth to the end; whilst, on the other hand, it would be hardly less difficult to point out one which fails at the opening. Verbal inaccuracies might indeed be cited from all; for in an age of hasty reading, and of contempt for the whole machinery of scholastic distinctions, it cannot be expected that authors will spend much energy upon qualities which have ceased to be meritorious, upon nicety of distinction which perishes to the flying reader, or upon a jealous maintenance of consistency, which, unless it were appreciated by severe study, could not benefit the writer. In this way, there arises at once a natural explanation of that carelessness in the mode of exposition which has everywhere disfigured the modern science of political economy.

Almost all writers have agreed substantially, and have rightly agreed, in founding exchangeable value upon two elements, power in the article valued to meet some natural desire or some casual purpose of man, in the first place, and, in the second place, upon difficulty of attainment. These two elements must meet, must come into combination, before any value in exchange can be established. They constitute the two co-ordinate conditions, of which, where either is absent, no value in the sense of exchange value can arise for a moment. Indeed, it is evident to common sense, that any article whatever, to obtain that artificial sort of value which is meant by exchange value, must begin by offering itself as a means to some desirable purpose; and secondly, that even though possessing incontestably this preliminary advantage, it will never ascend to an exchange value in cases where it can be obtained gratuitously, and without effort, of which last terms both are necessary as limitations. For often it will happen that some desirable object may be obtained gratuitously; stoop, and you gather it at your feet: but

still, because the continued iteration of this stooping exacts a laborious effort, very soon it is found, that to gather for yourself virtually is not gratuitous. In the vast forests of the Canadas, at intervals, wild strawberries may be gratuitously gathered by ship-loads; yet such is the exhaustion of a stooping posture, and of a labor so monotonous, that everybody is soon glad to resign the service into mercenary hands.

The same idea, the same demand of a twofold conditio sine quâ non as essential to the composition of an exchange value, is otherwise expressed (and in a shape better fitted for subsequent reference) by the two following cases, marked Epsilon and Omicron:

Case Epsilon. A man comes forward with his overture, "Here is a thing which I wish you to purchase; it has cost me in labor five guineas, and that is the price I ask." 66 "Very well," you reply; "but tell me this, what desire or purpose of mine will the article promote?" Epsilon rejoins, "Why, as candor is my infirmity, none at all. But what of that? Useful or not, the article embodies five guineas' worth of excellent labor." This man, the candid Epsilon, you dismiss.

Case Omicron. - Him succeeds Omicron, who praises your decisive conduct as to the absurd family of the Epsilons. "That man," he observes, "is weak, — candid, but weak; for what was the cost in your eyes but so much toil to no effect of real service? But that is what nobody can say of the article offered by myself; it is serviceable always, nay, often you will acknowledge it to be indispensable." "What is it?" you demand. "Why simply, then, it is a pound of water, and as good water as ever you tasted." The scene lies in England, where water bears no value except under that machinery of costly arrangements which delivers it as a permanent and guar

anteed succession into the very chambers where it is to be used. Omicron accordingly receives permission to follow the candid Epsilon. Each has offered for sale one element of value out of two, one element in a state of insulation, where it was indispensable for any operative value, i. e. price, to offer the two in combination; and, without such a combination, it is impossible (neither does any economist deny this by his principles) that value in exchange, under the most romantic or imaginary circumstances, ever should be realized.

Thus far all is right; all is easy and all is harmonious; - thus far, no hair-splitter by profession can raise even a verbal quillet against so plain a movement of the understanding, unless it were by some such cavil as is stated below. It is in the next step that a difficulty arises, to all appearance insurmountable. It is a difficulty which seems, when stated, to include a metaphysical impossibility. You are required to do that which, under any statement, seems to exact a contradiction in terms. The demand is absolute and not to be evaded, for realizing an absurdity and extracting a positive existence out of a nonentity or a blank negation. To this next step, therefore, let us now proceed, after warning the reader that even Ricardo has not escaped the snare which is here spread for the understanding; and that, although a masculine good sense will generally escape in practice from merely logical perplexities, [that is, will cut the knot for all immediate results of practice which it cannot untie,] yet that errors "in the first intention" come round upon us in subsequent stages, unless they are met by their proper and commensurate solutions. Logic must be freed by logic: a false dialectical appearance of truth must be put down by the fullest exposure of the absolute and hidden truth, since also it will continually happen, (as it