234 
On Value. 
[Aug. 
And now let us proceed to the enquiry into the nature 
OF VALUE. 
Man cannot exist without food-without water— without air. ^ All these bodies 
are of vital importance to him, as well as many more, to which it is needles i P ' 
ticularly to advert ; and in the event of his being reduced to extremity, fi on e 
want of any one of these, he must be fully disposed to make the greatest possible 
exei'tions for the possession of that which is deficient. . . . . 
Man can have but one opinion regarding the exertion he makes in obtaining . y 
acquisition. It is, in the first instance, a sacrifice of the ease which attends re- 
pose: and its continuance amounts to actual pain ; the constitution ot t ie > uma 
body insures this ; for it is only capable of making limited exertions, and ot sus- 
taining continued efforts for a very limited time. , 
Before man voluntarily exerts himself in any acquisition, the gratification the 
exertion is calculated subsequently to realize, must, in his opinion, be more than 
sufficient to counterbalance the sacrifice submitted to in obtaining it. He must 
compare, and balance in his mind, before he proceeds to action, the one against 
the other; and that which preponderates, he must reckon the most desirable o 
the two. To the apprehension of man, the voluntary acquisition of certain bodies, 
possessed of certain qualities, must appear of more importance, than the sacrifice 
by which they are obtainable. By his physical constitution, and by the circum- 
stances in which he is placed on earth, a necessity is created for h is continually 
making this comparison ; and from the same causes, the result ot the comparison 
must, in the great majority of cases, be in favor of the possession ; and hence the 
existence of the idea of a value attaching to such possessions, superior to some- 
thing with which man, as a moral agent, is conversant — to which a mental re- 
ference is readily made ; but which is not present to any of his outward senses. 
Value then is not, strictly speaking, a quality existing in any substance, there 
is nothing in the world inevitably or inherently possessed of such a quality; to 
which, as* to an outward and visible standard, all else may be referred, but it is 
an affection of the mind of man, which inevitably must arise, in connection with 
certain classes of bodies, in all the ordinary circumstances in which he is to be 
found. , 
But although, metaphysically treated, there he no such quality in bodies as 
value; still, as there must ever arise a perception of value, m connection with 
certain bodies, on which man’s existence is dependent; it may not, in oi din.irv 
discourse, lead to error, to treat of the inevitable concomitant, as if it really 
existed in that with which it is ever found conjoined. It may justly he said vir- 
tually to exist there ; and I propose, therefore, for tl\e purpose of avoiding circum- 
locution, to substitute the one for the other; and to treat of value, as if inhering in 
the class of bodies already pointed out. 
The objections being thus disposed of, which might be started against treating 
an affection of the mind of the moral agent, as it it were a property existing in the 
body which gives rise to the affection in question ; we may proceed in the enquiry. 
From w hat lias been said it must be obvious, that it is the value virtually inher- 
ing in the body, which calls forth the exertion to which man voluntarily submits m 
obtaining that body ; and hence we arrive at the following conclusions, directly 
opposed to all existing theories on the subject ; that in place of labour being t £ 
cause of the existence of value, it is the previous existence of value, which is the 
original cause of the exhibition of labour, or of any exertion of what kind soever; 
and that the original source of value in any body, is not to be sought in the labour 
which man may be ready to offer in acquiring that body, but in his entire depen- 
dence (as God has been pleased to constitute and dispose of him,) on such bodies 
as we have now had under consideration. 
If the necessity for all such bodies as the above be equally great, the scanners 
to which man must be willing to submit, for obtaining any one of them, must he 
equally great also ; and as a voluntary sacrifice implies, of necessity, that tie 
thing sought for is held in higher estimation than the thing sacrificed to obtain 
t; it follows, that the values of all these must be equally great also. The eq 1M 
" alue to man, of air, and water, and food, 1 take, therefore, to be established. u 
the circumstances under which lie is placed, with regard to the last mentioned o 
these, being widely different from those under which he is placed with regard o 
the others ; it behoves us particularly to attend to this difference ; for the one, 
we find in practice, to constitute the primary basis of ali wealth whatsoever; fib' 6 
the others come not under that denomination. 
