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Phil
. X. is perfectly right in his distinction. You know, Phaedrus, or you soon will know, that I differ from X. altogether on the choice between the two laws: he contends that the value of all things is determined by the quantity of the producing labor; I, on the other hand, contend that the value of all things is determined by the value of the producing labor. Thus far you will find us irreconcilable in our difference; but this very difference implies that we are agreed on the distinction which X. is now urging. In fact, so far are the two formulae from presenting merely two different expressions of the same law, that the very best way of expressing negatively Mr. Ricardo’s law (namely, A is to B in value as the quantities of the producing labor) would be to say, A is not to B in value as the values of the producing labor.

Phed
. Well, gentlemen, I suppose you must be right; I am sure you are by the logic of kings, and “according to the flesh;” for you are two to one. Yet, to my poor glimmering understanding, which is all I have to guide me in such cases, I must acknowledge that the whole question seems to be a mere dispute about words.

X
. For once, Phaedrus, I am not sorry to hear you using a phrase which in general is hateful to my ears. “A mere dispute about words” is a phrase which we hear daily; and why? Is it a case of such daily occurrence to hear men disputing about mere verbal differences? So far from it, I can truly say that I never happened to witness such a dispute in my whole life, either in books or in conversation; and indeed, considering the small number of absolute synonymes which any language contains, it is scarcely possible that a dispute on words should arise which would not also be a dispute about ideas (that is, about realities). Why, then, is the phrase in every man’s mouth, when the actual occurrence must be so very uncommon? The reason is this, Phaedrus: such a plea is a “sophisma pigri intellectus,” which seeks to escape from the effort of mind necessary for the comprehending and solving of any difficulty under the colorable pretext that it is a question about shadows, and not about substances, and one therefore which it is creditable to a man’s good sense to decline; a pleasant sophism this, which at the same time flatters a man’s indolence and his vanity. For once, however, I repeat that I am not sorry to hear such a phrase in your mouth, Phaedrus: I have heard it from you before; and I will frankly tell you that you ought to be ashamed of such a plea, which is becoming to a slothful intellect, but very unbecoming to yours. On this account, it gives me pleasure that you have at length urged it in a case where you will be obliged to abandon it. If that should happen, remember what I have said; and resolve never more to shrink effeminately from the toil of an intellectual discussion under any pretence that it is a verbal dispute. In the present case, I shall drive you out of that conceit in less time than it cost you to bring it forward. For now, Phaedrus, answer me to one or two little questions which I will put. You fancy that between the expressions “quantity of producing labor” and “value of producing labor” there is none but a verbal difference. It follows, therefore, that the same effect ought to take place whether the value of the producing labor be altered or its quantity.

Phed
. It does.

X
. For instance, the production of a hat such as mine has hitherto cost (we will suppose) four days’ labor, at three shillings a day: now, without any change whatsoever in the quantity of labor required for its production, let this labor suddenly increase in value by twenty-five per cent. In this case, four days’ labor will produce a hat as heretofore; but the value of the producing labor being now raised from three shillings a day to three shillings and nine pence, the value of the total labor necessary for the production of a hat will now be raised from twelve shillings to fifteen shillings. Thus far, you can have nothing to object?