LESSON LII. WHAT CONSTITUTES VALUE. 1. Gold and silver are the most convenient metals to use as money, because they take up but little room in proportion to their value. Hence they are called the precious metals. But why should gold and silver be of so much more value than iron? They are not nearly so useful. We should be very badly off without knives, and scissors, and spades, and hatchets; and these could not be made so well from anything as from iron; silver and gold would make very bad tools indeed. 2. To understand this, you must remember that it is not the most useful things that are of the most value. Nothing is more useful than air and water, without which we could not live; yet these are, in most places, of no value, in the proper sense of the word; that is, no one will give anything in exchange for them, because he can have them without. 3. In some places, indeed, water is scarce; and then people are glad to buy it. You may read in Scripture of many quarrels that arose about wells of water; because in some of the Eastern countries water is so scarce that a well is a very important possession. But water is not more useful in those places where people are glad to buy it than it is here, where, by the bounty of Providence, it is plentiful. It is the scarcity that gives it value. 4. Iron, where it is scarce, is also of great value; but in most countries this most useful of all metals, is also, through the goodness of Providence, the most plentiful. Still it is of some value; because it must be dug from the mines, and smelted in furnaces, and wrought into tools, before we can make use of it. If knives and nails were produced by nature ready made, and could be picked up everywhere like pebbles, they would be of no value, because every one might get them for nothing; but they would be just as useful as they are now. 5. Scarcity alone, however, would not make a thing valuable, if there were no reason why any one should desire to possess it. There are some kinds of stones which are scarce, but of no value, because they have neither use nor beauty. You would not give anything in exchange for such a stone; not because you can not easily get it, but because you have no wish for it. 6. But a stone which is scarce and very beautiful may be of great value, though it is of no use but to make an ornament for the person. Such are diamonds, and rubies, and many others. Many people will work hard to earn money enough to buy not only food and necessary clothing, but also laces, and jewels, and other articles of finery; and they desire these things the more, because, besides being beautiful to the eye, they are reckoned a sign of wealth in the person who wears them. 7. Whatever is of value, then, must not only be desirable for its use or beauty, or for some pleasure it affords, but it must also be scarce; that is, so limited in supply that it can not be had for nothing; and of all things which are desirable, those are the most valuable which are the most limited in supply, that is, hardest to be got. This is the reason that silver and gold are of more value than iron. If they had been of no use or beauty at all, no one would have ever desired them; but being desirable, they are of greater value than iron, because they are so much scarcer and harder to be obtained. 8. But besides being desirable and scarce, there is one quality more required for a thing to have value; or, in other words, to be such that something else may be had in exchange for it. It must be transferable, — that is, you must be able to part with it to another person. For instance, health is very desirable, and is what every one can not obtain, and hence we - sometimes speak of health as being of value; but this is not. the strict use of the word "value," for no one can give his health to another in exchange for something else. 9. The following questions will illustrate these elementary principles: Why is air not an article of value? Because, though it be very useful, it is to be had for nothing. Why is some scarce kind of stone, that is of no use or beauty, not an article of value? Because, though it be not a thing that every one can get, no one desires to get it. Why is a healthy constitution not an article of value? Because, though it be very desirable, and is not what every one can get, it is not transferable. Because it is, 10. Why is a spade an article of value? first, desirable, as being of use; secondly, limited-in supply,— that is, it is not what every one can have for nothing; and, thirdly, transferable, — that is, one person can part with it to another. Why is a silver spoon of more value than a spade? Because, though it be not more useful, it is more limited in supply, or harder to be obtained, on; account of the difficulty of working the mines of silver. 11. When anything that is desirable is to be had by labor, and can not be obtained without labor, of course we find men laboring to procure it; and things that are of very great value will usually be found to have cost great labor. This has led some persons to suppose that it is the labor which has been bestowed on anything that gives it value; but this is quite a mistake. 12. It is not the labor which anything has cost that causes it to sell for a higher price; but, on the contrary, it is its selling for a higher price that causes men to labor in order to procure it. For instance, fishermen go out to sea, and toil hard in the wet and cold to catch fish, because they can get a good price for them; but if a fisherman should work hard all night and catch but one small fish, while another had, perhaps, caught a thousand, by falling in with a shoal, the first would not be able to sell his one fish for the same price as the other could obtain for his thousand, though it would have cost him the same labor. And if a man, in eating an oyster, should chance to meet with a fine pearl, it would not sell for less than if he had been diving for it all day. 13. It is not, therefore, labor that makes things valuable, but their being valuable that makes them worth laboring for. And God, having judged in His wisdom that it is not good for man to be idle, has so appointed things by His providence, that few of the things that are most desirable can be obtained without labor. It is ordained that man should eat bread in the sweat of his face; and almost all the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life are obtained only by labor. Whately. 1. In an attic room in one of the poorer streets of London, little Pierre, a fatherless French boy, sat humming by the bedside of his sick mother. There was no bread in the closet, and during the whole day he had not tasted food. Yet he sat humming, to keep up his spirits, although at times, as he thought of his loneliness and poverty, he could scarcely keep the tears from his eyes; for he knew that nothing would be so grateful to his poor invalid mother as a good, sweet orange, and he had not a penny in the world with which to procure it. 2. The little song he was singing was his own composition, both music and words; for the child was a genius, a fervent worshiper at the shrine of music. As his voice would falter at his sad, sad thoughts, he did not dare to let his mother see his tears; so, hastily rising, he hurried to the window, and there watched a man putting up a great bill with large letters announcing that Madame Malibran would sing that night at the concert. 3. "O, if I could only go!" thought little Pierre. Then pausing a moment, he clasped his hands, his eyes lighted up with unwonted luster, and, running to the little stand, he smoothed down his hair, and, taking from the drawer some old, stained paper, gave one eager glance at his mother, who was sleeping peacefully, and ran swiftly from the house. 4. "Who did you say was waiting for me?" said the lady to her attendant. "I am already very tired, and do not wish to see company." "It is only a pretty little boy, with yellow curls, who says, if he can only see you, he is sure you will not be sorry, and he will not keep you a moment." "Well, let him come in," said the beautiful singer with a smile; "I can never refuse children." 5. Little Pierre entered, his cap under his arm, and in his hand a small roll of paper. With manliness very unusual in a child so young, he walked straight to the lady, and, bowing, said, "I have called to see you, because my mother is very ill, and we are too poor to get food and medicine; and I thought that, perhaps, if you would only sing one of my little songs at some of your grand concerts, I could sell it to a publisher, and so get a little money to buy what my poor sick mother so much needs." 6. The beautiful woman, tall and stately, rose from her chair, took the little roll from the boy's hand, and lightly hummed the air. "Did you compose this?" she asked, "you, a child! And the words, too? Would you like to come to my concert to-night?" she asked, after a few moments of thought. "O yes!" and the boy's eyes grew bright with happiness; "but I could n't leave my mother." |