_Phil_. I shall be brief. The case of the hat is what I stand upon; and, by the way, I am much obliged to you, X., for having stated the question in that shape; it has furnished me with a very manageable formula for recalling the principle at issue. The wages alter from two different causes--in one case, because there is the same quantity of labor at a different rate; in another case, because there is a different quantity at the same rate. In the latter case, it is agreed that the alteration settles upon price; in the former case you affirm that it will _not_: I affirm that it will. I bring an argument to prove it; which argument you attempt to parry by another. But in this counter argument of yours it strikes me that there lurks a _petitio principii_. Indeed, I am sure of it. For observe the course of our reasoning. I charge it upon your doctrine as an absurd consequence-- that, if the increase of wages must be paid out of profits, then this fund will at length be eaten out; and as soon as it is, there will be no fund at all for paying any further increase; and the production must cease. Now, what in effect is your answer? Why, that as soon as profits are all eaten up, the production _will_ cease. And this you call reducing me to an absurdity. But where is the absurdity? Your answer is, in fact, an identical proposition; for, when you say, "_As soon as_ profits are absorbed," I retort, Ay, no doubt "_as soon_" as they are; but when will that be? It requires no Ricardo to tell us that, _when_ profits are absorbed, they will be absorbed; what I deny is, that they ever _can_ be absorbed. For, as fast as wages increase, what is to hinder price from increasing _pari passu_? In which case profits will _never_ be absorbed. It is easy enough to prove that price will not increase, if you may assume that profits will not remain stationary. For then you have assumed the whole point in dispute; and after _that_, of course you have the game in your own hands; since it is self-evident that if anybody is made up of two parts P and W, so adjusted that all which is gained by either must be lost by the other, then _that_ body can never increase. _Phæd_. Nor decrease. _Phil_. No, nor decrease. If my head must of necessity lose as much weight as my trunk gains, and _vice versa_, then it is a clear case that I shall never be heavier. But why cannot my head remain stationary, whilst my trunk grows heavier? This is what you had to prove, and you have not proved it. _Phæd_. O! it's scandalous to think how he has duped us; his "_reductio_" turns out to the merest swindling.