In chapter II, the distinction between "absolute and relative values," or, in our present phrase, between values and prices, was sufficiently indicated not to need further elaboration here. The relation between them was made clear--the absolute value must first exist before the price, which is the expression of the value of a good in terms of some other valuable object which is chosen as a measure, can be determined. In fact, _two_ values, the value of the good measured, and the value of the good which is to serve as the measure, must first exist, as absolute quantities, before a price-ratio can be made between them, and their "relative values" shown. In the chapter on the psychology of value, the notion of price was generalized, and we spoke of the price measure of values of non-economic sort. This notion is one of very general application and one of significance for the whole realm of social and psychical phenomena: not merely where the question of exchanging economic goods is involved, but wherever choice among alternative goods, or courses of action, or men, or institutions, or works of art, or other objects of value, is necessary, we _compare_ them with each other, we _measure_ them by each other, we _price_ them in terms of each other. We arrange them in _scales_ of value, or in series, seeing which is higher and which lower. Where only two goods are involved, we may call either the measure, depending on the point of view. But where many goods are to be compared, it is highly convenient to pick out some one as the common measure of all, so that they may be reduced to common terms. For measuring economic goods, money is, of course, the standard, or common measure _par excellence_, for most purposes. If we are measuring the value of the political institutions of various countries, we usually take the institutions of our own country, with which we are most familiar, as the common measure or standard. Or, in measuring the moral systems, or the literary masterpieces, of other countries, we again find those of our own people the most convenient standard. But it is significant of the correctness of our general point of view that values of different species may be measured in terms of each other. _Money_, in particular, is a very general measure, which may serve for many values outside the economic sphere. Thus, I have pointed out how legal values may be measured in terms of money, as when the fine for one offense is five dollars, and that for another twenty-five. Gabriel Tarde[204] points out that by comparing the theatre receipts of theatres representing different dramatic schools we may compare the vogues of each, or that by comparing the income of the clergy in different periods we may get some index of the variations of religious sentiments. He suggests that while money as a measure of economic values usually functions in exchange, it may, as a measure of beliefs or other social forces, function through gifts, through popular