By way of illustrating Utility, Value and Price, one may say of a quantity of Wealth in the specific form of wheat, that it has Utility because it can be productively advanced to food or be used as seed for the production of more wheat and so of more food; that it has Value because its desirability is a subject of comparison with the desirability of other desirable things in Trade; and that it commands Price because it can pass from owner to owner through Trade in terms of Money. Or of Land in the specific form of a building-site, one may say that it has Utility, for it will afford natural support for the foundations of a dwelling or a store or a factory or a railroad right-of-way, and command the natural light and the air within its boundaries; that it has Value because it can be exchanged for other Land or for Artificial Objects; and that it has Price because Money or credit in Money terms may be had for it upon transfer in Trade. Yet a commodity may have the highest degree of Utility without having Value or commanding a Price; or it may have great Value and command a high Price though of little Utility. Let us observe here a difference in meaning, often ignored by advanced students, between the terms “utility” and desirableness. Thoughtfully considered, “utility” defines an absolute quality, whereas “desirableness” indicates a varying relationship. This obvious difference is often confused by such terms as “total utility” for Utility, and “marginal utility” for degrees of desirableness. For an example, the “total utility” of water is great, because by natural law man cannot live without water. Yet an abundant supply of water may reduce its “marginal utility” to zero. On the other hand, the “total utility” of diamonds is slight, whereas their “marginal utility,” due on the one hand to their scarcity and on the other to human vanity, is great. Such distinctions as “total utility” and “marginal utility” are nothing but subclassifications of Utility. They serve no better purpose for fundamental Economic study than the distinction which “utility” and “desirability” express without as much risk of confusing thought. Water, for example, is none the less useful because it is abundant, even though its abundance seems to lessen the desire for it relatively to desire for scarcer things. As to water, nothing is really lessened but desire relatively to supply. Nor does the scarcity of diamonds add an iota to their Utility. It adds only to the relative demand for them and therefore only to their Value in Trade. To repeat, then, the assertion made above, a commodity may have the highest degree of Utility without having Value or commanding a Price; or, it may have great Value and command a high Price though of little Utility.