12mo) : — La vi-aie Philosojjkie, 'pavVAhh&M (Brux-
elles and Par. 1774, 8vo), a work directed against the phi- losophy of the Encyclopaedists, and particularly against Le Systeme de la Nature, and published by Needham. " In order to gain an idea of La vraie Pkilosophie," says a reviewer, " we should not permit ourselves to be re- pelled by the violent declamations and bad taste pre- sented by each page, above all in the preface, nor by the indecision of the plan and the disorder in the suc- cession of ideas which result from it. The doctrine which it contains is an experimental and eclectical spir- itualism, equally distant from the theory of innate ideas and from the S3'stem of transformed sensation, but where Cartesianism occupies the greatest place." After having placed sensations and sentiments in the heart, Monestier analyzes reason, which he divides into prim- itive ideas (ideas of unity, being, time, space, affirma- tion, negation, with the axioms of geometry and mor- als), the faculty of generalizing and abstracting, the idea of the infinite, and the faculties of induction and reasoning. The idea of the infinite, imprinted as it is on all nature's work, attests to us the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, at the same time that VI.— H H
it instructs us in regard to our own destiny. The au- thor closes by a discussion of free will. See Diet, des Sciences 2^hilos, iv, 289-291, s. v. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v,
Moneta, an Italian theologian and member of the order of the Dominicans at Cremona, flourished in the 13th century. He was, before entering the order, pro- fessor in the University of Bologna. He was noted for his sense and his zeal against the false teachers of his time. He died about 1240. Moneta left a Summa con- tra Catharos et Waldenses (Rome, 1643). He is also supposed to be the author of Compendium logicce propter minus eruditos. See Arisius, Cremona literata ; Echard, Bibliotheca Prcedicatorum (Paris, 1719-31, 2 vols, fol.), i, 122 — Wetzer u.Welte, Kirchen-Lexihon, xii, 800,807.
Money (Heb. ClO?, ke'seph, silver, as often rendered, Chald. t]03, Icesaph', Gr. apyvpiov, silver, or a piece of silver, as often rendered; also Kipjia, coin, i. q. vojuaiia, lit. a standard of valuation ; x<^^i^oq, brass, as some- times rendered ; and XP^1F<^^ l>t. whatever is used in ex- change). In the present article we shall confine our attention to the consideration of the subject in general, leaving the discussion of particular coins for the special head of Numismatics. The value of the coins is a rel- ative thing, depending, with respect to the several pieces and kinds of metal, in part upon the ascertained weight (i. e. intrinsic value, for which see METnoLOCJv), and in part upon the interchange of the mintage of va- rious ages and countries prevalent in Palestine (i. e. cur- rent value; see Coin); but, in point of fact, still more upon the depreciation of the precious metals as a stand- ard of value in comparison with purchasable articles, arising from the fluctuating balance of supply and de- mand (i. e. mercantile value). In the following discus- sion we make large use of the articles in Kitto's and Smith's Dictionaries.
I. Non-metallic Currency. — Different commodities have been used as money in the primitive state of soci- ety in all countries. Those nations which subsist by the chase, such as the ancient Kussians and the greater part of the North American Indians, use the skins of the animals killed in hunting as money (Storch, Traite d'Lconomie Politique, tome i). In a pastoral state of society cattle are chiefly used as money. Thus, ac- cording to Homer, the armor of Diomede cost nine oxen, and that of Glaucus one hundred (Iliad, vi, 235). The etymology of the Latin word pecimia, signifying money, and of all its derivatives, affords sufficient evi- dence that cattle (pecus) were the first money of the Komans. They were also used as money by the Ger- mans, whose laws fix the amount of penalties for par- ticular offences to be paid in cattle (Storch, I. e.). In agricultural countries corn would be used in remote ages as money, and even at the present day it is not unusual to stipulate for corn rents and wages. Various commodities have been and are still used in different countries. Smith mentions salt as the common money of Abj'ssinia (Wealth of Nations, i, 4). A species of cyprcea, called the cou-ry, gathered on the shores of the Maldive Islands, and of which 6400 constitute a rupee, is used in making small payments throughout India, and is the only money of certain districts in Africa. Dried fish forms the money of Iceland and Newfound- land; sugar of some of the West India Islands; and among the first settlers in America corn and tobacco were used as money (Holmes's A7nerican Annals). Smith mentions that at the time of the publication of the Wealth of Nations there was a village in Scotland where it was customary for a workman to carry nails as money to the baker's shop or the alehouse (i, 4).
II. Bullion as a. Circulating Medium. — 1. A long pe- riod of time must have intervened between the first in- troduction of the precious metals into commerce and their becoming generally used as money. The peculiar qualities which so eminently fit them for this purpose would only be gradually discovered. They would prob-