, 1882-02-24
WHAT is Luxury A?

The article Luke" in Yoltaire's Phil.
osophical Dictionary, begins: I'm a
country where everybody went bare
footed, was the first man who wore
a pair Of shoes luxurious? Was he not
a sensible and industrious fellow? May
not the same he said of him who had the
first shirt? As for him who had it
washed and ironed, | believe him to be
genius full Of resources and capable of
governing a State. Yet those who were
not accustomed to wear clean shirts
treated him as an etleminate aristocrat
who corrupted the nation The in
tended inference is met by NJ. Emile de
Leveaye, who defines luxury to be that
which destroys the product of many
DAYS of labor without bringing any
reasonable satisfaction. THAT queen OF
the ball is destroying in the whirls of the
waltz Il hounce Of lace worth 100000.
there goes the equivalent of 80, 900 hours
of toll destructive OF eyesight; and what
advantage has been drawn from t?"
But before coudemnlng the queen of the
ball let us see to how many others the
censure would apply. 1t has been COM
puted that gold and silver to the value
OF C2,5OO, 900 is annually consumed in
France for plates and ornaments, mostly
of the tinsel sort that are dis
played in the shops Of the Palais
Royal, and more than million of gold
for similar purposes in Birmingham. A
deputation of ribbon-weavers who came
up from Coventry full of the dig
nifty Of labor and the Importance of the
working man, were suddenly taken
aback by being reminded that the world
could do very well without ribbons. If
the thing is useless except as an orna
mont, the test matters nothing to the ar
gument, ami the beauty with her Ia ,e be-
longs to the same category as the servant
girl with her ribbon or the shop boy
this advantage: she has indirac tly CON
tributed to the production Of delicate
work OF art, and all enlightened utilita-
riaus will allow that whatever gives
pleasure to cultivated taste falls fairly
within the domain Of utility. If we give
up lace we must give up diamonds and
pearls. Sevres china, Venetian glass,
and the choicest specimens OF the gold
smiths work, the masterpieces of Ben
yenuto Cellini.
It is only step further to statues and
pictures, and the bare suggestion is
enough to alarm M. BaudrilLart for his
countrymen: Deprive this French
rack Of these 'inutilities,' deprive it of
silk to be replaced by cotton, take away
the statues, the pictures, the marbles,
the bronzes, the velyets, tie trinkets--
those thousand objects of every kind,
woven, spun, plated, embroiderel by
fairy fngers-and you take from il its
employment, its revenue, its power, its
instruction, the better part of
ITSELF" If, he might have added,
we are to keep to the solid and
material; if the fancy, the sense of
beauty, grace and elegance are never to
be addressed, the higher faculties will
grow torpid for disuse, the mind will
dwiudle and degenerate, and intellectual
progress will be arrested or flung back.
"Race without wants, race without
ideas" The rival systems are well rep
resented by Athens and Sparta. Who
thinks of Sparta when we speak of
Greece? What has Sparta done for the
world, and what would the world be
without what it owes to Athens? "a
thing of beauty is n JOY forever" and the
creations of the age of Pericles are
lasting boon of inestimable value to
mankind.- Quarterly Review.