THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 29 



people's equivalent for the expensive feastings and revels of 

 the grandees was found in kirmesses and carnivals. The forced 

 sobriety of these uncultivated ages was interrupted by periodical 

 debauches. No thought was taken of comforts. Except for the 

 furnishings of the church and drinking vessels, there were few 

 things of beautiful finish. Fashions did not change ; there was no 

 elegance and no variety in daily personal life, and workmen's 

 wages were very small. Thus all was for display and nothing 

 for comfort, and waste of men and means was the rule. Very 

 different is the luxury of civilized, intelligent, and thoughtful 

 people, which looks more to the comfortable or to elegance and 

 artistic enjoyment than to magnificence and sumptuousness. It 

 includes and penetrates the whole life, and extends in different 

 degrees over all classes of the people. It is distinguished by the 

 use of an infinitely greater variety of goods, and for each kind 

 of an increasingly more considerable range of qualities. It 

 adapts itself to democratic habits, which it has contributed to 

 introduce. Instead of encumbering himself with a great number 

 of domestics, clients, and parasites the prosperous citizen has 

 around him only the number of people he requires for a good 

 and prompt service; while, on the other hand, he has at his 

 command independent outside workmen who develop into the 

 honored class of artisans. Together with the immense perma- 

 nent household installations, external distinctions and extensive 

 private establishments of all kinds are given up, their places 

 being supplied by those which may be used in common with the 

 public. 



The luxury of these prosperous and democratic periods 

 reaches in multiplied and infinite gradations all classes of the 

 people ; then, supplying itself with durable objects and perma- 

 nent arrangements, it becomes an accompaniment of the whole 

 life. Its great characteristic is variety and elegance in necessary 

 and usual objects. The extension of this luxury into all grades 

 of the population is aided by such technical knowledge as permits 

 the substitution of less costly goods for those which are more so, 

 whereby things formerly enjoyed only by the wealthy are put 

 within reach of persons of modest means : thus plate and white 

 metal take the place of silver ; electrotypes, of carved work ; 

 lithographs and photographs, of engravings and paintings ; and 

 figured papers, of tapestries. Cotton and silk mixed or silk waste 

 give the illusion of silk ; tulle and gauze, of lace. New sub- 

 stances, like nickel and aluminum, make it easy to possess 

 watches, clocks, and the like, elegant in appearance and yet 

 cheap. Improvements in the mechanic arts aid in this ; and 

 everything is imitated, even pearls and diamonds. There is 

 nothing immoral in this sort of luxury, which varies, brightens, 



