3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and embellishes life, and incites the man to better care of his 

 house and his person. It is, rather, a motive of good economical 

 and domestic habits. And it promotes a kind of saving. A man 

 who will not lay up for old age will save money to buy a gold 

 watch or a chain, or nice furniture. Fondness for variety is one 

 of the characteristic traits of the luxury of intelligent and pros- 

 perous peoples. Variety in food, clothing, furnishings, and in 

 amusements is an excellent stimulant to industry, a preventive 

 of enervation of man's mind. It is likewise one of the most 

 vital needs of human nature, one of the legitimate charms of 

 life. The luxury of industrious and prosperous peoples is pre- 

 dominantly exhibited in the dwelling and the furniture. It cre- 

 ates permanent establishments that make life more pleasant. It 

 transforms the house from a simple shelter into a commodious 

 and pleasant mansion, beautified and vivified with numerous and 

 interesting objects. Herein lies the inappreciable benefit of 

 national modern luxury. This it is that has divided up the 

 house according to the various wants and conveniencies for 

 which it is intended to provide. The result is a more becoming, 

 more private, and more independent daily life for each of the 

 members of the family, as well as a more hygienic regime. The 

 example spreads from the upper to all the social classes. The 

 house becomes the center of man's efforts to embellish. Many 

 bad habits and many vices are abandoned. It is a general opinion 

 that whenever the workman shall have a sufficiently ample abode, 

 diversified and adorned, the family life will retain more attrac- 

 tions and the saloon will lose them. 



While modern taste expends liberally on the construction, 

 furnishing, and decoration of the house, it encourages sobriety 

 in the wardrobe. It is one of its characteristics that it makes 

 itself compatible with civil equality and with fraternity in social 

 relations, colliding with them in nothing. The dress of the men 

 bears witness to this. Men are no longer to be seen, as Henry IV 

 of France used to say, "wearing their mills and their forest 

 estates on their backs." Lace, in sleeves and frills, formerly 

 habitual with middle-class people, has long been left off by the 

 men, and there is no prospect of its returning. Who, when he 

 looks at an assembly of two or three hundred men, including 

 representatives of all classes, from the highest to the most mod- 

 est, can tell from their dress which are the wealthy ones ? It is 

 true that women still indulge in these little extravagances ; but 

 this does not prove that the majority of the rich expend more 

 now upon dress than those similarly situated have done during 

 the past three or four hundred years. We complain that maids 

 wish to be dressed like their mistresses, farm-servants like the 

 farmers' wives, and these like the landlords' wives. A few may 



