THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 31 



be extravagant ; but nearly all these people, servants and farmers, 

 save ; and a little luxury in their lives does no great harm. By 

 virtue of the blending of these shades of luxury between one 

 social stratum and another, the difference in the lives of men of 

 the several classes is much less as to the real enjoyments they are 

 all able to procure than as to the cost of what they possess. 



External luxury is becoming less conspicuous. There are no 

 more gilded carriages with footmen and outriders, except to 

 mark the state of ambassadors. The simple carriages now in 

 use, however elegant their forms may be and handsome the 

 horses that draw them, are otherwise as democratic in appear- 

 ance, without showy harness decorations or extraneous orna- 

 ments, as the old-fashioned post chaises. 



Judicious investment in luxury constitutes a kind of revenue 

 fund for emergencies and times of need. This is true for all 

 classes and for the whole nation. Jewels, pretty pieces, tapes- 

 tries, pictures, and choice collections may be sold in periods of 

 misfortune without loss. Even among those in more moderate 

 circumstances the watch, the chain, the clock, and the cheap 

 jewels are adequate to procure in days of distress or illness, if 

 not much, something that could not be had otherwise. 



Such luxury as this, far from being immoral and deleterious, 

 is legitimate, commendable, and useful, provided that with it 

 allowance is made from the income for future emergencies, and 

 for saving. 



Quite different is it with the luxury of periods of decay and 

 of corrupt classes ; for morbid social groups may exist even in a 

 country generally sound. This luxury becomes immoral and un- 

 intelligent when, instead of responding to natural and normal 

 physical and intellectual wants, it consists solely in the seeking 

 for costly pleasures and objects simply because they are costly, in 

 systematic waste, and in the single satisfaction of an extrava- 

 gant vanity. These features of social life were marked among 

 the wealthy classes of the Roman Empire, but appear only in 

 individual examples and a few narrow circles in modern life. It 

 is not by such eccentricities, which have become rare among 

 modern peoples, that luxury is to be judged. As we have de- 

 scribed it, it is impossible to condemn it. Regarded in a general 

 aspect, and apart from its abuses, luxury is one of the principal 

 agents of human progress. Mankind has it to thank for nearly 

 everything which to-day adorns and embellishes life, and for a 

 large proportion of what makes life more pleasant and whole- 

 some. It is the father of the arts. Neither painting nor sculp- 

 ture nor music, nor their popular accompaniments, could ever 

 have become so greatly developed and so widely diffused in a 

 society that had declared war on luxury. 



