MORALS OF LUXURY. 671 



remarkable power. "When public opinion inclines toward virtue, it 

 may become a stimulant for good, but will lead to luxury and corrup- 

 tion among a public adoring riches. 



Vanity, and the love of dress that it engenders, which are very 

 marked with the savage who tattooes before he clothes himself, become 

 refined among civilized men and in the fashionable world, and are tem- 

 pered and turned in a better direction as culture is developed and the 

 rule of good sense becomes more influential. Formerly men, like wo- 

 men, wore bright goods, galoons, lace, jewels ; but, since the beginning 

 of this century, civilized nations have adopted the black coat of Eng- 

 land ; it has come to be regarded as in bad taste for a man to display 

 jewels, and simplicity, carefulness, and extreme propriety are regarded 

 as constituting the whole of masculine elegance. Women, however, 

 continue to bore their ears to put rings in them, and seek to adorn 

 themselves with trinkets of glass and metal. How may we cure this 

 infirmity, inherited from primitive barbarism ? John Stuart Mill has 

 pointed out the way by suggesting that when woman is trained to 

 occupy herself with affairs of the mind, she will, like modern man, 

 cease to take pleasure in gewgaws. Christianity has already worked 

 miracles in this direction among the Quakers and in convents : why 

 may it not, in alliance with the culture of the reason and the sentiment 

 of justice, do more ? 



The kind of luxury that has its roots in sensual seeking is harder 

 to contend against than that which arises from vanity, because it com- 

 pels us to deal with enjoyments which are real though wholly super- 

 ficial. On this point M. Baudrillart remarks that as matter is finite 

 by its nature, sensuality is limited in its capacities. Man, however, 

 deludes himself into believing that this is not the case. It seems to 

 him that no enjoyment procures for him the gratification it ought to 

 give ; so, when he has exhausted one, he craves another pleasure. The 

 refinements become nicer, and new ones are demanded. Dearness 

 heightens the enjoyment by adding to the charm of an object agree- 

 able in itself the piquant relish of a difficulty overcome. We may give 

 all real satisfaction to the senses without excessive expenditure. The 

 extravagant cost is occasioned by the desire to shine, ostentatiousness, 

 to which there are no limits. It was not in mere sensuality that Cleo- 

 patra swallowed a pearl, and Heliogabalus ate a dish of nightingales' 

 tongues. Progress in the arts of production may bring us abundance 

 of all that is useful ; but, if the object is to distinguish ourselves from 

 others, it is necessary to consume, at any price, what is dear and rare. 



The third source of luxury is the instinct for adornment, which, as 

 M. Baudrillart well says, must not be confounded with ostentatious- 

 ness, even when that finds its only expression in it, or with sensuality, 

 even when it ministers to it. It is primitive with man, for the prehis- 

 torical cave-dwellers carved on pieces of bone the figures of the rein- 

 deer and beavers that lived in the land in their times. Cultivated and 



