50 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



with which he perceived the true law of what we term 

 Industrial Art, or, in other words, of the application of 

 the higher Art to Industry ; the law which teaches us 

 to aim first at giving to every object the greatest 

 possible degree of fitness and convenience for its pur- 

 pose, and next at making it the vehicle of the highest 

 degree of Beauty which, compatibly with that of fitness 

 and convenience, it will bear ; which does not substitute 

 the secondary for the primary end, but which re- 

 cognises, as part of the business of production, the study 

 to harmonise the two. To have a strong grasp of the 

 principle, and to work it out to its results in the details 

 of a vast and varied manufacture, is a praise high 

 enough for any man at any time and at any place. But 

 it was higher and more peculiar, as I think, in the 

 case of Wedgwood, than in almost any other case 

 it could be. For that truth of Art, which he saw 

 so clearly, and which lies at the root of excellence, 

 was one of which England, his country, has not usually 

 had a perception at all corresponding in strength and 

 fulness with her other rare endowments. She has long 

 taken a lead among the nations of Europe for the 

 cheapness of her manufactures : not so for their beauty. 

 And if the day shall ever come, when she shall be 

 as eminent in true taste, as she is now in economy 

 of production, my belief is that that result will prob- 

 ably be due to no other single man in so great a 

 degree as to Wedgwood." x 



1 Wedgwood : an Address, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 



