MR. GLADSTONE'S ESTIMATE OF WEDGWOOD. 137 



would find in them little space for the application of his 

 principles. But while all the objects of trade and manufacture 

 admit of fundamental differences in point of fitness and 

 unfitness, probably the major part of them admit of funda- 

 mental differences also in point of beauty or of ugliness. 

 Utility is not to be sacrificed for beauty, but they are 

 generally compatible, often positively helpful to each other ; 

 and it may be safely asserted, that the periods, when the 

 study of beauty has been neglected, have usually been 

 marked, not by a more successful pursuit of utility, but by a 

 general decline in the energies of man." 



And again he most characteristically remarks, " It would 

 be quite unnecessary to dwell on the excellencies of such of 

 the works of Wedgwood as belong to the region of fine 

 art, strictly so called, and are not, in the common sense, 

 commodities for use. To these all the world does justice. 

 Suffice it to say, in general terms, that they may be con- 

 sidered partly as imitations, partly as reproductions of Greek 

 art. As imitations they carry us back to the purest source. 

 As reproductions they are not limited to the province of 

 their originals, but are conceived in the general and free 

 spirit and soaring of that with which they claim relation- 

 ship. But it is not in happy imitation, it is not in the 

 successful presentation of works of fine art, that, as I con- 

 ceive, the speciality of Wedgwood really lies. It is in the 

 resuscitation of a principle, the principle of Greek art ; it 

 is in the perception and grasp of the unity and comprehen- 

 siveness of that principle. That principle, I submit, lies 

 after all in a severe and perfect propriety ; in the uncom- 

 promising adaptation of every material object to its proper 

 end. If that proper end be the representation of beauty 

 only, then the production of beauty is alone regarded ; and 

 none but the highest models of it are accepted. If the proper 

 end be the production of a commodity for use, and perish- 

 able, then a plural aim is before the designer and producer. 

 The object must first and foremost be adapted to its use as 

 closely as possible ; it must be of material as durable as 



