§ 2. 



ADVANTAGES OF TASTE. 171 



ful manner in which the Parisians manage to display their 

 goods, especially by means of colour. There can be no doubt 

 that the effect thus produced offers a wonderful allurement to 

 purchasers, and greatly promotes the sale of articles which 

 might have passed unnoticed without this judicious species of 

 recommendation ; for when objects look well together, each 

 acquires an increase of beauty, and offers an additional attrac- 

 tion ; and as arrangement is so great an element of success, it 

 is important that a manufacturing country like England should 

 possess the knowledge on which it depends. 



" The ancient prosperity of the Samians," as Mr. Wornum 

 observes, " is a remarkable instance of the great national be- 

 nefit to be derived from the judicious application of art to 

 manufactures. . . . The small island of Samos, by its potteries 

 alone, carried on an important trade with all the cities of the 

 Greek and Roman empires, and thus was enabled to compete, 

 in splendour and luxury, with the greatest states of the 

 ancient world. . . . The workers in metal and the painters 

 were equal in renown to the sculptors and architects of Samos. 

 All this magnificence was but the fruit of its industrial 

 ingenuity, its skilful ship-building, its enterprising com- 

 merce, its matchless potteries. The skill of its potters made 

 the very soil they trod upon more precious than gold. This 

 earthenware of Samos carried its commerce over every sea, to 

 every port, until its merchants became princes; and this small 

 island-state was conspicuous among the richest nations of the 

 world." But those who admired, and those who bought, that 

 pottery were fully alive to its beauties; and though it served 

 for common purposes, it was esteemed for its aesthetic merits. 



There is no reason why the humblest household object should 

 not be beautiful in proportion, form, and colour. Owing, how- 

 ever, to the deficiency of taste among those in England who 

 make articles of common use, and still more among those who 

 purchase and select them, it is rare to find any that are not 



