Ti 



solid wealth, and surely there is room here for its further use in the 

 advancement of literature and science, of history and the arts. I have 

 no notion that undue luxury prevails here. Indeed, I do not admire 

 asceticism, and dare not inveigh against luxury. It must he injurious to 

 the sensualist and the sybarite equally with the man, if such a man 

 there be, who, not content with the due enjoyment of it makes beauty 

 the subject of his worship. Such men seem to me miserable cum- 

 berers of the ground. But in the luxury of the rich I cannot but 

 recognize a great source of public income, a stimulus to invention, a 

 patron of the beautiful arts, a wide incentive to industry and a pro- 

 moter of varied and honorable labor. Then, too, we must remember 

 that it is a cause as well as the fruit of commerce — com merce that tends 

 so strongly to the unification of the nations by making them interde- 

 pendent, to the interblending of races and the introduction of uni- 

 versal peace. We must remember, too, that what many years ago 

 were the luxuries of the wealthy have become common comforts and 

 enjoyments of all our people. Indeed, the tendency of commerce, 

 though it heap up wealth unequally, is to diffuse truth and pleasure 

 and produce equality. I approve, while I do not envy, that luxury which 

 consists in drawing unto itself the richest productions of the sculptor, 

 the painter, and all the creators of beauty; that finds delight in the 

 softest furniture, in the commodiousness and fit decoration of its 

 habitations, in the perfection of its grounds, and in the aesthetic 

 wealth of its possession ; but I love the liberality of the possessor who 

 makes those possessions fruitful by sharing their enjoyment with or 

 giving them to the public. 



But is there not something very noble in that ode of Horace [12, 

 Book 2], in which he deprecates the luxury of his age, and concludes, 

 in fervid indignation by reminding them of the simplicity of living, 

 and the public spirit of previous ages : 



" Non ita Ropiuli Prmcriptum et intend Catonis Au»picin veterumque norma" etc. 

 " Not thus did Romulus command ; 



