88 



PHANTOM FLOWERS. 



because tlie community is to be benefited, but because 

 it will be compelled to purchase largely. So also 

 with all processes throughout the range of human 

 wants. Each has its salable or commercial value. 

 But few inventors or philosophers originate or discover 

 solely for the public good. 



Applying these tests to the art Ave have illustrated, 

 it- would seem evident that it is wholly deficient in 

 commercial value. As an invention, it is not new. 

 As the common o:rain fan had been used for aj^es 

 in China, before the Dutch discovered it and trans- 

 planted it to their own country, Avhence it was sub- 

 sequently domesticated here, so the art of skeleton- 

 izing flowers had existed in Asia for centm-ies before 

 it became known in Europe. Like what is yet known 

 as the Dutch fan, which no sooner reached this 

 country than American ingenuity transformed it from 

 a sluggish and imperfect crudity into a rapid and 

 efficient machine, so this art, under the touch of 

 American taste and shrewdness, has been made to 

 take high rank among the most beautiful creations 

 of genius. But here the parallel ceases. Fans can 

 be manufactured by machinery, and every farmer 

 who produces grain must have one. They are arti- 

 cles of necessity, not gf luxury. Though there be 



