of ordinary existence, all that goes to make up the
daily life of the masses, is coarse and rudimentary. These shawls,
which, for fineness of texture, richness of color, and beauty of design,
leave the choicest productions of European looms at an immeasurable
distance; these muslins and gauzes, finer than gossamer, yet covered
with exquisite traceries in gold and silver thread, fabrics that seem
too etherially light to be worn by others than the ladies of Titania's
court; these silks and satins, and damasks of admirable texture, and of
richest dyes; these magnificent garments, stiff gold embroidery, with
precious stones and with tinsel whose glancing hues produce an effect
quite as brilliant as that of the jewels; how strangely they contrast,
these splendid things intended for the few, with the coarseness of the
fabrics destined for the ordinary use of the many. Compare these
magnificent housings and accoutrements, these saddles of velvet, stiff
with gold, these reins, and swords and daggers, full of pearls and
jewels, with those clumsy implements of labor, and those uncouth, heavy
utensils of domestic life. Compare the elaborate workmanship of screens,
cabinets, vases, lamps, and tables, with the primitive candles and
suspicious-looking soaps; the magnificence of carriages and palanquins,
luxuriously cushioned, and hung with velvet and gold, in which lazy,
bloated grandees are lounging, laden with jewels and finery, with the
naked, emaciated bearers, human brutes that replace beasts of burden,
and contrast, unfavorably, with average European horses!

In European industry, on the contrary, an ascentional, out-reaching
movement is every where visible. Beauty remains no longer in scornful
isolation, divorced from use, but descending into the domain of
every-day existence, incorporates her divine essence in all the forms of
common life, pervading the lowliest spheres, raising and ennobling the
humblest details, by her purifying and vivifying presence. This
tendency, visible in the industry of all European nations, is still more
clearly evident in the manufactures of France and England, whose
productions, standing at the head of all others, constitute the highest
expression of the industrial spirit of the age. Here the hardest and
heaviest materials, wood, iron, and stone, become plastic under the
workman's hand, assuming the most brilliant polish, the lightest and
most elegant forms; grates, fire-irons, and kitchen-ranges,