to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never
enters into our estimate of advantages. And all the evil to which that cry is
urging our myriads can be met only in one way: not by teaching nor preaching,
for to teach them is but to show them their misery, and to preach to them, if
we do nothing more than preach, is to mock at it. It can be met only by a right
understanding, on the part of all classes, of what kinds of labour are good for
men, raising them, and making them happy; by a determined sacrifice of such
convenience, or beauty, or cheapness as is to be got only by the degradation
of the workman; and by equally determined demand for the products and
results of healthy and ennobling labour. And how, it will be asked, are these products to be recognized, and this
demand to be regulated? Easily: by the observance of three broad and simple
rules:
1. Never encourage the manufacture of any article not absolutely necessary, in the production of which Invention has no share.
2. Never demand an exact finish for its own sake, but only for some practical or noble end.
3. Never encourage imitation or copying of any kind, except for the sake of preserving record of great works. The second of these principles is the only one which directly rises out of
the consideration of our immediate subject; but I shall briefly explain the
meaning and extent of the first also, reserving the enforcement of the third
for another place.
1. Never encourage the manufacture of anything not necessary, in the production of which invention has no share.
For instance. Glass beads are utterly unnecessary, and there is no design or
thought employed in their manufacture. They are formed by first drawing out
the glass into rods; these rods are chopped up into fragments of the size of
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THE STONES OF VENICE / 1331
beads by the human hand, and the fragments are then rounded in the furnace.
The men who chop up the rods sit at their work all day, their hands vibrating
with a perpetual and exquisitely timed palsy, and the beads dropping beneath
their vibration like hail. Neither they, nor the men who draw out the rods or
fuse the fragments, have the smallest occasion for the use of any single human
faculty; and every young lady, therefore, who buys glass beads is engaged in
the slave trade, and in a much more cruel one than that which we have so
long been endeavouring to put down.6 But glass cups and vessels may become the subjects of exquisite invention;
and if in buying these we pay for the invention, that is to say for the beautiful
form, or color, or engraving, and not for mere finish of execution, we are doing
good to humanity.
So, again, the cutting of precious stones, in all ordinary cases, requires little
exertion of any mental faculty; some tact and judgment in avoiding flaws, and
so on, but nothing to bring out the whole mind. Every person who wears cut
jewels merely for the sake of their value is, therefore, a slave driver.
But the working of the goldsmith, and the various designing of grouped
jewelry and enamel-work, may become the subject of the most noble human
intelligence. Therefore, money spent in the purchase of well-designed plate,
of precious engraved vases, cameos, or enamels, does good to humanity; and,
in work of this kind, jewels may be employed to heighten its splendor; and
their cutting is then a price paid for the attainment of a noble end, and thus
perfectly allowable. I shall perhaps press this law farther elsewhere, but our immediate concern
is chiefly with the second, namely, never to demand an exact finish, when it
