THE CRAFTSMAN


   The false effort to be fine is so extensively
made in this country, as to be difficult to
censure and combat, and, it would seem,
almost impossible to annul. It is a signifi-
cant movement, apart from its harmful in-
fluence upon domestic art. Its moral effect
is still more perilous, and, taken as a whole,
it is a proof that the right to the enjoyment
of art is not, as many would have it to be, a
prerogative of the wealthy classes, but that
such enjoyment should be extended until it
become an integral part of every life.
   The effort to be fine takes its impulse
from envy, and this, as the poet Longfellow
has well said, is "the vice of republics;"
since under a government by the people, the
classes are less cohesive, less sharply defined,
and are subject to greater movement and
disturbance: large numbers of individuals
easily passing from the lower to the higher,
and large numbers of others who can not
accomplish this ascent, showing their dis-
content by ineffectual and foolish imitation
of those above them.
  With us the political principles in force


                 Number 4
are certainly those which are fitted to an
advanced and progressive form of civiliza-
tion. But as each human good has its
attendant and peculiar evils, so it should be
the duty of all men of good will, in whatever
class they may be situated, to whatever call-
ing they may be devoted, to lessen and
obviate these evils as far as may be.
  With this purpose in view, the illustra-
tions here presented have been chosen, as
examples of false art, no less than as indica-
tions of tendencies to be corrected, if the
masses of the people are to be educated for
their own happiness and for the public good.
By means of such examples, the craftsman
of a special branch can learn the principles
according to which his manual labor must


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