n pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever
constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of
silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage
were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a
real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however,
that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with
mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined
and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal,
rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence
with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are,
however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners,
tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single
stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly
reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a
young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed
him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for
matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply
the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is
excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture.
The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one
of which the pair of lovers make use.

The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing,
the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost
everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for
thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of aesthetic, is
surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left
vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the
talents--those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they
day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly
acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to
produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this
difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure
nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural
rivals, but for a society different from his own--on mutual terms, but
that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an
almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to