munication, that they are no longer the decisive marks of
enlightenment in a people that they were when each nation had the
benefit of its own discoveries, and little more. Yet it is worthy of
remark what kinds of improvement are the most generally adopted; whether
those which enhance the luxury of the rich, or such as benefit the whole
society. It is worthy of remark whether the newest delight is in
splendid club-houses, where gentlemen may command the rarest luxuries at
a smaller expense than would have been possible without the aid of the
principle of economy of association, or in the groups of mechanics'
dwellings, where the same principle is applied in France to furnishing
numbers with advantages of warmth, light, cookery, and cleanliness,
which they could no otherwise have enjoyed. It is worth observing
whether there are most mechanical inventions dedicated to the
selfishness of the rich, or committed to the custom of the working
classes. If the rich compose the great body of purchasers who are to be
considered by inventors, the working classes are probably depressed. If
there are most purchasers among the most numerous classes, the working
order is rising, and the state of things is hopeful.--How speed the
great discoveries and achievements which cannot, by any management, be
confined to the few? How prospers the steam-engine, the
rail-road,--strong hands which cannot be held back, by which a multitude
of the comforts of life are extended to the poor, who could not reach up
to them before? Do men glory most in the activity of these, or in the
invention of a new pleasure for the satiated?

In the finer arts, for whom are heads and hands employed? The study of
the ruins of all old countries tells the antiquary of the lives of the
rich alone. There are churches which record the living piety or the
dying penitence of the rich; priories and convents which speak of
monkish idleness, and the gross luxuries which have cloaked themselves
in asceticism; there are palaces of kings, castles of nobles, and villas
of opulent commoners; but nowhere, except in countries recently
desolated by war, are the relics of the abodes of the poor the study of
the traveller. If he now finds skill bestowed on the buildings which are
the exclusive resort of the labouring classes, and taste employed in
their embellishment, it is clear that the order is rising. The record of
each upward heave will remain for the observation of the future
trave