SECTION CCXXVII.. Influence of the Church and of the City.

INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH AND OF THE CITY.

The change in this situation takes place first of all in the churches and in the cities. The Church has passed through almost every stage of development in advance of the State; and civilization, both in the good and bad sense of the term, has become general, and gradually acclimated in the rural districts, through the influence of the cities. In the Church, the earliest art endeavored to reach the beautiful. There, we first find music, painting, sculpture, foreign perfumes, incense and variegated garments.[227-1] In the cities, growing industry introduces a more attractive style of clothing and a more ornamental style of household furniture. Commerce, beginning to thrive, raises foreign commodities into wants,[227-2] and thus the old luxury of feudal times is modified.[227-3] The large number of idle servants is diminished. All the more refined pleasures are extended downward to wider circles of the people. Instead of individual bards, rhapsodists, skalds and minnesingers, we have the beginnings of the theater, and instead of tournaments, the shooting matches. (Freischiessen.)

But it is remarkable how much earlier here pomp and splendor are considered than convenience. The Spanish romanceros of the 12th century display wonderful splendor in their descriptions of the Cid, and the trousseau of his daughters. But, on the other hand, the wife of Charles VII. seems to have been the only French woman in the 15th century who had more than two linen chemises. Even in the 16th century, it frequently happened that a princess made a present to a prince of a single shirt. At this time the German middle class were wont to sleep naked.[227-4]

Even now, half-civilized nations look more to the outward appearance of commodities than to their intrinsic value. Thus, for instance, in Russia, we find large numbers of porcelain services extravagantly painted and gilded, awkward, the material of which is full of blisters; damaskeened knives, gilt sad-irons and candle-snuffers with landscapes engraved on them: but nothing fits into anything else; the angles are vicious, the hinges lame, and the whole soon goes to pieces. And so, among export merchants in Bremen, for instance, it is a rule, on all their wares intended for America, to put a label made of very beautiful paper, with their coat-of-arms or firm-name in real silver, and to do the packing in as elegant a manner as possible.[227-5] Cloths intended for America are usually exceedingly light, destitute of solidity, but very well dressed. The cotton-printers who work for the African market prefer to employ false but cheap and dazzling colors.[227-6]