Letter 90 — On the Part Played by Philosophy in the Progress of Man (§9)

“All this sort of thing was born when luxury was being born,—this matter of cutting timbers square and cleaving a beam with unerring hand as the saw made its way over the marked-out line. The primal man with wedges split his wood. For they were not preparing a roof for a future banquet-ball; for no such use did they carry the pine-trees or the firs along the trembling streets with a long row of drays—merely to fasten thereon panelled ceilings heavy with gold.”