Increase in variety modifies the economic order of consumption by lessening the negative utilities. As the consumption becomes more varied, and the appetite for the few com modities less intense, greater harmony is in troduced into the consumption, and the relative number of commodities which yield positive utility is greatly increased. Under primitive conditions those commodities which have ab solute utility, or life-sustaining power, must be preferred to those which, if the cost were not too high, would be chosen on account of the pleasure which they are capable of giv ing ; but all the productive energies must be concentrated upon the absolute utilities. The absolute utilities are chosen of necessity, even though they are also negative rather than positive utilities. It is gradually discovered, however, that for these negative utilities others may be substituted which are both absolute and positive utilities. Food is covered which is capable of both yielding pleasure and sustaining life. Articles of niture are invented which please by their appearance and serve the same purposes as the cruder and clumsier furniture first in vented. Dress becomes beautiful and com fortable as well as fitted to protect from heat and cold. Those commodities which are neu tral or negative as to their utility are dis placed continually in a progressive society by others which have absolute utility, as did the first, but positive utility as well. This gradual elimination of negative and neutral utilities is one of the chief modifications to be observed in the economic order of con sumption.
The pleasure derived from the consumption of a given number of commodities is increased when combinations of complementary goods are formed. It is possible that two commodities, both possessing positive utility, may, when consumed together, enter into such relation with each other as to yield a utility greater than the sum of the separate utilities. Sugar and fruit eaten together form such a com plement, since the one renders the other palatable, while neither, perhaps, would be eaten if they could not be eaten together. A saddle has positive utility only when there is a horse with which it can be used. The utility of the whole complement is a positive quantity which cannot be ascertained by add ing the separate utilities of the separate com modities of which it is composed. The utility of a picture may be very greatly increased by changing its relation to other objects in the same room. The utility of a group, which is necessary to the satisfaction of a given desire, may be continually modified by substituting for some one element in it an other commodity which has of itself no greater utility, but which harmonizes better with the other elements of the group. If commodities are consumed in a haphazard way, without regard to their relations to each other, a large part of their possible utility is lost. If the
consumer fails to grasp new opportunities to substitute for the inharmonious elements others which would as well answer the individual needs in question, and at the same time fit more harmoniously into the general consump tion, he is compelled to retain in his con sumption the cruder and more primitive groups of commodities, and thereby sacrifices a pleasure which could have been obtained without additional effort or cost. Normal economic consumption is distinguished from primitive consumption more by this difference than by any other.
Pleasure is lessened by the forced combination of discordant utilities. Progress lies in the direction of forming the kind of groups indi cated in the preceding paragraph. The natural group is not that which happens first to have been formed by primitive beings, but the one in which the elements unite with the least loss of utility. Unnatural and discordant groups are formed because of ignorance of the rela tions between them, or because, from habit, the old commodities are retained long after the time when, by a change in the methods of production or in the conditions of life, there has been made possible a new and better com bination.
It can be scientifically demonstrated that the consumption highly flavored food, or rich pastry, or tobacco, is highly incompatible with the greatest pleasure from a healthful and nu tritious diet ; but this fact, if popularly known, is at least not realized with sufficient vividness to control the actions of even the majority of persons. Forced and discordant combinations are made which are injurious to the system, and which not only lessen possible pleasure, but often produce much suffering. Possible positive utility is thus transformed by unwise consumption into negative utility. Artists are able to point out innumerable popular errors in the combinations of colors which are made in dress and in house ornamentation, yet, be cause of the popular ignorance on these mat ters, inharmonious combinations are retained, and the possible pleasure is not realized. Taste for good literature is destroyed by the perusal of trashy stories. In other words, the two kinds of literature are not complementary, but discordant. On the other hand, a perusal of good fiction or of poetry may increase the pleasure which the reader subsequently ob tains from the study of history, and may not be incompatible with the study of scientific treatises. The whole complement literature yields a pleasure which may be regarded as a unit. The utility of the commodity literature will be less if the elements which compose it are discordant, and will be greater in propor tion as they form a harmonious complement.