Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

Bovee’s aphorism elevates music from a luxury to a basic human necessity. By ranking it immediately after food, clothing, and shelter, he argues that people require more than mere physical survival: they also need emotional and imaginative sustenance. The phrasing “material want” is deliberately provocative—music is intangible, yet it is treated as essential “stuff” of life because it shapes mood, community, memory, and meaning. The line reflects a 19th‑century moral-aesthetic outlook in which art is understood as a civilizing force and a daily comfort, not simply entertainment for the affluent.

“Music is the fourth great material want—first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.”
“Music is the fourth great want: first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.”