The Germans and the English have been, of all nationalities, the
most conspicuous for their love of home. In a newer country, whose
extent is so much greater and where travel is so much longer and
more frequent, the home and its central fires are not so easy to pre-
serve. Americans have to make new homes far distant from each
other. But perhaps this necessity of frequent migration makes them
cherish the ideal of home the more. It is a restless, homeless, and
unsatisfying way, that of living in hotels. Strange faces, however
pleasant and kindly, do not fill the place of the old familiar faces,
The banquet of a palace in which one is a guest by courtesy never
tastes as sweet as the social meal in our own home does. We hear
men boast of travel and having no continuing city, and flitting from
place to place and seeing new sights and mixing with strange people;
but to be a citizen of the world is not so good as the citizenship of
the home circle and the home fireside. Those who get tired of
housekeeping live with less trouble in a boarding-house. But what
HOMES, ANCIENT AND MpDERN. 33
they save in trouble they lose in comfort. Chiefly, they miss that
privacy which is the sacred heritage of family life. The old English
proverb that "a man's house is his castle" expresses this. In his
own home he is safe from intrusion, " monarch of all he surveys,"
master of his own times and ways. Republicanism is good in
national government, but not at meal times, or when one is reading,
writing, or resting, and needs quiet and security from intrusion.
Hence, of the All-Father it is said that " He setteth the solitary in
families," and " maketh Him households like a flock of sheep," and
sheep love their own company and their own shepherd, and know not
the voice of a stranger. There are social marks and ways by which
one can soon distinguish the man, woman, or child who has a happy
home, from those whose life is all spent in publicity, amid noise and
glare, without a parenthesis of introspection, reflection, private study,
and home surroundings.
If the home-building and home-sustaining man develops nobler
traits of character and is of kindlier mould than the human bird
of passage, however rich his plumage, so the woman who finds a
field for her affections and unselfishness in home is truly beneficent
and beautiful. If it be the man's part to lay the foundations and
erect the building, it is hers to beautify the walls and enshrine music
and the kindly arts within them. It is his to build and hers to
beautify. If there be some " lost arts " which adorned ancient homes,
but in which modern homes are wanting, it is hers to restore and
bring them back. It is woman who informs the home with light and
life. Her hand it is that decorates and adorns, that culls and twines
the flowers and leaves, and lets in "sweetness and light" into the
rooms. Her hand it is that is cunning in the needlework and makes
even the homeliest fare tempting in look and taste. Her touch is that
of a purifying, transforming, and beautifying angel in the home, or
like the magic wand of Cinderella's fairy godmother that transfigured
the neglected and ill-clad child into a maiden " fair to see," decked
with taste and loveliness, to grace a palace and to win a prince.
Palace and prince, however, are both superfluous in the true fairy
3
Page 15
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The Germans and the English have been, of all nationalities, the most conspicuous for their love of home. In a newer country, whose extent is so much greater and where travel is so much longer and more frequent, the home and its central fires are not so easy to preserve. Americans have to make new homes far distant from each other. But perhaps this necessity of frequent migration makes them cherish the ideal of home the more. It is a restless, homeless, and unsatisfying way, that of living in hotels. Strange faces, however pleasant and kindly, do not fill the place of the old familiar faces, The banquet of a palace in which one is a guest by courtesy never tastes as sweet as the social meal in our own home does. We hear men boast of travel and having no continuing city, and flitting from place to place and seeing new sights and mixing with strange people; but to be a citizen of the world is not so good as the citizenship of the home circle and the home fireside. Those who get tired of housekeeping live with less trouble in a boarding-house. But what
HOMES, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 33
they save in trouble they lose in comfort. Chiefly, they miss that privacy which is the sacred heritage of family life. The old English proverb that "a man's house is his castle" expresses this. In his own home he is safe from intrusion, " monarch of all he surveys," master of his own times and ways. Republicanism is good in national government, but not at meal times, or when one is reading, writing, or resting, and needs quiet and security from intrusion. Hence, of the All-Father it is said that " He setteth the solitary in families," and " maketh Him households like a flock of sheep," and sheep love their own company and their own shepherd, and know not the voice of a stranger. There are social marks and ways by which one can soon distinguish the man, woman, or child who has a happy home, from those whose life is all spent in publicity, amid noise and glare, without a parenthesis of introspection, reflection, private study, and home surroundings.
If the home-building and home-sustaining man develops nobler traits of character and is of kindlier mould than the human bird of passage, however rich his plumage, so the woman who finds a field for her affections and unselfishness in home is truly beneficent and beautiful. If it be the man's part to lay the foundations and erect the building, it is hers to beautify the walls and enshrine music and the kindly arts within them. It is his to build and hers to beautify. If there be some " lost arts " which adorned ancient homes, but in which modern homes are wanting, it is hers to restore and bring them back. It is woman who informs the home with light and life. Her hand it is that decorates and adorns, that culls and twines the flowers and leaves, and lets in "sweetness and light" into the rooms. Her hand it is that is cunning in the needlework and makes even the homeliest fare tempting in look and taste. Her touch is that of a purifying, transforming, and beautifying angel in the home, or like the magic wand of Cinderella's fairy godmother that transfigured the neglected and ill-clad child into a maiden " fair to see," decked with taste and loveliness, to grace a palace and to win a prince.
Palace and prince, however, are both superfluous in the true fairy