in accordance with these uses and occasions — the dining-room solid and severe, with large and steady furniture adapted to serious needs; the kitchen, full of useful homely appli- ances, kept bright and clean; and the drawing-room, with its books and pictures and elegan- cies, suited for leisure and social purposes, and therefore rightly the. most decorated room in the house. So bearing the different functions of each room in mind, and furnishing them in accordance with each, we get a general sense of order and appropriateness. All this is obvious enough, and is generally sufficiently well carried out. Only very often in minor appliances, the want of the feeling for appropriateness makes itself felt. A coal- scuttle is an excellent and useful thing in its way, and in its appropriate place, but why have it in miniature on our tables, and scoop salt or sugar out of it ? Wheel barrows, and buckets, rink-skates and perambulators, used for similar purposes are really less con- venient than a small dish or bowl really designed for use, without any ulterior notion of ingenuity or conceit. A tea-kettle in the form of a drum, with the sticks for handles; a toast-rack formed of wreaths of ivy (what has ivy to do with toast?), or rifles piled up in a very unmilitary manner ; a biscuit-box in the shape of a coal-box ; gilt chain cabhs for holding back curtains; are examples of the same thing that occur to me, but a large and very astonishing list could very soon be collected. It is true as Mr. Morris says, that the best designed and constructed things in a house are generally found in the kitchen ; but that is because they fulfill their use, and are appropriate to their place, both of which qualities they lose when transported to the drawing-room. Now the third requirement, which in its application is closely connected with the second. All things of common use have their appropriate form, which, when once dis- covered, should be used and repeated without disguise. Thus a salt-cellar is most really convenient when made of glass, of a simple oblong shape, so as not to be easily upset, that the spoon may comfortably rest in it, and the salt be easily renewed; and there are many modifications of 'form, and even color, that might be introduced without hinder- ing use in any way, or making the thing seem other than it is ; and so may this principle be carried out indefinitely; and I cannot see, except for the love of novelty and pretentious conceit, why anything more should be wanted. It cannot be a very lasting pleasure to shake pepper out of an owl's head, or help yourself to butter out of a bee-hive ; but it is a lasting pleasure to have a thoroughly useful and soundly constructed thing made out of a right and good material, appearing in its appropriate place, and declaring and fulfilling its proper use and office. The chief materials of which our household goods are made — wood, stone, metals, glass, china — differ widely in quality of texture and substance.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

in accordance with these uses and occasions — the dining-room solid and severe, with large and steady furniture adapted to serious needs; the kitchen, full of useful homely appliances, kept bright and clean; and the drawing-room, with its books and pictures and elegancies, suited for leisure and social purposes, and therefore rightly the. most decorated room in the house. So bearing the different functions of each room in mind, and furnishing them in accordance with each, we get a general sense of order and appropriateness. All this is obvious enough, and is generally sufficiently well carried out. Only very often in minor appliances, the want of the feeling for appropriateness makes itself felt. A coalscuttle is an excellent and useful thing in its way, and in its appropriate place, but why have it in miniature on our tables, and scoop salt or sugar out of it ? Wheel barrows, and buckets, rink-skates and perambulators, used for similar purposes are really less convenient than a small dish or bowl really designed for use, without any ulterior notion of ingenuity or conceit. A tea-kettle in the form of a drum, with the sticks for handles; a toast-rack formed of wreaths of ivy (what has ivy to do with toast?), or rifles piled up in a very unmilitary manner ; a biscuit-box in the shape of a coal-box ; gilt chain cabhs for holding back curtains; are examples of the same thing that occur to me, but a large and very astonishing list could very soon be collected. It is true as Mr. Morris says, that the best designed and constructed things in a house are generally found in the kitchen ; but that is because they fulfill their use, and are appropriate to their place, both of which qualities they lose when transported to the drawing-room. Now the third requirement, which in its application is closely connected with the second. All things of common use have their appropriate form, which, when once discovered, should be used and repeated without disguise. Thus a salt-cellar is most really convenient when made of glass, of a simple oblong shape, so as not to be easily upset, that the spoon may comfortably rest in it, and the salt be easily renewed; and there are many modifications of 'form, and even color, that might be introduced without hindering use in any way, or making the thing seem other than it is ; and so may this principle be carried out indefinitely; and I cannot see, except for the love of novelty and pretentious conceit, why anything more should be wanted. It cannot be a very lasting pleasure to shake pepper out of an owl's head, or help yourself to butter out of a bee-hive ; but it is a lasting pleasure to have a thoroughly useful and soundly constructed thing made out of a right and good material, appearing in its appropriate place, and declaring and fulfilling its proper use and office. The chief materials of which our household goods are made — wood, stone, metals, glass, china — differ widely in quality of texture and substance.

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