As the beauty of glass consists in its transparency and lightness, and its capability of
being twisted, or blown, or moulded into a multitude of delicate forms, it early occurred
to the manufacturing mind that, if made thick and solid and cut in facets, it would re-
semble crystal; and thus it has come to be a fixed idea that hard glitter is its most valu-
able quality, and so it is made inches thick, and pounds heavy, to enhance its brilliancy;
and, being one of the most fragile of substances, it must be engraved with people's crests
and monograms, as if it were intended to carry down the name of the family for genera-
tions to come ! Being of its nature transparent, it must be rendered opaque of set inten-
tion by coloring matters, and then painted and gilded ! Since, at the strongest, glass can
never be anything but fragile, at least let it keep the beauty belonging to fragility; since
it is naturally transparent, let the light be seen streaming through it, sometimes delicately
tinted, sometimes iridescent; and, instead of being cut, let it be blown and twisted into
the thousand delicate shapes to which it easily lends itself, and of which, in the Vene-
tian glass of a bygone day, and in its present revival, there are such delightful exam-
ples.
In the word pottery is included every species of earthenware, from the rudest cup of
ART AT HOME.
burnt or baked clay, such as was made a thousand years before the Christian era, to the
finest Oriental and Sevres of to-day.
The taste for blue and white china, so great a feature in modern decoration, has much
to excuse it within due limits. I have never been able to see the fitness of hanging
detached plates, — however unique and valu-
able— on walls, as if they were pictures; but
on a shelf or ledge where plates can be
arranged in a row, the cool, clean color
of the older Oriental, or even Delf, is very
refreshing and pleasant to the eye. With-
out pretending to connoisseurship in marks,
and periods, and processes, we may easily
learn to distinguish between poor imitations,
and original and good objects in pottery —
between Chinese and Japanese, between early and late works in both, and among the
most marked English kinds, Wedgewood, Worcester, Chelsea, Derby, and so on, so to
use the most decorative.
20 HOME DISSERTATIONS.
Emerson says of Art: '•' Because the soul is progressive, it never quite repeats itselL.
but in every act attempts the production of a new and fairer whole. This appears in
works both of the useful and the fine arts, if we employ the popular distinction of works
according to their aim either at use or beauty. Thus in our fine arts, not imitation, but
creation, is the aim.
It is a rule of largest application, true in a plant, true in a loaf of bread, that in the
construction of any fabric or organism, any real increase of fitness to its end, is an
increase of beauty.
Hence our taste in building rejects paint, and all shifts, and shows the original g.:ain
of the wood: refuses pilasters and columns that support nothing, and allows the real sup-
porters of the house honestly to show themselves.
Page 14
Presented as published in 1891. 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
As the beauty of glass consists in its transparency and lightness, and its capability of being twisted, or blown, or moulded into a multitude of delicate forms, it early occurred to the manufacturing mind that, if made thick and solid and cut in facets, it would resemble crystal; and thus it has come to be a fixed idea that hard glitter is its most valuable quality, and so it is made inches thick, and pounds heavy, to enhance its brilliancy; and, being one of the most fragile of substances, it must be engraved with people's crests and monograms, as if it were intended to carry down the name of the family for generations to come ! Being of its nature transparent, it must be rendered opaque of set intention by coloring matters, and then painted and gilded ! Since, at the strongest, glass can never be anything but fragile, at least let it keep the beauty belonging to fragility; since it is naturally transparent, let the light be seen streaming through it, sometimes delicately tinted, sometimes iridescent; and, instead of being cut, let it be blown and twisted into the thousand delicate shapes to which it easily lends itself, and of which, in the Venetian glass of a bygone day, and in its present revival, there are such delightful examples.
In the word pottery is included every species of earthenware, from the rudest cup of
burnt or baked clay, such as was made a thousand years before the Christian era, to the
finest Oriental and Sevres of to-day.
The taste for blue and white china, so great a feature in modern decoration, has much
to excuse it within due limits. I have never been able to see the fitness of hanging
detached plates, — however unique and valuable— on walls, as if they were pictures; but on a shelf or ledge where plates can be arranged in a row, the cool, clean color of the older Oriental, or even Delf, is very refreshing and pleasant to the eye. Without pretending to connoisseurship in marks, and periods, and processes, we may easily learn to distinguish between poor imitations, and original and good objects in pottery —
between Chinese and Japanese, between early and late works in both, and among the most marked English kinds, Wedgewood, Worcester, Chelsea, Derby, and so on, so to use the most decorative.
Emerson says of Art: '•' Because the soul is progressive, it never quite repeats itselL. but in every act attempts the production of a new and fairer whole. This appears in works both of the useful and the fine arts, if we employ the popular distinction of works according to their aim either at use or beauty. Thus in our fine arts, not imitation, but creation, is the aim.
It is a rule of largest application, true in a plant, true in a loaf of bread, that in the construction of any fabric or organism, any real increase of fitness to its end, is an increase of beauty.
Hence our taste in building rejects paint, and all shifts, and shows the original grain of the wood: refuses pilasters and columns that support nothing, and allows the real supporters of the house honestly to show themselves.