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Home dissertations

1891

Page 15

Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
We ascribe beauty to that which is simple ; which has no superfluous parts ; which exactly answers its end ; which stands related to all things ; which is the mean of many extremes. — Beauty rides on a lion. Beauty rests on necessities. The line of beauty is the result of perfect economy. The cell of the bee is built at that angle which gives the most strength with the least wax ; the bone or the quill of the bird gives the most alar strength with the least weight. " It is the purgation of superfluities," said Michael Angelo. Veracity first of ail, and forever. Rien de beau que le vrai. In all designs, art lies in making your object prominent, but there is a prior art in choosing objects that are promi- nent. The fine arts have nothing casual, but spring from the instincts of the nations that created them. Still Beauty rides on her lion, as before. Still, "it was for beauty that the world was made. " But the sovereign attribute remains to be noted. Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. Let us understand, then, that a house shall bear witness in all its economy that human culture is the end to which it is built and garnished. Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hardship, so that there the intellect is awake and reads the laws of the universe, the soul worships truth and love, honor and courtesy flow into all deeds. The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. There is no event greater in life than the appearance of new persons about our hearth, except it be the progress of the character which draws them. It has been finally added by Landor to his definition of 'the great man, " It is he who can call together the most select company when it pleases him." Beyond its primary ends of the conjugal, parental, and amicable relations, the house- hold should cherish the beautiful arts and the sentiments of veneration. Whatever brings the dweller into a finer life, what educates his eye, or ear, or hand, whatever purifies and enlarges him, may well find place there. And yet let him not think that a property in beautiful object1; is necessary to his apprehension of them, and seek to turn his house into a museum. Rather let the noble practice of the Greeks find place in our society, and let the creations of the plastic arts be collected with care in galleries by the piety and taste of the people, and yielded as freely as the sunlight to all. ART AT HOME. Meantime, be it remembered, we are artists ourselves, and competitors, each one with Phidias and Raphael in the production of what is graceful and grand. The fountain of beauty is the heart, and every generous thought illustrates the walls of your chambers." THE HEARTH-STONE. BLoW • HIGH • BLoW • Low • NoT THE • WINDS • THAT • EVER • BL°W • CAN QVENCH • oVR • HEARTH - FIRES • RVDDy • GL°W. Where thou find'st fires unraked and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. — SHAKESPEARE.