An accomplished needlewoman rejects the highly ornamented and tasselled work- basket with its tinselled implements; a practiced writer objects to a gilded and elaborate inkstand and a gimcrack pen-holder; and a really clever amateur cook is not over-anxious about the trimming of her apron, so that it is of stout material and the shape that will best protect her dress. To expend labor in disguising use and falsifying material, shows an utter misconception of Art and ignorance of Beauty. Ornament has come to be, in these days, a thing of itself, whereas, as such, it has no real reason for existing. I arp not speaking now of anything of the nature of a picture or statue. The idea has somehow arisen that a thing, if called an ornament, — however useless, cumbrous, and troublesome, — must be prized and taken care of. Now Mr. Morris says: " Nothing is ornamental unless it is also useful." This you will think at the first glance condemns all or most ornamental objects; but on examination it is not so. It condemns groups of wax flowers under glass shades; it condemns vast crochet antimacassars; it condemns glass fuchsias at the end of curtain- poles; it condemns huge china pugs and parrots; it condemns all china and glass objects which will not hold at need flowers or fruit, or other or more substantial things for which china and glass objects were originally intended. I do not mean that we may not use china, and glass, and metal, and wooden objects exclusively as ornaments, — as their pecu- liar beauty or rarity may lead us so to preserve them merely to be looked at, — but they should have been originally capable of fulfilling perfectly some function or other, or they 12 HOME DISSERTATIONS. cannot be truly beautiful; and the aimlessness of their structure would give a feeble worthless appearance, no matter how much painting and gilding or carving they have re- ceived, or how much skill of hand has been expended on them. We are accustomed to recognize the necessity for intelligence and knowledge in every department of life but that which belongs to Beauty of Decoration, of form and color; taste in these things is left to take care of itself. We all readily allow that education and study go to form the literary taste, the musi- cal taste, and even taste in food or wine; but the artistic taste is left to form itself. Choice in form or color is usually quite unguided by any principle, and is by many sup- posed to be unworthy of serious thought. We do not ask the book-seller to guide our taste in reading, or the music-seller to form our taste in music; still less do we allow the cook and the wine merchant the uncontrolled management of our table. Yet the furnishing of a house in many, if not in all, important particulars is commonly left to the upholsterer, or decorator as he prefers to be called; and as he, not working with his own hands, takes no pleasure in the work, but has gain for his first object, so h's only idea is to carry out what he supposes to be the prevailing style, so as to produce the most show for the most money; and the result of this is likely to be a most unhappy one; still people are content with it — educated and refined people too — and they live out their lives complacently, surrounded by evidences of vulgarity and bad taste, at which they would be horrified, if they had ever learned to appreciate them.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

An accomplished needlewoman rejects the highly ornamented and tasselled workbasket with its tinselled implements; a practiced writer objects to a gilded and elaborate inkstand and a gimcrack pen-holder; and a really clever amateur cook is not over-anxious about the trimming of her apron, so that it is of stout material and the shape that will best protect her dress. To expend labor in disguising use and falsifying material, shows an utter misconception of Art and ignorance of Beauty. Ornament has come to be, in these days, a thing of itself, whereas, as such, it has no real reason for existing. I am not speaking now of anything of the nature of a picture or statue. The idea has somehow arisen that a thing, if called an ornament, — however useless, cumbrous, and troublesome, — must be prized and taken care of. Now Mr. Morris says: " Nothing is ornamental unless it is also useful." This you will think at the first glance condemns all or most ornamental objects; but on examination it is not so. It condemns groups of wax flowers under glass shades; it condemns vast crochet antimacassars; it condemns glass fuchsias at the end of curtainpoles; it condemns huge china pugs and parrots; it condemns all china and glass objects which will not hold at need flowers or fruit, or other or more substantial things for which china and glass objects were originally intended. I do not mean that we may not use china, and glass, and metal, and wooden objects exclusively as ornaments, — as their peculiar beauty or rarity may lead us so to preserve them merely to be looked at, — but they should have been originally capable of fulfilling perfectly some function or other, or they cannot be truly beautiful; and the aimlessness of their structure would give a feeble worthless appearance, no matter how much painting and gilding or carving they have received, or how much skill of hand has been expended on them. We are accustomed to recognize the necessity for intelligence and knowledge in every department of life but that which belongs to Beauty of Decoration, of form and color; taste in these things is left to take care of itself. We all readily allow that education and study go to form the literary taste, the musical taste, and even taste in food or wine; but the artistic taste is left to form itself. Choice in form or color is usually quite unguided by any principle, and is by many supposed to be unworthy of serious thought. We do not ask the book-seller to guide our taste in reading, or the music-seller to form our taste in music; still less do we allow the cook and the wine merchant the uncontrolled management of our table. Yet the furnishing of a house in many, if not in all, important particulars is commonly left to the upholsterer, or decorator as he prefers to be called; and as he, not working with his own hands, takes no pleasure in the work, but has gain for his first object, so h's only idea is to carry out what he supposes to be the prevailing style, so as to produce the most show for the most money; and the result of this is likely to be a most unhappy one; still people are content with it — educated and refined people too — and they live out their lives complacently, surrounded by evidences of vulgarity and bad taste, at which they would be horrified, if they had ever learned to appreciate them.

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