VI.
HOME DECORATION.
Having duly arranged for the physical necessities of a healthful and
comfortable home, we next approach the important subject of _beauty_ in
reference to the decoration of houses. For while the aesthetic element
must be subordinate to the requirements of physical existence, and, as a
matter of expense, should be held of inferior consequence to means of
higher moral growth; it yet holds a place of great significance among
the influences which make home happy and attractive, which give it a
constant and wholesome power over the young, and contributes much to the
education of the entire household in refinement, intellectual
development, and moral sensibility.
Here we are met by those who tell us that of course they want their
houses handsome, and that, when they get money enough, they intend to
have them so, but at present they are too poor, and because they are
poor they dismiss the subject altogether, and live without any regard
to it.
We have often seen people who said that they could not afford to make
their houses beautiful, who had spent upon them, outside or in, an
amount of money which did not produce either beauty or comfort, and
which, if judiciously applied, might have made the house quite charming.
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