lack
walnut, to the rarely used white-pine,--rarely used without having
its natural beauty extinguished by three coats of paint. What I wish
to say is, that finishing your woodwork without paint does not,
necessarily, require the said wood to be of the kinds commonly called
"hard." Any wood that is not specially disposed to warp, and that can
be smoothly wrought, may be used. Those you mention are all good; so
are half a dozen more,--the different kinds of ash, yellow-pine,
butternut, white-wood, cherry, cedar, even hemlock and spruce in some
situations. There are several important points to be religiously
observed if you leave the wood, whatever the variety, in its unadorned
beauty. It must be the best of its kind; it must be seasoned to its
inmost fibre; it must be wrought skilfully, tenderly cared for, and,
finally, filled and rubbed till it wears a surface that is not liable
to soil, is easily cleaned, resists the action of moisture, and will
grow richer with age. Hence, I say, by all means finish with
unpainted wood, if you are not afraid of the expense, and yet paint
and varnish are good, and putty, like charity, covereth a multitude of
sins. Nothing protects wood better than oil and lead, and by means of
them you have unlimited choice of colors, in the selection and
arrangement of which there is room and need for genuine artistic
taste. Yes; good honest paint is worthy the utmost respect. When it
tries to improve upon nature's divine methods and calls itself
"graining," it becomes unmitigated nonsense,--yes, and worse. It is
one of the sure evidences of man's innate perversity that he persists
in trying to copy certain beautiful lines and shadings in wood, not as
an art study, but for actual use, when he may just as well have the
perfect original as his own faulty imitation. What conceit, what
blindness, what impudence, this reveals! What downright falsehood! Not
in the painter,--O, no, skill is commendable even when unworthily
employed,--but in him who orders it. You may buy a pine door, which is
very well; pine doors are good; you tell every man that comes into
your house it's black-walnut or oak or mahogany. If that isn't
greeting him with lying lips and a deceitful heart, the moral law
isn't as clear as it ought to be. You may think it's of no
consequence, certainly not worth making a fuss about, but I tell you
this spirit of sham that pervades our whole social structure, that
more and more obtrudes itself in