and faithfully in the little things of daily life, if we
will enjoy her treasures in the great galleries of the world.

THE VIRTUE.

+Beauty is a jealous mistress.+--If we trifle with her; if we fall in
love with pretentious imitations and elaborate ornamentations which have
no beauty in them, but are simply gotten up to sell; then the true and
real beauty will never again suffer us to see her face. She will leave
us to our idols: and our power to appreciate and admire true beauty
will die out.

Fidelity to beauty requires that we have no more things than we can
either use in our work, or enjoy in our rest. And these things that we
do have must be either perfectly plain; or else the ornamentation about
them must be something that expresses a genuine admiration and affection
of our hearts. A farmer's kitchen is generally a much more attractive
place than his parlor; just because this law of simplicity is perfectly
expressed in the one, and flagrantly violated in the other. The study of
a scholar, the office of the lawyer and the business man, is not
infrequently a more beautiful place, one in which a man feels more at
home, than his costly drawing room. What sort of things we shall have,
and how many, cannot be determined for us by any general rule; still
less by aping somebody else. In our housekeeping, as in everything else,
we should begin with the few things that are absolutely essential; and
then add decoration and ornament only so fast as we can find the means
of gratifying cherished longings for forms of beauty which we have
learned to admire and love. "Simplicity of life," says William Morris,
"even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of
refinement: a sanded floor and whitewashed walls, and the green trees,
and flowery meads, and living waters outside. If you cannot learn to
love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it. If the
real thing is not to be had, learn to do without it. If you want a
golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your
houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

THE REWARD.

+The refining influence of beauty.+--Devotion to art and beauty in
simplicity and sincerity develops an ever increasing capacity for its
enjoyment. As Keats, the master poet of pure beauty, tells us,

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will k