But all any of us can do is to express the best we know. The essential
quality in pictures in our own homes is that they should express the
best we ourselves have reached. Still, many pictures of high artistic
merit are wanting in the real home charm. I believe most of those which
hang on our walls and are always before our eyes should be cheerful in
character. I sympathize with the old abbess who chose to have her rooms
frescoed with Correggio's happy cherubs, and who liked to have
constantly before her, though in a convent, his goddess Diana, whose
smile some one has said is full of "resolute sweetness."

I remember once having to pass a bitter hour of waiting in the
drawing-room of a physician well known for his high culture. Every
picture in the room was a work of art, but every one was solemn and even
severe. Dante, Savonarola, the tombs of the Medici, etc., etc., afforded
no escape from sad thoughts. The only relief was in the sweet serenity
of Emerson's face, and even in this instance the most severe of all the
portraits had been chosen. There was not one point of color in any of
the pictures, but indeed most of us cannot afford paintings that are
good for anything, so I could not quarrel with that.

For a daily companion I would rather have a Raphael than a Michael
Angelo, and though for love I would slip in a Millet or two, I should
not want a room full of Millets.

The heavy furniture of a home should be comfortable first of all. The
chairs should not all be of the same size and height any more than the
people. Arm-chairs are better than rocking-chairs, as they are less in
the way. The furniture should not be light enough to be easily
overturned, but the castors should always run easily. A lounge is a
homelike piece of furniture, but let us hope it need not be much used.

A word more to the young woman who is choosing furniture for half a
life-time. Fancy you have it to dust! You may have an army of servants,
but certain patterns of furniture can never be kept clean. I remember
two friends who chose furniture at the same time. It was the era of
black walnut and green rep, and they chose sets looking much alike. But
in one case the walnut was elaborately carved,--by machinery, which made
it all the rougher,--and there were many little grooves to invite the
dust in the upholstery; while in the other case the wood was simply
moulded and polished, and the cloth was so put on that one or two
vigorous strokes