I would let the sunlight pour into the new home. The old dread that the carpets will get faded and the curtains get spoiled is an abomination. My own habit is, so soon as I get down stairs in the morning—and I am an early riser—to draw aside the curtains, to let the shades fly up, and to throw the sashes wide open. By and by, if from the street this airy appearance is considered a little unfashionable, and those within choose to shut out the sunlight in a measure, I rejoice that I have had my unfashionable way, and the sun has had his golden way, for a while at least. Gladness comes into the house with the blaze of the blessed sun. Let all the rooms share the joy. I suppose a carpet somewhat faded will wear as long as if the colors were fresh. But if the penalty for having bright and sunny rooms is to be some faded carpets and window hangings, let the full penalty be paid, and cheerfully, too. No price is too great for a bright and sunny home.
The sight of a few flowers adds to the beauty of even the humblest home. Even a sprig of arbutus or jessamine, or a lily of the valley, on the table, will make every meal the sweeter. The Germans of the poorest class, all over the Fatherland, never forget to have flowers in their lowly homes. If the family occupy only a few rooms in a lofty story, they will be sure to have beautiful plants on the window-ledge, and here and there within the rooms. These are of such kind that the succession of flowers is well kept up in all seasons. Throughout the year, when there is no frost, these flowering plants at the German windows can be seen from the street to the highest flat. The varied flowers and the hanging vines form beautiful pictures in village and town.
Away with the thought that wealth is needed to make the home beautiful! It is a question of taste, tact, and a desire to please another. On the very street where I live there is a quiet little house, occupied by a newly-married couple. It is inexpensive, and the furniture is not costly. But there is so much taste in the furnishing and ornamentation, and there is so much brightness in all the rooms, that the home is a charming picture. I seldom pass it without thinking of the beautiful, but not costly, interior.
GOOD READING AT HOME.
home without books is a desert. In these days all the standard authors can be bought at small price, and even the humblest home should be adorned with the companionship of at least some of them. You may not have a taste for reading; at any rate, you may think you have not. But possibly you have made a mistake in the kind of books you have tried to enjoy, and so imagined that you do not like any books. Try another class, and you will likely be surprised to find that you can enjoy them. Suppose you have not the experience to select proper books. Now, you will have a pastor, of course, and a church home. Make a friend of that pastor. He ought to be a good adviser in the matter of proper books. At any rate, get some judicious friend to help you in the choice. Buy only a very few books at a time, and let your little home-library grow gradually. Never buy a book that you have your doubts about. Emerson's advice to buy only a standard work, which has been out for years, has its good and safe quality. Avoid too much fiction and a superabundance of periodical literature. One popular magazine is enough. The money which you have for reading-matter should be confined chiefly to books, and they ought to be the world's masterpieces.
I am satisfied that in the average home there is too little reading. History, biography, travel, with a fair share of religious books, can be read in course at home, in the odd half hours, and the mind become richly stored with facts. Is there any thing in the domestic life which ought to interfere with this constant culture of the mind? Not at all. The domestic life is highly favorable to mental discipline. The very beginning of real intellectual improvement in many a mind has been in the new home of persons just married. The reading aloud of an interesting work, the one to the other, is a delightful entertainment, and gives a new charm to life. Every effort must be employed to keep the mind from becoming sluggish and barren. We need information, the thoughts of the good and great and richly endowed, to make our own lives richer.
It would be a wise arrangement if every man and woman, on establishing their home, would set apart some time for intellectual improvement by the reading of good books. I am acquainted with a young lady, who, on entering her plain little house, found that her husband and herself were so interrupted by visits and other claims on their time in the evening, that they resolved to rise an hour earlier in the morning, and devote the time to reading and study. They were thus free from interruption, and had ample opportunity, before the regular duties of the day began, to store their minds with useful knowledge. I think it probable that they will carry this excellent custom with them through life.
Much of my time is spent in high-ways, and along the narrow by-ways of life. My homes are many. But when my good fortune brings me at night to occupy a room far from my own home, where a good book or two are to be found, I can say with Milton, in his Areopagitica: "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond;" and with Wordsworth, in his "Personal Talk":