Domestic Love and Elegance
THEODORE PARKER, in speaking of home and home life, said: I never saw a garment too fine for a man or maid; there never was a chair too good for a cobbler or a cooper to set in; never a house too fine to shelter a human head. These elements about us, the gorgeous sky, the imperial sun, are not too good for the human race. Elegance fits man. But do we not value these tools of housekeeping a little more than they are worth, and sometimes mortgage home for the mahogany we would bring into it? I had rather eat my dinner off the head of a barrel, or dress after the fashion of John the Baptist in the wilderness, or set on a block all my life, than consume all myself before I get home, and take so much pains with the outside that the inside was as hollow as an empty nut. Beauty is a great thing, but beauty of garments, house, and furniture is a very tawdry ornament compared with domestic love. All the elegance in the world will not make a home, and I would give more for a spoonful of hearty love than for a whole ship load of furniture, and all that the upholsterers of the world could gather together.