MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. Odds and ends for household use — Cements, Pastes, etc — Hints to housekeepers 550 SOCIAL FORMS. Cards of compliment — Invitation to a wedding — Invitation to a reception — Admis- sion card formula — Reception card — Announcement of marriage — Marriage anniversaiies 579 THE HEARTHSTONE: of., LIFE AT HOIE distillin is with HOMES, ANCIENT AND MODERN, " What's a house ? You may buy it, or build it, or rent, It may be a mansion, a cottage, a tent; Its furniture costly, or humble and mean; High walls may surround it, or meadows of green; Tall servants in livery stand in the hall. Or but one little maiden may wait on you all ; The table may qroan with rich viands and rare, Or potatoes and bread be its costliest fare. The inmates may glitter in purple and gold, Oi' iheir raiment be homely and tattered and old. 'Tis a house, and no more, which vile money may buy; It may ring with a laugh or but echo a sigh. " But a home must be warmed with the embers of love, Which none from its hearthstone may ever remove. And he lighted at eve with a heart-kindled smile, Whkrh a breast, though in sorrow, of woe may beguile. A home must be ' Home,' for no words can express it— Unless you have known it, you never can guess it; 'Tis in vain to descriiie what it means to a heart Which can live out its life on the bubbles of art. It may be a palace, it may be a cot, It matters not which and it matters not what; 'Tis a dwelling perfumed with the incense of love, A beautiful type of the home that's above." HERE arc some perfumes so aromatic that one need not uncork the bottle that contains them to have our clothes and rooms and furniture made fragrant by them. They find their way through thick glass and wood, and yet do not evaporate or decrease, but re- main the same in bulk, although fragrance is always g from them and sweetening everything around them. So it the word Home. There is no other word in any dictionar;- (25) 26 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. that IS so precious, so all-pervading and so full of tenderest memory and affection. If there be any nation that is without a word for home in its vocabulary, then we may be sure that it has no name for God, for heaven, and for those unselfish virtues and mutual influences which make the crown of our humanity. Indeed, so intimately is the idea of home associated with that of God, on the one hand, and of humanity on the other, that the ancient heathen had their gods in their homesteads, like family relics and heirlooms. At the siege of Troy, ^neas and his father, Anchises, are chiefly anxious to save and carry away with them, in their exile from the ruined home, their Penates, or household gods, as soon as they have seen to it that the little lad lulus is safe. All religions worthy of the name have had home as their subjective, and God as their objective, basis. So in- timately are these two ideas interwoven that it is quite as true to define man as a home-building and home-loving as a God-fearing or worshipping being. The original idea that the ancients had in building temples and churches was to make a home for God, or the gods among whom they divided the attributes of Creator and Pro- tector. David is no sooner called away from the sheepfolds than he is possessed with the grand enterprise of the temple on Mount Zion.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Odds and ends for household use — Cements, Pastes, etc — Hints to housekeepers 550 SOCIAL FORMS. Cards of compliment — Invitation to a wedding — Invitation to a reception — Admission card formula — Reception card — Announcement of marriage — Marriage anniversaries 579 HOMES, ANCIENT AND MODERN, " What's a house ? You may buy it, or build it, or rent, It may be a mansion, a cottage, a tent; Its furniture costly, or humble and mean; High walls may surround it, or meadows of green; Tall servants in livery stand in the hall. Or but one little maiden may wait on you all ; The table may groan with rich viands and rare, Or potatoes and bread be its costliest fare. The inmates may glitter in purple and gold, Or their raiment be homely and tattered and old. 'Tis a house, and no more, which vile money may buy; It may ring with a laugh or but echo a sigh. " But a home must be warmed with the embers of love, Which none from its hearthstone may ever remove. And he lighted at eve with a heart-kindled smile, Which a breast, though in sorrow, of woe may beguile. A home must be ' Home,' for no words can express it— Unless you have known it, you never can guess it; 'Tis in vain to describe what it means to a heart Which can live out its life on the bubbles of art. It may be a palace, it may be a cot, It matters not which and it matters not what; 'Tis a dwelling perfumed with the incense of love, A beautiful type of the home that's above." HERE arc some perfumes so aromatic that one need not uncork the bottle that contains them to have our clothes and rooms and furniture made fragrant by them. They find their way through thick glass and wood, and yet do not evaporate or decrease, but remain the same in bulk, although fragrance is always going from them and sweetening everything around them. So it the word Home. There is no other word in any dictionary (25) 26 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. that IS so precious, so all-pervading and so full of tenderest memory and affection. If there be any nation that is without a word for home in its vocabulary, then we may be sure that it has no name for God, for heaven, and for those unselfish virtues and mutual influences which make the crown of our humanity. Indeed, so intimately is the idea of home associated with that of God, on the one hand, and of humanity on the other, that the ancient heathen had their gods in their homesteads, like family relics and heirlooms. At the siege of Troy, ^neas and his father, Anchises, are chiefly anxious to save and carry away with them, in their exile from the ruined home, their Penates, or household gods, as soon as they have seen to it that the little lad lulus is safe. All religions worthy of the name have had home as their subjective, and God as their objective, basis. So intimately are these two ideas interwoven that it is quite as true to define man as a home-building and home-loving as a God-fearing or worshipping being. The original idea that the ancients had in building temples and churches was to make a home for God, or the gods among whom they divided the attributes of Creator and Protector. David is no sooner called away from the sheepfolds than he is possessed with the grand enterprise of the temple on Mount Zion.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home