34 THE HEARTt^TONE; OR, LIFE AT HOME.
tale of home. Genuine aesthetics have their place in the simple cottage
not less than in the mansion which oppresses one by its splendor. '
The touch of the Master of Life could raise the poor man's as well
as the nobleman's child to renewed life and strength. There is often
more true life as well as more true love in a cottage than in kings'
houses, and the true aesthetic touch does not need the purple and fine
linen for a fabric.
Amid a great deal that is trite and threadbare in Mr. Oscar Wilde's
lectures, there is one remark which, although it has been uttered and
thought a thousand times, cannot be repeated too often. It is that
our American stoves and furnaces are destructive of the perfect ideal
of a home. One might fill a volume instead of a page with the
reminiscences and associations that gather around the old grate fire,
or the still, older log upon the hearth. But one cannot by any stretch
of imagination conceive a happy thought or genuine inspiration to
have been suggested by, or derived from, the modern stove or
heater. It is " an abomination of desolation standing where it ought
not." Who does not recall, with never fading pleasure, the dear old
home-fires of the " auld lang" syne." We see ourself in memory's
mirror as we write, a musing, solitary child, looking and never tired
of looking, at the nursery fire. Those were the days of unleavened
bread, when life had not fermented, and all the chambers of imagery
were filled with visions bright and beautiful. In the twilight, seated
on our hassock, and with folded hands, we saw the angels and the
fairies, the " cloud-capp'd towers and gorgeous palaces " of a world
all our own, in which sin and sorrow were not, nor evil persons nor
evil thoughts. But there is no augury in a stove ; divination is in
the fire, not in the heat. There were poems and romances, Jacob's
ladders, and radiant mountains in the dear old fire ; but one might as
well seek in.spiration in the lid of a tin kettle — we shall be told that
James Watt found it there — as in the coldly-warm, inclemently-
heating stove of the parlors and nurseries of to-day. Truly has the
eccentric young Irish lecturer told us that there is nothing aesthetic
in such severe domestic comforts as the stove.
HOMES, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 35
But the old Fire was Home itself in essence and in miniature. We
must not now dilate upon its cheerful glow, its kindly warmth, its
visions of the ideal future that was not to be, lest our readers fall
asleep, or into it. When we think of it we can understand how men
of old " fought for their altars and their fires," especially the firesides
of home. The picture of the circle round that fireside never grows
dim or fades.
" Dark shadows of approaching ill
Fall thick upon life's forward track ;
But on the past they stream not back,
What once was bright remains so still.'"
Page 16
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
tale of home. Genuine aesthetics have their place in the simple cottage not less than in the mansion which oppresses one by its splendor. ' The touch of the Master of Life could raise the poor man's as well as the nobleman's child to renewed life and strength. There is often more true life as well as more true love in a cottage than in kings' houses, and the true aesthetic touch does not need the purple and fine linen for a fabric.
Amid a great deal that is trite and threadbare in Mr. Oscar Wilde's lectures, there is one remark which, although it has been uttered and thought a thousand times, cannot be repeated too often. It is that our American stoves and furnaces are destructive of the perfect ideal of a home. One might fill a volume instead of a page with the reminiscences and associations that gather around the old grate fire, or the still, older log upon the hearth. But one cannot by any stretch of imagination conceive a happy thought or genuine inspiration to have been suggested by, or derived from, the modern stove or heater. It is " an abomination of desolation standing where it ought not." Who does not recall, with never fading pleasure, the dear old home-fires of the " auld lang" syne." We see ourself in memory's mirror as we write, a musing, solitary child, looking and never tired of looking, at the nursery fire. Those were the days of unleavened bread, when life had not fermented, and all the chambers of imagery were filled with visions bright and beautiful. In the twilight, seated on our hassock, and with folded hands, we saw the angels and the fairies, the " cloud-capp'd towers and gorgeous palaces " of a world all our own, in which sin and sorrow were not, nor evil persons nor evil thoughts. But there is no augury in a stove ; divination is in the fire, not in the heat. There were poems and romances, Jacob's ladders, and radiant mountains in the dear old fire ; but one might as well seek in.spiration in the lid of a tin kettle — we shall be told that James Watt found it there — as in the coldly-warm, inclementlyheating stove of the parlors and nurseries of to-day. Truly has the eccentric young Irish lecturer told us that there is nothing aesthetic in such severe domestic comforts as the stove.
HOMES, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 35
But the old Fire was Home itself in essence and in miniature. We must not now dilate upon its cheerful glow, its kindly warmth, its visions of the ideal future that was not to be, lest our readers fall asleep, or into it. When we think of it we can understand how men of old " fought for their altars and their fires," especially the firesides of home. The picture of the circle round that fireside never grows dim or fades.
" Dark shadows of approaching ill
Fall thick upon life's forward track ; But on the past they stream not back, What once was bright remains so still.'"