And Cousin no less admirably says'-"Besides imagination and reason, the man of taste ought to possess an enlightened but ardent love of beauty; he must take delight in meeting it, must search for it, must summon it. To comprehend and demonstrate that a thing is not beautiful, is an ordinary pleasure, an ungrateful task; but to discern a beautiful thing, to be penetrated with its beauty, to make it evident, and make others participate in our sentiment, is an exquisite joy, a generous task. Admiration is, for him who feels it, at once a happiness and an honour. It is a happiness to feel deeply what is beautiful; it is an honour to know how to recognize it. Admiration is the sign of an elevated reason served by a noble heart. It is above a small criticism, that is sceptical and powerless; but it is the soul of a large criticism, a criticism that is productive: it is, thus to speak, the divine part of taste."

In the exercise of taste, the fewest portion of mankind have to do with the outward appearance of their dwellings; but all can, and do leave some impress of themselves on interior arrangements. Few possess marble statues still fewer can produce them-all may procure plaster casts. Few can afford to collect oil paintingsfewer are painters-but most people may hang up one or two prints of first class works. A natural desire for ornament is common to humanity, and manifests itself alike in the aboriginal savage, the rude uneducated workman, the child; or in the deeper knowledge, wider experience, more refined judgment, and purer feeling, of the man of cultivated tastes.

The latter, in his home, may surround himself with a few engravings-inexpensive it may be-but they will all be pictures that have souls. A Madonna of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, or the Crucifixion by Tintorett, with its deep poetry and feeling, may be of the number. Here, landscapes, by Turner, with their wondrous depths of aërial perspective, glorious in sunshine, grand in storm, and always great; there, photographs of the "glorious City in the Sea," its Bridge of Sighs, Dogana, Rialto, and the Doge's Palace, limned by the sun's own subtle alchemy, and presented so truthfully on the walls, that the gazer is in Venice for the time being. Here, friezes of the Parthenon, the Portland Vase, casts from Niobe, and the beautiful Clytiea cup exquisitely wrought by Cellini-impressions of antique gems, valuable autographs, coins, or interesting documents; there, busts of Handel, Beethoven, and Mozart, or portraits of Raphael, Luther, or Jean Paul; Shakspere, Dante, Sir Isaac Newton, or Columbus. Here, a design by Flaxman; there, views of ancient Athens, the plains of Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopyla. Here, the Colosseum in ruins; and there Tell's chapel, standing alone on the brink of Lake Lucerne, amidst the wild sublimity and Alpine grandeur of Uria "voice of liberty," a protest for ever against the brutal despotism of Austria, a country well described by Shakspere as

"Little valiant, great in villany,

And ever strong upon the stronger side,"1

an unenviable and traditionary distinction which still

continues to characterize the crooked line of policy pursued by the house of Hapsburgh.1

His favourite books of every kind-poetry, imagination, science, philosophy, travel, history, or works of meditation, will be lying about. He will have frequent access to the chefs d'euvre of the great masters of song, as capable of being rendered on an Erard, Broadwood, or Collard. An Æolian Harp may possibly lie in the window sill, rendering the sweet summer air musical at fitful intervals, and taking the soul captive with the wild wayward beauty and yearning tenderness of its spirit cadences-now softly murmuring in an undertone of deep rich harmonious chords--now swelling and rising in strange chromatics-then dying far away in the faintest pulsing minors, plaintive, soft, and low-but unutterably wild and sweet. Hearing its strains the soul revisits the past, and forecasts the future; or perchance, in some fair enchanted isle, listens, rapt like Ferdinand, to the "invisible music" of Ariel.

Preserved sea-weeds may interest and delight with the varied and exquisite beauty of colour displayed in their fronds, and the delicacy of that fibrous formation which they so frequently exhibit. The Aquarium is a never failing source of interest. Mosses, shells, fossils, crystals, &c., to the inquiring mind of the naturalist, are all instinct with instruction and delight. Flowers, without doubt, in a home such as we have described, will fill the air with their freshness, their fragrance, and their beauty. They ought to have been first mentioned, for they are absolutely indispensable. The greatest minds have ever

1 See Orsini's "Revelations concerning the Austrian Dungeons in Italy."

loved flowers, and that heart for which they have no voice is worse than dead. Perennial and ever-welcome, starring with beauty hill and dale, they "paint the -meadows with delight," and are earth's highest revelation of the beautiful to man.

If there be the mind to appreciate excellence, it will spontaneously find many ways of manifesting itself. On the principle of "like to like," objects of interest and beauty naturally gather around the man of taste, until at length "from every point a ray of genius flows," and wherever the eye may chance to rest, there, something will be found which ministers to man's innate sense of the beautiful. By the law of affinity he accumulates what is lovely, and his mind at the same time becomes assimilated thereunto. Thus ministering and being ministered unto, he cannot but leave an outward impress of his thought on the appearance of his home.

The same natural instinct, or craving for beauty-a germ which if educated would become taste-is manifested by the Indian who laboriously carves the handle of his battle axe, or the prow of his canoe; by the cottar whose walls exhibit old-fashioned "Peace and Plenty pictures painted on glass-wood-cuts from cheap publications, good, bad, or indifferent-rude grottoes made up with pasteboard, shells, crab's-eyes, and moss, glittering with bits of glass, and gay with peacock's feathers. No man of proper feeling who reflects will despise such groping efforts; on the contrary, taking into account the position and opportunities of the workman, the pleasure and recreation afforded him by the planning and executing of such toys, they are interesting, nay, even affecting in their way. He will rather try, by the gift of a print, the

occasional loan of a judiciously selected volume, or by personal contact, to render the cotter capable of appreciating something higher. The man who, in a right spirit, kindly endeavours to do so, is never repelled; his suggestions will be received with gratitude, and his visits be ever welcome. There is much, however, in the manner

of doing a thing. One kindly touch of Eva's little white hand reached and melted Topsy's heart, while all the prolonged, duty-forced, and mistaken efforts of Miss Ophelia were utter failures. Every one instinctively feels the difference. Intercourse with the labouring classes may be made productive of much good: "twice blessed, it blesses him that gives and him that takes;" and he who is thus instrumental in removing thorns from oft-trodden paths, or in opening up new fields of enjoyment to the toil-worn, will, to that extent, increase the happiness of the world, and, at the same time, have his own sympathies warmed and widened.

The workman, tending his few choice monthly roses and geraniums, derives no less pleasure-perhaps more -from watching their progress and beauty, than the rich man in his conservatory.

Money, certainly may cater for taste; but, as it can never be substituted for taste, we find wealth too frequently employed in direct violation of all that is truly artistic and elegant.

Persons of vulgar mind, passing from an apartment inexpensively furnished, but richly suggestive in all that is good or great, to that of a workman such as we have described, would most certainly undervalue both, and, unable to recognize much difference, would probably class them together; then, self-congratulatory,