Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-13
A TrRnscendentaI Philosopher ON DOmes-
tic Life-Ifs Needs md nenutlea. -

tic Life-Its Needs and Beauties.
From Ralph Waldo Emerson's excellent
essay in the Dial on domestic life, we extract:
Beyond its primary ends of the conjugal
and parental relation, the household should
cherish the beautiful arts and the sentiment
of VeneratiOn. sf rv -F
Whatever brings the dweller into a finer
life, what educates his eye, his ear OF his
hand, whatever purifes and enlarges him,
may well find place there. And yet, let him
not think that a property in beautiful OBJ
jects is necessary to his apprehension of them,
and seek TO turn his house into museum.
Rather let the noble practice Of the Greeks
find place in our society, in whose country, il
would seem, every statue and painting was
public, it being considered absard and pro-
fame to pretend a property in work of art,
which Belonged TO whosoever coald see it.
A better era may organize in our commit
nifty so just a way of thinking, and the Gre
ations Of the plastic arts may be collected
with care in galleries by the piety snd taste
Of the people, and yielded as freely as the
sunlight TO all. Meantime, be eitremeabered,
we are artists ourselves, and competitors each
one with Phidias and Raphael in the produc-
ton of what isgracefulo grand. ThefOunt-
ain of beauty is the heart, and every gener-
ous thought illustrates the walls of your
chamber. s-... ...-
Why should we owe our power of attract
ing our friends to pictures and vases, to
canoes and architecture Why should we
convert ourselves into showmen and append
ages to our fine houses and our works of art2
Ifby love and nobleness we take up into
ourselves the beauty we admire, we shall
spend it again on all around US. -
The man. the woman, heeds not the embel-
lishment of canvas and marble whose every
act is a subject for the sculptor, and to whose
eye the godsand nymphs never appear ancient,
for they know by heart the whole instinct Of
majesty,
/ In this connection have a suggestion to
offer. Asis the house, so is the neighbor-
hood and the town! 1t seems to me that our
communities, or towns of houses ought to
| yield each other more solid benefit than we
have yet learned to draw from them; for ex-
ample, the providing the single individual
with the means and apparatus of science and
,of the elegant arts. There are great many
| articles Of the highest value for occasional
| inspection which few men are able to own,
and which really few men, or perhaps no
] man wishes to own; for instance, a telescope.
! Every man, every child wishes to see the
ring of Saturn, the belt of Jupiter and Mars.
| the mountains and craters in the moon; vet
how few can buy telescope, and of these,
scarcely one would wish the trouble Of keep
| ing it in order and exhibiting it. The same
remark applies to electrical and chemical ap-
paratus. There are great many books
which every man sometimes wishes to con-
suit, which he neither is able nor desirous
to possess; such as encyclopedias, diction.
l,aries, charts, maps; pictures of birds, beasts
| shells, trees, howe ers, whose names he desire!
to know, but which he only wants for occa.
sional reference, and by no means wishes tc
| own. 1s